Last night a group of friends and I went to see Soul Samurai, a new play by Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company, a group that does new works based largely on stage combat - meaning they have lots of awesome fight scenes. The show was also very funny and interesting; if you're in NYC before it closes on March 15th, try and check it out.

At one point in the show, they used a bit of music from the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack, which I recognized almost at once. Music in a play/movie/tv show/whatever can be very effective and moving, but if it's a song I've heard before, I find it incredibly distracting until I can identify it. I thought Pig Iron's Love Unpunished was interesting when I saw it, but there was one snippet of a song that they played numerous times, and I couldn't focus on the show completely because I was trying to figure out what the song was. When I got out of the show and could scroll through my iPod, I determined it was the first 12 or so seconds of Sufjan Steven's "All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands" played on a loop. Only then could I concentrate on anything else. I probably would have figured it out sooner, only the snippet was the instrumental introduction; lyrics and voices make identification a whole lot easier.

Actually, this doesn't happen with just music - I find myself turning to IMDB when I come across an actor I recognize but can't figure out where I know them from; I scour the web trying to find the source of a quote or story I vaguely remember. It seems to be getting worse lately - maybe library school is increasing my need to track things down.