Panic Attacks and a Music Quiz

Trebuchet is my new favorite font. I use it as my default font on all the funny little sites I build for work. This one got me props www.mypandorasbox.com. Alas, I don't built sites as quickly as I should (at least 1 an hour...more like 1 every 45 minutes is best, but this is a discussion for another day because I want to write about my panic attacks, please.) So. I house/dog sat for a friend this weekend, and the unfamiliarity and responsibility sent me back into those hot terror panic attacks that race my heart up and make my toes go numb. Nothing was wrong, but my body felt like telling me something was. It's been months since those attacks, and it infiltrated my perspective about everything. Now I'm back home and I feel better, but won't feel completely satisfied until my friend whose doggies I cared for calls me and tells me they survived well the interval between my departure and her arrival, which should be in a few hours. So, now I'm back home and am awaiting comforting normalcy to remove the racing heart. I think a music quiz will do the trick. Below is a series of questions found on my new myspace friend Brent's myspace blog. Once I answer these questions I think I'll go take a shower.


Q: What was the last CD you bought?
The last CD I bought, I believe, was Elizabeth Cotten. She has the sweetest voice.

Q: What song are you listening to right now?
I'm listening to a commercial. I don't know. It's very violin-driven. I think it was a car commercial.

Q: What was the last show you went to?
I don't really go to shows anymore. I tried to watch my friend Barb play her flute with locals The Wobbly Toms, who perform originals and obsurish Pogues covers, but I'm too raw for the bar scene at the moment. Prior to that, I believe was The Mountain Goats and oooh, some wonderful band whose name I can't recall at the moment...at Cafe 11 here in St. Augustine. That was some time in early 2005, maybe the spring? I'm not sure.

Q: Which artists do have the most CDs of?
I am a bad girl when it comes to CDs. I lose them. Over the years Elvis Costello has been the most consistent frontrunner.

Q: If you had the choice of only downloading songs or only buying CDs/albums/8-tracks for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
I would buy CDs. If I had an eight-track player I would buy 8-tracks. Preservation is important to me, not that you could tell that by the way I've treated my musical recordings, but I appreciate the album in its entirety, encased in art, orchestrated like a story or poetry collection. But I can't scratch downloads, so I've actually downloaded all my music. Even the ones that skipped, I can listed to completely now.

Q: If you can pull an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and erase a band from your memory that you used to love, which band would it be?
I wouldn't do such a thing because I believe all of our experiences teach us something, and I'm not embarassed by music I've loved. I loved the Doors when I was 14, and can't really listen to them now, but I'm not ashamed. I loved Motley Crue and Ratt when I was in middle school, but I also loved Lone Star and 10,000 Maniacs and REM at the same time. I still have the Lone Star and REM cassette tapes, but never bought the Crue (is there an e on the end of that?)

Q: Which band(s) do you wish you had seen?
I wish I had seen Sonic Youth in 1989 when they played at Einsteins. I was ready and walking out the door and my dad's photographer/buddy tore away from the house right at the moment I opened the front door to join my dad, Jim Quine (photographer), my brother Joshu, his girlfriend Jenny and his buddy Josh. I am still a bit resentful about that. Also, Jane's Addiction that same year. I was 15. I kept telling my older brother they were coming to Einstein's --- a million times I told him to go and to take me. He later read a concert review and said, "Damn, Jane's Addiction played at Einstein's. I wish I had known. I can't believe I missed it." I stared coldly at him from my side of the breakfast table. And part trois, he gave my Love and Rocket's ticket to someone who was supposedly holding it for safekeeping. These things keep me bitter.

Q: Who's the most overrated band of all time?
Phish. Rush? I don't know. "Of all time" is pretty major.


Q: Most underrated band of all time?
The Rock*A*Teens, I think, didn't get the major acclaim they deserved, but are quite critically acclaimed. They played, I remember, after Death Cab for Cutie at SXSW during a Merge showcase or something many years ago. Now Death Cab is so famous. It's funny to hear Death Cab songs at CVS. But then again, Lopez did sing, "If I wanted to be famous, I'da shot someone."

Q: Who had the greatest impact on popular culture, Elvis or The Beatles?
The Beatles, I believe. But I thnk that's just because I'm too young to recognize what Elvis did. He popularized rock'n'roll, but then the Beatles and the Stones took the same blues influences he did.

Q: Favorite albums of all time:
Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
My Aim is True by Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan
The Boy With the Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian
Fables of the Reconstruction by REM
("All time" makes me nervous. But I do adore the above big time.)

Q: You ever travel to a different time zone to see a concert?
Maybe. No, I don't think so. I don't think big like that, though I drove a number of hours to see 15 minutes of Morphine. And I drove a long ways to Lollapalooza II. Oh, how I loved Eddie Vedder!

Q: You ever say that you liked a song/artist just to impress a person of the opposite sex?
No way, man.

What was your prom theme?
The best, most absurd one ever -- "Under the Bridge" Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Q: Kanye West, musical genius or pompous dickhead?
The two descriptions aren't mutually exclusive.

Q: What's the most you ever paid for a concert? $80 for Elvis Costello at Chastain Park. He much preferred the Tabernacle, I could tell by his performance. The wine and cheese crowd were far too chatty and unappreciative.

Q: What's the most you ever paid for a CD/record?
I don't know. $30 for the LazyLinePainterJane Belle&Sebastian singles?

What's the best show you ever saw?
Beautiful early spring in Austin SXSW 1998. Budweiser and Guided by Voices in the park as the sun went down, followed by a gorgeous evening of Tom Waits playing every song I had playing in my head from the time I knew he was coming...all my favorites. I cried like a baby.
That, and a later early spring in Atlanta watching Lucinda Williams as the sun went down, baby girls loving life on their daddy's shoulders. It was a magical afternoon. And Sonic Youth at the Tabernacle. Elvis Costello at the Tabernacle (3 hour show and he kissed me on the lips!!!!!!!). And Belle&Sebastian and Stereolab, also at the Tabernacle. Yo La Tengo doing a Ronettes-style dance to "You Can Have It All" at the Variety Playhouse. Patty Smith at Variety Playhouse.

Q: You find the person of your dreams, everything you ever wanted in a person and their favorite band of all time is Sugar Ray, what do you do?
We change that whole Sugar Ray thing. Lack of exposure usually leads to such a downfall, so good lessons would be learned about good music.

Q: If you could reunite one band with all its original members who are still alive, which band would you reunite?
The Pixies. Oh, wait. They did that. I just sold my tickets back and skipped town before I got to witness such beautiful alchemy.

Q: If you could bring back one musician who died prematurely, which musician would you bring back? Jimi Hendrix.

Q: What does E G B D F stand for?
EgG Big Dog Food. I'm leaving that stupid response there. I've had too much caffiene.

Q: How would you describe The Arcade Fire to visiting aliens?
Like memory and childhood.

Q: When will Pete Doherty die?
Is this the guy who fronted the Libertines? He will live 4-evah.

Q: What's your favorite song(s) of all time? (Right this moment.)
Into the Mystic, Van Morrison. The Colors and the Kids, Cat Power. The Boy With the Arab Strab, B&S. Angels Wanna Wear my Red Shoes, Elvis Costello. Teenage Riot, Sonic Youth.

Q: What's the deal with indie rock boys wearing thick-frame glasses and indie rock girls looking like libriains?
It dates back to Buddy Holly. It's a sexy/nerd fantasy thing. I'm personally, however, never dating musicians with poor vision again. Especially if he's skinny and sensitive and wears those damn glasses. Damn these glasses!