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Tag Archives: Song of the Week
Where IS My Mind? My Return, My Headspace, and the Song of the Week…
It’s been a while.
Partly this was due to a very enjoyable New York vacation (thanks again, Phil & Angie, with a drunken shout-out to Ross), partly due to a general psychological crunch brought on by a major health scare (which proved to be false, thank the gods) and the last radioactive traces of the break-up I’d been trying to fix for way too long, partly due to what seems to be a normalization process in my brain after the giddy trauma of electroshock therapy.
I’ve been out of town and off my game. And most definitely off track.
But, I’m back. I’m healthy. My heart is healed, if still grieving at the loss of someone who would be a fine friend (but who, in truth, I think was right about our romantic incompatibility…the signs were there all along, I just chose to ignore them). And the worst of the crazy brought on by my ECT treatments seems to have receded, leaving me still better able to deal with my demon depression, but not an emotional basket case. It’s like my spine has returned from sabbatical. I am again myself. Mostly. I think.
Now it’s time to get back to work. I’m renewing my commitment to my On Track program, formally beginning this coming Monday. And I’m going to be fine-tuning it some, based on my earlier experiences (for instance, I’m upping my daily minimum word count for writing to 1,000 rather than 500).
Also, I should be on here more again. I hope you’ll join me.
In the meantime, here’s the first Song of the Week in a while, a haunting and lovely piano cover of the Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind” by Maxence Cyrin.
“What A Wonderful World” (Song of the Week 7/4/11)
It is a wonderful world. I hope to have a lot more time to experience its magic with those I love.
Dancing Under An Outlaw Moon
I’ve made a YouTube playlist of most of the Songs of the Week and other music I’ve shared on this blog (89 videos in the list at this writing), and will add new entries as I feature new tunes in the future. Of course you’ll need to find individual posts themselves to see what comments, embarassing overshares, memories, or funny thoughts I originally shared with the various tunes.
The link (which is also in the blog’s sidebar, under “Special Stuff”), is:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLBA769A23F4B98284
“Fireflies” (Song of the Week, 6/20/11)
My depression is rearing to tell me it hasn’t been vanquished for good, but I’m not gonna let it take over things anymore. This Owl City song reminds me of a really happy time, and it makes me hopeful. Plus, it just makes me smile and want to dance.
“If You Ever Did Believe” (Song of the Week 6/13/11)
Song speaks for itself. :)
“Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen w/ Melissa Etheridge (Song of the Week, 6/6/2011)
A wonderful duet of my favorite song, offered up this week for all of you folks willing to take a chance on a dream…
If you don’t do it, you won’t do it.
“I” (Song of the Week, 5/30/2011)
In celebration of the official start of my (self-created) “Getting On Track” program, in which I’m trying to drag my battered self out of the wastelands of depression, today’s song is an anthem from KISS called “I”…
“First of May” (Song of the Week, Beltane 2011) [NSFW]
To my pagan friends, and anyone else of good will, I wish you all a happy Beltane.
I had hoped to celebrate properly this year, as in the Jonathan Coulton song below, but ’twas unfortunately not to be. I hope your day is more enjoyable.
“On Every Street” (Song of the Week, 4/25/2011)
This song always gets under my skin.
Tunnel of Love (Song of the Week, 4/18/2011)
Fat man sitting on a little stool
Takes the money from my hand while his eyes take a walk all over you
Hands me the ticket smiles and whispers good luck
Cuddle up angel cuddle up my little dove
We’ll ride down baby into this tunnel of love
I can feel the soft silk of your blouse
And them soft thrills in our little fun house
Then the lights go out and it’s just the three of us
You me and all that stuff were so scared of
Gotta ride down baby into this tunnel of love
There’s a crazy mirror showing us both in 5-d
I’m laughing at you you’re laughing at me
There’s a room of shadows that gets so dark brother
Its easy for two people to lose each other in this tunnel of love
It ought to be easy ought to be simple enough
Man meets woman and they fall in love
But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough
And you’ve got to learn to live with what you can’t rise above if you want to ride on down in through this tunnel of love…
Little Red Hiding Hood (Song of the Week, 4/11/2011)
- Woof.
My favorite fairy tale, though I’m a passionate believer that the wolf should get the girl.
Chain Lightnin’ (Song of the Week, 3/28/2011)
Huge thunder storm right now, here in lovely Decatur, in the wee hours, and I’m awake not because of my all too frequent insomnia, nor because of the storm itself, but because the weather service decided it was really important that people in the middle of a thunder storm know that they’re in the middle of a thunder storm, even at 3:27 am on a Monday morn.
So my phone, which is also my alarm (standing vigil till it has to awaken me at the now seemingly less ungodly hour of 5 am) starts vibrating loudly (the ringer being muted). And the buzzing drags me out of dreams, and I cannot return.
It’d be nice if I could set the emergency system to call me only if there’s an actual freaking threat, like a tornado, and not when there’s just another thunderstorm. But, alas, no.
Still, sitting here typing in the dark morning with thunder shaking the firmament, the susurration of rain, and flashes of lightning through the open blinds is pretty damn cool.
I was going to offer up the classic Jackson Browne song “You Love the Thunder,” but it’s apparently not available anywhere online. I could change machines, dig up off my iPod, upload it…but nah. Instead, here’s the second tune that came to mind, .38 Special’s “Chain Lightnin’,” which I always loved back in high school.
Stay dry out there. Unless, you know, havin’ sex.
Cliffhanger Music (Song of the Week, 3/21/2011)
To commemorate my new monthly column on pulp, which debuts today at Inveterate Media Junkies, here’s John Williams’s perfect cliffhanger background music from Raiders of the Lost Ark…
And as a bonus, here’s Taylor Dayne’s “Original Sin,” the Jim “I Wrote All Meat Loaf’s Best Songs” Steinman creation used for the Alec Baldwin version of The Shadow…
The Galway Girl (Song of the Week, 3/16/2011)
Just in time for St. Patty’s Day, radiant Irish accordionist Sharon Shannon joins Steve Earle on his great song “The Galway Girl…”
In Your Room (Song of the Week, 2/7/11)
You know who you are.
“Hey” by The Pixies (Song of the Week, 1/31/11)
A pair of fetching Israeli girls do one of the only homemade music videos (of someone else’s song) I’ve ever seen that’s not only worth watching but pretty darn incredible.
“Jenny/867-5309” Live (Song of the Week, 1/24/11)
Just because. ;)
Jaded (Song of the Week, 1/17/11)
I first saw the video for Aerosmith’s “Jaded” years ago, in the midst of a loveless marriage, overcome by my depression, feeling utterly cut off from the primal charge of life and from the world outside.
The video, which tells the tale of a young woman living an artificial life, similarly out of touch with the marrow of existence, moved me incredibly. Eyes might’ve gotten misty. I watched it repeatedly, seeing in it what I’d lost, and trying to use it to inspire me in finding it again.
It’s a well-crafted, beautiful video for a fun song, and as I renew my offensive against my depression today, and once more try to find that doorway into the world, it’s once again a rousing call to life.
Snow Is Lightly Falling (Song of the Week, 1/10/11)
Someone dumped Alaska on Decatur last night. I half expect Sarah Palin to show up trying to slaughter our squirrels and steal medicine from our sick children.
Overnight we had a phenomenal snowfall here in Decatur, and at 7 am it’s still falling. It must be 5-6 inches deep out there.
Nathaniel and I took Boone for a walk in it last night, and it was incredible. By the time we returned to the apartment (and we were only out maybe 15 minutes), I had at least half an inch of snow layered on the brim of my fedora.
Boone, who is a big goofy St. Bernard/English Pointer mix (we call him a Point Bernard), was delighted, snorfeling about, leaping in the air, and wrestling with us.
In honor of this great, white, schoolless snow day, I present to you this song of the week, by Nightnoise.
Under An Outlaw Moon 