I don't have words for how I'm feeling right now. Having call to search up those cell phone recordings I made of Eric's solo show last July (all 17 minutes of them), I found the clip I was looking for but then decided I wanted to listen to the others. And here I am suddenly in a different world. I feel like I'm there again, with my friend Jane who was awed by them - so soon on her way to South Carolina for a crazy year with Americorps, getting teary-eyed as Adam came up and sang the last song, Fortunate, with defiant just-see-if-you-can-get-me-off-this-stage Eric. There are all these things we can't possibly remember, just too much stuff in every day to keep on top of. So listening to these songs reminds me of then, the things I felt then, which seems so long ago in terms of all the things that have happened in the interim even though it was such a short while. And I know that when I'm 60, even if I don't remember what I was wearing or where we went afterwards, I'll remember the emotions. And I'll smile. 'Cause those were some good times. Are some good times. And right up till now I didn't even think of all this change, how even in a year everything has just continued to move forward and change. But these memories, they haven't.

In one of my classes undergrad, we discussed how even people with Alzheimer's continue to respond to music. Specifically, people at an elderly Jewish center (in this context) who couldn't remember their names could sing their way through entire songbooks. From memory, or maybe you could say from emotion. These things really, truly are always with us, and if we forget during most of our waking moments, it's good to have these moments to remind us.

Man. What a strange 'journey' this whole Common Rotation thing has been. Listening to this, I recall still thinking a month between shows would kill me, worrying and wondering if they'd just up and disappear.

I'm gonna love every one of these memories when I'm older, if possible, even more than I do now. And I know I can't be alone on this.

deborah

Wow deb I agree entirely... I want to share my storties but I can't I simply don't know what to say and for a chatterbox like me this is a first.Its about the emotions and the memories attached to them. Sometime Common Ro feels like a giant warm hug. That makes no sense huh? well it does to me kind of....

Right there with you. There are scores by Christophe Beck that give me chills. I cannot skip a single track on the instrumental score to North by Northwest nor the original movie soundtrack to Singin' in the Rain. Then there are the songs that make me recall certain times, places and faces. . .

http://www.rocktherock.com
http://www.slayground.net/yourgirl

I kind of felt Tuesday like going to a Common Rotation show is... going where everybody knows your name.

They don't, actually, but don't get technical. Roll with me.

My roommate (being the heathen that she is) recently scoffed at me when I told her I was turning down a free screening of Matrix 2 on Friday to go and see Common Rotation again after just seeing them on Tuesday. I tried to explain the whole Big Fear / Union Maid thing, in that I'm DYING to hear Union Maid songs live (especially ones having to do with ice cream), and isn't a folk show better than some damn Keanu Reeves movie anyway? It's not like they only show it once and it goes away. And I mean, we ain't talkin' Dogstar here. This is Common Rotation. This is folk. This is rock. This is life. This is, occasionally, getting liquored up and embarrassing yourself and hoping that Rick won't later remember your drunken ramblings about the power and glory of Tenacious D. This is having one too many Hard Lemonades and thinking to yourself, "That was a nice hug. Did I just accidentally grab Adam's ass?"

Not that I've ever done that or thought that. That was just an example. No, really.

What was my point, again? Aw, nevermind. Deb's the eloquent speaker in my circle. I completely derailed myself with all that talk about the D and asses and yes, I would like a hard lemonade, if it's not too much trouble.