I'm seven years older than my sister and nine from my brother; it's no secret that my arrival was a mistake. But that's cool, I guess, being a product of love. It's sort of ironic too though, seeing as sometimes I'm sure their maturity outweighs mine(and with my brother, my intelligence can also be put on the line). I also don't understand the whole concept of "responsibility". However, one duty that I readily and wholeheartedly accepted as the eldest was controling the sound waves during the dreaded journeys to school and the joyous journeys from school.
I wish I could say that the radio played a part in our traveling soundtrack, but the state of Dallas radio is just too depressing to even mess with. Therefore the morning and afternoon's sounds were determined by which albums were out or the season. While "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" is my go-to autumn album(don't worry, I say "fall". I just appreciate an apt alliteration), it's not too family friendly. Bearing this in mind, I realized my choices were going to be limited this school year. I needed something to refresh me and break me out of my groggy morning daze but that could also simultaneously comfort me after a grueling eight hours of textbook torture. If teachers understood the importance of balance between work and play, I easily could have had the time to create the perfect mix, but I had no such luck. It was then that I hestitantly held the door open for my summer sounds. I know, it was treason; fall was crisp and cold, while summer was a sultry haze. But I knew that MGMT's "Oracular Spectacular" and VW's "Vampire "Weekend" could overcome the seasonal shifts.
"Contra" also made the rounds in my Chevy when it first came out, but it was "Congratulations" that made a home for itself in the cd crevice since its debut in April. Now, I realize that playing my music for kids as young as my siblings could be misconstrued as some sort of brain-washing, but I wasn't going to put up with Selena Gomez or any other DisneyChannelflavor-of-the-day-pop-bullshit either. I know my early ventures down the music pathway were misguided(Ashley Simpson and Hilary Duff), but some shining bright light of hope gave me a firm slap in the face, opening my ears and guiding me in the direction of truth(I'm sorry, I love me some "Siberian Breaks". It was some twist of fate when I first heard "Universally Speaking" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in my grandma's PT Cruiser; it was my rebel/riot grrl aunt and her gang of then-punks who showed me this light and sparked my curiosity. Most of my music-al education from then on was done on my own (Vampire Weekend was actually my co-blogger's influence) and I just wanted to help my sibs out. I guess it WAS some form of subliminal messaging, but I never really knew they were listening.
Then a couple days ago, while on a car ride to a baby shower, I plugged my earphones in to drown out a different aunt's tales of dance-club terrors. I skipped through song after song, completely missing the point of the shuffle option on my iPod, until I reached "Brian Eno". I was silently jamming in a spastic but seated jig, when the chorus arrived and turned, awestruck, to watch my sister chiming in with "What does he know?!" And in that single moment, my faith in tomorrow's (younger) youth was restored.
Sidenote- Yeah, I realize I have a problem with length(feel free to insert a "that's what she said" or another comment that's stuck in the gutter). TAKS was torture.
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