Soundtrack for the week of October 21-October 27

These be my jams this week.

First: Asaf Avidan - One day / Reckoning Song (Wankelmut Remix)

Holy Moses, this is a brilliant remix of a song whose original was, truth be told, a tiny bit whiny. This treatment feels like a simple marking of the passage of time. It's a bit frantic, a bit sad, and incredibly hopeful. "I don't think about you all the time, but when I do I wonder why. One day, baby, we'll be old; think of all the stories that we could have told."

Second: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes - Man on Fire

I feel like Edward Sharpe and his Attractive Null Sets actually just sings the songs in my heart. Maybe it's because I heard somewhere that his first album is based on a southwestern roadtrip the lead singer took when he was a child, maybe it's because the music feels like music I loved as a kid: the soul sounds of the hippies and Motown combined with upbeat parables. Maybe it's because he describes himself as a man on fire and then invites the world to dance with him. It's probably all of the above. Whatever it is, I do love it.

Third: Michael Jackson - Thriller

Thanks to the Jam Cellar, I'm learning to dance this. It has honestly taken 6 cumulative hours of instruction to learn the dance between 8:02 and 10:35. For those of you playing at home, that's two minutes and thirty-three seconds of dancing. Unlike Michael, we are not naturals.

Fourth: Logan Afyouni and Drunk Guy (Clark Chamberlin) - Caroline

I love this story. A gal with a guitar walks by, a super drunk guy begs her to stay and teach him a song. Their voices just... belong together. I love her face when she realizes what's happening and how special it is. And now they have plans to make music together. I love people.

Fifth: Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Shake That Thing

Last song of the night for me at the Jam Cellar this week. Whenever this song comes on, I try to strategically get one of the leads that will allow me to actually shake that thing. I try to dance with all levels of dancers and, as a follow, that means that I sometimes have to just chill out and do some triple-triple-rock step without too much distraction for the leads. Dancing is a ton of fun no matter what, but there are some folks with whom it's just... more fun. This week I grabbed Omar and we shook our things like nobody's business. It was awesome.

I really, really, really want to be on a road trip right now.

Really.

I want to be in a car, a little cabin of me, with some country laid out before me like endless possibility. I want to watch the clouds scoot across the sky. I want to see the weird landmarks that nobody else sees and I want to keep driving until somebody needs a bathroom break. And I want to insist that we keep driving for at least another 50 miles because dammit we're not stopping until we have to.

I want to be listening to music on the radio while we drive in and out of range. I want to hit the scan button and have it come up as country or rap or Lady Gaga or freaking Christian music. And then I want to force everyone in the car to listen to at least one song.

On a side note: here's a fun game when you're listening to Christian music. Choose out the songs that could be about both a) God's infinite love for us and b) awesome gay sex. The current winner: Whatever You're Doing by Sanctus Real.

I get this urge to go on a long car trip whenever I feel bored or trapped or it's summer time and the air smells just right.

I don't need to go anywhere, and I don't need to get out of here so much as I just want to have already gone but not yet have arrived. I want to be on my way. I want to eat a milkshake at some crappy truck stop somewhere and I want to chase a storm and drive through it. I want to go over a pass and see that it's still snowy, I want to have miles and miles and miles of horizon laid out in front of me and have nothing to do but chase it.

I think they call it wanderlust. I think I have it.

I do not have a car. I don't own one partially because I live in a city with pretty awesome public transportation (the Metro: killing on average less than one person a month since last month!) and partially because I'm too much of a hippie environmentalist and partially because I'm afraid I would always be leaving.

Bring it.