Sunday, May 16, 2010

Music as the Soundtrack to Life

So instead of sharing new music with you guys, I'm going to share some old music that has provided some intense moments in my life lately.

Let's start with the more cheesy of the two soundtracks of my life lately:

(Upon review of the actual video, it makes me really uncomfortable. Why isn't Alicia Keys sitting down at the piano? Does she really have to stand and look so awkward?).




Ok, so instead of watching the video while you listen to this song, try picturing being cramped into a little car, about 97 degrees outside, with a large backpack over your legs, driving through the streets that lead the way out of Leogane, and back to reality. Yep, our driver had some tunes in his car. This song, for example, played several times. About the third time it played, the four girls in the car asked the driver to turn it up a little, and we tried to belt it out as much as we had the strength to. I can clearly remember seeing the ocean and beach to our left, watching the palm trees whiz by, admiring the beauty of this devastated country. And to the right: the greenest mountains you can imagine, and sugar fields as far as you can see. It was one of the many surreal moments I've had the pleasure of experiencing. Hearing this song while watching all of this around me, and the lyrics started to get me all emotional after a bit:

New York
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There's nothing you can’t do,
Now you're in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you,
Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York

It just reminded me that anything is possible. If you want something bad enough, you can make it happen. There's nothing you can't do. It doesn't have to be in New York, obviously, but at that moment in my life, those were the lyrics I needed to hear. And the background to that didn't hurt either.

This second video, I'm actually shocked I haven't posted on here yet. My soundtrack: Bon Iver, Skinny Love.


My life moment: I was on my second day back at work from Haiti, feeling highly unmotivated, with about fifteen minutes left of my lunch break. The last thing I wanted to do on my last fifteen minutes was to go back and sit at my desk (where I was going to have to be sitting for the next 5 hours or so), and I didn't feel like hanging out in the break room either, so I had a moment of genius. I had my phone on me, headphones in the car, and a pair of flats in my trunk: a fifteen minute walk it is! Best. Idea. Ever. I put on this song, and started walking away from the office. It was incredible how just a few steps and a couple beats changed my attitude. Plus, everything in life just LOOKS better when it's accompanied by music, including watching kids get into their parents car (I hope that was his mom...), random people walking across the street, and people just going about their business. The weather was perfect, the song choice was impeccable. On the walk back, I opted for a little Devotchka, and it was pretty ridiculous. Right as I was walking down the street to my building, with trees lining over the sidewalk making a perfect path for me (it's a small/older town, super cute actually), the drumming on the song was picking up for its big finale. It was like a personal motivation: you can take the last few steps Alex, just keep walking, you'll make it through this afternoon. And the next. I know it sounds silly, but it was awesome.

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