Different Stations

So yes, another Christmas with too much food (or meat to be specific), booze and expensive presents. It's funny how much effort we put in leading up to this day but it's all over before we even know it. I had fun though, I truly did. I'm really glad that I am still with the same group of good old friends whom I've shared many Christmas's with. This year we have some new additions to the group but that's alright, cos we still had plenty of fun and the vibes were really good. I s'pose the icing on the cake for me was sneaking in songs by Crowded House, Jason Mraz and Betchadupa (whom incidentally was playing in Melbourne tonight) at the party. It's amazing how I could be in a totally different environment (or in this case, a different city even) with different groups of people but the feelings invoked when I hear those songs are pretty much the same, that is, I get into my private little world where I'm all happy and uplifted and everything seems fine and that nothing matters at all. Of course, sometimes it works the opposite way for me where I'll be all pensive and sentimental when I hear certain songs, especially those that remind me of some incidents or someone even. I'm definitely not alone on this, because almost everyone feels the same way when it comes to music.

On that note, I reckon whatever songs or genre of music one gets into largely depends on what situation or place one is in at the period. For me, I s'pose I'll never get this crazy over Crowded House and Neil Finn if not for the fact that I'm in Melbourne this year. On the same note, the reason why I started the whole Jason Mraz obsession is due to the fact that the song "You and I Both" relates to an encounter I had with a person at that time and "The Remedy" was the song I needed (or the words in the song rather) at that time when I was so caught up with the whole to-head-back-to-Melbourne-or-not episode. The bottomline is, listening to Jason Mraz's first album will always remind me of 2003 while his live album will bring back memories of last winter when I was going through a really difficult, not to mention lonely, time. Despite the passing of time and having moved on and all, it is always a pretty amazing and fascinating experience to listen to some songs every now and then to bring back those poignant memories and feelings within yet again. It sounds pretty strange but it's true.

I s'pose it's still a tad too early to say what Crowded House and Neil Finn's music will remind me of. Afterall, depsite my rapidly-developed obsession, I'm still relatively new to their music. It will definitely be an amazing journey down memory lane when I play all these songs that I've been listening to so often nowadays, say, five or even ten years down the road.

And to go right back where I started, I really hope that the same bunch of friends whom I have spent Christmas with tonight will always be my friends. Since we have stood the test of the past decade, I am sure we can work on the next as well. On my part, I'm definitely willing to put in the effort.