Music
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Finding Light
Back when Maya was little, she was a big fan of the singer Jewel. She was a toddler, and would carry pictures of Jewel that we printed from our computer around. She loved her songs, and thought everyone with long blonde hair was Jewel (at the time I had short hair, so no, I did not have Jewel hair.) One of my very favorite Jewel songs is Hands, which gave me support through September 11th, and the many times I have felt helpless since then. I’ve been so angry since the election, and have felt myself pulled toward despair. I am angry and bitter, and I do not want to…
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Friday Randomness
First off, I’m feeling less stressed. There is no reason to feel better, but one can only stay stressed out for so long. Our company is going to go through another round of layoffs in the next month or so, and they want all employees who live within 50 miles of an office to start coming in a couple of days a week. They say it’s time to get back to normal, pandemic is over, etc. The thing is, my team has never worked in an office, we’ve always been remote, so the idea of having to drive 60-90 minutes each way to sit in a cubicle with coworkers that…
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Whamageddon
I’m in, again. The first time I heard of Whamageddon, I made it all of the way from December 1st to December 24th without hearing the Wham! classic ‘Last Christmas’, but last year the DJ at Ted’s company party played it, and I think that was December 2nd. (To clarify, I do not have strong feelings about this song. I like it fine, but I don’t love it.) We’ll see how it goes this year. Stout hearts. UPDATE: The acoustics at the party were HORRIBLE at this year’s company party, so I have no idea whether he played the song or not. SO I’M STILL IN!
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Songs About Relationships
I’m not sure if I have mentioned it here before, but my husband Ted has a music podcast, Planet LP, which has morphed over the years. When he first started as a way to entertain himself and stay creative in the early days of the podcast, he talked about music and books. Then he took on a cohost and the format turned to music only. Eventually, his cohost realized that he was too busy for the commitment, and is now an occasional guest. At one point Ted’s podcast was once a week, but when he started at his current job, he realized he had far less down time than his…
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Meme Monday – Ready for Christmas?
I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving. Ours was very nice, delicious food, good company, lots of laughs. Overall a winner. After Thanksgiving, we had a little friends and family time. Ted had lunch with his best friend on Friday, and Maya went into San Francisco with a friend to visit another friend of theirs, who recently had an appendectomy. I had to do a bit of work, but not too much. Working from home is a blessing and a curse. I didn’t have to go in to the office, which was the blessing. I did have to work, which maybe I might have avoided if I weren’t so available.…
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Friday Randomness
[youtube]http://youtu.be/C7l3y7LOzLc[/youtube] Have you seen the beautiful tribute to my first husband, David Bowie, at the BRIT awards? This is the entire thing, I think, including a tribute by Annie Lennox, a tribute by Gary Oldmam, and a song by Lorde, backed up by performers who had worked with Bowie in the past. I’ll confess, Lorde’s song brought me to tears. I miss David Bowie being alive in the world. It was a better place with him here. Coming so soon after the Emmy awards, which included a tribute by Lady Gaga, of course invites comparison. I’ll chime in and say that Gaga’s tribute left me feeling cold, didn’t move…
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Such Sad News
[youtube]http://youtu.be/NQj7Ek2kqxs[/youtube] I woke up to such sad news today, that David Bowie had died from cancer. Generally, I don’t feel anything when celebrities die. Especially since my mom died, I know how much the death of a real-life person you know and love hurts, and what an absolute hole it leaves in your heart. How can the death of a stranger truly matter. And maybe it doesn’t. But still, this morning’s news hurt. David Bowie was my first real celebrity crush. I remember when I was about 20, dreaming that he came to the hotel where I worked, and oh, by the way, he was my husband in this dream.…
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New Order and Concert Etiquette
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkOr12AQpnU[/youtube] Our friends Marilee and Paul had planned to see New Order in San Francisco on Friday, but life (ok, work) got in the way, so they gave the tickets to us. I was SO into New Order back in the late 80s. I loved them. Ted and I saw them in concert in 1989, where New Order was headlining with the Sugarcubes and PIL (Public Image Limited). The Sugarcubes couldn’t get the audience interested, and PIL were great. New Order was boring, and a lot of people left before the concert ended. So I wasn’t sure that I would pay to see them again, but since Paul and Marilee…
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Infected ~ The The
I mentioned a mix-tape on Monday, with the Bruce Cockburn song. Anyone old enough to listen to albums or tapes, be they a mix tape or a full on album, knows that when you’ve listened to the album/tape over and over and over again, one songs leads you to expect the next in sequence. So it is with this song. Infected came after Lovers in a Dangerous Time. Another great 80s song. What was next? I’m not sure…but if I run out of blogging ideas again during NaBloPoMo, you may find out…
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Lovers in a Dangerous Time
It’s almost 9:30pm….Ted gets up at 0:dark o’clock (before 4), and has gone to bed. Maya is the rare teen who doesn’t stay up too late, so she’s getting ready to sleep. My book is calling me to get a chapter in at least before bed, because 1. I’m hooked, and 2. it’s due at the library on Saturday, and I can’t renew it. So for tonight’s post, here’s a video from a song I loved way back when. I can’t remember if I put it on a mix tape for Ted, or if he put it on one for me. We were never really in a dangerous time, except…
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A Recommendation…
(picture found here) Ted’s doing a radio/video show called American Liberal, on TRadioV.com, and at the end of the show, they (he and his co-host) give a recommendation…sometimes it’s a book, sometimes it’s an album, sometimes it’s a life thing. This last episode, Ted recommended an overnight getaway. I agree wholeheartedly. Maya went to Los Angeles (Orange, actually) last week, and Ted and I had 4 days together in between her leaving and coming back. She had fun with her cousin, went to look at some colleges, went to the beach and looked at the Stars on the Hollywood walk of fame. While she was gone, Ted and I did…
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Mix Tape
(awesome mix-tape picture found here) A couple of people commented on my anniversary post about the beauty of mix tapes, and Dad Who Writes even requested to know what might be on some of the ones that Ted made me back in the day. So I dug out what’s left of our tape collection, then sorted through to find any that might still have their cases intact. I found just a few. There are a lot of tapes, but many are unmarked, and we no longer have a tape deck. Not even in our cars. OK, I think I still have a walkman somewhere, which I kept JUST in case…
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Happy Anniversary!
18 years already? I’m not sure exactly how that can be, since it feels like we’re still in our 20s…. Thank you for being my husband, my best friend, such a wonderful father to our child, and for always being on my side. It’s you and me against the world, honey. I’m looking forward to the next 18 years of happy marriage to you, though not so excited to think about the wrinkles I’ll have at that point! HA! OK, here’s another anniversary video for you… I remember when you used to make me mix tapes, and this song was on one of them…the next song was ‘Legal Tender’ by…
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Tracey Thorn ~ Love and Its Opposite
I’ve been listening to Tracey Thorn’s newest album, Love and Its Opposite, and the more I hear it, the more I like it. First off, Thorn has a gorgeous, lush voice. I don’t know if you were ever a fan of her joint venture with her (now) husband Ben Watt, Everything But the Girl, but I really loved their stuff back in the late 80s, especially Idlewild. Past her voice, though, are her lyrics. Together with the melodies, her music can really speak to me. Apron Strings so perfectly captured my baby lust in those years before we were emotionally and financially ready for a baby, but god, my hormones…
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Soundtrack to Love…
For several years after we first married, I would find my thoughts drifting back to July of 1993…”last year right now, we were driving to the pier to pick up the discounted wine for our wedding reception…” or “2 years ago now we were on the plane to London to start our honeymoon…” That sort of thing. Well, as the years pass, I find my thoughts going back to specific days less and less, but for some reason today I was thinking about 17 years ago, when we took the train from Amsterdam to Paris, for the last part of our Honeymoon. We bought coach tickets, but decided while underway…
