Day 8 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

I just spent almost 2+ hours on the phone with Comcast to hook up my wireless router. As you can see, it was successful in that I now have wireless internet. As you can also see, it was a bitch and half since it took over 2 hours. But I'm pleased that I was successful and have a new friend in Shane the possible Canadian who sat with me for an hour, determined to get me my nets.

Day 8: A Song That You Know All The Words To

This one was an easy choice, so I fondly remember studying this cassette tape when I was super little (like 7) practicing the words and hitting rewind on my cassette player to relisten to it. So it has to be They Might Be Giant's Birdhouse In Your Soul.





Side note, I also know the words to that intro, but that doesn't count because I would have skipped it to just listen to Birdhouse In Your Soul, but the limitations of 1990's technology didn't allow me to.

Garden 2011

Today I planted the garden! I must say, it was nice not having to drag all my stuff up to the third floor like I did at my old apartment. Still a container garden, because we have no land. For my birthday, Ricky got me the book The City Homesteader by Scott Meyer, to give me other ideas on what to garden and how to have a country lifestyle in a city. Definitely a good read, I recommend checking it out. Because of this book, I'm expanding into more veggies, such as three varieties of pepper, eggplant, and miniature cucumbers. All three I read were good for containers, so here's hoping.

I'm also excited about all the herbs I'm growing, because I love fresh herbs and it'll make all our meals this summer that much tastier. The list of herbs was inspired by Apartment Therapy's list of the Top 10 Herbs to grow. Normally I just do basil and rosemary, but I decided to try others to make for a more flavorful summer. Going to be great!

Above are my three pepper plants (along with the pot I've designated for all our smoker friends to put their cigarettes so they don't dirty the walkway) and below are my herbs (back to front basil x 3, dill, mint lavender, cilantro, thyme) and veggies (back to front miniature cucumber and Japanese eggplant). Not featured are my parsley and my rosemary plants.

I also have some flowers, beans, and radishes growing from seeds, so it's just dirt right now and not very exciting. The book says multiple times that radishes are very quick to produce, so I'm hoping to have a few batches of them.

I'll be posting pictures as they grow along with my bounty. Hope that they turn out nice, the squirrel next door doesn't eat everything, and that they all taste good. I also can't wait to sit out on my porch around my plants and enjoy it all summer long. Something I definitely missed when I lived in that studio, and one of my favorite parts of this new apartment.

Day 7 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

Dance, postcards, dance!

It's Sunday morning. Ricky's watching The Killing On Demand and Lewis is running around everywhere, trying to get into things. Little does he know he's going to the groomer in a few hours to get his nails clipped and to visit the shelter where we adopted him from. They haven't seen him since he was a wee bit of a thing, and now he's almost 6 months. Little guy's getting so big!

Day 7: A Song That Reminds You Of A Certain Event

I think maybe because of my upcoming college reunion, and even a little bit of yesterday's post, but I've been thinking a bit more about college this weekend. I think for my Event, I will choose a song from my first full-length directing piece, The Wedding On The Eiffel Tower. To this day, it's my proudest accomplishment when it comes to theatre.

I made a really unique piece, while a lot of it was my work and ideas, another big part of it was a huge collaboration. Pete had inspired a lot of the music choices, and Erin and Danielle (both castmembers) had suggested pieces that made the cut. This great girl named Jen choreographed the whole thing. And while a lot of it was structured, I gave a lot of room for my actors to improv and create on their own. It was a lot of building up for me, but also a lot of letting go to make the performances what they could be. A huge lesson for myself.

I've been thinking about Eiffel Tower a lot more recently, too, when Erin got engaged in Paris. Originally it was supposed to be by the Eiffel Tower, but apparently it's too many people there to safely propose.

Of all the songs, I think I'll do the big dance number, which was Frank Zappa's Peaches En Regalia. All the postcards danced during this, and it was very funky and cool. I think Erin even still remembers parts of the dance.

Day 6 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

I seem to have lost some steam with this, and I apologize. Classes started this week at school, so it was a lot of busy time with the kids. Also, the Bruins were playing a lot of playoff hockey, which took up my evening free time. They're in the Stanley Cup Finals now, but I'll still make sure I have time for this.

Day 6: A Song That Reminds You Of Somewhere

This one has been difficult, I think. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my undergrad experience at HC. My five-year reunion is coming up next weekend (eek!) and I realized that I graduated from college five years ago on Thursday, May 26. I've done a lot in five years, and yet at the same time it seems like yesterday that I was sitting in Kimball Dining Hall with Erin and Tim. I've gone back a few times since then, mainly for plays and one Commencement, but it's not the same. College on a campus is such a special time, and you really can't recapture that. This is not to say it was the best four years of my life -- because I think it's sad to have peaked at 22 -- but it was a memorable and special four years.

But the remembering part hasn't been the difficult part... it's the decision of what song! Do I pick my college song, O Holy Cross? Do I pick songs I used for theatre pieces I directed? Do I pick a song that friends turned me onto?

So I think for this post, knowing that a lot of music played a big part of my college life, I will pick Float On by Modest Mouse. That album came out in the middle of college, and I feel like Float On played pretty much every weekend, at whatever party or hang out I was on, and we'd all sing the lyrics. And whenever I hear those opening notes and guitar strums, I can think of various groups of friends in a dorm or a party singing it. This is one of those songs that no matter who I was with, too, they'd love that album. So don't you worry, we'll all float on.

Day 5 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

Ricky's watching The Big Chill right now on TV, and before I go join him I wanted to post today's, since I had been thinking about it all day long and decided that this would be the best option for the day.

Day 5: A Song That Reminds You Of Someone

Perhaps it's because we just bought some concert tickets, and also because my brothers, mom, and I have been talking about this band a lot lately, I chose Other 99 by Big Audio Dynamite. While my brothers and I were brought up on The Clash, we were almost brought up more by Big Audio Dynamite. We knew all the songs by heart, danced to them, and still quote them. BAD is coming to The House of Blues in August, and we all jumped at the chance to get tickets. (yep, going to a show at the House of Blues with my mom. Deal with it, Cate Blanchett)

Whenever I hear a snippet of a BAD song, I think of being little and growing up with my brothers and my mom. Every day we thank the music Gods that my mom is cool and taught us to love and appreciate good music, and that we don't know much about Top 40 except for what we learned in college. But we know all about The Cars, BAD, The Clash, Elvis Costello, and so on.

I've always loved the beat to Other 99, and find myself quoting it often. Everything's not always great, sometimes it's just fine. I ain't with the 100 crowd, I'm with the 99.

And you can bet that when they play this song in August, I will be dancing my little heart out.



And BONUS ROUND! the live version

Day 4 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

There was a bit of a hiatus, since I went to a wedding over the weekend and work was busy. More on the wedding later. I was also hesitant to post this day's song with the happiness over the weekend.

Day 4: A Song That Makes You Sad

This was an easy choice, unfortunately. More than any song, The Beatles' In My Life has been linked to sad times in my life. But I also feel like that's the case for everyone. Who hasn't heard this song at a graduation or a funeral?

I've heard this song at both, and in very sad contexts. When Jack died, his sister did the eulogy. She read the lyrics to this song at the end, and there was not a dry eye in the church. And a year earlier, when Ms Wieditz my high school music teacher disappeared on a scuba diving trip and was never found again, at both her memorial concert and the graduation the year after she passed away the chorus sang this song in honor of her. Both were filled with emotion, sweetness, and this pang of premature loss.

And while the song tries to keep an upbeat message at the end -- that despite all the loss and comings and goings we experience in live, I'll always remember and love you the most of all -- remembering this song in the context of that loss makes me very sad. There were many years where I couldn't even listen to that song without welling up. With time, that reaction has become less intense, but whenever I think of it, I think of those two people and get quite sad and nostalgic.

Day 3 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

Yesterday was a brief hiatus in this challenge, because I wasn't at a computer until late at night, and was too tired to think of songs. But I am well rested and back at it. And this is a great choice for today.

Day 3: A Song That Makes You Happy

No, I will not be choosing "If It Makes You Happy".

When I'm stressed, I often turn to music. And the last few weeks/months have been very stressful. So I've been listening to a lot of upbeat, happy, and genuinely fun songs as of late.

The one I'm choosing to highlight is MGMT's Art Is Everywhere. They wrote it and performed it for the TV show Yo Gabba Gabba, which I've sung the praises of in the past. I like that it's under 2 minutes, has a nice message, a fun beat, but is also kind of relaxed, too. Definitely recommend checking out the songs that have been on Yo Gabba Gabba, since it's just as much for adults as it is for children. They make a nice random song on a mix, too.

Day 2 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

I have this whole week off, so I'm hoping to bang out a few of these before going back to work.

Day 2: Your Least Favorite Song

This was also difficult because just like there are so many shitty, awful songs out there. I had even written a note on Facebook a few years back highlighting my top 10 least favorite songs. I reviewed it to see if any stood out for this... and they did. But the question was: which one to choose??

I decided on Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline, for a host of reasons. I've found the simple tune annoying for years. There was all this hype about revealing who the song's about... and it was Caroline Kennedy, which is kind of lame. It's overplayed at Sox games and has NOTHING TO DO WITH SPORTS OR BOSTON. I could go on and on.

So Neil, enjoy this brief moment in the sun and on my blog, because I don't see it happening again in the foreseeable future.

The 30 Day Song Challenge

Many people on Facebook have been doing this, which I always think is cool because it shows a lot of insight into who they are. Plus, the backstory is always very interesting. Now that Commencement is over and the summer should be less stressful, I think it's time to start my own 30 Day Song Challenge.

That being said, I can about 99% guarantee I will not post this daily, but I can guarantee that every day I do post, one of the posts will be this. I don't want this to become Springtime NaBloPoMo.

(side note, Lewis has been the craziest kitten in the world today, knocking over my CD rack not once but twice. This may also have inspired me to write about music)


Day 1: Your Favorite Song
This one is really hard, since I have so many favorite songs. It's also based on mood, time of day, where I am in my headspace, and onward. What to pick??

I think for this, I will have to go with Arcade Fire's "Rebellion (Lies)" because when I first heard that album, I cried pretty much start to finish at the beauty of it, that song gets me fired up, and I love the message. And A week doesn't go by where I fire up Funeral and play at least 2 tracks off of it.