{…will not insert name here…}

The Middle East: Blood

Grouper: I'd Rather Be Sleeping

Kyte: Solsbury Hill

Thao (ft. Andrew Bird): Know Better Learn Faster

Justin Vernon: Death, Shake Me Of All Unclean

Balmorhea: Truth (Helios Remix)

Peter Broderick: And It's Alright

The Dodos: Long Form

Califone: The Orchids

Slaraffenland: That Great Love Sound

Download Playlist Here (right click save as): WinterSongs vol. 1

Around 4pm on Sunday I hopped on the Q train to Brooklyn for Brighton Beach/Coney Island. According to Hop Stop, I had an 1hr and 9 min ride since the Q was running local for the weekend and I was headed for the last stop on the train.  Saturday was cold and rained all day (i.e. killed my plans to hike Cold Springs) so it gave me ample opportunity to put together my first winter playlist of 2009. Also,  my first winter playlist that I will not be smoking while listening to for the first time in the last 4 years.  Miracles upon miracles. They certainly do happen.  Sunday after church, lunch and football (in that order) I arranged the selected songs; and then selected some more and then rearranged, then deselected (not a word?) and arranged some more. This is my “must clean the house when I need time to think” type of therapy.

“Do I really think like this in the fall/winter…so black and white…where is the color?…must add color, speaking of color where is the jazz…wait how didn’t any jazz or Motown make the cut. ..playlist vol. 2 needs more color…My fireplace has been quite virginal of late. ..that needs to change soon…why are logs $7 in New York…jazz and fires…good start for playlist vol. 2. …Too bad I’m not smoking anymore. ..these songs are perfect for walking and smoking and smoking and walking…no I will not buy a pack…almost 5 months holding strong…What time does the sunset?…my music OCD is ruining the intent of making this playlist today.”

The hour ride made a good testing ground to see if the songs flowed and made sense together. I in my seat and people in silence and in conversation all around me. Does the pacing work? How does the end reconcile with the beginning? In this case I was flowing from a prog rock crescendo core type song to the bluegrass of The Avett Brothers. It didn’t exactly flow as a whole. Changes noted. My goal for any fall/winter mix is simple. It should be a soundtrack that scores the cinematic cityscape of New York and all that it encompasses.  The diversity in all the details you see on your walk to the subway, your ride from Queens to Manhattan, and everything that can happen on a 20 minute break to go get lunch. It must transport you from a train {sidewalk} into another moment altogether. You might be laughing at the sentimentality, but think of it like driving at night when you’re alone. What do you listen to? Black Eyed Peas? Think Curtis Mayfield’s “Ride On For The Darkness”, one needs something that propels them towards the next exit, train stop, or block.  It gives  a sense of purpose and makes for good contemplation, prayer, or conversation with one’s self.

The music I was listening to was in complete juxtaposition to the New Yorker article I was reading about the CIA drone program (i.e. killing terrorists from remote controlled white planes ) in Pakistan. Violins and electronic blips and bleeps don’t really go hand in hand with a debate on targeted killings vs. assassinations and whether or not the Obama administration is replicating Bush’s military strategy. So I put the article down and continued to listen.

An hour train ride into Brooklyn takes you over the East River via the Manhattan Bridge. From this vantage point you can see the Brooklyn Bridge directly in front of you, downtown Manhattan to the right, and DUMBO to the left.  Once in Brooklyn, you dive back down underground for the DeKalb,  Atlantic, and Prospect Park stops; but after that you come up from air and for 30 minutes you float over the top of  the southern part of Brooklyn. Watching the borough pass before you at 40 miles an hour never fails to be as cinematic as you hoped. At one point I could have been in the suburbs of Anytown, America while rushing through streets of  a neighborhood filled with huge Victorian houses and oak trees with leaves every shade of red, orange and yellow.

Eventually I  finally got off at Brighton Beach and head to the boardwalk. Beaches for me work almost any time of year. For obvious reasons in the summer, but they serve a much different purpose during the cold months of the year. More on that later. Playlist, check.