I was working on the house recently, and when I was looking for music to play… ended up looking at my Spotify collection by Album (sorting only by album name).
This was a fun thing, as I ended up remembering a ton of albums I haven’t listened to in… well, in ages. A lot of digging into old favorites, songs from a bygone era.
As I was watching this video and feeling like I was kneeling on the carpet in my parents’ living room, something struck me as kind of odd. I was looking at the background, at where the band was recording this video.
Even now, the key changes in this song are (to me) incredibly complex. There’s a great deal of satisfaction hearing the shifts, up and down, and I wish I had better words to describe what’s happening with the notes in the song.
I remember not really caring much for Chapman when I heard this song. It was ok, but I remember it having a lot of airplay (or video play perhaps). Listening to it now, as an older man, it’s a very different song to me. The lyrics are the same, but I hear them now in a way I don’t think I did or could have, when I was younger.
I’ve forgotten how fantastic it is, to lend ones voice to a choir – to become a part of some larger energy greater than any single, individual part. It’s rare for me to sing much anymore, but this was a lovely reminder of what can happen when we all gather together.
I started re-watching The Wire recently, and have mostly made my way through the first season. It started off while I was browsing for something to watch, and one episode turned into two and three, and we were off to the races. Again.
I have had the song “Black Balloon” by the Goo Goo Dolls stuck in my head for days now. And I have absolutely no earthly idea why.
I’ve been playing it again on my commute, to and from work. And so many of their songs on this album – incredibly catchy, and just a lot of fun. I’ve been listening to the album a lot, and the hooks even make their way into my brain when the music is off.
I remember playing this game with my old house mate Jim, back when we were undergrads in college. It still definitely evokes a particular feel and time for me, and it was fascinating to hear some of the history and technical details related to the game.
Recently, I was listening to an old mix I created ages ago… back on Rdio (man I really miss that service, and have finally, begrudgingly accepted Spotify’s reign). The mix was a random assortment of favorite songs that I think I made for my birthday party a few years back.
But here’s the weird thing for me. Normally, I’ll fixate on a song and just listen to it over and over again. But lately? For the last few weeks? I’ve fixated on guitarist Vito Bratta’s guitar solos from these songs.
It’s not that I listen to only the solos. I’ve still been looping the songs. But the solos are what echo in my ears, at random hours, even when I don’t have my headphones in. I’ll be doing the dishes, and suddenly one of his solos just starts playing in my head.
The first 20 seconds of this video felt like watching Too Many Cooks for the first time. Totally weird, and not quite convinced what I was seeing was real.
Yes, reader. There’s a Lethal Weapon theme song.
“The impressions of human desire are often left upon objects of their devotion or on the paths leading to where a sense of peace or pleasure can be found; i.e. the worn frets on a favorite guitar; the finger-smoothed ivory keys on an old piano; the ‘secret path’ in the forest blazed by decades of children that’s been ‘a secret path’ to other children for over 100 years.”
The nonfiction piece was an older one I wrote a long while ago, a short essay called Felix + Dzintra + Queensrÿche. It was written for an anthology, reflecting on love in the era of the mix tape, called Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves.