Dan's the driver. He's not allowed to do anything else except drive and not fall asleep while doing so. And watch the speed limit. And watch out for flashy lights hiding sneakily around bends. And listen to his wife's directions. Make that listen and OBEY his wife's directions.

I do everything else that is akin to setting up a mini-home in the car. Tissue (dry AND wet), water, food, utensil travel kit, sunnies, maps are all laid out and the cameras are on standby. Then I feed and water the man whenever he gives the sign (basically, an open mouth is all it involves.) Oh, and I navigate and bark out the directions too.

And I dock the iPod (any one of the four we have - yes, we're greedy) in the RoadTrip. We love this trippy little device, which basically transmits songs from the iPod through the car's FM receiver. We listen to it all the time while zipping around Singapore in our Swift. Unless I'm yakking my head off about work, which doesn't exactly sound like sweet music.

Anyway, in the Land Far Away From Work, I get to play deejay. I don't have much experience to count for, especially since all I have is one major playlist that encompasses almost all the songs in my iPod music library called 'Sunday Songs' - basically happy songs about living, loving and dancing - the perfect playlist for the weekend. Something akin to my sister's 'Sunny Driving CD' she put together for a family vacation a couple of years ago.

Now, playing music to suit other people's taste is alot harder. The driver, of course, gets to make the rules:

(1) Instrumental pieces are only acceptable within the first hour of driving. After that, they get sleepifying and must be skipped over.

(2) Madonna and her Immaculate Collection get the boot. Period.

(3) R-E-S-P-E-C-T all members of the royal family, namely:
- The King of Pop
- Queen
- Prince

(4) Soundtracks are sacred. In fact, play as many songs from soundtracks of cartoons, movies and musicals as possible.

(5) Anything remotely rude deserves some twiddling with the sound system to BRING UP THE VOLUME! Dan derives great joy in reveling with the cast from Sound Park and Avenue Q.

Ever since I met him, I've always been amazed by Dan's ability to sing any song by Queen, MJ and Prince by heart. And a great variety of songs from soundtracks too. I love watching and hearing him belting out his heart's playlist while cruising down the highway. I love it when he sings those songs to ME. Heh. On the morning of our wedding, he and his 'brothers' harmonised so beautifully that it brought tears to the eyes - and not just those of the bride (to the men who cried - we know who you are....)

Before meeting Dan, I would never ever sing in front of others - not even in the bubble world of the car. Then bit by bit, I started to join him in his singing, albeit on a very mumbly start. But with his encouragement (i.e. he didn't laugh his guts out at me) and also cos I realised that at the volume I was 'singing' at only bats and mosquitoes would be able to hear me anyway, it wasn't long before we were belting out hits together and jiving in the car. Even our wedding dance down the aisle to Barry White was choreographed while dancing in the car on the way to the hotel. My favourite songs to sing aloud are so very cheesy but I don't care - Kokomo, La Bamba, Hakuna Matata, Lemon Tree, That Thing You Do... I know we're not exactly casting material for High School Musical 3, but when we're singing together in the car - it sounds like music to our ears anyway.

It's thanks to Dan that I enjoy great music, not only by Queen and Prince (The Purple One's songs featured quite a bit at our wedding), but also music by local accapella groups like Budak Pantai that he introduced me to and crazy tunes from Animaniacs. I can even partake in a couple of popular Mandarin duets now. Except where Chinese female artists sing at octaves so high that they could probably communicate with dolphins and whales via sonar.

Anyway, when it comes to my deejay responsibilities, I do have one (just one!) requirement. That I get to skip over any song from the Armageddon soundtrack. It's what I call "doomsday music" - all gloom and doom, disaster and destruction - and it just makes me damn depressed. An outright killjoy.

Seriously, if Death listened to an iPod while he went about clearing his emails or while working out in the gym, this soundtrack would be on his 25 Most Played playlist.

No doomsday music for this deejay please. Shudder.

YL

written by  DanYilin on April 14, 2009 from Ridgecrest, United States
from the travel blog: go.
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(3) R-E-S-P-E-C-T all members of the royal family, namely:
- The King of Pop
- Queen
- Prince

(4) Soundtracks are sacred. In fact, play as many songs from soundtracks of cartoons, movies and musicals as possible.

Dan, this comment really brings back memories for me. The times that we sang together and your solo concerts in the showers....but most of all, thanks for introducing me to the Miss Saigon and Phantom. :p

written by  Daphne Cho on May 2, 2009

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