recently played

Monitor Mix had an interesting post about the shuffle/random function of the iPod a couple of weeks ago. I agree that using the shuffle function on the whole library is rarely satisfying, but I LOVE shuffling selected playlists. The one I use the most often is a "happy" playlist I started a couple of years ago when I was feeling sad. In the beginning I had to vet the songs carefully, because a stealth sad (or upsetting in some way) song could literally ruin my day. (I know, I know. I'm a sensitive delicate flower.) Thankfully, I'm feeling much better now and can tolerate sadness or sarcasm without taking it (quite so) personally. All that being said, the bedrock of this playlist (the one I listen to 90% of the time when I go walking) is made of songs that I love (that make me happy) for various reasons.

I have a whole PLAN to build a new playlist on my shuffle because it's smaller and the battery lasts longer. (My ipod is ancient as these things go.) Anyway, I know it sounds like a minor thing, but I'm all excited by the prospect of creating a NEW list, even though it will have many of the songs that the old one does. I think it needs to be longer, and I plan to be a little quicker adding and deleting things. (It was a big hassle with my old computer, but that's no loner an issue.)

So, since I haven't done it in a long time (and who doesn't love a list?), here are some songs I've heard on shuffle lately:

Campus -- Rostam Batmanglij: Fluxblog had this a while back, and I really like it. This is (according to the internet) an early, pre-Vampire Weekend version of the song. I'm surprised by how much I like it, since my experience with Vampire Weekend thus far has been either indifference or a tremendous urge to violence. I love the way this orchestral arrangement sounds; it's beautiful! I am neither bored nor do I wish to punch anyone in the head. Perhaps this seems like a strange rubric for success, but it works for me.

Grass Skirt -- All Girl Summer Fun Band: This is not particularly deep or thoughtful, but it's summertime and sometimes I just want to sing "it's green and it's itchy, but I don't mind/ when it's swishing through the breeze it feels so fine/ I've got my bikini top it's orange and red/ I'm a coconut princess and I'm gonna knock you dead/ in my grass skirt (grass skirt!) grass skirt (grass skirt!)"

It's Alright, Baby -- Komeda: I love this song -- it sounds to me like they're beaming down advice and assurances from another planet. They have the benefit of Big Picture Vision. These Swedish aliens are correct: it is a crazy world, it's a bit absurd. But it's alright. Woo Hoo.

"Woo Hoo It's alright, baby

It's a crazy world, it's a bit absurd

Woo Hoo It's alright, sugar

It's a crazy world, it's a bit absurd

Woo Hoo It's alright, honey

It's a crazy world, it's a bit absurd

Woo Hoo It's alright, it's OK

It- is- so- crazy"

Trouble In Mind -- Sam Cooke: This is one of the best "I'm feeling bad right now, I'll probably feel better later, but right now it's bad and that's just the way it is" songs. It acknowledges the blue "I got that trouble in mind, that's true/ I have almost lost my mind" but also that this is transitory "you know that I'm blue/ but I won't be blue always/ Yes, the sun gonna shine,/ in my back door someday" He's got a great voice for making you feel the sad, but also to feel the sun that's on its way.

Spanish Harlem Incident -- Bob Dylan: This always sounds like a hot weather song to me. Hot summer in the city. "Gypsy gal, the hands of Harlem/ Cannot hold you to its heat./ Your temperature's too hot for taming,/ your flaming feet burn up the street." It's full of gypsy exoticism, which (like the hula girl picture above) is kind of troubling, (more accurately I like it, but worry that liking it is somehow insensitive) but at the same time he makes good use of that exoticism as a foil for his own self-questioning. "Let me know, babe, about my fortune/ Down along my restless palms." (restless palms! So great.) It could all be a poetic come on, or maybe just narcissism, "I been wond'rin' all about me/ ever since I seen you there." -- it's probably both and more. (restless palms! flaming feet!) "You have slayed me, you have made me,/ I got to laugh halfways off my heels./ I got to know, babe, will you surround me./So I can know if I'm really real."

Soul Finger -- The Bar Kays This is one of those brassy bassy songs that DEFIES YOU to remain grouchy. I can't do it! For 2.5 minutes it convinces me that everyone in the world could be having a good time if only they'd listen to this song. SOUL FINGER!

Strawberry Swing -- Coldplay: I neither hate nor love Coldplay. There are a few songs that I think are really pretty, but I don't go out of my way to expose myself to more. I went to bed before their segment on The Daily Show, for example. But then Said the Gramophone had this song, so I decided to try it. I'm glad I did! It's light, sparkling, undemanding -- like slightly carbonated strawberry lemonade. I enjoy hearing it, but I still wouldn't stay up to watch them, even on the Colbert Report.