Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Wednesday Night Playlist - Special Guest!

Tonight's special guest blogger is Mindy, a Skog Family friend of many years. Her older brother Todd taught me how to throw a split fingered fastball and her other older brother Rob tried to teach me how to hit a curveball. Sadly the student could never become the master. In a random twist of fate, Mindy's husband served with me in 'La Gran Mision Chile Osorno' and Greg and I have shared more Yerba Mate than I can even attempt to recall. Most importantly, Mrs. Dibble has an impeccable taste in music and it is with great pleasure I present tonight's playlist.

THE SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE

In my ‘other life’ I am a movie soundtrack director. I pick the songs that set the tone for the scene. I feel like the songs are some of the most influential characters in a movie. I mean, seriously, would you be afraid of Darth Vader if “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” pumped through the speakers? I love how music makes me feel and express emotion. So for this playlist you are stuck listening to some of the scene setters lately in my life. Granted, the music playing most of the time for me these days involves The Little Einsteins or the Jonas Brothers but I still sneak in a few of my own every now and then.

Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.
I know that this song is not really talking about chasing cars but it plays almost every day on my soundtrack because I spend a good part of the day in a car chasing other cars to various locations. When I was a kid my family would take long trips in our suburban and to drown out the noise of 4 brothers and 2 sisters I would pretend like I was in a movie. The scene was me in a bus and it was raining and I am looking out the window to nowhere and a sad song is playing in my head and I would create a long backstory of why I was crying on the bus looking out the rainy window. Where was I going? Who was going to be there? I would look at people in the cars next to me and make up stories for them as well. And then, before I knew it, we were at our destination. So music and cars has always been a thing for me.
Plus it’s just a very cool song with great lyrics.

New Soul by Yael Naim.
I love spring. Right around January 15th I hit a winter rut and just cannot wait until the cold, ice and snow make their last appearance. I usually have bad hair, bad skin and a bad attitude around March 1st. I’m usually ready to do bodily harm by March 20th. And then something seriously miraculous happens. All of the cold, dead blah’s leave and new, happy joys take their place. Tulips poke through the ground, twigs become buds and I become a new soul.
This song plays in my head as I look in the mirror at my new, totally different haircut. It plays while I’m clearing out dead leaves and digging through dirt planting small flowers. It blares as I make it through the entire day without yelling at a child. It is my wake up and start fresh song. The world is full of possibilities and opportunities. It helps me get creative and happy.

Life in Technicolor ll by Coldplay (This video is uber cool)
All These Things That I’ve Done by The Killers (This video is just silly)
Ya know those songs that you hit repeat on about a thousand times? I couldn’t decide which one so you get both. It’s my playlist right? One of my favorite things to do is drive with the windows down and the wind rushing through my hair with the music turned up much louder than necessary. A song that just makes you dance like a crazy woman even though the guy next you is very obviously trying not to look at you. I always have to stifle a full on little girl giggle when I do this. The feeling of complete freedom from my normal inhibitions. I’ve even converted the kids to this practice. You can find them singing along at the top of their lungs and dancing so hard the van rocks. These are their two favorite songs to do this to and that makes me so proud.

Yellow Leadbetter by Pearl Jam.
Okay. This is one of those songs that has no rhyme or reason. It feels like Eddie Vedder is just sort of making it up as he goes. Nobody knows the real lyrics or what it’s about. He could be talking about anything. That may be the beauty of the song for me. This is the song that is playing in the background when I put the check for the gas bill in the water bill envelope, or when I give the PTA lady the blank stare as I try desperately to think of some excuse why I can’t run the dunk booth, or when my 3rd grader’s math homework just becomes too difficult for me. These ‘lyrics’ make me feel at peace as I feed my children Ritz crackers and leftover baby mush for dinner…again. And that guitar lick gently rocks me to sleep so I can avoid thinking of all the things I failed at that day. I hear this song frequently.

Fix You by Coldplay.
I know it’s another Coldplay song but again, my playlist so….yeah.
Most people try all day to make other people think that they are better than they actually are. That’s probably a good thing. Maybe if we try hard enough we actually will become better. But everyone has a person, their person. Someone that you go to and can be completely yourself with, there’s no pretending. The person who knows all the good, bad and ugly and loves you anyway. If you don’t have a person like this, do whatever it takes to get one. Mine is named Greg. No matter what kind of minor or major breakdown I am in or what trial I am going through, he is there. He may not be able to ‘fix it’ but he sure gives it a full throttle effort and usually knows exactly what I need (Dr. Pepper). He is my person. I hope you have one.

Story by Brandi Carlile
I couldn’t very well have a playlist without including my girl Brandi Carlile. This story plays in my mind when I meet new people and people I want to know better.
I love stories and no matter how you feel about your life, you have a story to tell. And it just might be a really good one. You may not think so but I guarantee that there is someone who would love your story, who could even be changed by your story. So get out there and open yourself up. There are reasons you are who you are. Tell someone. Ask someone else about their story. Find out why your clean cut neighbor drives a Harley. Ask your Doctor if she always wanted to be a Doctor. Where is the coolest place your great aunt has been to? The good Lord gave us experiences. He didn’t give them to us to keep to ourselves. We’ve all got these lines on our faces for a reason, we might as well tell the joke that put those laugh lines there. Let someone learn something from you and for heaven’s sake, go ahead and ask your kid’s coach if they’ve ever met anyone famous. It’s fun. Try it.

I hope you haven’t been too bored with my soundtrack. Hopefully you’ve heard one that you’ll hit repeat on. What’s playing on your soundtrack right now? You know you have one.

Thanks KG.

4 comments:

kg said...

Be sure to watch the video for 'Yellow Ledbetter' it is fantastic.

Corbie said...

I loved this playlist (perhaps because at least two of the songs would be on my life playlist as well...). Add some Neil Diamond and Don Williams and we're twins. Great post!

brohammas said...

My wife, who knows nothing of 80' or 90' grunge, rock, new wave...anything not R&B or rap, walked into the office while I was playing the PEarl Jam song.

She paused for a minute and said, "what in the world is he saying?" All I responded with was, "isn't it wonderful?"

Well done I say!

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