Stuck in Our Heads - Vol. 20 - November 2008

This is a story I’ve told a couple of times in the past day or two.

I’ve hinted here before at my affinity for many of NPR’s podcast offerings. As I am sure you not only read these posts faithfully but also go the extra mile to index them fully for immediate mental recall, you will find it no surprise when I tell you my consumption of NPR broadcasts continues unabated and, in fact, gradually increases.

A few months ago, This American Life ran an episode entitled The Giant Pool of Money. The idea behind the show was to take all of the hubbub surrounding the mortgage crisis and put it in layman’s terms (or at least in accessible analogies that appeal to my poet’s sensibilities).

It would seem that show went over remarkably well with the listening public. As a result, NPR spun off a daily(ish) program called the Planet Money podcast, which intends to emulate that model of explaining the various financial vagaries of the day in terms that can be understood by a broad audience.

I recently added Planet Money to my routine podcast catalogue. While a daily podcast expectedly lacks some of the polish that the less frequent and longer format permits, I’ve been impressed by Planet Money’s success in making me think I am slightly better informed about the current economic tumult. I have also realized that thinking I have a modicum of understanding certainly does not make me feel better about things.

Not one bit.

A couple of mornings ago, I managed, for the first time in a while, to drag my ass out of bed at the hour I pretend I’m going to drag my ass out of bed every day, and I celebrated by taking a brief commute stop at my neighborhood coffee shop. While doing so, I listened to a Planet Money piece in which a contributor discussed the line at his local coffee shop as a microcosmic view of economic forces. The usual morning wait time had grown geometrically because the shop reduced its morning staff from three to two. The shrunken production capacity caused longer lines which, in turn, caused more potential customers to seek their coffee elsewhere. It’s not hard to see that fewer customers lead to further depressed sales which lead to further reduction of costs which leads to further decreased capacity…and on and on and on.

I got through that piece and a few others during the 20 minutes I stood waiting for my medium dark roast while the lone barista scurried back and forth between the limited-service kitchen, the espresso machine, and the register. (To be fair to global economic forces, the precious jackass two spots ahead of me in line didn’t help matters with his armada of drink orders led by a half-caf half-soy half-skim caramel latte with a double shot of whipped dodo egg.)

When I finally got back on the road, the eerie visual effect lent the scene through my windshield by the post-dawn drizzle combined with the depressing financial news on my radio to give me the sense of watching documentary footage (apparently with Spanish subtitles) aiming to convey a startling sense of hopelessness. Somewhere in the middle of that sensation, I came to the uncomfortable realization that the things that keep me up at night – Deadlines are too early or too late. Questions get answered too slowly or unsatisfactorily. Conflicts arise when folks don’t approach the world the same way I do. I forgot to drop my suit off at the cleaners yet again. – aren’t actually all that important. There are much more important things out there to keep me up at night, and they are far more terrifying than what I have to face every day. Suddenly, the fact that I have anything at all that makes me comfortable (a well-executed medium dark roast), much less something that makes me exceptionally happy (an unshakable foundation of embarrassingly supportive friends and loved ones), seems a remarkably unlikely victory.

Now on to the public arm of my unflappable sense of well-being.


Title - Artist

Live Wire - Beastie Boys
Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitude - Jimmy Buffett
Guttermouth - Camaro Rouge
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Scalia? - Capitol Steps
Maybe Not - Cat Power
O'Malley's Bar - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
So What - Miles Davis
Life in a Northern Town - Dream Academy
Straight to Hell - Drivin' 'N' Cryin'
My Uncle - Steve Earle
Secret Heart - Feist
God Bless the USA - Lee Greenwood
Don't Stop Believin' - Petra Haden
I Saw It on Your Keyboard - Hellogoodbye
Iris - Hercules and Love Affair
Volunteers - Jefferson Airplane
Singing in the Rain - Gene Kelly
Jungle Boogie - Kool & the Gang
Oh Yoko! - John Lennon
Borderline - Madonna
Lip Gloss - Lil' Mama
Atlantic - Rainer Maria
Every Night - Paul McCartney
Time to Pretend - MGMT
Every Day is Like Sunday - Morrisey
Hot n Cold - Katy Perry
Yes We Can, Can - The Pointer Sisters
Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley
Cum on Feel the Noize - Quiet Riot
Black Betty - Ram Jam
Accidental Babies - Damien Rice
You Can Vote However You Like - Ron Clark Academy Singers
The Truth About Cows - Shiner
Twilight - Elliott Smith
Maria - The Sound of Music Abbey
Womanizer - Britney Spears
All I Want to Do - Sugarland
Once in a Lifetime - The Talking Heads
Shower the People - James Taylor
America, Fuck Yeah! - Team America
Master Exploder - Tenacious D
Daughter - Loudon Wainwright III
Swordfishtrombone - Tom Waits
Then What? - Clay Walker
Stronger - Kanye West
Colors - Kira Willey
A Country Boy Can Survive - Hank Williams Jr.
Lovely Day - Bill Withers
Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Stevie Wonder
Ditech Jingle
Elmo's Restaurant Commercial