The set list in my MP3 player that will randomly play songs... whatever it plays I have to create a musical interpretation somehow!
This is my 2010 challenge!

Tags:   365 Days Year 2 Set List

© All Rights Reserved

"A Long December and there's reason to believe, maybe this year will be better than the last..."
A Long December: Counting Crows, Recovering the Satellites

For a lot of reasons I feel that I have to believe that 2010 will be better than 2009. This song really inspired me when it first came out because this was just one of those songs where the music blended with the lyrics to perfectly portray a cold winter with change around the corner.

I remember leaving a party one night in college, and I had smoked far too many cigarettes for having bronchitis. I felt so sick so I drove myself to my parent's house in San Antonio. I remember lying in the bath tub with just a little bit of water- desperately trying to catch a full breath. I finally got out and got dressed and drove myself to the Emergency Room at Brooke Army Medical Center. When I got out of the car it was blistering cold (yes, even Texas gets really cold spells), and I remember looking up at the street light as this song was playing. I knew what it was like to wrapped in the emotions of the singer. It wasn't the first time I felt that kind of a connection, but it was one of the strongest times.

When I hear this song I always imagine walking through the snow on New Year's morning, after a hard December which I just happened to have. I imagine the hope being summoned for the new year. Maybe Adam had something different in mind when he wrote this- but this is what I took away from it.

Lyrics:
A long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember the last thing that you said as You were leaving
Now the days go by so fast
And it's one more day up in the canyons
And it's one more night in Hollywood
If you think that I could be forgiven...I wish you would

The smell of hospitals in winter
And the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters, but no pearls
All at once you look across a crowded room
To see the way that light attaches to a girl
And it's one more day up in the canyons
And it's one more night in Hollywood
If you think you might come to California...I think you should

Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after two a.m.
And talked a little while about the year
I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower,
Makes you talk a little lower about the things You could not show her

And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass
And it's one more day up in the canyon
And it's one more night in Hollywood
It's been so long since I've seen the ocean...I guess I should

Tags:   365 Days A Long December Counting Crows Canada Winter New Year Resolutions Inspirations Musical Interpretations 2010inphotos

© All Rights Reserved

"Been up all night drinking to drown my sorrows down..."
Dirty Little Secret: Sarah Mclachlan, Afterglow

I don't know how to describe what Sarah captured in this song. It's just Sarah and a Piano, but the haunting voice through the air just pulls you into the song- where you can feel every emotion going through the artist's soul. You can feel the longing for healing and the pleading for release. She's an amazing artist.

The thing about this song is that I can Identify with nights of drowning my sorrows over a bottle of Crown Royal. I can identify with this where I would rely on my illusions that kept me warm and safe because reality was harder to bear.

I think we all create illusions of denial to be able to get from day to day. I relied on the reality that people believed in me or supported me- even loved me. Family... friends... co-workers... they've all stabbed me in the back in the worst possible ways. And when you find out the reality that differs greatly from what you "knew"... well, the sorrows need to be drowned out in one form or another.

I can't really listen to this song without tears in my eyes. I remember some very hard nights of journaling through some difficult pains- where I would just listen to this song over and over. I wish to never know such pain again as what I feel in this song- but I am smarter than that to sink into that illusion.


Lyrics:
If I had the chance love
I would not hesitate
To tell you all things I never said before
Dont tell me its too late
Cause I've relied on my illusion
to keep me warm at night
and Ive denied in my capacity to love
but I am willing to give up this fight

Been up all night drinking to drown my sorrows down
But nothing seems to help me since youve gone away
Im so tired of this town where every tongue is wagging
When every back is turned
Theyre telling secrets that should never be revealed
Theres nothing to be gained from this but disaster

Heres a good one
Did you hear about my friend
Hes embarrassed to be seen now
Cause we all know his sins

If I had the chance love
I would not hesitate
To tell you all things I never said before
Dont tell me its too late
Cause Ive relied on my illusion
to keep me warm at night
and Ive denied in my capacity to love
But I am willing to give up this fight
Oh I am willing to give up this fight

Tags:   365 Days Musical Interpretations Drinking Grand Mariner Sarah Mclachlan Dirty Little Secret Afterglow Black And White B&W 2010inphotos

© All Rights Reserved

“Don't you know it's my way out To be on my own. When I feel like crying out I do it best alone”
Walls: Yes, Talk

When I first heard this song I was struck at how the first line just spoke out at me- because that is exactly how I tend to operate under stress or depression- whatever harsh emotion I am enduring. I tend to pull into a shell and fix things, and then come out. I find a beginning of another year where I feel myself putting up those defensive walls- to go and “work on me” then come back a different person.

The interesting part of this song is that it references both putting up walls and taking them down. I don’t want a world surrounded by walls. I have had over 30 years of that kind of a life. But it’s part of my second nature that I fight against… and usually lose. In the end, all I want is freedom. For the walls to come down.

So is the hand holding the walls up? Or pulling them down…?

Lyrics:
Don't you know it's my way out
To be on my own
When I feel like crying out I do it best alone
Can you give me love and
Protection to shield my heart
All the fear I feel from doubt
Is tearing me apart

I wanna love, I wanna give
I want to find another way to live
Another shout, another cry
And the walls come tumbling down

Don't you know there's now way out
Your pain's your own
And the more we scream and shout
The more we feel alone
I can feel my anger rising
Am I to blame?
And I'm not gonna keep it inside me
Do you feel the same?

And I'm calling you

Tags:   365 Days Walls Yes Musical Interpretations 2010 In Photos

© All Rights Reserved

"I got my spine, I got my Orange Crush..."
Orange Crush: R.E.M., Green

This song is one of many off of R.E.M.'s Green album, one of the most influential albums musically and lyrically for my life. For the meaning of this and many songs, Stipe himself is rather vague on the true meanings and words of the songs. I read something once that this song was about The Vietnam War and the use of Napalm- then it was also about the actual soda "Orange Crush" and really, the world will probably never know. And that in and of itself is the beauty of music.

What music means to one person, will mean something different to another. What words touch one person's life will do nothing for someone else's world. Lyrically this song did not inspire me... The music of this song is a very driving beat and a driving song.

When I graduated High School my father took me on a camping trip in East Texas. It was so hot and humid that to escape the heat he took me on the back roads and taught me to drive a standard transmission. Once I got the hang of it I went off on my own- playing this song over and over... shifting with the changes in the song, singing with the chorus. It was a potent moment in the relationship between my father and I... a turning point almost- and this song was the "theme song" to that moment.

Lyrics:
Follow me, don't follow me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
Collar me, don't collar me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
We are agents of the free
I've had my fun and now it's time to
Serve your conscience overseas (over me, not over me)
Coming in fast, over me

High on the roof,
Thin the blood,
Another one climbs on the waves tonight,
Comin' in, you're home

We'd circle and we'd circle and we'd circle to stop and consider and
Centered on the pavement stacked up all the trucks jacked up and
Our wheels in slush and orange crush in pocket and all this here county
Hell any county it's just like heaven here and I was remembering and I
Was just in a different county and all then this whirlybird that I
Headed for I had my goggles pulled off I knew it all I knew every back
Road and every truck stop

Tags:   365 Days R.E.M. Orange Crush Musical Interpretations Photos In 2010 Green

© All Rights Reserved