Magic Jewball

I have been thinking about college a lot this weekend (more on that later this week, I hope) and so I thought I would use a song from this artist whom I think of as the very definition of “college music.” Both before me and after me. When I was a kid, I visited Sister2 at the University of Pennsylvania and saw a sign that they were playing. I was already a fan then and thought it was a signal that I would love college myself. Ha! Later, I saw them during my own college years as well as again last month (you may have noticed it squeezed in between many mentions of The Cure who I saw twice that same week).

The real issue is that it is hard to pick a song. Many of my favorites are probably already on your iPod and the one with nearly the most meaning to me was already used to illustrate a pivotal post for this blog. So I don’t want to use that one either. My very favorite R.E.M. song is Sweetness Follows but honestly, I consider Automatic For the People, one of my favorite albums of all time, of a piece and so not the best choice for just choosing one song. Just get the whole thing!

And so, I am left with this song. It doesn’t even have a name! That’s because it’s one of those hidden tracks that were so in vogue back in the day. It’s one of the most cheerful and peppy songs about being apart from the one you love that I know and it served me well during several long-distance relationships. This is because I am bad at love letters and good at song-picking.

Napster and I call this song two different things. Whatevs!

Napster:
R.E.M. – Untitled

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.

Hey! You have a half-hour notice (more depending on your zone o’time) to find out the answer to this important question.

I have mentioned that, under pressure, I declare my favorite song of all time to be Depeche Mode’s “Everything Counts.” If you’d like to know what my favorite song of all time was as a child, please tune in to the Colbert Report tonight to find out. Here’s a hint, the band playing it will be making their first national TV appearance since 1975. And when I say national, I mean the US, since this band is not American.

Please fill in with the music from Jeopardy while you ponder this. Maybe tomorrow I’ll even post video of the answer since it is sure to be all over YouTube. I’d post it myself but I’m not sure my DVR still has room after filling up with 30 hours of the All-Star game.

PS, using Teh Google is not allowed! God will know even if I don’t!

1/17 1:30pm

Time’s up! I actually did record it and put it up on YouTube myself. Most comments in a day for any video I’ve ever done (that wasn’t a hard record to break but still). Those ____ fans sure are appreciative. However! This song is so freaking killer, I still got chills while watching the keyboard part after all these years. Yes, I am a loser.

Sorry about this whole “lack of posts on blog which is supposed to contain posts” but it’s been a crazy-busy week and now it will also be a busy weekend. This is to say, don’t expect anything. That way, you won’t be disappointed! That’s kind of the way I go through life.

But in the meantime, my abandoned blog has diligently been catching spam comments and I may as well share them with you. Here are the first five (the others are pretty much more of the same theme):

Your site looks great! Best of luck to you.

This is a great web site. I have some great web pages myself if you are interested to share. But I should not go on about my site too much, that is not fair, right?

We loved the site, really loved it!

howdy I quite enjoyed this website .

Thank you, I just wanted to give a greeting and tell you I enjoyed reading your material.

Well howdy yourself! Like the spam e-mail for phallic enlargement I received today with the header “Tabitha Stevens returns to the big screen,” I kind of wonder how they came up with these.

“Not fair,” huh? No, please, go on about “21st century car insurance auto insurance quote florida,” I am fascinated.

But I am tempted in these days of Summer posting inertia to actually let these slip through. We LOVED the way the same post stayed on top five days this week. You are AWESOME!!!! Online poker 4ever!

Flattery: it gets you everywhere but through the spam filter.

Title comes from this song I truly adore:
The Church – Ripple

I’m a little late with this theme but it’s not my fault that the Fourth of July didn’t fall on a Sunday. You didn’t expect me to move my feature, did you? Why can’t they just move the date?

Anyway, I’m so forgetful with iSotW that sometimes I plan a song only to find I’ve already done it. Other times, I simply cannot believe that I’ve never done a certain band (as a post; if I’d done a band in some other way, I’m pretty sure I’d remember). This is one of those times. No Soundgarden? What was I thinking?

This is not my favorite Soundgarden song but it’s up there. And iTunes informs me it’s my most played one, so that must count for something. I don’t know what the lyrics are about but although it has a fireworks motif, it doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with Benjamin Franklin or Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Still, you can’t go wrong with a line like, “down in the ho-ooo-oole, Jesus tries to crack a smile….” Whatever that means.

When I think of this song, I think of it next to the word “Grunge” in the Dictionary of Historical Musical Styles (the picture is probably a line drawing of a flannel shirt). It’s just so muddy and the guitars grind and churn. It’s just… grungy. You can really picture Jesus in that hole, I swear.

Napster:
Soundgarden – 4th Of July

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.

And by that I mean George Steinbrenner. Who did you think I meant?

Happy Independence Day, or “Happy Thank God We’re No Longer Associated With the US” Day, depending on where you live. I’m off sipping ice coffee somewhere but while I’m there, please enjoy this photo of one of Major League Baseball’s “Statues of Liberty on Parade” which dot the streets here at the moment to celebrate the previously mentioned All-Star Game.

This photo manages to incorporate all that is good about America: baseball, the Statue of Liberty, New York, and, of course, shopping. What you can’t see is that while I’m taking the photo, I’ve got a hot dog in one hand and a slice of apple pie in the other.

I am that good a photographer.

The Beatles – Revolution, not available for download. There will be a July 4th themed song for the iPod Song of the Week on Sunday. You may look away from your screen while you wait.