Tuesday is Music Day!

"A stroke, you unbrookable ninny. The only stroke I have ever had is one of genius!!" - Mr. Edward Magorium.

Recently, I had a stroke of UNMITIGATED GENIUS. I decided to take guitar lessons. I have had a classical guitar in my possession for a few years now, but have never really learned how to play it. Sure, I say I am "trying to teach myself guitar" but let's get real here. If you want to learn an instrument, it takes discipline. It takes practice. It takes the guilt and the threat of potential embarassment of showing up to class without having practiced and TOTALLY SUCKING.

Needless to say, I needed the structure a class could provide.

Enter Zambaleta. This place is awesome team. If you live ANYWHERE in San Francisco, I strongly encourage you to check it out. It's got everything from Guitar 1 to Turkish singing to yoga to Haitian Kanaval dance.

It's so affordable that even I can handle it. In 5 classes I can pretty much play this:

• Mad World by Gary Jules

More Gary Jules music on iLike

TOMORROW I PLAY THIS:

Ok, not really. BUT THAT WOULD BE PRETTY SWEET.

Kirk out.

Music

So.

It is the 16th of December. Christmas is next Friday. I refuse to tell you where I am with my Christmas shopping; you will be enormously embarrassed. Whether embarrassed on my behalf for my amazing lack of shopping, or embarrassed on your end because you are horribly and terribly behind.

You will have to suffer in an agony of uncertainty.

However, one fantastic thing that did happen since my last post...days ago...was that instead of doing gifts at work, we all exchanged mixes. Brilliant idea.

HERE'S MINE:

1) Canto de Ossanha - Afro Sambas

2) Uptown Downtown - Benjamin Zephaniah

3) Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap

4) Cocktail Swing - Paul Englishby

5) Oye Como Va - Tito Puente

6) Obsessed with You - The Orion Experience

7) Ramalama (Bang Bang) - Róisín Murphy

8) Mahna Mahna - Cake

9) Koop Island Blues - Koop featuring Ane Brun

10) The Garden - Mirah

11) Evil Night Together - Jill Tracy

12) Comrade Z - Devotchka

13) I Wanna Be Loved By You - Marilyn Monroe

14) Tamacun - Rodrigo Y Gabriela

15) Old Devils - William Elliot Whitmore

16) Danger! High Voltage - Electric Six

17) Little Green Bag - George Baker Selection

18) Everything I Can't Have - Robin Thicke

19) Argentine Tango - By Someone I Don't Know

Look em up. Admire my impeccable music taste.

Do it.

So today, I forgot my Ipod.

No - let me rephrase. I forgot my entire music apparatus - no headphones OR iPod. Even worse, I realized I didn't have it RIGHT when I was getting on MUNI. I was filled with a curious combination of chagrin, resignation, and...horror.

Of course, I have forgotten my music before, but this was the first time I actually analyzed my feelings about it. Horror? Really? That I had forgotten music to listen to whilst working? Is that the hallmark of my generation that we have to constantly have some sort of input into our brains to distract us from matters at hand?

I, clearly, survived. It was a near thing, though, I'll tell ya.

The Blonde was training the Mav tonight, and the following conversation ensues while The Mav whimpers quietly.

"What are you writing about tonight, Fran?" says the Blonde.

"Writing about how I left my iPod at home." says I

"...Interesting..."says The Blonde, vaguely sadly and distinctly let down.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I TRY TO SHARE PROFOUND THOUGHTS WITH YOU ALL.

In which there are pirates. No Seriously!

Yes. I know. I didn't blog yesterday.

Epic. Fail.

HOWEVER, leaving an after-party to BLOG is lame. Beyond lame. Pathetically Lame.

I don't like to do lame things.

The after-party was, of course due to the overwhelming success of Royal Jam at Battle of the Bands. I feel like I can state quite objectively that the brainy nerds absolutely stole the show.

Even the parents agreed.

But let's start at the beginning.

I arrive at The DNA Lounge (apparently "A disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals"...ok...) and go inside to hear confusingly loud music. Like, death metal.

NO JOKE.

For example, Aborticide, sounds like "a whirlwind mixture of experimental, avant-garde, post-apocalyptic cyber industrial death metal"

Royal Jam's influences include The Beatles, Dave Matthews Band, and Stevie Wonder. Right. They are awesome, and sound hauntingly beautiful.

(This is all Sharri! Sadly, she is off in Seattle, getting her degree in neuroscience. THANKS FOR LEAVING SHARRI.)

Unfortunately, I cannot tell you if the other bands were any good. I simply do not have an ear for metal of any kind, despite my previous employment experience doing time at Mayhem Festivals, etc. I TRIED, I'M SORRY.

What I CAN tell you is that not only did this Battle of the Bands span genres, it also apparently spanned ages.

Not, that you could tell or anything. I mean SURE, there were parents there! And SURE, they were definitely taking home videos as the kids on stage strutted their stuff and screamed hoarsely into the mike and then waved, embarassingly pleased at the camera. WHO WOULDN'T?!

I would say that most people wouldn't wear Halloween striped pirate pants to play a show. But that is just me. And anyone over the age of 15.

The Time Has Come

The Walrus Said.

To talk of Many Things.

That is really what this whole daily blogging thing comes down to right? Talking of many things. In my case, they happen to be very many. And varied. And RANDOM. But, you all know this.

Today's topic - MUSIC.

I have always been fascinated by music tastes. Seriously. No one person has the same taste as another. People listen to music that you wouldn't at all think they would like! The Coz? Likes soundtracks. The Blonde? hearts Breaking Benjamin and the Sick Puppies - seriously, a quarter hour spaz on how awesome they are. The Man? Phish. The Mav? CLASSICALLY TRAINED PIANIST.

Hell, the head of the Slipknot fan club is a middle aged mom from Bristol.

Me? I've been listening to a lot of gypsy polka. It's strange. I guess the moral is that you never can tell, and that someone's music choices really don't have much say in defining his or her personality.

Unless you are, like, obsessed with Clay Aiken. As in, you belong to his fan club. Unfortunately, if that is the case I PROBABLY KNOW WHO YOU ARE. And have probably kicked you off the site more times than I can count. Ah, memories.

I DIGRESS. The main reason for this post is because the girls at work have a yearly tradition of not buying gifts for everyone, but instead making a playlist and giving it out on a CD. Everyone gets new music, and no one loses money.

FANTASTIC.

I feel like the best way to do this is to probably just check out my My Most Played Songs (Thanks iTunes!). This will obviously feature Gogol Bordello, Jill Tracy, that one song from The Orion Experience, The Fratellis, and some Presidents of the United States of America.

HOWEVER. I will also mix it up with some Rodrigo y Gabriela, some Buena Vista Social Club, a little bit of swing and some classic Jazz. Please note that this will not constitute the entirety of my mix. Give me slightly more credit than that.

The trick? Getting it all to mesh into some sort of cohesive mix. Does order really matter any more? If one were to listen to the soothsayers in High Fidelity, then the answer is clearly YES, but I don't really find I stick to the order of my original playlist anymore.

Anyway, thoughts? Any songs I should Definitely Include?