from Jealous Minds Think Alike to Jessica

Day 1622, Session 161:
When/Where: Tuesday November 30th - Jewel on Ashland
First song: Jealous Minds Think Alike by You Me At 6
Last full song: Jessica by They Might Be Giants

Progress: 4616-4631 of 10907
Total Songs Heard: 2076

True story: I posted this update and almost immediately the occasional blue screens my computer had been giving me, turned into an unsolvable epidemic of BSODs.  One trip to the shop later and things still weren't better. Now my computer won't even turn on. We believe the cause of death is ruptured motherboard.  At this point I'm still working on the assumption that it is a coincidence that I posted here and my computer immediately decided to die... but if the wife's computer dies tomorrow, then I may have to give up this project for good.

Lots of "J" girl names on this day. Let's see what we can do with that...


Jen Brewer and Jen Pike by Moxy Fruvous - I was in several shows in college with Jen V. Her first book is about to be published. I think that's pretty awesome. Jen G. and I met randomly over the internet my freshman year. She was from Texas. In spite of that, we got along very well. I once wrote an article about her for a journalism class. I got an A on the article.


Jenifa Taught Me (2 versions) by De La Soul - Though I've never actually known a Jenifa, I was once taught an important lesson by a Jennifer.  In 5th grade there was a girl in my class named Jennifer G. She was generally regarded as the good looking girl in class. Though I was not the most popular kid in my elementary school class, I thought I was generally well regarded for both my intelligence and sense of humor. Jen G threw a halloween party that year. As far as I remember everyone in my class (even "the smart kids" that I generally hung out with) was invited to that party. Everyone that is (as you've probably already guessed) except me. Jenifa taught me what I had suspected but had yet to confirm: Being smart /= being popular.


Jennifer Burnett by Moxy Fruvous - When I was a freshman in high school I joined the school "literary" magazine. I've always been a crap writer, so why would I do that? Why does any high school boy do almost anything? Cute girls. One of the editors of the magazine was a senior who was both cute and funny in a way that seemed very mature to me at the time. During one of the discussions of a submitted piece I said something that I probably pulled out of my butt. Jennifer M said, "That was cute." Then she kissed me on the cheek. I remember 1) turning a bright shade of red and 2) Thinking that just maybe smart/funny was going to work out after all.


Jennifer Save Me by Golden Smog - I've actually known several more that go by Jen, Jenny, or Jenni (just off the top of my head: a cousin, 2 friends wives, another college friend from theater, a former neighbor...) apparently variations on Jennifer were big from 1974-1981.


Jenny Washington by Moxy Fruvous - Jenny S. was my second girlfriend. I've previously mentioned that "relationship," but I thought I'd actually include her name here because hey, if someone was writing a blog post about me, I'd like to be able to randomly find it someday with the google. That's why I included all the real names in this post (not anymore, that's the update that happened in 2023.)  Hello Jennifers of this post, you all still have a place in my head.


Jessica by They Might Be Giants - My friend Dan Telfer from his stand up set a few years ago:

from Invisible to Island

Day 947, Session 153:
When/Where: Thursday January 29th - At home.
First song: Invisible by Modest Mouse
Last full song: Island by Ben Taylor
Progress: 2713-2728 of 6761
Total Songs Heard: 1995

Freshman year of college I made the 9 hour drive from Dayton to Philly to spend the first major break with my high school friends (oh, and I suppose to have Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Dad's side.) The night before Thanksgiving I went out to dinner with my friend Liv and his family (who had really been my second family when I lived away from my own senior year) and a bunch of their family friends. We went into the city and had dinner in Chinatown. It was a big group, probably 15 people or so, and when I looked around I noticed one small difference between me and everyone else at the table: I was the only person not speaking Chinese.

That wasn't the only thing I noticed when I looked around. Two tables over there was a girl. Well ok, there was a girl and her family, but I didn't really see the family. She looked to be college aged and she was very very attractive. Since I was having trouble following the conversation at the table, I found my eyes wandering over to the girl about every 6.5 seconds. (That may be an exaggeration. It was more like every 2.1 seconds.)

Sometime right after I finished my soup, something strange happened. I looked over, and the girl was looking at me. Knowing I had been caught, I immediately became very interested in the silverware pattern the restaurant was using. (Would it surprise you to learn that I was the only one at the table who needed silverware? I didn't think it would.)

Of course, my sense of shame doesn't run all that deep, so a minute or two later I ventured another glimpse at this (now elevated in my mind to "heavenly") girl and lo and behold she was looking at me AGAIN! This time she looked away. I immediately elbowed my friend Liv and asked him if he had seen what just happened. Of course I managed to ask him right as everyone else at the table had gone quiet. Seems someone at the table was in the middle of a prayer. Guh.

After I was sure praying was over, I again asked Liv to take a look over at the girl to a) confirm that she was hot and 2) see if she was looking over. His answers, "YES!" and "yes?!?" Well, now I was just confused. I looked over again and we had our first extended eye contact. We shared hellos from across the room. She indicated that she noticed the "one of these kids is not like the other" eating situation. I gave it a smile and a shrug.

Dinner arrived so I turned my attention to eating. We stole occasional glances for the next 15 minutes while I planned my next move. Seriously? I had no next move. What was I going to do, get up in the middle of dinner and walk over to her and tell her that even though I was only going to be in town for three days and even though the next day was Thanksgiving I wanted to spend as much of the next 72 hours as humanly possible with her because even though we hadn't spoken a word I had fallen utterly in love from the other side of the restaurant?

But then, why not? I was 18. Anything seemed possible.

I had just about worked up the nerve to excuse myself to "look for the restroom." I looked over to try to get her attention to "arrange the meet" and she was gone!

Well, she wasn't quite gone yet. Her family was walking toward the door. She was looking at me and our eyes locked. She stopped at the door for 3 seconds that stretched on for days, smiled sadly, waved, and slipped through the door and out of my life forever.

An Irishman In Chinatown - Luka Bloom

from Hopscotch to How Do You Like...

Day 679, Session 125:
When/Where: Tuesday April 29th - At the desk scoping Craig's List for work and then running a hard mile around the neighborhood.
First song: Hopscotch by Mothfight!
Last full song: How Do You Like the Sound of That? by Amplified Heat
Progress: 2007-2031 of 5907
Total Songs Heard: 1613

After my senior year of high school I finally moved to Ohio to live with my parents. (I think I mentioned that they moved after my junior year, but allowed me to stay back and finish high school. My parents are smart.) This was not a good summer. Everyone I knew (at least everyone I knew that I wasn't related to) was an 8 hour drive away. Now-a-days this wouldn't be such a big deal, I'd be able to hop online and e-mail, chat, even game with those folks no problem. I'm not much into going out, so interacting with friends that way would suffice. But... this was 1994, the internet was still in its nascent stages. At least at my house it was (we had Prodigy.)

So yeah, I was pretty miserable. To compound matters, I had to find a job. My previous 3 high school summers had been spent volunteering/working at a camp for handicapped kids. I loved it there. I knew of no place like that in Ohio, so I was reduced to going door to door at a local shopping mall filling out applications. After about a week of that I was hired at Famous Footwear. Yep, I was spending my summer at a discount shoe store.

I'm pretty sure I was hired to fill a stock boy role, but before long I was moved out onto the floor where I got to spend a lot of time looking at stranger's feet. Have I mentioned I was miserable?

The store featured a never changing line-up of muzak designed to lull the suburban mind into purchasing an additional pair of sandals, or maybe (and this was big if you could get people to buy this) some shoe cleaner (which I took to calling shoe-poo.) I went through most of the day paying no attention to the muzak (truthfully most of my focus was going towards trying to entertain an attractive co-worker (I don't think I need to say that this didn't work.)) There was however one song that consistently drew my attention every time it came on (which I think was once every 6 hours:) House At Pooh Corner by Loggins & Messina.

Every time that damn song came on I went from miserable to disconsolate for the length of the song, longer if it was slow and I could take time for some self-pity. The strange thing, I like the song. I'm a big Winnie-the-Pooh fan. I had a stuffed Pooh Bear of my own that was one of my favorite "guys." (The "guys" were the assorted stuffed animals that made up my band childhood friends.)

Hearing this song in the middle of a long shoe related day made me look around and wonder how exactly I had wound up in the middle of nowhere, er Ohio, so far away from so many of the people I cared about. It also made me sad that that particular era of my life was on the verge of passing on. I was now based out of Ohio. Even when school breaks would come, I wouldn't be going back to Philly and to my friends there for anything more than a visit. I could go back, but I wasn't ever going to be part of that place in the same way.

Sigh (it all seemed very dramatic at the time. Of course many people who would go back faced the same thing, but hey, I was 18, I wasn't looking at the bigger picture.)



In the interest of making this perhaps the wussiest post ever, I will admit there was also a secondary sadness in the song. Despite the fact that I was 18 and didn't exactly play with the guys anymore, that didn't mean that I had completely forgotten them. In fact, that summer, having no other friends in the area, I had taken to talking to some of them when I needed someone to talk to (including Pooh.) I knew that this was not going to be acceptable behavior in a college dorm setting and I would thus be leaving the guys when I went to school. The idea of leaving the guys behind? Also sad.

Stupid song. (Muntz would have a field day with this.)

from High Enough to Highway Blues

Day 657, Session 121:
When/Where: Monday April 7th - Running for the third time. This officially makes it a pattern.
First song: High Enough by Damn Yankees
Last full song: Highway Blues by Marc Seales, composer. New Stories. Ernie Watts, saxophone
Progress: 1933-1937 of 5869
Total Songs Heard: 1541

Shockingly the run this time didn't go well (as the fact that I was only out for 5 songs can probably attest.) 15 minutes of movement are ok, but the last 8 or so were spent with angry burning lungs. I can't remember the last time I ran my way into a stitch in the side, but I somehow managed to do it this time. (I do remember when I was 5, I told a fundamentalist Christian friend that "Catholics don't get [stitches]." Apparently I was very proud of my religion then. I was also a liar as I specifically remember having a cramp while I was claiming that my god prevented me from getting them.)

I believe the problem here was two-fold. 1) I had a long weekend. My improv team, Wing Night, threw a fund raiser party/flip-cup tournament over the weekend. I remember when I could stay up all night partying and then still be worth a damn the next day. I think that era may have passed. The party didn't start until midnight and I didn't get home until sometime early in the morning. (7am maybe?) Things were actually find while the party was going on. Everyone had a great time, funds were raised, cleaning went smoothly (the part I helped with anyhow.) The only bad part of the evening, er morning, was deciding that the best thing to eat at 6am was a bar-b-que bacon cheeseburger. All of that has nothing to do with the music. Sorry.

The second reason: my music for the day peaked as I was walking out the door.

High Enough by Damn Yankees is one of my favorite songs ever. Seriously. It's the only song I owned as a cassette single. It came out my freshman year of high school. That was an awesome time for groups that you knew for 6 months and then never heard of again: Nelson, Extreme, Mr. Big, and the rock super group Damn Yankees. Super group you say? Sure, Damn Yankees was made up of members of Styx! Night Ranger! and... TED NUGENT himself! How much more super could a group get?

If you don't remember this song, you own it to yourself to take a listen. It starts with an orchestra(!), moves to solo voice with acoustic guitar and then it takes off. Harmonies! Orchestra! Electric guitar! More Soaring Harmonies! and don't forget Rocking Guitar Solos! I'm telling you, this was the apex of early 90's rock/pop.

Well unfortunately, 4:45 after it started, it was over. Every song after seemed like a let down, so I packed it in early and trudged home.

High Enough - Damn Yankees

For more on the 1990's awesome contributions to music, please check out Can You See the Sunset? Their occasional feature It Came From the 90's is chock full of awesome.

from Hello Hello Hello to Here And Now

Day 631, Session 116:
When/Where: Wednesday March 12th - Running (not literally) around the neighborhood catching up on chores
First song: Hello Hello Hello by The XYZ Affair
Last full song: Here And Now by Del Amitri
Progress: 1862-1877 of 5814 (skipped one podcast)
Total Songs Heard: 1495

Sweet Jesus Beverly, I believe winter may finally be giving up its icy grip on Chicago. Yesterday, for the first time in forever, I was able to go outside for an extended period without wearing a coat. Man that was refreshing.

Musically the day started with The XYZ Affair. To the best of my knowledge, the musical version of The XYZ Affair has nothing to do with the late 18th-century diplomatic imbroglio between the U.S.A. and France. I found the XYZ Affair after watching this video on the You Tubes:

I like this particular song, All My Friends, quite a bit. I decided to investigate more XYZ Affair after seeing this video. If you grew up at the same time I did, you also loved Double Dare and Marc Summers. The idea of Marc Summers keeping green slime in his fridge at home immediately endeared this band to me. If you'd like to discover some XYZ Affair for yourself, check out their website.

Then there was Hello, Dolly!

It was April 3rd, 1992. It was a Friday. I was 16. It was the night of my first real date. Yes, I was 16 and it was my first date. Why, you may ask, did it take until I was 16 to have a first date? There are a few reasons: 1) Have you seen me? I look pretty much the same now as I did then, only without the beard (which is to say, like a dweeb. For some reason the girls didn't go for the dweeb look.) B) It would be much more effective for the rule of threes if I had a solid B in place here, but I'm having trouble thinking of one so I'll move directly onto... III) There was only one girl I wanted to date.

The problem with reason III is that while the girl and I were very close friends, she was consistently dating people who weren't me. In fact, I had just about given up on the girl. Around Christmas she had been boyfriend free and we started spending a lot of time together and I took the plunge and asked her out... and she said no. Then around my birthday I tried again... and she said no. At that point I had just enough pride to tell her that I wasn't going to ask her out again. Of course since I still wanted to go out with her, this made the relationship a little awkward over the next month until finally I told her that I needed to break up with her as a friend.

About a week later she asked me out. Her sister drove. Two other friends were there too. I spent the whole show trying to figure out exactly how I had ended up there and hoping my hand didn't start sweating too much while holding hers. It wasn't really just the two of us until after the show. "Mysteriously" after the show everyone else disappeared for a little. She was sitting on a window ledge. I was standing next to her. I remember thinking, "So, here we are," as she leaned over and we kissed for the first time. My first kiss. (did I mention I was 16?!?) I had been waiting for it for 4 years. It was totally worth it.

I don't remember a damn thing about the show itself, but when I heard Hello, Dolly!, all the rest came rushing back.

Turns out there is an advantage to having a severely limited dating history. All the important individual moments stay within reach in my swiss cheese brain.

Hello, Dolly! - Bobby Darin

from Heaven to Hello City

Day 624, Session 115:
When/Where: Wednesday March 5th - "Liveblogging" through some afternoon chores
First song: Heaven (Live) by The Swimmers
Last full song: Hello City (Live) by Barenaked Ladies
Progress: 1857-1867 of 5831
Total Songs Heard: 1480

Back after a few days of recovering from my totally whack-a-do Saturday night. I'm efforting to live blog my way through today's tunes... so until the Last Full Song section above is filled in, feel free to check back to see what I can write with less than the space of a song to think about it.

2:16 - Heaven (Live) by The Swimmers - "Heaven is the town we grew up, all our friends around..." A great little tune from The Swimmers who coincidentally are from the town where I grew up, Philadelphia. I think a lot of people would be disappointed if heaven ended up being the town where they grew up. Not me. I like where I grew up, and liked that period of my life. I wouldn't mind trying it again with some of the wisdom I've gained since leaving. The Swimmers first full length cd came out yesterday. I'll be taking a listen at some point.

2:20 - Heaven Alive by Oceansize - The last of the short run of heaven related songs. Unfortunately it's at the bottom of the list which would go like this: 1. Heaven by The Swimmers 2. Heaven by Warrant (still a surprisingly good song) 3. Heaven by Better Than Ezra 4. Heaven Alive.

2:26 - Heavy Metal Drummer (Live) by Wilco - Chicago's Wilco recently completed a 5 night "residence" at the Riviera Theater here in town. The cool thing about being in Chicago is that Wilco will come here and play 5 nights in a row. The not cool thing is that everyone in Chicago LOVES Wilco, which makes it practically impossible to get tickets, even if they're here for 5 straight nights. Luckily, Heather over at Fuel Friends had it covered with a link to a live recording of night 5. I suggest you get over there soon and check it out before it disappears.

2:33 - Heavy Metal Drummer by Wilco - The album version, also awesome.

2:37 - Heist by Ben Folds - From the soundtrack to the movie "Over The Hedge" which was a passable film on its own merits that was pushed into the enjoyable realm for me due the fact that Ben Folds was heavily featured on the soundtrack. It's currently in rotation on HBO and the animation looks pretty sweet in HD. Don't go out of your way to watch it or anything, but if it happens to be on and you can't get to the remote you shouldn't have to poke your eyes out.

2:40 - Helicopters by Barenaked Ladies - Back in my radio days we were invited to a special preview of the Dayton Air Show (which is a really big deal around Dayton.) My two morning show co-hosts and I were each given a ride in one of three stunt helicopters that would be flying during the show. Just being in a helicopter was quite an experience. Then they started doing their formation flying. Weaving in and out of the other two copters was quite an exhilarating experience. I watched the scariest stunt from the safety of my copter, one of the other guys went way up in the air then killed the engine and free fell. During the fall the engine restarted and the copter started hovering safely again after falling about 90% of the way to the ground. It probably would have taken me 20 minutes to locate my stomach after a trick like that. I'm pretty sure the pilots did it 10 times that day.

2:45 - Hell by Squirrel Nut Zippers - I took too long typing that helicopter story and now don't have time to say anything about this song. Except to say that for such opposite concepts, the words Heaven and Hell are pretty close to each other alphabetically.

2:49 - Hell Is Chrome by Wilco - Figures... right after writing about how much everyone in Chicago loves Wilco, I immediately come to another Wilco song. Actually, to be honest, I didn't love this cd (A Ghost Is Born) nearly as much as I loved Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I've owned A Ghost Is Born since it first came out and this is probably only the 3rd or 4th time I've heard this song.

2:54 - Hello by Oasis - I very much enjoyed Oasis when What's The Story Morning Glory came out. I realize they were criticized for sounding too much like The Beatles, but... well... what's so bad about that? The Beatles were awesome, but the only thing time they're getting back together is for a heavenly reunion tour once Paul dies. Of course, unlike The Beatles, Oasis has done very little for me outside of one cd.

2:58 - Hello City by Barenaked Ladies - Track one of Barenaked Ladies first cd Gordon. I was hooked immediately. Apparently Hello City refers to Halifax, Nova Scotia. My favorite line: "Hello City, you've found an enemy in me." I don't think I have any enemy cities. I mean sure, I hate all the sports teams from New York, but now that my sister lives there I can't exactly hate the city.

3:01 - Hello City (Live) by Barenaked Ladies - Same song live from the Rock Spectacle cd.

Ok, got to wrap it up here for now as I've got another project I need to start working on.

from Happy Birthday to Happy, The End

Day 604, Session 112:
When/Where: Thursday February 14th - In the air between Chicago and Nashville.
First song: Happy Birthday by Clem Snide
Last full song: Happy, The End by The Innocence Mission
Progress: 1786-1796 of 5773
Total Songs Heard: 1418

It was time for my biannual trip to Nashville. (BTW, did you know that biannual and semiannual mean the same thing? You did? Oh. I had to look it up. As far as I know the prefix 'bi-' means 2 and the prefix 'semi-' means 1/2, so how can biannual and semiannual mean the same thing? English man... just one more reason to move to Finland and learn to speak Finnish.) There's about 40 minutes of usable air time between Chicago and Nashville and most of that time was spent hearing songs about different types of happy birthdays.

Seeing as how I am just 2 weeks removed from a birthday and then I hit this particular run of songs I took the time on the flight to order a jack and coke and reflect on birthdays past. Here are the ones I remember:

1978 - I turned 2. I don't actually remember this birthday, but according to photographic evidence I made a real mess of myself while enjoying some chocolate cake. Guests included my parents, Great-Great Grandmother and next door neighbors.

1981 - I turned 5 and we had a party at my house. Using the power of static electricity (and probably tape) my name was up on the dining room wall constructed entirely of balloons. I thought this was pretty much the coolest thing ever. Also, somewhere my parents found gigantic balloon. I spent a lot of the party wrestling the balloon with Zach Hafer playing the role of my tag team partner. Other guests included Mike Vardaro and Eddie Atkinson.

1984 - I turned 8 and we watched Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo in the basement of my house. This was a big deal because at the time, my family didn't own a VCR. We actually had to rent one (along with the movie) from the local West Coast Video (why West Coast Video was a big chain on the East Coast I still don't understand.) This was a big deal at the time. Guests included Mike again and the girl I had a crush on at the time Alanna. At least I'm pretty sure that's her name (Mike will confirm once he reads this.)

1987 - I turned 11 and a few of the guys came over for a sleep over. At this point we owned a VCR so I'm sure some type of movie was watched. If I had to guess I'd say there's also a pretty good chance we spent part of that overnight watching the Playboy Channel which came in scrambled (but not very well) on channel 19. What can I say, even at age 11 boobs were fascinating. Guests included Mike, and Brendan Roan.

1992 - I turned 16 and my parents through my one and only surprised party. The surprise totally worked. I had no idea. My dad told me he needed my help moving some boxes at his office and offered to pay me for my time. Since I didn't actually have any Friday night plans (yep, I was a winner back then too) I agreed. I had just had my hair buzzed almost entirely off, and it turned out that under all that hair, I had a very tiny head. Any time I think about getting my hair cut extremely short I think back to the pictures taken at this party. Guests included Mike, Brian McIntire and my cadre of K-named girl friends Kristin, Kerstin, Kierstin, and Kate.

1995 - I turned 19 at college. We played Twister in Joey and Ryno's room. We also played the very dangerous game of "how many people can we fit on the top bunk of that bunk bed?" (The answer was 14.) To the best of my knowledge, no alcohol was served this night. This would be the last time that would happen. Mike was not there, Joey, Ryno, Missy, and Mary were.

1996 - 20, still at college. This year we had 21-year old connections. We filled the mini fridge with beer and played Revolution (a more genteel version of Asshole.) Guests included Joey, Ryno, Jay, and Becky.

1997 - 21. I became the 21-year old connection as I was the first one in our house to hit the milestone. I celebrated my birthday proper by walking into the UDF at 12:03 am and buying two 40s. Which Joey and I then enjoyed on the porch of our house on the dark side. Later that day I bought my first keg. The house was full of people all party long and any time anyone saw me with less than half a beer, they poured some out of their glass into mine. Eventually I was drunk to the point where I knew I had to stop drinking, so I wandered upstairs and put myself to bed. The party went on for a few more hours without me. Guests included lots of people I didn't know, but who seemed to know me.

1999 - 23. Went to a Fruvous concert where the guys proceeded to play a multiple song encore dedicated to my birthday (this track will be posted when we hit the 'M's.) I think this is my favorite birthday. Guests included Joey, Sarah, Betsy.

2005 - 29. My sisters both came to visit for the weekend. We ordered deep dish pizza and they baked me a cake. A few days later we watched the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Even though it was my birthday, they refused to win. Except for the losing Super Bowl part, this birthday was pretty good too. Guests included The Wife, Kate, Alicia, and Potsie.

As you can see, I got a lot of remembering done during the very short flight. I saw recently there's going to be a game show where you're quizzed on things that happened in the course of your own life. I think I would be pretty good at it. (As long as they don't quiz me on too many things that happened this past weekend. I often come back from Nashville a little foggy.)

Happy Birthday - Clem Snide
Happy Birthday - Sufjan Stevens
Happy Birthday - Weird Al Yankovic

from Emaline to Enemy Fire

Day 391, Session 81:
When/Where: Wednesday July 18th - On the train and the bus from work to home.
First song: Emaline by Ben Folds
Last full song: Enemy Fire by Ryan Adams
Progress: 1131-1144 of 5204
Total Songs Heard: 951

So here I am minding my own business on the way home, when suddenly I here the train around me erupt in applause. I suspect someone has just foiled a purse snatcher (something I've seen once in my 4 years riding the train every day) or fallen over in some sort particularly hilarious way. But when I look around, no one is clapping or even moving around much at all. Finally I thought to look down at the iPod (don't ask me why it took me so long to think of the iPod) and realize that I'm listening to the "song" Encore Applause. This is why downloading live concert recordings is fun.

At first I couldn't believe how dumb it was that someone had taken the applause between the end of the first set and the encore and made it an entire track. Then I realized how genius it was. I love hidden tracks, but I hate it when the bonus track comes after 3 minutes of silence after the "final" song. It makes it a grand pain in the ass to use the bonus track in mixes (or playlists as iTunes wants me to call them.) So thanks to Heather who posted the Badly Drawn Boy concert recording that Encore Applause comes from. Despite my initial confusion, it's a great way to keep the feel of the whole concert there, while still allowing the listener to skip all the the clapping (all 4:30 of it.)

This stretch also took me through the End portion of song titles... quick notes on these titles and my life:

End Credits - It's always been a dream of mine to show up in the end credits of a real, released in the theater movie. I suppose it could still happen, but this particular dream seems a little bit further out of reach each day.

End It On This - As I was listening to this song I started thinking about how weird it must have been for No Doubt to hit big just as two members of the band were going through a romantic breakup. The romantic breakup part led nicely into...

End Of Love - I've only had two great romances in my life. One in high school and the current one (yep, married for two years and I still love The Wife. Hooray marriage!) I remember the exact moment that I knew that first relationship had moved from Love onto something else (which happily has turned out to be a continuing friendship.) Freshman year of college, I had come home to Philadelphia (I didn't live there any more) for Thanksgiving to visit. She had started dating someone at school (as per our unbelievably pragmatic agreement that it was unrealistic to continue our high school relationship into college. (some cutest couple we ended up being) (I will note for the record that I had also briefly dated someone soon after starting school)) but the first time we saw each other there was still something there... or at least I had hoped there would be. Those hopes were quickly dashed when we shared our first moments alone on the front steps of a friend's house. We shared a kiss. The kiss was utterly empty. I still remember the stomach punch feeling of the immediate aftermath as my heart said, "What the hell was that?" and my brain answered, "That was the end."

End Of The Day - I'm trying a new routine where I not ending my day until my body says I'm tired enough to go to sleep. So far it's resulted in alternating days of falling asleep at 11pm and 3:30am. I'm not sure this is the best plan I've ever thought of.

End Of The Movie - I have never walked out on a movie I have paid to see in the theater before it was over. Have you? If so, what movie was it?

from Dragonfly to Dreams

Day 215, Session 75:
When/Where: Tuesday January 23rd - On the train and in the office.
First song: Dragonfly by The Thorns
Last full song: Dreams by Fleetwood Mac
Progress: 1024-1031 of 4814
Total Songs Heard: 877

With three versions of Jeff Buckley's Dream Brother and two versions Dreams (both the original and a Corrs cover) out of the 8 songs it wasn't the most varied listening session I've ever had. Let's take a look at the shortest "song" of the day, which was actually a clip from Dream Police by Cheap Trick. It was only a clip from the song because it was being used as part of a high school dance routine. I can't really go into all the details as to why I had a song from a high school dance routine in my music library but at one point this year I went to go see this high school dance team perform.

It was... uncomfortable. I had a perfectly good reason to be there watching this team but I still couldn't shake the dirty old man feeling I had while watching. I mean, I knew why I was there, and the girls on the team knew why I was there, but I couldn't shake the feeling that other people in the crowd were wondering what the hell I was doing there. I thought about pretending I had a kid there, but, while I am obviously much older than a high school student, I don't look old enough to be mistaken for a high school parent. In fact, compounding the problem, I tend to look younger than I actually am... which in this case meant I still looked too old for high school, but not old enough to completely dismiss the thought that I might be the type of creepy guy who hangs around high schools watching the dance team perform.

The whole time I attempted to awkwardly straddle the line between watching carefully (since that's what I was there to see) and making it look like I wasn't watching at all. It made my brain hurt.

In the end, of course, I'm sure no one thought twice about my presence. The parents were too busy video taping their kids or yelling at the refs to notice me. And even if the high school kids couldn't tell that I was much older (which they could,) they would instinctively know that I wasn't cool enough to talk to.

So, is there a proper way to watch a high school dance team as a 30-year old guy? Probably not... and I should probably delete the track to stop reminding myself.

Monday December 18th - During the day

Day 179, Session 63:
Location: Sitting at my desk. 8th floor. Cube C43A (that's right, I don't even get a full cube.)
First song: Day Tripper by The Beatles
Last full song: Dead Man's Hill by Indigo Girls
Progress: 839-847 of 4617
Total Songs Heard: 739

Dead by They Might Be Giants may just be one of my all time favorite songs. In high school we used to drive around singing this at the top of our lungs. I proudly knew all of the harmony part. We were nerds.

As much as I love They Might Be Giants, I still hold a little bit of a grudge towards them. My senior year in high school I hosted a radio show every Friday right after school. Part of the bit of the show is that every week I would call up the TMBG Dial-A-Song hotline live on the air. It was a bit because every week I would call the Brooklyn based phone number, and every week it would be busy. Then suddenly, one Friday the phone started ringing. I was excited because for the first time in 3 months, we were actually going to get to play a song on the air. I was then even more excited when instead of a song, a voice came on the line and said "If you're in New York, hang on the line for a special message." Sure, I wasn't from New York, but broadcasting a special message was even better than a song.

The excitement reached it's peak when, after a second or two, a voice came on a live voice came on the line and said, "Hey, this is John -- (I forget which John it was) from They Might Be Giants. Who's this?" Holy crap! I called up for a song and got one of the guys from the band live on the air! I explained to John that I was calling from WHHS and I unfortunately was not from New York, but that he was in fact being heard live on the air on both sides of Mill Rd. in Havertown, PA.

John seemed non-plussed. He said he didn't really have time to talk right then because he was giving away tickets to a show in New York that night, but that he'd be happy to call me back in about an hour to do an interview. I said that sounded great and we gave him the station's phone number. I spent the next hour hyping the interview and telling everyone around the station to tell everyone they knew. This was going to be the station's biggest moment since... well... possibly ever (at least as far as those of us around that studio that day were concerned.)

Of course he didn't call back.

In retrospect, that makes perfect sense. They had a show that night and he probably ran out of time. But at the time I remember being exceedingly disappointed in the way things turned out. I hung around the station for an extra 2 hours in case he called back. No such luck.

Years later when I was a radio "professional" Owen Wilson pulled the same thing. At that point it seemed par for the course.

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 20th - Morning

Day 120, Session 43:
Location: On the train heading to work, plus the first 30 minutes of the day at the desk.
First song: Can't Keep It In by Cat Stevens
Last full song: Cape Feare (Medley) by The Simpsons
Progress: 562-578 of 4500
Total Songs Heard: 496

Can You Picture That from The Muppet Movie... awesome. The fact that the soundtrack from The Muppet Movie apparently is not available on cd... not awesome. Can someone explain this to me? I went to Amazon to try to add the cd to my wish list, thinking it would be an quick and easy gift for someone to get me for Christmas. The only problem is, the lowest price I saw was $50. Why is a soundtrack from a popular musical not available on cd?

Now I need to make a confession. I like Canada. Always have. I love hockey. I like universal health care. I like the city of Toronto. I like the idea of having a section of the country that contains an entirely different culture. I like $2 coins (except at Canadian strip clubs.) And I really like Canadian music. BNL, Fruvous, Crash Test Dummies, Sarah McLachlan, Gordon Lightfoot and lesser known Canadian bands like the Arrogant Worms. The Arrogant Worms like Canada because it is really big. *Edited to fix link!

The first time I went to Canada was my freshman year of high school. We bussed from suburban Philly through Niagra Falls to Toronto. The girl I had a crush on at the time (who would later become my high school girlfriend (my only hs girlfriend)) spent most of the ride making out with her boyfriend at the time. Somewhere around the border I suggested quite loudly that perhaps they should stop trading tonsils. It was kind of a funny line. At least the rest of the bus thought so. The girl was terribly terribly embarrassed, and I suppose I should have felt bad. But I didn't. I was happy that she quit making out with that other guy for 20 minutes or so.

Thursday September 28th

Day 98, Session 29:
Location: On the train, leaving work late. Why am I leaving work at 6:30?
First song: Bingo Addict Grandma by Wally Pleasant
Last full song: Bitter Boy by Truck Stop Love
Progress: 413-419 of 4413
Total Songs Heard: 359

I've updated the template around here. The last one was beginning to look a little too... blue. I think this looks cleaner and is hopefully easier on the eyes. If you have an opinion on this change, or there's something else you'd like to see on the page, please use the comments section.

Birdhouse in Your Soul, from "Flood" by They Might Be Giants is one of my all-time favorite songs. I'm not sure why exactly, the lyrics don't make a whole lot of sense. I only know that whenever I hear that song I end up feeling happier for the 3:20 it's on. Well, almost all of the 3:20. When I first got "Flood" I owned it on cassette, which meant most of the time I was listening to it in my car. Just over half way through the song, there's a car horn that plays. Every time I was listening in the car and got to that part of the song I'd hear the car horn and immediately scan all mirrors to make sure I hadn't just cut someone off or run over a kid or something. If I had been crossing the street when this song came on I would have whipped my head around nervously at the horn. Lots of time in high school was spent driving here or there, always with a destination in mind. We weren't the types to 'cruise' we just happend to be lucky enough that 2 or 3 in our group had cars which meant lots of driving around singing along to tapes.

The only thing I miss about tapes is the mix tape. There's nothing wrong with the mix cd, but the mix tape gave you more time for music, and 4 different opportunities for statement songs (the first and last of each side.) I made mix tapes very rarely, but when I made them, they were very good. I had to have a specific reason to make one (almost always meaning "I needed a girl to make them for.") I've meant to go back and attempt to recreate some of those tapes on cd, but it wouldn't be the same.

Bitches Ain't Shit by Ben Folds is part of my continued love for rap songs that aren't performed as rap songs (see also the previously mentioned Back, Baby Got by Jonathan Coulton.) I'll put together a mix cd for you once I've got enough tracks to fill it up.

Tuesday August 8th

Day 47, Session 18:
Location: Brown Line from Quincy to Paulina.
First song: At a Medium Pace by Adam Sandler
Last full song: Aurora by Foo Fighters
Progress: 245-254 of 3940
Total Songs Heard: 253

At a Medium Pace was played incessantly at lunches senior year of high school. My high school radio station, WHHS, received a promotional copy, which was great for lunch play but terrible for actual on air use. The parental advisory of explicit lyrics... they weren't kidding. Of course when you're 17 all those things were extra hilarious.

I loved working at that radio station. The whole place was held together by sheer will... and duct tape. My only real regret* there was that, in spite of being station's sports director senior year, I never got to call an entire football game. Our remote receiver (I believe it was a hangar attached to an antenna) broke at the beginning of senior year. It took all the way until our traditional Thanksgiving day homecoming game to get it fixed. Unfortunately, I had been sick for a few weeks leading up to the game. We didn't know what was actually wrong until two days before Thanksgiving, when I was diagnosed with mono. Thanksgiving day came, and I was planning on getting to the game, but I was too tired to get out of bed. Finally, an hour after the game had kicked off I dragged myself into the stadium and up to the "press box." I remember making it through about 5 minutes of game time before I was too tired to stand. I handed my headset off to one of the other guys and staggered straight back to my car and drove home.

Later that same year, after I had recovered, I called several basketball games. Included in that run was a game where a sophomore from Lower Merion by the name of Kobe Bryant absolutely crushed my team. If I had any idea that he would end up playing for the Lakers 3 years later, I probably would have saved the tape.

*ok, technically there was one other radio station related regret. Freshman year I always sat in with a girl from my class who had a show Friday afternoon right after school. She was new at school and I had a huge crush on her, but never got up the nerve to say anything. It didn't take long for her to start dating some random guy, but even though she had a boyfriend, I still hung out with her at the station every Friday. The fact that I never had the nerve to say anything was bothersome for a while (at least until I finally actually started dating someone 18 months later.)

Tuesday, August 1st

Day 40, Session 16:
Location: On the way to work.
First song: Anthem by Blink 182
Last full song: Apu In "The Jolly Bengali" Theme by The Simpsons
Progress: 218-228 of 3937
Total Songs Heard: 231

Lots of doubling up today. Two versions of Ants Marching by Dave Matthews Band, two entirely different songs called Anytime (by My Morning Jacket and McAuley Schenker Group (which was AWFUL and should probably be deleted, in fact, I'm going to do that now),) and two versions of April Come She Will by Simon & Garfunkel.

The song I didn't end up hearing was April is in My Mistress' Face, but after 4 straight songs starting with April, that was the song that drilled its way into my brain for the rest of the day. Of course I didn't hear AiiMMF because I don't make a habit of collecting madrigals as sung by my high school chorus. If I remember that song correctly, April was in my mistress' face, July in her eyes, and within her bosom was September. I honestly don't remember what came after that cause I was always too busy trying to stifle the giggles that September brought on. (It's also entirely possible I'm remembering this completely wrong. I'm sure google could clear this up, feel free to let me know if you use it.)

Happy Bosom Month everyone!




note: I'm now officially a month behind in entries. This is not surprising. The good news is the move is now completed and WoW is currently on hold, so I should have plenty of chances to play catch up.