Cabeeb is the blog and online alter-ego of Caleb White, a Dallas-based Web designer, musician, entrepreneur, and all-around swell fellow[citation needed]
When not blogging, he can usually be found at his online summer home, http://calebwhite.me.
As long-winded as it was, the rundown of my plan to move to Chicago did leave a few questions unanswered. An oversight that I would like to take this opportunity to...
One month from now, I’ll be writing a blog post from a coffee shop in Chicago about life in the Windy City. Seven months from now, I’ll be right here writing a...
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A long, long time ago – in 1993 – AT&T ran a campaign called You Will, that showcased a few visions of where they predicted telecommunications would be in the next 10-15...
I’m a musically addictive person. I hear a new song that I like, or maybe rediscover a song that I’ve known for a while and I listen to it over and over and over and over.
This kind of thing happens all the time. As I documented a few months ago with “Cherry Blossom Color Season,” I listened to it over twenty times in one day.
Sometimes it’s more subtle, though no less severe. In these cases, I won’t necessarily listen to a song several times in a row, but I’ll somehow get it in my internal rotation, and I’ll listen to it at least a few times every day for weeks. Fortunately, this rarely causes me to get sick of a song as it would most normal people.
So, yesterday, I randomly listened to a song that I had never heard before called “Cherry Blossom Color Season” from the Katamari Damacy soundtrack. It’s Japanese kids singing along with a guitar and violins, and I absolutely loved it. It’s gorgeous and super-cheery. It just makes me happy. And, by the end of the day, I had listened to it more than twenty times.
Today, April 2nd, marks many an anniversary for me. For starters, it’s exactly one year since I quit Starbucks. And, consequently, it’s exactly five years since I first started working at Starbucks. Seems like forever ago, but it’s only been 5 short years.
Today is also exactly three months since I started working here at Pursuant. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I thought I’d look back at what I’ve been listening to these past three months. Through the magic of technology (and the iTunes Play Count feature), we can go back and see exactly how many times I’ve listened to every song on my computer. Instead of listing every song that I’ve listened to, and how many times I’ve listened to it, I figured it’d be a little more “reader friendly” to just include the top 25.
So, as you can see, I have been on something of a piano kick lately. My top 12 songs are either solo piano, or piano-lead songs, and only six of these 25 aren’t “piano” songs. Number one, Tifa, is the song that I’m learning right now on the piano, so I’ve had it on the brain of late. Hence me listening to it almost a dozen times more than the number two. Obviously, I’m also quite a fan of Coldplay, Eisley, Mat Kearney, Keane, John Mayer, and Elton John. And Final Fantasy piano music.
“The Final Countdown” by Swedish mega-band Europe is one of my favorite albums of all time. I will, however, not follow that statement up with, “…because it is one of the best albums ever released.” Because it isn’t. In fact, it’s not even close. It is a lame album. I’ll be the first to admit it. It is lame, and it reeks of ’80s cheese. And therein lies it’s brilliance.
There is something terribly nostalgic about ’80s music to me. Though I was barely 6 when the ’80s came to a horrific end, it still brings back memories of childhood. And “The Final Countdown” is the epitome of ’80s hair metal awesomeness.
It’s a really strange phenomenon. I can’t explain how I realize and agree that ’80s rock (or ’80s music in general) is cheesy and lame, yet I still absolutely love it. It doesn’t make any sense to me. But, when I listen to Europe belting out their tribute to Ninjas, or Cherokee Indians in that unmistakable ’80s soprano style, backed up by the classic guitar shredding like only the golden decade could produce, it makes me smile like no other music can. I’m half laughing at it, half smiling, because I’m thoroughly entertained.
’80s culture in general has that effect on me. I know it’s lame. I know it’s not an era that most people look back on as the height of modern culture. I laugh at it as I embrace it. That’s probably the way most people feel about the era that they grew up in. They shake their heads at it, wondering what they were thinking. But, they still smile at it, thinking back with fond memories.
Back to my original point, though. “The Final Countdown” should be experienced by everyone at least once. It is an event that will not be soon forgotten. I do it every so often to rejuvenate my chi. This mornings revisitation is what sparked this little post.
Now, this isn’t exactly the type of music that I normally listen to at all, but I have been addicted to this song from Katamari Damacy off and on for the past month or so. It’s like the happiest song in existence. I don’t know if it’s the awesome synth or the super-Japanese harmony in the chorus that has me so hooked. (I think it’s the latter) Whatever it is, hooked I am.
Enjoy.
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