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Living in Chicago, by way of Dayton, OH and Havertown, PA. Contact me at atozpod@gmail.com.

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Showing posts with label milestones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label milestones. Show all posts

Friday, March 06, 2009

from 1001-2000: Mix Tape 2k.2

To send you into the weekend, please enjoy the second disc of the 1001-2000 mix cd.

Mix 2k.2 - Hurt to Into The Mystic


Hurt - Johnny Cash
I'd Run Away - The Jayhawks
I'm A Believer - The Monkees
I've Gotta Get a Message to You - Moxy Früvous
I Feel Fantastic - Jonathan Coulton
I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You - Tom Waits
I Need More Love - Robert Randolph & The Family Band
I Need You Back - Ben Kweller
If I Had $1000000 - Barenaked Ladies
If It's The Beaches - The Avett Brothers
If She Wants Me - Belle & Sebastian
If The Creeks Don't Rise Sunparlour Players
Ikea - Jonathan Coulton
In Between Days - Ben Folds
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
In the Curve (Bonus) - The Avett Brothers
Inflatable Amy - the Argument
Into The Mystic - Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová

Grab the file here and have a great weekend.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

from 1001-2000: Mix Tape 2k.1

As promised, I managed to narrow down the 1000 songs between Everything Matters and Istanbul (Not Constantinople) to about 40. Here are the songs that made the cut for disc one:

Mix 2k.1 - Falling Slowly to Hummingbird

Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Famous Blue Raincoat - Jonathan Coulton
Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen
February - Dar Williams
Float On - Modest Mouse
Flowers In The Windows - Travis
Fontanelle - Clem Snide
Fred Jones, Part 2 - Ben Folds
Fuckin up my Christmas - mc chris
Ghost - Neutral Milk Hotel
Gimmeakiss - The Avett Brothers
God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
Gold - Interference
Green Eggs and Ham - Moxy Früvous
Grumpy Old Men Booing - Statler & Waldorf
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
Heaven - The Swimmers
Hero of Canton - The Ballad of Jayne - Adam Baldwin
High Enough - Damn Yankees
Hummingbird - Wilco

You can get the mix here. Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

from Island In The Sun to Istanbul

Day 959, Session 154:
When/Where:
Tuesday February 10th - At home after a nice long walk.
First song: Island In The Sun by Weezer
Last full song: Istanbul by They Might Be Giants
Progress: 2777-2781 of 6850
Total Songs Heard: 2000

Song 1996:
Island In The Sun - Weezer
This was the final song on the cd that played during our wedding dinner. I suppose it would have been more appropriate if we had been honeymooning on an actual island in the sun, instead of going to San Francisco like we did. We did go to Alcatraz, which is an island, while in San Fran but it was cloudy that day. I really like the song because of the awesome Spike Jonze video that goes with it. There are baby animals and chimps for goodness sake.


Song 1997:
Isle Thing - "Weird Al" Yankovic
I love Weird Al. I enjoy Gilligan's Island. I did not enjoy Weird Al's parody of Tone Loc's Wild Thing that retells the story of Gilligan's Island. I feel like every Weird Al cd has two tracks that I just don't like, this is one of them from UHF.

Song 1998:
Isolation - Sponge
I've owned the John Lennon tribute cd "Working Class Hero" since it came out in 1995 and I can honestly say this is the first time I ever remember hearing this song.

Song 1999:
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
The song that introduced me to They Might Be Giants and I fell for them immediately. My favorite part of the song is actually the violin. Flood was in constant rotation in the cars of all of my high school friends and this was one of the songs on that made us all sing along at full volume. Added goodness includes the history lesson contained within. I'm pretty sure I got test questions about the original names of New York and Istanbul correct by singing this song in my head. And then of course there was this:


Song 2000:
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
The live version from "Severe Tire Damage." Somewhat disappointing due to the lack of violin. The yodeling "OH" section is more impressive live.

And well... that was kind of anticlimactic... what with only needing to listen to 5 songs and 2 of them being the same and me not even liking 2 others. Well, them's the breaks sometimes. The important thing is, I said I was going to do this today and I did. Now I'm going to reward myself with a night of trivia and beer.

Friday, August 24, 2007

The First 1000 Part 2

As promised, here is the link for the second .zip of the first 1000 songs mix.

From Can You Picture to El Fin - The First 1000 Songs (Disc 2)
1. Can You Picture That? - Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem
2. Catch The Wind - Donovan
3. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
4. Cloak Of Elvenkind - Marcy Playground
5. Closing Time - Tom Waits
6. Cut Every Corner - The Simpsons
7. Dead - They Might Be Giants
8. Dear Chicago - Ryan Adams
9. Death Is Not the End - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
10. Did I Say - Teenage Fanclub
11. Do You Realize?? - The Flaming Lips
12. Don't Be Afraid Of Your Anger - Clem Snide
13. Don't Stop Me Now - Queen
14. Dr. Worm - They Might Be Giants
15. Drown - Son Volt
16. Dutch Wonderland - Josh Joplin Group
17. Early Morning Rain - Gordon Lightfoot
18. El Fin de la Infancia - Café Tacuba

Many of these songs were also featured in earlier posts. Once I'm home from work, I'll probably link those up. If you're in a hurry you should be able to find them yourself, maybe you could use that search widget thing over on the right.

(Standard mp3 disclaimer applies here, please support the artists in this mix by buying a cd or tickets to a concert or something. Or even better, if you see them on the street, give them $5. That way the fat cat record company doesn't get a cut. If you are a fat cat record company and want me to remove any links, let me know.)

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

from Everything Flows to Everything Matters

Day 418, Session 86:
When/Where:
Tuesday August 14th - Sitting in the house.
First song:
Everything Flows by Teenage Fanclub
Last full song: Everything Matters by Glen Phillips
Progress: 1222-1227 of 5270
Total Songs Heard: 1000

8:20 pm - Song 995:
Everything Flows by Teenage Fanclub
The Teenage Fanclub greatest hits 'cd' that this song is from is the first thing I paid to download from iTunes. Out of the 5000+ songs I have I'd say I've downloaded less than 500 of them. I love me the internet but there's still something about having the physical cd in my hand that I prefer.

8:28 pm - Song 996:
Everything Had Changed by Barenaked Ladies
Oddly enough this song was also downloaded, not through iTunes though. Not illegally either! BNL are close the forefront of the modern music age. They made their most recent cds available for purchase from their own website with no DRM bullshit. Hooray for them. Of course it probably has a lot to do with the fact that they recorded and released this record on their own. They became the fat cat record company, except they decided not to be greedy fat cats. This song is heavy on banjo. I'm getting closer to signing up for banjo lessons. It might be the most ridiculous idea ever, but if I'm ever going to be in a band I have to play something besides violin.

9:00 pm - Song 997:
Everything I Try To Do, Nothing Seems To Turn Out Right by The Decemberists
If you're wondering why I went 30 minutes between songs... I just found banjo lessons I could sign up for. This song I downloaded from another blogger. (Thanks Gena!) Here's a thing I love about the interwebs. I probably would have never heard this song if she hadn't put it on her blog. Now... I'll probably end up buying The Decemberists at some point. Tell me why that doesn't work for the music industry? (Hmmm, somehow this whole count-up is becoming a DRM related rant. Perhaps this ties directly into the title of this song, trying something new doesn't seem to be turning out quite right.)

9:22 pm - Song 998:
Everything In Its Own Time - Indigo Girls
Ugh! I think I just drank a fly! When I came in tonight after work (soaked in sweat after walking the 1.5 miles home from the train station because I was too stubborn to wait for the bus) I must have let a fly in with me. Well, I've been enjoying a cool adult beverage as I listen and type and I'm pretty sure the fly flew into the can. As I slugged down the end of the can something solid ended up in my mouth. I spit back into the can and the solid thing was moving around inside. None of this has anything to do with the Indigo Girls or this song, but I've already told my favorite Indigo Girls story.

9:51 pm - Song 999:
Everything Is - Neutral Milk Hotel
I'm fascinated by musical acts that take on a pseudonym for what is basically a one man operation. Neutral Milk Hotel = Jeff Mangum, Badly Drawn Boy = Damon Gough, Pedro the Lion (a new addition, thanks Bob) = David Bazan. I think I need a pseudonym for this blog. Please leave suggestions in the comments (and don't bother with Badly Written Boy as I've already thought of it.)

10:15 pm - Song 1000:
Everything Matters - Glen Phillips
Here we are. A mere 418 days after it started this project is 1000 songs old. Glen Phillips tells me everything matters, so I'm going to take this moment to be happy with the fact that it's gotten this far. As I've mentioned before, as much as anything else this whole thing is simply an exercise in doing it. As the old saying goes... the first 1000 is the hardest, and we're there.

It should be cake from here on out.

More stats on the first 1000 and another set of songs for your downloading pleasure coming in the next few days.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

from Dutch Wonderland to Earthquakes

Day 218, Session 78:
When/Where: Friday January 26th - In the air between Chicago and Nashville.
First song: Dutch Wonderland by Josh Joplin
Last full song: Earthquakes by Moxy Fruvous
Progress: 1053-1059 of 4791
Total Songs Heard: 906

Busy day here. Rolled the song count over from 899 to 900 (Dutch Wonderland by Josh Joplin) and moved the alphabet from D(ysfunctionally Yours by Wally Pleasant) to E(arly Morning Rain by Gordon Lightfoot). All this while listening outside of my normal train/work based comfort zone (flying down to Nashville for a weekend of drinking/hockey/video games/trivia/drinking.)

Since we've run off another 100 songs, it's time to do the math:

906 songs in 218 days = 4.16 songs per day
4791-1059 = 3732 tracks to go
Of 1059 tracks so far, 153 (1059-906) have been
skipped/podcasts/added later/whatever = 14.4% skipped
3732-(3732*14.4%) = approximately 3195 songs to go accounting for skipped tracks
3195 songs/4.16 songs a day = 768 days to go (2.1 years)
Estimated time of project completion = March 2009

Well, that's still slower than I'd like to be. At this point reaching my goal of getting through this entire project by the end of 2007 seems to be a bit of the pipe dream. (Especially considering I haven't made any progress outside of writing these catch up posts for almost 4 months now.)

Dutch Wonderland was actually a place I visited several times during my childhood. Man did I love Holland. Kidding! Dutch Wonderland had nothing at all to do with Holland. Anyone who grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania will tell you that Dutch Wonderland was named that way because it is in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country and that the Pennsylvania Dutch were actually from Germany not The Netherlands. Dutch was a mispronunciation of Deutsch which managed to stick through the years.

Anywho, Dutch Wonderland is an amusement park for kids. But aren't all amusement parks for kids? Well yes, but this place is basically full of rides for people 4'6" and under. There are no looping roller coasters. There is a ride called the Lady Gay River Boat Cruise. (I can't decide if that is open minded or oblivious.) Many of the shows are described as edutainment. They don't serve beer. Yes I realize that sounds kind of lame now, but when I was a kid I absolutely loved it.

My family used to go there at least once a summer. I specifically remember one trip where we loaded the family plus a few more (Mike, I'm pretty sure you were there) into the blue Chevy station wagon (it was exciting because we sat in the back (this was in the days before seat belts)) and we rode the log flume about 20 times. Even when we took my little sister there (she's 7 years younger) I still enjoyed it. I'm pleased to report that Dutch Wonderland is still around so if I should ever have kids, I will take them there (and also to Sesame Place.)

The funny thing about Dutch Wonderland the song (which I love) is that it's a melancholy look back on all the innocence Dutch Wonderland the amusement park represents. I should probably focus on that but, well,
how hard is it to decide to be in a good mood and be in a good mood once in a while?

Dutch Wonderland - Josh Joplin

Thursday, April 12, 2007

from Diamonds to Disseminated

Day 190, Session 67:
When/Where: Friday December 29th - Lounging poolside in Miami at high noon.
First song: Diamonds On The Souls Of Her Shoes by Paul Simon
Last full song: Disseminated by Soul Coughing
Progress: 914-942 of 4785 (2 podcasts skipped)
Total Songs Heard: 801

800! Song 800 was Disillusion by Badly Drawn Boy. With another 100 songs past, it's time to do the math.

801 songs in 190 days = 4.22 songs per day
4785-942 = 3843 tracks to go
Of 942 tracks so far, 141 (942-801) have been
skipped/podcasts/added later/whatever = 15% skipped
3843-(3843*15%) = approximately 3267 tracks to go accounting for skipped tracks
3267 tracks/4.22 songs a day = 774 days to go (2.1 years)
Estimated time of project completion = February 2009

Excellent! I've picked up 1 month between songs 700 and 800. {Spoiler Alert - That's not going to last!} I was listening to these songs while taking a few days between Christmas and New Years to hang out with my family in Miami. The Wife, my Mom and sisters were all having a "spa day" which left my Dad and I to fend for ourselves. We dealt with the situation the best way we knew how. We hung out by the pool (but didn't actually get in) and drank.

There are a lot of beautiful people in Miami. Needless to say, I didn't really fit in all that well. Something about not having any outfits where each piece cost more than a car payment. It was ok though. I had everything I really needed: a good pair of sunglasses ($15 from CVS) so that I could look at the beautiful people without being obviously about it and a bar at the ready.

In honor of all the beautiful people in Miami, I present one beautiful pop song. Did I Say by Teenage Fanclub is all harmonies and awesome. This video doesn't quite do justice to the goodness of the song (the sound is a little muddled) but I think it conveys the general idea of how great the song is. I was going to link the actual song for you all (that's right, all 5 of you) to enjoy, but alas, I downloaded it from iTunes, and those guys hate sharing (unless you're willing to pay an extra 30 cents a song.)

Trust me, it sounds even better in your headphones by the pool with the Atlantic Ocean just over there.


Thursday, February 22, 2007

Wednesday December 6th - Morning

Day 167, Session 59:
Location: Quickest train ride to work ever. Ever being at least the last 3 months.
First song: Cupid De Locke by Smashing Pumpkins
Last full song: D'yer Mak'er by Sheryl Crow
Progress: 798-806 of 4630
Total Songs Heard: 700

Look at that, a double milestone. In the same song I move from C's (Cut to the Chase by Rush) to the D's (D'yer Mak'er by Sheryl Crow) and hit song 700.

So... time for some stats:
700 tracks in 167 days = 4.2 songs a day.
4630-806 = 3824 tracks to go
Of 806 tracks so far, 106 have been skipped/podcasts/added later/whatever = 13.1% skipped
3824-(3824*13.1%) = approximately 3323 tracks to go accounting for skipped tracks
3323 tracks/4.2 songs a day = 792 days to go (2.16 years)
Estimated time of project completion = March 2009

Ok then. That's a long time. Perhaps I need to make some of these posts shorter so I can post more often.

For example, here's a shorter post. Custard Pie (Helmet w/David Yow)? I like it as a dessert and hated it as a song. Deleted.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Tuesday November 21st - Evening

Day 152, Session 53:
Location: At the end of the train.
First song: Come Monday by Jimmy Buffett
Last full song: Comfort and Joy by Simon and Garfunkel
Progress: 659-668 of 4446
Total Songs Heard: 616

Oops. Miscounted last time and totally missed the fact that 600 songs had been passed. Song 600 was Colleen Campbell, another in the long and impressive line of Fruvous fan songs.

Jimmy Buffett is an interesting case. The wife and I went with some friends to a Buffett concert at Wrigley 2 summers ago. It was a crazy day. Ten of thousands of people drunk off their asses for the better part of a day. Everyone wearing Hawaiian shirts. People singing along to every song. It was everything that's great about Buffett (community spirit, enthusiastic crowd, fun songs) and everything not as great about Buffett (too many amateurs drinking, hard to hear music over crowd, songs that all kind of start to sound the same) all rolled into one. Then I heard this story from Slate.com and I came to appreciate the whole Buffett phenomenon a little better.

That's what makes Come Monday such a strange case.
It's not another song about some sort of tropical fantasy. It's a simple ballad about a guy who misses his woman during weekends away doing shows. Back when I used to make mix tapes this song ended up on one I listened to a lot after college when driving back and forth the 2 hours between Dayton and where The Wife was living at the time. We saw each other some weekends and then spent weeks apart. It was a strange time in the relationship, often we weren't sure exactly when we'd see each other next, but we made it through. Whenever I heard the song during one of those lonely rides home I would replace the word Monday with "some indeterminate weekend that hopefully will be sooner rather than later." It really didn't fit very well into the rhythm of the song.

It's not my favorite Buffett song, but it's up there. Of course when he performed it at the show, I sang (the right words) drunkenly along with the rest of the Parrotheads... as the wife elbowed me for singing too loud at a concert.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Friday October 20th - Into the evening

Day 120, Session 45:
Location: Going home on the train, then driving around looking for pants
First song: Captain Jack by Billy Joel
Last full song: Catching on Fire by They Might Be Giants
Progress: 580-596 of 4500
Total Songs Heard: 514

Hooray! Song 500! 500 songs in 120 days. That puts me right around 4 songs per day, with approximately 4000 songs to listen to... 1000 days. So I've cut the overall project time to just under 3 years. 400 to 500 only took 18 days (or just over 5 songs a day) if I can keep that pace up this should take even less time. I suppose my goal is to actually have this whole thing wrapped up during 2007. So I'll have to push the pace a little more.

Unfortunately, coming soon there will be another decided downturn in song listening productivity. (You might be wondering how I could possibly be less productive when I'm 30+ days behind in my writing at this point.) I'm currently appearing in a play here in Chicago. It's my first actual theater gig in 8 years and I was incredibly nervous about it. The thing is, I'm not very good at remembering lines. That's one of the reasons I ended up in improv. I still get to be a goof on stage occasionally, but no one is depending on me to remember exactly what to say and do every time. Well October 20th is right around when we started rehearsing the show. Once rehearsals really started in earnest and I was supposed to be learning my lines, I put this project aside for a few weeks and concentrated almost exclusively on the show. The good news is twofold. One, since I am 30+ days behind, I still have plenty of music to write about. Two, all the hard work on the lines paid off. The show is going very very well. If you're here in Chicago or will be in the next two weeks, I encourage you to come see it. For more information on the show you can either visit the Rogue Theater website or click the link over on the right there for my other blog where I've done some more writing about it.

As for song number 500, it was Caramia by the Indigo Girls. I've seen the Indigo Girls in concert once. I went with The Wife and her roommates summer after junior year of college. At the time The Wife was not even the girlfriend, she was just the girl I had a crush on. The thing that made it weird was one of The Wife's roommates had just recently stopped being my girlfriend. Well, if you want to get technical about it, I don't think we ever passed the "just dating" phase into the "going out" phase, so I'm not even sure you could call her my ex-girlfriend, but she sure seemed to think of me as her ex-boyfriend.

While at the concert I was flirting a little with The Wife, much to the annoyance of the roommate. In a drunken "argument" later that evening the roommate accused the wife and I of having sex right there in front of everyone on the blanket in the middle of the concert. I tried explaining that I didn't think that maybe touching someone's leg exactly counted as having sex but the roommate would have none of it! (This is why we never passed beyond "just dating." She was CRAZY!) The good thing was, this gave the wife and I a little joke to share and actually brought us closer together.

Eventually The Wife and I did have sex (but certainly not until after we were married. Hi Mom!) Every time I hear a song by the Indigo Girls I think about the first time we allegedly had sex... right there on the blanket we were sharing with 5 other people... in the middle of a crowd of 2000... probably while Galileo was playing.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Wednesday October 18th

Day 118, Session 40:
Location: Heading to work. Tired.
First song: Bullet from a Gun by Universal Honey
Last full song: By Starlight by Smashing Pumpkins
Progress: 529-538 of 4483
Total Songs Heard: 459

Hooray, the Bs are dead! 63 days after they started. 63 days for 211 songs. I hope all the rest of the letters don't have 211 songs. Ugh. 63 days... when the Bs started it was still August, still warm, still light out after 4:30. That seems like a million years ago now. I'm not usually effected by seasonal change, but it sure seems dark out a lot right now. Probably has something to do with all the rain. It's overcast when I leave the house in the morning and completely dark when I come home.

Appropriately enough, By Starlight by Smashing Pumpkins was the last of the Bs.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Monday October 2nd - Evening

Day 102, Session 33:
Location: Once again leaving work after 6 what the fuck? Riding the train home.
First song: Body by The Presidents of the United States of America
Last full song: Books Are Burning by XTC
Progress: 464-475 of 4424
Total Songs Heard: 402

400!

Boo Time by Moxy Fruvous was song number 400. After taking 50 days to get from song 200 to 300, it only took 18 days to get from 300 to 400. That is a much better pace. For more numerical breakdown, please see the previous post.

One of my favorite things when buying a new cd is finding out that there is bonus music included. It's one of the things that just doesn't translate as well when downloading music over the intranets. When you're downloading music you see every track that being sent your way. But when you buy a cd, there's always a chance that the first time you listen to it, you'll be completely surprised by a song that does not appear on the track listings. (Obviously this doesn't apply if the first time you listen to a cd, you're using your computer to listen to it. Seriously, try your new cd in a stereo first,
or better yet, listen to it in the car on the way home. Either way, quit ruining the surprise!)

I was a little disappointed that there turned out to be only 3 different songs in my library titled Bonus Track. Although I guess most musicians name every song, that way, if they release more than one cd with a bonus track, they'll know which song to play in concert. If the set list just said Bonus Track it could lead to total musical anarchy if everyone in the band started playing a different song (although I also think this would be kind of cool.)

Here's the three Bonus Tracks I heard:

by the Bogmen - The Bogmen were great because I think I was the only one in my group of friends who liked them at all. "Life Begins At 40 Million" was in heavy rotation in my person collection in 1996. I saw them open for Barenaked Ladies in Cincinnati in spring 1996. We got there kind of late, so all I really remember was seeing their lead singer spinning around and around and around during the last song of their set. For some reason, that was enough reason for me to take a chance on their cd. Bonus Track seems to fit exactly what a bonus track should be, a 51-second instrumental that sounds like an outtake pulled from the studio recordings. It would have been kind of pointless to include as its own track because it doesn't fit into the rest of the cd. But I think the band realized how much fun the track was and wanted to let fans in on it too.

by Jackopierce - There are 2 or 3 Jackopierce songs I like. This isn't really one of them.

by Wally Pleasant - Could have been titled Sunday Morning. Just guitar, banjo and Wally singing about that feeling you have on Sunday morning when you wake up and realize that for a few more hours you can take a step back from the world. It's true too... for those few minutes on Sunday morning responsibility is nil. Your #1 option is
to just stay in bed. A few hours earlier and you're trying to live up the freedom of Saturday night. A few hours later, you're perilously close to Monday and having to start all that shit again. But Sunday morning, you can just lay there not worry about anything for a little while.

Man, I really want to go back to bed.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Monday October 2nd - Morning

Day 102, Session 32:
Location: From my front door to the train to the desk through hour one of the work week.
First song: Bleed To Love Her by Fleetwood Mac
Last full song: Body by Bush
Progress: 442-463 of 4424
Total Songs Heard: 390

To mark the first 100 (and 2) days, it's time for a statistical breakdown:

Number of songs I've counted myself: 390****
Number of songs iTunes says I've listened to: 396*
Average number of songs heard per day: 3.9
Listening sessions: 32
Average number of songs per session: 12.1
Number of files** on the iPod on day 1: 3925
Number of files on the iPod now: 4424
Number of files added in the last 100 days: 499
Average number of files added per day: 4.99
Average progress per day: -1.09 files***
Estimated completion time: Never if I'm adding music at a faster rate then I'm listening!

*I'm going to stick with my count, because going back to figure out where I made counting mistakes is too much trouble.
** "Files" on the iPod represents everything, songs, podcasts, videos, whatever else they count. I'm hoping I have not added more than 389 songs.
***This rate doesn't really alarm me, I don't think I've added that many songs. Plus these first 100 days were plagued with long listening delays (moving and laziness mostly.) I think over the next few weeks we'll see tracks per day increase greatly.
****I realized just now (the day after this was originally posted) that my math was off just between this post and the last one. Once upon a time I was good at math.

Most commonly heard artists:
Moxy Fruvous - 23
Barenaked Ladies - 18
Simon & Garfunkel - 16
They Might Be Giants - 13
Badly Drawn Boy - 12
Ben Folds Five - 11
Ben Folds - 9
Rufus Wainwright - 8
Sufjan Stevens - 8
Toad the Wet Sprocket - 8
The Jayhawks - 7

The only one on this list the least bit surprising was Simon & Garfunkel.

About today's songs: Bleed to Love Her is from "The Dance" a live reunion concert that Fleetwood Mac put together some time in the late '90s. I really didn't care at all for Fleetwood Mac until one fateful night my senior year of college. At the time "the wife" was just "the roommate of the girl I had briefly dated that summer." In fact, she was dating someone else at the time. In the course of the summer we had grown pretty close and I had been hinting in the best possible way (broadly) that perhaps we should date instead of her and this other guy.

This particular night I had decided to go to bed early (which was 100% different than every other night in college when I partied til dawn.) About 30 minutes after I had decided to go to sleep there was a knock at my door, and who should appear but "the wife." Apparently she and the other guy had broken up earlier that evening and she was kind of upset about it. We ended up talking for a few hours until she eventually fell asleep lying next to me in bed. While she was able to sleep, I couldn't sleep at all. The adrenaline from the combination of excitement and confusion was way too much to allow me to sleep.

Early the next morning, "the wife" got up and went home to finish sleeping in her own bed. I still couldn't sleep, so I turned on the tv. The only non-church/non-infomercial thing on that morning
(it was Sunday) was VH1 showing "The Dance." I sat up through the entire hour of Fleetwood Mac and, no doubt aided by my super awesome frame of mind, greatly enjoyed the whole thing. That specific turn of events gives Fleetwood Mac a special place in my mind.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Thursday September 14th - the laziest post yet! (um, that's the next post)

Day 84, Session 24:
Location: Towards work.
First song: Beautiful People by Rusted Root
Last full song: Bed and Breakfast by Moxy Fruvous
Progress: 346-351 of 4293
Total Songs Heard: 305

[This post has been editted again because I am dumb and I can't count.]

300!

Beautiful
People by Rusted Root was song number 300. In an alarming development, it took 50 days to get from song 200 to song 300. That's only 2 songs a day. What the hell? At this rate, with about 3800 songs left, I'd be finishing the project in November of 2011.
(3800 songs/2 songs a day/365 days a year=5.2 years) Shit! Time seems to be working against me.

100!

You may be visitor 100 to this blog. If you read this post, leave a comment, then I may be able to congratulate you in a future post. Then we'll be best friends forever!

[comment redacted] - Turns I posted the bit about Beercan on the wrong day. That makes the next post really easy and this one really short.


Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Wednesday August 16th

Day 55, Session 19:
Location: Afterwork commute (notice a pattern?)
First song: Avalanche by Ryan Adams
Last full song: Baby Got Back by Jonathan Coulton
Progress: 261-270 of 3960
Total Songs Heard: 263

Hey look! It's the letter B! So, it only took 55 days to get through the letter A (and the numbers.) At that pace... I'd be looking at finishing this up... um... carry the one... June 2008. Right around the corner then.

The last song of the 'A's was Avery M. Powers Memorial Beltway by Ben Folds. Happily for all Ben Folds fans, turns out his Fear of Pop, Vol. 1, cd was just some crazy experiment. If Ben Folds had ended up giving up the Five for an entire solo career devoted to Shatner duets and crazy ass instrumentals that would have been extremely disappointing for everyone.

The first 'B' song was B.J. Don't Cry by Moxy Fruvous. This was the version from Bargainville. This will not be the last time this particular song appears, but the other versions are listed in my library as BJ Don't Cry. Apparently, the period makes a difference cause I didn't hear any of the other versions in this stretch.

Baby Got Back is an excellent folkified version of the Sir Mix-a-lot (R.I.P.) classic. It's part of Jonathan Coulton's "Thing a Week" series. He's releasing a new song every week. He's been doing so for the last 49 weeks. I highly recommend you subscribe to the "Thing a Week" podcast. More details, including free downloads of many Jonathan Coulton songs can be found here. This version of Baby Got Back is probably my favorite internet discovery of 2006.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Wednesday July 26th

Day 34, Session 14:
Location: Pretty sure this was a going home set... but I didn't write it down.
First song: Ancient Chinese Secret Blues by Clem Snide
Last full song: Anna Begins by Counting Crows
Progress: 194-205 of 3937
Total Songs Heard: 209

Tune 200 was Angel by Sarah McLachlan. I don't feel nearly the same sense of shame in Sarah McLachlan that I did with Jewel.

199 was And So It Goes, my favorite song from the Billy Joel cd Storm Front. That whole cd (which I owned on tape at the time) is associated with a very specific 2 week period in 8th grade.

The weather had just turned for the better and all the good parts of spring had come. I had just finished what I believed at the time to be my final appearence on stage "starring" in the 8th grade play. I wasn't really the star, but had the largest part they would allow to the kids that didn't sing real well. From that play I had unexpectedly acquired myself a "girlfriend." I had no idea what I was doing with a girlfriend... all I knew was that we had danced together at the last cast party and in 8th grade, that's all it took for you to become an item.

And every time I've held a rose, it seems I only felt the thorns.
And so it goes and so it goes.... and so will you soon I suppose.

For some reason this development confused the heck out of me; so I did what any confused 8th grader would do in that situation: I took my new Billy Joel cd, put it in my walkman and took several 2-3 hour bike rides. This would have been fine if it weren't for the fact that my family had a pretty standard dinner time, and these bike rides took me right through it. This left my parents none too pleased. The parents displeasure ended with me grounded for two weeks (after the 2nd missed dinner in a row.) The two weeks of grounding marked the end of my "relationship" with the girl. The end of the relationship left me... relieved.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Monday - The Rest of the Day

Day 4, Session 3:
Location: At work and then on the way home from a long terrible Monday.
First song: 1000 Hours by Green Day
Last full song: Abandoning the Set List by Moxy Fruvous
Progress: 33-84 of 3962

We've finally reached the alphabet! The first song that starts with a letter? A Boozehound Named Barney from one of The Simpsons soundtracks.

Can I be a boozehound?
Not 'til you're fifteen.
I ran through all the songs that had years for titles. Here are my thoughts on those years:

1974 by Ryan Adams - I wasn't born yet. My parents weren't even married yet. The Flyers won the first of their two Stanley Cups though, so 1974 must have been a good year.
1979 by Smashing Pumpkins - I went to nursery school. Perhaps my oldest memory of all involves nursery school. We were sitting in the upstairs classroom passing the hilarious joke of the day back and forth. The joke? "Guess what?" "That's what!" It passed for hilarity back in the day.
83 by John Mayer - My younger sister was born in 1983. Technically both of my sisters are younger... so I guess my youngest sister was born 1983. This is also the last year a Philadelphia team won a title. We've reached the point where no one in my family believes this a coincidence anymore.
1989 by Clem Snide - My first "girlfriend" "broke up" with me in 1989. The quotes are there for a reason.

The other favorite note from this set of songs, the song A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way In Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis In the Great Godfrey Maze by Sufjan Stevens is only 19 seconds long. The title is so long and the song so short, that there is not time for the full title to scroll across the ipod screen.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Just for the record

Not that anyone should find this, but in case you do, bear with me at the beginning here. I haven't planned out a regular format or anything. But I need to keep up with things for record keeping purposes.

Day 1, Session 1:
Location: On the train on the way home from work.
First song: 'cello Song by Nick Drake, this is the first song alphabetically on my ipod. In case you're wondering, the apostrophe is the first "letter". We haven't gotten to A yet.
Last full song: #36 by Dave Matthews Band
Progress: 1-21 of 3925