Wtorek 10 Kwi 2007, 12:27

I occasionally suffer from mild bouts of depression, sometimes seasonal, sometimes situational, always from a bad attitude.

I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, but I just started a playlist that includes any tune that cheers me the fuck up. Artists, genres, instruments, singers; it doesn't matter, just so long as the tune passes the test: It cheers me the fuck up.

I've found working on the playlist when depressed to be somewhat daunting, so I recommend doing this when you're feeling good, if you want to try it yourself.

Caring for my Mom during her last years, I noticed music seemed to totally cut through her dementia/Alzheimer's, and subsequently noted several research articles on Alzheimer's that made good mention of music's effects on patients.

Pure joy (which, for me, includes music) seems to nullify or bypass the stultifying intellect which is, after all, only a means of conveyance.

The upshot: I was walking around my old college stomping grounds, visiting Boston for a Photoshop conference. The town was the scene of my complete dissolution in the '70's; humiliation and discouragement my biggest memories of the town, even 30 years later.

I fired up my CHEER THE FUCK UP! playlist on the Pod, and within a few minutes my mood lightened and I was back in the present (just as music had seemed to do for my Mom in her last year). Thanks to the playlist I could access other memories of some of my humbler but more durable accomplishments from my bad old days in Boston, put the past to rest and enjoy the town.

ps i decided to take advantage of last.fm's Insert tag, so here's my CTFU playlist (I'll keep adding to it; it's tedious work):
Ain't That Peculiar
Shine
Latin Lovers
Busy Child
Tinsel Town
Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung
Hanid