Let’s march to a different drummer than that last one
Sunday October 19th 2008, 11:51 am
Filed under: Life

Thank you everybody for the input and help; I think the biggest reason I didn’t knit yesterday was I just wasn’t up to it. Today’s a good deal better.

Now.  It’s much easier to learn something or remember something if it’s set to music.  And it’s much easier to maintain a rhythm at something if there’s music going; many a store has installed muzak to get people to slow down and look around more at the merchandise.  Or, in the case of some stores I know of that cater to teenagers, loud, edgy music to drive their parents away so the kids can look more cool, ie be seen hanging out there while definitely not with Mommy nor Daddy.

I like to knit to music, and the tempo often matches without my even noticing.  When I’ve got a heavy deadline looming, I have a tendency to pick out albums with more verve and energy to them.

My apologies in advance for the earworms I’m about to inflict on you.  Someone somewhere, who must have been a teenager in the ’70’s too, was teaching a CPR class and came up with a way to demonstrate how to aim for the right number of compressions per minute a rescuer should be doing.  Which is 103, ideally.  You ready?

“I. I. I. I’m staying alive, staying alive.”

Okay.  Well, it’s the right idea for your heart attack victim anyway. This, though, not so much: (using *!* to represent sharp drum beats)

“*!* *!* *!* Another one bites the dust!  *!* *!* *!*”

(With thanks to John, RN, for the information.)


11 Comments so far
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Snicker. Definitely an earworm (must go listen to something else for a while!), but one worth having if it helps at the crucial moment 🙂

Comment by Jocelyn 10.19.08 @ 12:52 pm

Well, I *think* I’m grateful to you. : ) My husband heard this report on the radio and has been following me around for two days trying to sing it so that I could appreciate the story. Luckily, I couldn’t recognize it from his attempts, which were a combination of nonsense syllables and whistling through his teeth. At least now I can somewhat recognize what he has been trying to sing. He’ll be relieved. LOL

Comment by Linda 10.19.08 @ 1:45 pm

There are times I feel that my space is being polluted with music I don’t like at all such as a car stopped at a light with radio blaring and windows rolled down.

Personally, I love to listen to Enya while knitting.

Comment by Joansie 10.19.08 @ 2:08 pm

Music can make all the difference to keeping the knitting mood and flow going. I hope you are feeling better. I woke up with a cold yesterday too. No work for me today, I still don’t feel up to the pace and pressure of it. I hope you are feeling better.

Comment by Vicki 10.19.08 @ 2:23 pm

I hadn’t really thought about knitting to music to take advantage of the beat. Hmm…Is there where that Abba album DH bought me comes into play?

Comment by Ruth 10.19.08 @ 2:25 pm

I’ve often noted that I knit faster during action scenes or tense drama on television, and will try to keep pace with fast music. It’s no coincidence the pair of socks I finished in 5 days were a weekend spanning an Irish music festival! (The only problem being that especially catchy tunes led to foot tapping and dropping the knitting to clap, which combines really poorly with a short-row heel.)

In the earworm dept, I’m currently reading “The World In Six Songs” by Daniel Levitin, which quotes many well-known songs- the BeeGees really aren’t competing much! (Some interesting stuff in this, though I liked his book “This is Your Brain on Music” even better.)

Comment by RobinH 10.20.08 @ 5:39 am

Those were two of my favorite cleaning songs :-}
GREAT for scrubbing.

Comment by Diana Troldahl 10.20.08 @ 6:22 am

I heard that this morning. At the risk of sounding unfeeling, I think I would have found working “codes” less stressful if we’d had music in the background. I certainly would have enjoyed teaching CPR more!

Comment by Channon 10.20.08 @ 6:33 am

As far as earworms go, there could be worse. I like Queen and actually enjoy the Bee Gees. But as Marge Simpson says “Music is none of my business.” And yes, “Another One Bites the Dust” is macabre. As for knitting, political satire seems to be great background. I hope it becomes harder to knit in November.

Comment by LynnM 10.20.08 @ 7:13 am

“we are the champions, my friend…” I had a teacher that used to play that album in class for us.

Comment by Carol 10.20.08 @ 4:07 pm

My cleaning music of choice is Scott Joplin. Keeps me moving at a task I’d rather run from.

Comment by wunx~ 10.21.08 @ 1:20 am



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