Finally caught Sunday night's episode of Studio 60. Everything was clicking along nicely, though I agree with Moses' assessment of the series in general. Right, everything was clicking along nicely until Sting and that song.
This is what that song does to me: it's a gut punch and before I can react, I'm hunched over in pain and the tears are flowing in what Oprah refers to as "the ugly cry". It's almost pavlovian now. Here's the thing: that song, well, a version of it by Eva Cassidy, was the song I chose for my mom's memorial service. I was to choose three songs. The first while everyone got settled in their seats (Eva Cassidy also, "Over the Rainbow"), one in the middle to bring the house down ("Fields of Gold") and one for the end as everyone is leaving. The first two were easy choices -- Eva Cassidy was easily my mom's favourite. For the last song I went with an old household standard: Nana's "For Liberty". This harkened back to Saturday mornings dusting furniture while mom vacuumed the house.
In short, I'm glad I watched the episode alone. Springing a meltdown like that on an unsuspecting friend would have been a bit much. Which brought me to thinking that my mother's service was the one thing in her life, well, besides dying, that she didn't control. Now I'm not a control freak, but I digs me some music, and so as one small measure of planning for the future (I forgot to pay my 2006 taxes until today!), here are a few suggestions should anything untoward befall me before I outgrow irony:
* D'Angelo -- Ain't No Sunshine * Spiritualized -- Stop Your Crying (assuming, you know, people are actually doing that) * Led Zepplin -- Over the Hills and Far Away * PIL -- Rise * The Smiths -- There is a Light that Never Goes Out
