from Dreams to Drown

Day 215, Session 76:
When/Where: Tuesday January 23rd - On the way home.
First song: Dreams by Fleetwood Mac
Last full song: Drown by Son Volt
Progress: 1032-1043 of 4814
Total Songs Heard: 889

Drive Mix is another dance routine song clip. Thank goodness it came up immediately after the last entry. I'd hate to be able to shake the creepy old man feeling any time soon.

Drinking With You is more from Jonathan Coulton. The song tells the tale of a guy with an office crush which is probably reciprocated but unspoken, think Pam/Jim from The Office (or Tim*/Dawn if you're Brit-inclined.)

Jonathan Coulton - Drinking With You

I've only tried to actually ask a girl from the office out for a drink once. I was temping in the customer service department of a credit card company. She was a temp who started a month after me. Since it was my second year at the same place, I was obviously qualified enough to train new hires and I trained her. (And it's killing me right now that I can't remember her name.)

The training went well. It was flirty and fun while still conveying the necessary information. We started eating lunch together in the cafeteria. I found out that she was the son of a preacher man. She found out that I was a little bit crazy. I thought things were going so well that I got it in my head to ask this girl out to eat after work. (Neither us were legally old enough to drink.) The week before I left to go back to school, as we were leaving the office (her name was Sarah, whew I feel better) I asked her out. She immediately, and I mean before I was even finished the asking the question immediately, said no. Apparently the feelings were not as reciprocal as I imagined.

The funny thing is, we then proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes standing by her car chatting. By this time I was very hungry; so I told her I was going to get some food and she was still welcome to come along. This time she said yes.

We had a good time at dinner. She talked about how she often drove through Dayton when going to visit a friend in Cinci. I invited her to stop by and visit some time. She said that sounded like fun.

Two days later I left the job for the summer but not before making sure she had all my contact info so we could hang out before I went back to school.

If you know me at all, then you've already figured out that I never heard from her again.

I'd like to think things will turn out better with Pam and Jim. (But if they don't… Pam, call me.)

*Originally posted as Martin/Dawn. In the British version of The Office, Tim was played by Martin Freeman.

Wednesday November 22 - Morning

Day 153, Session 54:
Location: On a train more crowded than usual with holiday travelers, heading towards work.
First song: Comfort Eagle by Cake
Last full song: Concerto No. 1 in E Major "Spring" Allegro (Dabza Pastorale) by Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra*
Progress: 669-686 of 4446
Total Songs Heard: 633

Skipped one NPR Sunday Puzzle podcast. The wife and I like to listen to those together, since she wasn't on the train with me I didn't listen to it.

Started in on some Vivaldi's "Four Seasons." Back in the day when not everyone had the opportunity to get themselves heard on the internet any time they wanted (thanks blogger!) I used to try to take part in a lot of chats on espn.com. I always tried to ask completely different non-sports questions, cause, you know, I thought that'd be a "cool" way to set myself apart and increase the chances of my name appearing in the chat. My favorite answer to one of my questions came from ESPN's John Buccigross. I asked who he preferred Tchaikovsky or Vivaldi? The answer... Vivaldi, because he really liked the "Four Seasons:" football, baseball, hockey and basketball. I thought that was a pretty good answer.

In the middle of one of the classical tunes I swear I heard someone cough during the recording. I found this hilarious! If I can manage to extract it from the song I'll post it later. Imagine all that hard work to capture the sound of an entire orchestra... and then someone coughs! (Ok, maybe only I find it funny.)

*Oops... and boo for me! For about 12 hours this song was credited to Simon and Garfunkel. And, super fantastic double boo, for the last 5 days I've been crediting Tchaikovsky with writing "The Four Seasons." Yeah, it wasn't. It was Vivaldi. Sweet jeebus I've gotten dumb recently. (Although I was still speeling Tchaikovsky correct from memory.)

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 September 14th - evening

Day 84, Session 25:
Location: Away from work, towards rehearsal.
First song: Bedside Story by Badly Drawn Boy
Last full song: Believe In Love by Scorpions
Progress: 352-359 of 4293
Total Songs Heard: 313

Hmmmm, just realized I didn't actually hear Beercan until this session. So here's what I wrote yesterday (making this the new laziest post ever!):

As previously mentioned, Joey and I had a radio show back in college. One of our favorite songs to play was Beercan by Beck. I could go into a long winded discussion of why this song was so great, but instead, I'll simply post the lyrics. Sure it's lazy, but this was poetry, no need to muck it up with my words:

Alcohol on my hands
I got plans to ditch myself and get outside
Dancing women throwing plates
Decapitating their laughing dates
Swirling chickens caught in flight
Out of focus and much too bright
Coming down, shiny teeth
Game show suckers trying to breathe
But I got a drug and I got the bug
and I got something better than love

How you like me now?
Pretty good
Going on, feeling strong

I quit my job blowing leaves
Telephone bills up my sleeves
Choking like a one man dustball
Freedom rock slimeball talking in code
We went down, lit up the shack
Grabbed me a beer out of the sack
Everybody bent over twice
Painting the walls, throwing some dice
Leaping up into the air getting juiced up beyond belief

And they were singin' like this!

Winos throwing Frisbees at the sun
Burnt my soul between the bun
Now I'm wounded, now I'm drunk
Now I'm runnin' like a flaming pig

Oh yeah, scraping off the attitude
Old man eating all my food
Don't be kind, don't be rude
Just shake your boots and let it all get loose

Oh yeah, my goodness

Fluffy clouds
Lovely rainbows
I'm sad, a soft and snugly place
Fluffy clouds
I'm sad and unhappy… yppahnu dna das

Winos throwing Frisbees at the sun
Burnt my soul between the bun
Now I'm wounded, now I'm drunk
Now I'm runnin' like a flaming pig

Oh yeah, scraping off the attitude
Old man eating all my food
Don't be kind, don't be rude
Just shake your boots and let it all get loose

Oh yeah, I like it like that
Oh that is cold
Somebody put a flamethrower on thee
Uh-huh, oh my goodness!
Take me down to the depot
Somebody put me down on the bus
Oh yeah, I like it like that
Somebody burn me a plate of sassafras
Oh yeah…

Oh yeah indeed.

Eventually I'll figure out what it all means.

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.