Music tastes and summer

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run
- "Dog Days are Over," Florence + the Machine

What better way to start a post about my music tastes--and summer, or what's left of it--than with the refrain of "Dog Days are Over," from Florence + the Machine's first album, Lungs. You can probably already tell that I'm going through a serious fan phase right now. :) I personally prefer Ceremonials, though. Its haunting, ethereal quality has a way of surrounding you. I've had "No Light, No Light" stuck in my head more often than not, ever since I first heard it. ("No light, no light in your bright blue eyes / I never knew daylight could be so violent" and onwards.) "Never Let Me Go" is hands-down my favorite from Ceremonials ("Looking out from underneath, / Fractured moonlight on the sea / Reflections still look the same to me, / As before I went under"). These are lines that stick with you and rise up from memory at moments as passing, yet haunting, as the songs themselves. 

The Beatles, the Who, and Simon and Garfunkel round out the oldies music likes (a.k.a., soundtrack to my childhood, since my dad has always pretty much stuck to the radio station that plays 60s music). Mumford and Sons, Regina Spektor, Lily Allen, Lana del Rey, Gorillaz, Natalie Merchant, and This Is Your Captain Speaking (a local band, actually--they're really good) are current likes. So there. An unexpected consequence of all my Spotify-ing this summer: I finally have a solid answer for when people ask me "What kind of music do you like?" that doesn't rely on process of elimination.

So the discovery of the magic of earphones/listening to music that isn't necessarily what the rest of the family listens to (those two things are totally connected, by the way) aside, this summer has been pretty amazing. I like to say that ephemerality makes everything sweeter, and this summer felt so exceptionally short. One of my favorite quotes is this one, from Kate Chopin (this is the ending of her short story, "A Pair of Silk Stockings"):

"The play was over, the music ceased, the crowd filed out. It was like a dream ended. People scattered in all directions. Mrs Sommers went to the corner and waited for the cable car.

A man with keen eyes, who sat opposite to her, seemed to like the study of her small, pale face. It puzzled him to decipher what he saw there. In truth, he saw nothing – unless he were wizard enough to detect a poignant wish, a powerful longing that the cable car would never stop anywhere, but go on and on with her forever."
- Kate Chopin, "A Pair of Silk Stockings"

That quote (the story, in some ways) captures me; it'd be easy to make that cable car the metaphor for this summer, too. Much as I'm sure school is going to be fun, much as I look forward to various projects I'll be staring, journeys to embark on, TEDxRedmond hectic final planning to do, I've loved this summer and the people in it and I'll miss the cable car moments--those enthralling type that make me want to stay frozen in a memory forever. 

But...
Leave all your love and your longing behind you
Can't carry love with you if you want to survive

The dog days are over
The dog days are gone
Can you hear the horses
'Cause here they come
- "Dog Days are Over," Florence + the Machine