The Sprinkles of Life: Happy New Year!

New Years Eve is the Cummings family specialty. Preparation starts weeks in advance for this night filled with family and friends. Kai Cummings and his girlfriend Katie are some of my very best friends from high school so I could not think of a better way to start off the New Year.

One of the requirements for the night is that everyone makes a CD of twelve songs that fit the descriptions below. They then make playlists from everyone’s songs and it is so fun to guess what everyone put for each category.

This song sums up how the year 2011 went for me…memories of ______.
Love songs are great, nobody can deny that. Whether they’re about finding true love, messy break-ups, or bemoaning love unrequited, love songs probably make up over 90% of the songs we hear on the radio. But there’s a lot of great song material out there that explores other, less conventional topics. For example: pinball wizardry. This song is absolutely, 100%, NOT about love. Period.
You’re on the couch rocking out and this song comes on… and you just have to play air guitar to it.
Hollywood just contacted you. They want to make an autobiography about your life with famous actor/actress ________ starring you in a Grammy award-winning role. This film is going to have the crowd bawling, laughing and cheering in their seats. All they need from you is the Coup de grâce: a song to play while the ending credits role.
We’ve done the ocean song, now it’s time to choose your rain song, whether that be a dramatic thunderstorm, a spring shower, a forest mist, or raindrops on your window as you sip hot tea and read a good book.
NASA is putting together a cultural capsule to shoot off into space in the hopes of making contact with intelligent alien life forms. They want to include something that represents that oh-so-important and unique aspect of humanity: music. And believe it or not, you get the honors of choosing which song to send!
Everybody has hometown pride for the place they grew-up, thinking that no other town in the country could possibly beat such-and-such, USA. Whenever you hear somebody boasting, you can’t help but mention that your hometown gave rise to that famous musical sensation _______, and if they have any doubts about your city’s superiority, you play this song to convince them. (If you don’t like a band from your local hometown, pick a group from one of your favorite cities where you’ve either visited or lived in the past.)
Some songs you like for the vocals and some songs you like for the instrumentals, but more often than not you have no idea what the lyrics are actually saying. It’s all about the feeling and the groove right? That being said, this song is an exception. This song is all about the lyrics, poetry set to music.
Your friends finally convinced you. The American Idol auditions are coming to your home city and this year you’ll be waiting in line to try out with the rest of them. Luckily you chose an audition song that’s really going to set you apart. Even Simon might have something good to say. Here’s what you’ll sing.
You’re walking through a beautiful park on a sunny day and you pass someone sitting on a park bench. They are completely oblivious, wearing headphones and lost in their music, singing out loud to themselves. As you get closer, you realize with surprise that they’re singing one of your favorite songs! It's one that sums up all your little personality quirks and you thought you were the only one in the world who appreciated it. They must be your musical soul mate!
You see me bopping down the street, swaying and nodding my head. Then you watch as I walk straight into a telephone pole. This was likely the song I was listening to.
Time to go real old school. This is without a doubt the best disco song of all time.

While the descriptions change from year to year, there is always one that involves singing….this means you get the honor of showcasing your lip syncing or actual singing abilities with the wooden spoon.