Month: February 2004

I got enough positive feedback from my last playlist to make me consider that making a habit out of it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. And with Valentine’s coming up, you know that everyone’s looking for just the right song.
Of course, the problem with Valentine’s Day is that everyone is in a different mindset, and thus are looking for different things musically. Some people are hugely head over heels in love with their significant other and looking for expressions of love. Some people are just starting to fall in love. Some are making appeals (and hopefully won’t get the “Message Body: No” response), and others are lamenting the loss of love. And some people are just flat out bitter from the get go.
I thought it would be an interesting exercise to try and form a playlist of songs that applies to EVERYONE – a handful of songs for each of these classes of people, enough to let people find something that will work for them. Of course, I am conflicting genres (trip-hop, dance, rock, classical, and more), artists (DJ Shadow, Lou Reed, They Might Be Giants, Daft Punk, and Kylie), and tempos – but who cares about those sorts of things? I did make some poor attempts at thematic progression, so track order does matter. People who are connected to my music library will find a shared playlist for queueing this all in order. So without further ado, I give you Valentines For All. Click through and enjoy.

Tuesday was, surprisingly enough, the eighteen month mark of the marriage of Katie and I. I think this officially puts us out of the “newlywed” stage, so there will be no opportunities for questions about the strangest place we’ve made whoopee to be answered in the hopes of winning a specially selected prize. I think this is the last non-year anniversary we’re allowed to recognize by law – after this it’s August 3rd only, baby.
The marriage is still going well; like all marriages, it’s a constant learning experience, with things to work on and help each other with. We make a good pair, Katie and I.
(There was a fairly depressing couple of paragraphs after this; I’ve decided to nuke them after some reflection. They dealt with me feeling stuck in a rut and like I needed something to break me out from the everyday drudgery. Truth is, I already did get re-centered and re-inspired, and I shouldn’t ever forget that.)

A few months ago, Katie and I were heading somewhere in the city, and we saw a homeless guy in the tunnel between the 42nd St station and Port Authority with a sign that said “TELL ME OFF – $2”. And I thought that was funny, really sad, and pretty insane all at the same time.
Tonight we were heading back to the subway around St. Marks (right near the fated telephone booth), and there was a guy in front of Starbucks selling snowballs for $1. Yes, snowballs – as in the balls of snow, not the slush-puppy-like thing they sell in Maryland or in the Clerks sense. This is when there are still giant piles of clean snow all over the place.
I am sincerely baffled.