The soundtrack of our lives

There's a fun Facebook meme about the 15 albums that changed your life. It was really hard. For me, music is so intertwined with memory. For the most part, I have very clear picture where I was when I heard something, who I was with, what I was doing. Being of an age where "albums" denotes an entire disc, turning the record or tape over, and listening to it--I did a lot of that, in the car, in my room or someone else's. To narrow it down to 15, though--I could do 20 and maybe be happy. Tak was running down a bunch of artists, and I wasn't able to include them. Either it was song-specific, or I couldn't pick just one album by one artist, whether it was the first one I heard by them or what I think to be the best one (e.g, the Police, Suzanne Vega, or Crowded House). Some are so part of my formative years that I had to exclude recent albums I've loved--or it's just too many from one time period. The most life-changing ones I heard in high school (and those are many).

Or--none of the great discs I've heard in the last few years from top to bottom rocked my world in a fundamental way. Which is not to mean I don't appreciate and love some of my recent faves--Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights, Death Cab, Bravery, Keane, the Matrix and Garden State soundtracks, or Amy Winehouse. Well, there were many mornings that I was able to get through the day fueled on Keane's Under the Iron Sea, but it wasn't life-changing. Then there are the potentially hazardous records associated with various romantic attachments from 20ish (eek!) years ago. Am I going to advertise that on FB, or here, even? Nope, sorry.

The other scenario is there are times we'd listen to a bunch of stuff, and all that music meshed together indicates a time & place, but to choose one artist/album would be unfair. For example, I heard Jane's Addiction's "Nothing's Shocking" about the same time as "Pretty Hate Machine" by Nine Inch Nails. Neither one made my list because even though they are life-changing albums back to front, they are both very spring/summer/fall 1990. Same with Depeche Mode/ Pet Shop Boys/ OMD/ the Smiths/ New Order/ O Positive/ U2/ REM/ 10,000 Maniacs. They are all high school for me, flowing from freshman to senior year. I did single out the Cure's Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, but cited the Singles, Head on the Door, and Disintegration; also War by U2. College? Some of these bands carried over. I have one mix tape (and I made a ton of mix tapes) with Bob Marley, CSNY, Sting, NIN, Jane's Addiction, RHCP, Dead Can Dance, REM, Kate Bush, and Bongwater. Or when Tak & I started dating, I had my crazy mix of stuff, he brought the hardcore (Tree, Sam Black Church, Minor Threat), ska (English Beat, Madness, Specials, Bim) and the inbetween (Bosstones, Op Ivy).

So, what would have been some of the others?
Stay Awake (various artists): This is an awesome disc from 88-89 of Disney classic songs being covered. Gems include the Replacements doing "Cruella DeVille," "Castle in Spain" by Buster Poindexter, Bonnie Raitt's "Baby Mine," and Suzanne Vega doing the title song. We still listen to it since I have the tape deck set up in the kitchen.

Best of Blondie (Blondie): I loved Blondie in 5th grade, but didn't get an appreciation until college & after. Classic.

Seven Worlds Collide (Neil Finn & various artists): I couldn't single out one Crowded House record, but we listened to this a lot the summer before I got pregnant. When I was pregnant with Owen, for my dad's birthday we saw Neil Finn at Avalon. It was an incredible show, and one of the best I've ever seen.

Which is another meme in itself: Most life-changing live shows.

From Thomas to Wall-E to Star Wars

It happened relatively fast: I got Owen the the Wall-E DVD when it came out in November, and suddenly, everything was all about Wall-E, and robots. He occasionally made a track, but by Christmas, that was all he wanted. It was pretty amazing, and it seemed like he was ready to move on to something different. Considering how much he was upset and sobbed when we took him to see it in the theater, he wanted to watch it every day. We were starting to get a little tired of it. He drew Wall-E, Eve, and the Axiom on the back of his papers or at after-school. Since he was fascinated with robots and ships, we decided to try a different tact.

He'd been pretty resistant to Star Wars up until late January. Except at Christmas, my mom dug my Millennium Falcon and some action figures out of the cellar, and he loved playing with it. So I got him a mini-graphic novel, with stills from the movie and word bubbles (and by "the movie Star Wars," I mean, of course, A New Hope, Episode IV). The boy was captivated, and we slowly watched it over a weekend. Woo-boy! Meanwhile, the tracks (wood, plastic) and trains are now sitting neglected in a bin.

He still won't watch Empire Strikes Back all the way through, but he seems curious about the Ewoks, and *someone* told him the truth about Darth Vader. We've also seen The Clone Wars, and he really liked that, too. But R2 is his favorite character, and he loves the Falcon. We invested in some flat Legos so he can build the ships (Knex weren't doing the trick), although he's made a serviceable Death Star and a "rebel base" from Duoplos. Maybe we'll give Return of the Jedi a try soon. May the Force be with us.