Bloc 11 & Diesel Cafe

Prom 2008.

This is not your typical prom.  Not that I would know what that was like.  I went to an all-girl’s prep school for 7 years with the same 37 women and never knew the joys of football games, cheerleaders, homecoming or prom.  What I have learned since leaving high school is that most people I know have horrible memories of their high school prom.  Stories of humiliation, embarrassment, drunken escapades, and even heart break.

I suppose that one of the beautiful things about being an adult is that you can re-claim those memories and re-live them in a different way.

Since Diesel was old enough to have a first birthday, we have celebrated by having a “prom”.  In an attempt to re-create a certain high school experience, we decided that each year, we would have a prom-themed party.  We have rented the back room at the Burren, taken over Atwood’s Tavern and most recently hunkered down at  Redbones’ Underbones.  We close our stores early so we have time to get dressed up, made up, done up, and then we dance, drink, celebrate and try not to talk about work.  Well, I try not to talk about work.

The prom committee, usually headed by Tucker, comprises playlists, decorates the space in accordance with our theme, orders food, and tallies the votes for our prom king and queen.  For 2008, we had two sets of prom queen and king: one for Diesel and one for Bloc11.  This year, I remember just looking around the room, filled with people who work with us, their friends, some customers, and thinking that this is a rare thing, indeed.

Ever wonder what makes a place a place?  I have been thinking about it a fair amount as I seem to have more places that I spend my time.  Most of my days are split between Bloc and Diesel and my home.  Each place has its own scent, look, feel, and atmosphere.  These days, my apartment is going for messy and messier

But, what is it that gives a place atmosphere?  At work, the sounds that I hear tell me where I am.  Whether it is the espresso grinder, the dishwasher, the oven, the steam wand, the sounds of footsteps on the floor or the opening and closing of the front door, these noises become part of the stores.

I love music.  And so do most of the people I get to work with.  Many of them themselves are musicians and enjoy music.  While we may argue about what constitutes as music, we are in agreement that we all consume it, enjoy it, and like it.  When I am at home, riding my bike, or running are the only times that I listen to whatever I want.  And those times reflect my mood or my obsessive tendency to play the same song over and over and over.

Here are the top 60 albums that remind me of each store:

Bloc 11:

1. Beirut: The Flying Cup Club
2. Robyn: Robyn
3. Bon Iver: For Emma
4. The Incredible Moses Leroy: enjoy the Softe.Lightes
5. Kings of Convenience: Riot on an Empty Street
6. Lovers: I am the West
7. Laura Veirs: Year of Meteors
8. Johnny Cash and June Carter:  All of it.
9. The Shins: Wincing the Night Away
10. Sufjan Stevens: Seven Swans
11. Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
12. Mirah: Advisory Committee
13. The Microphones: the Glow pt.2
14. Lucinda Williams: Essence
15. Neutral Milk Hotel: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (one of my all-time favorites!)
16. Four Tet: Pause
17. The Decemberists: Picaresque
18. Cake: Fashion Nugget
19. Garden State Soundtrack
20. Iron and Wine: The Creek Drank the Cradle

Diesel:

1. REM: any album with Michael Stipe
2. Postal Service: Give Up
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever to Tell
4. Dido: No Angel
5. Moby: Play
6. Hole: Celebrity Skin
7. Beck: Mutations
8. Modest Mouse: Good News for People who Love Bad News
9. Madonna: Music
10. Radiohead: In Rainbows and Kid A
11. Black Eyed Peas: Elephunk
12. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Howl
13. Travis: Singles
14. Peaches: The Teaches of Peaches
15. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Californication
16. Ugly Cassanova: Sharpen Your Teeth
17. Ani Difranco: To the Teeth
18. Wolf Parade: Shine A Light-EP
19. Arcade Fire: Funeral
20. Tool: AEnima
21. Tegan and Sarah: This Business of Art
22. The Strokes: Is this It?
23. Spoon: Girls Can Tell
24. Feist: Let It Die
25. Ratatat: Classics
26. One Happy Island: Pulaski Park-EP
27. Portishead: Dummy
28. Missy Elliot: The Cookbook
29. Mates of State: Team Boo
30. Macy Gray: On How Life Is
31. Lovers: Starlit Sunken Ship
32. PJ Harvey: Stories from the City-Stories from the Sea
33. The Killers: Hot Fuss
34. Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
35. The Gossip: Standing in the Way of Control
36. Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP
37. Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism
38. My Bloody Valentine: Loveless
39. Siouxsie and the Banshees: Self-titled
40. Rilo Kiley: Take Offs and Landings

To us, music is what brings a certain personality to our spaces.  Unfortunately, whether we like it all or not.  At our stores, employees bring in their MP3 players and get to play dj for a little while.  While we have some guidelines around the music, the stereo is a rather unregulated territory.  And it has often been a source of tension.  Either because it is too loud, too weird, too vulgar, too obnoxious, overplayed, underplayed, or “bad”.  But in a lot of ways, working around our different tastes in music is no different than getting around our differences.  Period.  Because in a small way, our music preferences reflect our personalities.

So, if you have heard music that makes you want to gauge your eyeballs out, we apologize.  We hope, that you have happened to catch something that you have never heard before and fallen in love with it.  We also hope that maybe you have heard something that reminded you of a fond memory…..