Stuck in Our Heads - Vol. 19 - October 2008

Autumn is tricky.

There was a time in my life when autumn meant little more to me than the end of summer, with its lazy days of nerd camp and decidedly un-Spartan Book It! promotions at the local library. (If you think I didn't knock down more than my share of personal pan pizzas, then you know nothing about my physique in grade school nor the origins of my eating habits today...) Of course, that would have been the time in my life when I was excited about the beginning of another new school year: new shoes, new pencil case, virgin workbooks with which I could have my way for three full quarters! Still...

Autumn is tricky.

My attitude toward the season has evolved over the years. Going back a couple of decades, my fondest autumn memories are of early nightfalls that brought on chilly and dangerous post-twilight one-on-none basketball games (which I often won), one fateful streetlight tussle with the insufferable Jimmy Jackson from down the block (during which I threw my first - and possibly only - closed-fist punch to the face), and nearly incontinent marathons of computer Jeopardy! that aggregated so excessively that it eventually blew our poor Commodore 64's memory. These days, however, my autumnal diversions are, if not more sophisticated, then at least more complicated.

More recently, the early dusk and its accompanying chill in the air puts me on something of a nostalgia jag. The widening palette of the foliage throws the cyclical nature of life in my face in puffs of leaves no longer living. Right on schedule, I've found myself lately lost in reverie, more often pleasant than not, of faded conversations over campfires, of drifting off to sleep in the back seat of an Oldsmobile while the in-dash eight-track performed the magic I still don't fully understand, of sitting quietly on various porches and patios as the stars slowly peek through my breath fogged in the gathering cold, of vistas gradually visible through the shedding trees, of the earthy aromas of decay.

It makes me wish I had sweaters I liked. It makes me wish aimless drives down blustery backroads didn't cost a small fortune in gas. It makes we want to eat soup. It makes me want to turn big piles of leaves into ticker-tape parades. It makes me wonder where I'll be when the azaleas bloom. It makes me wonder who will be with me then.

And who won't.


Title - Artist

Almost Lover - A Fine Frenzy
Heard It All Before - Sunshine Anderson
Boston - Augustana
Love Shack - The B-52s
Barbara Ann - The Beach Boys
Body Movin' (Fatboy Slim Remix) - Beastie Boys
Live Wire - Beastie Boys
My Humps - Black Eyed Peas
More Than a Feeling - Boston
Smokin' 100's Alone - The Bottle Rockets
Pop Champagne - Ron Browz and Jim Jones
Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles - Captain Beefheart
If You Leave Me Now - Chicago
Operator - Jim Croce
Oh, What a Beautiful Morning - Alfred Drake
I'm So Sick - Flyleaf
Life, Love & Laughter - Donavon Frankenreiter
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin
The Man That Got Away - Judy Garland
Can't We Try - Graham BLVD
Morning Dew - Grateful Dead
We Didn't Start the Fire - Billy Joel
Open Arms - Journey
Dangerous - Kardinal Offishall feat. Akon
The Rainbow Connection - Kermit the Frog
Maria - Larry Kert
Demolition - Kinks
Hoodie - Lady Sovereign
Another Suitcase in Another Hall - Patti Lupone
Don't Call Me Baby - Madison Avenue
Like U Crazy - Mates of State
Hang On Sloopy - The McCoys
Sweet Freedom - Michael McDonald
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia - Reba McIntire
Please Don't Go Girl - New Kids on the Block
Eagle on a Pole - Conor Oberst
You're Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring
Shimmy Shimmy Ya - Ol' Dirty Bastard
If You Leave - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Nine in the Afternoon - Panic at the Disco
rearviewmirror - Pearl Jam
Dirty Mind - Prince
Motion Picture Soundtrack - Radiohead
Bhang Your Bhangra (BBC Radio/Friction mash up) - Radiohiro
Pistol Grip Pump - Rage Against the Machine
Bartender Song (a.k.a. Sittin' at the Bar) - Rehab
The Noble Duke of York - Sue Schnitzer
You'll Accomp'ny Me - Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
Wasted - Martin Sexton
Normandie - Shout Out Louds
Eight Piece Box - Southern Culture on the Skids
Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen
DLZ - TV on the Radio
At This Moment - Billy Vera and the Beaters
Liquid Confidence - Warren Brothers
Bananas and Blow - Ween
Your Party - Ween
My Doorbell - The White Stripes
Fast Car - Wyclef Jean
Out on the Weekend - Neil Young