It has been ages since I’ve put up a Friday Random Ten. Here’s this week’s selection:
1. "Somewhere over the Rainbow", Israel Kamakawio’ole
2. "Massachusetts", Bee Gees
3. "Fix You", Coldplay
4. "One in a Million", Guns n’ Roses
5. "The End of the Party", English Beat
6. "China", Tori Amos
7. "To Turn You On", Roxy Music
8. "The Promised Land", Bruce Springsteen
9. "I Wanna Get Next to You", Rose Royce
10. "Don’t Bother", Shakira (Okay, it didn’t really come up randomly, but it’s my favorite new song)
Sorry, I’m stuck on the funny notion that one could ever be without “randomness.”
But, as declared randomness goes: nice list. And funny to me, because I am known for using random occurrences of music as a substitute for horoscopes and/or therapy, on the theory that God speaks through many interfaces, so why not the “shuffle” function of Real Player? (If I am making no sense whatsoever, this is explained here.)
Good reading you, as always. And, chin up re: the “last names” post and the reaction it inspired. I could relate to aspects both of what you wrote, and of the criticism it spawned. My point here is that takes courage to “live out loud”: to write openly even if you suspect your audience isn’t going to like it. I remember when I was in Minnesota and the queer community was (rightly) in uproar over Paul Wellstone (RIP) saying that no, in fact, he didn’t support gay marriage as such. He had been our ally, and a rock-solid liberal, so it took everyone by surprise. For my part, I came away from that with even more respect for him, not because I agreed with him on that point (to say the last), but because, in speaking truthfully about what he believed, he proved that he wasn’t about just adopting a package of viewpoints and promoting them as such; he thought for himself; he was a fallible human being, as we all are.
So while you may still be bristling from the experience of being publicly scolded on your own blog, hopefully it’s been a learning/ humanity-underscoring experience.
Thanks, Victoria — I use the party shuffle feature on my Itunes to achieve the same result.