I'm made up of music...

So, I've recently been asked the question "what makes you unique?"  And to be honest, I really had a hard time coming up with an answer.  I think I'm your pretty typical late 20's kinda girl. Looks: 5'6", blond hair, green-ish eyes.  Likes: hanging out with friends, working out, traveling (obviously).  Dislikes: traffic, cooking, mundane responsibilities.  I really struggled until I got to thinking about the one constant in my life, whether playing from my Ipod or just playing in my head; MUSIC.  For some reason, I know A LOT of songs.  I love music and appreciate all types of it.  My father long ago branded me with the name "The Human Jukebox".  I've been told more than once that I should go on the show "Don't forget the lyrics", my fellow servers at work frequently ask me "what's the song of the day?" and will always laugh when a song immediately escapes my lips.  I've actually discovered that at work, I need a song playing in my head at all times to prevent me from losing my sanity.
You may be thinking that a love for music is not very unique, but after traveling, I've been lucky enough to bring back some fantastic music from other parts of the world.  So I guess I can say that this makes me pretty unique.  Not everyone has the chance to explore our world, let alone be exposed to great new music and leave countries with a new entry on your playlist.




While in Australia, a close friend of mine with whom I'm still in touch, opened my eyes to some great New Zealand reggae.  He grew up in NZ and is very proud of his Maori heritage.  A fellow music lover, he loved the smooth, easy soul of NZ reggae bands like Salmonella Dub, Fat Freddy's Drop, The Black Seeds and Katchafire.  As soon as I heard these songs, I was in love, too.  



I still find it funny how certain music never makes it across the world.  I had never heard of these bands and have never heard anyone speak of them since being home.  It also made me laugh while in Chiang Mai, Thailand to hear a Thai band do a cover of Britney Spears' "1, 2, 3" at a club.  The words one, two, three can pretty much sum up what I understood during that particular performance, but it really made me think about certain aspects of pop culture and how some can transcend borders and how some never leave its homeland.  I did get to hear some authentic Asian music as well, but it was not very popular at the clubs we were frequenting.



I'm one of those people whom you'll regularly hear say "this song reminds me of ___________" (fill in the blank).  There's always someone or some time of my life that I can bring back by playing a song.  I am lucky to have been able to discover music authentic to different cultures and am even luckier to get to bring back all of these great experiences any time I turn the dial on my Ipod. 
So, I guess you can say that this adds some sort of "unique-ness" to my somewhat typical life.  I've got some more variety to the music constantly playing in my head.  If you want to hear some of these tunes that are the background to my day-to-day life just click here to listen to Katchafire or here for Salmonella Dub or here for the Black Seeds.






...Claire was here