Random Ten

"And courage is a weapon we must use"

Emiliana Torrini, "If You Go Away"
R.E.M., "Laughing"
Mindy Smith, "Come to Jesus"
Norah Jones, "Crazy"
Supersuckers, "Hey Ya"
U2, "Where the Streets Have No Name"
Allison Moorer, "Sing Me to Sleep"
Nina Nastasia, "Nobody Knew Her"
Sinead O'Connor, "If U Ever"
Over the Rhine, "Etc. Whatever"

Those last two are kind of wistfully hopeful, I guess, but that was still a bit of a downer for a Friday morning.

My friend Kim says I listen to too much "depressing" music. ("Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable, or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?") This is part of an ongoing debate about the distinction between "depressing" and "sad."

That started when I got her to watch "Magnolia" by assuring her it wasn't "depressing." After 3+ hours of death and loss and trauma she was convinced I'd lied to her. But I was thinking of the ending with the quiz kid finally standing up to his dad, and Tom Cruise's sort of reconciliation with Jason Robards, and the miraculous, bufine grace falling from heaven — all of which seems to me to offer a hard-won hopefulness. Sad, yes. But not depressing.