Ever since moving out and leaving my extensive music collection behind on my family computer, I've been more or less without mp3s. I'd listen to my mp3s pretty much nonstop for hours on end (the joys of being a student and having a sountrack while working away on the computer!) Keep in mind, as well, that I don't have an ipod. (Weird, I know.)

Years earlier I had downloaded the Last.fm widget which, much like MOG, tracks the songs you listen to. I had completely forgotten about my last.fm account, and had no idea that for over a year, this little program was tracking everything I was listening to and broadcasting it out to the world.

My sister would periodically comment on what I had been listening to recently. It always surprised me that she was on top of what i had been listening to. It creeped me out until she told me she listens to my last.fm profile. She learned a lot of new music this way. I was floored that this entire time, she could catch a glimpse into my deceptively-private playlists.

However, this worked much to my advantage as now that I live on my own without my thousands of mp3s (or an ipod to transfer them!) So I just log into my last.fm "radio station" and get a shuffled playlist of all the music I'm missing.

And some of this stuff, especially when it's random, just makes me so happy! I thought i'd share this joy-inducing playlist with you.

Supergrass - Movin'

Gomez- Shot Shot

My Morning Jacket - Just One Thing

Dead Man Ray - Toothpaste

West Indian Girl - Miles from Monterey

KT Tunstall - Under the Weather

Police- Wrapped Around Your Finger

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Foc

It's just one of those days where each song that comes on makes me very happy. (In contrast to some days-- and I'm sure you have these too-- when absolutely *nothing* appeals.) I was thinking about how Last.fm makes the songs more appealing somehow because you can't control what comes on when. Had I selected that playlist myself, I would have grown impatient with the music.

Last night I came to a cold, empty apartment and turned on my old 70's era radio/turntable to fill the empty space. I quickly turned it to the only station with clear reception, a classic rock station that I rarely listen to, since it doesn't always play the best stuff. But at this moment, the timing was impeccable- Without any DJs or advertising interludes, "Red Hill Mining Town" from U2's The Joshua Tree began. One of my all-time favourite songs but rarely played on the radio, I really enjoyed this serindipitous moment... and much to my delight, the song flowed seamlessly into "In God's Country." I soon realized that I happened to turn my radio on right at 8:00, when the station plays a B-Side of a classic album. Pure coincidence as I never listen to this station. But the one time I did, it happened to be my favourite side of my favourite album of all-time!! I was overjoyed as I listened to the b-side of the Joshua Tree all the way through to the heartbreaking "Mothers of the Disappeared."

Something has to be said for music that comes on at random. Music can have an extra sweetness when you had no control over it. As Big Wreck sang in "That Song,"

"So I always get nostalgic with that song

But in my room it's forced,

It has to be in some car across the street..."