Do You Realize?

Fun with iTunes Playlist



A fellow blogger at The Scandalest Bag has alerted me to a fun activity using iTunes' Smart Playlist. Here's watcha do:

First open a new Smart Playlist then enter Name>Contains>?
By ticking "Limit to", and entering "5 items", you'll get 5 self-generated questions to answer.

1. Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl? - The Barbarians

Well, in the sixties they said I was either a girl or I came from Liverpool. The great rock 'n' roll poofs - Little Richard, David Bowie, Lou Reed, New York Dolls, Suede - understood the ambivalence of sexuality and reassured many a teen they were neither freaks of nature nor alone in their confusion. I’m not about to answer this question either way, but it all became clear to me one hot summer night on a patch of grass between the canal and the football ground.

2. What Good Am I? - Bob Dylan

As John Lennon expressed it, sometimes I think I’m god’s gift and sometimes I think I’m a Loser. A friend once memorably assured me that "Everyone's faking it," even those who seem supremely self-confident. Perhaps he's right. Since I just cooked some delicious whole grain bread, right now I’m feeling rather pleased with myself.

3. Ever Fallen in Love with Someone (You Shouldn’t Have Fallen in Love With)? - Buzzcocks

I was fifteen and mad for her. Every fibre of my being cried out for her touch. One day in the playground she drifted into my orbit and for ten glorious minutes she was in my arms. She kissed like an angel and it was the most perfect moment of my life. Then we let go and, oh, it hurt so good.

Since then I don't think a month has passed without my thinking of her. Sometimes I feel I've spent the whole of my life trying to reclaim the befuddled rapture of that instant.

4. Do You Realize? - Flaming Lips

Yes I do realize, Wayne, though it’s nice to be reminded, that we are floating in space, life is a train that goes too fast and, in the words of the inimitable Steve Marriot, "it’s all too beautiful."

5. Why Don't You Kill Yourself? - The Only Ones

Whoever sang "suicide is painless" got it dead wrong. Too much collateral damage.

Maybe the more pain we feel, the more gods we need. For a while there I turned to Zen meditation. Sitting zazen produces excruciating cramps in the knees. I asked my teacher "When will the pain go away?" He laughed and said, "It won't, but your relationship to the pain will change." Life is suffering, little bar hopper.

When that realization hit home, the glass suddenly seemed half-full rather than half-empty, and the following week I experienced an epiphany on the freeway. So when the going gets tough, I try not to forget the 'islands of ecstasy': they really do make everything worthwhile.