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Shuffled! is a weekly column appearing every Thursday here on BPRLive. Each week, we welcome a person from the APA community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles.

Today’s Shuffler: Delia of BPRLive

Delia is the baddest mother of all time.

Delia’s goal in life is to make the world a better place. For the past six years, she has spent time mentoring Asian American college students. She enjoys talking about identity politics with college students and her almost four year-old daughter (sometimes at the same time).

When she’s not busy saving the world and thinking seriously about serious things, Delia enjoys hanging out with her precocious daughter. She also revels in going to the beach where all of life’s complications can be swallowed up by the endless ocean. She loves puzzles of all kinds, books by bell hooks, fancy gadgets, and receiving foot massages.

In addition to blogging for BPRLive, Delia also blogs about Asian American parenting at Kimchi Mamas.

Now, shuffle it up shuffler…

For the month of August, the crew members of BPRLive are sharing music on their own iPods. Delia really honestly shuffled her ipod without adding extra stuff to make her seem cooler than she really is.

“Islands”
Cat Power
I really love the sound of Chan Marshall’s voice, but sometimes, her music just makes me want to kill myself super depressed. Somehow, then, it’s not surprising that I read somewhere that after this album she had actually did check herself in to a mental institution. I think this album, “The Greatest” is a little more upbeat than some of her other albums. I got introduced to her by an ex, who sent me off on an airplane across country with one of her more depressing albums. Not exactly the best goodbye present. Needless to say, that’s one of the reasons he’s an ex.

“Brand New Colony”
The Postal Service
This stuff on the other hand is like sugar in your earbuds… This song came up recently in a game of musical chairs, and the players (who were not preschoolers) spent the better half of the song bouncing around like they were in Super Mario Brothers. I like love The Postal Service. I think I got in to them when I still really fell hard for lyrics. I mean, who wouldn’t be swooning to the idea of someone being your “ … fire escape that’s bolted to the ancient brick, where you will sit and contemplate your day.” Yeah, pretty much anything Ben Gibbard, and I’m a fan.

“Fearless”
Saul Williams
I usually listen to Saul Williams when I’m up in arms about something. I appreciate that he will inevitably talk about children, whether metaphorically, or literally. Which lucky for us all, helps me channel my anger a little, and put things in perspective and be more productive with my self.

“Beloved Wife”
Natalie Merchant
This, believe it or not, was from the first CD I ever purchased, which was right after my high school graduation, with a gift certificate to Strawberries. I’m happy that Natalie Merchant came up in my shuffled—she’s probably one of my all-time favorite artists. I’m not sure why, but it probably has something to do with the fact that I can feel both inspired and depressed when I listen to her music. Maybe that says something more about me than her, I don’t know. I love this song because it conveys such sadness about a loss of a partner, but also a hopefulness about how powerful a relationship can be. I do remember, however, being 18 and being confused about why Natalie Merchant was singing about her wife. I think I took everything a little too seriously when I was 18.

“Fur Elise”
Charlie Brown Christmas album
I admit it, I pressed skip when this song came up. I think I used my ipod to dj a office holiday party of something. But I swear the rest of this is pure shuffle!!

“Syracuse”
Pinback
This song is kinda repetitive, but I think it makes you listen to everything else a little more. I think somewhere along the line, I stopped getting sucked in by the lyrics and started listening to what was going on, the rhythms, bass lines… this song definitely takes you through a story. I have to admit that I think I got in to Pinback through the OC – it falls in to that guilty pleasure category that includes TV shows I won’t mention out loud. But I liked most of the music on the OC! (Or did they just totally hit my demographic with that show?)

“Tallymarks”
Thao Nguyen
Ok, finally. I’m happy that Thao Nguyen popped up. I think she’s an amazing artist – and this is one of my favorite tracks off her album. I like Tallymarks, in general, but love the image of tears falling like Tallymarks. I love the meta-ness of this song—about trying to figure out if you miss someone enough to drop your shit and tell the other person. It sounds like in the middle of the song, she has her only mini-epiphany, that if she’s singing about it, she actually must miss the person. I have to throw in as well, that the cover to her album is super cute – it has a little laundry line and then a little person hanging upside down. My daughter loves this album because of this, and for this alone.

Last 5 posts by shuffled

• Shuffled! Wendy Hsu - January 1st, 2009
• Shuffled! Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai - December 18th, 2008
• Shuffled! Theo Gonzalves - December 11th, 2008
• Shuffled! Scott Kurashige - December 4th, 2008
• Shuffled! EyeASage - November 27th, 2008

Tags: Shuffled!.