SongO’TheDay

I couldn’t let the last SongOTheDay be one as cynical and overly dramatic as “Is That All There Is?”  We need to go out on a high note.   We started this site with The Hold Steady’s “Positive Jam” and we’re ending it, at least this version of it (Dave Murphy, make the next one happen!), with “Feeling Good”.  Bookends.

Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” was the first Song of the Day back when it was an email only thing.  I wrote then that I had first heard the song sitting out back at Zeitgeist.  It was raining, so my buddy and I were sitting under the eave.  When the song came on I was so entranced I had to go see who it was- I thought it was a man- but it turned out to be Nina.

Man (or a woman if you are one), this has been fun.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading everything all of you have written.  I’ve also really dug hearing a lot of music I probably wouldn’t have heard otherwise.

I hope in the new year you all keep on writing, being creative, and listening to more music.  Remember, there is nothing wrong with liking Dave Matthews intensely, so long as you don’t just stop there.  

Ah, full circle.

…

In 1978, when I was eight-years-old, these things happened:
- I watched Bombo Rivera, the left fielder of the Twins, make a diving, game-saving catch on a ball drilled to left by the Detroit Tigers Rusty Staub.  Bombo’s pretty much been my favorite player ever since.
- Playing 3rd base for my Little League team, I successfully fielded a hard hit ball, threw the kid out at first and then made it back to the bag in time to catch a throw from the first basemen and tag out a kid trying to go to third on the throw.  Seriously, one of the all-time personal highlights- I sucked at baseball just a year prior. 
- Superman came out
- I got sent to the hallway for misbehaving about 30 times.  They made me see a school shrink.  I charmed the shit out of him.

In 1988, when I was 18-years-old:
- I graduated from high school and was free!  Twenty years later I am still happy high school is over.  I mean, I had fun and all, but still.
- I saw my Twins lose the Western-division title to the obviously juiced up tandem of Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. Bastards.
- Bobby McFerrin conquered the pop charts with “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”
- I got my apartment broken into and robbed…twice

In 1998, when I was 28-years-old:
- I bowled 211, beating my previous personal record of 207, which I set in 6th grade.  I think the LSD helped.
- I met Werner Herzog
- I wrote movie reviews for a website and my school
- Shooting hoops at night at San Rafael high, I watched a balloon escape from the gymnasium, fly about 500 yards above the court and hill, and then come back down to me, I hadn’t moved, and it landed in my hand…

Now it’s 2008, and holy crap, I’m 38-years-old. And if my reflection on thirty years has taught me anything, it’s that this year I’m likely to robbed (or hustled…or maybe just a piano will fall on my head).

Have the best year ever.

And remember to find a little love within you for the ‘unlovable’.

-shlepcar

P.S.  The site will remain up as it is until January 7th.  If you’d like to make any comments on anybody’s write-ups until then, please do. They will be included on the saved posts that will go out with the discs.