Wednesday, March 1, 2006
9:57 AM
When "Chris" goes on to his great reward, the soundtrack for his sendoff will be ready.
"I thought it would be great fun to create a list of music for my funeral," he writes in the notes for his iMix playlist on Apple's iTunes music download service. "Try it! It's great fun."
"Chris," who offers no further identification, has chosen an eclectic mix. The memorial observances would get underway with Bobby Vinton's "Blue on Blue," but soon take a more raucous and somewhat sinister turn with Helmet's "The Silver Hawaiian" and "Rock Music" by the Pixies. The mood might then chill a bit with music from "Buena Vista Social Club," Nick Drake and "Twin Peaks" theme composer Angelo Badalamenti , then heat up again with Skinny Puppy, the Stone Roses and more Pixies. "Brewster Road," a track form the Chicago post-rock instrumentalists Pullman, would bring Chris's memorial service to a sonic but appropriately subdued close.
Other iMixes are less morbid. But many are personal statements in other ways -- sometimes cathartic, sometimes mysterious and sometimes moving ones about the milestones and the mundane in ordinary, if mostly anonymous, lives. And the iMix notes can be like found poetry. Here is a sampling (the links work only if you have iTunes installed):
"Summer. It's 3 am on highway 94. The windows are open and you're headed west. She's gone. "
"$180 never cost me so much."
"Stuff I listen to while cleaning the house and applying for jobs."
Drifting out to sea on an inner tube (never to return)?
"Also great if you are driving to go visit your parents for the weekend."
"Half a life in Argentina. The other in the US. Outcome: a seriously messed-up soul."
"I loved Nancy so much that I would walk her home from work almost everyday, from across the street. Sometimes we would sit at the same café and have coffee. I call it coffee, but I noticed that she always liked to drink mochas with lots of whipped cream."
"Songs I thought of related to a person who I wold like to be with."
" this is a list I made because I wantd to give it to my ex boyfriend who im still really close with something to listen to b4 he went to iraq."
"Songs which remind me of leaving the gate. Getting into the fight and coming back again. Over there it usually isn't a pretty picture. The whole place seems dirty, worn out, wrecked. No such thing as black and white/yes or no answer. Regardless of how you feel about our guys/gals are in it. For the soldiers still rolling out the gate... "
being with charlie in Charles' apartment
"where I existed in the oddest and totally sublime romantic situations of my life. It was jekyll and hyde. Hence 'charlie' and charles... "
"My mother, Patricia Guarnieri, died on August 27, 2004. She had battled liver disease for over a year and was awaiting a transplant... Music has a power that transcends words, because a song can capture so many memories. I love you, Mom. I'm glad you are no longer suffering. If you read this please consider becoming an organ donor. Thanks."
"and the lord said 'hear my mind" and the good people answered: "we hear you lord, please be our shepard/and the alien baby said 'mine' and the good people answered: 'maybe it's yours but it's ours too'/and in the end it was good"
-- Howard Parnell
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