from In A Future Age to In the Curve

Day 895, Session 147:
When/Where: Monday December 8th - Hanging around the house
First song: In A Future Age by Wilco
Last full song: In the Curve by The Avett Brothers
Progress: 2053-2072 of 6037
Total Songs Heard: 1913

Haven't deleted anything in a while, so let's do that now. Goodbye, In Deux Time by Deux Process. I just couldn't get over their constant pronunciation of the world deux like it was the word dew. It was one of those iTunes free singles of the week, so it's not like I had any real attachment to the thing.

The Wife has recently given up the coaching of the basketball dance team at her high school to concentrate full-time (well, you know, full-time after her day full of teaching) on the school flag team. For those of you who weren't nerds in high school and thus didn't spend much time around the marching band, in the fall, the flag team performs with the band at football games, but apparently in the winter, the flag team performs on their own at competitions. (I would like to note here that The Wife's school didn't even have a winter flag team until last year when she started the program by volunteering to coach it. The Wife is pretty awesome.)

Since there's no band playing with the winter team, they have to choose a piece of music to perform with. Monday night The Wife asked if I had any suggestions for songs they could use. Asking me for a musical suggestion is no simple feat. What I'm sure she was hoping would be a 10-minute conversation became a 2-hour effort to find the perfect song.

There were 2 primary criteria, the song had to be 3-4 minutes long and not too slow, and one secondary, it helped if the song told a story. Here was my tertiary criteria, the song should be pretty awesome.

After much deliberation, here are the two suggestions I came up with:
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
When I heard this song earlier in the day I just took note of how much I love it. When the flag team discussion came up I immediately thought of it. It's fast AND I'm pretty sure it's in 6/8 time. How many other flag teams are going to be performing in 6/8? Musically it's a great jumble of buzzing bass, trumpet, AND people playing SAWS! It tells an interpretive version of the journey of life. It weighs in nicely at 3:22.

Underground - Ben Folds Five
Tempo-rific, plus there are shifts that could be used to break up different sections of the routine. The song itself is about the alienation of high school and finding a place where that alienated feeling goes away. What could be more perfect for a high school flag team?!? Just slightly long at 4:11, but the last 15 seconds or so are vampy piano bits which could be faded on.

Here is what the girls decided to go with:
Uptown Girl - Billy Joel
Don't get me wrong, I love Billy Joel and while this particular song isn't a favorite of mine, it did help him score Christy Brinkley, so it can't be all bad. But really? This is the song they wanted to go with over the other two? Bah, kids today! I just don't understand them. (Confession time: Part of the reason this picks disturbs me is because I think high schoolers today would pick this song because they find it campy and amusing. Granted, this particular song probably is, but campy and amusing aren't two words I use to describe Billy Joel in general. I fear Billy Joel is to kids today what my enjoyment of say, ELO or Styx is to me. Yeah, I like them, but I kind of view them as relics of a bygone era (as opposed to say The Beatles whose music is timeless.) Just another sign of how out of touch I am with the young.)

There's a chance I'm wrong about this, but I don't think so. Please consider all three songs and vote for which one would be best for a high school flag routine. If you've got something that will work even better, leave it in the comments.

In The Curve from The Avett Brothers was also in the ears today. This is currently my favorite sing-along-with-really-loudly-every-time-I-hear-it song. It's one of those songs that makes me think, "If I could just figure out how to play guitar, I could actually perform this one." It also speaks to the self destructive streak that runs through me. Sure I haven't finished a bottle of bourbon and then gone out for a drive, but I have finished a bottle of bourbon, which is a terrible idea by itself. I do stupid things. I make bad decisions (*cough*quitting my job with nothing else lined up*cough*) but I will walk away. Sure, right now it feels like I've been hitchhiking along the road forever, but I'm sure I'll make it Concord. Hope to see you there.

from I Lost On Jeopardy to I Love Paris

Day 835, Session 140:
When/Where: Thursday October 2nd - Driving home from a job interview.
First song: I Lost On Jeopardy by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Last full song: I Love Paris by Jack Constanzo
Progress: 2162-2168 of 6112
Total Songs Heard: 1777

First of all: Hooray! Job Interview! I think it went well and the place with which I interviewed would be a good fit. I'm keeping my fingers crossed (well, not now so much, typing with crossed fingers = hard.)

The other good news is that it's only a 7 song drive. Of course I probably wouldn't drive much, parking around Chicago is expensive.

I Love N.Y.E. - Badly Drawn Boy

Great little instrumental from a great little movie, "About A Boy," which is based on the Nick Hornby book. If you haven't seen the movie or read the book, I recommend you do both.

New Year's Eve isn't really a big deal for me, so I was pretty surprised when I sat here thinking about it to realize that I can remember what I was doing each New Year's Eve since 1997 (not coincidentally the first one with The Wife.)

1997/8 - Celebrate back in Philly with Mike, Kristin, and Kerstin. The Wife and I had been dating for a little over 2 months. Meeting my high school friends and Philly family on the trip was a pretty big deal. She passed with flying colors. I have photos from this N.Y.E. that, if I ever bought a scanner, would be sure to amuse the people who were there.
1998/9 - Just me and The Wife in her parents basement in C-bus. We watched a movie, I fell asleep before the ball dropped.
1999/2000 - The big millennium! The Wife and I went out to dinner, and then joined an in progress party at the BOX (my college house.) A loud and fun way to say goodbye to the good ole 1900s.
2000/1 - In Chicago at The Wife's apartment. Just me, her, and her roommate hanging out watching Dick Clark. Kinda lame, er... I mean, quiet.
2002/3 - The Wife and I threw a party at our favorite apartment in Chicago. The Wife made a ton of lasagna and it was delicious. After 'celebrating' (here being code for drinking) all night, Kaylor joined me at 6am as I ran out into the streets of Chicago and berated the sun for 2002 being such a shitty year. This was probably a great start to the year for some of my neighbors as they were awoken at 6 in the morning by the lunatic yellings of a crazy person. Probably the last year in which I was able to actually party all the way through to 6 the next morning.
2003/4 - The Wife and I threw another party at another, not as good apartment. Kaylor (middle,) Jay & Mel, Liz & John (right,) Kate & Ryno, Chip, and Mace were all there. For some reason, my hair was blondish and Jon, John, and I thought it best to welcome 2004 with grimaces on our faces.
2004/5 - The party was at Kaylor's this time. We had dinner and played board games and watched various balls drop.
2005/6 - Maybe this year was at Kaylor's place. Either way I guess I was lying about remembering every year since either 04/05 or 05/06 escapes me.
2006/7 - The Wife and I celebrated alone at our new home. She had a glass of champagne and fell asleep. I finished the rest of the bottle and watched Garrison Keilor's Central Time Zone New Year's show. This may be the N.Y.E. where I officially became old. I do remember having a great champagne buzz.
2007/8 - The Wife and I were in Vegas with the family. We rung in Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zone New Years at the same blackjack table at our local Lake Las Vegas casino. I drank champagne from a fountain and actually won some money.

Now if I can just get back to work soon, I won't have to spend N.Y.E. 2008/9 yelling at the sun again.

(You may have noticed that I skipped N.Y.E. 2001/2... there's a story there for another day.)

from I Feel Like Myself to I Got You

Day 815, Session 137:
When/Where: Friday September 12th - Wandering around Chicago
First song: I Feel Like Myself by Tom Waits
Last full song: I Got You (with Andrew Bird) by Wilco
Progress: 2132-2144 of 6088
Total Songs Heard: 1749

First of all: Happy birthday Mike.

And now to your irregularly scheduled post.

When it comes to music, The Wife and I agree on almost everything. When it comes to everything else we hardly agree on anything at all. It's a wonder we're still married.

I keed.

When our musical opinions differ, we can usually tolerate the taste of the other. I tolerate her Rush, she tolerates my... well, I don't know what she has to tolerate seeing as how my taste in music is awesome. There are two things in my music collection that she absolutely CAN NOT STAND.

I Gaer - Sigur Ros

I was introduced to Sigur Ros by my (now) brother-in-law. I will admit that they can be a difficult band to wrap your brain around. They sing many of their songs (including this one) in the non-existent language of Vonlenska. I find it all atmospheric, entrancing, and sometimes moving. The Wife finds it long, incomprehensible, and always pointless. This is not my favorite Sigur Ros song in my collection but once I heard the next song I knew writing about Wife hate would be the topic du jour.

I Get Wet - Andrew W.K.

Maybe the only thing in my collection she hates more than Sigur Ros is Andrew W.K. She can't stand the stupidity (I choose to think of it as simplicity) of the lyrics, the way every song features an insistent driving beat, and she especially can't stand the yelling. I disagree with her on every point. The driving lyrics and the yelling fire me up. To me, the simple lyrics show a guy who isn't trying to do too much. If I had to decipher anything out of all the noise it'd be too much trouble instead I can just bang my head along to the beat (and later hold my neck and curse because I was banging my head too hard.

These are not the two best songs that Andrew W.K. and Sigur Ros have to offer, but they are a representative sample. Take a listen and then vote in the poll over on the side there as to who in this case is right: Is it me (who thinks these artists are cool) or The Wife (who thinks these artists suck)?

Finally today, thanks to whoever set the new standard by which all future weird search results for this blog will be measured. If you Google: Romantic relationships with "step siblings" -japanese, -anime. You too can end up here. I cringe at the idea of what they were looking for, and assume they didn't find it here.

from I Can't Wait... to I Feel Like Home

Day 807, Session 136:
When/Where: Thursday September 4th - Afternoon chorefest
First song: I Can't Wait To Get Off Work by Tom Waits
Last full song: I Feel Like Home by O.A.R.
Progress: 2076-2099 of 6031
Total Songs Heard: 1736

Some days the brain just doesn't agree with the whole writing thing. This is one of those days. So instead of dragging this out here are two quick hit thoughts on the 24 songs heard:

I Crush Everything - Jonathan Coulton: I think we've all been the giant squid. Wanting something so badly that all your attempts to achieve it end up smashing everything all to hell. Just off the top of my head I can think of 3 terribly overwrought attempts to explain myself to ladies whose company I desired that ended up with me alone and realizing that my own (over-)efforts had helped contribute to sinking my chances.

I Don't Wanna Grow Up - Tom Waits: I've mentioned before that making the cd that played during dinner at the reception was one of my few contributions to the overall excellence that was my wedding. What I don't think I've mentioned is that the cd did include what was originally my last (and at that point in the evening totally belated) protest against getting married. Getting married was one more step in the ongoing process of Growing Up. I've never been much of a fan of that process. I thought about removing the song from the cd lest I seem like an immature jerk, but I had earlier realized that one of the reasons I loved The Wife was that she wasn't asking me to grow up. She already knew exactly how grown up I was (or wasn't) and she liked me just the same.

One completely non-related to me note. If you're a Ben Folds fan you should head on over to Fuel Friends. Heather is featuring the first single off of Ben's upcoming cd "Way To Normal."

from How Do You Sleep to How Nothing Feels

Day 685, Session 126:
When/Where: Monday May 5th - Running to the post office and back.
First song: How Do You Sleep? by The Magnificent Bastards
Last full song: How Nothing Feels by The Promise Ring
Progress: 2030-2035 of 5908
Total Songs Heard: 1619

Oh those Magnificent Bastards. How Do You Sleep? they ask. How do I sleep?

When I was a kid I slept on my stomach. My right arm was away from my body and bent at the elbow so that head would have been lying on my right hand except for the pillow in between. My face always turned right. My left arm stayed in close to my body. Every night was the same. As a kid sleeping on my back was out of the question, I couldn't grasp how anyone could do it. One of the side benefits to sleeping this way was whenever I slept on the floor (at sleepovers for example) my right arm would end up completely numb. When I woke up with a numb arm and tried to move it, it always felt like the arm had pushed through the floor into the ceiling of the room below. It was cool feeling.

As I hit my teens I added sleeping on my side to my repertoire. This was made necessary by the awesome family legacy of sinus fun. Sleeping became a balancing act... too much time spent turned on one side meant that nostril was no longer good for breathing and it was time to turn to the other side so that all the head gunk could slide over. If I didn't fall asleep by the time the sliding was complete, it was time to roll back over and try again.

The other reason sleeping on the side became a necessary option around this time... sleeping with other people. Seeing as how most initial forays into this exciting new world took place on a twin sized bed, sleeping side by side was the only practical choice. Side sleeping still leads to an arm usually ending up under my pillow. Years from now I'm going to have circulation problems in my arms and I'm going to have to confess that I've spent about 1/3 of my life cutting off the blood to my arm. But hey, who needs arms right?

Eventually I did learn to sleep on my back, and with it, much to The Wife's amusement has come the snoring. I hate the fact that I snore. I see it as another in the ever growing list of symptoms that point to oldness. For a while I told The Wife that she must be imagining things, but then one night as I was drifting off to sleep I was awoken by the most awful sound. Yep, it was me snoring.

Currently, I don't sleep very well. Lots of nights with way too much time between when I get in bed and when I actually fall asleep. If I don't fall asleep within 5 minutes of hitting the pillow I know something isn't right. Two nights ago it took me 90 minutes. Stupid brain.

So how do you sleep?

ETA: The previous poll asking which was the hotter Sandy in Grease (good girl or bad girl) ended up being decided by Mike's vote for "ha ha you watch musicals" (he was going to vote for bad girl.) Good girl Sandy was victorious 3 to 2 (bad girl) to 1 (ha ha.) That reminds me of the time I voted for the third party candidate in the 8th grade elections and Rami Dakko ended up beating Kim Donahue by one vote.

from Home Soon to Hopelessly Devoted

Day 672, Session 124:
When/Where: Tuesday April 22nd - Mopping the kitchen floor - ah glamorous life (someone please give me a job!)
First song: Home Soon by Oh Susanna
Last full song: Hopelessly Devoted To You by Clem Snide
Progress: 1983-1996 of 5889
Total Songs Heard: 1588

Three versions of Homeward Bound today, two proper Simon and Garfunkel versions and one off the cuff concert version from Fruvous. Hearing these songs got me to realizing that this particular musical treasure has absolutely no application to my life whatsoever.

When I was growing up, my Dad (at approximately the same age I am now) was going out of town all the time for work. He spent days upon days working and driving around Nowhere, West Virginia and Middle Of, Kentucky. Actually I believe he used to go to Hazard. Every time he got back from Hazard I asked him if he saw the Dukes. He never did (probably because the Dukes were in Hazzard, Georgia, not Hazard, Kentucky.)

Back when she was an engineer, the wife spent a lot of time on the road, mostly in Florida.

Even my professional student friends take extended trips away from home to exotic places like Antarctica and Rwanda.

I have been on exactly one business trip in my life. I went to Portland, Oregon and wasn't gone long enough to start thinking about Homeward Bound. I know everyone who does travel for business eventually tires of it, but there's a part of me that is really excited by the idea. So, yeah, if you've got a job to offer me, don't hold back just because it involves travel. I'd even be willing to get a passport.



Two other things I head today that I wanted to share. Being a nerd, I'm a big Weird Al fan, and one of my favorite things he does are his mash-up polkas, so here's one I heard today:

Hooked On Polkas - Weird Al

And being a theater nerd, I suppose I'm contractually obligated to be a fan of "Grease." The movie is ridiculous and I hold a grudge against the stage version based on the time I was on the crew and I almost had my ankle crushed while moving a piece of scenery, but I do like the music well enough. I especially like this cover by Eef Barzelay. He takes all of Olivia Newton John's manufactured Australian-playing-1950's angst and completely blows it out.



One more thing about "Grease." At the end of the movie when Sandy goes from good-girl to bad-ass-leather-girl... am I the only one who finds the transformation totally unattractive? I mean, completely ignoring the "you have to change yourself to get your man" message that it sends, I just find her hotter when she's playing the good girl. Am I the only one? Please use the poll over on the right to tell me whether I'm right, or whether I'm crazy.

from He's On The Beach to Heaven

Day 617, Session 114:
When/Where: Wednesday February 27th - Whirlwinding my way around Netherstorm
First song: He's On The Beach by The Lemonheads
Last full song: Heaven by Warrant
Progress: 1822-1844 of 5763
Total Songs Heard: 1469

After a long narrowing down process, The Wife and I chose Heart Of Mine by Peter Sallett as the song to be our first dance at our wedding reception. When I say long narrowing down process I mean it. I went through every song in my library to narrow it down to a list of 40. From there The Wife got involved and we narrowed it down to 20, then 10. Once we got to 10, we started eliminating songs based on how common we thought they would be at weddings. We didn't want to dance to the same song everyone else did.

Finally, when we got it down to 5 songs we were so sick of the whole thing that when The Wife said, "How about that glitter gold song from that priest and a rabbi movie?" ("Keeping The Faith" with Edward Norton, Ben Stiller, and Jenna Elfman) I shrugged and agreed.

That actually was my general part in the wedding planning as a whole. A lot of agreeing (less shrugging.) I took the approach that whatever The Wife wanted was what we both wanted. It's not that I was totally uninvolved. It's just that I knew the more things I had a hand in, the more chance there was for things to get messed up.

In the end, I had 3 things that were specifically my contributions to the day.

1) I made the mix cd that played during dinner. It saved us from the usual dinner mix of soft rock and cheesy instrumentals.
2) It was my idea to replace the normal wedding cake with an ice cream sundae bar for dessert. People loved the ice cream sundae bar.
3) I brought the larger than life sized cardboard cut out of Mace Windu to the reception for all of the guests to have their picture taken with.

Here is Father Ed giving a blessing to Mace. Mace then used The Force to convey that blessing onto the rest of the reception.



As far as the actual first dance itself: I remember not moving a whole lot because the part of The Wife's dress that was supposed to be holding the train up for dancing purposes had come undone. I remember laughing with The Wife at the ridiculousness of dancing in front of a room full of people. Most importantly, I remember being happy to be there.

Everything about that day was fantastic, and the credit for all of it goes to The Wife (and our mothers,) but I was glad that I got to play a little part in it.

Heart Of Mine - Peter Sallett

from Giving It Back to Gold

Day 577, Session 106:
When/Where: Friday January 18th - In the living room.
First song: Giving It Back by Matthew Sweet
Last full song: Gold by Interference
Progress: 1606-1635 of 5652
Total Songs Heard: 1299

Why would a man need a version of God Bless America on his ipod? The first reason of course would be if he were a great patriot. The second reason, and the one that applies here, is if he's a Philadelphia Flyers fan. Kate Smith was an American singer and radio performer who did most of her work in the 1930s and 40s. This version of God Bless America was recorded for the 1943 movie "This Is The Army," but found its place in the hearts of Flyers fans when the team began playing it before big games. The Flyers had an unbelievable record when kicking things off with Kate Smith. The high point of this pre-game tradition came in 1974 when the Flyers were playing the Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals. Kate Smith appeared live and thus inspired, the Flyers went on to win the game and their first Stanley Cup title.

Thanks to the magic of the internet, you can actually see the performance. It's not the greatest version of the song ever, but check out the crowd reaction. The ovation the crowd gives before a note is even sung captures the true bat-shit insane electricity of the moment. I've been in the crowd for some pretty exciting moments, but I don't think anything compares to this:

Goose bump city.

The original version of the song isn't bad either:
God Bless America - Kate Smith

Warning: Stop right here if you want a avoid a big sticky pile of sap.

I kind of have issues with "home." I grew up outside of Philadelphia and since that's where I grew up, that's where I've thought of as home for most of my life. One problem though, I don't live there anymore (and neither do my parents, so I'm almost never there.) It's been almost 14 years since Philly actually was home even though it still sometimes feels that way.

Even though I've been in Chicago for almost 7 years now, the first 5 and a half of those years were spent moving from apartment to apartment, never really settling down. Now The Wife and I own a house and 18 months into that experience we're really starting to make the place ours. When I got to the Barenaked Ladies song Go Home I started thinking that maybe this place is it. This feeling has been enhanced recently by our attempts to tackle some home improvement projects. If you know me, you know I'm not exactly a handyman, so several of the projects have been much harder than they should be. This is mostly due to my ineptness. For example, yesterday I broke off a drill bit and couldn't find where the broken bit piece ended up. This leads me to believe that it may be embedded somewhere on my body (possibly in my eye because safety glasses are for suckers.) My ineptness makes me feel kind of useless, and it's hard to feel at home in a place where you feel useless.

Through a quirk in scheduling I barely saw The Wife yesterday. I got home late last night and tried to sneak my way into bed. As I slipped under the covers The Wife, still 90% asleep, rolled over and wrapped an arm around me and said "There you are."

And there I was. That was home.

Go Home - Barenaked Ladies

I am lucky to be one of the few who has found somebody who can tolerate me.

Finally, if you were wondering how many different versions of Go Your Own Way one guy needs, the answer is three (original and live version by Fleetwood Mac, cover by The Cranberries.) I bet you thought the answer was less than 1.

from Ghost to Giving It All To You

Day 568, Session 105:
When/Where: Wednesday January 9th - Round and about the streets of Chicago.
First song: Ghost by Neutral Milk Hotel
Last full song: Giving It All To You by Oval Opus
Progress: 1568-1594 of 5624
Total Songs Heard: 1269

So much to write about. 2008 started out right as I've upgraded my headphone situation. Thanks to my friend Liv, I'm now doing all my listening with Bose in-ear headphones. I'm not exactly an audiophile, but these headphones are awesome. They provide a much richer sound. (can sound be rich? sure, why not?) The ear buds are also designed to go further into your earhole without being uncomfortable. The result? I can actually listen to things with the volume turned down lower. Anywho, the moral of this story is if you do a lot of headphone listening, you should definitely look into some fine Bose products. They're worth it.

Now to the music. Neutral Milk Hotel's 1998 cd "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" is all sorts of fantastic (and another one of those music groups that is actually only one guy.) I bought the cd in 2005 while on my honeymoon in San Francisco. Every time I hear a NMH song I flash back to that trip and how great a time it was. For one, it was great because the wedding went off with out a hitch. If you've never been married, let me tell you, a big part of that great honeymoon feeling is relief that the months and months of pre-wedding stress are over. For two, the wife and I had never been to San Francisco before (together anyway,) so it was great to start our "new life" with a trip where everything we were experiencing was new for both of us.

The only downside of the memories... any prolonged thoughts of San Francisco cause ghost soreness in my calves. That town is hilly, and we did a lot of walking. My legs were pissed for days. Ghost is my second favorite song off the cd (and the new headphones really do the buzzing bass justice.)

Ghost - Neutral Milk Hotel

Once I was done my acid trip honeymoon flashbacks my attention turned to the three different versions of Gin And Juice. Three completely different versions of the same song? It's time for a breakdown.

Gin And Juice (original rap) vs. Gin And Juice (country) vs. Gin And Juice (spoken word)

Most street cred:
Original rap version is the winner here since I live in a city. I suppose this sort of depends on your locale. If you live on a farm, you may get more cred with the country version blasting from the speakers of your John Deere. (Tractors have speakers right?)

Most fun to sing along with:
Country version. Country wins by default here. It's really hard to sing along with a spoken word song, and I don't think you rap a duet with Snoop unless Snoop asks you too.

Best chance to understand the lyrics:
Spoken word version. It's not that either of the other versions are particularly hard to understand, but the slow steady delivery of the spoken word version clears up an issues you may have had with the lyrics.

Best at getting to the point:
Snoop doesn't have time for extended banjo breaks or long dramatic pauses. He's got hos to get to.

Best use of extended banjo break outs:
Country version. I know I just awarded Snoop points for the lack of banjo breaks, but the banjo breaks in the country version are fantastic. One more reason I may take banjo lessons in 2008.

Most fun:
Country version. Sipping on Gin And Juice should be a fun time for everyone. Snoop just doesn't seem like he's having as much fun as The Gourds. And sure the spoken word guy is funny, but he doesn't sound like the sort of person I'd enjoy getting my drink on with.

Winner:
Gin And Juice (country version) by The Gourds. In the end, the original is a classic and the spoken word version is funny, but the country version of Gin And Juice is both awesome musically and funny.

Feel free to judge for yourself:
Gin And Juice - Snoop Doggy Dogg
Gin And Juice - The Gourds
Gin And Juice - Beautiful music version (artist unknown)

There were even more stories in this set of songs, including a performance of Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon by the 4 South Five and the night I got whip creamed in the face by the lead singer during a performance of Mink's Girl 17, but I'll save those for the book.

Edited to add - Check it out over on the right ---> I've added a poll so you can vote on your favorite version of Gin And Juice. Feel free to defend your vote in the comments section.

from Freedom to Frenesi

Day 529, Session 100:
When/Where: Saturday December 1st - Driving back from Evanston
First song: Freedom by Blues Traveler
Last full song: Frenesi by Eydie Gormé
Progress: 1480-1485 of 5513
Total Songs Heard: 1187

One hundred times I've strapped the iPod to my head to listen to songs in alphabetical order. Well actually, that's a bit of a lie, sometimes I've plugged in an old cassette tape converter and listened in the car. This was one of those times.

Things kicked off with Freedom by Blues Traveler. The wife commented that she would have preferred if I had the song Freedom by George Michael. I explained to her that the song she was thinking of was actually titled Freedom! '90. You see, I was a big Wham! fan growing up and I knew that the song was titled Freedom! '90 to distinguish it from an earlier Wham! hit that was also titled Freedom. That's right, I knew that immediately and felt the need to share it. And now, apparently, I've felt the need to share it again. (For those of you reading this that are too young to remember, before being a solo artist, George Michael was one half of the group Wham!, thus the need to distinguish his newer solo song.) (For those of you reading this who are too young to remember George Michael as a musician... he was a punchline on late night talk shows for quite some time after being caught soliciting a male police officer in a public restroom.)

Sadly, despite the fact that I own "Make It Big" on record (that's right, actual record) I have not yet transferred it into my music collection. So you'll just have to take my word for it that Freedom by Blues Traveler, Freedom by Wham!, and Freedom '90 by George Michael are all different songs.



Freedom - Blues Traveler

from Everyday Glory to Everything Falls Apart (or from ugh to yuck)

Day 412, Session 85:
When/Where: Wednesday August 8th - On the train from work to home.
First song: Everyday Glory by Rush
Last full song: Everything Falls Apart by dog's eye view
Progress: 1184-1192 of 5183
Total Songs Heard: 994

Not the best day of listening I've had. Rush continues to batter my eardrums thanks to the musical tastes of The Wife. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever heard her listen to Rush, but several of their cds somehow ended up as part of our music library and I know they're not mine. As for dog's eye view (their lowercase letters, not mine)... well the mid-90s were a time for taking a chance on music I hadn't heard before. For every successful exposure to groups like Barenaked Ladies and The Jayhawks, I have to retain a reminder of the groups that didn't work out.

Of course, can any song that contains the immortal line:

The devil's not in the details,
the devil is in my pants
It's shoot first, apologize later,
another quick end to a short shod romance

be all bad? I mean all guys should be willing to admit that the devil is in their pants, but it takes a real man to sing about how his premature ejaculation issue has soured another potential relationship.

Also included in today's listening was a great This American Life excerpt about a band that was put together entirely from the "musicians seeking gigs" section of the newspaper. This story (as well as seeing Ben Kweller in concert) makes me think that I would enjoy being in a band; which is unfortunate for me as I have neither a good voice nor any rock instrumental skill. I guess I'll have to stick with the improv as my creative outlet for now (shows the next two Saturdays, e-mail for details!) As I've mentioned before, This American Life is great. You can listen to the "Classified Band" episode here.

I realize I'm close to 1000 songs heard. I'm trying to think of something to 'celebrate' the occasion. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Monday December 18th - Heading Home

Day 179, Session 64:
Location: Leaving the office heading home on the train.
First song: Deadbeat Holiday by Green Day
Last full song: December by Teenage Fanclub
Progress: 848-860 of 4617
Total Songs Heard: 752

Finishing off triple header for the day by listening on the way home.

Dear Chicago by Ryan Adams... I wish I had a story that really went along with this song. I don't. Actually, I pretty much go well against this song. The guy singing this song is very lonely. He misses a woman. He thinks he's falling out of love. My story is pretty much the opposite.

I often wonder how it is exactly that I came to end up in Chicago. I grew up in Philly. I reluctantly moved west to Ohio. I always figured I end up back east and yet here I am, even further west. Living in the third biggest city in the country when I never really considered myself a city guy. Whenever I start wondering how I ended up here though, I come to the answer pretty quickly.

I moved to Chicago to chase The Wife. After college we ended up living about 2 hours away from each other. We managed to get through that way for 2 years. In fact, sitting here right now, I marvel about how nuts that is. How many college relationships last two years, let alone two years apart after the whole college thing is actually done? Eventually she moved here. That took our 2 hours apart to 5 hours apart. And still we managed to endure. (She gets the credit for this, as I am pretty much a dope.) Eventually married. Home owners. Still happy together. Here we are.

This year is 10 years since I met The Wife and 6 years since I moved to Chicago. Both these things are still pretty amazing to me. Anyhow, I'm babbling.

Dear Chicago,
As much as I complain, how lucky have I been?
Your trains and parking regulations still suck,
Matt

Monday December 18th - Morning

Day 179, Session 62:
Location: Training my way into work
First song: Darling Lorraine by Paul Simon
Last full song: Day Is Done by Nick Drake
Progress: 830-838 of 4617
Total Songs Heard: 730

Moved quickly through this set. There were 4 different songs from the Star Wars: Episode 1 soundtrack. Episode 1 was a lame movie.

As I have since found out however, Episode 1 makes a pretty good video game. I am referring to Lego Star Wars, a game which, much to my amazement, The Wife has adopted as something she enjoys playing. I still can hardly believe it as I type that sentence, but over the course of the last 6 months or so The Wife has turned into a video game fan. Previously, with the exception of DDR and some occasional Mario Tennis, The Wife didn't really play video games. She always tolerated my... let's go ahead and call it obsessive... love of gaming, but really had no interest in playing much herself.

For her birthday last year I got the wife the Curious George game. She thought playing as George was cute, and I even caught her playing it a few times when I came home from work, but I never got the feeling that she loved the game (probably because it's not a very good game.) Lego Star Wars, on the other hand, she loves. It helps that we can play it together. I can help guide through the rough spots. The cool thing about Lego Star Wars... the rough spots aren't too rough. Plus, there are no consequences to death. Which maybe explains why the part of the game she enjoys the most is "accidentally" slicing me up with her lightsaber.

I don't care how many times she kills me though... every time she suggests we play I know I've pulled her a little closer to the dark side.

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.

Tuesday October 24th - Evening

Day 124, Session 48:
Location: Heading home, actually awake on the train for once.
First song: Chiron Beta Prime by Jonathan Coulton
Last full song: Christmas Medley by Barenaked Ladies
Progress: 633-646 of 4508
Total Songs Heard: 560

First things first, obligatory Coulton plug: you need to go listen to (and download) Chiron Beta Prime right now. It's even timely for when this post is actually being published. I mean sure, a Christmas song about robot overlords in October, the timing was little off. But now... perfect.

In fact, there were lots of Christmas songs to be heard here. Good thing I've managed to fall almost 60 days behind. Obviously it was all part of some master plan. Let's talk about Christmas for a minute. I'm very pro-Christmas. Most years I'm at least semi-proactive about getting my Christmas shopping done. Especially since they invented the internets and Amazon. This year... not so much. 2 days before Christmas and I have purchased exactly zero gifts. Zero. This should be somewhat alarming, but for some reason it isn't. The Wife and I have already decided that there are too many things that need to be bought around the house to buy a lot of gifts for one another. Without The Wife to worry about, everyone else is pretty easy. I can probably take care of everyone else during one 2 hour shopping trip on Christmas Eve. That trip has become something a tradition for me and my sister, so hey, Christmas traditions are good right? But it still doesn't quite feel right to have no presents bought this close to Christmas.

The good news is I finally got The Wife her birthday present... and it was totally within 30 days of her birthday this year. Diamonds fix everything though right?

If you need me, I'll be on the couch.

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.

Friday October 13th - Afternoon

Day 113, Session 39:
Location: On the train to work, except for the first song, which I apparently played as soon as I got out of bed.
First song: Brothers Unaware by Live
Last full song: Building a Mystery by Sarah McLachlan
Progress: 511-520 of 4422
Total Songs Heard: 449

I was the program director of my college radio station senior year. I was absolutely terrible at the job. I had no desire to be a boss. I'm a performer, not a director. In my time as PD I only had to fire one DJ (although I probably should have disciplined a few more, like I said, I wasn't very good.) I had to fire the guy because he played a song that it specifically said on the cd case not to play because it contained bad language. He played it even after I called him and told him exactly why he couldn't. And then he repeated the reason that I told him he couldn't play it. The song? Building a Mystery by Sarah McLachlan. The reason? She says "fuck" in the middle of the song. What he said on the air? "I've been told I can't play this song because it says fuck in the middle of it, but I've never heard that, so I'm going to play it anyway." And then he played the song.

Believe it or not, I still felt kind of bad about canning the guy. At least I did, until he came in and had the audacity to think it was unfair that I was doing it. Then I laughed after he left the office.

The following summer The Wife and I went to her grandmother's birthday party. Her family had gotten her grandmother a cd player and The Wife had bought a few cds to get her grandmother's collection started. The cd at the top of the pile? "Surfacing" by Sarah McLachlan, the first track of which is Building a Fucking Mystery. The wife was moderately horrified when I told her what she was handing over to her grandmother. To my knowledge my wife has not been fired as a granddaughter.

Friday October 13th - Morning

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday October 12th - Morning

Day 112, Session 36:
Location: The last two-thirds of the train ride to work.
First song: Bread by Clem Snide
Last full song: Brian Wilson by Barenaked Ladies
Progress: 493-498 of 4447
Total Songs Heard: 422

Heard two signature BNL songs. Brian Wilson, is the live from Philadelphia version (the first of four different versions of Brian Wilson I've got.) Break Your Heart is originally from the BNL cd "Born On A Pirate Ship" but the version I heard was from their concert cd "Rock Spectacle." It wasn't until I heard the "Rock Spectacle" version that I realized I didn't have "Born On A Pirate Ship" in my iPod. Then I remembered why...

Summer before second senior year a certain roommate a habit of borrowing cds and then never returning them. Between the wife and I, we can count 4 or 5 cds that we know we had during that summer, but that we haven't seen since. So this leads me to this PURELY HYPOTHETICAL dilemma...

Suppose there was some music that you had absolutely positively spent real money to purchase (suppose you even still had the cd cases) but that through no real fault of your own you were no longer in possession of said music. And suppose the interwebs had a way for acquiring that music without having to pay for it again. Is it ok to use the interwebs to reacquire that music?

My theory was that it would HYPOTHETICALLY be ok. The wife's theory was that if you bought a coat and then someone stole it from you, that wouldn't mean you were entitled to a free coat. I agreed that you shouldn't be able to steal a coat from a store, but if you could somehow download the coat over the interweb, it would be ok.

Her stupid coat analogy really made me think. Sometimes I hate thinking.

In the end, since this was a PURELY HYPOTHETICAL dilemma, obviously no action was taken. But still I wonder... would it be ok? And where can I download a coat?

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.