In the Morning
It's interesting when I stop to think about what I tend to listen to in the morning on my way to work. Generally, it's sports talk radio. I like the banter, the interviews, the pop culture asides. It's entertaining without that flat NPR whispery tone that puts me to sleep. It's a little dull right now without football or baseball so sometimes I flip over to FM to listen to the mindless banter on Live 105. That's how I learned about the iFart app for the iPhone. Am I embarassed to say I was laughing out loud? No. I wish Crackberry had an iFart app! (Sorry, mom, it's true.) So much fun at Christmas!
Other days I want to listen to music. So I pop in a CD, maybe something I compiled called "Chilling", or "Driving 101" or "Another Morning" - something semi-mellow but catchy, with a little bounce, maybe a random Girl Talk track thrown in to perk me up but a lot of indie, a little hip hop or some acoustics. Then there are the days I want Nine Inch Nails or my Seether-30 Seconds to Mars-Linkin Park compilation and an infusion of caffeine so that I'm already amped up slalom-ing through traffic. God forbid something gets in my way on that kind of morning. I can feel it infuse my body as I fly into work wired and fired up.
I'm not sure what it says about how I'm feeling or how I slept or what I'm already keyed up about although it wouldn't take a quantum leap to make a few deductions. Tired - mellow. Neutral - sports talk. Keyed up - rock out. Emotional - mellow or rock out. Although being tired from running around also gets me keyed up so Tired could be rock out, too. And being excited gets me energized so that could be rock out. I forgot show tunes! Show tunes - tired, neutral, keyed up. Always fun, relaxing, energizing to sing along to your favorite musicals at the top of your lungs in the car. Only rarely will I turn everything off and drive in silence. Exhaustion - silence.
Separate from all that, there's always that one playlist I'm missing from iTunes when I have something specific in mind. That I'm-kind-of-melancholy, but-not-really, but-want-something-with-a-good-beat-that-reminds-me-of-a-summer-in-Utah-when-I-first-tried-Sun-In-and-my-hair-turned-orange-playlist. Before I got an iPod it seemed overwhelming to consider that I could have all my music in one place, free to make a million playlists with, one for any situation/mood/activity I could think of. It's been great, don't get me wrong. But there's something I miss about the careful selection of a bunch of albums or CDs spread out across the bedroom floor, and trying to compose the perfect mix with the perfect name. With dozens of playlists on my iPod i've started to name them after the months they were created so I know what holds my newest discoveries or favorites. For a girl who spent hours decorting mixed tapes and CDs with cutouts from magazines and typed out song lists, pictures and particular quotes, having mixes named by Month and Year just seems lame.
FWIW, the new Loney, Dear CD is beautiful.
Other days I want to listen to music. So I pop in a CD, maybe something I compiled called "Chilling", or "Driving 101" or "Another Morning" - something semi-mellow but catchy, with a little bounce, maybe a random Girl Talk track thrown in to perk me up but a lot of indie, a little hip hop or some acoustics. Then there are the days I want Nine Inch Nails or my Seether-30 Seconds to Mars-Linkin Park compilation and an infusion of caffeine so that I'm already amped up slalom-ing through traffic. God forbid something gets in my way on that kind of morning. I can feel it infuse my body as I fly into work wired and fired up.
I'm not sure what it says about how I'm feeling or how I slept or what I'm already keyed up about although it wouldn't take a quantum leap to make a few deductions. Tired - mellow. Neutral - sports talk. Keyed up - rock out. Emotional - mellow or rock out. Although being tired from running around also gets me keyed up so Tired could be rock out, too. And being excited gets me energized so that could be rock out. I forgot show tunes! Show tunes - tired, neutral, keyed up. Always fun, relaxing, energizing to sing along to your favorite musicals at the top of your lungs in the car. Only rarely will I turn everything off and drive in silence. Exhaustion - silence.
Separate from all that, there's always that one playlist I'm missing from iTunes when I have something specific in mind. That I'm-kind-of-melancholy, but-not-really, but-want-something-with-a-good-beat-that-reminds-me-of-a-summer-in-Utah-when-I-first-tried-Sun-In-and-my-hair-turned-orange-playlist. Before I got an iPod it seemed overwhelming to consider that I could have all my music in one place, free to make a million playlists with, one for any situation/mood/activity I could think of. It's been great, don't get me wrong. But there's something I miss about the careful selection of a bunch of albums or CDs spread out across the bedroom floor, and trying to compose the perfect mix with the perfect name. With dozens of playlists on my iPod i've started to name them after the months they were created so I know what holds my newest discoveries or favorites. For a girl who spent hours decorting mixed tapes and CDs with cutouts from magazines and typed out song lists, pictures and particular quotes, having mixes named by Month and Year just seems lame.
FWIW, the new Loney, Dear CD is beautiful.
Comments
I've made a few digital mixes in the past 5 years, I'll trade if you are interested. They just have names, no magazine cutouts. :-)