You Talk About Just Every Band, but the Names You Drop Are Second Hand

So, the squirrels around town have been acting a little squirrely lately. I'm sure they're getting all ready for Winter, but it's not like there aren't tons of black walnuts all over town for them. For a while there, I thought I might need to wear a helmet when I ran to keep from getting knocked out by all the black walnuts falling from the trees.

Tonight I'm doing a meme from Chance at The Sapient Sutler blog. Here's how it works.

Turn on your iTunes or equivalent.

Put it on shuffle.

Write something (a sentence, a paragraph, a story, a word,) about the first 5 songs that come up.

I started photographing this one squirrel that was hanging out in my friend J.'s front yard. She seemed just as interested in me.

1.) "A Million Miles Away" by the Plimsouls. I can't hear this song without thinking about the movie Valley Girl. It's from my high school years. Sure, Fast Times at Ridgemont High is my all time favorite teen movie from when I was in high school, but Valley Girl is right up there. Even if Nicholas Cage's teeth weren't fixed yet.

She also seemed to love the camera. She would climb a little, then pose a lot. Then climb a bit more, then pose again.

2.) "Middle of the Road" by The Pretenders. I guess we're still going with the middle eighties theme. The strongest memory I have of this song, was back in 1984 at my friend Craig Wyricks' college graduation party. They cranked this song through speakers facing out the windows and we danced to it in the middle of the road...Or South Linn Street. At least until the cops came and told us to quiet down.

3.) "Rich" by the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's. This song and this band always reminds me of Coadster. She was so into them a few years ago and listened to them in the way only junior high kids can stand - over and over and over and over. She didn't quite ruin them for me, but I still can't listen to them all that often.

I think this is it's best angle right here. Sure, she's got that walnut in her mouth, but she can still pull off the full frontal.

4.) "Come as You Are" by Nirvana. This song reminds me of my friend April. She worked with me at Great Midwestern when this song was big. She used to think the lyrics were "...Oh yes, I smell and I don't have a job..." And I can't hear them any other way now. I bet Kurt Cobain wishes he had written them that way too.

5.) "Fox on the Run", by Sweet. Hell, I can't remember if I've ever admitted to you all how much I love the band, Sweet, but I do. "Love is Like Oxygen" is probably my favorite Sweet song, but this one is a close second. It was the soundtrack of every skating or make-out party I went to in junior high. When I was 19 and just starting to work at a restaurant in Iowa City called The Mill, the other cook recited the lyrics to me out of the blue, like he was starting a conversation, "I don't want to know your name. Cuz you don't look the same. The way you did before." I played it off and tried to act all serious while responding, "Okay. You think you got a pretty face, but the rest of you is out of place. You looked alright before." He was my best friend for years after that.