from Halloween to Happy At Last

Day 602, Session 111:
When/Where: Tuesday February 12th - Another fascinating trip to Jewel.
First song: Halloween by Dave Matthews Band
Last full song: Happy At Last by Josh Joplin
Progress: 1754-1765 of 5733
Total Songs Heard: 1407

A really nice run of 12 today. A little too nice probably. While I was walking through Jewel (the local grocery store for you non-local readers) I'm pretty sure that I was both singing along and walking/dancing the cart in rhythm to whatever I happened to be listening to at the moment. Except for when Jewel's (the singer) Hands played. Then I was mumbling to myself once again about the presence of Jewel (the singer.) Little known fact: Jewel's hands are small and she is aware of it. It was crowded in the Jewel (the store) in front of the yogurt when Jewel (the singer) came on but it quickly cleared out as my mumbling became more animated. I caught one person looking at me like I was crazy, but I'm not sure if it was because they didn't see the headphones and thought I was talking to myself, or because they did see the headphones and they realized I was listening to Jewel (the singer) in Jewel (the store.) Either way, if I had seen me, I would have avoided me too.

As I walked out into the snow (another little known fact: pushing a full shopping cart through snow is good exercise) I hit the Hanukkah portion of music. In this case, Hanukkah consisted of two songs, both by Barenaked Ladies. I grew up in an area with a reasonably heavy Jewish population, so I've always had a soft spot for Hanukkah. We spent many an elementary school holiday music class singing both Christmas and Hanukkah songs (now I wonder if either are sung in school or if it's all completely religiously neutral "winter" songs.)

When I was very young, I actually thought Hanukkah and Christmas worked together. During Hanukkah, candles would be lit, then on Christmas, since it was baby Jesus' birthday, you would blow the candles out. Actually I'm still a little disappointed that's not how it goes.

Hanukkah Blessings - Barenaked Ladies

After Hanukkah I hit the beginning of the happy songs (or at least songs titled Happy "Something.") So let's see, what to be happy about? Well, first of I'm happy I downloaded Harvey Danger's last cd from their website. I hadn't thought much about the band since Flagpole Sitta came and went from the music scene but they offered their last cd, "Little By Little" for free so why not give it a chance? You might want to give it chance too, if for no other reason than to enjoy Happiness Writes White.

Happiness Writes White - Harvey Danger

Finally, I'm happy that Josh Joplin has come out of semi-retirement and has started limited touring again. He'll be in Chicago at Schuba's on March 1st and I'll be there along with the wife and good friends Jon and Lori.

Happy At Last - Josh Joplin