Bus Blog: A Transcription of My Thoughts As They Happened

Having already spent ten hours Friday, four hours Saturday, and three hours Sunday traveling, I was bored just two hours into what would be a nearly six-hour bus ride.  We took a rest stop just an hour and a half into the trip, waking me up from a pleasant nap.  I decided to write out my thoughts as they happened from the end of the rest stop until arriving at the intersection of 34th and 8th so you could all take the last four hours of the bus ride to New York with me!  Here is the transcription of the original, organized chronologically by what song was playing on my phone. 

No one will get this meme
but I liked it, so there.

Cinderblox, Sonata Arctica- This is one of my favorites off of their latest album.  It grows on me every time I hear it, with the twanging banjo worked fluidly into the angry metal tune.  The drumming is more interesting in this song than in their earlier work.  I must make a note to tell Chris this, since his biggest complaint about my favorite band is that their "drumming is too monotonous." What kind of criticism is that, anyway?

Don't Say A Word, Sonata Arctica- I love it when I get two SA songs in a row on shuffle.  This one is a CLASSIC.  Not that very many people know SA at all but if they know just one song, this is it.  I fell in love with it at first listen, but didn't realize how many other people did until I noticed it was their number one hit on Spotify and their choice of closing song live in concert, even though it's like three albums old.  Scrolling through Twitter, I found that Joe Walker was having a Q&A in honor of the premiere of something or other for Team Starkid.  I asked what wearing a dress in AVPS did for his love life, since his wearing a dress would be a turn-off but the view of his biceps the dress afforded was certainly a turn-on. 

L'italiano, Toto Cutugno- Even though the song is in Italian I always want to sing to it.  The Bruins-Ranger game had just started in Boston.  I knew I'd have to fact-check the updates Adam was sending me with the Rangers' Official Twitter, since he's a biased Bruins fan.  This suspicion was confirmed when he falsely claimed the team to be up 3-0 a minute into the game.  

Love Song, Sara Bareilles- I know how old this song is, but it feels fresh since I never listen to it.  It feels especially fresh with my new "Beavcoon green" (as Eric describes them), noise-cancelling earbuds.  What a nice song.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John- The Bruins take the first goal of the game.  Evidently Elton John will not bring us good luck today.  Skip.

Born This Way, Lady Gaga- I'm no Little Monster, but I really love this upbeat, 80s-feel, Madonna-esque song.  Captain Cally scores for the Rangers!  It's a shame I don't have more Lady G to listen to if it's bringing us luck.  

They were FANTASTIC live.

Allen's Bar, Barrage- Why doesn't the whole world love fiddle music more than it does?  It's so pleasing melodically and the instrument itself is so dynamic and capable of so many styles.  I love fiddle music and Barrage and I think they're severely underrated.

Do They Know It's Christmas, Band Aid- This is one of the few Christmas songs I keep on my phone and iPod all year long.  It's just so good.

Shampain, Marina & The Diamonds- How much more can you contrast a song that was written and recorded for charity than to follow it up with a Primadonna girl like Marina?  Interesting choice, Gods of iPod Shuffle.  Not that Marina really is all about being a materialistic brat.  I'm pretty sure from listening to both of her albums in sequence that she's making statements about materialism and superficiality, not subscribing to them.  Though she is just kind of being gorgeous and making a living off of it.  Ugh.

Lights, Ellie Goulding- The Rangers have thrown away another power play.  Tell me something I don't know?  The elbow of the man sitting next to me keeps nudging me.  Not on purpose, just because he takes up more room than his seat allows.  I really like Goulding's floaty, ethereal voice.  I spot a billboard for the station Star 99.9.  We must be getting close!  Google Maps disagrees.  We're not close enough for me to make the 5:12 train to Ronkonkoma I was planning on.  Great.

Don't Fear the Reaper, Blüe Oyster Cult- LOVE!  No thoughts.  Just listening.  And maybe a little bit of remembering that my 11th grade crush recommended this song to me.

Talk Dirty to Me, Poison- I'm kind of enjoying being so lost in the music that I'm noticing distinctly the hammer-ons and pull-offs and precise timbre of the guitar in this song.  Just listening to music while we're stuck in traffic on this rainy day is kind of nice.

The Day, Snata Arctica- Heavy on the metal today.  Mi piace.  This power ballad/rock song is so gorgeous.  I never realized it was in compound quadruple meter before now.  

La Piccinina, Adriano Valle e Gabriella Piccinini- Grazie mille, Nonni e Nonno, per ballare con me al mio sedicesimo compleanno.  

I Am Not a Robot, Marina & The Diamonds- This was the Free Single of the Week that introduced me to her.  I had no idea what she was singing about but thought her voice was pretty.

*Not

I Wanna Rock, Twisted Sister- I can't sit through this without flashing back to the Spongebob Movie, even though I am not a Goofy Goober.

Deathaura, Sonata Arctica- A Bruins goal wrecked my meditation on how cool this dark, wicked 7-minute tale of a witch hunt is.  And then the Rangers responded with a goal almost immediately.  My NHL App told me Nash had scored it!  I'm glad he isn't as useless as I was feeling like he was.  The back and forth, going in circles nature of the game is reminiscent of the full-circle nature of the song.  Eerie.  

Russian Sailor's Dance, Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy- Thinking about how we played this in eight grade reminds me of how Eric just had his last Great Hollow concert and he's moving up to the High School!  What's funny is that having the eighth grade band join us on playing a symphonic version of Russian Sailor's Dance qualified as 'cool' for us.  For Eric's grade, 'cool' meant a customized arrangement of a song with a drum track and light show while Mr. Roth accompanied them on electric guitar.  How the times have changed.  Then again, Mr. Roth DID arrange Time of Your Life by 

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Green Day for us.  And he's only used the arrangements for one group that he really loved since then.  I would know, as I've had perfect attendance at GHMS Orchestra concerts since graduating the school myself.  It also occurs to me that this song is in the rock genre of classical music with its accents on the upbeats and syncopation.  It seriously preempts the development of rock and roll.  Huh.

In the Light, DC Talk- Christian rock just feels soooo good sometimes.  Also, I still love Lifeteen a lot.

Break, Three Days Grace- This is great for workout jamz and angry music.  It's also supporting my Russian Sailor's Dance conclusion by being syncopated and accenting the upbeats.  This is actually really awesome and I want to learn the bass part. 

Bennie and the Jets, Elton John- This is the second Elton John song the Bruins have scored during on this bus trip and I don't even have that much of his music for it to be popping up in shuffle like this.  I take the blame for that goal.  I should have skipped over this song more quickly.

Mary Did You Know?, Kathy Mattea- How did this Christmas song sneak onto here? Skip.

Being Alive, 1996 London Company Cast- Wrong revival.  I hate the voices of the 1996 version.  2006 is where it's at.  Skip. 

Only in New York, Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie- My first thought when I listen to this is always that it's a "fluff entertainment" piece, the technical term for which Andy and I learned in Feinstein's Musicals class.  The theory is that when the plot of a show is too complicated, they just throw in some songs that have no other function than to entertain without developing the plot.  The more you know.  My next thought is always of the production we did my Senior Year/Delia's freshman year of high school.  It was fantastic, if 

Me and Gustav, rocking SHSW during
Thoroughly Modern Millie

I do say so myself.  I loved being in that show.  The Elbow Man keeps peaking at what I'm scribbling away at so furiously.  It doesn't matter to me because he probably can't read my moving-vehicle chicken scratch handwriting.  Adam texts me saying to keep playing Elton John.  Ugh.  I think they should re-make Thoroughly Modern Millie as a movie musical.  All I can see at this moment is Queen Latifah playing Muzzy but it just works so well.

Australia, Jonas Brothers- I'm hiding my face in shame, but also definitely head-bopping along.  I kind of even want S.O.S. to play.

Fixing A Hole, The Beatles- I like the Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album (which, I learned in some music class at some point, was the first album that made it socially acceptable for adults to listen to rock), but I wonder if I need to listen to the album chronologically to really get it all.

Burn, Three Days Grace- Google Maps is now telling me we'll get to tick Tock Diner at 5:55.  Never mind the 5:12 train, I just hope I can catch the 6:12 one at this point.  It's raining pretty hard outside.  I hope it didn't rain on Kaity during her walk.  She rode with me to South Station, which was so sweet.  I'm really glad she ended up with us this semester and because I had such a good experience with getting a random roommate, I won't mind if I have to live with random roommates next January.

Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, The Police- I see New Rochelle on Google Maps.  I'm not hearing Sting sing, I'm hearing Rosemary sing in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  New Rochelle, New Rochelle, our house will be in New Rocheeeeeeelle.

Finale B, Cast of Rent, Movie version- Alllllllll the tears for this song.  I interrupt the song to watch a Vine selfie of Joey Richter feeding a giraffe.  I would send the link to Rebecca but I know for sure she follows Joey Richter too and can see it any time she wants.  I start the song over to give it my full attention.  Without yooooou, the hand grooooopes, the ear heeeeears, the pulse beeeeeats.  Life goes ooooon, but I'm gooooone, 'cause I diiiiie without yooooou.  No day but todaaaaay.  Usually, I frown upon such codependency as this song promotes, but in my head I'm seeing Mark's movie.  More specifically, I'm seeing the ending with the image of Angel.  It's too haunting not to love.  I repeat: alllllllll the tears.  

Secret, The Pierces- Too harsh a mood change.  Also, the Bruins score again.  Skip.

Fight Like A Girl, Bomshel- I love this girl-power country song.  Looking out the window, I thought the fog was so thick that it obstructed the top half of a building from view.  I thought of Mighty Mount Olympus.  It turned out to just be a short building.  More like Thunder Ridge, the little mountain we went to once in upstate New York.

Delia is the second star from the right (and straight on
till morning).  Ohhh I crack myself up.

Marry The Man Today, Adelaide and Sarah from the Guys and Dolls Cast- Reflecting on Delia and the cast of the SHSW production this year.  They were BRILLIANT.  I saw it three times.  I don't like this recording, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.  A sound recording can't accurately capture the stage presence and performance of a song that's meant to be performed live.  

Seven Wicked Reels, Barrage- I always forget to count for the seven reels until like halfway through.  I started counting about a minute and a half in and got five.  I'm too lazy to try again.

Ravel's Bolero, BSO conducted by Charles Munch- Find the right version of this song and it's perfect for everything, ever.  Andy was listening to a version once that was just too slow and too loud and actually dissonant to the ear.  It was unpleasant.  I like my version.  It's kind of sensual for a classical piece.  It's got these long, legato runs that build up to a repeated, syncopated high note and then float back down shyly.  It's repeated by, like, every instrument and takes fourteen minutes.  We're getting into the Bronx now.  I don't think I'll make the 6:12 train but I'm not even stressing about it because it's so peaceful to listen to Bolero.  

Brahms's Academic Festival Overture, Budapest Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anton Rickenbacher- I played this piece with MYO!  Funny story about its name: Some university wanted Brahms to take a few classes and pursue an honorary degree.  After a ton of pestering, he finally agreed.  When it came time for his graduation ceremony, they told him they wanted him to compose something in honor of the school.  To spite them, he strung a bunch of folk tunes (think along the lines of Yankee Doodle Dandy) together under this pretentious title and played it at the ceremony.  The uptight administrators were not amused.  I think it's a wonderful piece.  I should re-learn the bass part one day.  I can still hum the melody but I haven't got a clue what the actual notes are.  Sometime this summer. I'm so enjoying this piece that I'm still not stressing about the train that leaves in 35 minutes when I'm 34 driving minutes away from the station.

{Skip like six songs because now I'm in a classical mood}

Goodbye to You, The Veronicas- This is not classical, but I'll take it.  Why this works when Michael Buble didn't, your guess is as good as mine.  Anyway, yay for girly alternative rock! I'm eagerly awaiting their next album, which is like 3 years overdue.  Chris and Adam's texts about the Bruins winning are more jesting than mocking, mercifully.  At least, that's how I'm choosing to read them.  

Crows Fly Black, Tarot- Tarot is another reason I love metal and I strongly recommend them.  Also, the train leaves in 15 and Google Maps tells me we'll be driving for at least 20 more minutes.  Ugh.

Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles- Yeah, this song is definitely supposed to segue straight into another song.  I'm missing something.

Favorite Musical EVER.

Dancing Through Life, from Wicked- I LOVE THESE LYRICS AND EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS SONG.  Nessa starts singing and I remember how much I wish "Wicked Witch of the East" was considered a song and put on the soundtrack.  It's not because there are too many spoilers.  I still wish, though.  This tunnel is really narrow.  It occurs to me that if we collide with the car next to us and crash, this notebook is almost definitely going to land in a puddle and no one will get to read all of this golden material I've been working so hard on.  That thought, more than anything else about a potential crash, saddens me.  My discomfort is assuaged when, at the climax of the song, we emerge dramatically from the Midtown Tunnel.  It's no more light outside the tunnel in the rain than it was inside, but I still couldn't have planned that moment any better than it happened.

FINAL SONG: Cool the Engines, Boston- How fitting is it that this is the soundtrack as we arrive at our destination after a nearly six-hour journey?  WHICH HAPPENED TO BE FROM BOSTON?  You couldn't make this crap up.  Anyway, somewhere in this huge, daunting city, a slice of pizza is calling my name.  So is a toilet, since The Elbow has the aisle seat and has been asleep for the last two hours.  I felt bad waking him up to ask him to move.  

Dear reader, I wish you happy and safe traveling in your future.  At the very least, I hope it's happier than mine was today in this abysmal rain and traffic and safer than it was Friday when my bus broke down.  For tonight, I bid you adieu.  

"It must be that we build on memories and make them more than they were."

I have a confession to make.  I have had no idea what to do with this blog lately.  

I used to post once a week, at least, but those posts are so trivial when I re-read them now. I ramble about, like, tacos and maybe introduce some people in my life.  I would just kind of collect all of my thoughts over the course of a few days and weave them into a nicely arranged monologue.  Now I have Twitter for that, so in a stupid way, I haven't seemed to collect enough thoughts to put together a blog in a while.  It sounds harsh and staunchly un-intellectual phrased that way, but what am I going to do?  I think I just need to get back into the habit of blogging.  

Lololol. Let's go murder the Bruins next.

Summer would be the time for that, since literally all I have to occupy my time with is supporting the Rangers, answering the phone at China Garden, and occasionally teaching music lessons.  

Due to overwhelming popular demand (when someone cares enough to ask why I haven't blogged, I feel like an Internet celebrity) I'll start blogging again and just make it up as I go along.  To start with, here's a series of amusing and totally insignificant things that have happened in my life as I think of them while looking around my room.



Not all that long ago, my friends and I used to play Hot Potato, but using Delia as the potato.

My fourteen year-old brother's take on politics: "It would've been terrible if we elected Mitt Romney!  Just look at his name--MITT.  That reflects baseball.  He would have erased hockey from existence!"

We've vacationed at Woodloch Pines ten times and we're still excited for the next time we go (eighty-seven days at last count).  Also, I have four gold medals, a silver, and a bronze.  Most importantly, we won gold in the Scavenger Hunt, as everybody ought to know by now.

Before I started keeping a journal on the computer, I filled up six books by hand.  I started keeping my first diary in 1999.  My first entry reads: "Today is the last day of December.  Today is Christmas morning.  We are going to Ant Rooth and Unkle Gorg's house.  We are now going to Ant Angala and Unkle Madyo's house.  We are now going home.  I am now going to bed." I like to think my spelling has gotten better but I guess my narrative style hasn't really changed all that much.

I keep losing interest
and forgetting about it.

I still haven't finished reading the Chronicles of Narnia.

One time, about ten years ago, Deels and I were messing around and throwing the hand towel at each other in the bathroom.  I threw the towel in the open toilet by accident.  We panicked.  I plucked it out, folded the wet parts underneath and pretended it never happened.  Nonni told me that she and her younger sister, Aunt Maria, did the same thing when they were kids!  The only differences were that it was a pillow through an open window into a barrel of water, which I guess is pretty much the 1940's Belgium equivalent of the same story.

Half the fun was dressing like princesses.

I still have all sorts of paraphernalia from Sweet Sixteens.  There are a bunch of leis hanging on my closet door, at least 20 different-colored beaded necklaces hanging on a hook, and a whole section of my sock drawer devoted to Kanye glasses, customized chocolate bar wrappers, and all the other free DJ handouts.

In two years of studying in Boston, I never had to kill a spider.  After being home for a week, I'd already killed two.  It's good to be back.

Delia and I shared a room up until I was turning sixteen.  We had matching bedspreads that went with the light purple walls.  Then we redecorated the Computer Room downstairs and I moved into it early in 2009.  Deels and I each got to repaint our rooms and pick out our own bedspreads.  Without consulting each other, we accidentally painted our separate rooms the same color, turquoise.  

The tickets to all the Broadway shows I've seen are hanging on my bulletin board and their playbills have a special box all to themselves: Beauty and the Beast, Wicked, Hairspray, Legally Blonde, Rent, Chicago, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Cinderella.  In retrospect, they're mostly girly musicals.  So sue me.  (That's a Guys and Dolls joke.  I keep myself so entertained.) Never mind all the school plays and off-Broadway things I've seen/played in.  I don't understand people who can't appreciate a good musical.

I have a flamingo collection.  There are seven flamingoes in my room and I feel negligent for forgetting all of their names over the years.  

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Midnight Premiere
Summer 2011

Sometimes I forget how much I love Harry Potter.  Then I find old Harry Potter-themed bookmarks, stickers, trading card games, a watch, newspaper and magazine clippings, buttons, keychains, pennants, folded-up posters, duplicates of some of those posters, and trivia books when I clean out my desk and drawers.  Then I remember that all the bindings on my hard-cover set of the series are broken from reading them so many times.  Then I remember what a dork I am and all is well in the world.

My name-tag lanyards from when I worked at Chuck E. Cheese's are still hanging on my door knob.  I have no idea why I don't just get rid of them.

Predictably, there's Northeastern debris everywhere.  A coffee mug.  Countless Husky-themed sweatshirts.  The rock with the Northeastern "N" painted on that Andy was so fond of stealing.  Books I acquired over the school year that I can't find room for.  Leftover things from my dorm that we didn't store in the attic.  A box of memorabilia like Symphony tickets and doodles done by friends.  And of course, all the pictures proving it wasn't all just a fantastic dream.  

This room holds all kinds of memories, and I can't wait to see what the memories from this next chapter of my life will be like.