Saturday is my thirtieth birthday. I am more excited about this natal day than I have been since I was six, when birthdays meant party dresses and white ankle strap sandals and My Little Ponies and strawberry shortcake with chocolate ice cream. I'm not certain that there's one particular reason for my enthusiasm this year, more that many lovely things are coming together in early May and birthday just adds to the fun: moving to Brooklyn, meeting new people and making new friends, hosting more house guests in a month than I have in a year, and taking every opportunity to see friends from far and wide who occasionally pass through NYC.Hobbits give presents to other people on their own birthdays. Not very expensive ones, as a rule, and not so lavishly as on this occasion; but it was not a bad system. Actually in Hobbiton and Bywater every day in the year it was somebody's birthday, so that every hobbit in those parts had a fair chance of at least one present at least once a week. But they never got tired of them.
J.R.R. Tolkein, The Fellowship of the Ring
Being that I'm so happy, I wanted to share the joy with a Hobbity sort of celebration. Being that I'm not comfortable enough in this house (yet) to arrange a dinner party, nor am I confident enough in my oven's constancy to bake souffle or a torte, my gift must be of the musical variety. I've thus assembled a playlist - sorted roughly by genre - of thirty-one tracks that I adore. I wouldn't necessarily call these out by name if you asked me for a list of my "favorite songs," but they are among my most oft-played tracks in iTunes. I hope that everyone who reads finds something to enjoy.
- Yo-Yo Ma, Mark O'Connor, and Edgar Meyer
Appalachia Waltz - First Impressions - Solid Brass
Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral (from Wagner's Lohengrin) - Vanessa Mae
Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor - Marc Shaiman and studio orchestra
Rodgers and Hammerstein's I Have Dreamed (arranged for The American President) - Christianne Cargill
Green Fields of France - Ceann
The Last Ones Standing - Indigo Girls
Become You - Ed Miller
The Prince of Darkness - Carbon Leaf
The War Was in Color - MacTalla Mo'r
The New Colossus - Sligo Rags
The Whiskey Never Lies - Indigo Girls
Hammer and a Nail - Dar Williams
What Do You Love More Than Love - k.d. lang
Hallelujah - Live
10,000 Years (Peace is Now) - Moby
Porcelain - Uh Huh Her
Common Reaction - Seabird
Rescue - Ministry
NCIS Theme Remix - Indigo Girls featuring Pink
Rock and Roll Heaven's Gate - Great Big Sea
Straight to Hell - Jimmy Buffet
Fruitcakes - Rachel Loy
Big Sky - Joni Mitchell
Both Sides, Now - Savage Garden
Affirmation - Dixie Chicks
Not Ready to Make Nice - John Barrowman
Being Alive (from Company) - Cherry Poppin' Daddies
Here Comes the Snake - Duke Ellington
Mood Indigo - The Brian Setzer Orchestra
Jump, Jive, an' Wail - Linda Eder
The Impossible Dream (from Man of La Mancha)
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