"Show a little faith, there's magic in the night..."

Since I can't seem to choke out any substantive posts, I'm recycling...enjoy this, from April 2007.

When I was a college senior, I took a course titled “Fielding and Byron.” I remember telling my professor something along the lines of, “I just can’t get into Tom Jones.” She looked down at me and replied, “You’re not old enough, not ready. Read it when you’re thirty and we’ll talk.”

I was insulted. How condescending! A sophisticated 21-year-old English major like me – well versed in the ways of the world…I could write my own damn picaresque based on the last two years alone...if she only knew – was “old enough” for anything she could throw at me. I even wrote my major essay on “Tom’s Naiveté.” That'll show her…

…that I was the queen of Unintentional Irony. She was, as usual, right, even though I “got into it” quite well just three years later. That professor has been a colleague and is now a friend, and we had a big laugh about that exchange a few years ago when I reminded her of it. Sometimes you’re not ready for a book; it’s just that simple. And sometimes you’re ready again, and again, and again and it’s new every time.

While we may well be able to do dispassionate analyses of our favorite flavor of art (and – burn me as a heretic – sometimes I doubt that we can ever put ourselves outside our analyses), and while we may be ashamed to admit it, we do see ourselves in books, paintings, songs. As a writer, I struggle with taking myself out of the work so a reader can put himself into it. But this entry is getting away from me.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably old enough to remember records. The kind you played on a turntable. The kind you stacked on a spindle and let drop while you lay on your bed and thought about your life in all its miseries and triumphs. Maybe this is something only girls do, but I doubt it. I know enough audiophile men to suspect otherwise. Perhaps you’re back there in your head right now, thinking of a particular song.

If so, track it down soon and play it. Listen to it the way you did back then. Notice the differences in the places it touches you, in the messages it holds. Let go of the part of your intellect that says, “Well, this line doesn’t exactly capture my existential ennui” or “You think your heart is broken now, singer, wait until you express those feelings to the person in question and see how you feel then.” Close your eyes. Be patient. It’s going to be a very different song, but the experience of listening while open to reverie is liberating.

I Don't Sleep, I Dream

As promised, here’s a meme to tide you over during my paralytic hiatus. I resist memes, because I worry that readers will consider me the bloggic version of an email chain letter about angels or something. I stole this one from Molly, though, because her version was so damned entertaining; mine isn't, so much.

I’ve tried to complete it about five times, most recently a week ago. It was oh so hard not to cheat and move things around and redo it five or six times like a monkey in a room with a typewriter trying to replicate Faulkner's novels. Nothing like a procrastinating writer.   Yesterday, I forced myself to work with the most recent version, painstakingly looking up lyrics and excerpting the most poignant snippets. Then I thought, "What a barf-worthy load of crap."

F*uck it, it’s a meme, what?

I have happy music on my iPod, too! I am not suicidal, nor am I on the brink of divorce (that I know of). But it was kind of a glum day when I created that list. And the songs reinforced my moody blues, although none of them were by that band. Who needs that?

So I switched from my iPod to “Party Shuffle” in iTunes and decided to leave the analysis up to you. You’ll find some odd stuff here, at least one song I haven’t ever heard, covers by odd singers, and more Elvis Costello than you might expect. And returning readers know that I am married and have a child, rendering those questions ambiguous, at best.

Wanna play? Here are the rules... Please let me know if you decide to participate. I am tagging Lori, What I Saw Today, and Old Roman Symbol. You’re It! Or should it be “You All Are Them”?

1. Put your music player on shuffle. 

2. Press forward with each question. 

3. Use the song title as the answer to the question - EVEN if it doesn't make any sense whatsoever - NO CHEATING!!!

For each question, I’ve included the song title and artist that iTunes belched up as a "response." Make of this what you will.

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY? 
 “Burned” Neil Young

WHAT'S YOUR OUTLOOK ON LIFE?
 “Fallen” k.d. lang

WHAT DOES YOUR FAMILY THINK OF YOU? “Atomic” Blondie

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU “Goin’ Nowhere” Chris Isaak

WHAT DO STRANGERS THINK OF YOU?
 “Your Smilin’ Face” James Taylor

WHAT DO YOUR EXES THINK OF YOU?
 “Like an Angel Passing Through” Anne Sofie von Otter and Elvis Costello

HOW IS YOUR LOVE LIFE? “The Sire of Sorrow (Job’s Sad Song)” Joni Mitchell

HOW WILL YOUR LOVE LIFE BE IN THE FUTURE?
 “Shower the People” James Taylor

WILL YOU GET MARRIED? “Coming Back to You” Jennifer Warnes

WILL YOU HAVE KIDS?
”Lonely Girls” Lucinda Williams

ARE YOU GOOD AT SCHOOL? “I Wanna Be Loved” Elvis Costello and the Attractions

WILL YOU BE SUCCESSFUL IN LIFE? “On Your Shore” Charlotte Martin

WHAT SONGS SHOULD THEY PLAY ON YOUR BIRTHDAY? 
 “Whatever It Is” Drew Phelps

WHAT SONG SHOULD THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL? “Joy to the World” Three Dog Night

THE SOUNDTRACK OF YOUR LIFE? “All I Want is You” U2

YOU AND YOUR BEST FRIEND ARE ...? “Heart Full of Holes” Mark Knopfler

HAPPY TIMES?
”She” Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians

SAD TIMES? “Compensation” Nina Simone

EVERYDAY? “Mommy Daddy You and I” Talking Heads

FOR TOMORROW? “Flutter and Wow” Elvis Costello

FOR YOU? “Getting to Know You” James Taylor

WHAT DOES NEXT YEAR HAVE IN STORE FOR ME?  “So Long Marianne” Leonard Cohen

WHAT DO I SAY WHEN LIFE GETS HARD? “L.A. Freeway” Jerry Jeff Walker

WHAT SONG WILL I DANCE TO AT MY WEDDING? “Red Dirt Girl” Emmylou Harris

WHAT DO YOU WANT AS A CAREER?
 “Tragedy” Emmylou Harris

YOUR FAVORITE SAYING?
 “Peace in Our Time” Elvis Costello and the Attractions

THE SONG YOU WILL PUT AS YOUR SUBJECT? “I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” R.E.M. (Full disclosure: this is the only place I cheated. “Pieces of April” by Three Dog Night came up, but who would read a post with that title?)