Laugh It Up, Fuzzball

The mood, baby, the MOOD

I'm so weird when it comes to my music. Yes, I will acknowledge that I am a music whore, fine. I like what I like, no matter if it's "good" or "cool" or whathaveyou. This is a point of consternation for a lot of my friends who ARE indeed super cool people with super cool taste in music. They don't really understand my love for all things Bryan Adams or my need to spend an entire night reveling in Madame Butterfly or the fact that I can sing the entire score of Les Miserables. Ah well, it's the little idiosyncrasies that make you love me, right? ;)

It's not all bad, don't worry. My all-time favorite band is The Beatles. If you went through my music collection you would be very happy at most of what I own. Most.

So today is a pop day for me. More to the point, it's a current pop day. I'm craving upbeat super pointless happy crappy bouncy dancing music that most people would run from. Well run run run little rabbits, I'm all about me some P!nk, Kelly, Matchbox 20, etc today. Don't ask me why, they just seem to be tickling the right spots for me today. Yesterday at the marathon I was singing snippets from a song that I had heard in a VERY crappy movie. Today I went on iTunes and BOUGHT that song. It's just atrocious and I LOVE it. The band is The Veronicas and the song is, wait for it...."4ever". No, I'm not kidding. That's the name of the song.

Apparently today I am thirteen years old. And I LIKE IT. ;)

P.S. No matter how crappy my musical tastes may be, there are certain bands that I will NEVER like. Nickelback is one of them. Blech.

Never gonna give, never gonna give!

*Sigh* Yes, I loved this song when it came out 20 years ago. Yes, I danced around my friend Melissa's living room to it. Yes, I kissed the television screen when the video came on.

YES. Okay? Geez. Enough with the interrogation!

Away, thou spectre infernal!

My musical tastes are varied to say the least. Yesterday I was listening to Yaz and Madonna. Today I've been reveling in Mozart's Don Giovanni. One of my geologists walked by as I was very energetically conducting the Commendatore Scene from Act II. He did a double take and came in to ask if there was a bee in my office or if I was having some sort of seizure. >:|

I love the bass and baritone parts of operas. Back in college I would have my friend Matt (who was an opera major) sing his very lowest notes while I pressed my ear up against his chest. I love the way those low, low notes vibrate! I mean, no offense to the tenors, I have a lot of friends who were tenors...but...you're not basses. Sorry. ;) I'm an  alto at heart; we congregate with the low voices, what can I say?

Friday evening digression accompanied by a little Nachtmusik

Often times I'll be listening to an album and the music will make me feel a certain way, and I'll want to verbalize my feelings, and yet...nothing. Argh. I just have to settle for motioning at the screen and saying "Don't you GET it?" and then realizing that the only beings that can hear me are Monty and Emma. They're great companions, but neither one of them is much for conversation. Emma just bosses me around and all Monty can do is bitch about his plans to overthrow Russia. I keep telling him "It didn't work the first time, why do you think it will work this time?" Damn French, they'll never learn. :D

But I digress. Where was I? Oh, yes...sometimes you just need music to do the talking for you. I'm not always talking about the lyrics, either. Most of the time I'm moved by the music alone. I guess that's why I love so many classical composers. There are some bands, however, that grab me with both their music and their lyrics. Coldplay is one of those bands. Ahhhhhhhh Coldplay.

Talk

(listen to mp3)

Oh brother I can't, I can't get through
I've been trying hard to reach you, cause I don't know what to do
Oh brother I can't believe it's true
I'm so scared about the future and I wanna talk to you
Oh I wanna talk to you
You can take a picture of something you see
In the future where will I be?
You can climb a ladder up to the sun
Or write a song nobody has sung
Or do something that's never been done

Are you lost or incomplete?
Do you feel like a puzzle, you can't find your missing piece?
Tell me how do you feel?
Well I feel like they're talking in a language I don't speak
And they're talking it to me

So you take a picture of something you see
In the future where will I be?
You can climb a ladder up to the sun
Or a write a song nobody has sung
Or do something that's never been done
Do something that's never been done

So you don't know were you're going, and you wanna talk
And you feel like you're going where you've been before
You tell anyone who'll listen but you feel ignored
Nothing's really making any sense at all
Let's talk, let's talk
Let's talk, let's talk

There is no way that this post contains obscene amounts of awesome music from an awesome movie.

There is absolutely no chance that I bought the Dirty Dancing: Ultimate Dirty Dancing CD this weekend. No way. I certainly didn't listen to it all weekend either, no sir. What? Did I twirl around in my living room to the "Merengue" or "Johnny's Mambo"? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I'm shocked that you'd even ask. I mean, sure, I've heard that the album features, for the first time, every song from the hit movie sequenced in the order it appears in the film, but what do I care about that?

Wait, say that again? You heard reports of a crazy redhead in a silver Civic dancing in her car on Louisiana Street this morning? Well, I have no idea who that was. I can't imagine why anyone would dance in their car, not even if they were doing the mashed potato. Maybe the twist, maybe...

Look, I like Dirty Dancing as much as the next girl. It was an important movie for my generation! But I mean, come ON. Do you really think that I'm the kind of person that would close her office door at lunchtime and dance around her office to "Love Man"? Do you? I don't care how good Otis Redding is, that's just plain old unprofessional behavior.

You tell me who's spreading these vicious lies. I demand to know! Well, at least I know that you readers know the truth. You know that I have no weakness whatsoever for "The Time Of My Life", and that I would NEVER sing it at the top of lungs while flinging my arms up over my head with a big smile. Never.

Thanks for your loyalty, dear readers. I know that I can trust you to distinguish the truth from outrageous fiction. Thank goodness for that. Now I'm off like the wind. 

WAIT, did I say like the wind? I, uh, meant, I'm outta here. Yeah. That's it.

Peace

One Safe Place (mp3)
Marc Cohn & Phil Galdston

How many roads you’ve traveled
How many dreams you’ve chased
Across sand and sky and gravel
Looking for one safe place

Will you make a smoother landing
When you break your fall from grace
Into the arms of understanding
Looking for one safe place

Life is trial by fire
And love’s the sweetest taste
And I pray it lifts us higher
To one safe place

How many roads we’ve traveled
How many dreams we’ve chased
Across sand and sky and gravel
Looking for one safe place

Whistling Fat Man

Today I happened to hit "record" on my computer when Monty was entertaining me with one of his musical interludes. He loves it when I laugh along so that's why he keeps going the more that I giggle. I can't help but laugh when he whistles -- it's too adorable! My next project is to capture him talking so that you guys can hear him yell at Emma. Awesome.

Click on the picture of Monty to hear him tweedling away...

Oh you guys are in SO much trouble now...

It became Christmas tonight...

...when I watched this week's episode of Studio 60. Aaron Sorkin is unparalleled in his ability to not only tug on the heartstrings, but just flat rip them out and stomp on them. The episode featured musicians benefitting from The Tipitina's Foundation, led by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews playing my VERY FAVORITE carol, O Holy Night. I sobbed throughout the entire performance! This clip is pure Christmas magic to me:

Primitive

Growing up I spent several summers in Crested Butte, CO with my family. Our house was a bare-bones ski shack on Cinnamon Mountain Road, and not a year goes by that I don't miss it. My favorite part of the house was the large balcony. On clear evenings I'd drag a blanket and my little boombox out onto the balcony and lie on my back listening to Annie Lennox's "Primitive". The total silence of the mountain, the crisp air, the flame-colored sky on the horizon...I've never felt closer to earth, nature, God, whatever you want to call it. I don't know why I chose "Primitive" as the perfect soundtrack to those quiet moments, but I can't imagine anything else. Whenever I hear it I close my eyes and I'm back on that balcony, listening to the mountain.

Listen to Annie Lennox's "Primitive"

(photo courtesy of skycritter)