In the mood for a meme

Even though I find the distinct inclination to scroll through Anton's and Jeff's lists and only look at the songs that I know, I will participate, if only because the thoroughly random nature of this exercise tickles me. Here's hoping it doesn't suck. Also, I'm not going to disinclude videogame music unless it's exceptionally obscure or short.

The Soundtrack to My Life, As Determined By the Devilish and Mechanical Will of iTunes's Shuffle Function:

Opening Credits: "I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow" by the Soggy Bottom Boys
While the lyrics don't exactly match my relatively blessed existence, the allusion to shifting adventurism and eloquent huckster aesthetic that is O Brother Where Art Thou? is a perfect match for my life. There is also something about old timey music, bluegrass and its relatives in particular, that sets the tone for my life story perfectly.

Growing Up Montage: "A Song From Her Memory," by Nobuo Uematsu (from Final Fantasy IX)
Perfect music for a growing up montage, though perhaps a little lullaby-ish for my own childhood. Actually, you know what, I had nothing if not a wholesome and milk-fed existence until I was like thirteen, so this is exceptionally appropriate.

High School: "Y.M.C.A." by The Village People
You know what, it works. I would have never picked it voluntarily, but now that I'm listening to it it seems perfectly, absolutely appropriate. Actually, the whole "get up and move your butt" aspect doesn't fit so well, as we sat around and played a lot of videogames and drank Dr. Pepper. Nevertheless, at its best, high school was definitely something akin to dancing ridiculously in a group with friends and foes alike, mimicking letters with one's hands.

College: "Nice Weather for Ducks" by Lemon Jelly
Actually, this is the most appropriate song that I could possibly think of. All the ducks were, in fact, swimming in the water for the vast majority of my college experience. Random dance parties happened. Alfred Lord Tennyson was there. There were lots of colors. It made me feel happy. Sometimes there was jazzy brass.

Waking Up and Morning Routine: "Burnout" by Green Day
I'm not a morning person, and I don't like going to work. I think the lyrics ("I'm not growing up, I'm just burning out") are a little too angsty for me, but Green Day's Dookie-era rockin' riffs and whiny vocals are appropriate for how I feel in the morning, at least in tone. Nice drums, too.

Driving: "Linus and Lucy" by Vince Guaraldi
Classic music, but I have trouble dissociating it from its source material. And, honestly, this is not me-driving music in the least. I don't drive this mellow. I'm intense when I drive. Maybe if I was driving to a fruit market or something.

At Work: "Reminiscence," the opening piano theme from Suikoden II
This is one instrumental piece I'm keeping, if only because it embodies the small piece of me that feels as though where I am working right now is both noble and a way to give back to the community that shaped me when I grew up--even if it's become a very different community than it was back then. Listening to this, thinking about what it is I'm doing and the kids I'm working with, it really makes me feel like I could make a difference... Like I could change something. For the better.

Falling in Love: "Main Title (season two)" from Battlestar Galactica, by Bear McCreary
Um, I don't think this is appropriate... but in some respect it does allow me to believe that I will be falling in love in a horrible post-apocalyptic hell. Which, you know, is pretty sweet.

Breaking Up: "Winter" by Joshua Radin
Appropriate in that it is so god damned sad. ("Your voice is the splinter inside me, while I wait... I remember the sound of your November downtown, and I remember the truth-- a warm December with you. But I don't have to make this mistake, and I don't have to stay this way, if only I could wake.") I hope I never think to listen to this song if I break up with someone. I think I might just kill myself.

Getting Back Together: "To Zanarkand" by Nobuo Uematsu, from Final Fantasy X
If this is getting back together music, I'm Santa Claus. If this is about getting back together, it's about getting back together with the knowledge that something priceless and beautiful and pure will be irrevocably lost forever, and that the only joy to be found in this world is in the telling of the story before the thing was lost, in the hope that in its eternal retelling we can clutch the shadow of it and hold it to our hearts, impure and cold but still not quite gone.

Dinner with Family: "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65
As phenomenally cool as my family is, dinner with them has never been like a rave party, and if it were I would be quite sure that something had gone horribly wrong. Nevertheless, the image is worth considering, especially if you have any familiarity with my parents. Let's all meditate on that for a moment, shall we? Good.

Wedding: "Larger than Life" by The Backstreet Boys
What happened to that appropriate streak we had at the beginning? Certainly this song is catchy, and has some damn fine beats to dance to, but walking down the aisle to it certainly would earn nothing but jeers. Still... cut properly, and edited with some flair... Hmmm...

Life's Good: "The Place I'll Return to Someday ~ Melodies of Life" by Nobuo Uematsu
That's right, three pieces by Nobuo. Shows you what my iTunes is like. Nevertheless, though the first part of the piece is somewhat ominous and the second piece would work better as credits music (which it is), the mood is appropriate. Oh, and listening to it now, it's the Japanese version. Hm. I wonder if that disqualifies it. Well, I've already typed this, so I'm saying no.

Mental Breakdown: "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" by Stone Temple Pilots
Well, it is darned appropes. I don't think that if I were to have a mental breakdown, it would be a Stone Temple Pilots kind of breakdown, but it would be a great song to tear a bar apart to.

Flashback: "Smile Like You Mean It" by The Killers
This would have to be a flashback to something other than the childhood described by the song earlier in this playlist, because The Killers are kind of angsty and sardonic. Could it be a flashback to the middle part of my life as seen from the end? Perhaps! We live in a world of possibilities.

Birth of a Child: "Lucy Meets Mr. Tumnus" by Harry Gregson-Williams, from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
This is a wonderful, gentle piece, which I think is perfect for the occasion presented here. Harry Gregson-Williams could do the score to my life any day, I should think, as long as he made it more like Narnia than Shrek.

Final Battle: "Pulling Teeth" by Green Day
My shuffle isn't shuffling as shuffly-like as I would like. I'd forgotten how catchy this song is, though, even if it is about a weird kind of reverse domestic abuse. It's not quite solemn enough to be ironic, though the submissive nature of the lyrics would be ironic if I were winning.

Death Scene: "Theme from Grand Theft Auto"
This... Would be awesome if I were an ultra-thug living life on the mean streets. Unfortunately the rest of this playlist doesn't really seem to suggest this tone for my life. Or death. Hm. What kind of normal life, full of happiness and contentment ends in an anthem to ultra-violence and punk attitude? Either something tragic befalls me in my final hours or I'm actually Viggo Mortensen in A History of Violence.

Funeral Song: "I Don't Think Now is the Best Time" by Hans Zimmer, from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
This is an eleven-minute long piece which underscores a huge climactic action sequence, so I guess I am going to have one hell of an epic funeral.

End Credits: "Grease" by Frankie Valli, from Grease
I... I don't even know. What the hell?