I’m following in the Random Friday Ten tradition, despite the fact that I am so totally out of my normal routine. I figure one thing’s got to stay consistent. You know the rules, but for the newcomers, here they are. Turn you digital music player to shuffle/random, and tell us the first ten songs that appear, with no deletions or exceptions, no matter how embarrassing or odd the songs that show up may be.

1. Looking for the Next Best Thing, Warren Zevon (Genius: Best of)
2. Southern Belle, Elliott Smith (Elliott Smith)
3. Original Music from “The Wonder Years”, Various Artists (The Wonder Years Sountrack)
4. Grandpa’s Song, Mo Mack (Not Too Much of Any One Thing)
5. Dizzy Miss Lizzy, The Beatles (Help)
6. I Don’t Care if the Sun Don’t Shine, Elvis Presley (The Sun Sessions)
7. Boom Boom, The Yardbirds (Smokestack Lightning)
8. Closer to Fine, Indigo Girls (Retrospective)
9. Crown of Love, Arcade Fire (Funeral)
10. Party Generation, Dar Williams (End of the Summer)

Favorite Song: Closer to Fine. I feel like it is the anthem of my teenage years. In high school, it was always the song we would sing together, whether it was on the car radio or sitting in a park with my sister or one of her friends playing it on the guitar. It doesn’t matter whether you know the words perfectly or not, you can still always manage to stumble through it.

Personal Connections: I’ve got two nice personal connections here today. The first is that one of my dad’s songs showed up on the random ten today. Yes folks, Mo Mack is my father. Yep, I have a father with a stage name, a rock star alter ego, and I love him all the more for it. It’s a great song too, all about his relationship with his grandfather.
The other connection is a little more tenuous. I have two friends who have a cousin who is a member of Arcade Fire, and I once met him, dressed for an aerobics class in my friend Shay’s dining room.

Portland Connection: Elliott Smith once lived in Portland, and I have a friend who played music with him occasionally. I remember when he played his song from “Good Will Hunting” on the Oscars, she was pretty darn excited, if a little jealous too. These things happen.

Seen Live: Dar Williams, Indigo Girls, Elliott Smith and my dad.