The Sound of Compliance
Posted at 5:10 AM on April 8, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(28 Comments)
We're getting down to crunch time on tax preparation.
April 15th is one week from today.
I noticed a comment from Donna on Sunday's Trial Balloon, mentioning that she listened to the Susan Werner / Cheryl Wheeler concert while preparing her taxes (a concert we're repeating, by the way, this afternoon at 3).
This made me wonder, what sort of music is appropriate to the tax-prep task?
Would busy, active music be best?
Loud and energetic? Ear piercing, even?
Maybe it would be best to do your taxes to the kind of music that makes your eye jelly boil so it can match the intensity of the feeling you have when you try to figure out where on Schedule D you're supposed to enter the short-term capital loss carryover from your S corporation.
Perhaps something new-agey and soothing would be more useful?
(Would we call that "Taxzak"?)
How about the blues?
Songs about money? About running away?
Traveling songs full of bridges and roadways?
Something uplifting and 'we-are-the-world-ish", to get you in the mood to pay for social services? John Philip Sousa marches, to prepare you to fork over some dollars for defense spending?
Depression ballads? Poorhouse laments? Hobo songs?
Egads! The emotions that swirl around our tax preparation rituals are so varied and complicated, maybe silence is the best possible option. Or is it?
Please help.
Comments (28)
Morning Heartlanders.
Sorry, I won't be much help this morning. Because when it comes to taxes, I play "I'm Paying Someone Else To Do The Taxes" music. Best money I pay out every year! If I were still doing the taxes myself, I would have to ask for "Take This Job & Shove It"!!!
Have a great Wednesday all!
Woman, No Cry- maybe?
i'm crying because we're still on dial up and this is the third morning without RH.
we hope by friday.....
enjoy the music! (Dodger will be kidding in the next 72 hours so i'll have other things to do, getting ready)
Barb -- if the kid is coming soon, will we all be invited to Dodger's baby shower? I'm thinking the new mom-to-be needs a few things, right? What do you suggest for a goat shower? Sorry about the loss of RH this week... hopefully planning the shower will help take your mind off it a little! Can't wait to hear the little goat news!
Dale,
As usual you covered all bases and we can only add bits and pieces. How about "My attorney Bernie" or "Hauling out the Data" for Sherilee?
My other thought would be the one about the thrifty government employees-"In a little Box" comes to mind.
Most of us need math music. I know Tom Lehrer sings about "New Math" but there have to be more odes to arithmetic.
Good morning RH,
I like the bagpiper Dale!
Dean Martin's, Ain't that a Kick in the Head, would be apropos for many. (Ya'll better be impressed with that word I just copied and pasted!)
I put on Reggae music. I grab a good sized drink. I dig through the piles of receipts, forms, and assorted debris. I assemble. I question. I get another drink. I put on John Lee Hooker.
This year, after the above, I went and taught my son how to fly a kite (no, taxes not done).
Really, Joey does my taxes---I just have to collect, sort and add up the mileage...and Joey gives me chocolate while completing mathematical miracles.
On the way home, I listen to more Blues--really loud Blues!
I suppose Bead Line Blues from Jorma Kaukonen, or some other version of this song, might work for people who have a lot of taxes to pay. I'm sending off a payment today myself. Well, I guess that's better than not paying taxes because you have no income.
I'll be playing Mark O'Connor's Thirty-Year Retrospective that Kathy turned me on to. She got her living room painted that way, so it should work for my taxes, too.
Now I'm tempted to stay home from work to get those darn taxes done. I forgot that Easter with the relatives cuts into my prep time, now that I've waited this long!
Morning Heartlanders,
Thanks for the gypsy music, Dale!
Tax prep music - the ususal motivational tunes used for housekeeping chores - something with an energetic (frenetic?) beat. Bluegrass, Latin, Cajun would all work. That is one chore I get out of the way asap so mine were completed 2 months ago - but good luck and accurate calculations to all straining under that yoke this week.
Thank you Gail & Dale for the gypsy music and requests.
Listening the The Bobs and Week Ago Last Thursday made me think of O Fortuna from Carmina Burana. Any chance you have it in the music library?
Greetings Heartlanders! I did my taxes on TurboTax in Feb -- it's the best way to go and I'm severely math-challenged!
I probably listened to RH while doing taxes on my computer. Music to do taxes by would be something fun and bouncy to keep me going -- but not obnoxious -- and also somewhat soothing so I don't get ruffled and start thinking about tax revolt.
As usual for me that means Zydeco or good a capella music. Or Frank Sinatra ... I'm pretty easy to please.
Good Morning!
A good side effect of being unemployed for the last part of the year is that withholdings exceed the tax obligation so I filed early and have had my money in the bank for a while now. I often like to listen to classical music, I think Vivaldi's Four Seasons was my theme song this year. It calms me as I search for line 34g on supplemental form 236468746837283782736491273-B.
It would be fun to Pink Floyd's Money this morning while folks are thinking about taxes.
Hello Heartland People!
After some grueling moments compiling information, printing forms, doing math (not my subject) as an assistant to my Husband as he DID the taxes...I can hear Tom Waits in the background. What's He Building in There? or maybe a "tune" from his CD that is an exploration of sound(title?). Even though it wasn't playing at the time, I think I heard this while we were doing taxes here.....
I fall into the "someone else does the math" camp when it comes to taxes (thanks Aunt Mary!). So my routine follows the gather the receipts, etc. noted by others...and then the whole works gets mailed out to be plugged into the tax return.
Maybe "Mr. Postman" would be good for my method? I used to get the returns sent back to sign by mail - though lately that method has switched to email. But the paperwork still gets sent to Nisswa via USPS.
Bagpipes are always good!
Sweet, Storyhill two mornings in a row! Thanks, Dale! Is anyone planning on seeing them in Zumbrota on the 25th? As far as good tax songs go... let's see... doing taxes always reminds me of my dad hovering over me at the kitchen table as I prepared my 1040 (wow was that EZ!)... and one of his favorite songs of all time is the Mamas and the Papas' "Dedicated to the One I Love". A bit random, but there you have it.
thanks for the No Woman No Cry, Dale - it impresses me that you play requests even if we cannot be listening!
Sherrilee - Dodger has everything she wants (well, maybe not - like Fluffy, she wants world domination) because i cleaned and put a big bunch of straw down in a 8x8 kidding pen for her yesterday. this morning she was happily ensconced in a nest that she had built with the straw. don't think today is the day because she looks too comfortable. because she is in her own little place, i can give her treats of black oil sunflower seeds - another thing that makes her very happy. she dances and waves her head in glee. but soon she won't be feeling so giddy. we're hoping for two healthy kids; she looks big enough!
Dale, next Monday we'll probably request a Tammy Wynette tune, because, since "Wayne" is the sire, we will surely name a doeling "Tammy Waynette" but we'll see how the next few days go....... wish us luck!
Maybe it's just me, but the process of doing taxes on a computer program always oddly reminds me of going to confession. You sit down and ask the computer for its blessing - it's been a year since my last filing - and it asks you all sorts of detailed questions about your financial life in the past year, and then it assigns your penance, federal and state.
I'm not Catholic, so my experience with confession is limited to what I've seen in the movies, but that's what I keep thinking.
Could we hear "Sweet Forgiveness"?
Oh no, Radio Heartland keeps dropping it's signal! It could be my connection but it's happening both on my computer and my iPhone so I thought I would drop a note in case there is something that the MPR wizards need to do...
Linda in W. St. Paul -- that's precisely what Catholic confession entails. I was raised Catholic, attended Catholic grade school and unlike my older sisters -- I got to attend a public middle school and a co-ed, hippie, progressive, ecumenical boarding school.
And confession is certainly analgous to tax preparation. I can hardly sit still right now 'cause I'm dancing to Harry Belafonte "Shake Senora". I don't do mainstream religion right now.
LOL Linda in St. Paul! Tax prep as confession. I'm not Catholic either but it seems so true. Thanks for the laugh.
And if we do this tax thing correctly: (A) Change Is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke. Have a great Wednesday y'all!
Good Morning! Done with taxes a while ago, thank goodness.
Didn't the Beatles have a song called "Taxman"?
Dale, thanks for playing my request, and the other song after that, and after that, and after that, on into infinity....
I had just hopped into the car to head to work when I heard my name on the radio. Since there was a rollover on Hwy. 100, I had to find an alternate route, so it was great to have the extra time to hear those songs.
I was very sad to hear about Steve Raitt. I was always in awe of him when he performed here, back in the day.
Again, thanks Dale and Mike for all you do.
Doing taxes on Turbo Tax does remind me of a type of confession also. It's like doing an annual 4th step inventory also, (made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves), or doing your annual review for work.
I have to have complete quiet, or I get distracted. I could never understand anyone who can study in a coffee shop. Since I got divorced, had hail damage and had to refinance due to the pending divorce all last year, I did not trust myself. I did them on Turbo, but then stopped into the local Tax Shop and since their puters were down at the time, some guy looked at them for free and said I did just fine. I was very proud of myself. Now I just have to remember to sign, seal and deliver them.
I forgot to mention before that I was a boppin to to Harry Belafonte's "Shake Senora" on the way to work. Always reminds me of Beetlejuice. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"
Oops! I realize now, since I am listening to the rebroadcast of the 6am hour of the Dale Connelly Show, that "Taxman" has already been played. Thanks Dale and Mike!
So, is there a penalty for not reading the playlist from the first hour of the show? Do I have to pay interest on that? File another form?
How about Tennessee Ernie Ford's"Sixteen Ton" .
Small business/home office owners may already know this but, as a pleasant reminder at tax time . . . While audiostreaming radioheartland through my ancient JBL speakers, I ran across this informational tidbit from a small business website: "In an effort to create a comfortable or creative work environment, a number of small businesses like to play soft background music. When that's the case, the cost of the stereo equipment can be deducted as a business expense." I'm no professional tax preparer but, this seems to be legitimately confirmed by googling. Go ahead, buy your tax-deductible new stereo equipment for your office and crank up radioheartland.
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