Mixin' it up
Since I am a Mac user, I'm able to use iTunes to catalog my music collection. iTunes has two features that Mrs. Happy and I use frequently: the search function and the playlist function. Search allows you to type words into a text box and find songs in your library that contain those words. Playlists allow you to make lists of songs as long, short, logical, or random as you like. One of our favorite pastimes is to create what we call segue playlists. It works like this:
- Pick a song from the library and put it into a playlist. (We currently have 2,226 to choose from.)
- Pick a word in that song's title and enter into the search box.
- Choose a song from the search results and put it into the playlist.
- Pick another word from song No. 2's title and enter it into the search box.
- Choose a song from the search results and put it into the playlist.
- Repeat the process until you have about an hour's worth of music.
- Go to bed an hour early and let your spouse listen to the whole list.
Here's a sample segue playlist:
- Between The Bars, Elliott Smith
- inbetween days, Cure
- These Ordinary Days, Jars Of Clay
- These Dreams of You, Van Morrison
- Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Diana Krall
- Morning Has Broken, Cat Stevens
- Race You To The Top Of The Morning, The Secret Garden (Soundtrack)
- On Top Of Old Smokey, Harry Belafonte
- Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, The Platters
- In Your Eyes, Nichole Nordeman
- Your Horoscope For Today, Weird Al Yankovic
- The Best Stuff In The World Today Cafe, Take 6
- Best Of My Love, The Eagles
- You Don't Want My Love, Roger Miller
- You Don't Learn That In School, Nat Cole King Trio
- Schoolchildren Singing Particle Man, They Might Be Giants
- Loco Man, The Folksmen
It's fun to hear the mix of music—where else does there exist such musical eclecticism? It's also fun to notice the connections between the songs when listening to them for the first time. But most of all, it's fun to lie in bed with the woman I love and listen to a music mix she made just for me.
