this and that

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 11

A song from your favorite band 

Ask ‘name your favourite band’ and I come up with a blank. Turn back the clock to ‘88 and I say “Milli Vanilli”. There are 11-years-olds out there today that would know better than I did back then. Fast-forward to ‘91 and I’d say New Kids on the Block. Because being 11 or being 14 didn’t make that much of a difference to me from a musical point of view.

Same goes for ‘93 leading up to ‘97 (Take That, Backstreet Boys) and then from ‘97 to ‘00 (*NSYNC) because those bands I would name when asked what my favourite band is. 

No, wait, I’d try to find a way not to answer it because deep down inside, I knew it was uncool. And I know there’s this whole talk of those bands not being bands, but groups, because they don’t play their instruments.

Look, Kevin played the piano and Howie played the guitar, alright? That’s some serious Pink Floyd-esque shit right there I tell you.

Anyway, fast-forward to now, 2011, and there is not one band that I would name my favourite because there are so many bands I like to listen to. They just don’t have enough pretty dancing boys in them for me to place on top of my bands-list. Among my favourites of the past 10 years is Coldplay. Which, I recently discovered, is rather uncool to like at the moment. So I’m still following a trend here (along with millions of other people). I’ve passed up chances to see them live quite a few times now, due to booked vacations and failed attempts at finding out in time that the tickets had gone on sale. So when I heard they’re playing at a festival here I did not even think twice about going to see them. None of my friends thought the line-up of the festival was interesting enough to get tickets for it. I think I thought .2 seconds about not going but I knew I’d slap myself repeatedly with a trout if I wouldn’t allow myself to witness Coldplay play That One Song that is my ultimate favourite for so many reasons. I wanted to soak up the song, bask in its glory and shed some tears along the way with it as I’d done so many times whenever it was on the radio. I love it that much. I’d even go as far as to say that there’s a fair chance that someday it will take the #1 spot on my list of favourite songs ever.

Knowing there was a chance I might be let-down and it wouldn’t be as glorious as I’d imagined the months leading up to the show, I stood there on that June evening, watching Coldplay, enjoying every minute of it. And then there was the encore, with That One Song. And it was as glorious as I’d hoped it’d be.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 10

A song that makes you fall asleep 

Does this mean ‘a song that makes you relax to the max’ or ‘a song that bores you to tears’? I’m kind of confused by this one. Choosing the latter.

Since my attention span has the size of a gnat I value songs that are well-constructed and keep me interested for at least 4 minutes, unless you’re called B. Rhapsody, then you may go on forever and I’ll stay alert.

What you do NOT do, is go on forever and a day without giving me a hook, a chorus, any discernible peak. Not a high. Not any lows either. It’s just there and it merrily rolls along in its rocking chair and its knitting pattern and its Werther’s Original, sucking the life out of the room. See? I even lost interest in writing the previous sentence to have it make any sense.

So, boring songs. There’s this one song that bores me. Not to tears, but almost to a sleep induced break. Close to a coma.

It never ever ends and there is no point

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 09

A song that you can dance to

I can dance to anything. Because, you see, I have no shame. And I love to dance. I have a sense of rhythm in me that I just need to let out every once in a while. If that ‘once in a while’ happens to be ‘2 pm at the office’ then by God I’ll dance in the office. Let me correct something: by dance, I mean I try to dance. Because honestly I think the Bolshoi ballet is not ready for my jelly just yet. Give it a century or 6.

Now there’s one song that’s about DANCE and it features the lyric DANCE and I actually danced to it in front of a mildly interested audience consisting of middle schoolers and teachers. There’s video proof of this which I will not show, not now, not ever. But let’s just say it was a lip syncing contest and I won. With this song. With a purple ribbon in my hair and matching coloured outfit. And my attempts at trying to recreate some funky moves from the music video.

DANCE!

Team what?

I’m not Team Cee-Lo. Or Team Christina. Nor am I Team Blake or Team Adam. 

I’m Team Get Season Two Started Right The Fuck NOW, Bitches. Awesome. Loved spotting the producer and all the Dutch judges and the winner in the audience, looking like audience members. 

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 08

A song that you know all the words to

Without trying to sound too much like I’m bragging (even though it’s not really something to brag about) — I know the words to a lot of songs. There’s your typical middle of the road, melodic stuff. The faster stuff, the slower stuff. And rap. Oh yeah, rap.

Sometimes my poor, poor co-workers ask me if I sit at home studying the Great Book of Song Lyrics during my free time. To which I answer “No, I don’t. Some people remember important stuff like When did the Golden Age take place, How do you change a flat tyre or Where is Guatamala. I remember less-important stuff.” Like song lyrics, such as this one.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 07

A song that reminds you of a certain event.

A roadtrip-tale again.

This song became a running gag on roadtrips since I innocently included it on a guilty pleasure-CD in ‘05. Because I happen to genuinely like the song. I remember playing the CD while driving Route 66 and the weather and views were glorious and then this song came on and my best friend C. looked at me as if to say “Who in the what how? THIS song?” And then we sang along to it, loudly. Ever since that vacation, this is the one song constantly included on our guilty pleasure-CD’s from ‘06 up until the distant future. As they say in America, it’s our jam.

2009, september 11. My friend and I were on vacation, in Boston and attended a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. Didn’t know what the hell was going on because: baseball. But loved every minute of it. Despite the fact that the opponent team (I think it was Miami-somthing. Or Tampa-something. Something southern) was ‘on bat’ (is that a baseball term? Well it is now, you know what I mean) 3 times. And that’s all they got to play because it was pissing down with rain. But, there was pizza, hotdogs, some fun Canadian guys next to us and a jumbotron on which various confusing statistics were displayed, plus the message that it was raining. You don’t say!

At one point, I think the people in charge of the jumbotron figured that crazy numbers and stats are not enough to entertain the average baseball fan so they decided to play a music video of (I think) some of the Red Sox players, dressed up, lip synching to a song.

OUR JAM.

(this is the actual video they showed)

And this is when my friend and I looked at each other, laughed and laughed and decided this was the best 30 dollars we’d spent in ages. 3,5 hours of sitting in the bleachers, waiting for the rain to stop, which it never did, watching a game that never got started and eventually was postponed to a later date.

So from now on, when I hear this song, not only do I think of the various roadtrips we’ve taken, but specifically that rainy, rainy day at Fenway Park.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 06

A song that reminds you of somewhere

Whenever we go on vacation, which is usually a roadtrip, we take a crapload of cd’s with us to loudly sing along to in the car. At least one of those cd’s is always a mix of songs from artists that are from the area that we’re visiting. As was the case during our vacation in Scotland in 2007. One of the best songs on the Great Scots! cd was this song. We’d try and sing it in the same accent and think “no Scot would probably ever play this song nowadays.” Our last vacation day, we dropped the car off at the rental place and took a taxi to the airport. Lo and behold, the radio station in the taxi played that song. So whenever I hear it, I’m back in the taxi, or any other vehicle, in Scotland.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 05

A song that reminds you of someone

The childhoods of my sister and I took place in the ’80s. When my parents bought a VCR we got our own special videotape on which we recorded two things:

- Barbie doll commercials;

- Music videos.

Because those were our two obsessions during the ’80s. We outgrew one.

But luckily we kept on playing with Barbie dolls. No I’m just kidding, we’re still avid music fans. On our Very Special Sisters Videotape we played/rewinded to watch and listen to videos such as Always on my mind (Pet Shop Boys), What have I done to deserve this (Pet Shop Boys/Dusty Springfield), Private Dancer (Tina Turner) and Papa Don’t Preach (Madonna - at the end of the video she’s in her room and I wanted those frilly pastel coloured curtains. Needed them.). But out of all the video clips we had on tape, the one we played the most was accompanied by a (we thought) great video from a movie we just HAD to see. It was our favourite movie even though we’d never seen it. The whole concept was just weird and fairytale-like. It seriously was our all-time favourite movie at the time.

As of this day, neither of us have seen the movie. Neither do we wish to because wtf? But as of this day, whenever the song comes on the radio (or VH1 - bless VH1), wherever we are, we text each other and think of each other. So here’s to my sister.

Let them say we’re crazy. What do they know?

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 04

A song that makes you sad

In November ‘09 my best friend’s dad died, very suddenly. Heart attack. 54 years old. Boom, gone. He was a very kind man, but not one of many words. He reminded me a lot of my dad: comes across as stubborn and grumpy sometimes but with a heart of gold and with lots of love for his family and just very much to himself. During the funeral ceremony, my best friend talked about her dad. How he was and how she wished he was still here because the lack of communication resulted in never really being able to say she loves him and how much she appreciates him. So she decided to play this song for him so she’d be able to tell him, in a way. 

I have only heard this song one more time ever since that day and I believe that for the next 3892 years I will not be able to hear this song and not sob uncontrollably. 

K’s Choice - Dad

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 03

A song that makes you happy

Thankfully, there’s a gazillion happy songs to choose from. The one that instantly comes to mind is a happy little ditty that is probably one of the best über-pop-songs ever. I dare you to hear this song and stay depresed. I dare you.

S Club 7 - Bring it all back