quarantine life & music
IT’S BEEN AWHILE (to the tune of the Staind song, in reference to my favorite podcast that I’m pretty sure no one else cares about. This is off to a good start.) since I’ve posted anything on here. My whole plan to create an extensive guide to Houston through weekly blog posts was derailed by my travel schedule, then quarantine, and also general laziness. Plus I kinda forgot this thing existed. But some friends encouraged me to get back to blogging (shoutout to my quarantine crew) so here we are. Since I don’t feel like now is a great time to be writing about Houston restaurant and bar recommendations, this post is going to be a completely different thing than anything I’ve done in the past.
The one thing I’m loving about quarantine life
This was technically in Waco but it was a high-quality picnic.
The world definitely does not need any more articles about working from home tips (trust me, I have none) or lists of games you can play over Zoom or whatever, and we definitely don’t need any more thinkpieces about lessons we’ve learned from quarantine or how nothing will ever be the same. So I’m not going to write about any of that! My favorite (truly the only sort of positive thing I can think of) thing about quarantine has been going to the park. Y’all, Houston has excellent parks! My favorite is Spotts Park (100% because it’s the most convenient one for me to get to), but I’ve also enjoyed running (jk, mostly walking) the trails towards downtown while listening to music or podcasts (more on that later). Somehow, these past few weeks have actually been the most active and outdoorsy I have ever been, and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this. I have truly never seen as many people out in the parks as I have these past few weeks. Or as many dogs…seriously, did everyone get a quarantine dog?!? We’ve been sent good weather (I’ve also been watching a lot of Handmaid’s Tale) these past few weeks, so my quarantine crew has been out there almost every day, and after a few trial runs, we have truly perfected picnic-ing in the park. Here’s what you need: a hammock, picnic blanket, beverages of choice (I think we are single-handedly keeping the wonderful makers of boxed wine in business. Beer from a Houston brewery is also a solid choice.), Bluetooth speaker and the all-important perfect playlist (more on that later), something to throw (football, frisbee, or my personal favorite, forcing my friends to throw a baseball/softball around with me), and, obviously, food (pizza from Monkey’s Tail is our go-to). Finally, you must find the perfect spot. There are a few options in Spotts Park (hah, look at that) where the trees are perfect hammock distance apart, there is plenty of shade, and there’s still a good view. I shouldn’t even be telling you this. If anyone is actually reading this, don’t take our spot. But there ya go. The perfect picnic. Every time we do this, we say stuff like “this is so fun we are definitely going to make this a thing after quarantine!!!!!!!” Unfortunately, I think our days of acceptable picnic weather are numbered, but we’ll see how it goes. Also, because I feel like I need to say this, we have been careful about social distancing at the park, sticking with just our group of three, etc. and most of the other groups I have seen are as well. So…good job Houston!
The music that’s been getting me through quarantine
As y’all may or may not know, my actual dream job would be to listen to, read about, discuss, and write about music all day every day. Pretty sure attempting to become a full-time music journalist with no music or journalism background is not going to support my lifestyle (i.e. my income would be zero dollars), but I can still work really hard on playlists and excitedly rant about music to my friends who politely listen and nod. On that note, I decided to create the ultimate covid-themed playlist (original, I know). It’s been updated and changed many times since I started it, but I think it’s high quality. My only rule was that it had to be songs I actually like (made a few exceptions for comedic value) and it had to somehow relate to this situation, or how I currently feel. I just watched Sing Street the other day, and there’s a scene where one of the characters is trying to describe the feeling of “happy-sad.” He was talking about the music of The Cure, but I think that general feeling is where we’re all at right now. A lot of the songs on this playlist fall in that category. Here are some of the highlights:
The obvious ones - “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” by The Police, “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Tom Petty, “SICKO MODE” by Travis Scott, “Stay Away” by Nirvana, “Work From Home” by Fifth Harmony, “Night Fever” by the Bee Gees, “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper, and that Cardi B Coronavirus autotune thing. Stole these from literally every other covid-themed playlist, but, it’s funny right?
“It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M. - I have a special relationship with this one. This song, originally released in 1987, has had a resurgence recently, for obvious reasons. But also, this song freaking rules. I got REALLY into R.E.M. last year, mostly due to the absurdly named second greatest podcast of all time, “R U Talkin’ R.E.M. Re: Me?” (the follow up to the absolute greatest podcast of all time, “U Talkin’ U2 To Me?” I could just talk about how much I love these podcasts for another seven paragraphs, but I’ll spare you. Also a bunch of actual journalists have already done that). So I was really excited when people started talking about this song again. The other R.E.M. song that is vaguely covid-related in a kind of dark way, “Try Not To Breathe,” is one of my favorites, and it’s been on repeat in my apartment lately. It’s beautiful and sad and thoughtful, and I like it more every time I listen to it. Oh, also check out the highly applicable “Underneath the Bunker.”
“Live Forever” by Oasis - Okay, this one is also a stretch as far as being covid-related, but I have loved this song for years. First, let’s talk about Oasis for a second. Ya know, the guys who created the immortal sounds of “Wonderwall.” They had a bunch of other, way better, songs (I am actually somewhat of a defender of “Wonderwall,” but that’s a discussion for another day). They randomly released an old demo track last week, which sent me down an extensive internet rabbit hole, in which I learned that several years ago, lead singer Liam Gallagher repeatedly called his brother a potato on Twitter. The history of the feud between Liam and Noel Gallagher is, and I do not say this lightly, one of the funniest things I have ever come across on the internet. I can’t stop re-reading these articles and laughing. Anyway, this song. Fitting that when I discovered it, I was around the age the band members were when they wrote this. Lyrics like “maybe I just wanna fly / wanna live don’t wanna die” and “maybe I will never be all the things that I want to be”…kind of basic and a little whiny but…relatable. And with that melody, it just works. “You and I are gonna live forever…” pretty sums up my (completely insane and irresponsible) ongoing belief that I am invincible.
“Feeling Ok” by Best Coast - This is the perfect feel-good song. Try to listen to this song without picturing yourself at the beach with perfect weather (and I don’t even like the beach that much???). We could all use some pure feel-good content in our lives right now.
“Dance Yrself Clean” and “All My Friends” by LCD Soundsystem - Forced my friends to listen to the first one the other day and spent the first three minutes promising them that it was going to pick up and when it does it’s amazing. The beat kicks in at exactly three minutes and six seconds and IT IS AMAZING. If you’ve never heard this song, do yourself a favor and go listen to it like fifteen times in a row. But “All My Friends”…I have listened to this song hundreds of times and did not realize until about a month ago how deeply sad it is. It’s the most upbeat song I’ve ever heard about friends drifting apart as you get older and how every time you go out together could be the last. Needless to say, it takes on a new meaning now. By the final few seconds of the song, he’s just singing “where are your friends tonight?” And like….same.
I would love to talk about more of these songs, but maybe later. Check out the full playlist here. Also, check out the awesome picnic playlist here. I think it’s some of my best playlist-creating work yet. Hopefully I can get back to talking about Houston restaurants and bars and coffee shops soon, but for now, unqualified analysis of oldish songs is all I’ve got.
That’s all, folks.
<3 liz
