Old dog, new tricks.
Driving home yesterday across Washington, I had put my ipod on "shuffle songs" and was listening to pieces of my collection as they were randomly selected. About half way home, I realized that most of the songs I had been listening to had sparked the memory of a certain person or situation. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that most of my music has a person, event, or place attached to it in my mind. Rarely do I meet someone without gaining some new music from them. I have albums and artists stuck like velcro to stages in my life-- certain car rides, a realationship, whatever-- and some of them are actually interesting stories. More interesting though is how music can serve as a catalyst for memories because of its enormous presence in our lives. It isn't just listened to, it is absorbed. Breathed in. It acquires its own scent, its own feeling, based on which circumstances of your life collide with it at that certain time.
All this to say that I have discovered a new purpose for this poor livejournal that has, until now, sat idle gathering cyberspace cobwebs. Here is the plan: Each entry I will put my itunes on shuffle. Then, I'll proceed to detail whatever memories or other weird things are attached to whatever song (or songs, if I am particuarly bored one day) itunes randomly comes up with. The hope is to form some account of my life thus far through the music I have experienced. Hopefully it proves to be as interesting as I hope it to be.
So here goes. Song number 1:
"Cinder and Smoke" by Iron & Wine.
Okay, so this isn't the most interesting one, but oh well. This song mostly reminds me of late nights in the dorms sitting at my desk with my earphones on because Megan was sleeping, attempting to work on some paper or some such graded thing. I remember mostly the darkness of the room and my attempt to shrug down into the small spot of light created by my clip-on lamp. I also remember walking in Fremont one afternoon with someone-- I think Emily Kouzes, though I could be wrong-- and as we walked into Sonicboom Records seeing a poster for Iron & Wine (I think the one with the grass and the guy's face). Emily (or whoever it actually was) said something to the effect of "So and so told me about them, and they sound good." I probably made some sort of noise of agreement, even though I had no idea who they were at the time. I am sure it was Chris Smith who actually got me the album, though Kyle might have too.
Let's try again!
Confession: I skipped over 2 songs before I reached this one. One was a song I don't really care about from a movie soundtrack, and the other one was a song performed by the other steelband I played with. Boring, both.
"Endless Summer", Zwan.
Zwan makes me think of driving around with Chris Howard in his little VW Bug our senior year. We went to the Folklife Festival in Seattle that year to play at Pan Jam (steeldrum thing, blah blah) and I was going to go with him and Chris Carosino to see Zwan in concert but I didn't. I really should have, but oh well. I really liked the cover art to this CD. Chris Smith had a poster of it on his wall in his dorm room when he was at SPU and I always wanted to steal it. Did I mention my sister met Billy Corgan?
Well, that's enough for now.
All this to say that I have discovered a new purpose for this poor livejournal that has, until now, sat idle gathering cyberspace cobwebs. Here is the plan: Each entry I will put my itunes on shuffle. Then, I'll proceed to detail whatever memories or other weird things are attached to whatever song (or songs, if I am particuarly bored one day) itunes randomly comes up with. The hope is to form some account of my life thus far through the music I have experienced. Hopefully it proves to be as interesting as I hope it to be.
So here goes. Song number 1:
"Cinder and Smoke" by Iron & Wine.
Okay, so this isn't the most interesting one, but oh well. This song mostly reminds me of late nights in the dorms sitting at my desk with my earphones on because Megan was sleeping, attempting to work on some paper or some such graded thing. I remember mostly the darkness of the room and my attempt to shrug down into the small spot of light created by my clip-on lamp. I also remember walking in Fremont one afternoon with someone-- I think Emily Kouzes, though I could be wrong-- and as we walked into Sonicboom Records seeing a poster for Iron & Wine (I think the one with the grass and the guy's face). Emily (or whoever it actually was) said something to the effect of "So and so told me about them, and they sound good." I probably made some sort of noise of agreement, even though I had no idea who they were at the time. I am sure it was Chris Smith who actually got me the album, though Kyle might have too.
Let's try again!
Confession: I skipped over 2 songs before I reached this one. One was a song I don't really care about from a movie soundtrack, and the other one was a song performed by the other steelband I played with. Boring, both.
"Endless Summer", Zwan.
Zwan makes me think of driving around with Chris Howard in his little VW Bug our senior year. We went to the Folklife Festival in Seattle that year to play at Pan Jam (steeldrum thing, blah blah) and I was going to go with him and Chris Carosino to see Zwan in concert but I didn't. I really should have, but oh well. I really liked the cover art to this CD. Chris Smith had a poster of it on his wall in his dorm room when he was at SPU and I always wanted to steal it. Did I mention my sister met Billy Corgan?
Well, that's enough for now.