Headphones On

Three months ago today, two friends and I made a plan that 2006 would be "The Summer of Fun". We met up at a bar for the kickoff, ran into (what seemed like) a million friends and ended up having a pretty great little party until the street side patio closed. It seemed like a pretty auspicious start to "The Summer of Fun." Emphasis on seemed like.

Little did we know it would be the highlight for the three of us. We made so many plans we couldn't keep. We figured we'd be hanging out for a nonstop erotic cabaret¹. None of this happened and I've barely seen either of them since the summer began. The majority of the past few months held heartache, ridiculous working hours and way too much tedium for any of the three of us to endure.

It wasn't all bad... I did manage to hang out with some of my favorite people in the world in LA and Brooklyn, DJ a couple of fantastic parties, see some amazing live music, enjoy the benefits of the Chicago's beautiful summer², spent some time with my wonderful Maltese former-roommate, etc. But all-in-all... this summer was NOT all it was cracked up to be³.

Tonight, marking 3 months since the start of "The Summer of Fun Suck" we were due to meet up at the bar where we kicked things off and send off this horrible summer in style. How fitting is it then to end this "Suck" by instead working a solid 12-hour day on only 4 hours of sleep? I had planned to kick this summer's a$$ all the way back to May but no such luck. So that's it. There's no more story, except for one thing...

Every summer a song ends up becoming my summer anthem. I latch onto these things like a security blanket. There were many strong contenders among this year's crop of hits from bands like The Pipettes, The Feeling, Phoenix, Gnarls Barkley, The Kooks, etc but ONE song stands alone as my summer anthem for 2006⁴...

With it's soul-inspired beats, it's intricately laid down samples and general good-time-fun-having-kinda-vibe, "Learnalillovinandgivin" wins in a landslide. Now, if only we could start summer over again so I could listen to the lyrics a bit better the first time round.

¹ My apologies to Marc Almond and Soft Cell for the nick.
² For a few minutes at a time anyway.
³ What does this actually mean anyway? "not all it was cracked up to be?"
⁴ Even if it doesn't represent the summer I've actually had but more the one in my head.

Buy some: Gotye