My Musical Pilgrimage

So let's just pretend it hasn't been a thousand years since I last posted. That makes it less weird to be posting about something relatively random. Okay we are just gonna dive right in here....

So I have always thought of myself as someone who was really into music. Not in some obnoxious way...not in some "How do you afford you rock n roll t-shirt, that proves you were there, that you heard of them first", way...Thank you Cake for possibly the most clever song to diss so called "Music people". But just in a way where music was a big part of my free time. A big part of my showering and getting ready and driving and wallowing in self-pity time. If there was quiet and there was music available I liked to fill the silences type of way.

So when did this change? When I moved in with Mitchell in Santa Barbara this changed. We lived in an old house that was converted into 4 apartments and the walls were literally paper thin. In a way where if you had just gotten into a huge fight with your boyfriend the night before you would be embarrassed to see the neighbor the next day at the mailbox...because he for sure heard every word! And seeing how the other neighbors were well over the age of 40...well all we heard from their side of the walls was snoring, the phone ringing and occasionally singing. Anyways so Mitch never let me listen to music so I just kinda stopped listening to music so much. Not to mention over the years Mitch seems to have become unable to think straight or function if there is music playing....so besides Disney movies with songs and Yo Gabba Gabba, we don't listen to a lot of music, sadly.

Rewind about a year ago and Mitch bought me a new ipod. I had one already but couldn't find it after we moved. The thing was, the computer I had most of my music on was also lost or misplaced after I got my new laptop and who knows where most of my CD's disappeared to, so I had very little music to put on the new ipod....depressing. Then a miracle!!!! My Mom called me about a month or so ago and said when was the last time you slept in the bedroom upstairs...."ughhhhh I don't know Christmas Eve...before that probably when I was pregnant with Olivia". "Well I was changing the sheets on the bed upstairs and guess what I found", I had no idea what she could have found? "Your ipod"......Hooray!!!!!!!

And now when Olivia Naps or Mitch and Olivia are both in bed for the night I can put on earphones on and just feel like "ME" again. Music is such a motivator for me...I can be completely exhausted and worn out but if I am listening to music all of a sudden I get a burst of energy and I can clean the whole house like a speed freak tweaker or something. Especially if I am listening to Huey Lewis and the News...I am telling you there is nothing that can't be accomplished by ole' Huey. All this music listening lately besides instilling me a sense of self and happiness and me-ness that isn't associated with being Olivia's mother or Mitch's lady has really got me thinking about why I like the music I do...because I think I have quite the odd array of musical tastes. So where did they come from? How does someone like Radiohead, Janis Joplin, Cat Stevens, Roger Miller, NOFX, Elton John, The Clash, The Violent Femmes and They Might be Giants?

If I think back to the person who is probably most responsible for my musical tastes it would have to be my older brother Eric. I recall memories of music he would blast on his stereo the way most people probably remember music their parents listened to. I don't really remember much music my parents listened to besides like The Beach Boys with my dad and an array of Andew Llyod Webber show tunes from my Mom. My brother is 6 years older than me...which sometimes felt like a lifetime away and nowadays doesn't seem that big of a deal. But when you are 10 and your brother is 16...well you can bet he isn't listening to Paula Abdul and New Kids on the Block like you are. To me, at 10, Eric seemed the epitome of cool. He could drive, he wore bolos,he wore Cool Water cologne and Drakkar Noir, he wore his overalls with one strap hanging down, he pegged his pants and he even had a cool cowboy hat in the style of U2's Bono. Sometimes when I was lucky he would let me drive with him to Carl's Jr and buy me a Western Bacon Cheeseburger just like he would order which is still the only thing I ever eat when I go to Carl's Jr.

Eric was a good big brother. I was probably beyond annoying to him but it wasn't too often that he made me feel annoying. The only times I remember him really picking on me was when I was picking on my little sister...who I sadly probably always let her know how annoying she was, lol. Sorry Katie!!!! Anyways every Saturday morning as we were doled out our chores for the day Eric would turn on his stereo and play music like U2, Depeche Mode, Erasure, The Proclaimers, Paul Simon, They Might Be Giants, The Steve Miller Band, the soundtrack to Back to the Future. I don't remember feeling overly impressed by his music especially when U2 ventured into their "Zoopra" album and always wondering what "I really like your peaches, wanna shake your tree" meant. But somehow it all stuck with me. When I did start to listen to my own music, long after Eric had moved out I found myself really listening to the same things especially U2, Paul Simon and Erasure...remember Rachel Olsen...."I love to hate you"....lol.

Then I went through a phase where all I listened to was Kool 101.5, which people in Roseville would remember was the oldies station. This was greatly influenced by Jr. High and Jamie Golden. I remember hoping they would play our favorite "Run Around Sue" by Dion. I even remember calling the Radio Station on several occasions to request the song. I also remember driving with Jamie and her dad in his flatbed truck down to Monterrey to visit her Grandpa. The truck had no radio and so her dad improvised and broke out in "California Dreaming" while we chimed in with the chorus. In high school I spent a lot of time with my oldest childhood friend Rachel. She lived right up the street from me and our parents had known eachother since forever and we had played together ever since I was in first grade and she was in second. Her parents were "music people". They had albums from Boston and The Carpenters and Simon and Garfunkle and we would make cookies or hot fudge sundaes rocking out to "More than a Feeling" on more than a thousand occasions. She also being a year older than me drove me to school and seminary when she got her license and there we would venture out into Music by The Cranberries and Everclear.

Then Rachel moved away for college and I had long since lost contact with Jamie and I had my very first boyfriend, Clark...gasp. I remember thinking I liked punk music because I liked that one song by Blink 182 that was on the radio and I liked Green Day back in Jr High. I later came to realize that Blink 182 isn't really punk music and this is when I started listening to Clark and his friends kind of music...NOFX, Rancid, Rage Against the Machine, The Offspring, The Violent Femmes etc. I mean I don't think I ever actually bought any of these albums but I always heard them and knew the lyrics and in my own way liked that music...it was never really "me" though.

After High School through Clark I was reunited with an old classmate Lindsay. Clark and Lindsay had moved in together and were step siblings. So I had an instant best friend in Lindsay who I had known since 7th Grade but wasn't all that close to back then other than talking in class and liking one another. Lindsay was into the whole Hippie type music. And while I always liked older music I wouldn't say that since Clark I had listened to much of it. Lindsay listened to The Doors, Janis Joplin, 311 and Radiohead. So while we made hemp necklaces and beaded jewelry we would listen to this kind of music. It was a really fun time in my life and Lindsay acted as the glue that kind of held Clark and I together because once she had moved out and moved on it wasn't long before Clark and I also moved on.

Then came Mitchell....oh Mitchell!!!!! I had known Mitch for quite some time before we became "Mitch and Emily". I always liked him, always thought he was cute, was never too annoyed by his ADHD like other people, and really just loved his family and visiting over there with all his siblings. Kinda reminded me of the Olsen house with all the brothers and sisters, something I always felt envious of as a middle child of just 3 and 3 really spaced apart at that. Something I had missed since Rachel was gone and we had grown apart over the years. Mitch and I did not have similar musical tastes. He seemed to like Rap and Hip Hop...something I never liked and have never grown to like. Then shortly after we got together Mitch started working at Dimple Records and he would bring home music he thought I would like...The Killers, The Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie, The Velvet Underground, Various mixes of 60's and 70's music. Then he introduced me to The Clash and I was in love. I once mentioned liking Queen and he immediately started buying me Queen CD's and soon liking Queen turned into LOVING Queen and it was really Mitchell that brought that on. He took me to a Violent Femmes concert...not that Mitch sucks or something now but back in the start of our relationship he really was the sweetest guy and totally in love with me and would literally do anything for me. I mean we have been together for almost 10 years and have known eachother for probably 12 or 13...so obviously things aren't as magical was they once were...we both have gotten cranky and more stubborn over the years, lol. But he is my Mitchy and I love him. It's just thinking about how head over heels he was with me back then...it still makes me feel swoony!!!

Anyways so there you have it....the musical journey of me. Thank you to all of you involved in making me love the music I do. Eric, Rachel, Jamie, Clark, Lindsay and my Mitchella!!!!!