ONE day isang araw, my LSS—last song syndrome—was Basia’s “Time and Tide.” It was 5 am, only those who have adopted walking and biking as exercises were awake, and there was my minute brain “singing” this: “Time and tide/Nothing and no one/Can stop us now.”
Why, oh, why. I don’t even like that song.
And I should still be sleeping. I need eight hours of sleep.
By 5:30 am, it was still “Time and Tide.” I wanted to go back to sleep but with those lyrics on instant replay in my brain, how to change them to a lullaby? Or at least “Silent Night.” But since I don’t like Christmas songs, how about Pearl Jam’s “Oceans” which is one of their calmer songs, with its relaxing rhythm lulling me to sleep. Relaxing compared to their “Spin the Black Circle,” that is.
6:22 am—“Time and Tide.”
7:45am—“Time and Tide.”
It’s now 10 am and, of course, it’s still “Time and Tide” because I’m writing about it. Whew.
The perks of old age: lesser sleeping hours that make old people wake up at 2 am or 3 am or 5 am, whichever is convenient for sheep—you know, the sheep we count when we want to sleep—without any consideration for what’s convenient for senior moments.
I used to wake up at 10 am. Friends learned not to call me before that hour. Those were the days. Now, I have to be asleep by 10 pm otherwise senior moments would start to kick in and counting sheep will only result to overthinking.
And this is how a column is born. Better make use of all kinds of thoughts by writing about them and emailing them to myself via the smartphone, with the email’s subject as “Ms B draft.” I can then check them out later using the laptop while columnizing.
Music choices are always to each their own, by the way. Just because I like Pearl Jam doesn’t mean other people like them, too. Basia does have her fans. “Silent Night” and other Christmas songs have their fans.
But here’s an unsolicited observation: just because a music video has more than one billion views doesn’t mean you’ll like it. The YouTube video of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” for example, has 3.2 billion views. Billion. Not million. But if you’re not her fan, surely you’re not one of the 3.2 billion who viewed it. Unless you’re a columnist who’s curious on what those 3.2 billion saw.
Even electronic dance music has its share of views. Try checking out “Boris Brejcha @ Tomorrowland Belgium 2018”—95 million views. Boris for boring? Most probably not.
One Tuesday morning, I could hear the noise from the neighbor’s sound system, and the first thought that came to mind was Brejcha’s video. Because it was too loud to be Swift’s “Blank Space.”
If you’re trying to sleep, EDM and rock music are the last choices you’d consider for lullabies. They won’t lull you to sleep. They will make you dance the night away, which is great if you’re young and can enjoy the noise with tequila. If you’re, uh, old, you can still enjoy the music but during the daytime and sans tequila.
