Hoot Owl Day 2021 – Belated Owl City Post

Summer 2012 wandering the streets of Owatonna, MN, the hometown of Owl City.

Since The Fangirl Fulfilled kindly invited a response to her post about #HootOwlDay2021 (for Owl City fans), I thought I’d make a belated post. 🙂 First off, I had no idea there was a “Hoot Owl Day” observance, and upon Googling wasn’t able to find much, but guess it takes place on January 18 each year? Not sure why that date in particular. Since that day this year was MLK Jr. Day, probably better that I didn’t know until afterwards, because #priorities. Well, maybe “Hoot Owl Day” will catch on in later years. I have hope after seeing how well Hobbit Day has done on September 22 thanks to Peter Jackson. 😉

Any reason to unite Owl City fans and celebrate Owl City music is cool with me! 😉 So here we go:

1. When did you discover Owl City?

I honestly can’t remember, but it had to be before 2011 when I went to my first Owl City concert. Maybe around 2009-2010 shortly after the release of Ocean Eyes?

2. What is your favorite album?

Probably Midsummer Station just because of the number of favorite songs on it, and all the light imagery, which I love. But really, this is a hard question! 🙂

3. What Owl City song makes you the most happy/sad/relaxed? (different from a favorite song 😜)

Happy: “Good Time” because you hear it everywhere, and it makes EVERYONE happy! 🙂

Sad: “Meteor Shower” because I played it as encouragement before doing one of the hardest and saddest things I’ve ever done, and it reminds me of that moment whenever I hear the song, but I still love it.

Relaxed: “If My Heart was a House” because it’s just so darn sweet! ❤

And I’m adding a category, the “Best Start to the Day” song: “House Wren,” which always puts me in a good mood driving to work, especially if the sun is shining.

4. Which are your top 5 (or more, I won’t judge) favorite Owl City songs?

1. Galaxies
2. Hot Air Balloon
3. I’m Coming After You
4. Thunderstruck
5. Unbelievable

I’m certain about the first two, the rest are toss-ups because it’s impossible to limit my favorite song list to just five!!

5. Any Owl City memes or famous social media moments to share?

I thought the thread of posts about mushrooms that Adam did on Instagram was pretty funny (I love mushrooms b/c: hobbits). I was shocked with the rest of fandom when he camped outdoors overnight during the 2019 Polar Vortex to break his record for lowest temp while camping (please don’t die, Adam). And I read his entire blog waaaay back in the day before he took it down (probably because it was too personal and his fame was growing). I really appreciated getting to know more about him as a person, his faith, and his life experiences through those posts. It’s a level of respect I maintain to this day.

6. How many concerts have you been to?

Four, and they’ve all been great! Here are pics from each:

2011 – MINNEAPOLIS, ROY WILKINS AUDITORIUM

My only complaint about this one is that the acoustics in what is normally (if I remember correctly) a hockey arena were awful, so Adam’s singing didn’t sound that great. But it was still really fun, and a great treat to see Adam live for the first time!

2011 concert poster

My ticket!

2011 stage

2012 – CHICAGO

This was the same year I *might* have had a kind Minnesota friend drive me around Owatonna to check out some local haunts in Adam’s hometown for my birthday. 😉 I don’t recall the name of the concert venue, but it was something like “Vine” or “Vineyard” and not directly in downtown Chicago.

2012 stage, Midsummer Station tour

2012 concert venue

2015 – CHICAGO, HOUSE OF BLUES

This was my first time at the House of Blues, and I really don’t like this venue. The floor is standing room only, and good luck trying to leave your spot to use the bathroom and get back anywhere close to where you were. The amenities are expensive, the space is cramped, standing for concerts is the worst, and the views from the balcony are obscured and horrible. Still, we made due and had a good time.

2015 stage – view from balcony (a great stretch to get this shot)

2018 – CHICAGO, HOUSE OF BLUES

Back to this not great venue, but went with a fantastic group of people, and we had a blast despite being forced to stand with no room to move for 3 hours.

2018 stage

Chicago on a beautiful October night

7. Do you own any Owl City merch?

Sadly, no. The retro styles and muted colors typically used in the merch are just not my style, but I do keep looking to see if there’s anything that I’d love having! Perhaps one day…

8. Which song/album is your least favorite?

I’ll not say any album is my least favorite, but his earlier music before Ocean Eyes is not listened to as frequently as the rest of his music, but everything does get reasonable play time as I have all his music in my car on infinite repeat as I’m driving around town. Least favorite songs are “Bombshell Blonde” and “Deer in the Headlights” as I always skip them when they come on. But I have a special loathing for the regular version of “All My Friends” (the alt version is much better, and I like that one just fine). When the regular version was first released as a single for Cinematic, I just couldn’t believe how bad it sounded, and wondered if something had gone horribly wrong when Adam left his label, but then the rest of the album came out and all was well. 🙂 Haha!

9. What memories do you associate with Owl City’s music?

Reliving memories from the concerts with the friends who went with me to each one is fun. I have great memories of singing Owl City songs with friends in the car. I also have a lot of visual imagery associated with the songs that my imagination conjured up all on its own, so that’s probably what I think about the most when I hear the music, in addition to appreciating the lyrics and thinking about their meanings.

10. If he were to come out with a new album, what do you think it should be about?

He’s done instrumentals on the moments of history he’s admired, and a bio album, so an album with a song for each book that he loves would be pretty cool! It would certainly encourage me to check out the books if I hadn’t read them already. 😉 We’d probably get that sooner than a collaboration album with Enya, my other favorite artist. But there’s always hope…!