say yes to one and let the other one ride

Yesterday, friend CJ used my ice cream post as means of sliding past a bit of writer’s block. (I’ll never look at a creamsicle the same way again.) Today I’m referencing his post as a lead in to a brief look into the process – as much as there is one – I use in putting together theme posts. It’s all part of the 24/7 ouroboros buffet that is the blogosphere. Let the meta-goodness commence!

It all begins with a theme. Generally speaking, there are three ways that themes occur to me:

- inspirational – “Bolt from the blue” stuff.

- procrustean – Sometimes I’ll hear a song that I want to spotlight, and will weave an entire post around a certain aspect of it.

- opportunistic – This includes time-specific posts such as obituaries, tributes, commemorations, and holiday specials.

For some reason, I do better when I work on the fly. The ice cream and April Fool’s posts were conceived and written in the space of a half hour. If I put too much thought into creating a long form post, I tend to get bogged down by minutae, creating a sitiation akin to Leibnitz’s history of the House of Brunswick (i.e. excessively detailed and never completed). There’s a post I’ve been working on for the past week that’s been languishing in my documents folder because of tangential drift issues.

Track selection can be a tricky affair. While there are rare occasions where I’m able to figure out which songs I wish to use from the get-go, most of the time the process involves a bit of digging. The Windows file search utility and a glance at my archive spreadsheet, plus ample use of AMG, Wikipedia, and the Flex database are invaluable in this. When those fail, it’s time to make a trip to the attic and sift through my non-digitized music collection, which due to environmental hazards, is not the most pleasant of experiences.

(On a related note, for some inexplicable reason, any time I have to go upstairs to search for something, my bladder reflexively sends a burningly urgent “MUST PEE NOW!” signal to my brain, no matter whether I relieved myself before the expedition or not. Does this happen to anyone else, or is it just another irritating aspect of being Andrew?)

There are other factors to consider when selecting songs. Did I use a song by the same artist in the past month? I try to avoid dipping into the same wells too frequently for ethical and aesthetic reasons. (In all honesty, I could easily do what I’m doing here using the collected discographies of only a half-dozen acts – bis, The Clash, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Carter USM, The Byrds, and Lene Lovich.)

On occasions when there’s a wide selection tracks pertaining to a given theme (i.e. ice cream), I have to cull the pool down to a reasonably postable number. Some themes could easily warrant a four CD box set and I know folks who relish the task of putting such things together for their own use, but it’s not what Armagideon Time is about. When deciding which song make the final cut, I factor in both my personal tastes with the various songs’ levels of obscurity. There’s no point in my posting a song by UberSuperIndieBand if everyone is already familiar with it, and I’m apathetic about it.

Based on the feedback I’ve gotten, it’s my personal touch that sets this place apart, and I try to reflect that in the song choices. It’s not that I’ve necessarily “forgotten” or “shown no love” for an omitted track, it’s that I picked what resonated with me and what the readers might not have been aware of.

Throw in some rambling commentary and purchase links, find a vaguely relevant panel or sequence of panels from an old issue of Captain Marvel Adventures or some random DC comic book, and you’re good to go!

Big Drill Car – Freedom of Choice (from Batch, 1987) – Oh, no, it’s a Devo cover…and a very nice one, too.

The Lovin’ Spoonful – Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind? (from Do You Believe in Magic, 1965) – Remember when Dylan drove Nat crazy by repeatedly playing this song on the Peach Pit’s jukebox? That was a stunningly subtle way to show his inner conflict over having to choose between Kelly and Brenda. The early 1990’s were my personal “lost (part-of-a-)decade.”

In case anyone asks:

Hüsker Dü – Indecision Time (I used a Dü track a few days ago.)

Scissor Sisters – I Can’t Decide (Great song, like a raunchy outtake from The Phantom of the Paradise soundtrack, but no.)

Black Flag – Can’t Decide (Listened to this way too many times in college. My War was the worst choice for a breakup album ever.)

Twisted Nerve – Indecision (Interesting, but not the group’s best work.)