Clear as mud...that's me

I was posting a comment to my last topic, but it got WAY too long. Here's me trying to clear the air (without any fart references...can you believe it?)...

Anonymous Cousin: "At Last" is NOT embarrassing in the least. In my poor opinion, anyway. I'm having that song played at my wedding, should one occur. Maybe at my funeral too. :-)

Momma: I refer to the embarrassment when playing your mp3 player out loud on speakers...not so private then. None of Gord's Gold is embarrassing to me, however, being a child of the 80's more than the 70's, this can be somewhat odd to hear on MY mp3 player if you don't know me too well. Imagine my surprise that Mostly Naked is a devotee of the Neil, and the Denver. Mostly because I thought only OUR family ever heard of them. :-) BTW, he listens to them WHILE HE'S ON CLUB RIDES. And he's a hard-core rider. The amusing assumption is that we all listen to death metal when we ride. Enya is probably my favorite to listen to when I'm riding as vigorously as I can.

Here's some examples of potentially embarrassing mp3 tracks (again, in my poor opinion) when played in the presence of others (i.e., you will not find them on my list, nor do I like them):

Anything by the Osmonds
Anything by Captain and Tenille
Me So Horny
Biz Markie's "You Got What I Need"
Anything by Don Ho
Anything by Menudo

Your artist list, Momma, is a good one, I will not deny. You are of strong character and say "the heck with you" should someone call you out. YOU can listen to Cher without anyone making a generalization. Now, if TOM had it on his mp3 player well, then clearly, he's gay. If he's not...he probably should be. I suppose it all boils down to age and gender stereotypes. I use them...I'm not ashamed. They usually make for amusing observations (Filet-O-Fish/Orange drink).

I'm not at all embarrassed by my song selections because they are my favorite songs, for whatever reason, but mostly because they're good memory triggers. A memory trigger example, "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves? The song that was playing when I last crashed. How do I remember it? When I rolled to a stop and was on all fours staring at the gravel on the access road, I thought, "I'm riding off the road..whooaa. I'm rolling in the dirt...whooooaaaa. And I still feel good! HEY!"

"The Memory of Trees" by Enya is a good one for both Heb and I. We went skiing at Big Powderhorn in the U.P. and took a day-trip to our family's former cottage in Iron River, WI. Her father had passed away and Heb wanted to scatter her dad's ashes at the lake. It was cold, overcast and kind of gloomy. As we were driving back to our chalet at Powderhorn, the sky cleared up, the sun was brilliant and warming, the sky was the bluest blue, the pine trees were the greenest green, and the snow was the whitest white. I had put a CD I compiled in the player and "The Memory of Trees" started playing right at this change in weather and it struck me suddenly, as if her dad had said, "Thanks. That was nice."

Swell, this is making me well up.

Anyway, it made me feel really good that we had done this for Heather and her dad and it felt like the Universe had given us all a little high-five. So every time I play this song, I think of that day and you can imagine how it makes me feel when I'm hauling ass down a sun-dappled County Road D through the trees.

I WILL blush if I'm blaring my mp3s in the garage and one of the songs from the Musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer starts up. But I still love it. And I won't NOT listen to it just because it's blush-worthy. Technically though, I was embarrassed that Brother's mp3 player, not mine, was playing "Hangin' Tough."

I've started asking other riders at the club rides what they are listening to at that moment on their mp3 players. I think it provides entertaining insight into the person they are. Like the 40-something guy in our group who was listening to a Rob Zombie song when I asked. This weekend I'm asking the tattoo-and-piercing covered 20-something what he's listening to.