Monday, May 31, 2010

A Resolution and a Few Words About Mood Music

First, a resolution.

I resolve to stop starting thoughts, paragraphs, and blog posts with "so," and "now." It's become a tic, as if I stepped out of the room for a second to see if the kettle started boiling, and I'm coming back in to resume the conversation. I will work really hard to stop doing it.

About mood music:

Today I'm still doing stuff. A weekend under the porch, as I frequently say.

I cleaned the floors and the litter boxes, and I am in the middle of something so mindlessly banal and yet somehow satisfying, folding shirts. Sorting by color (red stack, black stack, white stack), and use (suitable for work, suitable for weekend, suitable for sleeping, not suitable for public consumption, like this disgusting 15-year-old Arapaho Basin shirt).

I started out listening to Skynyrd and kd lang, then thought I'd get clever and mix up my chore music a bit with something a little more laid-back. Mark Knopfler, "Sailing to Philadelphia." It's a great album, with an inward, contemplative quality, and with amazing guest appearances by James Taylor and Van Morrison, but as I folded and listened, I realized that I was feeling lower and lower with every song. Pretty soon I was sitting here folding shirts and wanting to kill myself.

The point being, if you're me, and music feeds your psyche, and your psyche is hanging fairly low to begin with, DON'T CHOOSE THE BUMMER MUSIC!

Gahhh, time to put on some Earth Wind & Fire or something.

"I Am," oughta do it. That 5/4 bar in "Star" delights me every single time I hear it.

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