Rocking in the (More or Less, Depending on Election Results) Free World

I always want to do a blog post about music because I am almost always listening to it while on the job, whether I'm at my desk writing a story, driving out to a school board meeting or a football game to cover, or whistling it to myself while I wait to speak with a fire chief after a house burns down.

This Tuesday will likely be no different.

Election night in a newsroom is hectic. Results come in, you try to reach out to candidates and the newly elected, people don't answer phones because they're angry they lost or drunk because they won...it's a little much.

 Tuesday, 11:21 p.m.

Lucky for me, this time around, we don't have many local races to watch. Last year, I was covering one (particularly nasty) school board race and four local council races. It was slightly difficult figuring out who won, who lost, who was bending the truth, and how to write everything coherently in just a few hours.

But, it got done, as it does every time around in every newsroom in America.

In those newsrooms, election day is marked by two things important things: deadlines are usually a little later and food pizza is always provided.

So as I chomp down on a few slices of pepperoni this year waiting for the results of Dr. Manhattan vs. Hellboy...

...the following is what I'll be listening to.

- "The Time Has Come" by The Chambers Brothers
 If I had succeeded in my dream of becoming the Philadelphia Phillies' closer, this would have been my entrance music. But Tuesday, it will probably be the music I start my shift with.

- "Florida" by Modest Mouse
If you win Florida, you pretty much win the United States. So, you know, if you want to be president, start getting Mickey Mouse's endorsement. He is an influential resident.

- "Electable (Give It Up)" by Jimmy Eat World 
 A lot of the lyrics in this song seem to hold pretty true to the candidates we've been seeing in my lifetime. Probably before, too.

- "Strange Times" by The Black Keys
I think the song title and refrain pretty much describe day-to-day in this election cycle.

- "I Don't Care" by The Roots
Every shift I listen to at least one Roots song. Unless I substitute that out for one...

- "Freaks and Geeks" by Childish Gambino
...Childish Gambino song.

- "This Too Shall Pass" by Ok Go
Like any article or story I work on, whether it goes my way or not, there's always the next day and a different thing to write. Certain days, that's all I have to go on. On an unrelated note, this concert on Halloween my senior year in Madison was the best I've ever been to.

- "Long Drink Blues" by Smooth Streets Project
A tradition at the end of Election Night in most newsrooms is that everyone grabs a drink. This is my latest jam involving alcohol.  

- "Your Hand in Mine" by Explosions in the Sky
As a rule, I try to end any and every night with a post-rock song, and Explosions in the Sky is one of the best post-rock bands out there. As corny and idealistic as it sounds, and as impossible as it will be, you'd hope that everyone could at least put aside most of their differences after the election and move forward together with whoever wins.

But, as has been sadly evidenced, that really only happens when our worlds come crashing down.

To all my journalism friends that I know will be a part of their respective outlets' "All hands on deck" approach to Election Night this year, Godspeed and good drinking.