There are a ton of songs that bring back memories but one of my favorites is “When You’re Smiling and Astride Me” by Father John Misty. Daniel and I met online and enjoyed talking to each other so much we decided to meet. On the day we met, he gave me a tour of downtown Fredericksburg since I was new to the area and just got to know each other better. Although both of us were still nervous, we didn’t want to say goodbye to each other. Instead of going back to my dorm room, I walked to the parking deck with him. Instead of him driving away when we reached his car, he told me to get in. He started his car and played that song. It was in that moment I realized he was something special. Everything between us clicked and I knew without a doubt I wanted to be with him. It isn’t a song typical 19-year-old guys would listen to and that stood out to me. I listened to that song on repeat for the rest of the night after we eventually parted ways. Over a year and a half later, we still listen to that song because it’s special to both of us.

When You Are Smiling And Astride Me

This assignment wasn’t hard since I already had this song downloaded on my laptop. I just imported into audacity. The song is pretty long so I just included my favorite part in the clip. I used the fade in and fade out effects since I cut some of the beginning and ending out. I thought it’d flow a little better like that. I chose to speak at the beginning just to label the assignment so I’d remember what it’s for.

Archives

For this assignment, I chose to take a stroll down memory lane. The assignment is to pick a song that reminds me a certain time/place/or memory and then talk about it.

I chose “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” by Journey. It always reminds me of my junior year in high school. That was the only year I ran cross country (I ended up breaking my ankle and requiring surgery that spring) and this song was basically our theme song!

One of the memories that really stands out for me is at one of our meets. It was in the fall and pouring ran. The whole team was soaking wet, covered in mud, and just miserable in general. We were all huddled together in the tent, sharing the only 2 blankets anyone thought to bring when one of the coaches opens the tent flap and just stares at us. He just turns around and leaves but comes back a minute later a boombox, sets it in the tent, presses play, and walks away again. Next thing you know, this song is playing! It took a chorus or two but by the end of the song, the whole team was up dancing and singing along! I think our boys team might have even won that meet! I know it sounds super cheesy but I’ve always felt like that song changed our whole state of mind that day.

Even to this day, that song always brings me back to that moment and the fun I had my junior year in general since we were forever playing that song for the rest of the year.

For this assignment I had to choose a song that made me feel nostalgic and explain why. I chose the song It All Feels Right by Washed Out.  This is the perfect summer song that really brings me back to just a summer of no worries and responsibilities.

Listen to my post to hear more of my thoughts on this song and even listen to it!

If you would like to listen to Washed Out, the Spotify artist link is here.

For this assignment I used audacity to record and import the song file. After I recorded my story I went through and edited the track to remove the “umms” and create more natural pauses. This took a little longer than expected and is just as tedious as I thought it would be. Besides that this assignment was simple and didn’t have any hiccups.

First off, if I ever buy music from Google Play again, I’m an idiot. Trying to do things legally is such a pain in the ass, and I am never leaving iTunes again. I almost burst into tears of frustration more than once trying to a) ascertain if I had even bought the damn track and b) trying to figure out how to download it so I could actually, you know, do the assignment. Seriously, Google, your Google Music is so user unfriendly I don’t know how it’s survived.

This assignment was the 2 1/2 star SongStory. I chose Down Under by Men at Work because it’s a very important song to me, as explained in the track. First, I uploaded Men at Work into Audacity, then I recorded myself telling the story. From there, it was pretty easy to mix the two. I did Fade In and Fade Out for the song on either end of my audio, though, since the song was a lot louder than I am. I typically stuck one of my bits in right before a chorus, to give it a deliberate feel (rather than random and willy-nilly). The hardest part (besides getting the music, but you knew that) was figuring out what I wanted to say and how to say it.

I’m pretty OK with how it turned out, mainly because I could cut out all the “um”s from the storytelling pieces. I say “um” a lot, apparently. Also, my voice is more high-pitched than I realized. If I ever do this again, though, iTunes all the way, baby.