Sunday, November 06, 2005

the soundtrack of my sunday (morning)...

sunday is my monday. often this thought induces sighs of pity from my acquaintances/friends for my benefit. but it shouldn't. rest assured i would have it no other way.

(as i gather myself together and head out the door)
all of you pretty girls
as rendered by crash test dummies
from A Testimonial Dinner: A Tribute to XTC - a cd j and grabbed for 3 pound in bath
bath where my best friend is right now!


sunday may be my monday, but my that makes thursday my friday. we weekend is still a weekend, and what's more i have all afternoon friday while the other corporate serfs are still tucked safely in their cubicles to get my errands done crowd-free and enjoy matinee cinema prices.

(confronted by amazing early fall weather on this mid-fall morning walk to the station)
we become silhouettes as rendered by the shins
from the m.o.t.d.... crap-i-can't-remember-the-whole-sequence mix cd that this one made for me ages ago
better than the original i think (blasphemy! some might say)

extra added bonus: sunday's a short day for us. we open two hours later, but still get set free at the same ole 5pm.

(again with the pedestrian-hating. this time a guy in a big red work truck. que serra)
letter from an occupant by the new pornographers
also from a mix from a friend
it was stuck in my head all friday
hee... i almost wore my dirty panda shirt today

anyway, not to make this one of those posts about my ipod, but ultimately this is gonna be a post about my ipod.

(rounding the corner to hit madison ave, almost in the home stretch of my trek, wondering, "wait - should i be walking with or against traffic?")
those crimson tears by the ever-underrated ed harcourt
i bought here be monsters two years ago at the little 5 halloween fest... and yet i feel i am hearing this song for the first time

i am hooked on the ipod's shuffle function, but as of late i have getting a bit miffed. see, every time the battery is exhausted the random generator starts all over. so if before i made it 212 songs into a list of 675, i am now going to hear a good 150 of those same tracks when i start it again...

(starting to break a sweat finally, wishing i'd filled my water bottle)
have you forgotten? by red house painters
from songs for a blue guitar which played incessantly for three months in my office at that theatre on elizabeth street until i got that george harrison album for christmas


yesterday i was determined to get the new supergrass album loaded on. inspiration struck and i then proceeded to spend the next 2.5 hours completely remodeling my song list.

(amazed at how empty the train station feels, even for a sunday at 10am... i don't even see any attendants)
don't show me heaven by jason falkner
i love you, mr. falkner. through jellyfish to this author unknown album through to the beatles lullaby albums i sleep to when i am forced to sleep alone


- wait - tangent - sorry. can i please tell you how excited i was on friday afternoon when i got to criminal to purchase aforementioned road to rouen and was met with the gaze of an adorable boy at the counter on whom my smile had unwittingly done it magic. i am kinda cute, i admit that. but i never think of myself as some striking beauty queen or anything. so it feels really good to look up and see a look of clear adoration/attraction like that. makes a girl feel pretty. thank you, mr record store clerk.

(realizing i will have plenty of time to contemplate the odd juxtaposition of the cold feel of concrete and weird urine smell with the too-loud classical music that the station's atmosphere offers this morning)
somewhere else by travis
from 12 memories
"hear a song and sing along, but what does it bring?"


back to my point - i went on a mission to eliminate as many of those 150 that keep repeating as possible, no matter how much i love their composers. "the legionnaire's lament" GONE. "get balsamic vinegar!" GONE. even the fab four held no exemption. "wait" "here there and everywhere" "dr. robert" GONE GONE GONE.

(maybe if i read my book the time would pass faster, but who wants to be depressed by Rabbit Angstrom on such a beautiful day if they can avoid it?)
big mouth strike again as rendered by placebo
from the covers album... poor becca the night this finally arrived in my hands... and our poor neighbors


i made room for suede and the lucksmiths. i renovated my blur list. i forced myself to trim arab strap down to 10 measley songs.

(more waiting, getting chillier)
what you do to me - teenage fan club
lowell, MA - death cab
a night like this - the cure


it was the first real quality time i had spent with itunes in our 2 months together so far. still didn't get around to fixing things like it's seemingly arbitrary genre assignments (ex: franz ferninand as "classic rock" and xtc as "polka") or rating the new listings, but i felt better acquainted with my abbey when all was said and done.

(rummaging about my paratrooper bag for my notebook to crudely start this very post)
bedshaped by keane
this was one of those 150 the pod kept repeating before my mass overhaul yesterday


this morning, of course, was the moment of truth.

(transfer point)
song for a blue guitar by red house painters
i am convinced my this player loves mark kozelek maybe even more than i do

a mile walk ahead of me and who knows how many minutes to pass in transit. my policy being that i do not remove my player from my bag anywhere throughout the journey if i can help it. even if it's just a cheapo 4G mini, i still don't like to advertise. those stupid white earphones do that well enough on their own...


(more waiting, but this time in an atmosphere of dull 70's era orange and a constant repetition of announcements about single-tracking, the airport, and you)
catwalk by beat happening (from njg's hipster bingo mix)
late in the day by these guys who may look familiar


so once it's going there's no escaping the will of the shuffle generator.

(my good day takes its first dark turn as a woman pushes me out of her way that she might beat we other passengers to a seat by getting on before anyone has had a chance to get off... "hey, lady. how about letting them off first?" i sounded like an old construction worker... sheesh)
every planet we reach is dead - gorillaz


to learn that my time and energy were not spent in vain... to have my sunday morning routine soundtracked by a playlist that only made me smile - kind of - was a relief and a joy.

(an overwhelming lethargy hits me and i can feel the movement of the train trying to lull me into a REM state)
apology song by the decemberists
just as i spot a guy with a bike at the other end of the car

and my love of my ipod was rejuvenated.

(resuming travels on foot)
how to be dead by snow patrol
remember when this blog was like a gary lightbody fansite? i am totally remembering why...


as nik says... it speaks to me. and clearly it was saying it was tired of those old tunes too.

(the edge drones his warning again....)
"don't travel on trains"
numb - u2

1 Comments:

At 9:42 PM, Blogger Nicole said...

that was fun readin's!

i felt extra excited when "i" got worked into the shuffle. is that silly?

 

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