It's cold here today, so cold it snowed a bit this morning, so cold I "invented" pajamas. Do you ever do that: Come up with an idea you think is really smart, and maybe it is, but then you research it or think it through a little bit more, and you realize that many other people have already thought about it, many other times, and it's already a well-established thing? I did an extreme version of this the other night. I was getting into bed, and our room runs a little colder than the rest of the house, and S wasn't there to act as my human heater, so I was a bit chilly, so I put on a long-sleeve shirt and sweats to sleep in. It was fine, but my outfit wasn't made specifically for slumber, so it doesn't quite fit as snugly as sleepwear should fit. That set off a light bulb in my head: They should make super comfortable, warm clothes just for sleeping! Genius idea DG, genius idea. Very original.
In other news, Spotify's end-of-the-year "Wrapped" reports came out a few days ago. It's always interesting (to me and perhaps only me) to see what I listened to over the course of the year. Here are my top songs. It's a weird list, but it makes sense, at least the first three slots. It would have taken me over 100 guesses, literally, to come up with songs 4 and 5.
1. A Rihanna song is number one because I listen to her a lot with S. S has worse different musical tastes than me, and so when we listen to music together it's usually one of the pop divas, a lot of Rihanna, a lot of Dua Lipa. It's not my absolute favorite type of music, but I do enjoy it, and I've found myself adding more and more of it to my playlists as I get older. (This Dua Lipa song in particular is a straight bop.)
2. I love Fleetwood Mac now. I'm pretty late to the game, they've been a band for, like, 50 years, and I only started listening to them relatively recently, but as a middle-aged white guy, I think I'm right where I need to be now. "Dreams" reemerged in the zeitgeist in a major way five years ago with the video of that skateboarding guy drinking juice, but I didn't really start listen to it, or any Fleetwood Mac, until Christine McVie died in 2022. For some reason that prompted a deep-dive on them, and now I celebrate their entire catalog. I do think "Dreams" is their best song, however. It's basically a perfect composition of perfect individual parts. Like, it's amazing to listen to as a whole song, but if instead you just focus on a single part -- Stevie Nicks' vocals, Linsdey Buckingham's guitar, etc. -- you think to yourself There's no way anybody could do this any better.
3. Ugh... It should be "This Song Drives Me Crazy," amirite? It's catchy and nostalgic, so I put it on a playlist, and now I'm regretting it. There are a few songs that come up way more than they should, and this one is the chief offender. It's like, I got 227 songs on my list. How is this one coming up again? I'm making a mental note to delete it next time it comes up. People say-ay I'm obsessed...
4. I have no idea how this one got on the list. It's an okay song, but I don't even ever remember listening to it. I probably wouldn't list this among my top 1,000 favorite songs. I never put the earbuds in and think to myself, You know what I'm in the mood for? "Have Love Will Travel" by The Sonics!
5. Another random one, although one that I do enjoy quite a bit. (What's the Story?) Morning Glory still holds up today. I mentioned in a previous post that I recently read Mark Lanegan's memoir Sing Backwards and Weep, and here's what he says about Liam Gallagher.
Liam Gallagher was an obvious poser, a would-be playground bully. Like all bullies, he was also a total pussy. Always with the big fucking mouth as long as he was safely wrapped in the wet-nurse security blanket of the company of two tall, rotund dudes paid to protect and, I assumed, suffer his endless stream of bullshit.
Perhaps, but I'll be damned if he can't sign the heck out of a pop song. But I quite fancy her mother, and I think that she likes me...
Alright, I gotta watch the next episode of Pluribus. I have heard it's a banger.
Until next time...
