A Holy Pilgrimage, and Reminiscing about Music

This past weekend I went to Seattle, the birthplace of two of my greatest loves - grunge and Starbucks. My friend and I actually went to the Pike Place Starbucks, the first Starbucks coffeehouse to be opened, long after the Starbucks roasting company was bought out. Of course there was a plethora of Pike Place exclusive merchandise thingies to buy, and I did indeed succumb to the siren call of the exclusive Starbucks card.

While we are on the subject of siren calls...

"Music is what I always turn to when I’m feeling a certain way. It’s my reason for everything."

-- Josh Groban Musician.

I love the versatility of music. I have my happy-yay music, and my I-hate-the-world-and-want-to-die music. Sometimes, but not too often, one song can fill each of those places in my heart. Two perfect examples being "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord" (I don't care if I've just alienated my entire audience with my churchiness. My blog, my rules!), and oddly enough, "Coming Undone" by Korn. There is also a grey area, filled by songs like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". It has a very happy sound to it until one hears the lyrics and discovers it's about a mass murdering psycho. I'm innocent! The Beatles made me do it!

Music, much like the sense of smell, has the ability to bring me back to an important moment that I heard a certain song. It's not always the first time I'd heard it, but songs seem to be attached to feelings. Darren Hayes's "Random Blinking Light" always makes me think of snow, because I was listening to it when I was walking home from my shift at Starbucks and it had just started to snow. The street lights lit everything up with an artificial orange glow, and I was sipping at my Venti peppermint green tea. It really was a beautiful moment. Another such song is the remixed version of "Come What May" from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. That one always takes me back to dawn, and walking down the hill from my parents' house to my ex's work which was just at the bottom of the hill, on my way to school. We were more or less together then, and either way I was so utterly in love. I also relate Michael W Smith's entire album Live the Life to my ex. We were going to elope (not a word of a lie!), and he called me from just up the street and said that he couldn't. My heart shattered. I don't think I have ever cried so hard as I did in those few hours. It's not very fun being told by the man you would die for that he won't marry you, and then have Michael W Smith tell you that you've never been unloved. I don't think I'll ever know which made me cry more.