Friday Five: On Sheryl Crow
1. The library on my iPod is pretty limited, but I'm very loyal to the musicians who are represented, and one of those is Sheryl Crow. She’s among my top three favorite singers ever (the other two are Carly Simon and Madonna), and yesterday I scored tickets to Sheryl’s concert in July - notice we’re on a first-name basis. My dear friend Melissa is coming with me. When we were in law school, I burned a Sheryl Crow CD for Melissa; actually, it may have been the year after law school. When did I start burning my own CDs? In law school, I may still have been making mixtapes. Man, I feel old -- I just need to point out that I've been behind on all these tech trends, so it would be just like me to keep making mixtapes after everyone else had advanced to CDs. Anyway, ever since then, Melissa's been hooked on Sheryl, too. It’s like a sign that we were meant to have the tickets, because the timing of the concert is right when Melissa moves back to New York after two years in Chicago.
2. I included references to Sheryl Crow's music in POSITIVELY because I thought maybe someone close to her (a niece, a cousin, the daughter of one of her friends) would read the book and tell her about it and then she’d call me and we’d be friends. It hasn't happened yet.
3. But the truth is, I already feel like Sheryl’s my friend, and it’s actually not as crazy as it sounds. You see, years ago I had a dream that Sheryl was dating my uncle. Incidentally, I once read that dreaming of celebrities is supposed to portend good luck. Anyway, Sheryl hosted a barbecue at her place in the Hamptons (I don't actually know whether she has a place in the Hamptons), and over hot dogs and hamburgers, she resolved a feud that has caused a bunch of us in my family a lot of pain. I opened my eyes, but I was still in that state in between dreaming and wakefulness, and I thought, I must call Sheryl right now and thank her. Then I woke up all the way and realized how impossible that was. I’d never met Sheryl; I didn’t have her phone number. The feud endured, but still the feeling of gratitude toward Sheryl has never left me. Okay, maybe that’s just as crazy as it sounds - even crazier, in fact. (Am I actually going to post this?)
4. The song “Home” always makes me cry; not because I relate to what it’s about (a woman stuck in an unhappy marriage), but because Sheryl’s voice is so mournful and bittersweet, and just her tone when she says “This is home” makes me think of my beloved childhood house, the one we moved out of when I was eight years old.
5. It’s hard for me to pick my favorite Sheryl Crow song. For a while it was “There Goes the Neighborhood,” because I loved the line, “We can’t be certain who the villains are ‘cuz everyone’s so pretty.” Then I loved "Diamond Road," which is sort of cheesy, but “what is you’re you’ll never lose, and what’s ahead may shine” - actually the epigraph in POSITIVELY - meant a lot to me. Now, when pressed, I say my favorite is “Riverwide.” Sheryl says it was inspired by Whitman's Leaves of Grass. See, I know so much about her; we're so meant to be friends.
2. I included references to Sheryl Crow's music in POSITIVELY because I thought maybe someone close to her (a niece, a cousin, the daughter of one of her friends) would read the book and tell her about it and then she’d call me and we’d be friends. It hasn't happened yet.
3. But the truth is, I already feel like Sheryl’s my friend, and it’s actually not as crazy as it sounds. You see, years ago I had a dream that Sheryl was dating my uncle. Incidentally, I once read that dreaming of celebrities is supposed to portend good luck. Anyway, Sheryl hosted a barbecue at her place in the Hamptons (I don't actually know whether she has a place in the Hamptons), and over hot dogs and hamburgers, she resolved a feud that has caused a bunch of us in my family a lot of pain. I opened my eyes, but I was still in that state in between dreaming and wakefulness, and I thought, I must call Sheryl right now and thank her. Then I woke up all the way and realized how impossible that was. I’d never met Sheryl; I didn’t have her phone number. The feud endured, but still the feeling of gratitude toward Sheryl has never left me. Okay, maybe that’s just as crazy as it sounds - even crazier, in fact. (Am I actually going to post this?)
4. The song “Home” always makes me cry; not because I relate to what it’s about (a woman stuck in an unhappy marriage), but because Sheryl’s voice is so mournful and bittersweet, and just her tone when she says “This is home” makes me think of my beloved childhood house, the one we moved out of when I was eight years old.
5. It’s hard for me to pick my favorite Sheryl Crow song. For a while it was “There Goes the Neighborhood,” because I loved the line, “We can’t be certain who the villains are ‘cuz everyone’s so pretty.” Then I loved "Diamond Road," which is sort of cheesy, but “what is you’re you’ll never lose, and what’s ahead may shine” - actually the epigraph in POSITIVELY - meant a lot to me. Now, when pressed, I say my favorite is “Riverwide.” Sheryl says it was inspired by Whitman's Leaves of Grass. See, I know so much about her; we're so meant to be friends.