Life is a Movie and Everyone Needs a Soundtrack Pt. 1

I have a confession to make: I have a song for every ~~grand~~ mundane thing that happens in my life.

Just the other day, as I had been musing how my life has rather taken the standstill route --- neither joyful nor tragic, I realized that I had not found the perfect word for it, but I have found the perfect song --- as always. I have a song for every week, I even have a song for the day, or for the month. And there's the songs of my life --- at least for the last twenty five years. Every heartbreak is defined by a song, and every beginning armed with its own tune. Music, as I have learned, underscores whatever we are feeling and experiencing and making it flourish better than what's already happening.

As part of the plan for the next seven months, and in an effort to make the 25th year of my life the best yet, I had to decipher what they were and give them to someone. While there were thousands of songs that served as the melody and the right words, there were these songs that have always formed part of any playlist I have ever made:

It took me quite a while to pin down the songs that will go down in this soundtrack. Since I am very fickle with my music taste {could listen to a song over and over in a day and be disgusted with it the next day}, I had to know and go over my Top 25 playlist many times before writing them down in a list.

I am scared of sharing my music --- not for anything condescending, really. I believe music is mostly an independent experience, each run of the song through the ears evoke a different feeling, sometimes better or worse than the other. I have always been afraid of being judged or be implicated for liking normal or mainstream or even corny songs. Then again, what's normal nowadays, right?

So here I am, and I share with you the Tara Cabullo Playlist. Indulge me, if you will:

1. This Side | Nickel Creek | 2002. Always have been my go-to song whenever I am afraid of anything, whenever I'm heartbroken, whenever there's something I need to conquer. When I think of the word 'soundtrack,' this automatically comes to mind. Always.

2. Hey Jealousy | Gin Blossoms | Dusted | 1989. If it ever was just about jealousy, or not, I would never really know. All I know is that this is my song for the regrets I have had, all the songs I wish I did well in or people I wish I showed better appreciation for. Enough said.

3. Beautiful Girl | INXS | Welcome to Wherever You Are | 1992. My 'applying-my-makeup-song' always. That makes the meaning of this shallow but I like feeling beautiful every morning so I'd start my day right.

4. Sleeps With Butterflies | Tori Amos | The Beekeeper | 2005. You say the word, you know I will find you, or if you need some time I don't mind. I don't hold on to the tail of your kite. I like the girls you've known but I believe I'm worth coming home to.

5. Upside Down | Two Minds Crack | The Victory Parade | 1986. Because.

6. Crash Into Me | Dave Matthews Band | Crash | 1997. Such a totally sweet song, but a bit graphic, too and I love it forever and ever, I'd like it as a wedding march.

7. Accidentally in Love | Counting Crows | 2004. This never fails to make me late in the morning because whenever this comes up on my iPod, I just have to finish singing it and of course it's a mini concert in my room. Always.

8. Sentimental Lady | Bob Welch | French Kiss | 1977. You have no idea how freakishly sentimental I am.

9. Crazy Love | Poco | Legend | 1979. If you want to make me cry, this is the song. Never fails.

10. Por Una Cabeza | Carlos Gardel | 1932. The original version actually sounds much more scarier and is a litany about how he {Gardel} was addicted to horses as he was with women. I am much more in love with the instrumental version of this though, as performed in the movie Scent of a Woman.