Lips, Unzipped: The Soundtrack to My Life.

I asked a friend what I should blog about and he suggested the soundtrack of my life, so here is an attempt. Perhaps it will enlighten you all on why I am the way I am.

While in my mom's womb I listened to quite a bit of Bob Seger:

And then throughout my childhood, he never really went away.

In elementary school I went through a "country phase" that lasted just one year BUT it was quite the impactful year.

My cousin was obsessed with Mariah Carey. Which meant I was too.

My cousin even wrote her a letter and got back a "signed" 8x10. I was jealous. But not jealous enough to write my own letter.

I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house. I made up dances to Salt N Pepa; one of their favorite albums (no, they're not black).

I remember the moment at my bff's house when we switched over from the "pop" radio station to the alternative one. I didn't get why it was no longer cool to listen to Back Street Boys and it was suddenly cool to listen to this guy whining about being a loser. I didn't like it at first; I think this was a huge turning point for me. I had to adjust my taste to fit in. I think deep down I'll always secretly be a pop princess (which, probably makes me a loser, baby).

(I saw Beck live in Chicago many many years later. He was wearing a lot of really pale foundation and a big floppy hat. This couple right next to us kept making out during his show. I thought it was a travesty they were so "in love" that they were missing one of the greatest musicians of our generation, but whatever).

And then, I went through a heavy metal phase in high school, duh.

It was a pretty intense phase as things in high school tend to be.

Because I was obviously so freakish.

The only all-girl heavy metal band... they got seriously overplayed in my car stereo. (Actually they still get overplayed when I'm aaanngggrrryyyy...which is often enough.)

Yeah. Why did I listen to this again?

I have this list in my journal from high school about what I was looking for in a boyfriend... one criteria was that he had to know all the words to the entire Slipknot/Slipknot album... yeah, he would have been a keeper...if only I had found him. (Maybe I'll post the list tomorrow????)

(My roommate Emily had to leave the room while I was putting the high school section together...that's how amazing this time of my life was... haha)

Missy Elliott made a big impact in high school too. I dedicated this song to one of my many suiters after a strange encounter at a party. (And when I say many, I mean the one guy who kind of liked me off and on from like 8th grade to senior year--and also liked my best friend, and her friend and her friend--yeah, that guy.)

Mostly though, my best friend and I would just play Missy out of her car stereo and dance around outside (or inside depending on if we were "Cruising"). (Also developed amazing car dancing skills by driving around listening to her over and over again).

I had a high school boyfriend. Let me tell you all what happened with that. I was a senior. He was a freshman. I was a leopard, he was a kitten. I went off to college. I went off to college.

Yeah so that didn't work out. He later became a preacher. This still freaks me out to this day.

Here's a song that sort of explains that relationship. . .

Then there was undergrad.

The Blue Album happened a lot. As well as Sublime.

I had another boyfriend during this time. We did theater together. He was an asshole. Like, I've never dated or even hung out with a bigger asshole then this guy. I also drank ALOT during this time. Probably because my boyfriend was making fun of my Korn collection (while he was jamming out to My Chemical Romance...not kidding).

Then I moved out of the dorms into a real-life apartment, in a basement that had two showers and two stalls in the bathroom. Asshole boyfriend and I broke up. Then I started dating artsy-fartsy-musician neighbor boy. That worked out pretty well. I mean. It worked out for like 5.5 years. But during that still undergrad post-dorm time I was dancing A LOT... often to one of my favorite bands of all time, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Fuck I'm old. This is still going. . .

Grad School.

Riot grrrl and womyn love.

Patti Smith is my favorite artist of all time.

Riot grrrl paved the way for my creative thesis project (Pervertable Tongues...so there's that).

Then I moved to Boulder. It was a rocky year. I mean, both literally from like hiking and stuff and then figuratively dealing with transitions and being out of school and not really having a job and the dissolving of what I thought was going to be a life-time sort of relationship.