Weekend reads v. 3.5.2025
Music is magic.
In lieu of things to read this week, I’m sharing a few songs to listen to.
On Wednesday, I was driving to work and caught my bad mood in the act. Right there, in plain sight under a cloudless sky, my bad mood threatened to take my entire day hostage to grumpiness, rolling eyes, and despair. I told my bad mood, “That’s a hard no,” and I was able to change the channel in my mind from Gloomy to Encouraged simply by playing a song. Music magically did the trick of pushing that bad mood aside.
It's no wonder that bad mood showed up. This was one of those weeks that felt like two weeks balled up into one. Was it Tuesday when we held a retirement party on the roof and all got sunburned? Which day was the very difficult meeting? And when was it I wished I could take back something I said or did? Oh, that was every day! Right, right.
This morning, I woke up with a song clearly playing in my head. Maybe the tiny DJ who takes up space in my brain was reflecting on that aforementioned retirement party, or maybe it’s the aforementioned sunburn, but the song perfectly captured my current headspace. Isn’t it amazing how music can do that?
For me, music has the power to inspire, heal, remind, motivate, and calm.
I thought maybe you’d like to add a few songs to your back pocket in the event you find yourself needing to change the proverbial channel in your brain from Gloomy to Encouraged. Or maybe you want to usher in warmer, lazier days even though tomorrow’s forecast calls for rain? Or maybe you want to upgrade a simple gathering with friends by playing the perfect soundtrack. Whatever the reason, here are some tunes for you.
A song for when you feel like being a little bit chill and reflective. (And a bonus track for when you need to be upbeat)
Chances are, there’s a Paul Simon song for whatever you’re going thru. And chances are there’s a Paul Simon song upbeat enough to put a bit of giddy up in your step (Looking at you, Kodachrome!). I quite literally woke up today with this song in my head.
A song for an immediate boost. Really! Roll down the windows, put this on, and see if you aren’t immediately at the top of your game.
My friend Kathy and I have a running playlist of songs we’d never skip. I think this playlist started over the course of our first sewing weekend (what, you don’t plan vacations around sewing with one of your best pals?!). It’s remarkable how many songs from the late 70’s ended up on this playlist, including this one. If I’m feeling blah, Don’t Bring Me Down by ELO is the antidote.
A song that will set the perfect vibe for a dinner with friends you haven’t seen in ages.
I vividly recall the first time I heard Lambchop’s In Care of 8675309. I was at a friend’s apartment in Brooklyn listening to records. Of course we were. It was Brooklyn! We’d just walked back from dinner at a nearby French restaurant that was so perfect it seemed we’d soon earn our SAG-AFTRA cards for roles as extras in some Nora Ephron movie. This song never fails me when I’m entertaining. It minds its place as a background soundtrack – there is no jarring trumpet solo or abrupt change in tempo to distract. It’s eleven minutes and fifty-one seconds of perfection.
A song for when you need to be reminded it’ll all be alright in the end.
If you talk to me long enough, you’ll be forced to hear details of my desire to create my own business where I rent out self-catering cottages. The business isn’t entirely focused on tourism lodging, though. It’s centered around giving someone an experience. This song perfectly paints the experience I’d like to give people, and that is one where the clock stretches, and time slows down just enough to give people space for gratitude. A fire pit is glowing outside, drinks are iced cold, and we’re all submerged in nature. The wind blowing through the trees reminds us of the fact that people have done this before and will do this again, and everything will be alright.
A song that will take you to Spain.
Here’s another song that transports me away from the monotony of a Saturday jumping from big box store to big box store while running mindless errands. Cerca De Ti is a song that says, “I’ll have another Estrella Damm, please.” Because you are officially on vacation in the mountains north of Barcelona soaking up the Spanish sun before heading out to get tapas at that corner restaurant for the third night in a row. You can’t go wrong with anything by Hermanos Gutiérrez, but this particular one is just class for transporting you on an immediate vacation.
Are there any magical songs in your repertoire? What songs bring you out of funks and into bliss?