A Playlist and a Story

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There are two reasons why, if you were an outside observer, you might think that I was bipolar: my handwriting and the playlists that populate my iPod. For these reasons, I prefer to typewritten notes to handwritten ones, and have a tendency to veto my own music choices in public because one track just doesn’t follow another. In my own apartment, though, it is totally acceptable for me to practice my cursive and follow Joni Mitchell with Lil Wayne.

If I talked to you about each of them, you might believe that all of these songs really go together. It’s been a long, weird year so far, but recently, I’ve figured out that all I’ve been missing is the chance to dance out all the confusion a few times a week. Some of these songs are the ones I dance to in my sizable dining room (rearranged especially for these purposes) before work in the morning, waking up whoever ended up there the night before. Some are the ones that I can move to on my back porch and thank the universe for ending the Chicago winter. Some make me feel invincible on some fratty dancefloor that I really shouldn’t have paid the cover for. And some are Sean Kingston. Enough said. 

It’s clear that I don’t have it all figured out. But while this escape won’t solve my problems forever, it is keeping me in a state of relative bliss for now. At least there’s a method to the madness.

Hannah Fenlon graduated from Kenyon College almost a year ago, now. She is currently a theatre artist and accumulator of projects in Chicago, Illinois. One of those projects is called Two Birds Casting, and keeps her busy as a freelance casting director nearly every minute of the day. To keep the PBR flowing and the lights on, she works behind a desk part of the time. The people, opportunities, art, food, and of, course, the dancing in Chi-town will probably keep her here for a while. If you play the right song, and compliment her cowboy boots, she will probably dance with you.