Song of the Day: "Freak When I'm Dead"

A column about music, and about how the music informs our lives. Today's author is Joe. See the previous songs HERE.

"Freak When I'm Dead"

King Tuff

from Was Dead

2008

After documenting all the blog columns yesterday, I was thinking about one in particular, Kailyn's Dozen. That's the limited-release blog column in which I tried to learn about a stranger by combing through her own list of favorite albums of all time. I was thinking about whether such an act is even possible.

Can you know someone better through the art and entertainment that they love? I would say yes. I don't think I would've completed the Kailyn's Dozen project if I didn't believe that. What you love is supposed to say something about you, right? Maybe not even "favorite things." Just things that you like. There is a reason you like it. That reason is found deep within you, and it's tied irrevocably to who you are and what you believe.

So after thinking about Kailyn, and about how everything I'll ever know about her is tied to the music that she told me she loved, I turned those thoughts to the self. What can people learn about me through the art that I love? In my opinion—a lot. I spend my whole fucking life on this blog typing it out.

But imagine there comes a time when I'm not here to type anymore. And now further imagine that there is someone on this blog who is infected with the same type of brain worms that I am (or was), and finds that they are interested in the pursuit of "knowing someone" through their chosen art and entertainment. What if they thought about their old pal Joe, the blog guy, and wondered what he was like, what he was actually like, and then decided that they were gonna root through some of his old pop culture artifacts, to see what they could learn.

What I'm proposing today is that, in the event that this hypothetical scenario one day becomes a reality, and that someone wants to write their own blog column in which they make large assumptions about me and my character and who I was when I was alive based on what music and movies and TV I liked, that I should probably help them in their quest. Ya know, get them started at least.

If you are that person, and I am currently dead, then here is a list of 50 items that you can move through. There are albums, songs, movies, TV episodes, and a few miscellaneous items on this list. All are designed to be consumable in a week's time (i.e. I did not include any books or complete TV series), just in case you want to spend a year on this project, one item per week (with breaks built in for Thanksgiving and Christmas). They are presented here in alphabetical order, but you could put them in any order that you want (though I would not suggest doing something like "and now, all seventeen albums in a row," because that's boring).

Most importantly, these are not necessarily my FAVORITE in any given category. Yes, some of my favorite albums and movies are on here, but you shouldn't assume that that's the reason they are here in the first place, and you shouldn't assume that anything is here because I love it. For some, I just like. For others, they were important at a certain point in my life but are not necessarily important now. For all 50 items, however, I chose them because I believe that, after watching or listening, you'll know something about me, something new that you never knew before.

As to what each says about me, that's up for you to figure out. After I'm dead.

(And yes, obviously I've already written about most of these on PoYB, but I'm not going to link to anything here. You can do the work. I'm dead. Let me rest.)

1. Aim and Ignite by fun.
2. American Fiction (2023)
3. "Bay of Pigs" by Destroyer
4. Beat the Champ by the Mountain Goats
5. Before Sunrise (1995)
6. Brief Encounter (1945)
7. Boys and Girls in America by the Hold Steady
8. Bluey: "Pass the Parcel"
9. Can't Hardly Wait (1998)
10. Come On and Slam EP by Sledding with Tigers
11. Community: "Cooperative Calligraphy"
12. Days Are Gone by Haim
13. Decipher by Gina Kaz
14. Dragonslayer by Sunset Rubdown
15. "Drinkin' Days" by Pkew Pkew Pkew
16. ESPN Films Presents: "Catching Hell"
17. Everything Goes Numb by Streetlight Manifesto
18. Fox in Socks
19. Fun House by the Stooges
20. Hey Arnold!: "Pigeon Man"
21. Highly Evolved by the Vines
22. Home, like Noplace Is There by the Hotelier
23. Illinois by Sufjan Stevens
24. "It's All Gonna Break" by Broken Social Scene
25. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: "The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award"
26. The Jason Lodge Poetry Book by Gothic Horizon
27. Jimmy Rollins Walk-Off NLCS 2009
28. "Joker Impression" (video clip, 2010)
29. Kids in Philly by Marah
30. The Last Waltz (1978)
31. Mad Men: "Signal 30"
32. Minesweeper
33. The Most Lamentable Tragedy by Titus Andronicus
34. Parks and Recreation: "April and Andy's Fancy Party"
35. Partysaurus Rex (2012)
36. "The Play" (clip of sporting event)
37. Pink Moon by Nick Drake
38. Ratatouille (2007)
39. Reba: "Grannies Gone Wild"
40. "Rep Ya Ghetto" by J-Will and T-Will
41. Robot Dreams (2023)
42. Roma (2018)
43. Russian Ark (2002)
44. Say Anything... (1989)
45. The Simpsons: "22 Short Films About Springfield"
46. "Sunday Candy" by Nico Segal and the Social Experiment
47. Super Mario Bros. (1993)
48. Teenage Halloween by Teenage Halloween
49. Terms of Endearment (1983)
50. Whiplash (2014)