Hearing test

To some degree I'm repeating myself here, but plod on dear reader... there are extenuating circumstances. Amy mentioned that I've been sick. It's true. Not run-of-the-mill cold, flu or whooping cough ill, but one of those things where you're having nurses swap out new IV bags, one in each arm, for almost a week. I'm better now thank goodness (the stew was perfect, Am, merci).

About halfway through my medical vacation they switched my drugs to something that can affect your hearing if you're not careful. Being mildly paranoid (which isn't a bad thing in the hospital), I needed a self-evaluation. This hospital actually had wireless (weird but cool) but I didn't find anything online resembling a standard audiologists' bleep-and-bloop hearing test. Music was going to have to do.

To really gauge my ears I needed something that was familiar enough that I'd be able to judge if I was missing any detail and dynamic enough in terms of volume and tone to ensure a worthy test. Anything I'd listened to less than 100 times wasn't gonna work. Given that I didn't have my entire library with me and I keep the computer/iPod stocked with mostly new stuff, the choices were few. But there was one chestnut I'd kept around after I posted about it a while back. Old reliable "Chromosome Damage" would do the trick just fine. (Who says mp3 blogs aren't useful in real life?)

As I've mentioned before, there's a tremendous hook that goes off as the song fades (1:24) and then there are these weird sci-fi movie sample voices that flutter way down in the mix in the latter portion of the song (1:41 - 2:04). If I was getting all of that, my ears were fine (and they are).

Chromosome Damage - Chrome

So, all of you, store this somewhere for medical purposes. It's the musical equivalent of keeping two weeks of canned food and bottled water in the basement in case of natural disaster.

One other hospital story while I'm at it. In college, I spent a night or two at St. Mary's. They had no idea what was wrong with me, so they let me go after a couple nights (I think it was bad clams, actually). I shouldn't have expected much. These were the same personnel who once diagnosed a friend with, literally, the Devil's Grippe. Eight of my lives indeed.

Take Me Down To The Hospital - The Replacements

From:
Half Machine Lip Moves/Alien Soundtracks, Chrome
Hootennany, The Replacements