Commercial-free Spotify

 My son has gifted me commercial free Spotify and it might be the greatest experience ever. Don't get me wrong, I loved my iPod, but Apple really screwed me with that- killing iTunes as I knew it after I uploaded hundreds of CDs... bad form.

And now... music heaven- I have found all the music I have looked for (save one song on one album- seems an odd omission but what can you do!)

I love listening to the songs from every decade of my life. Songs I danced to, songs I cried to, songs of pure joy and celebration. It is a long way from me at twelve recording my favorite songs on my tape recorder straight from the radio- always missing the first bar or so... 

Our first stereo had an eight track tape player. Our car had only AM radio. I lived thru the Walkman, 45s, cassettes, 12 inch dance records, CDs, iPods and this has to be the closest thing to musical heaven... until the next innovation. 

Thanks, John. You were right!

Journal of Gratitude Day 17

Today I am grateful for the music that decorates my life...
I like Train, and during a NASCAR pre-race show, I heard their song, "50 Ways To Say Goodbye" and it cracks me up. And not only cause a friend of mine used to love a Scion...

My heart is paralyzed, My head was oversized

I'll take the high road like I should,

You said it's meant to be, That it's not you, it's me

You're leaving now for my own good

That's cool, but if my friends ask where you are I'm gonna say

She went down in an airplane, Fried getting suntanned

Fell in a cement mixer full of quicksand

Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes!

She met a shark under water, Fell and no one caught her

I returned everything I ever bought her

Help me, help me, I'm all out of lies

And ways to say you died

My pride still feels the sting, You were my everything

Some day I'll find a love like yours (a love like yours)

She'll think I'm Superman, Not super minivan

How could you leave on Yom Kippur?

That's cool, but if my friends ask where you are I'm gonna say

She was caught in a mudslide, Eaten by a lion

Got run over by a crappy purple Scion (Just saying, Lyle)

Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes!

She dried up in the desert, Drowned in a hot tub

Danced to death at an east side night club

Help me, help me, I'm all out of lies

And ways to say you died

I wanna live a thousand lives with you, I wanna be the one you're dying to

Love...but you don't want to...

That's cool, but if my friends ask where you are I'm gonna say

That's cool, but if my friends ask where you are I'm gonna say

She went down in an airplane, Fried getting suntanned

Fell in a cement mixer full of quicksand

Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes!

She met a shark under water, Fell and no one caught her

I returned everything I ever bought her

Help me, help me, I'm all out of lies

She was caught in a mudslide, Eaten by a lion

Got run over by a crappy purple Scion

Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes!

She dried up in the desert, Drowned in a hot tub

Danced to death at an east side night club

Help me, help me, I'm all out of lies

And ways to say you died

Credits: Pat Monahan - songwriter, lead vocals, Espen Lind - songwriter, producer, additional guitars, bass, keyboards, backing vocals, programming, Amund Bjorklund - songwriter, producer, programming

Pink Floyd

On October 10, 1987, I saw Pink Floyd live in concert.

25 years ago at the then Brendan Byrne arena. It was the Burning Bed tour and my friend Tara had two extra tickets. But I was meant to be working that night and had no money to pay for the tickets anyway. I was going to miss it… So sad!

And then something wonderful happened.

Only days before the concert, I was on the phone with Dave, one of the young men I was kinda but not really dating at the time, when Vicky, my California girl JYNY came to my dorm room to visit. I asked Dave to hold on and told Vicky about the tragedy. She offered to babysit in my place, but that still did not solve the money issue. My college years were an economic low point.

It was at this point that I realized that Dave, on the other end of my phone receiver, was listening and was practically screaming into the phone at his end trying to get my attention.

He could pay for the tickets. He would love to take me.

OH MY GOD!

I was sick as a dog when the day rolled around, and I did not care. Short of being dead, I was going! Dave picked me up, drove me to the Bronx to wish my folks a happy anniversary, and then took me on our third date (Three of my best dates ever, truth be told).

The music was amazing and the show was top notch, and the bed dropping from the rafters engulfed in flames had to have broken the rules somewhere.

It was magic.

I-Pod love affair

After two weeks of ownership, it is official. I-Pods are the greatest invention ever.

And I thought a Walkman with auto-reverse was amazing.

3500 songs and counting... at my fingertips.

In the car...on the treadmill... waiting while my daughter shops.

No commercial interuptions was big. No signal loss. No static.

I can create my own playlists. The background music from a lifetime...

Playlists to revisit all the different lifetimes I have already lived. Music from my childhood. Music from College. Music from Peace Corps. The joy of all these events captured in one place.

There is no going back.