I was never any good at story problems

The thing about iPods is that once you have one, you start making playlists. And the thing about playlists is that once you have one, you need three million. Seriously. You get overcome by the desire to have a specific mix of music for every time of day, activity, and emotion. The D. O. D. has a driving to work playlist, different from his driving home from work playlist. In fact, he has a driving to work happy playlist, a driving to work in the rain playlist, a driving to work grumpy playlist . . . he's my hero.

I only have my one driving to work playlist (at the moment), and for the longest time it was just a hodgepodge of whatever I'd ganked off iTunes recently and/or had been stuck in my head in the past week and I would skip around through that finding tracks that I liked. This will not do. We need a plan, a progression, something that will carry me through from the driveway to the parking lot and send me out to face the disgruntled and the insane with grace and poise.

I know it takes me about ten songs on the average day to get from point to point. I know that the playlist should start with a bang, with something upbeat and peppy. I know that it should end with "Enter the Heretic" by Badawi. It takes approximately one song to get to the gas station where I buy my morning coffee, so track two should be "Not An Addict" by K's Choice. Today, I hit a construction slowdown right as track six cued up--"L.A. Freeway" by Jerry Jeff Walker, which was perfect. That stays. As that was winding up, I was coming up on the Ambassador bridge exit, meaning that track seven needs to be "Hotel Yorba" by the White Stripes.

So that leaves me with what?

Track 1: Need a wake-me-up beginning.
Tracks 3-5: Need some cruising-up-through Downriver music. Upbeat and zippy, but not so zippy that I get pulled over by that cop that's always camped out near the West Road overpasses.
Track 8: Still on the freeway, heading into Detroit
Track 9: On Michigan Ave, passing old Tiger Stadium.

Songs in the playlist that could be used in those spots:
"Somebody Told Me" The Killers (possible opener?)
"Least Complicated" Indigo Girls
"Three Hundred Pounds of Heavenly Joy" Howlin' Wolf
"Devils Haircut" and "Where It's At" Beck
"City of New Orleans" Steve Goodman
"Feel in Love with a Girl" White Stripes
"Missionary Man" Eurythmics
"Bring on the Dancing Horses" Echo and the Bunnymen
"After the Rain Has Fallen" and "Perfect Love" Sting

So, arrange those for me. Or, perhaps, comment on the randomness of my musical tastes. Or make fun of me for spending $0.99 on "Missionary Man." Or, if you have a particular song that calls to mind warm fond memories of the Northline/I-75 exit, make a suggestion.