in my head(phones)

My favorite thing to read these days is Jeremy's blog. Bless him.

From his latest entry:
... Headphone music doesn't have to be relaxing. When I'm at home in the evenings with a half a bottle of red wine, I listen to relaxing music, stuff like Antony or Leonard Cohen or Caetano Veloso. On my headphones, though, I like to offer myself a bit of a jolt. It makes a commute on the Underground a little spikier, it wakes me up a bit, puts a spring in my step like caffeine. I listen to songs that are cheesy. Stuff I would never admit to being a favourite, would never listen to while lounging. Stuff like "Heartbeats" by The Knife or "Paris" by Friendly Fires or "Young Love" by Mystery Jets.

It helps if the songs are current, or relatively recent. It helps if the young singer is still young: That notion gives the music a sense of immediacy. It feels like stuff borne out of the exact conditions I find myself in: Walking briskly between train lines underground, navigating a crowded street in town, gasping for air as I emerge out of a station. Generally, I guess, I don't really want to be "transported" when I am being transported through the city. I want to feel like I am present and a part of the crowd, as Baudelaire wrote, "as though it were an immense reservoir of electrical energy."

(My lucky cat and your lucky cat will soon be neighbors j'espère!)


And I write this whilst in my own head(phones)... as I make your midsummer's mix.
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