Musical Interlude I

May 8

“Which came first, the music or the misery?” Rob (John Cusack) asks in Hi Fidelity. I saw the movie, and the read the the book, at a too impressionable age. The question has haunted me for over twenty years. Do I, because I? Or because I, do I?

I was a teenager in the later ‘90s. My prized possession was a portable black boom box that played CDs, cassettes, and the radio. I stayed up late, listening to music, often while crying. Sometimes I cried about the people on whom I had crushes, sometimes because of trig homework, and sometimes because my dad was dying. It was a fun time to be awake!

These three songs have been a soundtrack for my life, and perhaps a base layer for my insomnia or mental illness.

I got my feet on the ground and I don't go to sleep to dream.

“Sleep to Dream,” Fiona Apple