Mandaris

"Beat It" by Senor Coconut

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A song that you discovered in an unusual way.

I had to think about this one for a while. What is an unusual place to find music? There are only so many places that don't have music or muzak. Music is found in so many places that people congregate that I couldn't think of a place or instance right away.

Finally, I thought about a podcast that I used to listen to regularly. The podcast is Coverville and at one point, I remember loading it up hours of audio onto my iPod and making sure that new episodes didn't get removed when new ones were released.

My favorite episode was a Cover story - an episode focused on one artist - on Michael Jackson where I got to hear Senor Coconut for the first time.

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"Larger Than Life" by Backstreet Boys

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A song that reminds you of a particular friend.

This reminds me of a friend I had in high school who would always sing in class. He was not a great singer but I don't think he cared. He would sing this and other songs with the confidence of a rock star. He didn't care if there were 2 or 200 people around him.

And the coolest part is that no one gave him any grief about it. We all just rolled with it.

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"Kokomo" by The Beach Boys

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A song that reminds you of one of your favorite places.

I don't know if it's "Kokomo" or "The Kokomo", but I do know that I've never been there.

For me, it represents a place that I can just sit back and relax; not worry about the stress of the world.

Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take you to Bermuda, Bahama, come on, pretty mama Key Largo, Montego, baby, why don't we go? Ooh, I wanna take you down to Kokomo We'll get there fast and then we'll take it slow That's where we wanna go, way down in Kokomo

Maybe I'll be able to go down there one day.

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"Vacation" by The Go-Go's

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A song that reminds you of your last vacation or holiday.

This is the first song that came to mind when I thought about vacation. When I hear the song I think about a commercial for a vacation more than the vacation itself. Either that or a comedy about vacations.

It's weird to me that vacations cause so much stress that I sometimes feel I need an extra day after just to rest and recover.

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"Djobi Djoba" by Gipsy Kings

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A song in a language that you don't know.

This is my favorite Gipsy Kings song. It's fast and seems fun and I have know idea what they are saying.

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I went to the Apple Store¹ to check out the new iPhone Air Saturday. The mall parking lot was horribly crowded and I got to experience the insanity convenience of car culture in America. After driving around and avoiding getting hit by people who follow different rules of the road than I do, I finally parked across the street in the overflow parking. I walked into the mall and saw that the line to purchase new phones only had a couple people in it. Maybe most people had already bought theirs online?

I went inside and picked up the new phone.

And just felt a little sad.

It confirmed that the issues that I was seeing when running iOS26 on my phone were there by intention.

Photo libraries that cut off the top row of options show up with plenty of space on the new phone.

Menus at the top have plenty of room for options.

Animations are fluid - almost like flowing liquid - and not sporadic or slow.

Is it unfair to complain that the newest os doesn’t run that great on my 5 year old iPhone SE?

Maybe.

I remember a report that engineers would be required to use older phones to test these things out. Feeling my phone get warm as I navigate between different apps, makes me think that it didn’t happen as much. Trying to get my phone to take a picture and having to wait for the last picture to load or trying to find where they placed options has decreased the amount of times that I want to do something with it.

Holding the new phone brought up all the joy that I’ve been missing about being someone who identifies as an Apple Enthusiast. The thrill of new possibilities from exciting applications is tarnished by drama with the App Store. Services that only increase in price but not functionality. The community that I used to share my enthusiasm is shrinking as people move to other platforms.

All in all, I’m actually a little discouraged from spending money on something like this.

I put the phone down and it zips back into place due to the antitheft tether.

And, I think that’s where I’m at.

I’m not tethered to the idea of getting one.

"Skid Row (Downtown)" by Michelle Weeks, Tisha Campbell, Tichina Arnold, Ellen Greene & Rick Moranis

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If today were a genre, what would it be? Pick a matching song.

I'm just being cheeky this morning.

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"Tainted Love" by Soft Cell

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What’s a remix or cover you like more than the original?

This is one of those songs that you see in a compilations of Songs you didn't know were covers. This one is special to me because it was the first time that I knew of it happening. Before I knew about Motown or any of the music I was popular in the 90s that was associated with Puff Daddy.

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"N.T. (feat. Busta Rhymes)" by Q-Tip

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What’s a hidden gem or underrated song you love?

Q-Tip had a great album and I really enjoy the piano on this track. I've got a playlist I'm creating on songs that I haven't heard in a while and this one is going on it.

I also really enjoy Busta Rhymes crashing out on the track.

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"This Is the Song That Never Ends" by ABC Kids

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What’s a song that grew on you over time?

It's a very catchy song. It's got energy and lyrics that are easy to pick up.

It will outlive us all.

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