LJ Idol Week #12 - Topic: "Happy Place"

[prog_schlock]

This is my entry for the 12th Week of therealljidol

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Sentimental Powers Might Help You NowWe were going to get married. We'd talked about it daily for over a year. We'd discussed names for children. And then one night out of the blue, she told me I needed to move out and she'd arranged for somewhere for me to move. I cried both about the end of our

Comments

[uselesstinrelic]

But what if it's Baz Lurhmann's epic "sunscreen

[prog_schlock]

I'm awesome now. I've not much thought about her in over a decade (though, coincidentally, it is her birthday today) - pretty much since I started dating my wife. Hurray for love!

Thank you for reading and commenting!

[uselesstinrelic]

Yes, I imagine love would help heal a lot of wounds. Good for you. Wish me luck in my own!

[kickthehobbit]

After I got dumped horribly in 2013, I listened to nothing but The National's Boxer on repeat for months.

So I feel this, is what I'm sayin'.

[rayaso]

Betrayed by a best friend? How truly awful. You have my sympathy. I enjoyed the music and your entry very much. It was very informative and interesting to read, especially when placed in the emotional context of your life at the time.

[prog_schlock]

Yeah, I've tried making a switch in how I approach my entries in the last couple of weeks. I still have a lot of stuff to say about music, but I've wanted to personalize the entries a little more rather than have them focused on just artists and discussions of issues regarding art. I'm still working on how to structure them, but this is a little closer to what I was aiming for than last week in terms of balancing theory and story. :D

Thank you for reading and commenting!

[prog_schlock]

Oh, that's a good song choice for bad times.

Thank you for reading and commenting!

[alycewilson]

I loved your explanation for why sad songs soothe us.

Often, in sad times, I find a specific album that helps me through it. When my first marriage broke up, I went to sleep every night to the "Best of John Lennon," especially loving "Whatever Gets You Through the Night." A couple years later, with a different break-up, it was the "Magnolia" soundtrack by Aimee Mann.

These days, I'm just listening to WXPN, the local public station, whose DJs have the uncanny habit of playing songs that capture just what I'm feeling (like "Invisible Ink" by Aimee Mann and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" by Bob Dylan).

[prog_schlock]

Its great that you have local stations that play some music you love. I can only tolerate radio for so long these days - since I've had iPods with the shuffle option, I like mixes from my own library more than most of what I hear on the radio. But I'm a snob, despite my best efforts not to be. :D

Thank you for reading and commenting!

[alycewilson]

I did that, too, until my iPod stopped working. But I don't really mind. I like learning about new songs and artists.

[whipchick]

I really like your analysis here of why, physiologically, we find music compatible with our emotional states, and use music to heighten and relieve our emotional state. And I didn't know that about rasa, and that was so cool to find out

[prog_schlock]

I've made that edit. I understand the rationale logically for changing "would wake" to "woke," but I've been writing it that way for so long that it doesn't read right to me. The odds are fairly good you're going to have to correct me again in the future - old habits die hard. Thank you for teaching me that, though! :D

Yeah, for a piece of music to have an emotional effect, I think there needs to be something about it that allows you to welcome it in emotionally (like a vampire, it can only come in if its invited). While this doesn't exclude new songs or unfamiliar styles of music from having an effect, it does mean that there needs to be something about the music that is somehow accessible to your ear, heart, etc.

I've spent way too much time thinking about this. While my entries have been focused on music, they're really more about art in general and how different kinds of art can effect us. I spend lots of time looking at the guts of art - but clearly not enough time looking at the grammar! ;)

Thank you for reading and

[halfshellvenus]

I wouldn't be surprised if anger at the crummy thing your ex did was part of what made the breakup so hard. Cheating on you with your best friend, then arranging to "get rid of you" and telling herself she'd done the right thing by prepping the landing for your ejection, is cold in two different ways. And that you had to leave the cats behind and a hater moved in with them... that just increases the resentment. :(

How did the cat you lost a few years ago feel about being danced with? Tolerated it? Thought, "Oh crap, it's this sound again, I guess we're flailing around the room now"? Or enjoyed it?

None of my cats has ever had a sense of humor. They've usually been pretty nice about weird things we do to tease them, but the general reaction is, "Huh?"

[prog_schlock]

Our old black cat loved to be carried around so much that he didn't care if you were dancing or standing still or anything. He just loved being carried. He'd snuggle in and purr pretty much as long as I didn't get too carried away. He didn't care for fast movements but neither do I, so we were excellent dance partners.

Our three current cats have very different policies regarding human time. One hates to be carried, but wants to sleep on my chest every chance she gets. Another will fall asleep in my lap and let me carry him around about half the time, and then ignore me and bite if I try to pick him up the other half of the time. They're such fun, mysterious critters.

Thank you for reading and commenting!

[halfshellvenus]

*sigh* I miss our cat that loved to be carried-- carried like a baby! We had one who loved being carried sitting up (she would cling to your arm like a Koala and nuzzle you), one who barely tolerated it and wanted to get down, and the current cat... doesn't even like being picked up. We got her when she was four, so she was set in her ways. She has learned that being picked up doesn't always lead to being moved--sometimes, it's just snuggling. So, she doesn't fuss and panic. But it's a slow process.

She also intensely wants to sit on your lap when she's in the mood, but then only for about 5-10 minutes. Then she has to leave. I still don't understand that one. It's as if you'll eventually try to kill her, but she needs that "love fix" in the meantime? :O

[prog_schlock]

Yeah, our big boy is the same way. 5-10 minutes of lap time and then "OH I HAVE BUSINESS BYE." But for those 5-10 minutes, he's just in love. Its funny because our other two cats are so snuggly that we only get really excited when he decides he wants to snuggle. With the other two its just a matter of course. :D