Five songs to illustrate a Pixel

53. I usually wear jackets. Even during the summer. It’s not because I have a body temperature, I just really like having lots of pockets. One of these days I’ll design pants with lots of pockets for whatever ‘cargo’ I might carry. I think I’ll call them ‘pocket pants.’

This post is inspired by the Collective. I generally avoid memes, but this one was cool and I wanted to see where I’d go with it.

I debated whether to choose songs that were important to me because of what happened to me when I first heard them ((say Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day,” which I first heard when my puppy slit his wrists)) or songs that spoke to aspects of my personality. I also debated whether I should pull a Pixel and completely butcher the meme while pretending to go along with it. In the end I decided that my life experiences weren’t representative of who I think I am in the way other songs could be. So I chose a few songs that elicit different emotions in my various body parts. For a full list of songs that make me shake my booty, go here

1. “Dear God” by XTC
   When I first heard this song, I put it on loop for hours. Then I tried finding more music by the band and couldn’t find a single other song that was paletteable. But still, great song.

   “Did you make disease and the diamond blue?
   Did you make mankind after we made you?”

2. “Nations of the World” by Yakko Warner
   Okay, so I put most of the songs I download on loop. It’s my method. I memorized all of the lyrics to this particular song and sometimes sing it as a party trick. I chose it because it speaks of my quirky nature… 🙂

3. “The Legend” by 5-3 Federation
   Laughter is ridiculously important to me, but it was really hard to find a song that represented that to me. Most novelty songs stop being funny when the novelty wears off. (HA!) But this one has somehow made it 5 years in my music library without getting tired. So I think this a good illustration of how my humor works. The song is brilliant, by the way. It’d be funny enough if it were a joke, but I prefer to think it’s from the heart.

   “Cuz my balls iz big, the biggist is brave,
   Princess Zelda is the one I save.
   Now I’m playing with power.
   The 1980s will never go sour.”

4. “Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues” by the Eels
   This is my ‘life’s philosophy song.’ Quite a few songs made the short list for this category, but I like this one because of how happy it is while emphasizing how terrible everything is. It’s like “stop and smell the roses as you walk through the garbage heap of life.”

   “The clown with the frown driving down
   to the sidewalk fair,
   finger on the trigger and I tell you
   he gave us quite a scare.”

5. “Franco Un-American” by NOFX
   I suppose I consider myself a citizen of the world. NOFX illustrates that for me in this song. Plus, their topical lyrics and punky beat can’t be topped!

   “I never looked around, never second guessed,
   then I read some Howard Zim, now I’m always depressed,
   and now I can’t sleep from years of apathy
   because I read some Noam Chomsky!”

The songs that didn’t make this list could be a post in themselves. Heck, that gives me an idea for tomorrow’s post.

53. I usually wear jackets. Even during the summer. It’s not because I have a body temperature, I just really like having lots of pockets. One of these days I’ll design pants with lots of pockets for whatever ‘cargo’ I might carry. I think I’ll call them ‘pocket pants.’ This post is inspired by the…