(summer playlist)

Dionysus - The Buttertones

(play this with a bottle of amaretto by your side as you sift through old polaroids. with every single shot, you slip deeper into a state of intoxicated nostalgia. dionysus is the type of youthful vigor, and so were you, once upon a summer)

(Walkin’ Thru The) Sleepy City - The Rolling Stones

(play this as you stroll on the cobbled boulevards in the center. all about you, the city and the remnants of the evening heat. howl away at the moon—you've conquered the night)

Venus - Shocking Blue

(play this as you step out of the coffee shop and are unexpectedly bitten by a lioness. it’s a beautiful dream you could never have imagined, even in a thousand nods. so much so that you feel her smile radiating towards you in heatwaves following, soaking through your body and streaming out your fingertips)

I'm Only Sleeping - The Beatles

(play this during the laziest heatwave, when you’ve landed yourself inside one of those old trams. you're nigh on fire in the waking world, and yet there you are, treading a measure with morpheus himself)

Light My Fire - The Doors

(play this through your headphones as you sway up and down your house, wearing your fanciest garments. slide across the floor in socks, tie your tie, roll up your sleeves and do the twist. dance and sweat your entire mortality)

Call It Fate, Call It Karma - The Strokes

(play this while sitting on a sunlit bench. the wooden slats sizzle and scorch against your skin. soak it all in—that sly smile of a heatstroke, the heatwave coursing through your body. every ache or pain from the past is seared away in frenzied mania)

I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones

(play this at an insufferable loud volume, the kind that has your neighbors cursing from above and below you. sure, it stings your ears, but this is what you trade your hearing for. just stomp your feet against the floor. the only misstep is staying still)

Inbetween Days - The Cure 

(play this while rolling down the hill. feel the wheels of your skateboard grip the scorching pavement. squeeze past pedestrians just in time. race the trams. you’re still young and full of ichor)

Riders on the Storm - The Doors

(play this when you’re wearing your best suit out. you gotta have presence on the street—presence more like a cat rather than a galloping stallion. sure, cloppy might have his flair, but he has to clatter about to show it. meanwhile the cat moves in total nonchalance with its sexy strut. look sharp, you’re in a quentin tarantino movie)

Perfect Day - Lou Reed

(play this when you've decided to explore the city in the early morning—when the world still resides in slumber and you wander through its repose. if you close your eyes you'll see crimson hues flickering in and out of existence)

Let's Get Lost - Chet Baker

(play this on the muffled speakers of a quaint café in the city center. the stranger sitting across might have a light for your cigarette, even though you said you’d give up smoking, and caffeine for that matter. take the plunge)