There are some songs that are so monumental that I clearly remember where I was when I first heard them.  The thing they have in common is that they are musically revolutionary.  As the song plays I can feel the depth of its impending impact on music culture.  It’s revealed to me slowly as my brain fails to classify the song and I realize how much it will change the current structure.  Here are the most memorable to me:

NIRVANA

One of the strangest song stories I have is from college.  I was at a party and was um, imbibing, and there was this music playing that was just so good I kept asking the hostess who it was.  She kept telling me but I kept forgetting and would ask her again a few minutes later.  Finally in exasperation she took a slip of paper and wrote, “NIRVANA,” on it and put it in my hand (it was the Bleach album).  The next morning I found the paper in my pocket and had no recollection of what “NIRVANA” referred to but figured I must’ve had a great time at her party!  I taped the paper on my mirror in my dorm room, hoping I could reach nirvana every night.

Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)

Two years later, I pulled into the parking lot of Antone’s Records in Austin and this song was on the radio. I stopped the car, sat there, and listened, stunned.  In the era of Guns n Roses, this was something so raw and real yet pop perfect that I knew the game had just changed completely. It took several more months before I put two and two together and realized that’s what the “NIRVANA” paper on my mirror referred to this band!

Come Away With Me (Norah Jones)

This video came on while I was walking out of my bedroom and I remember thinking, “Oh yet another beautiful ingénue singing a forgettable song,” but as I stood and listened to the lovely simplicity and sincerity in her voice I took another look and knew that this was a face that we would become quite familiar with.

I’m Just a Girl (No Doubt)

I was driving down I-5 to Capitol Hill and my first thought when I heard this was, “What the hell kind of drugs is Madonna on now?”  As the song progressed I debated whether Madonna would dare use guitars that rockin and while I thought Madonna might be able to pull off the feminist message, I had the feeling that I was listening to a voice that was going to eclipse even the Material Girl herself.

Bring Me To Life (Evanescence)

Driving down 520 I heard the piano plinking and almost turned it off, thinking it was Tori Amos.  Amy’s voice was so haunting I hesitated before changing stations and as the guitars entered I was blown away.  By the time the rap bridge hit, I knew this was a game changer.

Time is Running Out (Muse)

OK, this song may not have totally revolutionized modern music culture, but it sure was revolutionary to me.  At first I thought it was a song from the 80’s that I vaguely remembered but as it went on and I became fascinated by the way Matthew Bellamy inhaled after every phrase.  An earworm like no other - I ordered the import version of this CD before it was released in the states.  I had to have it.

What are your monumental song memories?

I’m excited to finally be able to share what I’ve been working on for the last year.  I lead the design for WL Social Networking and I can honestly say it was the most excited I’ve felt about my work in the 8 years I’ve been at Microsoft.  I love social networking (OK, mostly Facebook, LinkedIn, and Windows Live Messenger though I dabble on MySpace due to a few of my stubborn anti-Facebook friends) and have been blogging here on Spaces since 2004 so it was fun to work on something I use so much.

Here’s a taste of some of the great press we’ve received:

TechCrunch: Sweeping Changes At Live.com: It’s a Social Network!

Windows Live to get social networking features

Windows Live Gets More Lively

I’ve been tracking my food for the last few months (32 lbs lost so far in the ProClub’s 20/20 Lifestyles program!) but their online tracking system has a mountain of frustrating user experience issues.

I was so happy to find MyNetDiary – it isn’t free but it’s cheap and you can try it for free.  It also has an iPhone app that is KILLER.  Easily exponentially boosted my mobile OS switching costs.

What it offers (that I use):

• Food tracking
• Weight tracking
• Exercise tracking

Things that make MyNetDiary’s food tracking superb:

• The food database is huge.  I typed in “Mr. Good” and it knew Mr. Goodbar.  (I know – Halloween – ugh)
• You only have to type in a few letters and it word wheels through suggested entries (check the image for an example)
• It remembers what you entered previously and those rise to the top
• Previously used amounts bubble to the top
• You can copy meals from day to day
• You can enter custom foods easily
• You can save recipes from individual items in a meal – this is my favorite feature -  so now I only type in “CB” for my usual Canadian Bacon, Eggbeaters, zucchini, tomato, artichoke heart and parm breakfast.

Other cool stuff:

If you want to track your foods, this is the app to do it with.

The flag means something different today.  It is no longer a symbol of conservative, militaristic values.  It is now a symbol of peace and possibility, diversity and unity, freedom and equality.

Take back the flag.

This is our country now.

Check this out – in the section of my ballot that explained how to write in a candidate, they used my own name as an example.  Seems like my ballot should not have any identifying information on it.  Even if it’s just my first name, it makes me wonder what else they printed on just my ballot.  Worrisome.

So are we just lucky?  It took me less than five minutes to vote.  I did it at my own kitchen table, where I’ve voted for the last six years or so.  I am a permanent absentee voter and my ballot comes in the mail and I send it back through the mail.  I don’t understand why if I can vote this way that other people are waiting for hours to do this.  Can someone please explain why it’s so easy for some but so difficult for others to exercise their right to vote in this country?  It just doesn’t seem fair.  I hope President Obama does something to fix this system.

Three months later and I have more gripes to add to my original list!

1. It is slow.  Sometimes when I’m typing it takes a second for each letter to type.  Some apps drag.  Scrolling often freezes in email. 
2. It freezes.  I have to do a hard reboot to get it to respond.
3. Sometimes none of the apps will start. 
4. Two aftermarket chargers that I’ve bought for it (I lost the original because I have to carry it everywhere because the battery life sucks) don’t work because V1 and V2 iPhone chargers are not compatible
5. You can’t cut and paste
6. You can’t search
7. You can’t sort email
8. You can’t open MSFT Office docs
9. Because Hotmail is POP and not IMAP, I have to delete messages twice: once on my phone and once on my computer.  It only downloads the messages to my phone, they don’t actually synch.  This is a huge time waster and highly annoying.

However, I will still use my iPhone instead of my MotorolaQ because:

1. Safari rocks.  Browsing the *real* web rocks.  Foo on mobile browsers.
2. Screen size
3. Touch keyboard
4. Touch responsiveness
5. Apps like MyNetDiary

I had an unconventional teacher in high school who gave us Wilson Bryan Key’s Subliminal Seduction to read in American History class.  The book affected me greatly and I completely wore out my copy.  It’s premise was that there are suggestive words and imagery embedded in advertising and I could swear I could see them.  Upon further research on the Internets today, I see that he’s widely regarded as a crackpot.

Yet, should we believe that Cascadian Farms embedded smiling faces into their boxes of broccoli and jars of jam just as a goof or a “tribute” as they claim?  The skeptic (or conspiracy theorist?) in me can’t help but think those smiling faces could play a part in a sinister plot to sell more broccoli, perhaps as payback for the Senior Bush’s attempt at maligning the aforementioned perfect food and depressing its sales.  Cascadian Farms has agreed to stop this practice, but I’ll bet you $5 they’ll continue it once they see the uptick in sales now that the shiny happy people have been exposed.