First posted on Mark Is Cranky:

One of the most mysterious things about the human mind is how it can create and store associations between all sorts of objects and events. They say that the sense of smell is the most powerful in this respect. I can't argue that. Every so often I'll walk by a woman who's wearing the same perfume as my first girlfriend and I'm instantly transported back to that time.

For me, it's no surprise that musical associations can be just as powerful. Last night, a small snowstorm rolled through our area, leaving us with just a few inches of very light and crystaline snow. This morning, the sun rose to illuminate that snow, producing millions of little sparkly pinwheels of light. It's one of my absolutely favorite things about winter.

It also makes me thing about Kiss Alive II.

Not long after this record came out, I must have been out tobagoning with my friend Sherry on the giant hill behind her grandmother's house (around the corner from where we lived...us on Preble Avenue/Horseback Road, her on Hilltop Road). That sloped field is the image that often comes to mind when I see snow like this morning's. We must have gone inside later that day and listened to this record. There's no other explanation.

It's kind of funny to have made this connection between such unlike objects. I mean, freshly fallen snow is a beautiful and perfect (excuse me for a minute, I've got to switch to disc two...) construction of nature. Alive II is a big, sloppy & stupid live album. Bad playing, bad sound.

I love every minute of it.