Thursday, March 10, 2011

Hello Seattle (Remix)

I'm sure scientists have poured hours of their time into finding just the right alarm clock. Look at ThinkGeek or Hammacher Schlemmer and they'll have entire pages devoted to alarm clocks. I really want that clock that lights up in binary, but that one isn't really an alarm clock. The ones Bob liked the most where the whirley gig ones that would send a flying disk into the air when the alarm went off, and then those alarms wouldn't be quiet until you fetched the disk and put it back on the clock.

I think I first started paying attention to alarm clocks – beyond admiring the Hammacher Schlemmer ones – at summer camp last year. We would talk about how Kiska had the most annoying alarm clock because it would start off slow and soft and then get louder and faster until it was just a constant blare. Most of the councils at the camp admitted to struggling to wake up to alarms that wouldn't also wake their campers up. One of the great things about being one of the oldest at the camp; the councilors told us things like that.

On the canoe trip I went on, Bobbi woke the other girls up with a blow-horn. I had already exited our tent and was therefore saved. They refused to talk to her for the rest of the morning. Rusty's alarm clock sang “rise and shine and give God the glory, glory...” It was way to chipper for most people. Tika's just beeped. I found that incredibly irrating that someone as wonderful and creative as she was would have an alarm clock that simply beeped. It was too normal! Some of the councilors would even prank the alarms of the division directors and other staff. Great fun. Skuttle's alarm clock, apparently, quaked like a duck. No one was able to verify that, as she slept out in the staff cabins and there was no way they'd let us sneak up there before her alarm went off.

Ah. Cedarbrook.

I eventually decided that the best alarm clocks work like Kiska's, when they start off slowly and then work up to a faster and much louder tone. It has to be almost impossible to sleep to, so a little offbeat, but not jarringly so, and not that loud. It takes a lot to get right, but it is possible, because I've found the perfect song for it. Song. And I don't even listen to music.

Anyway, there's this band. And this band is called OwlCity. And it's sung by this guy. And that guy's name is Adam Young. And I like the word “and.” And I'm being rather repetitive here... And there's this song. And this song is entitled “Hello Seattle.” And there's this remix of that song. And this remix is entitled “Hello Seattle (Remix).”

What a shocker.

The remix of Hello Seattle is simply the perfect song to wake up to. It starts off really slow and soft and then just gradually gets louder and louder until the words come, very, very, very soft and then it jumps to loud music again, with no words, and then goes down to a smoother balance between words and music and I find it great. I think the only words of the whole 4 minutes are “hello Seattle,” but when all you're doing is waking up, it works really well.

I've gotten a flesh reaction, however, because I've woken up to that song so much that when my iPod is on shuffle and that song comes up, there's the I've-got-to-go-to-school reaction, which is kind of annoying. And when I get home from school and turn my iPod on, I know exactly how long it took me to roll out of bed, simply by knowing which place in the crescendo the song is at. Is that at all insane?

So, question of the day...

What do you wake up to?

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