My Sad Songs Playlist

Whenever I play songs from my Itunes library, my sister always says "can you please play something upbeat, your songs are too sad". I have always gravitated towards songs that have melancholic melodies and tearjerking lyrics.

Sad songs make me feel alive. And by alive, I mean either

(1) hurting, or

(2) glad that the hurting is over.

I will always listen to sad music. As Frou Frou would put it "Music is worthless unless it can make a complete stranger breakdown and cry".

Here are my top 10 depressing songs that I listen to over and over again, even when I am happy (in no particular order):

Razor by Foo Fighters

The message of this song is very obvious, it is about thoughts of suicide or self-harm. But what gives me the chills when I listen to this song is the sublime acoustic. Dave Grohl is as good a guitarist as he is a drummer.

The Dumbing Down of Love by Frou Frou

"Love underwhelms you..No box of chocolates whichever way you fall... And if I tell you, lover alone without love." I think this song is open to many interpretations, but to me it speaks about losing passion in a relationship or being sick of loneliness and being unloved. I love Imogen Heap's breathy voice blending in with the piano background.

Raining in Baltimore by the Counting Crows

Any sad song playlist will not be complete without the Counting Crows. I just love Adam Duritz. He is an amazing lyricist. Listening to him sing is like drawing words from the deep crevices of my soul. To me this song is about being stuck in a certain situation, wishing to be some place else, and not knowing how to get out of that rut.

Save Me by Aimee Mann

"You look like a girl in perfect need of a torniquet.... Save me from the ranks of the freaks who suspect they could never love anyone". I don't think this song is about drug abuse. I think its about someone who has been through a series of troubled past relationships (romantic and otherwise) that she has lost faith in people in general, and now she is looking for someone to make her believe in other people again.

Crying Like a Church on Monday Morning by the New Radicals

"And I'm crying like a church on Monday, Praying for these feelings to go away, So do me a favor baby, Put down your new god, And love me like Sunday again". (Sigh) This is probably one of the newer saddest breakup songs ever. This is the Crying in the Rain of the 90's. What could ever be sadder than an empty church on a Monday morning?

Say Hello Wave Goodbye by David Gray

I think David Gray's version is infinitely better than Soft Cell's. The emotions just become more raw when rendered by David Gray. A very unhappy breakup song rife with bitterness.

Mad World by Gary Jules

Alright I am going to get into trouble with the Tears for Fears fans for this. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't think Gary Jules massacred this song. I actually love his cover. He gave this song a completely different spin. From an "angsty and angry mad world", Gary Jules created a "despondent mad world".

Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead

Radiohead = depressing songs. Period. This one particular song I singled out because I think it speaks about pretense and hypocrisy, and how tiring pretending to be somebody you are not can be.

Wallflower by Caroline's Spine

This song speaks to me about cowardice, about wanting to be brave but never being able find the courage to do or say the things you want to. And when you finally decide to act on it, it's too late. (awww) I like how the song starts up slowly and builds up with bursting emotions in the middle and calms down to deep melancholy again towards the end.

Angel by Sarah Mclachlan

The ultimate song for the depressed (for whatever reason). This is the song that gets heavy rotation when I feel I have screwed something up. This song is doleful but in a very comforting way. Sarah Mchlachlan's soulful angelic voice takes this song to a different level.

Odd Food Combos

There are many kinds of food I would love to eat again and again.

Chocolates. Burgers. Chips. Soda. Ice Cream. Peanut Butter. Strawberry cream. Tomato. Bacon.

I love these things on their own. But together?

They say that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I am not sure if this holds true for the weird food combinations below. I have mixed feelings about these things. Either they are gastronomical delights or gastronomical disasters. I guess the only way to find out is to try them.

Strawberry Covered Cheetos (Photo courtesy of yumsugar)

Royce Chocolate Covered Potato Chips (Photo courtesy of royce)

Chocolate Covered Bacon (Photo courtesy of bacontoday)

Cucumber Pepsi (Photo courtesy of inventorspot)

Peanut Butter Burger (Photo courtesy of nibbledish)

Tomato Ice Cream (Photo courtesy of who-sucks)

To be fair, these are items that you wouldn't really squirm about. Maybe depending on how intense my hunger pangs are, I may even be brave enough to try some of these things. I can even imagine myself liking one or two them.

If I were to try just one of these products here, I'd go for the tomato ice cream. I guess it would taste just like gazpacho. The last thing I would try is the cucumber soda. I have a feeling that would taste like liquid salad. Blech.

Starbucks Planner as a Loyalty Pull

When you look at all the sophisticated loyalty programs out in the market today, you'd think that having a "primitive" stamp card loyalty program is so outdated. Think again.

The Starbucks Planner stamp card promotion is one great loyalty scheme. This annual Christmas promotion of Starbucks in the Philippines has been running for years now and each year, I see friends who purposely troop to Starbucks to collect the required number of stamps and get the highly coveted planner. Whether they like the required coffee to be purchased or not is irrelevant. In their minds, the Starbucks planner is THE accessory they can proudly flaunt in their respective offices and schools come January 1.

Here's how the 2010 Starbucks Planner looks like. (Photos courtesy of Awesome Planet)

And here is the stamp card that you need to completely fill out.

You need to buy a total of 17 drinks in all, of which 9 are featured holiday drinks and 8 are regular beverages. Assuming that each drink costs P100 to P150, the total amount of purchases you need to make to redeem the planner is P1,700 to P2,550. You need to consume that much in Starbucks in a period of 2 months. For some people, that's easily in the bag. I know some friends who practically live off Starbucks to sustain them at work. But for some people,17 drinks can be quite a stretch, and yet they'd be willing to shell that amount for the sheer joy having THE Starbucks planner.

Just what is in that planner that makes many people salivate with desire to grab it and claim one as theirs?

I will not mince words for this. People get the planner because the Starbucks planner is a STATUS SYMBOL. No offense meant, but being able to hold one in a meeting is like proclaiming to everyone that you are capable of buying overpriced coffee. In their minds, it makes them look cool. Period.

Oh, I must not leave out an important but secondary detail. Each redeemed planner comes with a corresponding donation to SparkHope, the charity tie up of Starbucks with Unicef. But seriously, I doubt that this is the primary reason why many people lust for these planners. If that were the prime motivation, wouldn't they have reached more needy children if they channelled the whole P2000 to Unicef instead?

Curiously that in this day and age of high-tech gadgets, people would still want the old school planner. The same people who have 2 state of the art cellphones (1 for business, 1 for personal use and of which one is most likely an i-phone), a laptop, an SLR Camera, a PDA, a portable game console, etc. are the same people who have this planner with which they can "plan" or "organize" their lives. It is as if the organizer or file manger functions in their gadgets are not enough. You would think that if these people have been using the planner, people would be arriving to meetings on time? Sorry, but think again.

Despite having the planner, many Filipinos are still sadly perennially late. This just goes to show that not many actually use the planner. It is noting but an accessory. There may be others who collect them and maybe use the featured monthly discount coupons in the planner. But in all the times that I have been to Starbucks within a year, I have never witnessed a person actually using the discount coupon. But then again, Filipinos are not a coupon-using consumer.

I have a friend who as early as mid November posted a status on Facebook which said, "Got my Starbucks Planner already! Yahoo!! And many people "liked" his status. If you go to Sulit.com.ph or Ebay.ph, you'd see people selling unused Starbucks planner. The prices start at P1000 for last year's planner and as high as P2500 for the current one. I have even received a Starbucks planner as a Christmas gift in the past.

As for me, I don't intend to get the planner. I don't want it and I have no need for it. But of course, I am no coffee lover and I am one cheapskate. But mostly, I just don't like following and falling for a craze like this. It's just like that New Moon fever. I really don't get the fuss over it. I simply cannot bring myself to watch it or read the series.

But this Starbucks planner is surely an effective loyalty building promo. It was able to stir up an emotion and a positive action (towards making more purchases) among the targeted customers that go BEYOND REASONS.