’d like to think the experience with music that floored me the most this year was a concert, an album, a song, even a new artist that utterly boggled my mind. Unfortunately this was not the case. The music that did so wasn’t new, wasn’t even new to my ears. The song in question was “Made in Hong Kong”, the opening track from Fennesz’s continuously (and pretty much universally) praised Endless Summer. Right album, right place, right time. That was it. The rest of the story is nowhere near as simple.

This is one of those cinematic moments that relied heavily on the visual as well as the audio to achieve maximum jaw-dropping effect. My girlfriend decided, in the summer of 2002, that she was going to leave Columbus for a year and work in the Cuyahoga National Park that sits between Cleveland and Akron in Ohio’s northeast corner. With its tow path, blue herons and waterfalls the park provided the excellent weekend get-away after forty-plus hours under florescent light, in front of a G4.

The moment that came within millimeters of bringing me to tears happened this spring as I was heading back to the city after one of these weekend breaks. In addition to the above attractions, the park is also home to an incredible number of deer, an animal seen far more often in large chunks on or beside the freeway. (For this very reason I barely ever drove above 30 in the park. A 45 mph limit doesn’t seem quite right when just about anything can hop out of the woods at any given second.) Having traveled no more than 1000 feet (hence the opening track still playing) and turning a corner, I encountered a field literally overflowing with bucks, does, and lil’ fawns. An amazing group of hooves and horns eating, playing, and lulling about in an empty space surrounded by dense forest and backed by the setting sun.

I counted about 70 deer, but there were far more. Slowing down to about ten, I just stared out at them letting the glitch bounce around the car as long as I could. I figured stopping and getting out would only have scared the shit out of the animals and killed all the joy that surged through me in that brief moment. I felt like turning around and grabbing Colleen so we could share the moment, but it became impossible. I was literally motionless. Foot on the accelerator, I just continued down the road and eventually regained control of myself.

I know most people dig the Beach Boys vibe that Endless Summer evokes, but I’m really glad this experience gave me reason to view the album in a new context. Repeat listens still bring to mind an astonishing sunset, but the palms and the shoreline have been replaced with pines and wildlife. It’s more campfire than Campfire Songs. My life will probably never again be so perfectly soundtracked, and that’s fine with me. This sums it up pretty well.