Auditory Memory: The Nature of the Hog

I have found it fascinating that I, your humble blogger, can remember specific times in my life associated with music. IE I can remember the exact songs during moments of my life. Many of these songs were looped over and over, while others just "made sense" at the time.

Brass Monkey - Beastie Boys: The first personal radio experience

I was in my room, with a radio at the age of 7 or 8 when I hear "Brass monkey, You funky junkie..."

End of the World - R.E.M: collecting basketball cards in New Jersey.

I was in a van, at about age 12 or 13, driving, looking over some sweet new basketball cards my mom had bought me when all of the sudden the sweet sound of R.E.M comes on the radio.

Rider on the Storm - Doors: Riding in a storm through upstate New York.

This was an absolutely surreal moment in my life. Age 15 or 16, my family was driving through NY during a light, summer storm, listening to a doors CD that I had burned. The two forces intertwined and all was bliss. I was Jim Morrison for those 5 minutes. I will never forget this in my life.

Metro Radio Mix - Chris Hale: Summertime nights in my brothers room.

During a massive heat storm in the summer of '06 I was bumping the Japanese underground Trance nightly, while drinking Gatorade and learning how to code HTML. I was at peace. Will do again.

Countless other instances; For instance if the song Cobra Style by Teddybears Stockholm comes on, I will instantly think about my first time playing on Full Tilt Poker. Or, if David Bowie's Suffragette City comes on I will instantly think about looking up real estate in Southern California.

This is a phenomenon, and I encourage you all to add a little more music into your lives, to help you remember the little things.