Caito Potato

Made a 21st birthday mix for my little bro! And here are some rambly liner notes. Enjoy! Love ya Cheeeese.

http://open.spotify.com/user/caito_potato/playlist/6HHocIb69eHZ6WUDwUHcnZ

Stevie Wonder – Happy Birthday
It’s a struggle to listen to this one all the way through, but it’s thematically on point and I get to quote High Fidelity: “Top five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the ’80s and ’90s. Go. SUB-QUESTION: is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter day sins, is it better to burn out or fade away?

Elvis Presley – Hi-Heel Sneakers
Doesn’t have the awesome “Ode to Billie Jo” intro (well I was out choppin’ cotton), but an awesome going out song that reminds me of you. Put your wig hat on your head.

The Champs – Tequila (Re-Recorded / Remastered)
Technically my birthday song, but I’ll lend it to you for today.

The Isley Brothers – Shout (Parts 1 and 2)
Hope you can Otis Day and the Knights to come to your frat tonight and bang out this classic, in some kind of world where you can make movies come true.
http://youtu.be/PJ57ihKTJxg

JAY-Z – H•A•M
Jay and Ye will get you fired up. First appearance by a Chicago artist on this list. Stay tuned!

Snoop Doggy Dogg – Gin And Juice
Snoop! Snoop a loop!

Cypress Hill – Tequila Sunrise (featuring Barron Ricks) - Clean LP Version
A little old school Cypress for ya. I like the sampled mariachi trumpets.

The Notorious B.I.G. – Juicy
Biggie is my go-to for parties, and this one, right after “Big Poppa” is my favorite.

R. Kelly – Ignition Remix
Chicago native appearance 2! About as egotistical as Kanye and twice as creepy! And hilarious!

Laserkraft 3D – Nein Mann - Radio Edit
That weirdo German song I played for you. Time to start dancin’.

LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing At My House

Another sweet dancing track.

Wilco – I Might
Chicago natives appearance 3!

Talking Heads – Burning Down The House
Did your hip-hop, did your electronic, time for some rock.

Us3 – Tukka Yoot’s Riddim
Da da da dum da da dey

Loudon Wainwright III – Drinking Song
Probably the most indie/hipster drinking song around. Better than Piano Man or Sweet Home Alabama.

Willie Nelson – Whiskey River
You’re a little bit country, and a little bit rock and roll.

Lou Reed – Walk On The Wild Side
In keeping with the nonsense syllables from US3 - do do do do do do do do. Lou Reed is the coolest.

Tom Waits – The Piano Has Been Drinking [Not Me]
In honor of Deeds, the Waits lover.

Carly Simon & James Taylor – Mockingbird
Mock! Yeah! Ing! Yeah! Bird! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Tenacious D – Dude (I Totally Miss You) - Clean Version
I mean, The D says it all - Dude, I totally miss you! Come out to Bahston.

Ben Harper – Beautiful Boy
Harper covering Lennon. A sleepy song after your long birthday day/night.

I found myself sitting on a folding chair in the basement of my parents’ home at 6:45 a.m., wearing underpants, earmuffs, and memory goggles, with a printout of eight hundred random digits in my lap and an image in my mind’s eye of a lingerie-clad garden gnome (52632) suspended over my grandmother’s kitchen table. I suddenly looked up, wondering-remarkably, for the first time-what in the world I was doing with myself.

-Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein

You have a tongue in your mouth. Your tongue, a group of muscles, is sitting inside your mouth.

At least, for me, thinking about my tongue makes it feel like it’s two or three times bigger than it is. I know it’s weird that this is the metaphor I’ve chosen to describe reading this book, but it’s kind of apt, because it’s a weird but engrossing story.

Foer, a journalist, goes to cover the U.S. Memory Championships and hears consistently from these “mental athletes” that anyone could perform feats like perfectly memorizing the order of a deck of cards in two minutes. They were just ordinary people who, through grueling practice, had trained themselves in the ancient technique of “The Memory Palace”. The brain remembers visuals easier, so these athletes translate their data - random digits, lines of poetry, cards - into very memorable images which they store in mental “rooms” - places they’ve toured in real life and stored to house their information. Foer decides that if they can do it, he can do it, and sets out to compete in the championship himself the next time around.

Usually I’m not a huge non-fiction reader. I tend to zone out if the book is basically facts strung together and wish there was more color and drama holding it together and propelling it forward. However, Foer’s story has some really great characters: Ed, his hard-partying memory coach, Tony Buzan, a man who has built a global fortune on marketing his memory techniques, and Foer himself, who has a really great narrative style which helps the necessary detours into neurology and ancient history really interesting, never dry. He looks into famous savants with legendary memory skills and also explores what happens when memories are erased, like in the case of EP, who lost part of his brain to a case of meningitis and can only remember his childhood to 1950, and struggles to retain information he intakes after two minutes.

The best part of the book is it makes you think deeply  about your own brain, about your own memory - about the tongue in your own mouth. Foer’s story is relatable. He’s a regular guy who forgets what he had for breakfast yesterday - just like me! The book makes you think seriously about the limits and capacity of your own mind. With intense daily effort, I could feasibly memorize all the kings and queens of England and actually retain them for recall. Or, through some terrible tragic chance, I could lose the ability to remember anything. I’m not about to strap on a pair of memory goggles and start training as Foer did, but his book was an enjoyable and informative glance at what’s possible - maybe I too can actually learn people’s names at parties and remember them if I run into one of them on the T. Maybe. Or I’ll just say, “Hey, so nice to see you again!”, avoid names, and keep thinking about my tongue.