Driving Beat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krL6gbR-9bA

Take a second to watch the video above. Don’t worry … I’ll be here when you’re done.

Music is a huge part of my day, every day, without fail. During my performance season I have little say on the background track to my work day. Brahms, Dvorak, Shostakovich, Haydn are likely choices. I really can’t complain about hearing amazing musicians make amazing music all day. So I won’t, because I love it. But when the band’s away the mice may play? I even confused myself with that one.

Summer is a quiet time for the administrative offices. There’s a hushed and slow pace among the cubicles. For me on the other hand, summer is the time to rock. I have half of the floor to myself for maintenance projects and the only way to get through maintenance projects is with music pushing you through. There is just something wonderful about cranking a wrench to The Black Keys.

The Music Room is abandoned to the rest of the staff. No one has reason to travel to my side of the world when it’s just me over there. For that reason … I blast my PA with some obscene music. Really, I don’t think I have ever put a work appropriate CD in that player on my own time. On occasion I get an awkward encounter when a co-worker walks in on the lyrics:

In Berlin I saw, two men fuck in a dark corner of a basketball court
Just the slight jingle of pocket change pulsing

But mostly, my rockin’ out goes unnoticed. I think my department is rather used to hearing me sing to myself throughout the day. They know I can’t make it through the day without a rhythm to it.

This week however I have had the above song stuck in my head. I just want to repeat those words over and over. And I do! Today was the first time I was censoring my own self-singings. Each time I would start out with an enthusiastic “I might like you better baby”, then my brain would catch up to what was coming out of my mouth as I passed the reception desk and I would gracefully end it with “Ba-ba ba ba-ba baby”. Still I never really learned my lesson; I was trying to play that song off real-casual-like for the rest of the day.

Maybe I am making too much of this. Maybe my co-workers would like me better if we slept together. You never know.