Soundtrack of My Life: The Musical!: THE SEQUEL

Despite my attempt to make the best of the, shall we say, desultory songs on my life soundtrack in the last post, I'm still kind of bummed out about it. So I am going to see what the sequel of my life will sound like. (I'm not a believer in reincarnation...but maybe this can be an...alternate life?)

Same rules: iPod (or iTunes, or any MP3 program really) on shuffle...must write down the songs as they play, in sequence, to correspond with different life stages. IN ORDER.

Opening Credits:
The Crystal Lake - Grandaddy
Alternative intro...okay, I like it...

Waking Up:
I Wanna Be Your Man - The Beatles
First thought of the day?

First Day at School:
All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands - Sufjan Stevens
A folksy first day of school...better make this one high school.

Falling in Love:
Track One - Asle Bjorn (the "o" in her name has one of those little lines drawn through it)
(Okay, so this is kind of an interesting, "post-modern" style of falling in love. Trying to dig it...)

Breaking Up:
Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John and Kiki Dee
Finally, something that kind of works! In a backwards sort of way...

Prom:
A Time to Love - Stevie Wonder (feat. India.Arie)
Okay, I could see this as a semi-slow prom song...if you take the title at face value. The song deals with oil, racism, the environment, etc., so not exactly a oh-my-goodness-i'm-in-love-with-you-and-this-is-the-best-night-of-my-life song.

Life’s Okay:
Sheng: 7 Tunes Heard in China-1: Seasons - Yo-Yo Ma
This song was pleasant, I suppose - meaning that it works okay.

Mental Breakdown:
Fur Elise - Vince Guaraldi Trio (A Charlie Brown Christmas)
Moody music for a mental breakdown...that could work! In fact, I think this could provide an effective backdrop for an emotional scene.

Driving:
Saturn - Stevie Wonder
(Again, like the driving song on the original soundtrack...this one would work best driving at night, with the moon roof open. It's got that planetary thing going on.)

Flashback:
Beautiful - Christina Aguilera
I see it! Or, rather, hear it.

Getting Back Together:
Nine Sixteen - Bruno Merz
Yay! Works. Cute song.

Wedding:
I Me Mine - The Beatles
I was hoping for something breathtakingly romantic. And of course that didn't happen.

Birth of Child:
Laden with Guilt - Caedmon's Call
Don't quite know how to interpret this one...unless you go the original sin route.

Final Battle:
The Diary of Jane (Single Version) - Breaking Benjamin
Appropriately epic!

Death Scene:
02p - chapter section from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
One of the characters in this scene dies later in the book...

Funeral Song:
09k - chapter section from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Ironic. This is leading up to the will-you-marry-me moment!

Nice One:
Despertar - Valeria Gastaldi
To be honest, I haven't taken the time to try to translate this one yet. But it sounds nice!

end credits:
When Do We Dance? - George Gershwin
Actually, this would make an adorable end. When do we dance, my love?


This soundtrack is still random, but a lot more fun than the last one. My alternate life will be filled with much better music than my real life!

Soundtrack of My Life: The Musical!

I'm going to follow the crowd, about seventeen gazillion years late, and do one of those "Soundtrack of My Life" surveys that everyone likes to post on their blogs and MySpaces. You know, the ones where you put your iPod on shuffle and put down whatever song comes up for the next sequence in your movielife. (No cheating.)

I mean, I've done them before, but this will be the "real" one that posterity will see. So this had better work.


Opening Credits:
Heaven for the Weather - The Streets

Waking Up:
My Will - DC Talk

First Day at School:
Spanish Fantasy - Phil Keaggy

Falling in Love:
Duart's Castle - one of those Atmosphere CDs of bagpipe music. (For falling in love? Ugh.)

Breaking Up:
The Sacred Romance (Instrumental) - Michael W. Smith

Prom:
Right Down the Line - Gerry Rafferty

Life’s Okay:
One Day - The Juan MacLean

Mental Breakdown:
New York's Not My Home - Jim Croce

Driving:
Luna Creciente (Waxing Moon) - Oscar Reynolds (Okay, this would be cool driving at night with the moon-roof open.)

Flashback:
Just Like Honey - The Jesus and Mary Chain

Getting Back Together:
Mood Rings - Relient K

Wedding:
Telephasic Workshop - Boards of Canada

Birth of Child:
Take it With Me - Tom Waits

Final Battle:
Ave Maria - The Canadian Brass and the Canadian Brass Jazz All-Stars

Death Scene:
The Walk - Stephen Curtis Chapman

Funeral Song:
Mansard Roof - Vampire Weekend

Nice One:
05m - chapter section from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

end credits:
Happy Christmas - The Canadian Brass and the Canadian Brass Jazz All-Stars



Well. So this soundtrack utterly stank. Epic failure. Though now that I think about it, I guess at least it would be an utterly bizarre movie, with COMPLETELY disjointed music selections...which goes along with my whole quirky schtick. So, not so much a failure after all! Huzzah!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and other Manic Works of Fantasy

I love things that are a tad "off."

Be they Tim Burton's over-stylized, gothic, twisted fantasies (SO excited for Alice in Wonderland, coming out March 2010), newly-conceptualized classic works such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (and her sister classic, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters), or delightfully inventive, over-the-top, throwback cartoons such as The Venture Brothers, I eat that shizzle up.

But why?

Maybe I have an insatiable need to invent upon, to appreciate the kooky and creative, because it breaks the cliched and overdone. I laugh when people unconsciously conform to established modes of storytelling, lifestyle, and subculture, even when they think they are being dazzlingly original. (Cough. Look at how detached I am being. It's not like THAT has ever been done before.)

This is not at all to say that conventions are bad and to be avoided like the plague. Look at TV Tropes again, my friends, and see the fantastically perverse, utterly inventive conventions that people have come up with over time - many of which have proven themselves worthy of reuse. (Oh, how eco-friendly we are being!) But when people take their supposedly alternative, "original" creativity way too seriously...my eyebrows raise. And I desperately want to satirize them. A lot.

How mean and cynical I am. Which makes me the type of person who likes The Venture Brothers. Although I also love the whimsically effervescent, sunshine-y Spongebob Squarepants, so maybe that redeems me a bit.