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I had an interesting musical experience these past couple of days.

I was on vacation last week, and while waiting in line for ice cream, this song came on over the PA system, very techno dance music, and I thought it must be something from the eighties... until the main part of the song kicked in, and I realized it was "Poker Face." Believe it or not, I had never properly heard the very beginning of the song.

But it got me thinking of a song we used to warm up to in a jazz class I'd taken in college... in the spring of 1986. It had a similar bass line to "Poker Face," and also was also very techno/ electronic dance music. The vocals were (from what I remembered) done by a group that included both male and female singers. I could only remember a few words of the chorus, something like "we got it all lined up." Although I had liked the song at the time, I had never asked the instructor of the class what it was. Too shy, I guess.

So Monday found me searching around the Internet, Googling that little snippet of lyrics, and finding nothing that matched. At last, desperate, I emailed a very music-savvy friend who lives in New York to see if she had any clue in frilly heck what I was talking about. Later that night, she emailed me back with a link to a video. It was indeed the song I remembered. Mystery solved: the tune in question is called "Lined Up," by a band called Shriekback. The lyrics are, in fact, "we are all lined up," which is why I'd had no luck in my Internet search.

Now, to find a copy of the song. That proved incredibly frustrating. It's not on iTunes. It's not on any CD I could find from any on-line seller (for less than $75, anyway). The album that had included the song was released on vinyl in 1983 and apparently only ever released on CD in Australia. (!!!!) So I Googled and Googled, and finally found the blog of a semi-professional DJ in California who had gone on a very similar hunt for the song and had posted it on his blog as an MP3 for anyone who wanted it to download. Huzzah! Two seconds later, the song was on my hard drive, and two seconds after that, it was on my iPod. I've been listening to it incessantly for the past twelve hours.

And all this just got me thinking: it took me less than 24 hours from start to finish to acquire this song, and I never had to leave my chair. In the past, this sort of thing would have driven me outside, to one music store after another, searching through racks and bins until I finally found the elusive object of my quest. And now, thanks to the wonders of the Net, these things can be found with just a few clicks of a mouse.

Of course, after all that, I had to buy "Poker Face," too, off of iTunes, because that's what had started me down this whole road in the first place. Well, that and ice cream. : )

--EA Week

Classical. Something quiet, like Chopin. And keep the volume down to "only just audible." I find there's nothing more anxiety-provoking than loud music. And if you can possibly avoid it, no TV in the waiting area. Waiting for a doctor's appointment can be such a nerve-wracking time, and listening to endless reports of war, disaster, and economic meltdown are IMO unlikely to improve that.

Just my two bits' worth.

--EA Week