Shred baby, shred!

It should come as no surprise that I, as all people who breathe, love music. If you don't love music, try putting a mirror underneath your nose. You'll notice an odd lack of fog on that mirror. You know why? It's because you're clearly dead. If music has no effect on you, life doesn't flow through your veins. (and if I've offended you, then please accept my sincerest apology, I'd hate to lose readers, even if they're lifeless music haters). So, in stereotypical fashion, I've decided that it's time to post my inspirational design playlist. This is a list of songs that I not only enjoy, but that help strip away the dull veneer of everyday life and reveal the technicolor party underneath. In order to provide brevity, the list will be limited to ten or fewer. I'll decide as I write, so the number is arbitrarily less than ten.

1 | "La vie en rose" as performed by Mia Doi Todd.
2 | "First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes
3 | "Till Kingdom Come" by Coldplay
4 | "Let's Dance to Joy Division" by The Wombats
5 | "Postcards from Italy" by Beirut
6 | "Black Swan" by Thom Yorke
7 | "Jesus Etc." by Wilco
8 | "Let it Rain" by OK Go
9 | "If I Were a Bell" by Red Garland
10 | "Gymnopedie No. 3" written and performed by Eric Satie

Those are all pretty likely to make it into my playlist on any given day. They all inspire me in some way, whether it be the mind-clearing beats in "Black Swan" or the contradictorily mournful voice of Todd. About half of these songs (1,3,6,7,8 okay, so maybe exactly half) appear to be somewhat depressing either in tone or lyric, but I think that there's a richness to the music and a depth of meaning to the vocals that makes them particularly compelling and creative. Likewise, Garland and Satie's compositions are beautiful and complex in their own ways (and each variation of Satie's composition stands beautifully in contrast to it's siblings).

I've found over time that music is integral to the creative environment. Silence, at least in my experience, creates some sort of mental vacuum that turns creative tasks into mundane duties. It turns an artistic process into a tic on a checklist. Maybe it's because I watched enough Sesame Street as a child to turn my brain into some trippy, hyperactive playground. I like to think it's because beautiful sensations work together to inspire new creations. Just like the magical way that smell and taste of hot cocoa enhance new snowfall, and the smell of a woodfire and the taste of s'mores enhances the feel of a cool autumn day. Beautiful music and an incredible visual environment further enhance my own ability to design and create.

*Addendum: If the title to the post was a bit confusing, it's because I'm watching the debates and was thinking about Led Zeppelin as I began to write. They're pretty awesome (Zep that is). If I were going to add a number 11, it would be "Gallows Pole". Check it out. Check out all of their music. It's great.