Electronic Life 3.0

There are few changes in my new electronic life that are on as grand a scale as that of music, or more specifically my music collection, some changes may be more important to my day to day functionality, (I could argue otherwise)but there is no question that on sheer size, no change to my life is bigger (pun intended) than the change this electronic life has brought to my music collection.

See here’s the deal, now I’m not saying I have the largest e-music collection, I have no idea how many music files other people have…but I do know that Lil’ Mouse was lookin’ over my music files (for the last post) when she asked me if I had any idea how many music files I had…

“Uh…”

“Over 14,000!”

That’s when it hit me that this would be a great subject for a E.L. post, cause see I grew up in the seventies so I still think of music files, when I see ’em in my head as albums. And when Lil Mouse said this I immediately saw over 14,000 albums lined on shelves….how much room would that take? And my second thought was thank God for this electronic life, cause I knew what was coming and all I could think of (that is after seeing over 14,000 albums lined up on shelves) is that my files(imagine now 14,000 albums stacked and piled randomly in various areas all over the house) are a mess.

“Well a bunch are probably duplicates” I offered as a weak attempt to avoid her mockery

“Only a few hundred” Lil Mouse quickly countered. Never argue with a cataloger while she’s in the process…”I mean do you even know half these songs?”

“Every single one of them is as dear to my heart as you are Honey?”

Sometimes sarcasm does not go over well with Lil’ Mouse…

“What about this ‘Digging your Scene’ by the Blow Monkey’s” She countered

It's the Blow Monkeys' or me!

“Under the category Crappy Retro New Wave like Kajagoogoo or INXS” I answered using her own lingo “And yes, I do once in awhile listen t…”

“Abba, Neil Diamond, Carpenters?”

“Sappy seventies super hits” I was ready for anything until…

“How about these Alan Menken tunes from various Disney Movies like Hercules?” Oh she’s so funny.

Okay I couldn’t defend those, they were left over from when my oldest daughter still lived at home, and might even be iTunes files that I can no longer access…But still I struggled to think of a good excuse, I mean after all, It’s not like they take up real space, collect dust or any of that, but that didn’t stop (like any good woman worth her weight in honey-do lists) Lil’ Mouse.

“You should go through these files honey and clean them out, straighten them up. Just looking you’ll still have over ten thousand songs, but they will be better organized”

The problem with women (as it applies to honey-do lists) is that they’re so hard to argue against. Yes I should do those things honey, I just really don’t want to.

After the Honey Do's Done-Dancing to Dean-O

And here’s where my electronic “music” life works against me in a couple of ways. If the albums were actually piled all around the house it would be impossible to ignore as effectively as I can when they take up imaginary space (but I guess this is countered by the lack of nagging the music collection incurs[as compared to the nagging the same amount of physical music would lol]). However, cleaning out physical albums I could recoup some of my expenses through second hand stores or garage sales which I cannot do with music files (unless of course your interested then I could offer you a great package deal on preteen and teen young girl songs from the 90’s and early ‘0’s)

Anyway, so this task is on my list now, it looms like hand picking the pine needles out of my back lawn before I mow for the first time this spring, and man doesn’t that sound like fun…I mean it does, it does sound like fun honey and I will get started on it right away dear.

A Little Mood Music

So Lil’ Mouse and I were sitting around last night and, as couples at times are wont to do,

"Remember when we first met Dear"
"uh-huh"

We started talking about what got us attracted to each other in the first place the conversation went something like this…

Lil Mouse, from the couch, on her laptop says “Remember when we first met, and then started working together?”

Across the room I on the old man computer respond enthusiastically….”Hunuh..” Or some such general grunt of acknowledgement that I did indeed remember that.

“What did you think?” On her laptop, from the couch, Lil’ Mouse leans forward…

“I’m not sure what you mean?” I replied knowing exactly what she meant. A man can’t give in too easy..

“C’mon” She femanded

“Honestly” I asked

She answered “yes of course”…That’s what they all say and usually I know better, but hey I was feelin talkative, felt like opening up…That should have been my first clue to keep my ol’ mouth shut.

Well when I first saw ya up there readin poetry I thought you looked pretty cute, and yer poetry rocked. Then when we started working together, I was briefly worried that maybe you were some granola eatin’, fembot lesbian, grad student.”

Of course Lil Mouse would be the "hot one"

“Wha…wha…what?” Okay that wasn’t exactly her response but mine’s funnier and more reader friendly.

She then preceded, in her own best Little Mouse fashion, to tell me what she thought of me when we first met…She did so by first taking off my glasses and perching them on her nose, she then took my cigarette and scrunched up her face (Do I really look like Gilbert Gottfried) and started pacing back and forth across the den….

Mr. Gottfried

“Women…”She paused dramatically waving the cigarette in a wild gesticulating aggressive circles…”are ruining the world…Ya wanna know why Missy?”

I was laughing so hard I could not respond, but she, imitating me, of course did not let that stop her “Fake figernails…!”

“Fake…” She insisted using the cigarette like a small poker coming for my now naked eyeball”…fingernails”

Okay well she didn’t use the cigarette like a poker, I just made that part up, and seeing as she will read this it’s best I come clean now…She does do a wonderful job mimicking me however, (this wasn’t the first time won’t be the last) especially if I sound a lot more like Iago the parrot than I am aware of..

After all the dust settled we both found the same thing was the initial attractor…and we think it might be the same for a lot of couple so while talking about it Little Mouse suggested it would be a great topic for the next RWR blog.

See while working in the warehouse together at a thrift store which shall remain nameless I walked into the back and found Little Mouse listening to a CD.

I thought “Well hell those are some kick butt songs she’s listening to she has excellent taste in music”

Of course, duh, you can guess by now it was one of my mixed discs from home. She had found the CD in the stack and liking the music selection on it had chosen to play it.

“You liked a bunch of different types of music.” She said her blue eyes a sparkle.

“I was just happy you didn’t like Katy Perry or Lady Gaga”

“Be serious.”

Men hate being serious in these situations.

“Okay I was stunned. You were younger, but you knew about and liked most of my music, I mean Ella, Dean Martin, Carter Family, Clash and more quirky rock like Modest Mouse and TMBG. You even know yer seventies music, hell Neil Young and Van Morrison are two of your favorites. Plus you’ve introduced me to some pretty obscure artist yourself like Wanda Jackson and Jolie Holland”

This is what she wanted in the beginning, all smiles Little Mouse leaned into me.

“You didn’t really think I was a lesbian did you honey?”

“Of course not sweetie…of course not.”

 

Movies from the Mouse and I

We here at 409 N. love to sit down watch a movie now and then. On these nights I’ll get Netflix booted up while Lil’ Mouse starts poppin’ up some Orville.

“What did you wanna watch?” I ask, shouting to be heard over the machinations of the radioactive snack preparer.

Lil Mouse ever the lovely female replies “Oh whatever honey, you pick”

Meaning that I should find a “couples movie”. Not necessarily a romantic movie, just something we can both watch.

So that got me thinkin’ just what makes a “couples movie”? Is it a movie that has equal elements for men and women? Was there even such a thing? And if there were, were there any that we enjoyed so much as a couple, that we might recommend them to others? Seemed like perfect blog material. So I posed the question to Lil’ Mouse.

Pine Nuts, Brazil Nuts..

She immediately suggested “Best in Show” which we both thoroughly enjoyed. I said that wasn’t equally a guy movie ’cause nothing blew up.

I threw in the “Bourne” trilogy,  Too many things blowing up to be a girl movie, she retorted.

After a couple more go rounds we thought it might be important to establish a base line from which to work..the easiest way to judge whether your watching a movie for women, or a movie for men.  Here’s what we came up with.

If one person dies over the length of the movie and a lot of people cry about it, you’re probably watching a chick flick. If a lot of people die in a short period of time and people cheer or scream, it’s most definitely Dudedom.

Solid "never in a million years" vote from 90% of men

Solid "not again" vote from 90% of women

That’s a big divide to bridge, from “Terms of Endearment” to “Die Hard”, so how do we meet in the middle?

Well there’s the ol’ romantic comedy stand by.

“50 First Dates” is a great example, women love it for the romantic story, men can tolerate it because of Adam Sandler’s humor.

Sticking with Adam Sandler romantic comedies, “Happy Gilmore” is the exact opposite, guy’s love the crazy near out of control character, girls can tolerate it because of the (tenuously tethered) romantic angle.

But I am a blessed and lucky man because my woman likes both the above movies. She likes the Cohen Bros, Terry Gilliam, and a plethora of quirky artistic movies. She also like the Marx Bros, a woman who likes the Marx bros, there’s a rare treasure indeed.

I do my part by not asking her to watch any movies with zombies or aliens (especially that explode from peoples stomachs) unless it’s written by Simon Pegg. (she likes the bloke).

Okay, so anyway, here’s our compiled list of movies (in the end divided by categories) that we would like to suggest to other couples

 

 

 

  1. Annie Hall
  2. Princess Bride
  3. The Match Maker
  4. Fifty First Dates
  5. Sweet Home Alabama

 

 

 

 

  1. Office Space
  2. Raising Arizona
  3. Best in Show/Mighty Wind/For Your Consideration
  4. True Stories
  5.  Dodgeball

 

 

 

 

  1. True Lies
  2. Troy
  3. The Mexican
  4. Eastern Promises
  5. Con Air

 

 

  1. Paul
  2. 12 Monkeys
  3.  Mystery Men
  4. Independence Day/ I Am Legend (anything where Will Smith takes his shirt off)
  5. Shawn of the Dead

Alright well that’s what we came up with through our not so scientific or exact process. We are both sure there are movies we have left off the list. We have started a Woody Allen Marathon Tradition on New Years Eve and an Alfred Hitchcock for Halloween, only Annie Hall showed up on the list. And we left AH out all together as well as the whole classic catagory…”Desk Set” any one

What about you and your significant other?What movies would you recommend to Lil’ Mouse and I? We would love to hear what you think should be added to or taken away from our couple’s movies list  and why?