Anti-Shuffle (I'd rather NOT mix it up)
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An hour into a road trip after conversation wanes and the time for observing and thinking begins, my husband suggests music.
What kind? I ask.
Just put it on shuffle, he says.
NO. Noooo. No. I hate shuffle. Well, maybe I just hate it because I don't understand the idea behind it. I put on music that fits my mood, that enhances or emulsifies it. In fact, my itunes playlists all have bizarre titles of particular feelings that seem to be categorized in a system that only I understand.
When I'm writing, I listen to melancholy scores, atmospheric instrumentals, or classical music. When I'm driving, I'm more prone to anything I can belt out. When I'm riding, something with unusual lyrics that get my brain a-wandering.
So, shuffle? In my husband's case, shuffle means bouncing between Hans Zimmer scores to Brad Paisley to The Decemberists to church hymns to The Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack. It feels so schizophrenic and disjointed and chaotic. Why ride the emotional roller coaster that is "shuffle"; up the kitschy-synthetic Drive score to a haunting Alison Krauss dirge at the precipice then a sharp drop through a bubblegum-y Tom Jones tune? I don't even like actual roller coasters (but that is another story completely). When you're drifting through melancholy, continue the catharsis with Itzhak Perlman's weeping violin in John William's Schindler's List score or anything by Gary Allan after 2004. Emotions are lovely things to dwell in and explore. Of course, my husband's prevailing theory is that shuffle can help him "discover" the kind of music he's craving when he chances upon something that hits a chord. Maybe I just have serious control issues, which might explain the general roller coaster aversion.
However, as our relationship has matured, our music taste has found a pleasant middle ground. He still leans a bit country at times and my music can be too obscurely indie for him, but in the Venn Diagram that represents our music taste, folk rock is happily situated between us. One of our favorite bands is The Avett Brothers and this particular song, which was the inspiration for this whole entry, seems to strike a chord with the introvert within.
Happy Wednesday!
What kind? I ask.
Just put it on shuffle, he says.
NO. Noooo. No. I hate shuffle. Well, maybe I just hate it because I don't understand the idea behind it. I put on music that fits my mood, that enhances or emulsifies it. In fact, my itunes playlists all have bizarre titles of particular feelings that seem to be categorized in a system that only I understand.
When I'm writing, I listen to melancholy scores, atmospheric instrumentals, or classical music. When I'm driving, I'm more prone to anything I can belt out. When I'm riding, something with unusual lyrics that get my brain a-wandering.
So, shuffle? In my husband's case, shuffle means bouncing between Hans Zimmer scores to Brad Paisley to The Decemberists to church hymns to The Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack. It feels so schizophrenic and disjointed and chaotic. Why ride the emotional roller coaster that is "shuffle"; up the kitschy-synthetic Drive score to a haunting Alison Krauss dirge at the precipice then a sharp drop through a bubblegum-y Tom Jones tune? I don't even like actual roller coasters (but that is another story completely). When you're drifting through melancholy, continue the catharsis with Itzhak Perlman's weeping violin in John William's Schindler's List score or anything by Gary Allan after 2004. Emotions are lovely things to dwell in and explore. Of course, my husband's prevailing theory is that shuffle can help him "discover" the kind of music he's craving when he chances upon something that hits a chord. Maybe I just have serious control issues, which might explain the general roller coaster aversion.
However, as our relationship has matured, our music taste has found a pleasant middle ground. He still leans a bit country at times and my music can be too obscurely indie for him, but in the Venn Diagram that represents our music taste, folk rock is happily situated between us. One of our favorite bands is The Avett Brothers and this particular song, which was the inspiration for this whole entry, seems to strike a chord with the introvert within.
"The Perfect Space" by The Avett Brothers I and Love and You
I wanna have friends that I can trust,If I haven't totally lost you with my strange music taste enjoy this performance by Dawes in the middle of an alleyway. I love this song to begin with but somehow the very simple, paired down acoustic version is lovely.
that love me for the man I’ve become not the man I was.
I wanna have friends that will let me be
all alone when being alone is all that I need.
I wanna fit in to the perfect space,
feel natural and safe in a volatile place.
And I wanna grow old without the pain,
give my body back to the earth and not complain.
Will you understand …when I am to hold up a man?
And will you forget when we have paid our debt
who did we borrow from? Who did we borrow from?
Okay part two now clear the house.
The party’s over take the shouting and the people, get out.
I have some business and a promise that I have to hold to.
I do not care what you assume or what the people tell you.
Will you understand, when I am too old of a man?
Will you forget when we have paid our debt,
who did we borrow from, who did borrow from?
I wanna have pride like my mother has,
And not like the kind in the bible that turns you bad.
And I wanna have friends that I can trust,
that love me for the man I’ll become and not the man that I was.
Happy Wednesday!
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