From the song a day meme: your favorite song at this time last year.

We made it! What a rollercoaster of emotion this meme turned out to be! I laughed. I cried. It wasn’t better than “Cats”, so there’s that. I like memes because they are quick prompts to be creative in the midst of homework slogging, but I am excited to be creative in a not-this way once more.

Anyway, this meme is over and that is a good thing. My last choice is easy-peasy, because the only song I “loved” on Last.fm in April 2010 was this one.

www.youtube.com/watch

April Smith and the Great Picture Show -- "Movie Loves a Screen"

From the song a day meme: a song from your childhood.

My childhood was filled with music. I remember listening to musicals like “Annie” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Pete’s Dragon” and “Oliver” and so many more. I also remember listening to lots of classical music. But when I was very young, my favorite album to listen to was “The Point!" I can still recite most of it by heart. This was my favorite part. I still listen to this album when I am feeling small.

www.youtube.com/watch

Harry Nilsson -- "Me and My Arrow"

From the song a day meme: a song that makes you feel guilty.

This one was easy, I am sad to say. Grampa, I miss you so much. I did not appreciate you half as much as I should have when you were alive, and I look for you in every new person I meet.

www.youtube.com/watch

Heather Waters -- "Wait for Me"

From the song a day meme: a song that you wish you could play.

I have this funny idea that someday I will return to voice lessons and also learn the guitar. At that future point, I would like to play this song.

www.youtube.com/watch

I first heard Emily Picha’s song “So Long” but I do not remember where or when, exactly. These lyrics got me:

and so long, dear this is a new moon, this is a glory day this is a 747 strutting down the catwalk to sail away

Emily Picha -- "Divisadero"

From the song a day meme: a song that you can play on an instrument.

I used to practice this so often on the piano that decades later I can still plunk it out.

www.youtube.com/watch

Mike Reno & Ann Wilson -- "Almost Paradise"

From the song a day meme: a song that makes you laugh.

JoCo wins this round.

www.youtube.com/watch

Jonathan Coulton -- "Code Monkey"

From the song a day meme: a song that you want to play at your funeral.

For a long time, I wanted “Dead” by They Might Be Giants to play at my funeral because of the lyric:

Did a large procession wave their torches as my head fell in the basket? And was everybody dancing on the casket?

Now that I have been to funerals as an adult, I understand that my own funeral isn’t really about me at all but about the people who are sad that I’m gone. Playing a song that I find darkly amusing becomes less appealing when I am not around to be darkly amused.

I hate the idea of having a “traditional” song. I want something a little playful, a little dramatic, a little romantic, a little wistful … okay, enough dithering. I choose this one.

www.youtube.com/watch

Also: BioShock.

Bobby Darin -- "Beyond the Sea"

From the song a day meme: a song that you want to play at your wedding.

I already answered this, sort of, on day 7. But this was my processional, a piece of music that I have loved as long as I can remember.

www.youtube.com/watch

Aldo Ciccolini plays Satie: 3 Gymnopédies - 1. Lent Et Douloureux

From the song a day meme: a song that you listen to when you’re sad.

This was a tough one for me. Although there are approximately eleventy kajillion sad songs in the world, I tend not to listen to music while sad. This is one of the saddest songs I know, though.

www.youtube.com/watch

Phil Collins -- "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)"

From the song a day meme: a song that you listen to when you’re happy.

Again, there are so many different types of happiness! I am trying hard not to repeat any musicians throughout this meme, so I will choose a newer (to me) cover that multiplies my smile.

www.youtube.com/watch

Pomplamoose -- "Nature Boy"

From the song a day meme: a song that you listen to when you’re angry.

O, but I have so many different flavors of angry. Like right now! I am seething because this paper I am writing is so dumb, and I do not want it to be dumb, but I am convinced that APA style makes me write dumber than any other citation style. Why is that?

This song, however, is not for homework-seething. This song is for tenderized heart growliness. And I have definitely listened to it while very, very angry.

www.youtube.com/watch

Justin Timberlake -- "Cry Me a River"

From the song a day meme: a song from your favorite album.

“Favorite” here is such a weird word, but I guess I will go with what my favorite album is right this second.

I don’t have words for what I love about TV On The Radio, which is exactly why I love them so much. They break capitalization rules and my love for them makes me okay with that.

www.youtube.com/watch

TV On The Radio -- "Will Do"

From the song a day meme: a song that you wish you heard on the radio.

I barely remember life before this meme. There may have been actual content here once. But that’s okay! We’re nearly finished, both meme-wise and semester-wise.

As previously stated, I don’t listen to the radio, plus I am sure this song is on the radio already, but I would love to hear it at random times while I am out in the world.

www.youtube.com/watch

Stripmall Architecture -- "Lemoncholic"

From the song a day meme: a song that you hear often on the radio.

It is strange to write this, but I do not listen to the radio anymore! When I listen to something outside iTunes, it is usually Last.fm Radio, which doesn’t exactly qualify.

So I will answer this one with “a song I hear often on my mental radio”. Unfortunately for FunkyPlaid, I tend to make up lyrics to it too. Not very complicated ones, either. I do not know why this runs through my head so often. It is especially perplexing because I have never seen a full episode.

www.youtube.com/watch

Mike Post & Pete Carpenter -– Theme From "The A-Team"

From the song a day meme: a song that you used to love but now hate.

This is one of those songs, you know the kind, that you like because someone says “this song reminds me of you” and you are looking for any reason at all to be special to that someone so you hold onto the song and when you listen to it you try and see yourself as this someone sees you and when it doesn’t work, when it all doesn’t work, when it disintegrates spectacularly after many Michael Bay explosions, you wonder how you could have ever been such a fool.

To quote a completely different band, “But I was young and foolish then; I feel old and foolish now.”

www.youtube.com/watch

Train -- "Drops of Jupiter"

From the song a day meme: a song that describes you. We are halfway there! I feel more of a sense of accomplishment than I do with my homework right now.

There was a six-way tie before I gave up and just picked one.

www.youtube.com/watch

Fiona Apple -- "Extraordinary Machine"

I love all the lyrics, but especially the chorus:

If there was a better way to go then it would find me I can't help it, the road just rolls out behind me Be kind to me, or treat me mean I'll make the most of it, I'm an extraordinary machine

The five runners-up:

• Dar Williams -- "As Cool As I Am"
• Final Fantasy -- "The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead"
• Counting Crows -- "Round Here"
• Arcade Fire -- "My Body Is a Cage"
• They Might Be Giants -- "She's Actual Size"

From the song a day meme: a song that no one would expect you to love.

I don’t have much time to ponder this one, but I am pretty sure this may surprise some people. I saw him in concert many years ago now, and he was outstanding. This song haunts me.

www.youtube.com/watch

Lyle Lovett -- "Nobody Knows Me"

From the song a day meme: a song that is a guilty pleasure.

Half of my music catalog may seem like it qualifies, but doesn’t make me feel guilty at all. This song does a little.

www.youtube.com/watch

Kelly Clarkson -- "Since U Been Gone"

From the song a day meme: a song from a band you hate.

I don’t really have any words for this one.

www.youtube.com/watch

Ke$ha -- "Blah Blah Blah" (featuring 3OH!3)

From the song a day meme: a song from your favorite band.

How easy is this one? So easy.

Actually, not so easy. Last.fm has been very helpful during this meme. For example, I could have never, ever guessed my most listened-to track from my favorite band (since late 2004, anyway).

This is my current favorite song from my favorite band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t_45g8l-AU

They Might Be Giants -- "She's An Angel"

From the song a day meme: a song that makes you fall asleep.

I am clawing my way out of another illness – yay, depressed immune system – and so pretty much everything makes me fall asleep. But I chose a song from an album that I expressly use for this purpose.

I remember first hearing this shortly after I moved to Alabama. My mom was visiting for my birthday, and we were in a Discovery Channel store because at the time I collected geodes and tumbled rocks. This album was playing in the store, and it was so soothing that I commented on it, so my mom bought it for me. Every night after that, I would play it in my little dorm room to help me fall asleep in a strange place.

I chose this specific track only because this video has dinosaurs.

www.youtube.com/watch

Deep Forest -- "Anasthasia"

From the song a day meme: a song that you can dance to.

I can dance to many songs, whether or not I should, but I am taking this one to mean a song that I must dance to when I hear it. This has been the case for almost two decades now!

www.youtube.com/watch

Violent Femmes -- "Kiss Off"

From the song a day meme: a song that you know all the words to.

We all need a palate-cleanser after that last spew. I didn’t intend to learn all the words to this song, but it is ridiculously catchy.

www.youtube.com/watch

Flight of the Conchords -- "Business Time"

From the song a day meme: a song that reminds you of a certain event.

This song reminds me of saying goodbye to FunkyPlaid at an airport seven and a half years ago. It also reminds me of marrying him. We had the inimitable experience of having the band perform this song for our first dance as husband and wife.

www.youtube.com/watch

Halou -- Oceanwide

Although Halou is no more, Ryan and Rebecca have an excellent new band called Stripmall Architecture.

From the song a day meme: a song that reminds you of somewhere.

A song about December 1963 reminds me of July 1992. But that’s okay, because music bends time like that.

I had just moved back to Pennsylvania and was warmly accepted by a group of incredible people I will never forget. One of these people made me a mixtape and this song was on it. It was the first time I had ever heard it. I used to blast this while driving at night, marveling at how dark it could get so far from any city. Everything smelled like hay and nothing smelled like exhaust. But I was born here, I had lived here before, so while it was so strange it was also so familiar. The lyrics to this meant something and nothing all at once. Just like me.

www.youtube.com/watch

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons -- December 1963 (Oh What a Night)