Record Pairing: U2 and puzzles
Posted on November 11 2020
The Feel-Good Pairings Project is designed to help us share the ways we’re all coping and trying to feel good in these strange times. I'll be sharing contributions from friends, clients and people I admire. Each project includes a record and pairing from different contributors, plus an organization that they’re supporting in these troubling times. Helping others feels really good, and one of the best ways we can support our communities when we can’t be together physically! You can see all pairings projects here.
Submission #9: Lisa Anderson Shaffer of Zelma Rose
Pairing: Records and puzzles (and dogs!)
Record: U2, Rattle and Hum, 1988
Music always lights the way for us. We listen to music all the time and while we restrict media of all kinds with our kiddo, we have an open door policy when it comes to music. Download whatever you want. What needs to be discussed or explained will be. Music is art. Get into it.
In line with this philosophy, when our kiddo was 3 we put our super nice record player away, along with our collectible albums and bought an inexpensive record player to be played with inexpensive albums. We kept an open door policy at the record store as well, and the first album the kiddo picked out on her own was Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time, because the album cover is so completely kick ass. Fast forward 7 years and we’ve played through 3 inexpensive record players and stack and stacks of dime store albums. I love that they are not precious. Can be stacked, grabbed, played, scratched and quickly switched when the mood strikes. Since the pandemic, we have probably bought as many albums as puzzles! They pair perfectly together. In about a million different combinations.
I’m all about U2, all the time, but we do find ourselves listening to something we all know and can sing along to while we are working away on puzzles. Always in rotation is U2 Rattle and Hum, The Joshua Tree, and War. Depending on the decade I find myself in, U2 is either cool or not, but either way they are continuously getting us through the weeks and months. Just add puzzles. We like the art puzzle selection at the DeYoung. Bonus, purchasing from the online store helps support the museum during their closure. Win-win! Also, just add dogs. We might have as many dogs at the end of 2020 as puzzles and records!
Lisa's recommended feel-good organization to support is:
The Deyoung Art Museum in San Francisco.