cooltunes

Recently, a priest has come forward to complain about the use of pop music at funerals. Further, he states that there’s little religion at these services. I won’t go into the latter, but there’s a lot of online space devoted to the former.

He came down pretty hard on Tina Turner, whose Simply the Best he found particularly galling. I think most will agree that funerals are very personal, and there’s quite a mix of ages and backgrounds sitting there dressed in their good clothes in a most uncomfortable setting. At the average funeral, there is the deceased right in front for the duration. To buffer this, an appropriate selection of music is comforting and cathartic at the same time.

For my mom’s service, several pieces were picked for their sorrowful qualities. The menfolk in my family bottle up most of their emotions, and one, especially, needed to let go of some of this. At the end of the ceremony, you guessed it. The only dry eyes belonged to the guys.

I was a mess. But then I cried all through putting together the playlist, which included some of the songs in the above links. But if a person had specified that certain songs be played, however enthusiastic and supposedly out of place, then I sure think those wishes should be honored.

How Shazam works, via Slate.

When the kids were old enough to trust in a bookstore without worrying about them racing up and down the aisles, we would sometimes visit the old Tower bookstore in Mountain View. For a time, the fellow in charge of the background music was our hero. ‘What’s that playing? What is that?’ We wondered to ourselves and to each other, and finally one night I went up to him and asked.

And that is how we were introduced to darkwave/neoclassical music ( Arcana, back in the day). In turn, our lone CD was loaned out to at least one other young man, who found it led to a whole new world of Gothic sounds.

Then there was the time we wandered into a store in North Beach selling various exotic artifacts. The music was primal, mysterious and wildly percussive. Mesmerizing. I was the official asker, and I did. And that is how I learned about X-Tribe. Best played in a dark, musty store full of masks, bones, skins and primitive but very sharp weapons. Excellent elsewhere too.

Back up a few years, the kids were small, and a piano recital was held in a parent’s home. Now as a rule, recitals were not something I looked forward to, being a fidgety person. But the second we walked into the house, I got into that zone of unknown but ravishing music in the background. What is that? Who wrote that? It was classical, and not the usual suspects, but so infused with holiday feeling that I was desperate to find out what it was. We didn’t know the parents well. As the evening wound up, there was the usual mayhem and excited confusion whenever a group of children congregate at Christmas time. And before I knew it, the opportunity was gone.

I never saw the parents again. I have never found that music.

See previous post. The more I think about it, the worse I feel. Because today I got an email from the person who can’t stand to have things in her ear. She thanked me for being understanding about how the iPod was a ‘bad fit’ as a gift for her.

I had been so taken aback by her remarks the other day that I didn’t think to tell her how she could just plug her iPod into her stereo system or her car, thereby getting around using earphones. And it wasn’t that I was understanding, it was more that I was. . . silent.

But I’m not sure I could ever tell anyone their present was inappropriate. Perhaps she saw endless iTunes gift cards in her future. (I did explain she could put the music on CDs.) But can you imagine? Endless iTunes gift cards?

Last Christmas I gave iPods to two people I felt would never buy one for themselves. One recipient has no computer and no access to one, so I added 200 songs from my music library with the stipulation that I would remove any or all that were not wanted.

The other recipient does have access to iTunes. Both are incredibly difficult to buy gifts for, and selfishly, I had in mind very easy future gifts of iTunes gift cards, at least for the computer user . Hah.

Both were initially pleased with having a nifty Apple gadget. However, the first giftee soon made it clear that he did not want any more songs added (his nano has a 2,000 song capability), nor did he want any of his music collection on the iPod. I got what amounted to a lecture on why he felt this way, and how the gift was basically useless. He said he didn’t want to hear songs over and over again.

The other person bought one iTunes song, and that was that. She also gave me a lecture on why it was an inappropriate gift, although she did give consideration to my feelings. So I got to see someone hold an iPod in their hand, and go on and on about how they can’t stand to have something in their ear. Or how they could never do yard work with something like this because they want to know if someone is coming up behind them. And I think maybe I should just ask for it back and hold a giveaway for Cooltunes.

I’m going to assume that she did not appreciate the iTunes gift card I just gave her for her birthday. Pre-lecture.