Soundtrack of My Life

Wow, this took forever, but here it is, in it's entirety: Medium Pimpin': The Life and Times of Angie A. Just like the majority of you all, I wanted to change a lot of the songs after I burned all the cds and started writing descriptions for each song. Man, there's so many songs I could've used for the soundtrack of my life...all good, though! Most of these songs are dear to my heart...hope you enjoy :D

Opening Credits: "September" - EWF
I was born one day before the day they celebrate in this song. I love this song...great opener!

Waking-Up Scene: "Gotta Get Up (Another Day)" - Jill Scott
Back in the days when I had my massive Aiwa stereo system, I programmed it to play this song when I woke up in the morning. "I don't want to go to work today, I'd rather stay home and play video games, I wanna chill." YES!

Spring Scene: "Miles Ahead" - Miles Davis
This song brings back feelings of nostalgia for my freshman year. A couple dorm buddies and I took History of Jazz our freshman year and I remember the first time I heard this song, I was hooked on Miles for life. And though we took the class during winter quarter, I still associate it with the spring just because I remember listening to it almost everyday for the rest of my freshman year.

Average-Day Scene: "In the Flesh" - Jurassic 5
Man, Jurassic 5 brings me back to my early high school days, when I was just an average Ang. I first heard J5, my freshman year of high school on the Cali Kings mixtape and I was hooked. I burned a hole in my cd deck 'cause I listened to them everyday. Extraordinary song for an ordinary day.

Best-Friend Scene: "The Light" - Common
My best friend, Dee, and I love Common. I love this song, she loves this song. One valentine, I gave her a sun-shaped construction paper with "Granted we've known each other a long time/It don't take a whole day to recognize sunshine" on it...she cried.

First-Date Scene: "Top of the World" - The Juliana Theory
I've never been on a date-date. When I do though, I'll put a paper in my pocket that says "You can take me anywhere."

Falling-In-Love Scene: "Find a Way" - A Tribe Called Quest
I'm an ol' skoo hip hop head. Tribe all the way. And though this is some relatively new Tribe, I luh it. "Messin' me up my whole head/Teasin' me just like Tisha did Martin, now look at what you startin'/School boy crush and it ain't on the hush/The whole world see it but you can't..." Yup, fallin' in love, yo (especially when that bassline drops...woooo).

Love Scene: "The Sweetest Thing" - Lauryn Hill
The sweetest thing I ever known is this song. Love the bass line, the guitar, plus, L-Boogie had to be in my soundtrack somewhere.

High Scene: "93 'til Infinity" - Souls of Mischief
The first 18 seconds of this song, with Tajai speaking over the keys: pure sublimity. 'Nuff said.

Hook up Scene: "Any Time, Any Place" - Janet Jackson
This song is nasty. I love it. Especially in the rain.

Sex Scene: "In a Sentimental Mood" - John Coltrane & Duke Ellington
Classy. Sexy. None of that hardcore porno music. Yuck.

Summer Scene: "On My Mind" - Donovan Frankenreiter
Donovan is the man! I like this song because I can play along to it. Good chill music for beach season.

Fight-With-Friend Scene: "Collide" - Howie Day
There's a lot of sentimental value attached to this song. It reminds me of a time when a couple of friends and I were going through some really rough times. Actually, when I hear this song, the line "Even the best fall down sometimes" just gets to me. That line and the 2nd verse...yeah, too much...it brings me straight back to that time.

Break Up Scene: "Green Eyes" - Erykah Badu
If you haven't heard this song in its entirety, you need to sit down and listen to it. The song is composed of three movements: Movement I: Denial, Movement II: Acceptance, and Movement III: Relapse. The emotion in her voice: the bitterness, the desperation, the denial, the defeat--Badu captures the essence of the break up wholly. FYI, she wrote this song after her break up with André 3000. Yup, good stuff.

Get-Back-Together Scene: "Let's Stay Together" - Al Green
"Lettttttt's, letttt's stay togeeettthhhhhherrrr." OK!

'Life's Okay' Scene: "I Won't Spend Another Night Alone" - The Ataris
Once again, another song that reminds me of high school. I used to listen to this kind of music and be sad about not getting with the love of my life. That's back in the day when life was just "okay".

Fall Scene: "October Sky" - Javier
Good fall song. It makes me want to take a park through Central Park in the middle of October after I just broke up with my fiancé or something.

Heartbreak Scene: "I Can't Make You Love Me" - Bonnie Raitt
Man, this song is good. So sad, so good. I remember liking this song when it first came out...yeah, that was when I was like 8 when I didn't even know what heartbreak meant. But yeah, a classic heartbreak scene for an unrequited love: "I can't make your heart feel something it don't..."

Mental-Breakdown Scene: "Trouble" - Coldplay
This song always reminds me of the drive home on Bastenchury (spelling?) coming from SOL's Youth Rally my second year of college. I just remember driving in my Accord with the windows down and contemplating along the dark road. Second year was tough for me, therefore I award the mental-breakdown scene to my second year!

Driving Scene: "She Lives in My Lap" - André 3000
I commuted from Buena Park my second year and there are two albums I will forever associate with my commutes to and from UCI: Jay-Z's The Black Album and OutKast's Speakerboxx/The Love Below. This is one of the songs I would bump at night, speeding down the 5 southbound on the way to see the homies.

Winter Scene: " St. Patrick's Day" - John Mayer
This songs reminds me of all things winter: pea coats and peppermint white chocolate mochas, Christmas lights, and long nights. Just a good song for a good season in my life.

Lesson-Learning Scene: "Gavin's Song" - Marc Broussard
"Be good for your momma/Cuz she'll need a hand to hold/Boy she loves you/More than you'll ever know" I love this song. Marc Broussard has a lot of emotion in his voice--a gritty passion, raw and tender-hearted. And this line is awesome: "I wish you heartache that leaves you more of a man" and basically all the verses paint the lessons an away-from-home dad would want to teach his son. Very good.

Falling Asleep Scene: "The Long Day is Over" - Norah Jones
I love me some Norah...especially when laying in bed, while it's raining outside, lights off, vanilla candles lit, about to go to sleep. So relaxin'...I'm surprised at myself for actually not putting "One Flight Down" which is my favorite Norah song, but I recently just discovered how good a song this one is.

Deep-Thought Scene: "Resolution" John Coltrane
A Love Supreme always gets to me. Whenever I write poetry, I put on this album. When he comes in and just blows...wow. Get on the Col-trane y'all....good ish.

Flashback Scene: "The Background" - Third Eye Blind
This is a freakin' sad song. My roomie, Lisa, from freshman year agreed on this album, specifically this song. I like this song...the guitar lick at the beginning...yeah. Also, this song flashes me back to the engagement drama when I drove to San Clemente at 5:44 in the morning by myself.

Party Scene: "Vivrant Thing" - Q-Tip
"It's the A-N-G-to the Edouble A, rockin the M-I-C for the OXNARD, C-A" How gay is that? SUPER. But this was the first beat I freestyled over at a house party. Good memories. The BFA boys talked to me after and from then on it was history. BANNED FRUM AZIA!!

Regret Scene: "Ordinary Pain" - Stevie Wonder
I seriously had to put some Stevie up in here somewhere. I like this song...the man's perspective and woman's perspective. Yeheyyy!

Happy-Dance Scene: Joints and Jams - Black Eyed Peas
Have you guys seen the video to this? You know how at the end they were dancing all crazy? Well I remember my friends and I would try to dance like that...you can imagine how that looked. Good memories, this song. Oh yeah, it also reminds me of all the old school "hawtees" (as in hotties) on my high school All-Male Dance Team.

Long-Night-Alone Scene: "Sometimes" - Bilal
"This is a song that makes me spill out all my guts" Exactly. Signature ?uesto drum sound, introspective lyrics, good range...and this line makes it my long-night-alone scene: "I wish I wasn't me...sometimes."

Spiritual Scene: "Love" - Musiq
I like this song a lot. When I first heard it, something just clicked in my head and I said "This is a God song." Since I can remember my theological train of thought is "God is love. Love is God." Throughout this whole song you can replace every instance of the word "love" with "Lord" and the song will still make perfect sense--if not even better.

Closing Credits: "Off the Wall" - Michael Jackson
Wacko Jacko is the man. I couldn't choose between all the million of his hits, so I picked this one because I think it's a fun closer...one that doesn't provide a full sense of closure, but instead a kind of joyful hope until next time...

So, Keerzy B. Ascio, what's next?