i wish my life was like ...

on the way home from dinner the other night i had a thought. i know it's not the first time this wish has rumbled around in my mind ... i wish my life was like a musical from the 50s ... all doris day, guys and dolls, hills are alive kind of musical. there would be singing ... there would be dancing ... there would be awkward language from bygone days ... ohhhh, how i want it!

this is the probably why i spent my younger years making music videos. why i enjoy just dance on the wii a wee bit too much and find myself sing-speaking on an almost daily basis. my brother also happens to be an avid sing-speaker. it's not good when we spend long periods of time together. there's so much terrible singing ...

so ... since i can't go back to the 50s and i doubt i'll wake up with an amazing voice overnight, and friends would flock for the hills if i demanded they dance for their food ... i'm going to have to come up with a new plan for recreating musicals from the 50s into my daily life. for now, i'll settle for watching far too many of these delightful films

doris day pretty much set the stage for these romantic, goofy musicals. my personal favorite - the pajama game. you'd be slightly surprised (and worried) how often songs from this soundtrack apply to my daily life. and any movie with a song centered on "steam heat" is a win in my book. my original grand plan was to watch all the doris day movies. according to imdb, there's a lot. so then i said, just the musicals ... there's still a lot. so, i've settled on doris day musicals from the 50s. 

whew.

young man with a horn (1950)

tea for two (1950)

the west point story (1950)

lullaby of broadway (1951)

on moonlight bay (1951)

i'll see you in my dreams (1951)

starlift (1951)

april in paris (1952)

by the light of the silvery moon (1953)

calamity jane (1953)

lucky me (1954)

young at heart (1954)

love me or leave me (1955)

the pajama game (1957)

soundtrack: country roads (remix)

 Hermes House Band: Country Roads

yes, you may have graduated the year before but for some reason (boyfriend ... cough ... cough) you feel the need to keep returning to college life. hold on to that last little sliver for as long as you can, cause you know what? the real world is no fun. so when your bf has a work party that as the dutiful gf you attend ... you're back at college, if only for the weekend. you could stay in and watch a movie or you could visit the shady bars on main street and make terrible life decisions. like deciding you really need another cran-vodka (cause you're classy like that) or deciding you and the dj are now besties. but while you may have been a hot i've-already-graduated-but-i'm-back-again-mess, you did get something good from that weekend ... the greatest ending-a-dance-party song ever ... you are welcome.

 

soundtrack: i believe

Blessid Union of Souls: I Believe

it's high school. you're angsty. or at least you think you're angsty 'cause that's what folks say a high schooler is supposed to be. you're trapped in your tiny hometown but comfortable ... it's the angst again. you hate your car, but it was a free car. angst. at least the tape player works and you don't mind all the cords winding to the plugged in portable cd player. in the words of your pa - you got tunes. so you and your girls cruise around town, pretending that by doing so you'll fall into the "cool" category ... but really you just end up using up gas. no matter. you got tunes. you got the windows rolled down. you got the volume pushed up. believe.

soundtrack: suit and tie

Justin Timberlake - Suit and Tie

because every good road trip needs a song and as we all know, the song can not be decided in advance. one has to let a soundtrack song come naturally. so when the stars align and you realize suit and tie is your road trip song ... you embrace it ... you embrace justin ... and you learn to sing in a voice a couple octaves higher than you thought was possible for your scratchy little, off-tune throat. then you listen to it in texas. then oklahoma. then kansas. then missouri. then iowa and when you realize the stars truly do align and some things were truly meant to be ... you listen to is as you pull of the highway, drive the backroads and slide into the garage as the last strands of jt's voice hum outta the speakers.

and then you sing the shit outta that song until your husband forbids it from filling the walls of the house ever again.

yeah.

soundtrack: if you got the feelin'

5ive - If You Got The Feelin'

because when it's the summer before your senior year of high school, you are the coolest person ever. your friends are the coolest people ever and you're only three months away from feeling like pretty hot shit for the year. so what do you do? you make a shit ton of really bad and super crappy music videos. why? because you can and because that weird, little red tutu you found in the basement makes your hips looks super small. and you gotta get that on tape as proof. so you and your girlfriends find some smelly fur coats in the basement (and don't ask why your mom owns three) and you listen to this song over and over and over and over. then you make your parents, they are such dear sports, sit outside with the video camera. hit record and keep quite but demand they tell you how wonderful you are/did afterwards. then you grab the camera and run inside (finding the yellow, white and red cables in the process) and listen to the song again and again and again while watching the tape. all the while thinking how fucking good your hips looked in that little red tutu.

soundtrack: break down here

Julie Roberts - Break Down Here

so you're a sophomore in college and your pa loans you his super cool / super cute little toyota tacoma to have for fall semester. you don't need it. you have the greatest 1996 toyota camry in the world. but you take the tacoma because it's cute and it's a manual and it's a truck and why the hell not? then your dad calls and says he wants to go deer hunting and the little tacoma needs to go back home. you're in minnesota. home is in wyoming. so you hop in the truck with your best road tripper pal ever and meet your mom in exotic pierre, south dakota. and you're all prepared to hole-up for the weekend in some lame-o town but ... to your surprise ... the tacoma wins. it leads the way to one of the greatest weekend road trips ever. and you can't explain why. pierre was lame ... but still ... you had the best. time. ever. maybe it was the fact your road tripper pal was awesome. or the fact your ma brought little poopa along for a surprise. or that you took one million and seven photos. or that you listened to this song ... at mile marker 215.

soundtrack: the boxer

Simon and Garfunkel - The Boxer

One of many highlights from my ridiculous four months in Europe – A half hour train ride outside of Berlin is the town of Werder(Havel). Each Spring, the town hosts Baumblutenfest, a festival to celebrate the cherry blossom and the arrival of Spring. It. Was. Crazy. You roll outta the train with hordes of people and commence drinking, eating and general merry-making. Folks were selling plastic cups of homemade wine out of their garage for one euro. Bands were playing every other street corner. I bought a doughnut the size of my face. Towards mid-afternoon, we stopped at a stage to take a breather and finish our latest cup ‘o wine. The picnic tables were packed shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow drinkers and when this song came on … up went the cups and everyone began to sway. It was that moment where you think, this is so cool – it should be in a movie … and then you realize it’s your LIFE and it’s happening AT THAT MOMENT. Pretty fricken sweet.

Lunch ... 

Baumblutenfest

Nummm ...