August 19, 2022 – The Seventy-Ninth Official Friday Night BeerBlog

You are asking a good question if it’s “What does that even mean?”. I’m even asking myself, but as I sit here every day with my head buried in a textbook or have eyes on the computer while my fingers tap across the keys at a furious rate, that is the answer I came up with. Truly, I have been in a Barbra Streisand kind of mood for like months.

Music Is My Gas

I listen to a shit-ton of music. All day. Straight up. I listen to music when I workout (Lizzo channel), when we ride (INXS, REM, but mainly 70s channels), when I go through my meditative morning routine (Dario Maranelli channel), and while (or should I say IF) I shower and get dressed. BUT I especially listen to music while I work, while I create content, while I study (these days). Music all day. And not just any ole rando radio station. I have many streaming options created and music lists curated from which I choose depending on what I’m working on, where my head is, and what my mood is.

Obviously it is easier for me to listen to music during the day given the research & creative nature of what I do. Luckily I am not on conference calls, in meetings, meeting patients or customers, or performing for zoom all day. And I am sorry if that describes your work day. Sad face emoji. But music is the gas that I need to give me the energy I need to get through the day.

Why Not Any Other Singer Or Band?

Back to Barbra Streisand. Babs has basically become the theme music of my work hours the last 2-3 months. The feeling snuck up on me, it was a need I stumbled into, and her music and other music like hers has been extremely beneficial for me during this time.

What is it about the Barbra Streisand channel to make me pretty dependent on it? Or what has it been about the last few months to tie me to this channel? I will say that becoming reliant on one channel isn’t something that I’m new to. It is something that my one track mind definitely does. Like when I was training for a marathon, I ran strictly to my Neil Diamond channel. When I was doing a lot of painting inside and outside the house, it was strictly the Lionel Ritchie channel.

I’ve gone through phases of David Bowie, Prophets of Rage, Sting, Little River Band, Pink Floyd, Justin Bieber, Shirley Horn, and Megan Thee Stallion – all in the last couple of years. And each of these phases were absolutely tied to things I was doing, goals I was working toward, or jobs I was working on at the time like Neil Diamond and Lionel Ritchie were previously.

Why The Funny Girl?

But right now, during the day, it’s the Barbra Streisand channel . This channel is full of Babs singing solo and Babs with the likes of Celine Dion, the Bee Gees, Bryan Adams and others. And then there are other tunes mixed in from the likes of Bette Midler, Michael Buble, the Carpenters, and Kenny Rogers (don’t laugh, you know you love a good Kenny Rogers song). The same songs are in a rotation in about a 4 hour block. When the block ends, it starts again. I hear and stop to listen to some of them (hello Lady Gaga’s I’ll Never Love Again from A Star Is Born), but the majority of them I don’t even hear because they are just melodic background.

These last few months I have been jamming and cramming through a lot of studying for my personal trainer certification, as well as content creation for this blog, the podcast, and a book of affirmations that I’m currently writing. There has been a lot of reading, reflecting, and mental building that has been happening in this season. For that reason, I was in need of finding something that landed between soft, familiar, and metronome-ish so that I would be able to crank out work while being audibly soothed.

Silence Carrys An AK-47

I know there are many people who can’t work with any distractions at all, music included. They have to have complete quiet. You may be one of them. For me, there is just NO WAY I would ever get anything done in total silence. It is deafening to me. I seriously believe I have to keep my ears busy in order for my other senses to work.

I know that I will eventually get tired of and move on from the Barbra station, much like I have with others, but it will have served its purpose because the things being done in this creative season are impressive, even to me. No judging because I totally wouldn’t say that about myself if I didn’t believe it.

The Concept Of Theme Music

I guess you could say that in this season, what I’m listening to on the Barbra Streisand channel has become the theme music to this stage of my creative life. Theme music is important because gives the moment in time more depth and deeper emotion tied to it. Somewhere down the line it might even help bring you back to a time that you may have felt more in tune with real feelings and with yourself, good or bad. I definitely have a tendency to tie my work to music. They become intertwined when I’m listening to one and creating the other.

She would never know this, but Barbra and her station have been quite inspirational in the things I’ve been thinking about trying and then stretching myself to do. And if this whole way of doing things sounds weird to you – I say, don’t knock it till you try it. Put on a soothing tune, pull out a pen and paper or belly up to your Microsoft Word, and GO. See what happens.

PODCAST version of the FNBB:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1594894/11168481