Day 17 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

It's the end of June! How is that even possible? How is more than half of 2011 over? Are you all accomplishing everything you wanted to in the year 2011? Do you have a list of lofty goals that you publicly blog and then publicly don't quite live up to?

Day 17: A Song That You Hear Often On The Radio

I will admit, my time listening to the radio is pretty limited these days. I don't drive much anymore, I take a train to work, and when I'm at work I listen to CDs or podcasts. So I'm not prepared to answer this as well as I could have, say, 2 years ago when I had my old job.

I took a quick trip to the website of the radio station I used to listen to when commuting, hoping that they'd still be playing the same songs I would listen to when commuting. And many of those songs are the same. I decided to go with White Stripes' Icky Thump since I remember that song playing all the time back in those days. Maybe a little too much play? Not my call or job, but just saying...



I also think sometimes The White Stripes may be slightly overrated, but that may just be me.

Day 16 from the 30 Day Song Challenge

We're past the halfway mark! I am glad I'm doing this challenge, it's a nice way to blog and to think up inspiration. Sometimes, I find myself in a rut of things to talk about. Or I'll think "ooo I'll do a blog about all the places in Salem that have outdoor dining!" then realize "no, dummy, you did that last year."

I have some ideas to get back into the food part of my blog. I know there's a lot of other food blogs out there on the North Shore (North Shore Dish, Hello Gloucester or whatever it's called) but it's always fun to return to my college roots and write about food and the local dining culture.

Anyways...


Day 16: A Song You Used To Love And Now You Hate

This one is inspired by a day of cleaning with Ricky where he asked "why do you have Nelly Furtado's Whoa Nelly?" and me replying "because when I was in high school I loved that song so much Pete gave me the CD for Christmas".

That song got old, and I probably haven't popped that CD into its player in like 5 years. It's a song that has its charm in that it reminds me of high school and just beginning to realize what I like with music, but now I realize that it feels a little forced and contrived. There's just so much better stuff out there, but since I don't think Nelly's doing too much these days, I'm not alone in that thought.



Side note, I looked up Maneater by Nelly Furtado, and it's actually kind of catchy.

Day 15 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

Our work space is very cold, and my now cold tea isn't warming me up. I feel like a crazy person because I'm wearing a scarf and a coat right now. How do you deal with a cold shared workspace?

Day 15: A Song That Describes You

Whenever I do one of those memes and this question comes up, I usually just pick Girl by the Beatles, because I am a girl. But for this, I decided to actually think of a song. So I chose The Clash's Lost In A Supermarket, but I have no sense of direction or remembering visual locations, so there are multiple times when I'm at Target or Market Basket and have NO CLUE where I parked. Or I completely forget where food items are kept. In fact, this exact thing happened this past weekend when Ricky and I got out of a movie and had no clue where we parked.




Yep, it was a proud moment for me to be lost in the Target parking lot IN FRONT OF FRIENDS. Whoops!

Day 14 from the 30 Day Song Challenge

Part of me feels shame for posting this, and part of me does not.

Day 14: A Song No One Would Expect You To Love

My brother did this challenge on his FB, and I loved what he posted for his Day 14, which is Will Smith's Switch. Especially since I highly doubted that would have been his song. So, with that candor, I admit that I actually really get pumped up about Katy Perry's I Kissed A Girl...



And in case you were wondering (BONUS ROUND FOR DAY 14) it was between that and NWA's Straight Outta Compton...

Day 13 from the 30 Day Song Challenge

Isn't today just beautiful, if you live in Salem? The sun is shining, it's warm out. I spent some time gardening, then went to visit Jess, then Mum and Millie, and back here to surprise Ricky with a special treat for him. Oh, and I bought a lot of yarn and Lewis is running around with one of the skeins in his mouth as if it were his kill. I don't let him have yarn unattended (cats like to eat string and then it gets wrapped up in the intestines and it's bad) but sometimes I forget that I have a ball out when I'm home working on a project and he'll walk around the place as if he killed it. It's adorable.

Enough about me, onto today's music topic, which I actually love.

Day 13: A Song That Is A Guilty Pleasure

This was hard, because there's so many songs I love that I know are horrible. Ace of Base is dreadful, but when I hear It's a Beautiful Life on my iPod when I'm running, I get pumped. Meatloaf is a great power ballad for roadtrips. And so on. But for today, I went with my alltime favorite guilty pleasure.

ABBA.

I fucking love ABBA. They are award-winning*, after all. But they're so great. I've told Ricky if we ever got hitched, ABBA has to play at the reception at least twice. For today, I went with my favorite of their songs, SOS. I love the way the song sounds, but also check out this insane video. The girls are wearing CAT DRESSES. No, I stand corrected. They're T SHIRTS THAT ARE BELTED AND THERE ARE CATS ON THE SHIRTS.



It so embraces how cheesy it is. I love it. I also play this song at work all the time without shame. Loves you, ABBA.



*Eurovision, bitches.

Day 12 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

It's been a stressful week, so I'm happy I can take a few minutes to rant about a band I don't like.

Day 12: A Song From A Band You Hate

I think the word hate might be a bit too strong with this post, but it's still a good chance to rant about bad music. I really really dislike The Dave Matthews Band. A lot. All that jamming, frat boy at UConn trying to be alternative shit bugs me. I also clump Matchbox 20 and Phish into this ranting, even though I know their music doesn't really sound similar. But yeah. I can't stand Dave Matthews Band.

Friends of mine growing up in high school loved DMB and would wait up for the new album to be streamed on the radio, or go see their shows a million times. So awful. I honestly can't say I like any of their songs or would spend money on a concert.

This band was just coming into its own when I was ending high school, so a lot of "you're graduating" montages featured a DMB song or two. And definitely a fair share of summer mixes from friends and playlists and road trips. I'm happy to say it seems we've all grown up from that.

I chose Everyday, because this music video is also incredibly STUPID. (It was between Everyday and The Space Between, but really, either one could have worked) The guy is hugging strangers, and the commenters are eating it up. It's not deep or uplifting. The dude's hugging people. THAT'S IT. Then listen to the lyrics "all you need is all you want is love"... WHAT?!? That's not as profound as you want it to be Dave. And the Beatles did that in the 60's.



I will say the only highlight is that the actor in it is Judah Friedlander. And who doesn't love some Judah Friedlander?

Day 11 from the 30 Day Song Challenge

Yesterday I went to my college's 5 Year Reunion. It was both wonderful and bizarre and bittersweet and hilarious all at once. I will probably post soon about how you can never go back to a moment in time -- even if all your friends are there and you are at the place of that moment -- but how it's also nice to try and revisit every now and again. The campus is as beautiful as always, and walking around it telling stories with someone who didn't go there was a nice experience. Ricky was impressed I walked up and down that hill for four years, that I could traverse from one end of campus to the other in 10 minutes if need be, and how fun my friends can be when together. This year, I'm going to three HC weddings, so I think 2011 will have a lot of college nostalgia in it.

But anyways, that's for another post. Today we're cover this:

Day 11: A Song From Your Favorite Band

That's the Beatles, but because I feel like it's easy to do a Beatles song, I'll do one from my favorite Beatle, George Harrison. I recently dug out All Things Must Pass to give it a good listen, and it was great. I like returning to a record after years, gives it new perspective and new ears, like I'm listening to it all over again.

I chose If Not For You, which I've always thought was a very sweet and pretty love song. I also put this on a mix for Ricky when we first started dating, so it has special meaning for that way as well.

Day 10 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

There's a mouse at work! He's been running around here all morning, trying to get out or get to food. He's tiny and a little sad, but it's still a little stressful. Tim thinks we should name him Mr. Nibblecheese and make him our mascot. I think not so much.

Day 10: A Song That Makes You Fall Asleep

Radiohead's No Surprises is so beautiful and mellow and peaceful. If I can't fall asleep, I listen to it and it mellows me out.

Day 9 of the 30 Day Song Challenge

It's pretty intense out, and I think we'll be getting some bad thunderstorms. Lewis is worried that the house is going to go up in the air, we'll land over the rainbow, and all of a sudden I'll start wearing more colors. I told him no matter what happens, Mum will always wear earth tones.

Day 9: A Song You Can Dance To

Ricky and I have spent a lot of time talking about songs you can dance to this week. A friend of mine is having an iPod wedding, and a few years ago I was on TBTL discussing iPod weddings. Ricky and I would have one ourselves, and then made a list of songs we wanted to dance to. One that we both agreed had to be there was Don't Stop Til You Get Enough by MJ. Obvs.




And if you want to see the full list from my iPod wedding playlist, click here. Really, you could dance to any of those songs.