9 Crimes by Damien Rice has been one of my favorite songs since I first heard it on the Tonight Show last year.

I like it even though I don't get the meaning of half the lyrics. Hell, I don't even understand the title. 9 Crimes? Why?

After hearing it again on an episode of Standoff a few weeks ago, I thought I should blog about how much I like that song. So I went to YouTube and found the official music video. I wish I didn't.

What the hell? Sure, it's amusing, but it's totally inappropriate for the mood and style of the song! I decided to turn the blog entry into a rant against how criminally lame the music video is.

But I also noticed a video called How To Play "9 Crimes" By Damien Rice in the related videos section. I took a look at it and told myself "Ha! That's easy!" despite the fact that I haven't touched a piano in over a year. Back in college, I used to play a bit almost every night. And although I was never any good, that tutorial video made playing 9 Crimes look like a piece of cake. Mmm, cake....

So last night, I wiped the dust off my ancient Kawai FS690 keyboard and gave it a go. Disaster ensued. The keys felt strange and unfamiliar beneath my fingers. I kept hitting the wrong notes, apparently pissing off the neighbor's dog so much that it wouldn't stop barking.

After half an hour of frustration, I finally managed to play through the whole song a few times without screwing up too badly. Yay! As a bonus, I got the most relaxing night of sleep I've had in months.

It turned out to be the longest too. I still don't know how it happened, but I didn't wake up until 2:30 PM, almost 10 hours after I went to bed. Missing both breakfast and lunch? Now that's 2 very serious crimes.