Dear T-Mobile,

While you have been my mobile phone company for a decade now, I ask you to please stop playing the Eric Clapton special edition Fender MyTouch commercial.  Do you even know what kind of earworm that song is?  For the past five days I’ve had just the portion of his song that’s played during the commerical stuck in my head.  Here’s what I know:

I get off on ‘57 Chevys.
I get off on playin’ guitar.
Like the way you kiss me everytime you miss me.
I’ve got a rock and roll, I’ve got a rock and roll heart.

Hey Buddy!

SRSLY, I’m taking the GMAT today and I know that around hour two this earworm will show up again.  If I buy the special edition MyTouch will you stop playing that commercial?  I mean, I’m a fan of Clapton…but not that song.  It’s almost worse than the commercial with Avril Lavigne.  Or Whoopi.

Actually I won’t buy that phone.  I’ll stick with my beloved BlackBerry.  Although their use of Beatles songs irks me.  Like Paul really wrote songs with the intent to use them to advertise a phone.  All you need is love?  Well I have digressed from my original complaint, so I’ll end it here.

Thanks again,

Denise

So I’m one of those people that remembers almost every dream I have (or so I think). If I can’t remember when I first wake up then they usually come back to me later. A really weird thing that happens to me is I almost always wake up with a song playing in my mind. It can be the most random song too. Sometimes it is a song I love, sometimes a song I hate, and it can be anywhere in between. Sometimes it is a song I haven’t heard in a very long time, perhaps since I was a child even. I’ve never been able to associate the song with a recent event or dream. I don’t go to sleep or wake up to [real] music. It seems like the song in my head might actually be what wakes me up from a dream but the song has nothing to do with the dream. . . not that dreams are supposed to make sense. Generally I have to listen to the song to get it out of me head; earwormed so to speak.

Dream: I had been attending what appeared to be some sort of school. Perhaps I was in high school or Junior College. It was almost the end of whatever year it was and this lady that looks like Kathryn Joosten who played Mrs. Landingham on The West Wing approached me with a checklist and asked me if I finished my community services. I don’t know if this was something everyone had to do or if it was some kind of punishment. I said I was sure I had completed it but her checklist showed I had 19 hours left to do out of 44 hours. She said it is too late in the year to make up the time and pulled out a hypodermic needle. End.

Song: Russ Ballard, “Voices”. I do like this song. Sort of ironic? That’s what I thought and why I want to start tracking what songs I wake up to in my head. I can’t recall the last time I heard it and it wasn’t in my collection.

Sorry I posted the best songs of 2008 yesterday here is the best songs of 2009 DJ EARWORM

I have a bone to pick with someone and I had to find their name on Wikipedia. I was looking for the person who created “Barney and Friends. “ Since my grandson, who is now twelve, was around one year old I’ve had to contend with the annoying and repetitive songs of this show from hell. The songs are all earworms that burrow deeply into your brain and manifest themselves at the worst times. Like when I’m trying to go to sleep, when I’m standing in line at the grocery, or sitting in church.  There’s not much worse that beginning to hum “I Love You” while sitting in a garage waiting room while your car is being repaired.  The person responsible for the madness of Barney is a lady whose name is Sheryl Leach. I was surprised to learn that the show is only eighteen years old. It seems like those dance routines have been around forever. It’s hard to escape the far reaching arms of Barney. While watching American Idol one of the contestants identified herself as an actress who played one of the zombie like Barney children who danced around the purple monster.

  I’m not totally oblivious to the apparent joy that “Barney and Friends” brings to children but at what cost. My youngest grandson is now a year and a half old. When Barney comes on he immediately begins to smile and dance. When this happens all my anguish over Barney melts away, that is until the singing stops and the inane skits begin. When that happens I once again feel purple rage. That rage is fueled when I realize that, even with no more grandchildren, I’ll have to endure at least another three years. By then I believe it will be safe to try to turn my youngest grandson away from the darkness and toward the light.

  In all fairness I wouldn’t know Barney was purple unless someone told me. I’m somewhat color blind and he looks gray to me, maybe a bluish gray. If someone hadn’t told me his color I could be suffering from a bluish gray rage. It just doesn’t sound as good to me. An outcome of this blog is that I’ve picked up a new curse word. From now on around the house and probably anywhere else I feel the need, I’ll be yelling LEACH, in honor of Barney’s creator, when something strong needs to be said.  Another result of this blog is an earworm working through my brain, “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family . . .” Oh LEACH!!!

You can thank me for the earworm later.

This song is called blame it on the Pop here it is:

Question: Find all the song names and artist in the song. Hint their are 25 songs

If any one gets all of them I will be amazed. I will know if you cheated I will go on the website that Mr Sam told us about that can find any piece of writing in the world. Good Luck!!!

P.S Mr Sam can you please tell me the website because I am not sure what it is.

You know when you have a song stuck in your head. You can’t get rid of it and you’re somewhere where you can’t listen to it. You don’t have your iPod with you, you’re not near your computer or a CD player, you’re in class or somewhere that you wouldn’t be able to listen to music anyways. But you’ve still got that song in your head and it’s not going away any time soon.

You desperately need to hear this song, or release in some way. You really just need to get it the fuck out of your system, so you can always try to produce it yourself. Singing doesn’t work so well. For most people, singing isn’t exactly their strong point and even if it is you’re not necessarily going to start belting out a song on the train. If you can’t sing, there’s a good chance you can still whistle, but this doesn’t help you out with the whole situation of trying to avoid being that creep who’s whistling to himself in public. Likewise, you couldn’t exactly whisper-sing the song to yourself because that just looks sketchy as hell. It really just looks like you’re talking to yourself… and you’re really into it. Enter the Whistle Whisper.

There are two basic ingredients to a Whistle Whisper.

1. a Whistle
2. a Whisper

Yeah.

So you’ve grabbed yourself some whistle and some whisper and now you are ready to begin purging that earworm once and for all.

Step 1) Open up your lips slightly; just enough to breathe shallowly through your mouth, but keep your face relaxed. You need not purse your lips like you might if you were really whistling, because remember, this isn’t your ordinary whistle, it’s a Whistle Whisper.

Step 2) Take a deep breath (not too deep, just get some air into your lungs). Now breathe out pushing the air through your lips as though you were truly whistling. You should be able to hear the air as it leaves your lips. This will be your musical instrument.

Step 3) You’ve got your instrument, now you need to start playing some tunes. If you know how to whistle, then you’ll already know how to control the pitch of the air by using your tongue and teeth. Just use that same technique for the Whistle Whisper and you’ll find that even though it’s quiet, that tune you’ve been hearing on repeat in your head for the past week will suddenly be out in the air.

You now know how to Whistle Whisper! Use it frequently, whenever the need arises. The best part is that you don’t look like you’re doing anything strange and it’s too quiet for anyone else to hear except for you. Unless of course you are using it near  someone in a silent room. Then they’re gonna think you’re pretty strange. But you don’t care, and do you know why?

Because you can WHISTLE WHISPER!

This how-to brought to you by hundreds of awkward moments involving me, a Whistler Whisper, some silence, and a person whose proximity makes it unclear whether they can hear me or not.

Today’s post is here:   http://musclegirl.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/saturday-in-the-gym-i-know-its-not-the-fourth-of-july/

DJ Earworm, aside from having a creepy name, mashes up songs. As a special treat, every year he takes 25 of the most popular Pop songs and squishes them together into one super track. Who would think that fusing Taylor Swift, Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Miley Cryus et al, would not make you want to pour worms in your ears? Go on, have a dance.

I’m also quite partial to this one: Kanye West vs Radiohead.

Go and download these and more at DJ Earworm’s website.

Sunday’s graphic op-ed in the New York Times reported Auto Tune as the noun of 2009. In case you didn’t believe it….DJ Earworm has released his annual pop music mashup, featuring the 25 top hits of 2009 and TONS of AutoTune. If this isn’t enough AutoTune for you, you can always AutoTune the News.

Hey,

Every year, this special time comes around where the last of the Christmas spirit is dying, and the pressure of the new year begins. It occurs on the eve of new years eve (the 30th of December) and this special day is called ‘panic day.’

This day, like many ‘eves’ is a time for panicking and doing last minute things to ready ourselves for the much partying that is more than likely to spontaneously burst out. Yet at the same time, everybody is in a stressed mood as they get rid of the Christmas tree and clean the house. Both these things seem to collide with such force, it feels like a riot is breaking out in the house; There’s yelling and screaming and people running everywhere, some armed with weapons such as dust busters and mops, others desperately trying to cling on to there treasured wrapping paper as the authorities try to destroy it. In the end, no one wins, and there is a silence as all the armys retreet to their respective bedrooms.

On top of all this cleaning, arguing, panic and confusion lies the most irritating question; what is my new years resolution going to be? In past, I never had one. Mainly because I had no idea what it was. But then everyone else was doing it, so in my easily peer pressured ways (I joke…) I decided to have one. But every year I have no idea what I want to change. It’s an evil thing that should be destroyed! I could simply not do it, but I only realize how hard it is at 11:58pm December 31st. Then its a matter of rushing around screaming at people “WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR RESOLUTION! Oo?” and they always run away.

Since the majority of all songs made this year have been epic, and most of this years songs are better than the rest of the decades songs put together, I feel DJ Earworm is amazingly awesome. He made a mash -up of the best songs of 2009;  

-adophonehome

____________________________________________________________

http://twitter.com/pseudoado

Seriously?

Do Hockey Canada fans really need Pepsi to teach them a cheer?

This is definitely marketing gone too far.  And it’s sad.  So sad.

I’m sick of it already and the World Juniors haven’t even started plus we’re weeks away from the Olympics.

A gem for you, man pet.

Who/What: someone in the office whistling Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark”

When: In the office this afternoon.

Event: Getting an earworm at work. Someone in the corridor at the photocopier was whistling Dancing in the Dark. Remember: You can’t start a fire, you can’t start a fire without a spark, this gun’s for hire, even if we’re just dancing in the dark.

Grrrometer: In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a huge problem. Maybe a 2 or a 3. I need to purge the music from my ears though, otherwise I’ll be singing it to myself later.

I’m not a huge podcast person, but I love Radiolab. They have two really good full episodes on music.  The first one is focused on perfect pitch, with some side notes on the infamous Rite of Spring riot and a computer program that imitates the composition style of great composers.  As for the Rite of Spring thing- I always thought if I could go back in history I would want to see like Jesus or something, but I mean, to be a fly on the wall that day in Paris.  Man.  And I dunno about everyone else, but I totally don’t find Rite of Spring offensively dissonant.  I like the loud chord.  But of course this is 100 years later and we’ve lived through 100 years of largely awful (but some sublime and some of my favorite) dissonant music.

Listen to it here

So, they’re talking about perfect pitch in tone languages, like Chinese.  Starting with talking about how people who speak tone languages, who don’t supposedly have perfect pitch, will pronounce their words on exactly the same pitch.  And how it was this huge fascinating discovery.  OK, for me this is not surprising at all.  I would almost have been more surprised if the opposite were true.

For me, I “don’t” “have” “perfect” “pitch.”  If you ask me to sing a certain note, there is probably a 70% chance I’ll sing the right one if I have a chance to think about it.  I don’t think I could necessarily identify a pitch I heard.  But I’m one of those people who will always start singing a piece I know already on the right pitch, with no outside hint.  In context, it’s just in my ear.  And I don’t think it’s necessarily muscle memory, I have tested myself to see if I could mentally hear the correct pitch before singing it and it’s never been a problem (I have to really concentrate though).  Oh, and sight-reading a piece I don’t know?  If we transpose, like in a choral, a capella situation?  I don’t have across-the-board problems, but sometimes when there’s a large interval, and I don’t have time to calculate it, I will end up singing the note on the page instead of the transposed note.  Is that perfect pitch?  Well, it’s a kind of half-assed, sorta-kinda, subconscious version of perfect pitch.  I can’t count myself among the illuminati that have pitch, but it seems clear that if I had really nurtured my musical abilities from a young age I would have pitch (maybe not that ridiculous insane absolute pitch where you can tell what pitch a dripping faucet is making, but at least to know the notes without reference).

I guess my point, besides bragging about my musical skills and trying to make me feel better about not having perfect pitch, is that it’s a lot more common for someone, like me, to have this sort of pitch memory, without truly having perfect pitch.

The second show is more about how music gets stuck in your head.  I’ve always been interested in this, and even though I’ve read about it and stuff I still don’t really get it.  If somebody can explain it to me I’d love to hear it.  Either a brain chemistry explanation or a justification for why we need imaginary music would suffice.

Listen to it here.

They focus on this really really interesting phenomenon of people who literally HEAR the music in their heads- like they can’t tell the difference between it and music in real life.  Fascinating.  I really want to read this guy’s book.

And again, since it’s all about me, here’s my personal version of the story: I always have a song stuck in my head.  In fact, it wasn’t til high school that I found out that not everyone does.  I just assumed everyone, all the time, had mental music playing, like me.  It hasn’t really come up since my shocking discovery that it wasn’t a universal trait.   At that time, I took a poll of all my friends and not a single other person said they consistently had their brain radio on, EXCEPT my high school choir director.  Although this story is on a different aspect of the song-stuck-in-head routine than mine, it made me start wondering about it again.  How many people have music in their brains without cease?  Is it more prevailant among musicians?  Crazy people?

The reason I found out in the first place that it was uncommon was that I went through a phase when I used “what song is stuck in your head” as a conversation starter, just something to bullshit about with my friends, like other people might say “What are you thinking about?”  Besides noticing that sometimes people said “Nothing,” I also knew one girl who always had the same song in her head.  For about a month, every time I asked, it was always “If you want to destroy my sweater.”  This is also fascinating.  Only one song for months?  Wouldn’t you want to kill yourself?  Of course, maybe some people would say the same thing about my situation.

Here’s what I get stuck in my head, from most to least:

1. The last music I heard.

2. Music I am working on, ESPECIALLY hard stuff.  I can tell this is my brain subconsciously working the kinks out, decoding the tricky parts and rehearsing them.  I love this.  I love that the brain works this way AND I can see it working.  I mean you’re always told your subconscious is at work learning things, but in this case, when I catch myself at it, I can actually feel the process.  The hardest lines, the trickiest series of intervals, those will loop over and over.  And it really works.

3. Sometimes a word or thought will trigger a song- kind of like the gentleman in the podcast realizing that the music he was hearing was always aymbolic of what was going on in his life at that time.  Except much more literal.  A word or phrase that appears in a song will trigger it and it will run until something else takes its place.  You know, like when you’re walking down Broadway and you realize you have the song “On Broadway” in your head.  “Champs-Elysees” is even worse!!  And whatever you do, don’t walk by the Molly Malone statue in Dublin unless you really, REALLY like the song “Cockles ‘n’ Mussels!”  This is where it can be fun playing detective- “What made me think of this song??”

4. The only times I don’t hear music in my head are when there is music playing in reality (and there are exceptions, like right now), and brief moments if I am like meditating or having a Zen moment where my mind is empty.  That’s not really my thing so doesn’t happen all that much.

So right now I’ve had the Nymphs trio from the beginning of Act 2 (aka The Opera) of Ariadne in my head.  Why?  Because even though I’ve kinda known how it goes for years (I sang Zerbinetta in that scene in college, even though it was only one line for me), yesterday for the first time I tried to sing it.  See, turns out we only have one Naiade in our double-cast, no-understudy production, and I started thinking if she gets sick or something happens, somebody is gonna have to step in and sing her part, and that somebody would of course be me, as it’s also a high, coloratura role, and I learn and memorize music really really fast, and, well, basically it’s always me.  So I decided to give it a look, it was a lot harder than I expected, I spent like a full hour on it even though I’d planned to just read through it (oops, I actually had to work on it, silly me underestimating Strauss), and ever since then it’s been in my head.  Pretty much nonstop.  I don’t mind, it’s a wonderful piece of music!!!

Well this was a lot more than I expected to write about somebody else’s podcast.  Oh yeah, and the Afghanistan story at the end got me choked up a little.  Really worth a listen!

Anyways, I’m interested in hearing other people’s experiences, both in degrees of perfect pitch and songs in your head.