Jason Mraz’s voice…pretty sultry. Patrick and I were lucky enough to see him in concert last fall and it was one of the top 5 musical experiences of my life. He’s got a cool way of looking at things and subsequently recording those thoughts into lyric. I love that I have his music…it gives me a different step. I wouldn’t say I have a crush on him or anything creepy fan-ish like that. It’s more like, I’d love to sit with him in a coffee shop and pick his brain for a while. Or have him be a contact on my cell phone that I could call up on a Thursday night and say, “Hey, Mrazinator, wanna chill?” and he’d say, “Just lemme put my guitar away and I’ll skateboard over.”

It’s fun having these imaginations. Unfortunately, I typically have them while listening to my iPod at work when I am supposed to be sending e-mails or something like that. I really am glad I have it. When I walk through the market or through campus and I’m listening to a song, (usually something folksy or “hip-hop”), it feels like I’m in a movie. I like to imagine the song is playing everywhere, and everyone hears it knowing it’s playing for me, the star of the movie who at that moment in the plot is walking through the market, or campus.

Also I enjoy it on the bus. Getting on the bus is typically a time-travel transformation where my brain goes into autopilot and I stare blankly ahead, not even thinking, really, for however long the trip is. I can always get off the bus and return to normal, but the bus ride itself is usually a bunch of strangers who stare straight ahead, or fall asleep, to the sounds of breaks and dings. Now, though, I can enhance my experience by pretending everyone on the bus hears the same Janet Jackson or Joshua Radin song that I’m listening to. Sometimes the weird combination makes me laugh, like when there’s a bunch of depressed-looking cubicle people walking on the bus monotonously, who sit down, eyes bobbing open and closed, while I’m listening to something like “Where’ve all the good people gone?” It gets me imagining what everyone’s story is, what they do when they get off the bus. Are they the good people? All these imaginations make me remember my first dozen or so bus rides that were made exciting by people-watching. I think people who listen to music on a commute are generally happier commuters.