work music

I'm still awaiting fairer weather to talk about the balcony garden we've got going, but in the meantime, I'm crunching on a draft of a chapter that I'll workshop this Friday. The chapter is large (60 pages) but in two parts, I think it works.

My thought of late, however, is that I'm going to have to include an acknowledgment to the Killers and the National*, Neko Case, not to mention Lady Gaga, "Fables of the Reconstruction," and possibly Radiohead, when I get this thing finished. My work music is sustaining me when another 10 pages of editing rankles. (Sitting on a modified exercise-ball chair only make it more fun, but much more difficult not to chair dance while listening).

But this apparently is some sort of freak of nature, listening to music with lyrics while writing or working. And so I put this out to you, friends:

- is listening to music while writing freakish? lyrics? no lyrics?
- is there a song you go back to, when you need an injection of energy during the workday?
- can you ever listen to the radio while doing substantive work?

Tell me!



* Having missed the buzz but gotten sucked in by the "Spaceman" song in Detroit, I have a rotation of 3-4 Killers songs that I can handle, the rest I don't have time to decide if I like; the National, particularly "Boxer," is a constant-loop sort of record.