In late 2014, I finally bit the bullet and signed up for Spotify. It turned out to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Converting a couple of close friends to Spotify (waves to Jennie and Michelle) was cool too!
Spotify has been a god-send for my writing inspiration and running motivation. And apparently I listened to it a lot.
Like WordPress, Spotify sends you a “year in review” type of thing, and I figured since I haven’t said hello (from the other side) in a while, I’d use it as an excuse to drop by and say, “Hey, what’s going on?” and to share a few other little projects I’ve been involved in.
via triego.com
Okay, so music … I kicked off my 2015 listening in January with “Run Like Hell” by Pink Floyd. (Thanks to Jennie for putting this on a kickass playlist for me to run to! I must have been out there running off Christmas gingerbread cookies. :) )
The top artists I listened to in 2015:
Lana Del Rey
The Avett Brothers
Kanye West
Hole
Madonna
Apparently I have a thing for Kanye.
Top albums I listened to:
Born To Die by Lana Del Rey
The Best of Sam Cooke by Sam Cooke
X by Ed Sheeran
Live Through This by Hole
And the War Came by Shakey Graves
Or is it Lana I have a thing for?
Top tracks I listened to:
“Dearly Departed” by Shakey Graves
“Monster” by Meg Myers
“Tongue Tied” by Grouplove
“Five Hours” by Deorro
“Photograph” by Ed Sheeran
I’ve been working on poems to “Dearly Departed” and “Monster” all year. Maybe 2016 I’ll finish them. “Tongue Tied” and “Five Hours” are great running songs, and “Photograph” makes me sob.
Top Genres: (number one is rather embarrassing but hey it’s fun to run to!)
Pop
Alternative Rock
Rock
Pop Rock
Post-Grunge
I’m actually surprised that Americana or Hip Hop didn’t make the list.
I listened to 14 thousand minutes (233 hours), 1,676 different artists, 3,228 different tracks. I’m not sure if that’s a lot? It seems like it, no?
I brought in the year (Winter) with lots of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park and Sean Rowe.
I was into Lana Del Rey, Depeche Mode and The Avett Brothers in Spring.
In Summer I dug Hole (see what I did there?), The Avett Brothers and Spotify’s “Epic” Running Playlist (it’s so good, it feels like you’re running to a thriller movie soundtrack and the beat will match the stride you’re running to.)
And in Fall I was into Sam Cooke, Bob Marley and Madonna. (Which makes sense because I recently began writing as Sam in The Lovely Fire, a collaboration project with Cayman, Michelle, Jennie and Mary. My character Sam loves Bob Marley, and she is named after Sam Cooke. Um, the Madonna is all Christy. Hey some things never change.)
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Speaking of Sam and The Lovely Fire, you may remember I reblogged her story “Just Another Day: Signs, Memories, and Bob Marleys” here a few weeks ago. Well, Sam’s back with another installment on Words for the Weekend, “Mad World (American Pie Part One).”
Here’s a sample:
A few nights ago, Marley and I slept in the back office of an old Kohl’s department store. The office still had working security cameras—they must have been tied to an internal back-up power system, though we never could find it. In one security screen, a female zombie stood outside of the dressing rooms. She was wearing a short black skirt and a long black jacket. She must have been beautiful in her past life. Now her blonde hair was stringy and caked with dark blood; much of it had fallen out. We watched her watching herself in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors. She spun in circles and watched her reflection pass each of the multiple mirrors, like some dead Narcissus gazing into the water’s glassy surface. Some of the dead are less dead than others.
She kept smoothing her long hair, and when a clump would fall out, she’d look stricken, distraught, and continue spinning and smoothing, spinning and smoothing, spinning and smoothing. Perhaps that’s what hell is, being trapped in a speechless decaying shell with all of our emotions and insecurities still intact.
READ MORE.
I’d love for you to stop by and read the story. Music plays a large role, and there are lyrics interspersed through-out. How many songs can you find without peeking at the playlist? There are at least twenty. There’s even one in the sample above: hint, if you’re a Chuck fan, think of the theme song. Man, I miss that show.
I’m excited that Sam & Dave and gang will have a new home in 2016 over at The Lovely Fire. If you’re a fan of the series, or if you’d like to read all of our posts in order, stop by to sign-up. We’re under construction, but there’s a place to sign up for new posts; we’ll start posting in early January.
This project is the first time I’ve thrown myself into writing fiction. It’s rather intoxicating. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be writing in tandem with Cayman Thorn. He’s so good, guys, like crazy good. In fact you have him to thank for coaxing me out of my cave and back into the land of the writing. It’s hard to not get inspired when you read stuff like this:
And that’s when a flicker of recognition disrupted his blank stare, casting a preternatural shadow over the blank stretch of vanilla sky. Her motion was fluid as a Thelonius Monk song in the middle of the night as her lithe body orchestrated a list of wicked ideas. He tangled up inside her walk as she drew closer to him now, his desperate eyes sipping at her mad science.
Sam.
She was walking along with her head down, lost in the mysterious thoughts a beautiful woman gets to keep to herself. Her feet supplied the rhythm to the crazy rhyme of legs that swept the space between; they were deliberate and honest steps of a purpose to which Dave could wholeheartedly relate. Her hair had been loosed from its shackles and it was throwing itself at every part of his most insatiable curiosities. And then she looked up and met his eyes with hers, and then Dave felt his legs go weak and his heart go fast and his world go peaceful.
Her smile. It was a miracle of impossible wishes come to life, a crush of mayhem in its galavant. Her eyes were a plunge into the deep end of the universe, tearing apart the darkness in a magical ripple. And when they came together it was in that union where Dave understood what his life meant, what it was always going to mean.
See what I mean? Luckiest. Girl. In. The. World. to write with this mad talent. (Want to read more?)
Photo by Kim Seng. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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As far as what else I’ve been up to, I don’t even know where to begin. Running, enjoying time away from the computer, posting occasionally at my creative site Anna Beguins, reading poetry for Words for the Year, tending to the zoo, shopping on Amazon, eating Christmas gingerbread, mourning the season break of The Walking Dead, anxiously awaiting the April return of Game of Thrones & wondering what they’re going to do with Jon Snow’s character, avoiding Facebook, spending that extra time from Facebook over on Twitter, reading (books, but not many blogs; sorry guys, I’ll try to do better next year), watching football (Atlanta and Matty Ice are breaking my heart, but I’m excited about next year for my Bulldogs, go Kirby!), lots of yoga (yeah right, I hope to start in ’16, but I’ve been saying that for nearly five years), volunteering at the animal shelter, and I’m about to start training to be a CASA volunteer (a court appointed special advocate for children caught in the system). And staying sober. And obviously listening to Spotify. And writing as Sam (she’s taken up residence in the dusty rafters of my creative mind). But I’ve been surprisingly peaceful. Maybe that’s the serenity promised in sobriety?
I do hope to be back and posting on Running on Sober next year, at least occasionally. I have a few essays in mind, and I have some exciting things planned with Ruby and Mrs. D. and Michelle, and assuming I don’t do anything crazy stupid, I’ll celebrate five years of sobriety in May. So I’ll be around. If not here, then over on Anna Beguins or at The Lovely Fire or on Spotify as “starrrling.” I’ll still be doing Words for the Year too. (All sites are listed on my new “Elsewhere” page too.) I’m not hard to find, come hang out at any or all places; I’d love to see you there!
What good things have you been up to? What song or artist did you listen to a lot of in 2015? What’s the last song you listened to? Are you going to see the new Star Wars movie? Are you managing to stay sane and/or sober during this holiday season? Do you have a favorite holiday baked good? What is the meaning of life? Do you have a Word of the Year picked out for 2016? Have you missed me? Do I ask too many questions? What’s going on?
PS- Did you have trouble viewing reblogged material here or on any WordPress sites (if you were not signed in to a WordPress account) last week or so? This should no longer be an issue, thanks to Cesar and his team at WordPress.com support and their awesome super-powers. :)