This is the song from the movie "The Matrix" where Keanu Reeves and Catherine Anne Moss shootup the lobby of a building. This song was chosen is in honor of the collective obsession me and my friends at CMS have with this movie. In April 2000, our school had a semi-formal dance and we were somehow convinced to come along. We were pretty certain the event was going to be an exercise in futility so we decided to have a little fun with it and dressed up in long overcoats (which wasn't that out of place since it was February) and sunglasses. Who says med students never have any free time?

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Amel's new album was introduced to me by my current roommate Arnel's girlfriend, Helen. You just might remember Amel as the vocalist for the group Groove Theory, which released a single way back in 1996 (sophomore year in college). A whole bunch of people were supposed to watch her at the House of Blues in September, but everyone ended up bailing so it was just me and Arnel on a school night, with both of us having to wake up at 8am the next morning. But it was worth it.
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This song reminds me of the first time I visited my sister at UCSD, back in February. She had just been recently introduced to in-room dedicated Internet access and the wonder that is Napster and she had started the habit of having the computer play mp3s ad nauseam while she slept, and this is one of the songs that seems to have permeated into my neocortex. The lyrics of the song don't really have any significance.
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Apparently, I have a lot of memories from February. My sister also played this a lot while I visited her, but mostly I remember this from when I was a Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, and the video was playing at one of the stores, and I just found myself transfixed. For some reason I haven't analyzed closely, I really like the lyrics to this song.
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This is a pretty old song, stirring up memories of 1998 and the daily grind of actually having a job, but for some reason they played this particular acoustic version a lot on KROQ in the Summer (which is a story unto itself that I'm certainly not ready to write down yet). I've had a particular fixation on acoustic guitar lately.
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I think this is how my summer started off. My cousin Mark was trying to get me to go with him to a guitar recital, because a couple of his friends were playing in it, but I declined because my mom was actually off work and we were going on a family outing--all five of us for once, which has become exceedingly rare these days. When I get home, I get a phone call. Of course, it is Mark, and he tells, "Here's someone you should talk to." And he hands his cel phone to Rima, who had also played at the recital. This is the song she played.
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This is a cover of "There's Is A Light That Never Goes Out" by the Smiths, in Spanish. I was standing around in Musicland at the Eagle Rock Plaza (which has got to be, by far, the worst mall ever) when this song came on, and I freaked out, because it certainly sounded familiar. I just had to ask the girl at the register who the hell this was. I think I've told Eugene this before--I'm going to marry a girl who finds this song romantic. Mikel Erentxun also does a cover of "Everyday Is Like Sunday" also by the Smiths.
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Ah, The Cure. I've always wanted to be Robert Smith. It's kind of funny how you can actually celebrate being depressed. I feel like I'm going back to my high school days, when I first discovered The Cure, The Smiths, U2.
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I wonder why she named herself after the doomed queen of Carthage? This reminds me of my summer visit to the Bay Area and the camping trip, which was pretty cool, except for Eugene getting his flashlight stolen. We've got to do this again. The version I picked is off of this year's Star Lounge CD, which has live studio performances, and is kind of like the Alice CD.
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I think this is the first R&B album I had listened to in a long while. I makes me think of L.A. For many reasons.
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I remember wanting to hear a song that would cheer me up the first time I heard this, and for some reason, it did. And apparently it was both on my mind and Ben's mind at the same time, like some cosmic connection or something.
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I had to put a Barenaked Ladies song on there, as it reminded me of the time Ben and Jen visited me here in Chicago. It was between this and "Told You So," but I decided on this because it got more air-time and because, as suggested by Ben, it fits the "rotting in North Chicago" segment of my Summer.
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In the summer, my sister gave me the distinct pleasure of being able to hunt down and kill each member of NSync. We were playing this game called "Worms" where your characters are a bunch of worms armed with bazookas, machine guns, grenades, and exploding sheep, and you try to take each other out. My sister's team was NSync, of course, and my team consisted of my favorite characters from the Matrix (Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, Cypher, and Tank). I can't describe to you the pleasure of tossing a banana bomb into Justin Timberlake's wormy face. In any case, I chose this song because I thought I'd spread the misery--this song may just very well drive me over the edge. Thank God Britney admitted her relationship with Justin. Their doom is definitely at hand. Although I may just have to commit seppuku. I'm ashamed that I know this much about NSync at all. I wanted to include the dance mix version of this song because it totally made me think of the Bay Area, but this will have to do.
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