We’re getting ready for our annual St. Pat’s Week festivities here in Rolla, so that means light blogging ahead for the coming week. Hope these contextless links tide you over for a while.
1. Doodling: good for the brain. According to a new study, “doodlers actually remember more than nondoodlers when asked to retain tediously delivered information, like, say, during a boring meeting or a lecture” (viaHow blog).
Update, 2/21/09: I made it through surgery just fine, and this morning’s post-op checkup showed my left eye is now seeing with 20/30 vision. That’s much better than the 20/150 vision I went in with. As for yesterday’s playlist, I tuned in to some new albums by Asobi Seksu and M. Ward, but also went back to some old standards: London Calling, by the Clash (best album ever); More Songs About Buildings and Food, by Talking Heads; Rubber Soul, by the Beatles (Joe’s suggestion of “I’m Looking Through You” prompted me to pick that one); Armed Forces, by Elvis Costello & the Attractions (Ron, I happen to like Elvis C.’s singing style, and his early work); and Neon Bible, by Arcade Fire. Off to rest my eyes and listen to more good music.
Tomorrow morning I go in for cataract surgery (yes, I know I’m too young to have cataracts, but they’re there, and yes, diabetes is a bitch).
While it’s a quick procedure (and painless, I’m assured), it means I won’t be able to do much with my eyes for a couple of days. Which means: no blogging, no reading, no watching television. No Friday Five manana.
But I will have a lot of time to listen to music on Friday and Saturday. This morning I downloaded a couple of new albums so that I would have something fresh to listen to. But I’m also thinking about pulling out some old favorites I haven’t listened to in ages. A couple of Talking Heads albums come to mind as potential post-op plays (77 and More Songs About Buildings and Food). I’ll probably be in the mood for fairly mellow tunes, so furious punk is out. Ergo, no Ramones (possible exception: “I Wanna Be Sedated”).
If I’m already heavily sedated, I might turn to something dream-inducing, like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon or Radiohead’s In Rainbows or Blonde Redhead’s 23, or maybe something more ambient, like Aphex Twin, will be in order.
One thing is for certain. for my pre-op playlist, I won’t be listening to any of these:
“Doctor My Eyes,” by Jackson Browne
“Blinded By the Light,” by Bruce Springsteen or Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
“Debaser,” by the Pixies (the song references that well-known Luis Bunuel/Salvador Dali short film Un Chien Andalou, which features the slitting of eyeballs)
Anything from Tommy, but especially “See Me, Feel Me”
“Far Away Eyes,” by the Rolling Stones
“Crosseyed and Painless,” by Talking Heads (although I like the “painless” idea)
Maybe I should just settle on listening to everything in my collection by Bright Eyes.
What are your suggestions for good post-op music? Leave your suggestions below, as well as your good vibrations. Hey! There’s an idea…
Andrew Careaga 