The Girl in the Scarf

Writing’s funny. Sometimes the words just flow right out, and other times I’m just staring at the blinking bar on a blank page. That’s surely not a challenge unique to me. I know this from the nearly six total years I spent with other writers while working towards my bachelors and Masters. But I’m not in the company of other writers at the moment. It’s just me, and I have no choice but to make myself write, because I’m committed to this blog, and I’m committed to talk about music and why it means so much to me.

So here I am, back in Omaha, after spending all of Tuesday in the car and yesterday scrambling to throw together some meals to cover me for the remainder of the week. Despite the long drive, I didn’t find myself listening to a ton of tunes. I covered three albums during my journey. First was a Greatest Hits compilation I got from NSYNC. You know how you’re going about your business, and then out of nowhere, you randomly remember a song or group fo songs by a band that you heard all the time as a kid? That’s what happened here. After years, maybe even decades, the little creatures working in the office of my brain decided to pull the file for NSYNC, and songs like “Bye Bye Bye” and “Pop” creeped into the forefront of my mind. It was a fun trip down memory lane, being reminded of the songs I used to sing at friend’s birthday parties during karaoke, or that I would listen to on my portable red CD player under the gazebo in the backyard of my childhood home in Greater Los Angeles.

After the nostalgia trip, I decided to put on a newer album, which ended up being WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? by Billie Eilish. Her style took some getting used to for me, but over time, I’ve grown to like it. I’m not sure what inspired the sort of whisper-like vocals she and Olivia Rodrigo utilize. The soft vocals also had me confused as to how Billie or Olivia were able to pull off stadium-sized shows. A few YouTube searches provided a little understanding…sort of. I say that because I found it very hard to hear Billie especially amongst all the singing fans. Who knows? Maybe it’s not as bad in-person.

Moving on, I know I listened to another album in-between the two mentioned, but I can’t for the life of me remember. I know it was an older album, but what? The mind is working wonders again. First it reminds me of a boy band I haven’t properly listened to since grade school, and now it can’t remind me of an album I listened to two days ago. Fascinating, isn’t it? Oh, well. Until next time…