Soundtrack to my summer

I've acquired this habit of compiling playlists (whether in my head or on my itunes) for various events in my life. And this summer was no exception. Here's a little sampling of summer 2009 - complete with youtube clips for your listening pleasure. Some of it is bands that I discovered this summer, and some of it is songs that remind me of specific events.

1. Cape Canaveral - Conor Oberst 

If you've ever heard Bright Eyes, you know Conor Oberst. This is the opening track off of his self-titled album. I saw his new project at Summerfest this year, and I adore his songwriting style.

2. I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas

I don't care that it's not a particularly original song. It has a good beat, and will forever remind me of Nationals (and Worlds, by extension). And anything that does that is immediately awesome.

Note: The audio's a little wonky, but this is one of the only videos that would let me embed the link. You've probably heard it by now, anyway.

3. Going Back - A Very Potter Musical

Swimming was not the only thing that took over my life this summer. I've been a fan of the Harry Potter series since the books first came out. This past spring, some students at the University of Michigan wrote, directed, and performed "A Very Potter Musical." This video is the beginning of the opening number. If you like it, I highly encourage you to watch more.

4. Fel del av Garden - Movits!

Ever since I got home, I've been watching 'The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" almost nightly. Movits! is a self proclaimed jazz/hip-hop hybrid from Sweden who appeared on the latter. I love quirky stuff like this.

5. Me And The Moon - Gaelic Storm

To me, the best part of summer is just sitting with your friends and laughing until you can't breathe. This song was playing in the background at Irish Fest as two of my best friends and I sat by Lake Michigan, just enjoying a perfect summer night. 

6. Clocks - Red Hot Chilli Pipers

Another song from Irish Fest. It's Coldplay. On bagpipes. How awesome is that?

7. Fireflies - Owl City

His music just makes me happy. And this song also conjures up that summer night feeling.

Sorry this post is a little rushed, I was just trying to get it done before I have to leave for my last shift before I go back to Appleton. Hope your summer was just as good as mine!

Title change

Just posting to say that this blog has officially been renamed "Songs in the Key of J". New post is coming some time this week.

Lucky Number 8

What were you doing a year ago today? Technically, it was last night because of the time difference, but I’m willing to bet that you were in front of the TV (or in contact with someone who was), waiting and wondering if what was once thought to be impossible could be achieved. 

On the morning of August 17, 2008 the men’s 4x100 medley relay won gold in Beijing’s water cube, earning Michael Phelps his record 8th gold medal in a single Games. It was a great night, and I’ve kept coming back to it in my head all this week. Also, with Indy and Rome over, I’ve been feeling generally nostalgic. So I just thought I’d commemorate the awesomeness of last summer by posting about how and why I got into the fandom. It’s a bit clichéd, but it’s the honest-to-god truth. 

The Olympics are kind of a tradition in my family. We have a history of generally not watching much TV (Saturday morning cartoons were unheard of until I was about 9), but watching the Games whenever they came around was pretty much a nightly ritual for as long as I can remember. I even harbored dreams of Olympic glory at one point before realizing that I had no athletic ability whatsoever. Lord knows I tried everything, but the only sport I ended up being marginally good at was swimming. Even after I stopped, I had a fondness for it, albeit a strictly quadrennial one. I was always excited whenever the Summer Games came around, but I never went out of my way to do any outside research or follow any other meets.

The summer of 2008 started out like any other Olympic year. I watched trials (which is where I also discovered the gloriousness of Ryan Lochte) and was excited for Beijing and the possibility of history being made. But that was it. I never expected any of what would happen next.

That July, my uncle died of a brain aneurysm. I don’t have the skills to accurately describe what losing him felt like, nor do I particularly want to. But I will say that it hurt. A lot. I honestly think the only reason I got through that summer was because of those Games, particularly the swimming. When I cheered on Team USA, I forgot about how shitty I felt. During a time where I felt like I would never feel happy again, I discovered that I could. And for that, I will always be grateful beyond description.

Like most of America, I was completely caught up in Phelps-mania, and committed one of the cardinal sins of being a voice major by yelling myself hoarse more than once during the Epic Quest for 8™. For the first time in my life, swimming didn’t just fade into the background after the last medal had been awarded and the last montage was aired. Yes, Michael Phelps was what re-piqued my interest, but he’s not the only reason why it didn’t go away. 

In the course of a year, I have gone from casually liking a sport to genuinely loving it. I have connected with people all over the country and strengthened some of my existing friendships. Sure, people might automatically label me as a shallow (see what I did there?) fangirl with absolutely no interest in swimming besides how many abs I can count on the pool deck. But I’ve kind of stopped caring (Also, I have this rule that you’re not allowed to judge unless you can name 5 swimmers competing today other than a certain 14-time gold medalist, kthnx). I admire these athletes for their skill and dedication. They inspire me to work harder toward my own goals (although my lazy side is still winning. This year, things change. Honestly). 

Over this past year, swimming has become an integral part of my life. I wouldn’t want it any other way. And it all started with those eight nights in various living rooms where nothing seemed to matter except for who got their hand on the wall first.

We Interrupt This Broadcast

The sign in front of the Baptist church by my house had this to say this week: Just because you can doesn't mean you should. And boy, have I been schooled in that this weekend. 

I have recently learned that if there's a song, there's probably a muzak adaptation of it. Right now, the XM radio at work is set on some station called "Escape." And it is truly one of the oddest things I have ever heard. Sometimes they'll actually play some decent jazz or swing, but most of the stuff is uncalled-for orchestral arrangements of the likes of "Silence Is Golden" and "For Your Eyes Only". Today, I decided to google this "Escape", and in doing so learned way more about muzak than I ever needed to know. Not only does this radio station have its own Wikipedia page, but apparently the word "muzak" is considered a slight to the genre by those who actually enjoy it. The correct term is...wait for it...

BEAUTIFUL MUSIC

I only wish I could make this stuff up, people.

Anyways, here are the top 4 things I heard this weekend that made me want to stab out my eardrums. Believe me, I saved the best for last.

4. Can You Feel The Love Tonight?

Yes, this song is cheesy. But "The Lion King" was my favorite childhood movie (I can still quote along with it). Don't spoil it for me. Hearing this felt a lot like the time I heard a reggae arrangement of "Be Prepared."

3. My Way

I love Frank just as much as the next person, and this song is a pretty obvious choice for elevator music adaptations. But classical guitar as the melody instrument? REALLY?

2. Anything by the Beatles

WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT DESTROYING MY CHILDHOOD?!? Trust me, just because you have brass in your rendition of "All You Need Is Love" does not make it cool like the one in "Love Actually" with the gospel choir and those trombonists mixed in with the wedding guests. Also, schmaltzy jazz piano during the "hey la, hey hello" part of "Hello, Goodbye" is a disgrace to the fab four.

1. Dancing Queen 

I wish my way with words was such that I could describe the horror inflicted on me upon hearing this. But you'll just have to imagine it.

Yes, this entry was random as hell and perhaps devoting way too much time and effort to such a subject. Yes, I could have just turned the radio off. But weeping over the fate of humanity helps to pass the time when no one is in the store (which was about 95% of the time this weekend. And I have no idea how to change the station anyway.) I promise we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming shortly. 

Thoughts On Writing

Blogging is tricky for me. A lot of the time I feel like I do it out of pure delusion. Does anyone really care what I have to say when other people do the same thing more quickly and more eloquently? I'm not seeking an answer, nor am I fishing for compliments. These are just general wonderings.

When pretty much all of the writing I've done for "fun" is parodies about batshit crazy former Alaskan governors listing their "qualifications" ("I Feel Pretty"= "I Feel Folksy") and batshit crazy fictional characters declaring their undying love for their evil boss (Death Eaters: The Musical. Oh, it exists.), trying to put a coherent and interesting sentence together about things that I actually consider to be SRS BZNS is new and a little scary. It's always been easier for me to change other people's words than to think of my own.

Something I want to talk about is coming up in a couple of weeks.  Maybe by then, I'll know what I want to say. I can only hope. Because I know that I want to put it out there.

Thank God For The Internet

I have a confession to make. I never saw the 4x100 Freestyle Relay in Beijing. That is to say I didn't see the live broadcast. I was stuck on a runway in Massachusetts and didn't find out what happened until the next morning.

So I was disappointed when I found out that I would be missing another. Scheduled to work today during the first finals session in Rome, I spent the first half of my shift more-or-less glued to the Windows 98 PC that doubles as our register. Thanks to the tweets of swimnetwork.com and the lovely ladies of reezy_daily, I had up-to-the-minute news of what was going on. As more time went by and more records fell (some of them in semifinals!), I started getting more and more anxious. Could we do it? Could we hold off the French again against staggering odds? I knew it would take a miracle, but I had faith in our team.

And then, the weirdest thing happened. Just before the race was about to start and I was beginning to completely freak out with excitement/nervousness, something caught my eye. A hat, of all things. Someone had just sat down at a table in front of my window wearing the exact same Baltimore Orioles cap that I had seen Phelps wear on deck in Indy. Call me crazy, but I think it might have been a sign, the universe telling me that everything was going to be just fine.

As I refreshed the page every 5 seconds, praying that no one would come in for the next few minutes, it felt like I was really watching the race. (At this point, I need to say that it's really surreal "watching" a swimming race when you're supposed to be working. I was cheering, but it was this kind of bizarre squeak.) When I saw that we had won, I thought I was dreaming. I had a feeling deep down in my gut that this might happen (perhaps as a result of the aforementioned cap), but the fact that the USA came out on top the second time when all the data was stacked against us was absolutely unbelievable. 

If you're an American in my fandom, you probably know how it felt. If not, well, I'm not the best at accurately describing my emotions, but I'll try to explain. It felt amazing, that perfect mixture of astonishment, pride, and pure joy. 

Some people criticize this age of instant information and gratification, but I'm warming up to some aspects of it. Yes, twittering during work might have temporarily destroyed my productivity (and my sanity), but the result was worth it. I may have not seen Team USA defend their title as it was happening, but I definitely experienced it.

Congratulations, boys!

Michael Phelps, Nathan "Little Lezak" Adrian, Ryan Lochte, and Matt Grevers: 

4x100 Freestyle World Champions!

Adventures in Indy: The Races

When you see it live, you forget about the suit wars. You forget about the fact that everyone can see how you’re screaming and jumping around uncontrollably. All you know is that you’ve been waiting for this for months, and you just saw a world record fall. At least that’s what it was like for me.

This will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has talked to me for more then five minutes this past year, but I love watching swimming. The adrenaline just rushes through my veins and all I care about is the race. I’d describe as “being in the zone” for spectators. Up close, you notice a lot more things than you do on TV. At least I did. Having been a drylander for the past 6 1/2 years (I stopped swimming regularly when I was 12), I had forgotten a lot. Like how beautiful the strokes are. And how fast they really go. Basically, it’s like any other sport. It’s always better live. 

Anyway, here are my picks for the top 5 races of the week with video and a few pictures. Asking me to put them in order is like asking me to choose between my children, so I put them chronologically:

Men’s 400 Individual Medley (Day 1, July 7)

A great way to start out the meet. Like I said before, this one was really tight. And in case you’re keeping score:

Legs-1, Full body Jaked-0

Men’s 100 Backstroke (Day 2, July 8)

There was some drama going into this race because a Spanish swimmer broke Peirsol’s record exactly one week before. I’ll never forget seeing my first world record fall live.

Men’s 100 Butterfly (Day 3, July 9)

I totally called this one (Well, it wasn’t hard to predict Phelps would get the WR because of his time in Quebec, but I still totally called it). He now holds 8 (half of the men’s events swam in Indy), though I predict one of these will fall in Rome (see above). I’m glad that there is no record of my reaction to this race because I am sure it was absolutely ridiculous-looking (and sounding!). 

Men’s 200 IM (Day 4, July 10)

Lochte was ahead right from the start, winning with a time of 1.54.56, only .33 seconds behind Phelps’ world record and the 2nd fastest time in history. It was a great moment when the whole natatorium cheered Ryan on during the breaststroke leg. Also, this was the night of the grill and the “Jeah.”

It was absolutely necessary to post a picture of these shoes.

Men’s 200 Back (Day 5, July 11)

What a showdown! I had a feeling the WR was going to be broken, but I honestly had no idea who was going to get it. Lochte had the world record going into it, but Peirsol went out ridiculously fast in prelims. Really excited to see how this turns out in Rome!

All videos taken from swimnetwork.com. The photos come from my camera. If you take them, let me know and credit if you post elsewhere.

A Quick Update. Jeah!

Just wanted to say that everything is going wonderfully here in Indianapolis, and I'll start my detailed recaps on Monday. Day 3 starts tomorrow (Well, technically today. I'm still on Central Time). Here are some of the highlights:

-Ryan Lochte's nailbiter of a 400 IM. It really was a race to the finish!

- Aaron Peirsol taking back his world record in the 100 Backstroke. 

- Matt Grevers being adorable

-Running into Dara Torres in the swim shop. Seriously.

- Anything involving Michael Phelps.

There's talk of another world record falling tomorrow in the Men's 100 Butterfly, plus a scheduled Lochte signing. I can't wait!

The Inaugural Entry

Welcome, visitors to my new and improved blog. I've decided to abandon my lj blog for the most part, as I don't think many people want to see the random memes that I post once every two months. Of course, I'm not delusional enough to think that this will be a particularly high-traffic website, but I know that some people (particularly the friends and family that I force to) will stop by here occasionally. So I might as well try to make it interesting.

In case you didn't know, I'm a music student at Lawrence University studying vocal performance and government. So I'll probably be talking about those two things a lot. Also, I'm pretty active in the swimming fandom, and you'll be hearing about that a lot this month. I'm going to Nationals in less than two weeks, and I'll be covering Worlds after that. Also, If I ever talk about politics, there will be a definite slant towards the blue-state side of things.

That's pretty much all you need to know. See you around the Interwebs!