A Deep Fear Indeed

Scaaary picture courtesy of the very brave G-Na

"You asked me once," said O'Brien, "what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world." -- George Orwell, 1984

Dearest Friends, this week the contributors to Contrast Podcast's episode 101 open up their psyches to reveal to all listeners that which they fear most. And the result is a list of terrors that would chill anyone to the bone, inter alia death, falling, sensory deprivation, and anthropophagic sea creatures with big teeth. Share the scare by downloading the podcast here.

(00:00) Corinne Bailey Rae - Steady as she goes
Tim from The face of today

(03:17) Maria Taylor - Xanax
Marcy from Lost in your inbox

(08:59) R.E.M. - Walk unafraid
Crash from Pretending life is like a song

(13:56) Tindersticks - Milky teeth
JC from The Vinyl Villain

(17:31) Morphine - Sharks
Anna from the Music I-Quiz

(20:10) Fear - Now you’re dead
Ross from Just gimme indie rock

(22:32) The Jam - Down in the tube station at midnight
Dirk from Sexy Loser

(26:28) Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris - Falling down
Linda from Speed of dark

(30:03) Peter Gabriel - I don’t remember
Mark from Cinema Du Lyon

(34:07) The Cocteau Twins - Blind dumb deaf (peel session 1983)
ZB from So the wind won’t blow it all away

(38:48) The Sharks - Short sharp shark
FiL from Pogoagogo

(41:46) Nerf Herder - 5000 ways to die
Thom from Better in the dark

(44:55) Great Lakes Myth Society - Across the bridge
Natalie from Mini-obs

(50:00) Air (feat. Neil Hannon) - Somewhere between waking and sleeping
Eiron from A Blog of No Importance

(55:08) John Mayer - Stop this train
James from Appetite For Distraction

I'm a fretful, but not generally a fearful person. But I do have an irrational fear of sharks. More specifically, I don't like being immersed in an opaque, natural body of water. You see, I instantly begin imagining malevolent, fishy, toothy things swimming up from the dark depths to pluck my legs off like bananas. Curiously, clear, tropical waters (where I would probably be more likely to encounter a FiLeater) are OK. And I don't mind (in fact I thoroughly enjoy) being on dark waters in craft, from huge ferries to weenie kayaks. However, put me in the water and I have to focus on fighting the panic.

You can therefore imagine my unease when last summer I took a kayaking course that involved me regularly flipping my craft over in the murky waters off Vancouver to practice self-rescue. Truth be told, I got a lot more comfortable doing that over time. Rather, I managed to develop a wee rationalizing mental mantra which included the fact that there have only ever been two recorded shark attacks in Canada, and the one near Vancouver in 1972 involved a rather unimpressive spiny dogfish. All that said, I still need to actively manage the fear...

Dearest Anna from the Music I-Quiz appears to share my selachophobia (as the boffins call it), though since she lives in Australia I reckon she's probably more justified in having it than I am (Australia = great whites, Vancouver = spiny dogfish). She also has lovely taste in music, as she picked the tune I had originally wanted to submit. But here's the alternative version I had originally hoped to submit:

Morphine - Sharks Patrol These Waters (off of this)

Sharks definitely top my fear parade, though in the physical world scorpions come a close second, especially those big, black emperor scorpions. Yeuuchhh! But I was hardly going to go with that idea, since I'd have to post a track from a dreadful German soft metal band. In the realm of the less tangible, my top fear would probably be finding myself alone. That would destroy me.

Calexico - Alone Again Or (buy here or e-here)

Next week we return to the land of sin, and explore envy. Find out how you can take part over here.