ooh, snickers.

Wreckless Eric - “(I’d Go The) Whole Wide World”

Today’s theme: sex scene.

I am posting this song because of this scene.

The Replacements - “Waitress in the Sky”

Today’s theme, “voices in my head,” was actually pretty tough for me. As I have already mentioned, the only thing running through my head with any frequency is “you don’t make friends with salad.” Not only that, but I tend not to listen to too much introspective feelings music, music that gets into my head. I used to think I was lyrics-oriented, and maybe I was at some point, but for the past several years what I want from music is bounce. Give me a good beat and/or something I can sing along to.

But on my way home today — the best part about walking to and from work is that walking often helps me work through writing issues — I realized that I often have other voices in my head, voices other than the Literary Editor, who tells me I will never write anything worth a damn; and the Fashion Editor, who never says anything, just looks at me witheringly and tsks; and the Fifth Grade Bully who tells me that no one actually likes me, they’re just faking it because they feel sorry for me (she’s usually joined by the Eleventh Grade Jackass who tells me that guys only like me because of my tits) — and just so you don’t think all my voices are evil, I also have several positive voices that tell me I am fantastic and brilliant and I should keep on doing what I’m doing because it is WORKING. It’s too bad I don’t have names for those voices. I should work on that. Sorry guys. (Also I should mention that I have worked very hard to ignore the bad voices. But as we all know, ignoring something doesn’t mean it stops or goes away for good.)

ANYWAY!

I have lots of other voices, but these voices are the ones I make up. I like to create dialogues in my head when I’m walking. Sometimes they’re between fictional characters, sometimes they’re between me and a famous person I’ve always wanted to meet, sometimes they’re between me and random people I pass on the street, and sometimes they’re between me and someone I’m mad or irritated with or who I think is mad at me. I’m so afraid of confrontation that these dialogues either help me work up the nerve to say “This is bothering me” or “I think things have changed between us, what’s going on?” or just help me get over it because I can say whatever nasty thing I want without any consequences.

So it hit me on my way home today that Paul Westerberg’s “fuck you” to a snotty flight attendant is sort of in that vein — although I think I heard somewhere that the song is actually about his sister and written as a sort of joke? But even so.

Sanitation expert and a maintenance engineer

Garbage man, a janitor, and you my dear

A real union flight attendant, my oh my

You ain’t nothing but a waitress in the sky

The New Pornographers - “Twin Cinema”

For today’s theme: O Canada

So I’m from Minnesota, right? Canada and I, we’re like *this*. I remember spending a weekend at a friend’s summer cabin in northern MN, right on the border. We paddled a canoe into Ontario one day. No passports required.

Which has nothing to do with this song. But man, do I love this song. It’s one of those first tracks that makes it extremely difficult to move on to the rest of the album because I just want to listen to it a few more times.