So my friend Matt posted
a challenge for people to open up all of their MP3s on random and record the first
ten songs that came up. I did 20, 'cause it was interesting.
This took me a while, because I have over eleven hundred MP3s on this computer,
and most of them are categorized by folder, and the stupid player I use (Zinf, which
I actually love) doesn't allow me to open a whole folder of songs by folder--I have to
open the folder and select the actual MP3s.
Anyway, I finally got the whole thing up and running (I now have a playlist called
"The Everything Bagel", and here's what it came up with:
1. Elvis Costello - "Veronica"
"Veronica sits in her favourite chair,
she sits very quiet and still...
and they call her name that they never get right,
and if they don't, then nobody else will."
I love this song. It reminds me of being 8 years old, hanging out at my friend Amanda's house,
and listening to all her Dad's records. Her dad was a "cool dad". He was a mailman with great legs,
but after he yelled at me for picking rainbod stucco-glass off their house, I didn't think he was
so great anymore.
2. Tori Amos - "A Sorta Fairytale".
"And Im so sad
Like a good book
I cant put this
Day back
A sorta fairytale
With you"
Tori Amos reminds me of my sister. I know this album came out well after she died,
but if it's Tori Amos, it reminds me of Jenn. I like this song. This song makes
me want to be in a movie, having left behind something unhealthy for me,
and this song plays while I drive into the desert, the whind whipping my hair around
and the sun setting on my whole wasted life.
3. The Beatles - "Eleanor Rigby"
"All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?"
This song has always made me sad. It reminds me of when I was working at Superway, and all
the old people who came in, all by themselves, to buy tinned tomato soup and worcestershire sauce,
and count out their change with shaking, blue-veined hands, the women carefully smoothing
their hair after unpinning their plastic rainbonnets, the men wearing tweed hats with a small,
colour feather on one side.
There was a little old lady who used to eat in a restaurant where my parents went. She had fluffy, snow white
hair, and was always dressed immaculately. And she always sat in one corner, all by herself. Maybe we imposed these ideas of loneliness
on her and she preferred her own company. But we always referred to her as Eleanor Rigby.
4a. A clip of Samir cussing out the printer, from Office Space. Not going to count this one, but it made me smile.
4. Belle & Sebastian - "We Rule the School"
"Do something pretty while you can...
Dont be afraid."
Not much to say about this song, but I think it's really pretty. More songs should involve xylophones, don't you think?
5. Annie Lennox - "Money Can't Buy It".
"I believe that love alone might do these things for you
I believe in love alone yeah yeah..."
This entire album reminds me of the Christmas before I turned 15 and the months that followed it. I had just
been raped and lost my virginity that way, and had told nobody what had happened,
and was fighting with my violent mother constantly. I felt trapped,
terrified and furious, so tough, all the time. Jesus, I can't remember the last time
I FELT something that strongly. Adolescence is so intense...I felt every day like my heart
would explode from beauty, pain, helpless rage. I remember even
listing to music would make the sensation in me more than I could bear. Actually, it's really only music now that
can still do that to me.
I ended up living on the streets for five-six months, which was fun at first and later was not fun, and ended up with
a hospital stay. I had my walkman with me, and had gotten this tape (Annie Lennox "Diva") for Christmas from my sister,
and I listened to it constantly (unless cool people were around, in which case I switched to the Beastie Boys
or the Misfits, of course). The song "Little Bird" reminded me of me and my mum and used to make me cry, so
I used to fast forward it.
6. Tom Waits - "Swordfish Trombone"
"Well he came home from the war
with a party in his head
and an idea for a fireworks display
and he knew that he'd be ready with
a stainless steel machete
and a half a pint of Ballentine's
each day"
Tom Waits is so fucking sexy.
7. Concrete Blonde - "Joey"
"I know you've heard it all before, so I don't say it anymore...."
Sitting on the dock at the marina, the wind numbing my cheeks and whipping my hair at my face,
wearing Liam's leather jacket, two sizes too big for me and smelling like his aftershave, and having the
biggest crush on him. But I'd still wandered away from everybody. Even then, at age just-barely-fourteen,
I had this weird need to be by myself sometimes, at inopportune times. This song--this whole album--(Concrete Blonde,
"Bloodletting") on my walkman for easily two months straight.
8. Cypress Hill - "How I Could Just Kill a Man"
"Just a little sample
How I could just kill a man
One time tried to come in my home,
Take my chrome
I said, yo, its on!!"
This is on my computer for purely nostalgic purposes. Shut up.
9. Tracy Chapman - "The Promise"
"If you think of me.... If you miss me once in a while
Then I'll return to you
I'll return and fill that space in your heart "
They played this at the memorial the college put on for my sister.
I cried so hard I had to leave the room to go throw up...salt and snot running from
my throat, gagging and heaving again and again. Didn't manage to puke
up the hurt.
10. The Ramones - "The KKK Took My Baby Away".
"Ring me, ring me, ring me up the President
And find out where my baby went
Ring me, ring me, ring me up the FBI and find
Out if baby's alive yeah, yeah, yeah"
I fucking love the Ramones. They remind me of hanging out on the church steps with Kyle,
and of every funny dumb punk show I went to growing up, where whatever local band it was
would invariably do a Ramones cover. They remind me of my feet in Doc Marten boots and
my bag covered in band buttons, and they remind me of doing the radio show, retarded-tired
at 4:30 a.m., swearing on the air, and laughing til I cried.
11. Face to Face - "No Authority"
"Wouldn't you know, something is going on...wouldn't you know...
something is really wrong...BUT YOU CAN'T DO A THING ABOUT IT"
Ah, Face to Face. Has another generic punk band ever taken themselves so seriously?
I don't think so. I love them so, the big dumb dorks.
12. Mama Cass - "One Way Ticket"
"One Way Ticket, Take me anywhere....Northbound, Southbound, I don't even care....I know the grass is greener there."
I love Mama Cass. I always have, which was not a "cool" choice in high school...when the asshole
skateboarding boys I hung out with found that out, they took to calling me "Mama Beth". It's funny,
because I was chubby. Get it? Oh, those clever high school boys. And these were my <i>friends.</i>
I would not go back to high school for anything.
13. Death Cab for Cutie - Lightness
"Oh, instincts are misleading
You shouldn't think what you're feeling
They don't tell you what you know you should want."
Ben Gibbard's voice is the best thing ever. This music makes me wistful. I love it.
14. The Supremes - "Heat Wave"
"Whenever I'm with him, something inside starts to burnin', and I'm filled with desire..."
I like Motown. Yes, seriously. I love it. *shimmy shimmy shake* WOO!
15. The Geto Boys - "6 Feet Deep"
"Another homie got smoked but its no surprise
Everybodys trippin cause the boy was too young to die"
Jesus. This is the weirdest playlist ever. This song is another purely
nostalgic purposed inclusion.
16. Nada Surf - "Where is My Mind"
"Except the little fish
But they told me, he swears
Tryin' to talk to me to me to me..."
I really like this cover, which surprises me. Usually when my favouritest songs ever are covered I
am extremely hard to please.
17. Sarah Slean - "Sweet Ones"
"Come over to my house Ill tend to you solo
So fabulous and well dressed up like a talk show
They always said always said always said you were easy
If I could have just one piece of that Id be sold"
I lvoe this song. I don't know much Sarah Slean, and am actually
entirely unsure how this song got here, but I like it.
18. The Postal Service - "The District Sleeps Alone"
"I'm barely listening to last demands
I'm staring at the asphalt wondering what's buried underneath"
Again. Ben Gibbard. So good. Reminds me of getting my first car and driving at night along the ocean,
smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee.
19. Sleater-Kinney - "One More Hour"
"oh, you've got the darkest eyes..."
Sleater-Kinney fucking rock.
20. The Waterboys - "A Bang on the Ear"
"You to me are treasure...you, to me, are dear...so I send you my love, and a bang on the ear."
Again....Jenn.
Wow, this ended up being extremely embarrassing and a little sad. Heh.
a challenge for people to open up all of their MP3s on random and record the first
ten songs that came up. I did 20, 'cause it was interesting.
This took me a while, because I have over eleven hundred MP3s on this computer,
and most of them are categorized by folder, and the stupid player I use (Zinf, which
I actually love) doesn't allow me to open a whole folder of songs by folder--I have to
open the folder and select the actual MP3s.
Anyway, I finally got the whole thing up and running (I now have a playlist called
"The Everything Bagel", and here's what it came up with:
1. Elvis Costello - "Veronica"
"Veronica sits in her favourite chair,
she sits very quiet and still...
and they call her name that they never get right,
and if they don't, then nobody else will."
I love this song. It reminds me of being 8 years old, hanging out at my friend Amanda's house,
and listening to all her Dad's records. Her dad was a "cool dad". He was a mailman with great legs,
but after he yelled at me for picking rainbod stucco-glass off their house, I didn't think he was
so great anymore.
2. Tori Amos - "A Sorta Fairytale".
"And Im so sad
Like a good book
I cant put this
Day back
A sorta fairytale
With you"
Tori Amos reminds me of my sister. I know this album came out well after she died,
but if it's Tori Amos, it reminds me of Jenn. I like this song. This song makes
me want to be in a movie, having left behind something unhealthy for me,
and this song plays while I drive into the desert, the whind whipping my hair around
and the sun setting on my whole wasted life.
3. The Beatles - "Eleanor Rigby"
"All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?"
This song has always made me sad. It reminds me of when I was working at Superway, and all
the old people who came in, all by themselves, to buy tinned tomato soup and worcestershire sauce,
and count out their change with shaking, blue-veined hands, the women carefully smoothing
their hair after unpinning their plastic rainbonnets, the men wearing tweed hats with a small,
colour feather on one side.
There was a little old lady who used to eat in a restaurant where my parents went. She had fluffy, snow white
hair, and was always dressed immaculately. And she always sat in one corner, all by herself. Maybe we imposed these ideas of loneliness
on her and she preferred her own company. But we always referred to her as Eleanor Rigby.
4a. A clip of Samir cussing out the printer, from Office Space. Not going to count this one, but it made me smile.
4. Belle & Sebastian - "We Rule the School"
"Do something pretty while you can...
Dont be afraid."
Not much to say about this song, but I think it's really pretty. More songs should involve xylophones, don't you think?
5. Annie Lennox - "Money Can't Buy It".
"I believe that love alone might do these things for you
I believe in love alone yeah yeah..."
This entire album reminds me of the Christmas before I turned 15 and the months that followed it. I had just
been raped and lost my virginity that way, and had told nobody what had happened,
and was fighting with my violent mother constantly. I felt trapped,
terrified and furious, so tough, all the time. Jesus, I can't remember the last time
I FELT something that strongly. Adolescence is so intense...I felt every day like my heart
would explode from beauty, pain, helpless rage. I remember even
listing to music would make the sensation in me more than I could bear. Actually, it's really only music now that
can still do that to me.
I ended up living on the streets for five-six months, which was fun at first and later was not fun, and ended up with
a hospital stay. I had my walkman with me, and had gotten this tape (Annie Lennox "Diva") for Christmas from my sister,
and I listened to it constantly (unless cool people were around, in which case I switched to the Beastie Boys
or the Misfits, of course). The song "Little Bird" reminded me of me and my mum and used to make me cry, so
I used to fast forward it.
6. Tom Waits - "Swordfish Trombone"
"Well he came home from the war
with a party in his head
and an idea for a fireworks display
and he knew that he'd be ready with
a stainless steel machete
and a half a pint of Ballentine's
each day"
Tom Waits is so fucking sexy.
7. Concrete Blonde - "Joey"
"I know you've heard it all before, so I don't say it anymore...."
Sitting on the dock at the marina, the wind numbing my cheeks and whipping my hair at my face,
wearing Liam's leather jacket, two sizes too big for me and smelling like his aftershave, and having the
biggest crush on him. But I'd still wandered away from everybody. Even then, at age just-barely-fourteen,
I had this weird need to be by myself sometimes, at inopportune times. This song--this whole album--(Concrete Blonde,
"Bloodletting") on my walkman for easily two months straight.
8. Cypress Hill - "How I Could Just Kill a Man"
"Just a little sample
How I could just kill a man
One time tried to come in my home,
Take my chrome
I said, yo, its on!!"
This is on my computer for purely nostalgic purposes. Shut up.
9. Tracy Chapman - "The Promise"
"If you think of me.... If you miss me once in a while
Then I'll return to you
I'll return and fill that space in your heart "
They played this at the memorial the college put on for my sister.
I cried so hard I had to leave the room to go throw up...salt and snot running from
my throat, gagging and heaving again and again. Didn't manage to puke
up the hurt.
10. The Ramones - "The KKK Took My Baby Away".
"Ring me, ring me, ring me up the President
And find out where my baby went
Ring me, ring me, ring me up the FBI and find
Out if baby's alive yeah, yeah, yeah"
I fucking love the Ramones. They remind me of hanging out on the church steps with Kyle,
and of every funny dumb punk show I went to growing up, where whatever local band it was
would invariably do a Ramones cover. They remind me of my feet in Doc Marten boots and
my bag covered in band buttons, and they remind me of doing the radio show, retarded-tired
at 4:30 a.m., swearing on the air, and laughing til I cried.
11. Face to Face - "No Authority"
"Wouldn't you know, something is going on...wouldn't you know...
something is really wrong...BUT YOU CAN'T DO A THING ABOUT IT"
Ah, Face to Face. Has another generic punk band ever taken themselves so seriously?
I don't think so. I love them so, the big dumb dorks.
12. Mama Cass - "One Way Ticket"
"One Way Ticket, Take me anywhere....Northbound, Southbound, I don't even care....I know the grass is greener there."
I love Mama Cass. I always have, which was not a "cool" choice in high school...when the asshole
skateboarding boys I hung out with found that out, they took to calling me "Mama Beth". It's funny,
because I was chubby. Get it? Oh, those clever high school boys. And these were my <i>friends.</i>
I would not go back to high school for anything.
13. Death Cab for Cutie - Lightness
"Oh, instincts are misleading
You shouldn't think what you're feeling
They don't tell you what you know you should want."
Ben Gibbard's voice is the best thing ever. This music makes me wistful. I love it.
14. The Supremes - "Heat Wave"
"Whenever I'm with him, something inside starts to burnin', and I'm filled with desire..."
I like Motown. Yes, seriously. I love it. *shimmy shimmy shake* WOO!
15. The Geto Boys - "6 Feet Deep"
"Another homie got smoked but its no surprise
Everybodys trippin cause the boy was too young to die"
Jesus. This is the weirdest playlist ever. This song is another purely
nostalgic purposed inclusion.
16. Nada Surf - "Where is My Mind"
"Except the little fish
But they told me, he swears
Tryin' to talk to me to me to me..."
I really like this cover, which surprises me. Usually when my favouritest songs ever are covered I
am extremely hard to please.
17. Sarah Slean - "Sweet Ones"
"Come over to my house Ill tend to you solo
So fabulous and well dressed up like a talk show
They always said always said always said you were easy
If I could have just one piece of that Id be sold"
I lvoe this song. I don't know much Sarah Slean, and am actually
entirely unsure how this song got here, but I like it.
18. The Postal Service - "The District Sleeps Alone"
"I'm barely listening to last demands
I'm staring at the asphalt wondering what's buried underneath"
Again. Ben Gibbard. So good. Reminds me of getting my first car and driving at night along the ocean,
smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee.
19. Sleater-Kinney - "One More Hour"
"oh, you've got the darkest eyes..."
Sleater-Kinney fucking rock.
20. The Waterboys - "A Bang on the Ear"
"You to me are treasure...you, to me, are dear...so I send you my love, and a bang on the ear."
Again....Jenn.
Wow, this ended up being extremely embarrassing and a little sad. Heh.