Friday and whatnot #8 | Redefinition of Fly edition

While it certainly hasn’t been frequently enough, my family has taken in some epic California coastal sights since moving here at the end of 2012. As such, we’ve needed some epic soundtracks to jam out to along the way.

There’s something to be said for the tactile experience of burning a CD for such an event, but let’s be honest, multi-selecting and dragging a bunch of tracks to the Spotify sidebar is much easier. It even pops up the friendly edit playlist dialogue that’s automatically pulled in the album art for the first four (unique) albums. Yeah, no, I don’t have cool decorated CDs with reasonably proportional nautical stars scribbled on them, but whatever.

The title this week is a line in today’s first song, but also represents the evolution in transportation preferences. Growing up, I was in one of those spoiled families that flew everywhere. In doing so, it was always the arrival at a destination that “started” a vacation for me. Packing, travel, airports, and planning were all a source of great anxiety as a kid, I was always ready to “get there already” so we could start relaxing. As a microcosm for a healthy perspective on life, I’d missed the Emerson insight about the focus on the journey instead of the destination.

It is with that explorer mentality that we would make the trek down to LEGOLAND this past summer. Sure, we could’ve taken I-5 as a straight shot 8 hour, highway gridlocked, no sight-seeing hell tunnel there. Google maps did its best to discourage the pure Highway 1 route from the SF bay area all the way down south, but we persisted. The reward was extra time with the amazing people I love, exploring a breathtaking Pacific Coast from the lane closest to the sheer cliffs and crashing waves, while listening to (among many others) the songs below.

Fashawn “Clouds Above”

The first time hearing this song my brain couldn’t process how I knew it already. It had been a decade since I heard Ben Gibbard’s slowly plodding lyrics creep over the clean piano chords. Lacking the energy of other tracks on the record, I frequently skipped this one. If you would have asked me back then, I would have laid a steep price on The Postal Service being the Gibbard fronted band most likely to be sampled in a hip-hop song.

Sara has a whole choreographed routine to this song in the car. It starts with Fashawn’s opening line “I spread my wings…”; she slowly opens her arms until they are fully butterfly stretched. Her eyes tightly closed while she tilts her head up to the sky. Her face springs to life when the first “Clouds above” chorus echos, my eye instinctively look to the rear view mirror to catch a flash of her bright smile.

The song first appeared on a playlist I made for our Monterey, CA road trip in January 2018. The trip included a visit to the Monterey Presidio museum, home to the impressive “Sands of the World” collection pictured above. The spectrum of color presented in those vials spanned the gamut of the darkest black to the brightest yellow, yet each were just crushed up rocks.

Jurassic 5 “Work it Out” (feat. Dave Matthews Band)

The pair of worlds bridged together in this collaboration exemplifies many aspects of Stacey and my relationship. A mashup of 90s Dave Matthews songs and 2000s hip-hop, yet it all makes sense. I would call myself a punk rock kid in those days, but I can’t count how many hours were spent around the hot tub at Collin’s house listening to friends debate and rank DMB studio albums.

As a result, years later I would be able to hold a spirited conversation with Stacey about the merits of UTTAD vs BTCS while we drove to catch the Friday show in the Woodlands. Leaving work early that day, so I could go on the trip in the first place, has to be one of the best decisions of my life.

I’d felt for a long time that Chali 2NA (the verbal Herman Munster) had vocal talents that broke down genre barriers. I’d be interested to see how the DMB crowds dealt with J5 opening for them in 2006. I’m sure if we were there, Stacey and I would’ve been on Cloud 9.

Aesop Rock “Kirby”

This is a fun song that has been a sing-a-long favorite of ours for a while. The perfectly timed kitten mews and lighthearted lyrics make for a great road trip track. However, this song promotes some risky and questionable cat parent behavior. Warlock or not, $20 in a parking lot for a kitten in a cardboard box is pretty sketchy.

The end of this track has the phrase “I don’t know, maybe get a kitten?” scratched and looped enough times that I instinctively complete audio confusion with acquiring baby cat advice. “I don’t know…” about whatever topic, is answered with the sage advice, “maybe get a kitten?”.