My Music Journal 2025: February 14, 2025

 

Friday, February 14, 2025

Time: 6:05 AM
Song: Lucky
Artist: Bif Naked
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s while riding stationary bicycle.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/76ZeSKJ7ekxZzOgqszwnA4?si=6cd25d41b504483b

I ride the stationary bike parked in our basement, playing music through the Bluetooth speaker of our little turntable. The bike is in the corner of our basement that I call “Dan Land.” It has the bar I made a few years ago, the bar top a collage of rock stars and lyrics under epoxy. Dan Land also has the baseball bat bench my dad and I made with the seat being a baseball card collage covered in epoxy.

There are crates of vinyl records all around Dan Land right now. Crates of vinyl I am still working through, and the rest are vinyl that I sell either via Marketplace or at sales during the warmer months.

In all, Dan Land is a chaotic third of the basement. Jodi has another third of the basement she calls “Club Jode Fu,” where she works on her various crafts. The other third of basement is basically taken by storage and necessities like the furnace, water heater, water softener and sump pump.

I am reading an old National Geographic article while I exercise. The article is about the importance of touch, and the development of prothesis that are increasingly becoming better at simulating the sensation of touch through technologies that I can neither explain nor fully understand.

It details the complexity of the human skin, how the sensations send messages to the brain, how that the sense of touch is the first to develop. The need of babies for human touch, particularly from their mother, is vital to their development.

We take it for granted, don’t we. The things we touch. The people. Our pets. The joy we find in a handshake or a hug.

The article mentions a man breaking down in tears when he was able to hold hands with his wife with the experimental prosthesis.

I am nearing the end of my ride when Jodi comes down, wearing her winter coat. It’s a frosty February morning with temperatures hovering around zero. She’s leaving for work.

She gives me a kiss goodbye and ascends the stairs.

I know we are the lucky ones.

My Music Journal 2025: February 13, 2025

 

Thursday, February 13, 2025

Time: 5:00 PM
Song: The A Team
Artist: Ed Sheeran
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s while driving home from work. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1VdZ0vKfR5jneCmWIUAMxK?si=3ca0a690af864d81

I pull onto Galena Avenue in Dixon and this song comes on my MP3s. Hmmm, I wonder when this got added. 

I have no memory of it. Frankly, I don’t know if I have ever heard this song before. Ed Sheeran songs all sort of sound the same to me.

Clearly, I missed most of the Ed Sheeran fad. Probably too old. Maybe too male. I don’t know. 

My two memories of Ed Sheeran are two appearances he made as an actor. 

The first is playing himself in the movie, “Yesterday.” The quick synopsis is that in a blink the Beatles are removed from the timeline of the world for everyone save one man named Jack, who then becomes a superstar by recording all their songs. 

Jack meets Ed Sheeran (playing himself, I believe), and there is a scene where the two have an impromptu songwriting contest. Sheeran writes a very Ed Sheeran type song, and Jack whips out “The Long and Winding Road.” Sheeran admits his defeat, and seems to indict he had been some sort of champion of impromptu songwriting contests. 

I remember thinking it was a strange scene, because I’ve never heard of musical artists competing in this fashion. Also, I don’t know why Ed Sheeran was the champion of such contests, and why speed of songwriting is important. Finally, “The Long and Winding Road” has never been one of my favorite Beatle tunes, so Jack picking that one didn’t hit with me. 

The second Ed Sheeran appearance was his brief role in HBO’s “The Game of Thrones.” Sheeran plays a singing soldier in the Lannister army. Sheeran and a small band of Lannister soldiers are camped alongside the Kingsroad and unwittingly encounter Arya Stark, fresh off killing the entire Frey family and now a trained Faceless Man assassin. While never revealing her identity, Stark tells the soldiers she is traveling to King’s Landing to murder Queen Cersei. They all laugh. 

The scene is meant to emphasize that while Cersei Lannister and many of her family were power hungry monsters, the men fighting in the army were basically normal people just doing what they are told. Small cogs stuck in the wheel that Daenerys Targaryen had claimed to want to break in an episode around this same time. 

I think the scene took heat when it was released because it didn’t really seem to serve a purpose other than to get Sheeran some air time. Maybe so. 

I think it probably was supposed to remind Arya that there had to be a limit to her thirst for revenge. 

Ultimately where it missed the mark was that the showrunners should have had some of the same Lannister soldiers appear in the second-to-final episode when Daenerys is burning King’s Landing and her Unsullied are mercilessly killing Lannister men who have surrendered. Seeing this band of normal guys murdered would have drove home the point that Daenerys had lost sight of breaking the wheel and instead was crushing the cogs caught on it.  

My Music Journal 2025: February 12, 2025

 

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Time: 5:17 PM
Song: Milkshake 
Artist: Kelis
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s while driving home from work in a snow storm. 

Links to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/4LmzPJDil70LpiApWfOI6O?si=7ab77ca837a44d95

OK, a few things here. 

First, I mention a snow storm above. There was a time in my life I would have considered today’s snow storm just a little snow. Actually, I still do. Most winters twenty-to-forty years ago (at least in my memory) had snow events like this almost weekly between the end of November to the middle of March. This winter, this was the first snow of any consequence that we’ve had. The last few years we’ve generally had one maybe two marginally serious snow events a season. 

We’ve had three, maybe four inches today. It’s a light snow. It’s blown a bit, but the roads are mostly clear. There are no drifts even ankle deep much less the knee-to-hip depth that lead to homebound days for those of us who live beyond the city limits. 

It’s not dark. Just gray out like it has been all day. The snow is blowing sideways, but it’s not so heavy that it impairs vision. 

A real snow event has much more danger, more precipitation, and blinding winds. The grumpy old man at me wants to mock any school that called classes off. In my day, I wouldn’t even had bothered to turn on the radio to find out if school was canceled. There was no chance. This would have just been a Wednesday with some snow, soon forgotten, and likely buried under the snow that came with the big storm a day or two later. 

Second, those following along on this blog probably consider this song selection to be a departure from my usual fare. I agree, it strays from my listening tastes. I have it on my phone for a couple reasons. 

1. Jodi likes it. Simple as that. I add music she likes because she’ll be listening to these MP3s when we travel. 
2. There was an episode of “Raising Hope” – a show we probably only watched a handful of times in syndication – where the Cloris Leechman character enters a cooking contest and changes the words of this song to “My hot dish brings all the boys to the yard.” It’s a scene that we’ve mentioned dozens of times since even though – as I said – we barely saw any of the episodes for that sitcom. 

Third, it just hits me that this song, a type a song I usually wouldn’t be listening too, would be playing while I puttered along a snowy country road in a storm I once wouldn’t have considered a storm. 

My Music Journal 2025: February 11, 2025

 

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Time: 4:27 PM
Song: Rainy Day Women #12 & #35 
Artist: Bob Dylan
Mode of Consumption: Vinyl Record of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/7BkAlVpGwXXl3sYNn5OoJ7?si=18e95ee2e9e54605

We had a meeting at 3 p.m. today in Sterling to complete a land purchase, so I left work early. The business at the title company finished a little before 4 p.m., and when I arrived home, I decided that I could work the last hour remotely, so I wouldn’t have to use PTO or take so many short lunches. 

I set the laptop on our dining room table, and I figure it’s a good time to put some vinyl on while I scan the emails from the time I missed. Much of my life is spent scanning emails. 

I picked Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits from my collection, and I was reminded that the very first CD I ever bought was this very album. It was purchased at the old Wal-Mart in Sterling, and I don’t remember if I was in junior high or high school. 

It’s strange because I was usually frugal in my teens, and when it came to music, I usually stuck with what I knew. I probably knew some of the songs on this album, but I don’t have any memories of listening to a Bob Dylan song before that CD. 

Why did I choose it? 

I suppose I was aware of Dylan’s standing in the popular music world, and as a big Beatles fan, it wasn’t that far of a stretch that I would stick with 1960s-based music. 

Perhaps, I thought it would sound cool if some random person asked what CD I bought first. 

“Well, Bob Dylan, of course.” I can see me saying with my pinky up. 

I might have been curious. What’s the big deal about this guy? Let’s just see. 

Whatever it was, I do remember putting it in my new boom box, and “Rainy Day Women #12 & #35” hitting the speakers, and realizing this wasn’t what I expected. The tongue-in-cheek lyrics, the hint of mischief in his voice, the upbeat arrangement. I was stoned without ever taking a puff. I was stoned without a rock ever hitting me. 

I was dazed. 

And then “Blowin’ in the Wind” followed, and that was like a changeup from a hurler blazin’ 100-mile-per-hour fastballs. With each track there was something similar, but altogether different. 

Back then I didn’t have the context for all the lyrics, and many of them I still don’t quite understand, but every time I put this album on, and that first track hits, I get the same feeling. Like I am stepping onto the path of a great adventure. 

My Music Journal: February 10, 2025

 

Monday, February 10, 2025

Time: 7:57 PM
Song: White Winter Hymnal 
Artist: Fleet Foxes
Mode of Consumption: Playlist Pandemonium Winter is Here playlist for songs from the last twenty years that reminds us of winter. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0GegHVxeozw3rdjte45Bfx?si=7a5f817f03784c85

I’ll admit that today is the first time that I’ve went through most of the day without being inspired by one song or another since I started this little blog experiment at the beginning of the year. And since I am already tired I doubt I'll be staying up late enough to just luck into one, so I had to be proactive in choosing a song.

It was bound to happen. 

I listened to music during the normal times. Morning workout. Drive to work. First few hours of work. Drive home from work. 

It was just a day where I was either busy or my mind just wasn’t tuned to the music. 

So, I sit down tonight wanting to find a song that fits this feeling. 

Well, this morning I had listened to this playlist, straight through, and yet late in the morning, I looked down to realize that it had ended and that Spotify had slipped into whatever songs it feels relates to the playlist. 

I like the “White Winter Hymnal,” and I decide it’s a song that feels like it would play in the background of a movie or TV show, but it wouldn’t dominate the scene. Instead, the action on the screen would carry the movement, while the song simply helps move it along.

If you didn’t know the song, you might not even have noticed it, probably not until it played in some random playlist sparking your mind to remember where you’ve heard the damn thing before. 

Maybe all of this relates to winter. That between the cold and the dark, we’re moving through time, barely even noticing the notes, the chords, the melody, and the lyrics of life playing just at the edge of our conscience. 

My Music Journal: February 9, 2025

 

Sunday, February 9, 2025

Time: 1:30 PM
Song: Bang a Gong
Artist: T-Rex
Mode of Consumption: Playing on speakers at Blackhawk Bowling Alley during 10^th frame of second and final game of Super Bowling 2025. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/6FsQrRpBLgsrFeAeiQqytm?si=a32aa6df9ae04a11

Every year, a handful of our family gathers at Blackhawk Lanes in Sterling on the day of the Super Bowl at noon for a couple games that we call Super Bowling. We’re an amateur bunch that’s for sure. The majority of the crew only bowl this once every year.

Sometimes Jodi and I will make it out another time, but this year we hadn’t. The most accomplished bowler of the bunch is my Dad, who during the winter months bowls with a senior group at Plum Hollow in Dixon twice a week. 

A few years ago, Jodi found an old bowling trophy at a thrift shop so now the high score gets to keep this as a traveling trophy. 

Every year, Dad has won the trophy, usually by a lot. 

Before I go any farther, I must admit that I bowled in a league for three years after college (I think I have a post about that already) but I wasn’t very good. Well, since we started Super Bowling, I have become more consistent. My average is probably getting into the 140s, maybe 150s. 

The first game today I hit a few strikes early, but struggled to pick up spares to push my score higher. I finished strong with a pair of strikes in the tenth frame that pushed my score to 153, besting Dad by seven pins. 

I started the second game strong with three consecutive strikes and four in the first five frames. Yet, Dad stayed in there. I left a couple frames open in the second half of the second game, and Dad made up ground with strikes and spares. 

Bachman Turner Overdrive’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” played as the tenth frame opened. Randy Bachman appeared on the screen at the end of the lane, donned in a blue shirt with white stitching and an Afro. I was the first bowler on our lane. I threw a strike. Then I left two pins (6 & 10) on my second throw, both on the right side of the lane. I eased the bowl down the lane for my final throw, it glided to the corner of the lane and knocked down those two pins for a spare. 

My second game was a 177. My two-game score was a 330. 

Marc Bolan and T-Rex popped onto the screen, “Bang a Gong” played as the trophy came down to my Dad’s last frame.

Dad was filling frames left and right in the second game, and opened the tenth frame with a strike. He then left a 5-10 split on his second throw. If he picked it up, he’d pass me. His ball floated to the right edge of the lane, but flattened out, knocking down one pin, but not both. 

He finished with a 181, and a 327 for the two games. 

I won the trophy (my first time winning) by three pins. Bang a Gong!

My Music Journal 2025: February 8, 2025

 

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Time: 2 PM
Song: M+M’s
Artist: Blink-182
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on my phone while cleaning our bathroom.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/2jAIkqtB15hDyJUeYxsWTO?si=fd3c55ad71cd418a

I spent the morning working on a flash fiction piece for a contest. In this case, the story could not consist of more than one thousand words. Meaning this story was less than half and closer to a third in length of the other two contests I have participated in this year. I also only have the weekend to complete the story, the deadline being 10 p.m. on Sunday. 

So, on one hand, it’s a bit easier than the last two. I only have to come up with a thousand words. But, I also only have two days as opposed to eight days as the other two contests. Also, with the Super Bowl tomorrow, much of our day is being consumed by church, bowling and then watching the game. Mostly then, I have today.

The other part of this challenge is telling a compelling story in a short span. I can’t spend too much time on character development or setting. Each word has to carry more weight.

When this Blink-182 came on while I was taking a break from writing and trying to do something constructive and needed like cleaning the bathroom, I came up for my analogy for flash fiction. 

It’s a pop song. Something Blink-182 excelled at to the point that I think most people dismiss them as serious musicians. 

I understand that. They are a three-chord band, their humor is sophomoric, and even there more somber efforts have a pop beat and simplistic lyrics. 

I think the argument made against them is that anyone can write a three-minute pop song. It’s one thing to do it once or twice to make some money, it’s another for that to be the entire catalog. 

Well, first, if it’s so easy to write a three-minute pop song, why doesn’t everyone do it? I have never done it. I doubt I ever could. Maybe I could cobble some lyrics together, but I am clueless when it comes to chord structure, rhythm and melody. 

The reality is it’s not easy. It’s hard. It sometimes much easier to delve into the more complex and over complicate songs to the point that they just aren’t that enjoyable to listen to. Have you created something with more artistic merit? Maybe, but it may not reach nearly as many people Sometime editing and simplifying is the right path, and the result can still be more powerful. 

This song is an early attempt by Blink-182, as they improved, their songs became better and bigger. 

That’s why I tackle flash fiction. I know I can’t overwrite too much. I have to get to the point. I have to create a problem, and get the characters through it as quickly and sensibly as possible. 

Maybe it will turn out shallow, but I’ve discovered as I’ve done it more that the potential for good stories is very much there. 

Plus, I can always expand the story once the contest is finished if I think there is more meat on the bone than a flash fiction piece allows.