23 Years Ago (Day 196)

The Beatles - "Yellow Submarine" (1969)
Ry Cooder - "Christmas In Southgate" (2007)
Chin Up Chin Up - "Collide The Tide" (2004)
Y'all Is Fantasy Island - "The Walk Home" (2008)
Townes Van Zandt - "Standin'" (1972)
Paul Westerberg - "23 Years Ago" (2004)
Hüsker Dü - "What's Going On" (1984)
Umm, first of all...




No, seriously. It was nice to see my handful of blog pals immediately welcome me back. I hope I don't let you guys down like my iPod did this AM. The slim charge remaining only got me 2/3 of the way through this (awesome) Hüsker Dü song, and short of my office door. (Hey, there are ambient sounds in the city. Who knew?) Kind of a minor clunker of a playlist for my second day back, with a couple of those songs that just prove that 60GB is too much storage. Y'all Is Fantasy? That's got to be one of those blog-endorsed things I downloaded without much thought because really what the heck is it? It's 3:15 of ambient soundtrack music, that's what it is. And Chin Up Chin Up? Meh. Thank god for Townes Van Zandt. No, seriously, thank god for Townes Van Zandt. (I'd really like a T-shirt that says that.) Okay, so added bonus today. Notice I added the release date of each of the songs. I did this because I had a conversation with a friend this morning who told me he finally listened to and loved the Fleet Foxes (naturally). I'd recommended them because he'd been bemoaning the lack of good new music. He's one of those classic rock-loving dudes (not that there's anything wrong with that), who hasn't had the time/inclination/desire to seek out new music. But this got me wondering about the average age of the music I listen to. Unfortunately, this is a flawed statistic because as I've mentioned in this space before, most of the music on my iPod is newer, downloaded stuff, not the stacks of CDs and records I've been amassing since I was 12. But since this blog is really all about useless information, here you go. The average year of the songs on today's playlist is: 1993.

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 7
Total minutes of music (approx.): 27
Song with the most previous plays: "23 Years Ago" - 7
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 5
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: The sign on the muffins at the cafe this morning read: Fresh Baked. And, holy shit, my apple cinnamon muffin was still warm when I got to the office! Now that's truth in advertising.

Blossom (Day 195)

The Beastie Boys - "Professor Booty"
Y'all Is Fantasy Island - "Army Card"
Wilco - "Someday Soon"
Interpol - "Pace Is The Trick"
Liz Phair - "Explain It To Me"
Wilco - "Kingsport Town" (live)
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - "Blossom"
Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - "The Charging Sky"
Imperial Teen - "Everything"
Rilo Kiley - "A Better Son/Daughter"
Franz Ferdinand - "Twilight Omens"
I'm going to start back slow - - don't want to pull a muscle. Here's today's playlist. I'm going to renew my efforts to post what I listened to on my way to work each day. Other brilliant nuggets of wisdom to follow. Fingers crossed.

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 11
Total minutes of music (approx.): 44
Song with the most previous plays: "Blossom" - 10
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 7
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: I didn't see a single NYC commuter wearing a surgical mask.

I Started Something I Couldn't Finish (Day 194)

KT Tunstall - "Other Side Of The World"
Cat Power - "Willie"
The Smiths - "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
Umm, I suppose that this could be the permanent subtitle of this blog - - sadly. But don't abandon me completely... Keep me on your reader. It may not be every day, but I will still continue to update this space. But can you blame me for being preoccupied? Digital world is so crazy, yo! So many distractions. (That's without even getting into the upcoming baseball season.) Look, I'm Twittering a bit. If you need a fix try following me there. (Please, I have, like, no followers.) Then there's this blip.fm thing I just discovered which can only be described as a music Twitter. (Whatever that means...) Anyone can sign on and become a DJ and suggest or "blip" songs to followers, or in this case, listeners. (I literally have no listeners, so please sign up. I'm "gemmanuel" over there.) Could be fun, no? And who knows, perhaps by the next time I blog (boy, that suddenly sounds antiquated) we could be conversing in a virtual world as avatars. What's that, you say? You can already do that...?

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 3
Total minutes of music (approx.): 14
Song with the most previous plays: "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" - 7
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 5
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: Short playlist due to subway socializing. When will people ever learn I need to listen to music in the AM! (I kid, Scott, I kid.)