Wednesday December 6th - Morning

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

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

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

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

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

Friday December 1st

Day 162, Session 58:
Location: On the train, heading home for the weekend
First song: Cruel Sun by Rusted Root
Last full song: Cumbersome by Seven Mary Three
Progress: 783-791 of 4552
Total Songs Heard: 691

Not a whole lot to say today, except to note that Crumble by Ultraspank, I'm sorry. It's just not going to work out. I wish you luck in all your future endeavors.

Since there's not much to say about the songs, let's clear some things up about the blog.

First, no matter how popular it seems to be with search engines, this blog will never contain any plans for a zip gun. It's been a little disturbing to see how many people end up here after investigating how to make a zip gun.

Second, the dates in the post titles are the dates that I'm writing about, not the date the post was written. I had a friend say they stopped checking in here because it seemed like I hadn't updated since November. This is not the case. I've been updating (mostly,) it's just that right now there's a 6 week lag between listening and writing. I'm working on it (and I'm guessing I'll continue to be "working on it" until this project is done or until I give it up.)

Third, thanks to Gena and my sister who both have been kind enough to link to this thing, and to Mike and my brother-in-law who, as far as I can tell, represent the regular readers.

Tuesday November 28th - A little later in the morning

Day 159, Session 57:
Location: At the desk at work. Practically the entire morning.
First song: Cowboy Romance by Natalie Merchant
Last full song: Crowing by Toad the Wet Sprocket
Progress: 758-779 of 4546
Total Songs Heard: 682

In college I went through a Dave Matthews phase. I don't think it was just me. I'm pretty sure if you went to college between 1994 and 2000 or so you went through a Dave Matthews phase too. Yeah, I liked the music. It was good to drink to and the ladies liked it. Both of those were good. The problem I had with Dave Matthews was the concerts. It's not that they weren't entertaining in concert, it's just that two of the most awkward days I ever spent were both at DMB concerts.

Summer after sophomore year I was supposed to go to a DMB concert in Columbus with what was supposed to be a large group of friends from college. Unfortunately as the concert grew closer more and more people backed out until it was me, a roommate, his friend from work, a girl from school and her boyfriend from home. Now the fact that this girl's boyfriend was coming along was a bit strange for me because I had spent the better part of the last semester at school flirting with this girl like mad. (Crash Into Me had been our unofficial flirting anthem, except for the last night of the semester when another DMB song took over.) It went from strange to terribly awkward when my roommate and his friend got a late start from Dayton, then got caught in a thunderstorm related traffic jam. Show time drew close and we couldn't wait any longer, so off we went to the show. Me, the girl... and her boyfriend. It was a strained few hours. The girl played it cool, the boyfriend had no idea... I spent a lot of time shifting uncomfortably (luckily it was a DMB concert, so I looked like just another white guy dancing.)

The second DMB concert gone bad occurred the following summer. I started the summer dating the wife's roommate, but that ended pretty quickly. After it ended however, she told me that she had bought a ticket for me to go to a DMB concert with her and her friends from high school (she apparently thought we'd still be together and wanted them to meet me, oops.) I was trying to still stay friendly with her (because I wanted to date her roommate) so, after she turned down my offer to pay for the ticket so she could give it to someone else, I agreed to go.

I was extremely uncomfortable with the whole idea and when she introduced me to her friends as "the guy who dumped me," I started feeling ill. In order to fight off the ill feelings I took some prescription meds that I was on at the time for my bad stomach. I knew I was in for a long day. Unfortunately a little later in the afternoon when my stomach was bothering me again (this time due to an unfortunate lunch choice at Steak & Shake) I took another dose of meds well before I should have. Two side effects of the medication? Increased sensitivity to light and heat. Now double those effects after double dosing and then try to sit in the mid-afternoon sun on a 90 degree July day. Not only was the situation as awkward as could be to begin with, but every minute sitting in the sun made me feel that much closer to passing out. Eventually I wandered off in a daze attempting to find some shade.

45 minutes of wandering later I accepted the fact that I had no idea where on the giant amphitheater lawn my group was seated. I took the best course of action I could think of. I staggered on stage, grabbed Boyd's violin and started playing Vivaldi's Spring. The band hired me to play second violin (my traditional preferred orchestral part) for the rest of the tour. I actually ended up touring with the band for 5 years until that fateful day when my stomach problems kicked up again as we crossed a bridge over the Chicago River. As part of the terms of the court settlement I had to leave the band AND stay in Chicago until my personal income taxes, city fees and parking tickets (mostly parking tickets) had paid off all the fines.

Tuesday November 28th - Morning

Day 159, Session 56:
Location: On the train heading into the loop.
First song: Conjunction Junction by Better Than Ezra
Last full song: Country Love Song by Stephen Lynch
Progress: 744-757 of 4546
Total Songs Heard: 660

Contender by Royale Crown Review was the first song I ever turned into a music bed during my radio days. It involved mixing and looping. It took me hours to do, but once it was done, for about 10 minutes I felt cool. This would not be the last time that Royale Crown Review tried to make me feel cool.

I'm a big fan of Vegas (the city, not the NBC show.) Not being financially set up to be a high roller however, my trips tend to stick to the sports book and the $5/10 tables. I rarely do anything cool while I'm there. I mean, sure, I've seen Sigfried and Roy (about a week before the mauling) and Blue Man in Vegas, but those are touristy things. The only cool non-gambling thing I can think of in Vegas was when we went to the Hard Rock to see Royale Crown Review.

The "cool" part of it was the show, instead of being in a club, was by the pool. Apparently at the time the Hard Rock pool was one of the places to be seen in Vegas. We definitely didn't fit in. For one thing, none of us had fake boobs or tattoos. For another, even though we were by the pool, none of us felt comfortable hanging out in just our bathing suit. It took me about halfway through the set before I warmed up to the idea of removing my shoes while standing in the sand. (Yes, the pool has a fake beach.)

All in all we enjoyed the show. The band was good and we theoretically were "being seen." Honestly though, we were more excited that the concert also featured a buffet than we were to be hanging with the high rollers.

Wednesday November 22 - Afternoon

Day 153, Session 55:
Location: On a less crowded than usual train because most folks have already left work because of Thanksgiving, heading towards home.
First song: Concerto No 1 in E major "Spring" Largo e pianissimo sempre by Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
Last full song: Congratulations by Mink
Progress: 687-699 of 4446
Total Songs Heard: 646

The rest of VIVALDI'S (ugh, so dumb - see last post for more details) The Four Seasons today. Logically it would seem to make sense now to have a four seasons breakdown!

Spring - I like spring, but I don't love spring. Sporting wise, spring is big. My two favorite sporting events happen in spring, the NCAA tournament and the Stanley Cup playoffs. Baseball season starts in spring too. My favorite part of spring is that first warm day each year where it really smells like spring for the first time. The whole feeling associated with that day usually drives me into a manic episode where I feel high (or what I would assume feeling high feels like anyway.) On the downside, I actually prefer snow to rain. I think I've also developed allergies over the past couple of years and spring is no good for that. As far as the music goes, I recognized 2 of the 3 sections of Spring. I'm pretty sure one of them is used in the Fancy Feast cat food commercials.

Summer - Is it weird that I'm not a big fan of summer? Obviously when I was in school summer was great because there was no school, now though where's the advantage to summer? A lot of people like spending time outside... I'm not one of those people. I don't like it hot. Heat and humidity leave me a lot more uncomfortable than cold and wind. I don't like that there's only baseball available. I suppose I like more daylight, but that's not huge for me. I hate bugs and summer is full of bugs, especially bees and those stupid house centipede dealees. Once could kill me and the other is super gross. TV is all reruns, boo! Oh, I do enjoy people watching more in summer, but my bathing suit body isn't what it used to be (not that it was ever anything (unless you like ribs)) so I don't feel as comfortable being people watched in the summer. For the music, I didn't recognize any of the sections of summer, not that there's anything wrong with that, but I like the familiar.

Autumn - Now we're talking. Football! Bugs die! The first crisp air day has a very similar effect on me as that first spring day. I like wearing a wind breaker. Did I mention football? Plus hockey and college basketball both start in Autumn. There's new TV too! Yeah, I'm a big fan of autumn. Summer is usually hectic with weddings and vacations and long nights and time away... autumn it all calms down again and I can settle in at home with a sandwich and watch football. Didn't recognize any of the Autumn music right away.

Winter - You would think being in cold Chicago would make me hate winter. Not so. I like winter. My theory is, no matter how cold it is outside, it's always nice and warm once you're inside again. I enjoy layering sweatshirts and coats and gloves. I even like scarves now (for a long time I thought a scarf was a sign of weakness, oh how the midwest has taught me.) Mostly though, I like holing up. Coming in, shutting out the outside world, plopping down on the couch under a blanket and enjoying my warm space at home. If I have a cup of hot chocolate (and maybe that's got some Bailey's in it) all the better. Oh yeah, and Christmas!!! The winter music was good.

Final tally, my favorite seasons (as inspired by Vivaldi): 1. Autumn 2. Winter 3. Spring 4. Summer
Final tally, favorite among Vivaldi's Four Seasons: 1. Spring 2. Winter 3. Autumn 4. Summer

Wednesday November 22 - Morning

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday November 21st - Evening

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday November 21st - Morning

Day 152, Session 52:
Location: In my holding pen at the cube farm... er, at work.
First song: Cold Fire by Rush
Last full song: Come Down by Toad the Wet Sprocket
Progress: 649-658 of 4446
Total Songs Heard: 606

Toad seems to fixate on certain words and phrases in their song titles. They had 4 different songs that started with the word "all." Now I hit 2 different songs with strikingly similar titles Come Down and Come Back Down. That's the sort of thing that I think I'd notice if I was in a band. I might look around and ask if anyone else thought our song titles were starting to sound overly familiar. Eventually, I might just ask if we could name the next song "Pants" just so they'd all stop sounding the same.

My senior year of high school... Christmas break. I was visiting my parents (I didn't live with my parents senior year of high school, a story for another time perhaps.) I received "Pale" by Toad the Wet Sprocket as a gift (on cassette!) I got a call from my girlfriend.

In high school I sang in the chorus, which because we were uppity, were officially called Chamber Singers. I was good enough, but not great. Lucky for me, there weren't any other guys in my school willing to sing bass, so I always seemed better than I actually was. I auditioned for district chorus my junior year. My audition went horribly. They had us audition on a song that had no words... so it was basically humming (a capella) 16 bars of music. Once I lost my place in that I had no way to get back. As I left the room, feeling more than a little embarrassed, the first person I saw was my friend Seth. He was a year older and quite a performer. We weren't particularly close outside of music stuff, but we got along well enough. I half-jokingly collapsed into his arms when he asked me how it went. It went poorly, but Seth reminded me immediately that there was always next year.

A year later, I was a senior and the chorus, er Chamber Singers, were performing in the basement of the library (I guess that counts as a chamber) sometime near Thanksgiving. Seth must have been on break from college because he came to see the show. After the show he came up and gave big hugs to everyone. For some reason, that particular night I wasn't in the mood for a hug. I mostly turned away from it and took off shortly after the show without doing much catching up.

A month later, I got that call from my girlfriend. Seth had died at school. To this day, I'm still not sure exactly what happened, other than it was not drug, alcohol or suicide related. I think he had some sort of infection which made its way to his heart, but I'm not sure. After some tears and hanging up the phone, I went upstairs to my room, turned off the lights and listened to "Pale." Come Back Down is not my favorite song from that album, but it's the song I remember hearing that day. It's the song I remember hearing as I thought about the fact that the last time I had seen Seth, I had blown him off.

I made district chorus senior year... and quit Chamber Singers shortly thereafter.