Music, part 1.

I should've updated the lyrics quiz, but I went to visit my girlfriend and forgot all about it. And besides, many of the songs were admittendly more obscure than usual, since I was at the mercy of iTunes for selection. So here are the answers.

( The First Twenty-Five Songs on My AirTunes Were . . . )

Music, Part 2

If you're paying attention, you know that this is not a time I am normally awake. Don't worry, I'm not working tonight, or doing much of anything else. But I actually planned to get to bed early. That failed for many reason, and they are all music.

Obviously, I've been getting my music collection onto my computer, and off of the hundreds of cds I own, but that's been going on for a while. As I finish getting the music in, I've been playing around more with playlists. Yesterday, I created playlists for all of the songs that are people's names ("Clementine", "Lobachevsky," "Mr. Jones," "Suzanne"). Today, I saw thedan's EP available, and I downloaded that. Which reminded me to doanload lunchboy's songs. And then I was playing around with the Apple Music Store. And then I was playing around with mix CD stuff. And soon it was not only late, but I couldn't get to sleep when I tried.

I'm actually excited about this.

After a very bad break-up in 2000, I stopped listening to music. I do mean that for a few months, I couldn't really stand to listen to music. I switched all of my car stations from music to talk, and though I kept my CDs with me, I didn't much listen to them.

As time went by, I slowly started listening to more and more music. A lot of it happened at work. I started playing Launch and streaming radio stations. I still listened to talk radio in the car, though, and I rarely tapped into my music collection while I was at home. At home, TV was my talk radio, and it was on all the time.

I wasn't anti-music for five years, but it wasn't as essential as it had been. The project that's keeping me engaged and awake is a mix tape filled with songs that remind me of past relationships. And seems so strange that the idlest crushes from high school have songs that clearly attach to them, but my more recent, more real relationships are musically blank. I think about the time, the emotions, the arguments, the dates, but I can't hear any music.

I'm only now starting to feel like I'm listening to music the way I listened to music back then. I'm flipping from song to song as one reminds me of the other. I'm letting it move me emotionally. I'm craving certain sounds, certain atmospheres. I'm taking notes when I hear something I like so I can find it later. I'm reaching out in all directions for things I haven't heard before.

So sing, Muse, of a new era of music for Tablesaw. May it sound as good tomorrow as it does today.