At a block party beggin' for drama.

Jomil and Corin at a goodbye party for two people who by all appearances never actually said goodbye. These two spent forty-five minutes dancing with these small iPod speakers in hand, improvising new lyrics (mostly about Tequila) into Nelly and Missy Elliot songs.

When no one was paying attention I grabbed the iPod and with a few quick desperate scrolls of the wheel, tried to find something I’d wanted to hear for the previous two weeks. The selection was the typical sort of mix of music that you find in the iPod Age. No complete albums, but you know, a mix. Three Patsy Cline songs here, a half dozen bluegrass tunes there, selections from two of the wankier Taj Mahal albums, 30-ish rap singles from the early 2000’s, a bunch of NPR podcasts. I like this because there’s always a good chance you’ll find something you like. I found “Me and My Girlfriend” by Tupac, but I found no one to share my enthusiasm, so I listened to it on the couch alone. People: that is a really good song.

I spent a few days agonizing over whether to bring my iPod with me to Guatemala, and I ultimately decided not to for a variety of reasons. This means that for the first time since maybe 11 or 12 years old I’m going two months without having any real decision in the music I hear every day – it’s a noticeable change but I think I made the right decision. I’ll go days without hearing any songs all the way through, unless I’m on a longer bus trip when I hear the reggaeton jams with AutoTune. I don’t usually miss music, but in my downtime, when I’m not studying, I’m surprised to find the songs that my brain coughs up – sometimes songs I haven’t thought of since I was 14 years old. It’s really weird. Also weird is the mix of songs that I get stuck in my head: Born Against, the Beatles, that “Hey there Little Red Riding Hood” song from the ‘60’s, topped off by George Jones and Joanna Newsom, all in about 45 minutes.

Yesterday I went to a restaurant for dinner for the first time in over a week, and sat through innumerable songs that sounded familiar and American and generically “heavy” with that rap-rock “rapping” over them, and then suddenly “Yesterday” by the Beatles. It seemed really special and weird. I was having a little moment with myself in spite of myself, as I pretty much hate Paul McCartney. You know you’re in trouble when you’re ecstatic to hear “Yesterday.”