I slept with my iPod playing music next to me all night. I feel amazing today.
I also feel that these two are directly correlated.
When I was in high school, I never ever ever slept without music playing. I have direct memory ties to summer nights at my mother's house with the window open and a breeze coming in and The Strokes Is This It on repeat in the background. I had interesting and lucid dreams that night, and obviously this memory is strong and vivid as even now I can smell the magnolia from outside. Wowzers.
Anyhow as years go by and you get older and you go to bed more tired (slash you go to bed with a partner who might not want to hear the same album all night)...and yknow, you lets habits go. I am mindful of the roommate with whom I share a bed, so instead of asserting my desire for nighttime music, I leave it up to him. And of course he's just as passive so we get nowhere...ha. One of the tradeoffs of having a peaceful relationship, we are considerate of each other's feelings ad nauseum.
ANYHOW heh heh after I got out of ceramics class last night, I drove to my friend Brian's house for some herbal refreshment and camaraderie. I watched two boys play video games in their natural man-boy environment (I have a particularly large place in my big-mama heart for man-boys) and played some music for them...which they enjoyed.
Okay, side story time, just right quick:
I know this post is all over the place, but I swear to god I will circle it all around till it swirls together. So these boys I'm hanging with, one of them is my friend but the other (whose house we were at) was a stranger. Immediately easy to get along with though, which I dig. He plays a Wiz Khalifa song so I asked him if I could get next. He looked kinda skeptical, but my friend Brian (who up to this moment had been neck deep in video game focus) snaps out of his reverie and chimes in with "You'll like it, dude, trust her." And it made my freaking night.
So I played some music for them, and they enjoyed it.
I heard these two songs by two different rappers a few weeks ago, and they've been dancing about in my brain making me happy for a bit. I finally downloaded and got them on my iPod yesterday, and I've been on that level of musical euphoria that I get every now and then. It's just bliss. My music taste is extremely eclectic (eccentric even) and when a song hits the spot, it lights me up and makes the whole day a little brighter. The first song is Kool-Aid and Frozen Pizza by Mac Miller. Now, if you look at the picture of Miller, you should be able to typecast him pretty quickly. I will say that I too was skeptical. But the production on this kid's songs... immediate hard addicted love. His whole K.I.D.S. mixtape but this song in particular is the absolute perfect ride-out-on-a-summer-day soundtrack.
I can't help but get happy.
The second song ruling my life right now is E.T. by One Be Lo. This song is a departure from Kool Aid because where Kool Aid is blissfully oblivious and happy, E.T. is a love song chock full of metaphor and smooth delivery. One Be Lo has game in spades, and I love love listening to his low and casual delivery. The sample gets right in my brain and starts shaking things loose from the start of the song, and by the time I'm done, I'm in love with this dude. He obviously knows what he's doing.
So here's where we start swirling. After I left my friend's house, I drove around my city's beautiful nightscape getting lost in a 4/4 beat for an hour and a half. Peaceful, in love, in tune. Whenever I find a song that gets it for me, I remember that I am connected to everything in the universe and I want to smile at all and give it a kiss. I was hesitant to get home, but when I arrived the first thing I did was plug in my iHome next to my bed and tuned right back in where I left off. I know this music drifted into my dreams, and I know I woke up with a smile. I've got a hook playing in my head and I wouldn't get it out if I could.
We put our heads together like a Mt. Rushmore
I found what I was lookin for, plus more
Now with you I wanna spend the rest of days
Cause you shine in an extraterrestrial way
I said you shine in an extraterrestrial way (uh-huh)
You shine in an extraterrestrial way.
