My 2013 Soundtrack

Photo Credit: RJS Photos

Some of my taste in music is stable, and some of it changes over time.  When I listen to things, I tend to listen to them over and over.  And over.

In 2013, I listened to the radio more, and I learned a few new songs I liked.  I actually like a lot of Katy Perry, and I even like Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball,” much to my embarrassment.

On my 25 Most Played Playlist:

1. Hey, Pixies

2. Greedy Fly, Bush

3. How To Save A Life, The Fray

4. Hate Me, Blue October

5. Under My Thumb, The Rolling Stones

6. Promise, Eve 6

7. Blinded by Rainbows, The Rolling Stones

8. Waiting on the World To Change, John Mayer

9. Without You, Motley Crue

10. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, Taylor Swift

11. Clocks, Coldplay

12. Inside Out, Eve 6

13. Hold Me Up, Live

14. Where Is My Mind?, Yoav

15. November Rain, Guns N’ Roses

16. 1979, Smashing Pumpkins

17. 100 Years, Five For Fighting

18. Big Yellow Taxi, Counting Crows

19. Gives You Hell, The All-American Rejects

20. Glycerine, Bush

21. Independent Love Song, Scarlett O’

22. I Walk the Line, Johnny Cash

23. Standing On The Moon, Grateful Dead

24. Hurt, Nine Inch Nails

25. Stay, Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories

My Top 25 List changes somewhat from time to time, but this is actually a good representation.  Lisa Loeb, Nine Inch Nails, and Bush are ones I’ve liked from my college days.  I actually didn’t get into Eve 6 in the 90s; sometimes music gets stuck in my head for no apparent reason, and I have to hear it.  Or else.  I got Inside Out stuck in my head like that one day, and as a result, went out and bought a bunch of Eve 6 CDs.  The TV Guy introduced me to the Grateful Dead.  Of course I’d heard of them, but never really listened to them.

I got into Johnny Cash after watching “Walk the Line.”  I like a lot of his songs, but that one happens to be my favorite.  “Hey” and “Hold Me Up” are from one of my favorite movies: Zach and Miri Make a Porno.  “Where is My Mind?” is from Sucker Punch.  That whole soundtrack is awesome.  If you haven’t heard it, check it out on iTunes.  Or better yet, just watch the movie.  “Independent Love Song” is from “Bed of Roses,” another favorite movie of mine.  The Rolling Stones are just awesomesauce.  So there.  I had actually heard “1979” many times, but it never got into my head until I watched “Clerks II.”  Not one of my all time favorite movies, but the song has stuck with me since then.

The other songs on the list are just ones I’d heard here and there that I ended up putting into different playlists and then probably listening to on repeat until they made the list.

I also have two playlists for writing music (one all instrumental, the other not), “Moody Music,” “Stuff I forget I have,” and one I call “Favorites,” which is actually a list composed from a 25 Most Played Playlist on a different iPod.  If you follow that logic.

What do you call your playlists, and what’s on them?

X is for X-Files

X-files is one of the best shows ever made.  I remember that I didn’t start watching it until about Season 4.  My friend kept recommending it to me, and I kept ignoring him.  Once I finally watched it, I was hooked.  This was back in 1997, in the days before box sets, on-demand, and pirated videos on the internet.  Since I’d already missed 3 seasons, I had to watch TV in order to catch up, and it wasn’t like they played them in the correct order.

I taped each episode I watched, and I labeled the video tapes with the episode numbers and names.  I don’t remember how I got this information, since this was in the days before Mother Google showed us the way.  I just remember painstakingly labeling DVDs.

How much different would the X-files be today?  Mulder would have a Twitter feed and a Facebook group of other believers.  He’d have an iPad and would do a lot of research on that.  He’d try to capture videos of all the weird phenomena he saw on his iPhone.  Technology is both a blessing and a curse for today’s writers, because we have to write around all this technology in a logical, believable manner.

The X-files ran from 1993 to 2002.  I didn’t actually watch the last couple of seasons, after Mulder was abducted.  I did watch the X-files: I want to believe, which came out in 2008.  I know many fans of the series weren’t please with it, but I thought it was great.  It didn’t create any new holes in the various story lines that were never resolved in my opinion (black oil, anyone?), and it felt like visiting old friends.  It certainly was easier to follow than the first disastrous movie in 1998.

If you’re a Netflix subscriber, they actually do have the entire series online.  Whether you’re a new fan or old, now may be the time to watch!

I want to believe…