Five Songs

Recently, Pajiba put up a call for its readers to flip on the shuffle feature of their Pods and post a comment listing the first five songs. It was an interesting read to scroll through the different lists. I also felt like a such a mainstream music lame-ass posting my own list compared with all the obscure and indie bands from other readers' comments. But then I reminded myself that musical snobbery is just veiled, small-minded bullshit.

It was a fun little game to see what my little old school mini iPod coughed up of my almost 1,000 songs when she picked the playlist. Just for shits and grins, I'll play it again while I type this entry and give you My Five.

Most of y'all are aware of my magazine addiction. Like many of my habits/obsessions (chocolate, Diet Coke, printed baby tees, Ryan Reynolds), my magazine problem isn't necessarily expensive, dangerous, or unhealthy, but it does clutter up the house and recycling bin a bit. But I have no immediate plans to give it up and currently receive somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 magazines a month. (Never fear. At least two of these are baby magazines that I am not going to renew this year.)

My good friend P*Nut likes to encourage my mag habit but getting me gift subscriptions. For my 30th birthday, he hooked me up with a subscription to Budget Living, a fun, hip mag devoted to trendy and cheap style. As my subscription came up for renewal, I decided to keep it coming. It was a fun read with some great ideas, nice layouts, and well written articles. Then, not long after my renewal, Budget Living stopped coming. I visited their website and discovered, oddly enough, through a thread on one of their bulletin boards, that the magazine had folded.

About a month later, I started getting this other magazine in the mail, Shop Etc. A letter from the publishers came shortly after to tell me that Shop, Etc. was going to be replacing Budget Living for the remainder of my subscription period. I got about five months of that magazine, which was basically like another version of Lucky, falling into that category of periodicals which Adrian finds curious-magazines about shopping.

After the October issue, I didn't receive another Shop Etc. and figured my subscription had run out. Then in February, I started getting Redbook along with another letter stating that Shop Etc. had closed up shop (heh, heh), and so Redbook was going to be my replacement for the remainder of my subscription. I've gotten about three issues of Redbook. So here's the thing, I think my original subscription for Budget Living ran out several months ago. Am I caught on this strange periodicals Mobius strip?

Curiouser and curiouser still is the evolution of my subscription that the publishers somehow view as rational. I went from a magazine devoted to being a thrifty hipster to one with the sole purpose of inspiring consumerism at an almost pornographic level to finally Redbook. Seriously folks, that is like skipping all over the evolutionary scale. It's like going from a pair of comfy vintage Levis to brand new Seven for All Humanity skinny jeans to Lee brand acid- washed mom jeans. So weird. But Redbook makes for an interesting read, and it is trying desperately to remain relevant by featuring a lots of sex-related articles and fashion spreads with some pricey duds.

The Jukebox in my Ear Played:

1. Miniature Disasters-KT Tunstall
2. Ring of Fire-Social Distortion
3. To Wish Impossible Things-The Cure
4. Not Over-Paul Oakenfold featuring Ryan Tedder
5. Juarez-Tori Amos

And for added bonus pleasure (because I type slow) 6. Lights-Scissor Sisters

What are your Five Songs?