It's that time again.

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 Fire to Flight Of The Passing Fancy

Day 460, Session 95:
When/Where: Tuesday September 25th - Sitting at my new desk at work. My third new desk this year.
First song: Fire by Josh Joplin
Last full song: Flight Of The Passing Fancy by Squirrel Nut Zippers
Progress: 1346-1369 of 5329 (1 skipped podcast)
Total Songs Heard: 1123

Way back in May I posted about the song First of May by Jonathan Coulton. Actually heard it in order today and it remains awesome. It also is one of those things that, when children eventually do come along, will lead to an awkward conversation. Instead of actually having that conversation, I plan on showing my future children this video.

(***WARNING*** this video contains scenes of animated debauchery and should definitely not be viewed by my parents.)



That way they'll also know more about World of Warcraft, a game their future father has spent way too much time playing.

I also heard Five Guys Named Moe today. If you ever have a chance to see the musical Five Guys Named Moe, I highly recommend it. The show features the music of Louis Jordan, who I happen to think is one of the great underappreciated figures in American music. I saw it at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. on a school trip. I remember thinking at the time how strange it was to be seeing a show at the same theater where President Lincoln had been assassinated (Abe and I were tight) but the music was so infectious that 10 minutes in I didn't give poor dead Linc another thought.

Hearing it again set me off thinking about how much I enjoy the sound of human voices in harmony. The moments in music of really good harmony are the moments that I tend to get goosebumpy. I'm sure there's some scientific explanation for why harmony is pleasing to the brain, but I'm probably not smart enough to understand it (feel free to try to explain it to me, I'll nod like I understand.) All I know is that if there had been harmonious singing in Our American Cousin instead of lines like "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal—you sockdologizing old man-trap..." there's no way Booth could have stayed mad enough to go through with the shooting.

Five Guys Named Moe

ETA: Oh yeah, I'm also leaving my job. So if anyone was ever thinking about approaching me about sponsoring this blog, now would be a good time.

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.

Happy First of May!

While I haven't made it the F's yet, I didn't want today to go by without wishing all of you a happy First of May.

A little warning: this song is probably NSFW (unless you're wearing headphones or work in a very laid back office) or for small children.

If you enjoy the First of May, please visit Jonathan Coulton's website for more fantastic music.

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.