My school is about a half-hour away from my home, and now that the summer's expired, I tend to drive in as the sun rises, and often drive home after dark.
What a pain, right? A long commute. Who wants a long commute?
And yet...
Last night, as the rain began to pour down after days of sunshine, the freeways clogged, and what should have been a 30 minute drive stretched into almost an hour. See this photo banner, at the top of my blog? That's the view from the Alaskan Way viaduct, where I was stuck last night for about twenty minutes.
Something about being STUCK somewhere though, with no way of getting unstuck anytime soon, is almost peaceful.
I sat in my dark car, listened to the rain fall and the rhythmic thump of the windshield wipers, and took in the lights of the Seattle skyline. I put my Ipod on a slow song, and let my mind wander. I thought about some of my students, and wondered how they would fare outside of high-school, and thought about moments from class.
It was so restful.
This morning, I drove in before the sun rose, and let myself be serenaded in the dark by KEXP. John played a Devotchka song, and its violins and gentle, driving rhythm made the concrete curves a wish; made the oncoming lights a hum; made the braking cars a sigh; made my heart gentle.
Often, when driving in, I'm kissed by one of the most incredible views of Mt. Rainier you can get. She looms as I come around a bend-- sometimes austere, sometimes coy, sometimes majestic, sometimes pensive. I always pick an adjective to describe how she seems to be feeling that morning. "Lonely." "Proud." "Quiet." On those clear mornings when she's out, I'll inevitably see the dawn rip through the sky in oranges and reds and purples, and I'll WONDER again, feel awed again.
I miss my road trip sometimes.
I find it again sometimes.
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Oct 15, 2010
Jan 29, 2009
Trainwreck
Do you ever have that experience with a song where-- the first time you hear it, it leaves you completely unphased-- and the second and third and fourth and fifth time you hear it, you're similarly untouched--- but around the twentieth time, you're struck by the lyrics, and around the thirtieth time you're touched deep down by the melody, and the fiftieth time, it runs through you like marrow in your bones? This song by Glen Phillips, "Trainwreck," is like that for me. I first heard this song on a burned cd that someone gave me back in high-school-- a simple, slow, sad song, and it floated past me as an afterthought. But as I've listened to this song, again and again and again over the last six years... I'm consistently arrested by the combination of the melody and story and the winding imagery of the lyrics. It's accompanied so many of my nostalgic, pensive moments-- I hear it now, and it feels like a part of me, of my stories, of my history. It's in the fabric.
She looked just like a train wreck
That could've been avoided
In a third world country
By a long stretch of farmland
Where the waters had run high
And the topsoil down the river
So that next year there would be no crops. . .
She was as desperate as a salesman
At a company that's folding
But they haven't told the staff yet
That they're bankrupt and backordered
And they're funneling the pensions
To the CEO's back pocket
So in one week they'll have nothing
I miss you girl. I hope you're fine
Good luck, love
Or goodbye
Goodbye
She's the girl from central casting
Always played the sweet young orphan
Or the girl with the heart of gold
But she got her SAG card pulled
And turns tricks now on Cahuenga
She tells herself it's research
For her next greatest role
I miss you girl, I hope you're fine
Good luck, love
Or goodbye
Goodbye
She'll call you up just to hear you say she's fine
Then she's gone away
And you know there's only one more time
You'll hear about her again
Well it's life informing art informing life again
Like every stupid kid
That thinks that they're the first in pain
The first to rip themselves apart
The first to try and live without a heart
I miss you girl, I hope you're fine
Good luck, love
Or goodbye
I want to see your face, even hear your lies
Good luck, girl
Or goodbye
Goodbye
She looked just like a train wreck
That could've been avoided
In a third world country
By a long stretch of farmland
Where the waters had run high
And the topsoil down the river
So that next year there would be no crops. . .
She was as desperate as a salesman
At a company that's folding
But they haven't told the staff yet
That they're bankrupt and backordered
And they're funneling the pensions
To the CEO's back pocket
So in one week they'll have nothing
I miss you girl. I hope you're fine
Good luck, love
Or goodbye
Goodbye
She's the girl from central casting
Always played the sweet young orphan
Or the girl with the heart of gold
But she got her SAG card pulled
And turns tricks now on Cahuenga
She tells herself it's research
For her next greatest role
I miss you girl, I hope you're fine
Good luck, love
Or goodbye
Goodbye
She'll call you up just to hear you say she's fine
Then she's gone away
And you know there's only one more time
You'll hear about her again
Well it's life informing art informing life again
Like every stupid kid
That thinks that they're the first in pain
The first to rip themselves apart
The first to try and live without a heart
I miss you girl, I hope you're fine
Good luck, love
Or goodbye
I want to see your face, even hear your lies
Good luck, girl
Or goodbye
Goodbye
Jan 12, 2009
New Favorite Song
"The Girl," by City and Colour. Can't get it out of my head. Which is a great thing.
Nov 7, 2008
Annotated Song List
I've started a new tradition for myself: as I find new songs and purchase them on I-Tunes (yes-- I always pay for my music. Not because I'm that ethically impervious, but because I'm not savvy enough to find the places to get it free)-- I put them in a playlist titled simply "New." I file them in there in the order found, and when I've got about 17 of them, I burn a CD. What results is a CD that is indicative not only of my current music tastes, but also my mental state of being during the accumulating. I have a "New 1" and am finishing up "New 2." I sort of like it.
So, in honor of a rainy Friday evening during which I feel no compulsion to do homework yet still find the need to kill time before I head out to meet up with my darling girlfriends: I give you: my annotated "New 2" list. Links are provided when the songs were findable.
New 2 might be distinguished for being an especially odd assortment.
1.) Somehow, Someday: Ryan Adams.
I've never just gotten myself "hooked" on Ryan Adams, but this Gold album is GOOD. The chorus is strong, downward strumming chords, and the words say, "Ain't no way I'll ever stop from loving you now"-- which is wonderfully reminiscent of the OTHER "Somehow, Someday" song that I know of from West Side Story. You remember? The part where Maria and Tony clasp hands and tearfully promise that they'll be together somehow... someday? When I was 14, I agreed to paint my neighbor's extra long driveway with a "sealer" and spent an entire week working on that driveway in the hot July sun, listening to the West Side Story soundtrack nonstop on a walkman. West Side always makes me think of sealer and extra long driveways. Did you follow that then? Ryan Adams=> West Side Story=> Sealing my neighbor's driveway. You got that? Good.
2.) Grey Days: The Concretes
I sort of don't know why I put this song on New 2. I don't like it as much as I thought I did. Never mind.
3.) California: Mason Jennings
My friend Caroline told me about Mason Jennings. He has a very odd, very endearing sort of voice. This song is about saying goodbye to his girlfriend who's moving to California. I woke up with the song stuck in my head the other day, and decided it deserved a spot on the New 2, even though I've had it for a little while. My favorite line is: "Don't you know baby, I'm a leading man: I dig down deep when I say I love you." I like thinking that his girl wants to go be an actress, and he's saying, "But hey baby, ain't I good enough for your love story?" It's a wistful song. I relate to the wisting.
4.) Someone Should Have Told Me: Reserved 16
This one's actually by Beau-- he wrote it, even though it's sung by a girl, from a girl's perspective. My favorite part is when he sings "erstwhile" during the chorus just because I love the word "erstwhile." Who says "erstwhile"?? I also like when the girl sings, "Should I dress up for Halloween as the homecoming queen that I used to be? Or should I dress as the new girl, new world that Autumn slowly unfurls?" The Homecoming queen line makes me think of Annie (who, it should be noted, was Homecoming queen) and I like listening to songs about autumn during autumn. And I like listening to the beau every once in a while. You can find it on I-Tunes! (Plug. PLUG.)
5.) Godspeed: Jenny Lewis
Here's where the playlist starts getting emotional. My new amazing friend Kelsey recommended this song when I was having a particularly hard night, and I downloaded it as soon as I got home from her house. The chorus goes, "Godspeed to you: keep the lighthouse in sight." The first several times I listened to the chorus, I thought: alright. Lighthouse. Nice image. Whatever. But I suddenly became much more attached to the song, when I pictured looking AT the lighthouse from WITHIN the storm. Godspeed is right.
6.) Your Love is Strong: Jon Foreman
The Switchfoot frontman is apparently putting out a solo EP, which is where this song comes from. He basically just sings the Lord's prayer-- which is sometimes just really helpful to hear. His chorus is simple, and anchors down an aching heart when it's slipping: "Your love is, your love is, your love is strong." I heard it on the radio one night when, again, I was having a hard time. I cranked it and cried.
7.) Free: Shawn Mcdonald
I love this guy. Heidi (my sis-- has it been so long since the Europe blogs that I have to re-specify she's my sister??) recommended this one. How are these lines for you? "I know the heaviness that’s making me cold/ Is stealing my youthful soul and making me old/ You said your burden is light and your load is no more/ You said your ways are right and in you I would soar/ I want to be free." Plus: it's great sometimes when a song makes you think of a person you love love love love love. Heidi=lovelovelovelovelove.
8.) What's Been Going On: Amos Lee
This song has a hook that kills-- it makes me think of being on a swing at night, reaching up for the sky with my boots. Another segment that makes me think of that afore-mentioned best friend: "There goes her old beat up car/Outside of our old favorite bar/ She's probably in there playin' her guitar/ With stars in her eyes." How appropriate is that for our Nashville songwriter with a gig at the Bluebird? Love you Annie. :)
9.) Revelation: Third Day
I posted this one in an earlier blog. Normally I snobbishly dismiss Third Day as trying-to-be-a-hardcore-Christian-band-but-are-really-sort-of-Creed-wannabes, but the lyrics to this one just reflect the words on my soul. I'm not going to write them all here, because that almost feels too exposing. But. You should listen to it.
10. and 11.) Warwick Avenue, Scared: Duffy
Duffy gets the next two. My cool Uncle Ken describes her as, "Sort of like Amy Winehouse, except not a train wreck." Her Warwick Avenue is just a GREAT song-- "I'm leaving you for the last time, baby"-- such a good line! Especially because she growls it out to a beat that sounds like she's WALKING AWAY. And "Scared" is just relatable. Because. Sometimes. I feel scared.
12.) The Best Things in Life are Free: Good News Soundtrack
This is when the playlist starts getting really random... Viola started humming this song the other day, and I freaked out because "Good News" is a classic from my childhood. Specifically: this is the movie we always watched with my Grandma Bean. Even as a kid, I recognized that the leading man is a total jerk and plays June Allyson like a PUTZ, but there's a GREAT dance number in a soda shop (to warn: it's totally not PC), and this song is just so dang sweet... And I won't lie: when Peter Lawford starts singing the verse in french, it gets downright swoonworthy.
13.) Last of the Mohicans: Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack
In keeping with the soundtrack theme... I started humming this tonight at dinner, and got so excited thinking about this movie THISISTHEMOSTAMAZINGMOVIE!!! Gramps has never seen it, and I went into rhapsodies describing when Daniel Day-Lewis is RUNNING through the forest, and when he KISSES Madeleine Stowe... When I went to my funky arts high-school, we had to do a project that somehow conveyed our "foremost characteristic," which we took various tests to determine. My defining characteristic turned out to be "Passionate," and I ended up doing a solo dance to this song. I still remember wearing a purple dance dress with a long flowing skirt, and performing the dance on a big dark stage. Listening to it makes me still feel as though I should be running, and spinning, and leaping into a dark unknown world.
14.) I Will Find You: Clannad
Another one from Last of the Mohicans. This is eerie, and Irishy, and betrays the hopeless romantic in me once again. It's deep in there, however it may have attempted to conceal itself recently. "No matter where you go, I will find you/ If it takes a long, long time/ No matter where you go, I will find you/ If it takes a thousand years." It sounds like a prayer, and I suppose it's one I've uttered in some voice, in some way, in some part of my heart. Don't we just want to know that we'd be worth that kind of searching after...?
That's all I've got for New 2 so far. Quite the odd bundle. And if you get into the "psychoanalyzation" of the playlist, it gets even odder.
But I've never claimed to be normal, so there you go.
So, in honor of a rainy Friday evening during which I feel no compulsion to do homework yet still find the need to kill time before I head out to meet up with my darling girlfriends: I give you: my annotated "New 2" list. Links are provided when the songs were findable.
New 2 might be distinguished for being an especially odd assortment.
1.) Somehow, Someday: Ryan Adams.
I've never just gotten myself "hooked" on Ryan Adams, but this Gold album is GOOD. The chorus is strong, downward strumming chords, and the words say, "Ain't no way I'll ever stop from loving you now"-- which is wonderfully reminiscent of the OTHER "Somehow, Someday" song that I know of from West Side Story. You remember? The part where Maria and Tony clasp hands and tearfully promise that they'll be together somehow... someday? When I was 14, I agreed to paint my neighbor's extra long driveway with a "sealer" and spent an entire week working on that driveway in the hot July sun, listening to the West Side Story soundtrack nonstop on a walkman. West Side always makes me think of sealer and extra long driveways. Did you follow that then? Ryan Adams=> West Side Story=> Sealing my neighbor's driveway. You got that? Good.
2.) Grey Days: The Concretes
I sort of don't know why I put this song on New 2. I don't like it as much as I thought I did. Never mind.
3.) California: Mason Jennings
My friend Caroline told me about Mason Jennings. He has a very odd, very endearing sort of voice. This song is about saying goodbye to his girlfriend who's moving to California. I woke up with the song stuck in my head the other day, and decided it deserved a spot on the New 2, even though I've had it for a little while. My favorite line is: "Don't you know baby, I'm a leading man: I dig down deep when I say I love you." I like thinking that his girl wants to go be an actress, and he's saying, "But hey baby, ain't I good enough for your love story?" It's a wistful song. I relate to the wisting.
4.) Someone Should Have Told Me: Reserved 16
This one's actually by Beau-- he wrote it, even though it's sung by a girl, from a girl's perspective. My favorite part is when he sings "erstwhile" during the chorus just because I love the word "erstwhile." Who says "erstwhile"?? I also like when the girl sings, "Should I dress up for Halloween as the homecoming queen that I used to be? Or should I dress as the new girl, new world that Autumn slowly unfurls?" The Homecoming queen line makes me think of Annie (who, it should be noted, was Homecoming queen) and I like listening to songs about autumn during autumn. And I like listening to the beau every once in a while. You can find it on I-Tunes! (Plug. PLUG.)
5.) Godspeed: Jenny Lewis
Here's where the playlist starts getting emotional. My new amazing friend Kelsey recommended this song when I was having a particularly hard night, and I downloaded it as soon as I got home from her house. The chorus goes, "Godspeed to you: keep the lighthouse in sight." The first several times I listened to the chorus, I thought: alright. Lighthouse. Nice image. Whatever. But I suddenly became much more attached to the song, when I pictured looking AT the lighthouse from WITHIN the storm. Godspeed is right.
6.) Your Love is Strong: Jon Foreman
The Switchfoot frontman is apparently putting out a solo EP, which is where this song comes from. He basically just sings the Lord's prayer-- which is sometimes just really helpful to hear. His chorus is simple, and anchors down an aching heart when it's slipping: "Your love is, your love is, your love is strong." I heard it on the radio one night when, again, I was having a hard time. I cranked it and cried.
7.) Free: Shawn Mcdonald
I love this guy. Heidi (my sis-- has it been so long since the Europe blogs that I have to re-specify she's my sister??) recommended this one. How are these lines for you? "I know the heaviness that’s making me cold/ Is stealing my youthful soul and making me old/ You said your burden is light and your load is no more/ You said your ways are right and in you I would soar/ I want to be free." Plus: it's great sometimes when a song makes you think of a person you love love love love love. Heidi=lovelovelovelovelove.
8.) What's Been Going On: Amos Lee
This song has a hook that kills-- it makes me think of being on a swing at night, reaching up for the sky with my boots. Another segment that makes me think of that afore-mentioned best friend: "There goes her old beat up car/Outside of our old favorite bar/ She's probably in there playin' her guitar/ With stars in her eyes." How appropriate is that for our Nashville songwriter with a gig at the Bluebird? Love you Annie. :)
9.) Revelation: Third Day
I posted this one in an earlier blog. Normally I snobbishly dismiss Third Day as trying-to-be-a-hardcore-Christian-band-but-are-really-sort-of-Creed-wannabes, but the lyrics to this one just reflect the words on my soul. I'm not going to write them all here, because that almost feels too exposing. But. You should listen to it.
10. and 11.) Warwick Avenue, Scared: Duffy
Duffy gets the next two. My cool Uncle Ken describes her as, "Sort of like Amy Winehouse, except not a train wreck." Her Warwick Avenue is just a GREAT song-- "I'm leaving you for the last time, baby"-- such a good line! Especially because she growls it out to a beat that sounds like she's WALKING AWAY. And "Scared" is just relatable. Because. Sometimes. I feel scared.
12.) The Best Things in Life are Free: Good News Soundtrack
This is when the playlist starts getting really random... Viola started humming this song the other day, and I freaked out because "Good News" is a classic from my childhood. Specifically: this is the movie we always watched with my Grandma Bean. Even as a kid, I recognized that the leading man is a total jerk and plays June Allyson like a PUTZ, but there's a GREAT dance number in a soda shop (to warn: it's totally not PC), and this song is just so dang sweet... And I won't lie: when Peter Lawford starts singing the verse in french, it gets downright swoonworthy.
13.) Last of the Mohicans: Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack
In keeping with the soundtrack theme... I started humming this tonight at dinner, and got so excited thinking about this movie THISISTHEMOSTAMAZINGMOVIE!!! Gramps has never seen it, and I went into rhapsodies describing when Daniel Day-Lewis is RUNNING through the forest, and when he KISSES Madeleine Stowe... When I went to my funky arts high-school, we had to do a project that somehow conveyed our "foremost characteristic," which we took various tests to determine. My defining characteristic turned out to be "Passionate," and I ended up doing a solo dance to this song. I still remember wearing a purple dance dress with a long flowing skirt, and performing the dance on a big dark stage. Listening to it makes me still feel as though I should be running, and spinning, and leaping into a dark unknown world.
14.) I Will Find You: Clannad
Another one from Last of the Mohicans. This is eerie, and Irishy, and betrays the hopeless romantic in me once again. It's deep in there, however it may have attempted to conceal itself recently. "No matter where you go, I will find you/ If it takes a long, long time/ No matter where you go, I will find you/ If it takes a thousand years." It sounds like a prayer, and I suppose it's one I've uttered in some voice, in some way, in some part of my heart. Don't we just want to know that we'd be worth that kind of searching after...?
That's all I've got for New 2 so far. Quite the odd bundle. And if you get into the "psychoanalyzation" of the playlist, it gets even odder.
But I've never claimed to be normal, so there you go.
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