Music Meme: The First Music You Bought

The first music I remember wanting and receiving was the Spice Girls' debut album Spice on cassette tape. Since I was nine years old at the time, I doubt I actually saved up my money and bought this for myself. It was probably something I asked my parents for and received as a gift. Still, I remember listening to this all the time at summer camp. In the girls bathroom. While my friends and I pretended to be the 1996 US Women's Gymnastics team. We also choreographed a dance to one of the songs ("If U Can't Dance") for the talent show. We were pretty awesome.

I believe that the first album I actually bought was Britney Spears ...Baby One More Time. I mostly remember my mom hating this CD, but I still have it.

So it's pretty clear that I was a pre-teen/teenaged girl in the late 90s. Who else would have owned both of those albums?

Music Meme: A Song From Your Favorite Album

My favorite album is kind of old. It came out in 1989. But I still love Joe Jackson's Blaze of Glory more than almost any other album I've heard. It's put together brilliantly, with each song bleeding into the next one. The songs actually tell something close to a coming of age story, making it feel like it could be a musical soundtrack. Listening to it, you can trace the journey of the "protagonist" from bright-eyed, optimistic youth ("Tomorrow's World") to unrestrained anger at the world ("Rant and Rave") to slightly jaded acceptance ("The Human Touch").

Unfortunately, I was only able to find a few songs from this album on YouTube. I guess it's not the most popular album ever. But if you can get your hands on a copy of it, I highly recommend you give it a listen. While each song is awesome on its own, together they really are something else.

Since the first two tracks are on YouTube, I'll leave you with them

Tomorrow's World:

Me and You (Against the World)

Music Meme: A Song From Your Favorite Artist

If I really have to sit down and pick a favorite artist, I'll have to go with Jerry Garcia. He's been a staple of my life since the beginning and probably before.

My parents were both big fans of the Grateful Dead, and my dad collected a bunch of Jerry Garcia's other work over the years. He had albums released by The Jerry Garcia Band and collaborations between Garcia and David Grisman that got an awful lot of play. Because of this I was exposed to lot of Garcia's music and covers. His guitar picking was the first I recognized and his voice can always calm me down. There's just something so soothing about his music; I'm sure at least part of it is that I began listening to it at such a young age.

Garcia has an impressive catalog of music, but I'm almost never sure what songs are originals and which ones are covers. It wasn't until Across the Universe came out in 2007 that I realized Dear Prudence was actually a song by The Beatles. I'd only ever heard Garcia's cover of it. I've had an impressively difficult time tracking down a list of songs that Garcia wrote either the lyrics or music for on the internet. You'd think someone would have already compiled something like that and posted it on a fan site. Perhaps I just didn't look hard enough.

So I thought I'd play it safe for this answer and leave you with Touch of Gray, The Grateful Dead's one and only hit single, since I know they wrote it. But I know my mom would be disappointed if that's the only Grateful Dead song I posted (I'm still going to post it here, since I like it a lot).

The thing is, it's hard to pick just one Grateful Dead song (even harder to pick just one Jerry Garcia performance). Ripple is pretty standard

Friend of the Devil will always have a place in my heart

And one of my favorite songs is The Way You Do The Things You Do (but I don't think this one is a Jerry Garcia original).

Music Meme!

When I first started this blog, I did a 30 day Buffy meme. I had a lot of fun with it and have sort of wanted to do another one since. But I had a hard time finding one that I felt would really inspire some interesting blog posts. Well I found a music meme that I'm excited to try. So for the next 30 days you get to be subjected to my taste in music. I'm hoping this will be fun!

Here's the meme I'll be following. I make no promises about sticking to a single song for each post

day 01 - a song from your favorite artist
day 02 - a song from your favorite album
day 03 - the first music you bought (album/cd/song)
day 04 - preferred way to listen to music
day 05 - first concert/favorite concert
day 06 - favorite instrument/what musical instruments can you play or used to play?
day 07 - favorite musical genre
day 08 - least favorite genre (a song you like from the genre)
day 09 - favorite musical
day 10 - favorite use of a song in a (non-musical) movie or TV show
day 11 - how do you usually find new music you like/do you still buy music?
day 12 - a song that reminds you of your childhood
day 13 - a song that reminds you of summer
day 14 - a song that reminds you of fall
day 15 - a song that reminds you of winter
day 16 - a song that reminds you of spring
day 17 - an artist you like that your parents listen to
day 18 - the most played songs in your music player
day 19 - a song you like by a band/artist you don't
day 20 - a song you don't like by a band/artist you do
day 21 - favorite duet/collaboration
day 22 - favorite one hit wonder
day 23 - favorite instrumental song
day 24 - favorite story told in a song
day 25 - favorite song about drugs
day 26 - favorite song about religion
day 27 - favorite political song
day 28 - favorite song about love
day 29 - favorite song about breaking up
day 30 - favorite song about death

Spite and Malice

Even though I no longer live in Colorado, I still listen to a Denver-based radio station every day at work. It's partly a familiarity thing (I grew up listening to these DJs) and partly because I like the time difference. I enjoy actually being coherent during the "Much too early for a question question" in the morning show. I like being able to leave around the time they play the three themed songs at three. And if I do have to work late, hearing the "Commuter comedy" around the time I'm leaving the office makes me feel a bit better about life in general.

But, since I do live 2000 miles away from the broadcast station of this studio, I have to stream it using iHeart radio, which isn't my favorite thing ever. They use the station's commercial breaks for different kinds of promotions. Some of these are Top 40 songs that I have very little interest in (but, hey, at least I've heard the songs on Glee before those kids sing them now). Lately, they've been replaying parts of old interviews in an effort to get me to download (and probably pay for) them.

This means that several times a day, I hear the same conversations between the DJ and Al Gore, Melissa Etheridge, and Alan Alda. To the point that I basically have these interviews memorized now.

During one interview, the DJ asks Alan Alda the secret to his long marriage (50 years!). He responds, "Spite and Malice", a card game that he and his wife play every day. Well I finally got curious enough to look up the rules to this game. If he attributes his long marriage to it, it's probably worth learning to play.

The instructions are here, if you're interested.

It didn't take me long to realize that I do know Spite and Malice. The difference is that I call it SkipBo. And I already play it with Kevin and our other friends pretty frequently.

In fact, we spent most of the morning leading up to Zach and Sarah's wedding playing this game (although our deck had no tens, thanks to Kevin's mischievousness). So if this is the secret to a long and happy marriage, I guess it bodes well for them. Make sure you play lots of SkipBo, guys!

A Tale of Two Compliments

Yeah I'm talking about street harassment again. I don't know if it's happening more or if I'm just noticing it more, but it's been on my mind a lot.

Today I had interactions with two different men and was struck by the contrast between them. The first made me feel dirty. The second left me with a spring in my step. The difference? Well, see for yourself.

Situation 1:
The man approached me on a crowded street corner while I was waiting for the light to change. He got close enough that I could feel his breath on my cheek while he whispered in my ear "Damn, nice legs. You're looking real good, baby girl." He disappeared as quickly as he had come, leaving me shaken.

Situation 2:
While I was walking down the street, a man called out, "Excuse me, ma'am."

Assuming that he needed directions somewhere, I stopped and turned to him. "Yes?"

He looked me in the eye and said, "I wanted to let you know that you look very nice today."

"Thanks," I responded with a big grin.


It is clearly not that difficult to give a stranger a compliment in a way that makes her day better rather than worse. It all comes down to respect. Why is this such a difficult concept for so many people?

Microaggressions

They're the little annoyances we deal with every day. The things we mostly just shrug off because they happen so damn often that we've basically come to expect them. Over time they add up, drain us of our energy. And every now and then you get a day like today when they all happen at once and it feels like the universe (or half of it) is out to get you personally.

The man who walks directly at me on a wide-open sidewalk and snickers each time I change course to avoid crashing into him.

The man who sits next to me on the metro and spreads his legs as wide as possible so I'm crammed up against the wall.

The man who brushes up against me and "accidentally" touches my ass in the crowd to leave the metro station.

The homeless guy, calling me "pretty girl" in an effort to get my attention so he can sell me a copy of Street Sense.

The guy on the park bench who whistles when I walk past.

The man who leers at me as if I can't see him, or maybe just doesn't care that I can.

And then the asshole at the end of it all. Yelling at me to smile; life isn't that bad. Getting angry when I walk past him without acknowledgement. Offering me a dollar if I'll just smile for him. Continuing to shout at me as I do my best to ignore him. But it is my face, damn it, and I will look tired or angry if that's how I feel, and I will smile if I feel like smiling but not because some stranger wants me to.

Taken individually, each of these is a minor incident. Something I'm able to brush off as I go about my day. At least one of these things happens every day, and every one of them has happened before today. If I got angry every time I'd never be anything but angry. This is the world we live in, where men feel like their mere existence gives them some right to a piece of the women around them.

So we learn to ignore the unwanted attention, the trespasses on personal space, the judgement based on looks alone, the infantalizing comments. Because saying something would likely result in escalation, increase our risk. It's easier, safer, to just pretend it didn't happen.

But then a day like this happens, and I'm exhausted before I even get to work. It's days like this that I wish I never had to leave my house. Or that I was actually invisible. Or that I could just make all the men disappear.

It days like this that I actually have to say something. Because these so-called microaggressions are a big deal. They add up to so much more than the sum of the parts, reinforcing the idea that women exist for men to look at, comment on, toy with, touch, possess. That we should be grateful for the attention. That our feelings don't matter. That we are worth less. And that attitude needs to stop.