Story #8: Goodbyes

Why do people always stare at bad things?  Car accidents, bloody paper towels on sidewalks (yes, I'm serious), people crying and hugging as they say goodbye...  

K left today.  She is currently driving cross-country in a stuffed car to Providence, Rhode Island.  The last time I saw her car that stuffed was 2 years ago when she moved in, the first day I ever met her.  Today before she left, we went to breakfast, and she ran across the street to make a deposit at the bank.  I told A, her boyfriend, my other roommate, that I hoped she didn't cry because then I would lose it.  Well, we were both fine until the sidewalk, outside her packed car.  Then we both started crying.  And this man in an Oregon Ducks shirt, holding a giant camera, just kept staring at us.  I don't think I saw him ever turn away, although I clearly wasn't watching him the entire time.

So when I went to my car with my friend M, we discussed this staring man and how weird it was that he was watching my roommate and I cry on the sidewalk.  And then I made my friend take a picture of a bloody paper towel.  I am obviously a hypocrite.

Music Post #3

This one is not about recently obtained music, but party playlists. We had a going-away party for K tonight. She has relied on me for party mixes for the past 2 years. It's always tricky to time the music when it's not live, but I think after enough parties, I have gotten to a point where they turn out pretty successful - success measured by the number of people dancing - and then not leaving because the next song is too good to leave. So here was tonight's playlist. Note that I went back and re-played the 80s/90s mix that appears in the middle once people had been motivated to dance by the hip-hop. I never want to break the hip-hop out too early, but it always ends up being the music that motivates people to start dancing. So here's the list:

• Ratatat - Wildcat
• Say Hi - Northwestern Girls
• Islands - Where There's a Will There's a Way
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion
• Feist - 1234
• Pixies - Debaser
• Daedelus - Fair Weather Friends
• The Ting Tings - Great DJ
• Hot Chip - Over & Over
• The Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control
• Junior Boys - In the Morning
• of Montreal - Id Engager
• Fujiya & Miyagi - Collarbone
• The Outfield - Your Love
• Erasure - A Little Respect
• Cansei de Ser Sexy - Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above
• Justice - D.A.N.C.E.
• Daft Punk - Around the World/Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
• The Knife - Heartbeats
• MGMT - Kids
• Blur - Girls & Boys
• EMF - Unbelievable
• Estelle - American Boy (Feat. Kanye West)
• Akon - Wanna Be Startin Something
• Ace of Base - I Saw the Sign
• B-52s - Love Shack
• Salt-N-Pepa - Shoop
• Paula Abdul - Straight Up
• Cardigans - Love Fool
• Bell Biv Devoe - That Girl is Poison
• The Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love
• Young MC - Bust a Move
• Ace of Base - Beautiful Life
• Deelite - Groove is in the Heart
• Architecture in Helsinki - Debbie
• Usher - Love in this Club
• Lil Jon and the Eastside Boys - Get Low (Feat. Ying Yang Twins)
• Ciara - 1 2 Step (Feat. Missy)
• Sir Mix-A-Lot - Jump on It
• Eric Prydz - Call on Me
• Girl Talk - Play Your Part (Pt. 1)
• Outkast - Hey Ya
• Black Eyed Peas - My Humps
• Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
• Justin Timberlake - My Love
• Jay Z - I Just Wanna Love Ya
• Enrique Iglesias - Don't Turn Off the Lights (um, this one was due to an earlier conversation between roommates)
• Wyclef Jean - Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)
• Usher - Yeah (Feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris)
• Kanye West - Stronger
• Nelly Furtado & Timbaland - Promiscuous
• Timbaland - Give it to Me
• Britney Spears - Toxic
• 50 Cent - In Da Club
• Timbaland - The Way I Are
• 50 Cent - Ayo Technology (Feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland)
• Destiny's Child - Say My Name
• Juvenile - Back that Ass Up
• Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.
• Groove Armada - I See You Baby
• Biz Markie - Just a Friend
• Beck - E-Pro
• The Notorious B.I.G. - Hypnotize
• The Roots - The Seed (2.0)
• Black Eyed Peas - The Request Line (Feat. Macy Gray)
• Bananarama - Venus

Music Post

My roommate K (soon to be former roommate) just requested that I post about my recently acquired music.  Probably so that she can steal it from me later.  I will post acquired albums and if I'm particularly bored possibly even write a few comments about them.  Today's post will be quite long because I just got a bunch of stuff from I, the co-DJ of my radio show.  So here it is - my recently added list.

• 31Knots - Worried Well: eh...
• Alias - Resurgam
• Azeda Booth - In Flesh Tones: this sounds like a female vocalist, but the band is actually all men.  Smooth and pretty.
• Black Kids - Partie Traumatic
• The Cave Singers - Invitation Songs
• CSS - Donkey: more consistent overall, I think, than in the past, but no stand-out songs like their classic "Let's Make Love..."
• Daedelus - Love to Make Music To: I really like the song Fair Weather Friends.  Not sure about the rest.
• Dr. Dog - Fate
• The Duke Spirit - Neptune
• Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes: Tiger Mountain Peasant Song makes me want to cry...in a nice way
• Horse Feathers - Words are Dead & House with No Home: beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
• Lackthereof - Your Anchor: one of the guys from Menomena - I like it so far
• Lykke Li - Youth Novels: oh, sweet Swedish pop, I do love you
• The New Year - The New Year
• Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst: so far - I am reminded of the fact that I don't really like Bright Eyes
• Okkervil River - The Stand-Ins: album was so-so until I saw them live.  Now it is fabulous.
• One for the Team - Build it Up
• The Shaky Hands - Lunglight
• She Keeps Bees - Nests: sounds like PJ Harvey/Cat Power.  Which means I think it is ok, but others may really like it.
• Silver Jews - American Water: the lead singer's voice reminds me of Stephen Malkmus, but not as good.
• Talkdemonic - Eyes at Half Mast
• The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing
• The Uglysuit - The Uglysuit
• The Walkmen - a bunch of albums: not sure I'm sold on them yet
• The Wedding Present - El Rey: not sure I like them so far - deleted...