It's a Musical Thing

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED

FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

WAS MUSIC"

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Kurt Vonnegut knew what was up. Apparently he would always mail things like that to his son, Kurt Jr., and in response his son would call and make sure everything was alright, which it usually was, until the last time - as always seems to be the case in life. I read about that in KV's "Armageddon in Retrospect," which was absolutely fantastic. But, as usual, I digress.

The reason I write tonight is to share a little food for thought from Alan Watts. Gave you chills, right? It should've. If it didn't, well then, I'm sorry for you, and think maybe you have a little more life lovin' to do.

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I love dancing, and singing.

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Thank God for music. Seriously. I love all forms of art and creative expression, but I think music is the most accessible for day-to-day situations. For example: without music, last week would've been hell in a file room. I had a temp gig, filing. I have the paper cuts to prove it - they're gnarly. My iPod helped me keep my sanity, and improved my efficiency. I often found myself dancing/bopping and singing or humming along, then realized that since I could hear the people on the outside of the 8x10 windowless room, they could probably hear me too. Oops! Work, running, driving, writing (only classical - usually), showering (with or without the help of the radio DJ), other things, all activity results improve tenfold with the assistance of rhythm and bass... it helps dancing too, duh!

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This song makes my heart swell. And Sufjan Stevens' "Chicago", and Alan Silvestri's "Forrest Gump Suite" -- all three are good songs to run to, to really run - to just let go and fly and let your heart pump blood through your veins and capillaries; to help in the realization of the fact that life is a musical thing the whole way through, with dynamic and dramatic crescendos and decrescendos before the final note. And also, this one (it's "Sitting Still Moving Still Staring Outlooking" by His Name is Alive in case the link doesn't work; fun time flashback: over Christmas break-ish, I was at one of my bestie's, Lauren's, in Kansas City, and she had this video on her computer that she filmed with her digital camera from the back seat of my car in which I'm forcing her, and our other HS besties Lisa and Alli, to listen to the beauty of the song while I'm driving up to the highest point in St. Joe one summer night way back when we were collegian babies and being nostalgic about our HS years that were months in the past... the video is just the song and mostly blackness with the occasional blue glow of dashboard light, until about 3/4 the way through when I say something like, "Oh crap!" and we all scream or yell because I swerved, and someone says, "Was that a raccoon?" or something, and the silence was lost, but the perfection of our friendship was captured. That made me happy... that specific moment itself, and then that Ms. L had captured it, though it was blind on film, it played brilliantly in my memory... PS: Tobes, if you're reading this, I do remember a-one specific promise to send that from your fancy Mac, hmmm!? Hmm!?) is pretty great, too. Totally unrelated (but what isn't here?) is that how you're supposed to write "too" with the statement then "," then "too"? Is that right; sometimes; all the time; none of the time? I'm not good with grammar (duh)! I use it like glitter. What? That didn't even make sense.

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Also, unrelated: when I opened up the Silvestri song, Castaway music was also suggested and it triggered a neuron from a dream the other night in which I was watching the movie and then all of a sudden in it, and I was like, "Shit! Seriously! Of all the Tom Hanks movies I have to get stuck in, it has to be this one?! Why not 'The Money Pit'!?!?" because I was on the island... y'know, it sucked. And speaking of dreams, I've been having some seriously messed up ones lately. Like super duper messed up. A bird flew, and got stuck, in my hair in one. I spoke Spanish, or something in another one while hiding in some basement of a desert house-mansion with other people hiding from Saddam Hussein, like Anne Frank-ish style. Seriously? What's that about!? It makes going to bed kind of exciting and scary all at once.

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Speaking of which, I need to... So yeah, music. It's good. Life. It's wonderful. Sing. Dance. Smell the flowers. If this isn't nice, I don't know what is. I'm gonna make my Momma's lasagna recipe this week and listen to Yves Montand's "Bella Ciao!" on repeat.