Music...

      I've been helping a friend of mine paint for the last couple of days, he's a native Vancouverite but moved to San Diego a few years ago. Housing starts and the economy are slow there so he's here for the summer to work--but enough about that.

     The sort of interesting thing is that he has his daughter Cassidy (she actually changed her name to Danger and signs things with the nuclear symbol) helping him. They were recently united after never having met her for the first 20 years of her life (she's 22) and are in the process of bonding now. I won't go into much more detail than that but speaking of bonding... 

     When I got to the job Monday it was the second time I've met her. I immediately noticed her Ramones purse on the counter (turned out she had a Ramones wallet as well... awesome). She was playing her iPod and being interested in other peoples music, I was anxious to hear hers. It turns out she had quite eclectic, varied and excellent taste... Nirvana, Johnny Cash, Beastie Boys, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Cher, Kiss, Linkin Park, Massive Attack, Bare Naked Ladies, Elvis Costello, The Specials, Stone Temple Pilots, Madonna, Beck, etc. It's like we became instant friends and had a certain understanding of one another because we both spoke the same musical language.

    Cassidy is a real music fan, it visibly excites her-- she has a Curt Kobain tattoo, a Dave Grohl tattoo and is waiting to get Madonna. She told me she lost her iPod once on the same day her computer crashed. She was so devastated about losing six years of  collecting her favorite songs she had to take a week off work to recover from the loss. She doesn't buy or download just any music either, every single song has to move her in some way and her iPod is only loaded with her absolute  favorite songs, no filler.

     Today at work I plugged in my iPod and it was almost unbelievable how similar our tastes were. Cassidy would freak out when it a was a song she had or one she really needed. I saw her short list of songs she heard on mine and wanted-- Thompson Twins- Hold Me Now, Zombies- Time Of The Season and Steely Dan- Rikki Don't Lose That Number. 

    Invariably the musical topic came around to top ten.  She told me a her top ten songs (sorry I can't remember them all) and said that a few years ago she had written them on a piece of paper (no particular order) and had it laminated, "I'm cool that way." she said matter of factly. 

    So I started to think, if  Cassidy, being the passionate music fan that she is, can narrow it dow n to a top ten, I'm going to give it a try. Problem is I know way more songs than her but here it is in no particular order... the criteria being a consistent emotional (chills) response to each song and amount of times played (not that I know but it's a lot)...

      ~ Sheena Is A Punk Rocker- Ramones

      ~ The Streets Have No Name- U2

      ~ Until It Sleeps- Metallica

      ~ Enjoy The Silence- Depeche Mode

      ~ Bizarre Love Triangle- New Order

      ~ I Fought The Law- The Clash

      ~ Wig Wam Bam- The Sweet

      ~ Man In The Box- Alice in Chains

      ~ Interstate Love Song- Stone Temple Pilots

      ~ Linkin Park- Crawling

   That was tough and I was going to post some "Honorable Mentions" but what difference would it make, you can't fit them on the laminated "Top Ten"--maybe another blog...