The Flâneur's Turtle

By Jenny Jocks Stelzer, English Faculty. 

So, I am totally on vacation right now, but, I’m writing this piece to make sure my Turtle peeps don’t hate on me too much. They are all on campus in a freezing-cold downtown Chicago building while I lay on a beach in Michigan right now, trying to keep sand out of my iPhone.

My list comes from my recent weeks of repeats on my iPhone. If you know me well, you’ve seen me (or can imagine me) singing and nodding my head while biking my kids to camp, biking to work out at the YMCA, or biking to bikram yoga.

Disclaimer: My list is only 5 songs long. Come on! I said I’m on vacation!

1. “My Favorite Song” by Chance The Rapper featuring Childish Gambino. Frankly, I would make this Chicago youngster’s mix tape my entire “favorite” list of this summer as it is trippy, sweet, dirty, and confused. Just like growing up. It makes me feel like a kid. And like I’m in trouble. Big trouble. My real fave on the album right now is “Lost” with Noname Gypsy. Sooo bad. Sooo good.

2. “Kinda Outta Luck” by Lana Del Rey. Summertime favorites have to make you feel like you’d do something you wouldn’t. I wouldn’t, of course, but Lana kinda makes me wanna.

3. “Go Home” by Dessa. A nod to the sad-bastard aesthetic. This song, and Dessa’s voice, makes me weak in the knees and flat-out crushes me. And I love it. Plus, this white-girl rapper is the girl I want to be. Check out “Sadie Hawkins” for a taste of her flow.

4. “I Am a God” by Kanye West. I know: he makes better beats than rhymes. He’s pure ego. He’s made better albums (well, maybe), and white, feminist chicks like me aren’t supposed to like him. But: God. Damn. The rhymes on the Yeezus album are dope, its a punch-in-the-face contemplation on race and exploitation, and, it embodies one thing I LOVE about hip-hop. Unabashed masculinity, anger, and sexuality. God. Damn.

5. “Gold” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Really. What do I want in my music? JOY. Macklemore delivers in all of his work (even the serious stuff, which is totally poignant, personal, and heartbreaking). This song is pure, nod ya head, shake ya booty JOY. It’s theme-song worthy for a girl like me.

Okay, that’s it. You already know about my devotion to JT (his album is my current vacation soundtrack) and as I wrap this up, I’m still giggling about “what rhymes with hug me” as I slip my earbuds back in and end this summer on the beach with a little more joy.