Soundscape #15: I Felt A Funeral In My Brain

Jacques Louie-David. The Death of Marat, 1793.

Epicurus once said that death is nothing for when you are, death is not; when death is, you are not. He makes perfect sense of course but sometimes it has to be said that human beings can be anything but rational. Else, who can account for the fact that the fear of death ranks higher on most people's lists of phobia than say, spiders?

So why is death so scary? On the surface, death simply means that one ceases to be but if you really think about it, death also means that you flipped the switch on all that could ever be. All the things you ever wanted to do, all the places you wanted to go, all the people you wanted to see, all the things you wished you said or wished you could take back, all the books you wanted to read, all the music you wanted to check out, all gone. I think that is a scarier thought than just *ceasing* to be.

I'm sure some will say that thinking about death is a little macabre but I think that death, being a destination, gives meaning to the journey itself. Anyways, if I'm gone, somebody, please, burn me the following mix to be played at my funeral or wake or whatever. I don't think I'd have a say in the funeral thingies but burn a copy of my funeral mix, blast the amps and maybe we'll be able to chase people I don't want around away.

And! And if anyone would read "Funeral Blues," I would be very touched indeed*



Playlist
1. (0:00) Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) (Buy Kill Bill Vol. 1 OST)
2. (2:40) Stars - He Lied About Death (Buy Set Yourself On Fire)
3. (7:50) The Velvet Underground - Who Loves The Sun (Buy Peel Slowly And See)
4. (10:36) Aberdeen City - God Is Going To Get Sick Of Me (Buy The Freezing Atlantic)
5. (14:05) The Stills - Love And Death (Buy Logic Will Break Your Heart)
6. (18:22) The Organ - A Sudden Death (Buy Grab That Gun)
7. (21:16) Morrissey - First Of The Gang To Die (Buy You Are The Quarry)
8. (24:55) The Decemberists - We Both Go Down Together (Buy Picaresque)
9. (27:56) Jason Collett - We All Lose One Another (Buy Idols Of Exile)
10. (32:20) Death Cab For Cutie - Title And Registration (Buy Transatlanticism)
11. (36:00) Yo La Tengo - Blue Line Swinger (Buy Electr-O-Pura)

*right, so I won't, or rather, I can't. But you know what I mean.