hey guys. I made a mix a couple days ago, for a different challenge: subway songs. You're welcome to go check it out. Here's the liner notes:

01. Fuck You -- Headstones (2:40) [a song for quitting your job]

This is a song I would totally play after quitting my job. Probably with the volume way up and a bottle of beer in my hand. And maybe some single-person moshing.

02. (Gonna) Shine Up My Boots -- Corb Lund Band (2:15) [a song for committing a crime]

Whenever I hear this song, it always feels like the beginning of trouble to me. "Gonna scrape up twenty dollars/and throw it around." Play some cards, get into a barfight, maybe kiss on some pretty girls. It's a plan.

03. Pick it Up -- Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings (4:06) [a song for grooving on the subway]

If you don't start chair-grooving on this song, I don't know how you have ears.

04. C'mon C'mon -- The Von Bondies (2:14) [song for being the hero]

This is a song I could see in some crazy montage for Clark Kent saving, like, every teenager in a ten-mile radius of Smallville.

05. 1000 Miles Per Hour -- OK Go (3:33) [a song for an unexpected road trip]

But with a little bit of money we could buy us a car. With a little luck we could get away from where we are. Let's get out of here.

06. The Way You Do the Things You Do -- The Temptations (2:44) [song for cooking a five-course meal]

I would totally be dancing in the kitchen to this. With a spatula in my hand, barefoot, lip-syncing all the way.

07. Hello -- Christina Aguilera (3:44) [sone for making the world your stage]

This song was a random single-release for Mercedes Benz, but in true Aguilera style, she makes the whole song pretty powerful and positive. This is a real "you can do anything!" song.

08. One Fine Day -- Natalie Merchant (2:43) [song for drinking the last glass of wine]

I see a sofa looking out onto a glittering skyline, watching the night go by with soft music and a warm blanket.

09. Saving All The Love -- Joe Firstman (3:39) [a song for a grand, ridiculous romantic gesture]

Some days I'm certain there is no one more grandly, ridiculously romantic than Joe Firstman, who shows all his cards in his songs. He has these huge ideals about love and women and romance that can never live up to reality, but it never stops him from making the gesture anyway.

10. Be My Baby -- The Ronettes (2:39) [a song for seducing your favorite celebrity]

Nothin' like doo-wop for seducin', baby.

11. Don't Marry Her -- Beautiful South (3:21) [a song for confessing your unrequited love]

Beautiful South *owns* this feeling.

12. Higher Ground -- Red Hot Chili Peppers (3:20) [a song for dancing the night away]

Kind of a high note to end a mix, but this cover of Stevie Wonder by RHCP always has me on the floor, energized and dancing and running around. It's a great song for the need to dance.

Nothin' like doo-wop for seducin', baby.

That's not doo-wop, darlin'. That's definitive Girl Group. Doo Wop's usually male vocal groups with minimal instrumental backing (almost, but not quite, a capella), where the bass singer is doing a nonsense refrain like: doo shoobie deee wop. Like, uh, "I Only Have Eyes For You" by the Flamingos or "Get A Job" by the Silhouettes.

Also, no "Subway Train" by the New York Dolls?

Still, it's an excellent mix.

I stand informed! And no, no "Subway Train." Largely because I don't have that track.

Also, happy birthday, you. I was thinking of you last night--I put on "Beg, Scream, and Shout" to do the dishes to.

"My My Metrocard" by Le Tigre is also an excellent subway song.

"NYC" by Interpol, in which the subway is a porno.

The Jam's "Down in a Tube Station at Midnight". A song you definitely should not listen to if you're alone and uhhh... down in a tube station at midnight.

Elliott Smith's "The Biggest Lie" which I always play when I'm waiting for the el and feeling melancholy. It starts: "I'm waiting for the train/The subway that only goes one way." Sad dude.

And my goodness, Happy Happy Birthday Hec! May your year be full of juicy Waits insights, no writers' block and lots of family joy!

All this time, and nobody mentioned Petula Clark's (okay, Jimmy Webb wrote it) "Don't Sleep in the Subway, Darling"?

Someone just offered me a bunch of codes each of which are good for downloading 30 songs off of iTunes. I'm thinking I should focus on iTunes "exclusives" since I have access to most other stuff via the radio station. What exclusives should I download?

A quick glance through the exclusive menu and I see The White Collar Boy EP (which is not listed as available on the Belle and Sebastian site so may actually be an exclusive) and... uhm, not much else. A remixed Sonic Youth single...

iTunes has a Mountain Goats EP that is only available in Australia right now called Babylon Springs. Whoa. Perusing the Mountain Goats selection tells me that the song "Cotton" was included on the soundtrack for that showtime series "Weeds." Go them!

That's not much help but there you have it.