I’m listening to the new Stucco Jones cd The Jimmy Crum EP as I write this post. It’s a good CD with my favorite songs being Baby Tastes Like Whiskey and Fancy Pants (there was some original speculation that this song might have been written about a certain cat, but the lyrics do not suggest this). Stucco Jones is active in the Columbus music scene and seeing them live is very entertaining (even more entertaining if there are fewer chairs). When I invited friends to ComFest to see them play, a few had already seen Stucco Jones* live at a local bar and commented that they were really good, fun and high-energy and I completely agree with that statement.

Earlier this evening I was looking at some of the playlists I’ve made over the years in iTunes. I typically name my playlists by the month and year that I created them so it’s cool to look at September 2007 and see songs such as Snow (Hey Oh) by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Stronger by Kanye West, 1234 by Feist, and Forever by Ben Harper and remembering listening to those songs as I drove around LA in my HHR rental car to visit friends on vacation. It is my most memorable solo trip and it’s almost cliche to call it life-changing, but it pretty much was.

I recently re-read a book that I first read when I was 23. The book, The Go-Girl Guide to Surviving Your Life in Your 20s, suggested having a soundtrack for events during your 20s so you can look back and remember. I found the book when I was moving a few weeks ago and rather than give it away I wanted to re-read it from the perspective of a 29-year old and see if I perceived the book any different. Funny enough, I took a lot of the advice and used it without realizing it. I have traveled all over the world (Singapore, India, France, Spain, Ireland, England, Germany, Switzerland, and countless cities in the US), I have survived break-ups, seen friendships come and go, worked through the first 5+ years of my career and am no longer at the bottom of the work totem poll, and created playlists or soundtracks to go with all of my life events (and the book was published before iTunes even existed). I highly recommend the book, even if some of the information is a little dated (what? no mention of text messaging and all of the subtle complexities around sending and receiving?). 

Besides the month and year plays, others reveal more about my personality. There is the narcistic side of me (Songs about Mary: all have the word ‘Mary’ in the lyrics), the travel part of my life (Sleep: it’s the playlist for falling asleep on planes as all songs are instrumental so I’m not singing the lyrics in my head), and the wide range of music I enjoy (Dec 2008 Country is quite different from the Dec 2008 Workout playlist that contains mostly Rap). Learning someone’s iTunes playlist methodology could be quite revealing on a first date or it’d be a unique question for speed dating to make it more interesting than the typical “where did you go to school?” “grow-up?” “work?” etc. Not that Nick has ever had any iTunes playlists (or an iPod). In the last hour, he’s lugged his entire cd collection up from the basement and is organizing them (is the right cd in the right case? what does that reveal?? That he’s perfect for an organizational nut like me?? I think yes). He’s enjoying rediscovering old CDs and playing sample songs for me. We’ve switched from Stucco Jones and are now onto Radiohead, the Bends – a band and CD we both love.

Now here’s hoping the songs we’ve picked out for our wedding still resonate with us for many, many years to come.

– Mary

Full disclosure: I’ve known both band members of Stucco Jones since they were about 6 years old and one of them happens to be my younger brother.