from Flowers In The Windows to Fontanelle

Day 486, Session 97:
When/Where: Sunday October 21st - Aboard Southwest flight 499 from Philadelphia to Chicago.
First song: Flowers In The Windows by Travis
Last full song: Fontanelle by Clem Snide
Progress: 1385-1399 of 5413
Total Songs Heard: 1142

Synergy people, synergy. I hit the section of songs that start with the word fly while I was in an airplane, flying back from Philadelphia. You couldn't plan this stuff any better. I managed to hear seven 'different' songs that started with fly. Different is in quotes because they were actually only 4 different songs. I have 3 versions of Fly by Moxy Fruvous and 2 versions of Fly From Heaven by Toad the Wet Sprocket. As an added bonus, the other two fly songs were by the same guy: John Denver.

I'd be lying if I didn't say it creeped me out a little to hear John Denver singing about flying while I myself was in an airplane. Luckily my flight ended without incident (of course all of his flights did too until the last one.)

The reason I was in a plane to begin with? I was flying back from Philadelphia where I served as the officiant at my cousin's wedding. This was actually my second wedding as Reverend Matt. My first was last summer for my sister and brother-in-law. That one went extremely smoothly as they had written out every single word that I was going to say during the ceremony. I got a hold of everything with enough time to add a few personal touches. It ended up being a fantastic experience all the way around.

This past weekend was also an experience. Not as much content was written for me before hand (just the vows,) so I surprised myself by writing a 15-minute ceremony just a few hours before things were supposed to get underway. Things ended up going great and of course the important part was that the bride and groom were satisfied (and married) at the end... but man oh man was it stressful.

The good news is, if you're getting married and need a Reverend, I have a ceremony written and ready to go.

The final song of the day tied in nicely to the whole wedding vibe. Fontanelle by Clem Snide was the song that I danced with my Mom with at my wedding. Due to the song's prayer like quality, I actually wanted it as part of our ceremony but apparently the Catholics have rules about what can and cannot be sung in a church. But if you're going to have me do your wedding, you should know that I have no such rules. You can definitely use this song.

Fontanelle - Clem Snide

Oh, and just so you don't have to look it up... fontanelle is the soft spot at the top of a baby's head. (The title of the cd the song is on? "Soft Spot".)

Tuesday November 21st - Morning

Day 152, Session 52:
Location: In my holding pen at the cube farm... er, at work.
First song: Cold Fire by Rush
Last full song: Come Down by Toad the Wet Sprocket
Progress: 649-658 of 4446
Total Songs Heard: 606

Toad seems to fixate on certain words and phrases in their song titles. They had 4 different songs that started with the word "all." Now I hit 2 different songs with strikingly similar titles Come Down and Come Back Down. That's the sort of thing that I think I'd notice if I was in a band. I might look around and ask if anyone else thought our song titles were starting to sound overly familiar. Eventually, I might just ask if we could name the next song "Pants" just so they'd all stop sounding the same.

My senior year of high school... Christmas break. I was visiting my parents (I didn't live with my parents senior year of high school, a story for another time perhaps.) I received "Pale" by Toad the Wet Sprocket as a gift (on cassette!) I got a call from my girlfriend.

In high school I sang in the chorus, which because we were uppity, were officially called Chamber Singers. I was good enough, but not great. Lucky for me, there weren't any other guys in my school willing to sing bass, so I always seemed better than I actually was. I auditioned for district chorus my junior year. My audition went horribly. They had us audition on a song that had no words... so it was basically humming (a capella) 16 bars of music. Once I lost my place in that I had no way to get back. As I left the room, feeling more than a little embarrassed, the first person I saw was my friend Seth. He was a year older and quite a performer. We weren't particularly close outside of music stuff, but we got along well enough. I half-jokingly collapsed into his arms when he asked me how it went. It went poorly, but Seth reminded me immediately that there was always next year.

A year later, I was a senior and the chorus, er Chamber Singers, were performing in the basement of the library (I guess that counts as a chamber) sometime near Thanksgiving. Seth must have been on break from college because he came to see the show. After the show he came up and gave big hugs to everyone. For some reason, that particular night I wasn't in the mood for a hug. I mostly turned away from it and took off shortly after the show without doing much catching up.

A month later, I got that call from my girlfriend. Seth had died at school. To this day, I'm still not sure exactly what happened, other than it was not drug, alcohol or suicide related. I think he had some sort of infection which made its way to his heart, but I'm not sure. After some tears and hanging up the phone, I went upstairs to my room, turned off the lights and listened to "Pale." Come Back Down is not my favorite song from that album, but it's the song I remember hearing that day. It's the song I remember hearing as I thought about the fact that the last time I had seen Seth, I had blown him off.

I made district chorus senior year... and quit Chamber Singers shortly thereafter.

Friday October 13th - Morning

Day 113, Session 38:
Location: On the train to work, except for the first song, which I apparently played as soon as I got out of bed.
First song: Broken by Jack Johnson
Last full song: Brother Love's Traveling Salvavation Show by Neil Diamond
Progress: 504-510 of 4422
Total Songs Heard: 439

Quick thoughts on some of the 7 songs from this morning:

Broken by Jack Johnson is from the "Curious George" movie that came out last winter. The wife and I went to see it in the theatre. We were the only people in the place who weren't accompanied by at least one person under the age of ten. We were, however, accompanied by approximately 10 stuffed animal monkeys that we decided would want to see the movie. Bringing them along started as something as a joke suggestion from the wife, then devolved into a challenge about how many animals we could sneak into the theater. Luckily, it was winter, and my winter coat has a lot of pockets, so the answer ended up being all of them. At one point during the movie, the little boy sitting directly in front of us turned around to take in his surroundings. He seemed quite surprised.

Brother by Toad the Wet Sprocket features one of my favorite song intros ever. It's a fun guitar and organ (which is probably not a real organ, but hey it sounds enough like an organ for me.) If I actually had a brother, this would be a good place to mention him and talk about our relationship. Maybe I could tell a funny story about that thing we did that time. But, uh... I don't have a brother, so I guess we're done here.

Broken Heart by Axel Rudi Pell (which must be a made up name) sucked out loud. I really shouldn't have acquired "Metal Ballads (Vol. 3)". Deleted!

Wednesday July 5th - Afternoon

Day 13, Session 11:
Location: On the way home from work still the day after a long weekend (these days are still the worst.)
First song: All Things In Life by Toad The Wet Sprocket
Last full song: Alternateen by Wally Pleasant
Progress: 163-172 of 3975

Ended the stretch of 27 consecutive songs that started with the word "All." Toad the Wet Sprocket was one of my favorite groups from the end of high school through the middle of college. Me and the whole 'grunge' scene didn't really get along very well (although I did/do like dressing in a grungy manner.) Toad was what I listened to while everyone else was listening to Nirvana scream Rape Me. Not adult contemporary enough for the parents (at least not mine,) not gloomy/angry chic enough for the standard college crowd... fit me pretty well actually.

Alternateen is actually not the title of the song that played when the iPod displayed that title. Instead a different Wally Pleasant song, Denny's at 4 a.m., played instead. Turns out not only does the cd label have the songs in the wrong order, but the data tags are also wrong. I've actually been to Denny's at 4 a.m. I remember telling the story about the time a cat bit my knee. The extra drunk girl at the table next to us started laughing hysterically. Between gasps of laughter she pointed at me and screamed, "The cat bit your pee!!"