Day 92: The last couple of days have been a little bit of a downer. Sorry about that, but today is the last day of 2014, and it is time to turn over a new leaf. When it comes down to it, there really aren't that many good songs about New Years, but there are a couple that come to my mind, so we will spend the next few days on this topic in this, the shortest chapter of this musical journey. When I think back to New Year's Eves past, the one that comes to mind first is Dec 31st, 1999 AKA the dreaded Y2K. I actually spent most of that day at Disney World as MSU was set to play in the Citrus Bowl on January 1st and Jen and I had traveled to Orlando with Pam and Olof. By sometime in the morning, the calendar had already flipped in east Asia, and well, nothing unusual happened. Still as night time approached in Disney, things were getting crowded, we were tired, and we just decided to call it a night back at the hotel (uh... just in case). By morning, the most shocking thing that had happened was that MSU's eventual national championship basketball team had lost a game at Wright State. But, as most of us remember, the lead up to Y2K was a bit crazy, and today's song, R.E.M's 1987 apocalyptic classic, "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" was on every radio station about once a hour for about a month leading up to it. That was fine for me, as to this day it is a fun romp. Admit it, you once tried to memorize the lyrics, didn't you? "Birthday Party! Cheesecake! Jellybean! Boom!" Or perhaps maybe it's just "time I had some time alone." Happy New Year!
01/01/2015
Day 93: One of my New Year's Resolutions is to be a little less verbose. We will see how that goes. Anyway, Happy New Year again everyone. I hope you all rang in the new year happily and safely. As for today's song, did you really expect anything else? If U2 has a song called "New Year's Day" off their classic 1983 album War, it is kind of mandatory to make it song of the day, right? I think so. I am sure most of you have heard this song before, and it is a great one. New Year's Day is a time of new beginnings, and Bono includes a lot of imagery about fresh starts: "I will begin again." This song also contains one of my favorite U2 lines: "And so we're told this is the golden age. And gold is the reason for the wars we wage." Perhaps it is a little too clever, but it sure has a cool ring to it. Perhaps when Bono finally wins his Nobel Peace Prize, he can use that line in his acceptance speech.
01/02/2015
Day 94: I opened this chapter with two songs that most of you are likely familiar with. Today, I thought I would wrap up the chapter with a song that is a bit more obscure, Death Cab For Cutie's, "New Year," the great opening track of the fantastic 2003 album Transaltanticism. This time, DCFC has some perhaps cynical comments about the holiday. I know some people that refer to New Years as an over-rated holiday, and I think the DCFC may agree with that. They don't seem to have much use for New Year's Resolutions. The song opens with "So this is the new year, and I don't feel any different." They then go on to say "I have no resolutions, for self assigned penance, for problems with easy solutions." They then take a somewhat jaded view of the New Year's Eve party: "So everybody put your best suit or dress on. Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once." In the end, they seem to be pining for a simpler time: "I wish the world was flat like the old days... There'd be no distance that could hold us back." New Years represents the chance to clean yourself up, have a fancy cocktail with your friends, and to make promises to yourself that you will do certain things better. On some level, that is admirable. But being an adult is hard, and sometimes the yearly cycle of (often) false resolve to change oneself can leave one a bit cynical.
Well, Xmas is over. New Years is over, we probably all have to go back to work on Monday, and it is still the middle of winter. Let's be honest, it is all kind of a drag. So, tomorrow I think it is time to kick things up a notch. I think that it is time to inject a little warmth into this winter weather. It's time to Fire Up!
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