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 Into The Woods to Introitus

Day 931, Session 152:
When/Where: Tuesday January 13th - Basement, kitchen, living room. (aka laundry, dishes, pick-up)
First song: Into The Woods by My Morning Jacket
Last full song: Introitus by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Progress: 2686-2700 of 6741
Total Songs Heard: 1979

Mozart totally had it right, definitely suffering form "Intro"-itus today. 11 of the 15 tunes were either "Intro"s or "Introductions" and that's not counting Mozart's Introitus which probably is just Latin for Intro. What flashed through my head while listening to 11 different intros?

1. Dave Matthew's fans are insane. They screamed and cheered through the entire 6:25 Intro to their Listener Supported concert cd. I will admit that I am not intimately familiar with Dave Matthew's concerts (although I have been to a few) and it is possible that the band was actually playing a song during Intro, but to me, it just sounded like the band was warming up on stage, and the crowd was eating it up.

2. I still don't understand why rap cds feel the need to include "skits" in with all the music. De La Soul failed twice, on "3 Feet High and Rising" and "De La Soul Is Dead," by starting the cd with lame skits. In fact, if I hadn't recently changed iPods, I wouldn't even have heard the skits. I removed them all from tracks that went on the old iPod. The old iPod was completely full so many things had to be cut. The new iPod is 5 times bigger, so everything goes on.

3. There's no reason to have an Intro track, even for a live concert, last longer than 1 minute. I understand the desire to give us a full concert experience, but if you're taking over a minute between when you're brought to the stage and when you start your first song, you need to seriously examine your performance style.

4. When I was in 2nd grade, there was a new girl. She wasn't in my 2nd grade class, Ms. Sullivan's, but in Mrs. Kintzel's class at the other end of the hall. She was kind of cute. My intro to her went something like this:

[Setting: School Cafeteria]
Me: [Walking up to her in the drink line] Hi Brooke. Is that like Brooke Shields?
Her: [Immediately kicks me directly in the shins, then turns and walks away.]
Me: Ouch!

That's it. That's all I remember about the girl. The whole thing took less than a minute, just like any good intro should.

from I'm So Happy to I've Changed

Day 778, Session 133:
When/Where: Wednesday August 6th - Out for a jog up and down the street.
First song: I'm So Happy by The Interiors
Last full song: I've Changed (alternate version) by Josh Joplin Group
Progress: 2045-2062 of 6018
Total Songs Heard: 1686

The summer after 7th grade my parents sent me on my one and only trip to summer camp. It was 2 weeks in the Poconos with my friend Pete and an international house of pancakes of cabin mates. Besides me and Pete, there was a French guy named Chuck (whose real name it turned out was Florian,) a German guy named Janko (who enjoyed eating ketchup sandwiches for every meal of the day,) a counselor from New Zealand named Darren who pronounced the word aluminum ah-loo-min-ee-um (which eventually caused me to almost punch my 8th grade science teacher in the face,) and a Chinese guy named Ben (who didn't say more than 10 words the whole 2 weeks I was there (we got along great btw.)) There were also 3 other American kids in the bunk, but one of them was a big dumb lunk who wasn't exactly skilled at English either.

Communication was difficult sometimes. Luckily we all spoke the language of Anthrax. Yep, Anthrax. I'm The Man is only Anthrax song I have in my collection. Actually, it's the only Anthrax song I've ever heard. It's a pretty stupid song actually, but it really spoke to the mismatched band of teenagers in the Arapahoe bunk. Probably has something to do with the swearing and the undeniable Hava Nagila hook.

I'm The Man - Anthrax

According to Anthrax, this is also the first ever merger of rap and metal. If you're like me and generally dislike that type of music, now you know who to blame.

In other news, congrats to I've Changed by Josh Joplin (in solo, Band, and Group forms.) I've Changed now claims the title of most versions of one song with 5.

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 Goodnight Saigon to Greetings

Day 587, Session 108:
When/Where: Monday January 28th - Wandering around Dominicks, trying to figure out why there are so many varieties of balsamic vinaigrette.
First song: Goodnight Saigon by Billy Joel
Last full song: Greetings to the New Brunette by Billy Bragg
Progress: 1671-1700 of 5687
Total Songs Heard: 1361

When I was six, my family took a trip across country in an RV. It was a truly incredible trip. I saw a lot of the country that, if it weren't for the trip, I know I still wouldn't have seen today. (Somehow I don't think any trips to Cody, Wyoming would have been taken by this point.) I don't remember much about the long hours spent in that camper, but I do remember listening to an extraordinary amount of country music. Which is strange because I don't really come from a country music family. Growing up the radio was generally set to the local adult contemporary stations (Magic 103 and Sunny 104.5 for those Philly folks who can remember back that far.) But I guess my parents thought country music was better traveling music. So I heard a lot of Kenny Rogers, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and most of all, John Denver.

Without a doubt, my favorite John Denver song back in the day was Grandma's Feather Bed. As I was listening to it today (twice actually, there was also a live version) I realized once again, that as much as I love the song, I still have no idea what several lines in the refrain are.

I know the first two lines:

It was 9 feet high and 6 feet wide
Soft as a downy chick.

And then things start getting hazy:

It was made from the feathers of (fort eleven?) geese.

WTF are Fort Eleven geese? A specific breed secretly grown by the military for their extra soft feathers? Hey, at least I knew were were talking about geese, next line I'm completely lost:

Took a whole ford a paws for a tick(?!?)

What in god's name is a ford of paws? And isn't it bad if the bed has ticks? Really, I have absolutely no idea what that line is. I went back and listened to it 20 times, but still, nothin'. Still, I have reasonably clear memories of singing along at the top of my lungs whenever this song would come on during the trip. But what on earth was I singing?

And yes, I realize through this magical series of tubes that I could use the google and find out exactly what that line is, but I think I like it better not knowing. What do you hear?

Grandma's Feather Bed - John Denver

Postscript to the country music in the camper... eventually the tape deck ate the John Denver tape and we had to spend the last part of the trip (Yosemite back to Philly) listening to whatever was on the radio. Not surprisingly, it was mostly country.

This day also brought two Früvous songs that I do happen to know all the words to. Gord's Gold is from the "B" cd. It is my favorite one minute song ever. I kept hoping that eventually an entire full length version of the song was going to come out, but alas it was not to be. The song is a tribute to Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot, if you're not familiar with him, the song probably won't mean much, but if you know him, you'll recognize the song is spot on.

The other song is a 'rare' Früvous track that, to my knowledge, isn't included on any of their cds. It was originally released on their indie cassette in Canada (damn, another time the canucks get over on me!) but never included on any commercially released cds (probably due to the fact that the good Dr. Seuss didn't sign off on it.) I saw the guys in concert 10 times and only saw this song done once (Ludlow's in Cbus.)

Gord's Gold - Moxy Früvous
Green Eggs and Ham - Moxy Früvous

Finally, this made me laugh out loud in the middle of the snack aisle. (Doritos' Hot Wings & Blue Cheese Collision, hooray!) If you don't already subscribe to The Onion Radio News podcast, you really should.

Greenpeace Releases Dolphins - The Onion

from Fun & Games to Get It Together

Day 546, Session 103:
When/Where: Tuesday December 18th - Running some Christmas related chores around the 'hood.
First song: Fun & Games by Barenaked Ladies
Last full song: Get It Together by Jackopierce
Progress: 1521-1546 of 5594
Total Songs Heard: 1234

First things first... let us all acknowledge the move from 'F' (last song: Future That Was) to 'G' (first song: G.O.D. which in this case stands for Good Old Days, but had an entirely different meaning in college when it was the wife's (then, the girlfriend's) BOX pledge name; and no, I'm not going to tell you what it stands for.)

Seems like I was in the 'F's forever. 193 songs isn't forever I guess, but considering it was still summer when the 'F's started and it was 3 days before winter when they ended, it certainly makes sense why it would seem that way. (Also, I still had a job when the 'F's started. In fact, the move that would eventually end with my quitting had just taken place.)

26 songs (most songs in a while) today but no giant I-have-to-write-about-this standout. Here's a Christmas sampler of music for your listening pleasure (no songs are Christmas related:)

Fun & Games - Barenaked Ladies
Is this a political protest song? Me thinks it is. I think this is one of the benefits BNL saw from releasing their Barenaked Ladies Are... cds on their own label. As much as I enjoy hearing a song about the complete boondoggle of a war we're totally stuck in right now, I can't imagine a major label would have given the ok to include such a song on a cd. The war in Iraq is another one of those things that I'm just not going to talk about here. But if you know how I feel about the completely corrupt and idiotic government that led us into this position, I think you can figure out how I feel about Iraq.

Fur Elise - Ludwig Van Beethoven
I taught myself how to play the main right hand part of this song. Unfortunately, I'm left hand stupid on the piano. I just don't understand chords. (I actually have the same problem with the guitar, which is why I continue to hesitate on signing up for banjo lessons.) Little known fact about me: I do everything right-handed except swing a baseball bat. Yep, I bat left-handed. Littler known fact: The only time I was able to hit 10 straight home runs in Wii Sports baseball, I did it hitting right-handed. Moral of the story, if I had switched to batting right-handed when I was a little kid, I probably would have been named in the Mitchell report last week.

Furry Old Lobster - Jonathan Coulton
This song is even more enjoyable if you have read John Hodgman's book. Oddly enough, after the song was released, an actual furry lobster was discovered. It's not the same lobster.

Gaelic Song - The Arrogant Worms
And the winner for best use of both strings and bits of the meow mix song goes to... this song. I'm sure if I spoke a Gaelic tongue this song would be even more moving.

Generator - Foo Fighters
This blogject very rarely rocks, so I thought it was important to point out a time when it does.

Get Back - The Beatles
When I was kid, I thought the first line of this song was, "Jojo was a man who thought he was a woman." This was in the days before I had heard of transvestites, so I thought this about the funniest opening line to a song ever. A man who thought he was a woman? That's just the sort of thing that will blow a 6 year-old's mind. Combine that with the later line (this one is real,)

Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman
But she was another man

and I can honestly say that I didn't get this song at all, but I knew it was funny. Come to think of it, I still don't know what this song is about... except that it is not about trannies.

Get In The Car - Moxy Früvous
This one is a live recording from Canal Street Tavern in Dayton. I love every time I come across a track from that show, just wanted to share the love.

So that's about it. It's possible that this will be the last entry for a while (and yes, I'm happy to have ended up on song 1234.) The Wife and I head back to the family compounds for the holidays this weekend and I'm never sure if the computers back there are fully functional.

Merry Christmas to you and yours. Have a safe and happy new year. Thanks for your continued visits. See you again soon.

from Every Moment to Everybody Ready

Day 410, Session 84:
When/Where: Monday August 6th - On the train from work to home.
First song: Every Moment by Clem Snide
Last full song: Everybody Ready by Action Figure Party
Progress: 1173-1185 of 5185
Total Songs Heard: 985

Dear Poison,

While working on a project recently to listen to every song on my iPod, I came across your song Every Rose Has Its Thorn. This song brought back many fond memories of 1988 (ah, 7th grade... did I really call Mr. Ritts (the history teacher) a nazi in the middle of Mr. Batts' English class? Yes. Yes I did.) as well as memories of just about every night of karaoke I've ended up attending since. However, I feel it is my duty (19 years later!?! YIKES!) to inform you of a several very basic issues with some of the main points of your song:

Every rose has its thorn

Actually, if you check here, you'll see that there are several types of roses that don't have any thorns at all. While it is true that at one point every rose did have thorns to protect itself from potential predators (can plants have predators?) through the knowledge of hybrid and selective breeding it is now quite possible to grow a thornless rose. I suppose it's possible that the selective breeding/hybridization process had not yet perfected the thornless rose in 1988, so I'm willing to overlook this error.

Just like every night has its dawn

I'm assuming here that you're using the term "night" to mean the portion of the day that most people use for sleeping and not just any period of darkness. Of course we all know that astronomical polar night (the period that no trace of light can be seen anywhere) occurs for up to 179 days a year at latitudes above 84° 33′, which is exactly 18 degrees within the polar circle, or five and a half degrees from the pole. So in those areas the "night" doesn't necessarily have a dawn. Now perhaps you'll counter with the argument that there are no permanent human settlements at such latitudes. You'd be correct, but there are scientific stations in Antarctica that fall within this area. For those poor scientists, there are quite a few nights without dawns. (Also there are frequent run-ins with alien monsters. Mike, feel free to back me up on this.)

Just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song

While I don't have proof that every cowboy doesn't sing a sad sad song. I would assume that only sad cowboys sing sad songs and yet if you google the phrases "happy cowboy" vs. "sad cowboy" you'll find that "happy cowboy" wins 14,300 to 556. There's no way that every one of the 13744 extra happy cowboys sing "sad, sad" songs. (One sad maybe, but not "sad, sad.")

So while I know it was your biggest hit, I find myself now unable to appreciate the song as much now that I know how untrue it is. I look forward to the corrected version on your soon to be released Poison:Revisited cd.

Sincerely,
Matt DiMarco
12-years old in 1988

p.s. What the hell is up with Bret? That dude is creepy now. The very concept of "Rock of Love" is horrifying.

On a completely different note, this set also brought me Everybody Hurts. Now there's a song that maintains the emotional wallop from the first time I heard it. As soon as I hear the first notes of that song I'm brought back to those weird days during the first weeks of college (when I really started listening to that cd) when I hadn't really found my stride and was trying to convince myself that I hadn't made some horrible mistake.

And finally -

Welcome to the 1000th visitor! If you're wondering if it's you, it probably is.

from Don't Fade to Don't Know What You've Got

Day 209, Session 70:
When/Where: Wednesday January 17th - Heading from home to the office.
First song: Don't Fade by Toad the Wet Sprocket
Last full song: Don't Know What You Got by Cinderella
Progress: 980-987 of 4802
Total Songs Heard: 837

8 more tracks telling me things I should not do:

Fade - When I ran track in 8th grade they put me in the distance events, where my lack of speed in the sprints was well hidden by my lack of endurance. I would routinely begin to fade with about a lap and a half to go.

Forget to breathe - This has, luckily, never been a problem. When I was younger I would often marvel at the things your body will unconsciously do for you. I would sometimes sit and think about how difficult it would be to live if you had to think "breathe" every time you wanted to draw a breath or "beat" every time you wanted your heart to pump. When I was really bored (often at church) I would try to see how long I could keep these two thoughts going. I would have died pretty quickly.

Give that girl a gun - I have never handed a gun to a girl.

Give up - I give up constantly. I think this goes hand in hand with being a Philadelphia sports fan. Knowing you're never ever going to win means sometimes it's just a lot easier to give up. There are a few things I will probably never give up: Smoking, since I never plan to start, and drinking, cause I loves me some beer.

Give up on me - I don't believe anyone has ever asked me to not give up on them.

Go - Oh, I've gone... and then she started crying, so I turned around and went back.

Go Away - I went away for college. That seemed to work out.

Know what you got - Cinderella. Man, who doesn't love Cinderella? (Seriously, I was very happy to hear this. Late one night I decided it would be a good idea to download "Metal Ballads." All 4 volumes! I gotta tell you, most of these metal ballads suck! I definitely should have gone with "Monster Ballads." But this song... this song is good.

On a completely unrelated note, if you're reading this blog, you should know that we're having people over tomorrow night for beer and burgers. You're invited.

from Deck the Stills to Dentist

Day 180, Session 65:
When/Where: Tuesday December 19th - Morning. Heading into the office on the train.
First song: Deck The Stills by Barenaked Ladies
Last full song: Dentist by Steve Martin (from the Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack)
Progress: 862-872 of 4617
Total Songs Heard: 763

Ok. Stumped. Bad times in the brain lately. So here. Here are the songs that were played in this group:

Deck The Stills - Barenaked Ladies
Dede Crough - Moxy Früvous
Deep In The West - Waylon Jennings
Deep Water - Jewel
Deeply Stupid Sushi, Deeply Whining Drummer - Barenaked Ladies
Deja Vu - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Delicious - Sleeper
Demetrius - Sufjan Stevens
Demon John - Jeff Buckley
Denny's at 4AM* - Wally Pleasant
Dentist - Little Shop of Horrors

*Not actually Denny's at 4AM, but Alternateen by Wally Pleasant instead. I covered that earlier.

Here are some quick and dirty notes: That's right, more Jewel... I'm not sure where I picked up a Waylon Jennings song that's not the theme from the Dukes of Hazzard (obviously the tv show not the crap ass movie...) Much to my surprise, I like sushi now... The first time I remember experiencing deja vu was in 4th grade in the hallway outside of Ms. Foky's classroom. It had something to do with Tony Samartino recklessly swinging his crutch around...

We sang selection from the Little Shop of Horrors sound track when I was in chorus in 7th grade. I wasn't allowed to sing in the actual 7th grade chorus as there was only room in that group for guys who still sounded like girls. (Don't feel too bad for those pre-pubescent guys, boy:girl ratio in the 7th grade chorus 3:23.) So, I ended up singing with a bunch of 8th graders. It wasn't that bad though. I spent my entire pre-high school academic career taking classes with the kids a year ahead of me, so I already knew most of them. The only thing that never made sense about that group was its name. The 7th grade chorus group was called "7th Heaven" (clever I know.) The group I was in was called "HPO" which sounds more like a health care plan then a singing group.

Thursday October 19th - Evening

Day 119, Session 42:
Location: Heading home well after 6 pm. Boooooooooo.
First song: Call in Sick by The Argument
Last full song: Can't Cry Anymore by Sheryl Crow
Progress: 550-561 of 4500
Total Songs Heard: 479

Call in Sick is the first song I've ever heard extolling the virtues of taking a mental health day from work. Have I mentioned I'm disappointed The Argument didn't hit it bigger and stay together to release more good music? I have? Ok then, never mind.

And yes, Sheryl Crow. I picked it out of a box of $2.99 cds. I actually bought two cds that day, one was Sheryl Crow, the other was Green Day. So cut me some slack, I went one for two.

Can't Buy Me Love was not just the name of a Beatles song I heard today, but also the title of an "underrated and charming 80's teen flick" (IMDB's words, not mine.) I've never actually seen the movie version of "Can't Buy Me Love" but I was supposed to. For my friend Brendan's 12th birthday we went to the movies and were supposed to see this Patrick Dempsey masterpiece. Unfortunately the movie closed the night before we went to see it. This was way back in the day when there weren't 24 screens at every movieplex. The theater we went to had only two screens. (Imagine that! Only two screens. I'm surprised the movies weren't all in black and white and accompanied by a guy playing piano.) Because there were only 2 movies playing, only one movie was starting when we got there. So instead of "Can't Buy Me Love" we ended up seeing "A Fish Called Wanda," which happened to be rated R. It was the first R-rated movie I saw in the theater.

I was quite disappointed in the lack of boobs.

Thursday October 19th - Morning

Day 119, Session 41:
Location: At the desk, writing important documents.
First song: C'mon Daddy by The Lemonheads
Last full song: Call and Answer by Barenaked Ladies
Progress: 541-549 of 4500
Total Songs Heard: 467

California was covered today. California by Mason Jennings, California Rolls by Janes Addiction, and California Stars by Billy Bragg & Wilco. Honestly I thought I'd have more songs about California. Truth be told, California Rolls could be about sushi for all I know. I've tried listening to it, and I still don't quite get it.

I've visited California quite a few times. When I was 6, my family spent a pretty large percentage of our RV trip cross country in California. We covered San Diego, LA, San Francisco, and Yosemite. I have a lot of memories from that trip that have kind of ended up smashing together in my head, but all the parts of the California portion stand out individually. I remember visiting Disney Land outside LA and being less than impressed because we had been to Disney World the year before. I remember cable cars and a guy trying to extricate himself from a straight jacket in San Fran. I remember giant redwoods and nature everywhere around Yosemite.

My most specific memory though is from San Diego. We went to the zoo. We were looking down on the hippo habitat. One of the hippos pointed his ass out of the water and let loose an amazing explosion of green hippo shit everywhere. My family laughed and laughed. It's probably one of my top 5 most vivid memories from that fantastic 6-week trip. I'm not sure if I remember it because of the absurdity of the scene or because of how hard we laughed.

I hope when I have kids I'll be able to share experiences with them that will stay with them for years and years. Even if they involve hippo shit.

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.

Tuesday July 18th - Morning

Day 26, Session 12:
Location: Going to work in the morning after a solid 13 day delay in moving through the alphabet
First song: Aluminum by Barenaked Ladies
Last full song: American Made by Hulk Hogan and the Wrestling Boot Band
Progress: 167-176 of 3937

Why did I wait 13 days between listening sessions, did some horrible accident befall my ears?

No accidents thankfully. One of the main exercises for this whole project is to prove to myself that I can write all the way through it. So, things got busy/I got lazy and I've fallen seriously behind on my entries. I'm forcing myself to slow down moving forward through the music. If I get much further behind, then I won't remember what it was I was listening to and how am I supposed to reflect on things I can't really remember (cause they happened more than 3 days ago and my short term memory is shot.)

If you're particularly observant you'll notice that the progress count has gone backwards as has the total number of songs. As this goes on I'm constantly adding and deleting files from the iPod (mostly do to the disposible nature of podcasts.) It occurs to me now that I should probably keep a running count of how many tracks I've actually listened to. I'll be right back. While I'm gone try to wrap your mind around the thought of a singing Hulk Hogan...

Total Songs Heard To Date: 180!

Hooray, another stat! I love stats.

The song Aluminum contains the line "Aluminum to me, aluminium to some..." The summer after 7th grade I went for my only experience at summer camp up in the Poconos. One of my cabin's counselors was a guy from New Zealand (I think his name was Darren) who insisted that the material soda cans are made out of was pronounced "ah-lou-min-ee-um." At the time I thought that meant everyone from New Zealand was nuts.

Flash ahead slightly to an 8th grade science quiz on the periodic table. Just before class my friends and I were reviewing the periodic table that was hanging in the classroom. On the chart, aluminum was spelled aluminium, thus showing me that perhaps Kiwis weren't so crazy after all. So, since that was what we had just looked at moments before taking the quiz, my friends and I all spelled it aluminium on the quiz. Mr. Decampli (who was not well liked) marked it wrong on all of our quizzes. When we pointed out that the periodic chart in HIS CLASSROOM showed it spelled as aluminium, he accused us all of cheating by looking at the chart during the test. I remember being very angry about the injustice of it all at the time.

Looking back on it years later... I'm still very angry! IT WAS HANGING IN HIS CLASSROOM! IF IT WAS WRONG WHY WAS HE DISPLAYING IT!!!!!