Not Existential Enough

Economic Development Program Manager Gloria Stearns asks if we can have fifteen minutes of music playing before the General Plan meeting on art on Monday.  Of course.  Then she asks me to assemble the playlist and Saturday ends with an iPod and sore thumb.

Randomize the songs and let the iPod scrolling, thumb soring, stream of thought begin …

Joe Henderson Recorda me.  Excellent, period correct for the room.  Keep that in mind.  Band of Horses Casual Party.  Fun.  Too new.  Nobody will know it.  K-Flay Blood in the Cut.  Not hardly, keep scrollin.  Drive By Truckers What It Means.  Maybe do a protest set?  Sturgill Simpson Call To Arms and Woody Guthrie This Land Is Your Land.  Connor Oberst A Little Uncanny to end it?  Everclear’s This Land Is Your Land is pretty good and they’re a California band.  But we want happy, not angry.  Scroll.  The Mezingers Lookers.  Happy.  But too fast too loud.  Well, genius, that’s gonna get rid of a few thousand options.  Middle initial might as well stand for tinnitus.  Hank Mobley No Room For Squares.  Round seating, that’s funny.  No one will get it.  Parquet Courts One Man No City.  City in the title.  Fool For The City.  Some Foghat and a fog machine.  You know - marine layer.  That’d be a hoot.  Eval was fine and I’d have a year to patch things up after the Foghat intro to a General Plan meeting.  Where was I?  Parquet Courts.  Maybe an art theme, some Talking Heads, some Alt j., BADBADNOTGOOD.  Mid 60’s French or Italian pop?  Keep going.  Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.  Maybe a set of cover songs most everyone should know?  Lemonheads Mrs. Robinson.  Tony Bennett Eleanor Rigby.  How many old people will be at the meeting?  Am I one of them?  Less than five Beatles songs on the iPod.  Not Beatles old.  REM old.  Well, technically, somewhere between REM old and Catfish & The Bottlemen young.  Keep going.  Jamestown Revival California.  A California theme?  Eagles Hotel California.  Maybe.  Hold it.  Could be viewed as advocating for Measure G.  Scratch that.  Write down California Stars so you don’t forget it.   Bix The Boy From Davenport.  Is the joke funny if I’m the only one who gets it?   Beach Slang Spin The Dial.  Or Bad Art and Weirdo Ideas.  It’s an art meeting.  A mix with some Replacements, Gaslight Anthem, Clash and Ramones.  Loud and feisty.  That’ll get em in an art mood.  Wait, just go with your five favorite songs.  People don’t like it, they can leave.  What’s not to like about Glen Miller In The Mood?  Scroll.  The Middle - in strings.  That would be awesome, ringing off the dome-o-sphere.  Maybe a middle spot in the sequence.  Jimmy Eats World The Middle title sequence joke only the cool kids will get.  Cool kids or weird kids.  Weird kids ARE the cool kids.  It’s an art meeting at a City Hall covered in student art.  Keep that in mind.  Scroll. Thelonious Monk.  Pick anything.  Just have the whole thing Thelonius Monk.  Or Miles Davis.  Or Carlos Henriquez.  But something more local.  Monterey Jazz.  Hold on.  Dub in some Clint Eastwood intros from that jazz psycho movie.  No.  Even better!  Just play the convention chair thing on a loop.  That was art, right?  Where was I?  More local.  The Call.  Let The Day Begin.  Nope.  It’s the end of the day and that … that Al Gore convention kiss.  Too much.   Sunday Blues.  Seaside.  John Lee Hooker One Bourbon One Scotch… Buddy Guy Ain’t No Sunshine … Kinda sad, as a meeting starting genre.  Paul Butterfield Born in Chicago.  Wrong year.  Blues Brothers karaoke?  Pick any song, got em all.  Scroll.  Elvis and the Royal Philharmonic Burning Love.  Everyone will start singing!  Get them in the mood for talking.  Cheap Trick Surrender and Queen Bohemian Rhapsody to follow.  Audience participation before the meeting even begins.  NO!  William Shatner’s Bohemian Rhapsody, followed by Billy Gibbons Treat Her Right, and then some Lou Rawls and finish on Skeewiff Lost Due To Incompetence.  They’ll be ready for anything, after that.  Maybe I should order pizza, this might take all night.  Scroll.  Scroll.  Maria McKee Sweet Jane, Live.  Runs a little long but a set of my music crushes, maybe.  Liz Phair, Michelle Shocked, Lucinda, Emmy Lou … that’s a pleasant way - for me - to sing along in my head if the meeting hits a lull.  But Brandi Carlile and Joan Jett, how can I fit those in?  Sweet Jane Live … hmmn, string together all live tunes?  Sinatra, some Foo Fighters, Lumineers, Los Lobos, cover all the bases.  Rhett Miller’s live California Stars.  That’s a four-fer.  California.  Woody Guthrie.  Alt-country frontman.  Live.  Ends with dream a dream with you.  Good way to start a hopeful meeting.  Write that down so you don’t forget it.  What does this phone number with “HRB” on a post-it note on my desk mean? Who is “HRB”?  Scroll.  Grace Potter Live at the Fillmore.  Local(ish).  Live.  Groovy.  Groovy?  Can government / should government be groovy?  That would be an excellent ICMA Conference session.  Maybe next year.  Where was I?  Seaside.  Seaside’s groovy.  J. Geils!  Forget the meeting.  Just have a party.  Let’s get some guitars and learn a couple chords before the powerpoint-athon.  Some Ventures, Surfaris?  Percussion.  Get some buckets.  The Knack My Sharona.  Scroll.  Seque into The Hives and The Stooges.  Now we’re talking.  Musical caffeine.  Wilco I’m Always In Love.  Five different versions of that (what's wrong with me).  Could be done, right there.  Add in Monday, cause Monday meeting.  People will be singing I’m Always In Love for days.  Nothing wrong with that.  Could be Seaside’s theme song.  It’s a happy / lovely place.  Beats getting dinged for Fool For The City in next year’s eval.  Thumb’s getting tired.  Bleacher Rollercoaster.  Poppy.  Too poppy.  Keep going.  Scroll.  Not many country songs.  Didn’t know they were legal in California until this week.  Bobby Darrin Call Me Irresponsible.  Maybe a keeper.  Period correct for City Hall.  Del Fuegos Time Slips Away.  Sure does.  NEEDTOBREATH More Heart, Less Attack.  Live or studio?  This is really complicated.  Might be over-thinking it.  Scroll.  Trombone Shorty Buckjump.  Trombone Shorty, anything.  That’s party propellant, right there.  Chuck Berry Roll Over Beethoven.  Just passed.  Timely.  Hey, the pizza’s here.  Put an album on.  Munch.  Munch.  Could use the breakroom Astrosonic and autostack some albums.  Yeah, that’s what I need.  More music choices.  Amanda and Colin’s music.  Too personal.  Too personal?  Anything you put on will be personal in some way, knucklehead.  Why did you agree to do this?  Scroll.  Just hire Colin?  He’s a pro dj.  Nepotism.  Bad.  Maybe borrow his cryo-gun?  That might be over the top.  Scroll.  Pink Get The Party Started.  No-brainer.  B-52s Love Shack.  Probably a no-go.  Like Shack, maybe.  But Love Shackage ... in an employment setting.  It's Seaside City Hall, not the Fox News employee lounge.  Scroll.  Some classical thing I can’t pronounce.  Move on.  Eddie Vedder All The Way.  Too soon after MLDS Game 4.  Jack Johnson Home.  Low key, surfy, homey.  That’s nice.  Blackfoot Train, Train.  Who, exactly, was I at 18 years old?  Peter Gabriel Bigtime.  That’ll get them thinking big.  Donnas Who Invited You.  Sort of contrary to the spirit of a public meeting.  Scroll.  Rhett Miller Question.  That could work.  There will be questions.  Uncle Tupelo The Long Cut.  That’s the song for public meetings – if you want to take the long cut, we’ll get there eventually.  Scroll.  Scroll.  Mojo Nixon Elvis Is Everywhere.  Too existential.  Poison Talk Dirty To Me.  Not existential enough.   Dead Milkman Punk Rock Girl.  Quirky / arty.  California reference and just right on the Papa/Momma/Baby Bear existential-o-meter.  Lead into Jesus and Mary Chain Head On, as in we’re taking Seaside Head On into its vision as a vibrant, proudly diverse, energetic and safe community, with extraordinary natural beauty, quality of life and economic opportunities.  Hey, wouldn’t those words look great on the circular frieze under the dome in the Council Chambers?  You read it here, first.  Focus, Craig.  Just assemble five songs in order.  Thumb can’t take much more...scroll, scroll.  Charlie Sexton Beats So Lonely.  No, but that would make a great recessional after the meeting.  That’s what we need!  Recessionals after Council meetings.  With a cryo-gun.    

Let’s start a list …