I Was Promised Cake: The Playlist for 2015
*****
Let’s be honest. Scott Bradlee could have scored the entire soundtrack for the past year and I not only would have accepted it, but it would have worked. ‘Consistency’ was a huge word around RivalCast in 2015, so a PostModern Jukebox recap of the year would have given a perfect blend of diversity wrapped up in a smoothly consistent sound. But it also would have meant missing out on what is, by far, the single most perfect theme to encapsulate a year in review in the seventeen years I’ve been writing these lists. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The Playlists evolved from a simple question years ago – if your life for the past year were to be made into a movie, what would be on the soundtrack, and why? They didn’t have to be songs that came out that year, just songs that told the story of how your year went. I mentioned in my mid-year post that 2015 was destined to be a banner year – the kind of story that was packed with so much that a narrative would be epic and the movie version a two-parter. As I worked through this year’s list, it became clear that I could partition the narrative into three acts: the baby steps to get something started, the part where everything came crashing down, and the resurgence after remembering that I’m teamed up with the most talented creative team that no one’s heard of yet…but will very soon.
ACT 1: Baby Steps
My journey started with a conversation between myself and someone I secretly suspect might be an actual oracle, which is entertaining considering the same person is very vocal about his atheism. He set me on a path with Rivalcast that I was hesitant to go down, and he, more than anyone else, is also responsible for me not quitting early on (and believe me, there were a few moments early in the year where I came very close). He told me exactly what I needed to do to get results, what to watch out for, who would help me with different things, and how to handle each of them, and I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right on every single point. Meanwhile, a similar thing was happening at my day job. We knew the campus was approaching a transition – it was only a matter of when. I was taking on new responsibilities and had a nearly identical set-up conversation with my boss as I did with my RCM oracle.
Then they let go to see what I could do.
1. Video Killed the Radio Star [Presidents of the United States of America] – Yes, this was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. RCM had made the decision to move to video broadcasts starting in January 2015. It opened up a wealth of possibilities, but it was also a slightly terrifying proposition: it was one thing to lend one’s voice to skits and characters via what was essentially a radio show on the internet, but quite another when the audience could now see you.
2. Blank Space [Postmodern Jukebox feat. Ariana Savalas] – the inspirational backdrop for On Tap! It’s no secret I hate Taylor Swift’s music, but her writing is amazing. Scott Bradlee’s arrangement, paired with the incomparable Ariana Savalas’s voice in a ’30s lounge vibe, made this line potent as a backdrop for a podcast of international community members and guests:
So hey, let’s be friends
I’m dying to see how this one ends
Grab your passport and my hand
I can make the bad guys good for a weekend
(all the better, as On Tap’s Friday night prime spot opens RCM’s busy weekend programming each week)
3. One of Those Days [Joy Williams] – It never slows down. Ever. But it’s worth it.
4. You and I [Ingrid Michaelson] – Anyone who’s encountered RCM for any length of time knows that we’re a community of dreamers. The trick is bridging over from a pretty picture in your head to something tangible – something that’s a lot easier when you go together.
5. Mercy Me [Alkaline Trio] – God bless catastrophe. It shows us how strong we really are.
6. Pass Slowly [Seether] – Sometimes the hardest part of building (or rebuilding) something is clearing out all the old broken things that were there before. Understanding that something isn’t right and having the courage to do something about it sometimes means hurting like hell in the process. Don’t fade away.
7.Secrets [Simply Three instrumental cover] – I went with the instrumental version of this song because it was the music I listened to more than anything this year, but it’s worth looking up OneRepublic’s lyricsthat go along with it. It’s essentially my writing in a nutshell.
8. Song 2 [Blur] – This isn’t anything deep or profound. It’s just one of the main songs that comes up on my playlist when I’m walking, and the neighbors giggle at my spontaneous dancing to it.
9. Some Nights [F.U.N.] (note – this is their official music video in its entirety. Skip about a minute in to get to the actual song) – A battle cry!
10. Short Skirt/Long Jacket [Cake] – Time to go kick some ass. Huzzah!
Act 2 – Welcome to the Deep End
The second part of the year opened with a triumph: Orbfest became a real thing. With real people from all over the real planet converging for one night in a convention-esque atmosphere. It has a lot to be improved upon, but it was a start, and it’s hard to find the words to express how excited I was that so many friends came out. It showed that our community is viable enough to pull events like this off, and gave the confidence boost needed to try bigger things.
This high was immediately followed by a karmic bitch slap: literally the day I came back from Orbfest, our campus downsized to a skeleton staff, and a few weeks later the transition we’d been expecting was finally announced. I’ve never been worried about being unemployed – I have people coming to me with unsolicited offers fairly regularly – but it’s never easy watching people be let go, especially when many of them are friends.
In a strange way, though, from a personal work perspective, the situation was strangely liberating. We knew where we stood, we knew how much time we had left, and now we knew what we had to do in that remaining time to set up for whatever our next chapter is going to be.
1. Take Five [The Dave Brubeck Quartet] – I hummed this through the entire month of May, much to James’s amusement.
2. Such Great Heights [Postmodern Jukebox] – You couldn’t knock me off that cloud Orbfest week.
3. Portal – Still Alive [Vitamin String Quartet, instrumental cover] – I listened to the instrumental of this all year. It wasn’t until later that I realized…well, you’ll see at the end.
4. Now It’s Over [Black Widow] – This was another fan fic song that happened to work with real life situations.
5. See You Again [Brooklyn Duo instrumental cover] – So when I write, I usually have Pandora up for background music – instrumentals, mostly, so that I’m not distracted. This one started coming up quite a bit, and it took a while before I realized where I’d heard it before.
6. Starlight [Slash] – Someone gave me a suggestion for something better to have in my head than doubts. It was good advice.
7. Steady, As She Goes [The Raconteurs] – Deep breaths…
8. Soul [Matchbox Twenty] – Deeeeeeeep breaths….you’ve got this.
9. Shake It Off [Postmodern Jukebox feat. Von Smith] – Ok. Time to move on now.
10. Working For The Weekend [Loverboy] – So a lot more people are watching now. I made a promise at the beginning of the year, and now was time to rise to the occasion.
Act 3: Home Stretch
We knew from the beginning that 2015 would be a lot of work. I opened the year shortly after midnight on New Year’s morning with a toast to late nights, early mornings, and everything that came in between; we certainly lived up to that. It wasn’t easy, but it reminded me of the story of the phoenix, a mystical bird that at the end of one life cycle bursts into a spectacular flame, burning up before rising again from the ashes. Fitting, all things considered.
But there was something else I was reminded of as the year wrapped up, something that will make Varyar very happy:
Portal.
Think about it.
The end credits to an amazing video game. A huge success, except for the ones who didn’t make it. Puzzles. Experiments. Data points. Potatoes. The cake which is a lie (and Britain will KNOW THAT!). Seriously, change the line “Maybe Black Mesa” to “Maybe ask Wolfie” and it’s like Coulton wrote the song eight* years in advance just for us, just for this moment. In all the years I’ve been making these lists, never have I found a main theme for the year that hit all the main points and so many in-jokes as perfectly as this one did. I just… ah. As Killer would say, “Mmmm…so gooood!”
Anyway, the rest of the list:
1. One More Time With Feeling [Regina Spektor] – Almost there. Almost there…
2. Crabbukkit [Good Lovelies] – Have you ever seen a bucket of live crabs pulled up on a wharf? The crabs will climb over one another in an attempt to get themselves out of the bucket, but rarely do any of them make it because the other crabs underneath keep pulling them back down. The crabs don’t understand that working together , most of the crabs could in fact make it out of the bucket; sadly, a lot of people don’t realize that, either.
3. Raise Hell [Dorothy] – Yes, this started as a result of those godforsaken Pandora commercials. It’s a good song, though.
4. Song for Sienna [Brian Crain] – Thinking back to Act 2, I found something softer to invade my brain when I went to sleep. It helped.
5. American Girl [Tom Petty] – This one should be pretty self explanatory.
6. Autumn Walk [Brad Jacobsen]
7. Endless Conversation [The Alternative Routes] – If you’ve ever been stalked by a song…
8. Don’t Stop Believin’ [Journey] – I don’t care what Matt says, this should be our national anthem. It makes a lot more sense than a poem from a war that we lost. (Waiting for the phone call in five…four…three…two…)
9. Still Alive [Jonathan Coulton and GLaDOS] – ISN’T IT PERFECT?
*****
*EIGHT! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!
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