Year of Gratitude - Day 357 - Holiday Music

Christmas Carols, the holiday jams and season's greetings spoofs. I love it all during this time of year. I love the radio stations that rock out the holiday spirit 24/7. I listen to the Pandora Christmas Music station shamelessly.

Fun Fact (well, maybe not that fun): December 24, 1818: Father Joseph Mohr first performed his song Silent Night 196 years ago today. Nearly a century later, in 1914, German soldiers on the Western Front sang the song from the trenches and were joined by their British opponents. (Thanks, Goodreads.)

Finally, Michael Steven Bublé. I am a fan. 

Year of Gratitude - Day 346 - Choir Music at Dearborn Performing Arts Center

My mother and I went to see the Dearborn Holiday Choral Festival at the Michael A. Guido Theater. It was absolutely wonderful. I love this theater and it is even more awesome around Christmas time. Support live performances!

Year of Gratitude - Day 316 - Missy Elliott

I love Missy Elliott. She is a remarkable artist and I have long enjoyed her music.

Check out her fresh single:

Year of Gratitude - Day 203 - Deftones

I got into the Deftones quite late and was at peace with the fact that I'd never see them live. Well, today I saw the Deftones live. Not only was I grateful to see the Deftones, but I was grateful that we got there early enough - they started at 7:30! It was great, though, and I heard all kinds of songs I loved.

Incubus was wonderful, too, but I've seen them a bunch. Totally grateful for a great night of great rock.

Year of Gratitude - Day 145 - Turn Down For What

I love this song. SO MUCH. I also love how Rolling Stone described it:

The year's nutsiest party jam was also the perfect protest banger for a generation fed up with everything. DJ Snake brings the synapse-rattling EDM and Southern trap music; Lil Jon brings the dragon-fire holler for a hilarious, glorious, glowstick-punk "fuck you."

Year of Gratitude - Day 141 - Trippy by Antiserum and Mayhem

This song is my jam. Trap City has some great stuff!

Year of Gratitude - Day 129 - Faith No More

This was one of the most spectacular rock shows I've ever witnessed. Faith No More rocked the roof off the Fillmore. The crowd was super energetic. We saw some old friends and wrapped up the night at Hot Taco. It was a very fun night and I'm grateful for it.

Year of Gratitude - Day 69 - Kendrick Lamar

Admittedly, I'm really late to the Kendrick Lamar party, but I'm grateful to have been late than to have never made it all! I was reading through the daily news bits from The National for Business Journalism and was happy to see this on Lamar's latest record:

Kendrick Lamar sets a record. Billboard reports Kendrick Lamar’s surprise album drop late Sunday led to a record first day for album streams. A total of 9.6 million people listened to at least one of the songs on To Pimp a Butterfly on Spotify on the album’s first day. That’s a lot of people. Billboard estimates the royalties from all those plays will add up to a little over $44,000.

It should also be noted that the Kendrick Lamar channel on Pandora is great.

Year of Gratitude - Day 66 - You're all I need

The song "I'll be there for you / You're all I need to get by" is definitely a testament to my being a 90's kid. This song was one of the first things to make me start thinking about love. When I hear it now, I think of my husband. It was released like four years before we ever met each other! 

This is just the audio, but really that's all you need.

Year of Gratitude - Day 41 - Beyoncé's album Beyoncé

It's really the greatest. She is great. The greatest? Quite possibly.

Year of Gratitude - Day 34 - Pandora

Pandora is my favorite for music. Not only can I pick a station with the type of music I want to hear at that moment, but Pandora has generally really pleased me with its selections. I have enjoyed my favorite artists, while discovering others. While the ads are annoying, they are not as bad as the seemingly endless commercials on regular radio.

Year of Gratitude - Day 15 - Classical Music - Dvorák and Haydn

Just look 'em up and enjoy on Pandora. Life is good when you get this kind of music in a shuffle.

"you have to take into account the HISTORY as you move underneath the banner of hiphop." 

~QTip to Iggy Azalea

See full thread of tweets on QTip's Twitter.

Confessions of an old year: 2013

2013 was pretty swell. I began a good job, reconnected with tons of friends and I started writing, reading and cooking more. I have found that I am more reflective in my writing and I have been learning more about myself through the practice. In these reflections, however, I found that there are little bits of me that may appear, well, kind of embarrassing.

These are my confessions for a year gone by:

1. Sometimes at rest, my face is a bitch face. I'm so sorry if my smug demeanor has ever offended you, but, well, that's my face. My thinking face is even worse - it's like bitch face meets angry brow. Whenever I'm writing I have the thinking face on and my husband always asks me at least once, "Is everything okay?" Yeah, babe, it's just my face. 
2. Vanity sucks. I hate makeup and fashionable clothes, accessories, done up nails...except there's one problem: I'd like to be pretty and I've considered stepping up my own vanity game. I think this is me getting old. I hate the thought of talking about beauty, too, but it might have to happen in the new year. Egad. I blame Pinterest.
3. Pope Francis rules. He's like a South American Pope John Paul II, who was also the man. I think these guys really exemplify the BEST religion has to offer. The Catholic Church really needs a dude like Pope Francis, who I already think is going to have the same dramatic effect on the world that Pope John Paul did. While I no longer practice Catholicism, if I did, I would super, duper proud to have Pope Francis as a leader. As a fellow human being, I'm super duper happy that Pope Francis is at the helm and leading by example. 
4. The radio has been getting a lot of play in my car. I listen to pop now and played Christmas music since Thanksgiving. I've enjoyed using my Shazam to find new music, including new hip-hop, some Eurotrash and, yes, another confession...
5. I like dub step. A friend was describing the sound of dub step while ridiculing it a while ago and I was like "Oh crap, I think I like that stuff."  And, alas, I do.
6. Continuing with the pop music confessions... I think I like Miley Cyrus. I only really like "Can't Stop" - it's Miley's personality as a free, wild woman that I like more. While I understand that people have called her inappropriate, and some have even pegged some of her activities as racially insensitive, I don't actually feel that this young woman is spiteful or hateful. Is she naive? Perhaps, but then again, which of us was the pinnacle of wisdom and responsibility at age 21? We don't all get to be like Miley - doing whatever we want, whenever we please in as few articles of clothing as we dare...but she does. And she's doing it and apologizing for none of it. One of my mantras this year (and will remain for years to come) is "Stay true to yourself." Miley has done exactly that. And while I don't love her antics, with her silly tongue protruding from her face and her jiggly thighs flopping around all over the place, I love that she is herself and gives zero cares what people think. She's not hurting anyone, she's clearly having the time of her life and she's staying true to herself. I wouldn't invite her to dinner, but I'd give her a high five for sure.
7. I'm still in the recovery stages of my long battle with workaholism. While I am MUCH better this year about working off the clock, I still slip. However, this last year I have ensured that my time is no longer monopolized by a job. I deeply care about my work and am a dedicated employee, but at the end of the day, the expectation is not to work 50-60 hours a week. I'm not a high powered attorney, a doctor on call or anything like that. The work will be there when it's time to work. This boundary has been a difficult one for me to draw, because I've always been so eager and willing to go the extra thousand miles. Yet when I think about the cost of my behavior, my precious personal time, I shudder at the thought of things that bring me joy that I neglect - riding my bike, cooking for my husband, reading a book, writing, visiting my parents and snuggling with their puppy. We all have very limited time on this planet. Much of it is spent sleeping, much of it working and then there's that finite bit that you get to LIVE with. I'm working on my addiction to work and so far I've really enjoyed the benefits of TRUE personal time. 

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 19 - Music

If I didn't have the people I do in my life, I would have some pretty awful music taste. I mean, I still do have terrible music taste, but it's been evened out by good stuff. The other day, my iPod took me on a trip down memory lane. Here are my memories:

"Shorty Swing My Way" from the album So So Def Bass Allstars Volume 2
This song reminds me of my high school girlfriends and I. We'd often driving around in my car, the famous (in Dearborn Heights) silver Cougar, cause trouble and listen to music loudly. This album got tons of play.

Anything by Bjork. I listened to a lot of Bjork when I was writing for the Detroit Red Wings. Songs like "The Hunter" always take me back to my days and nights at Joe Louis Arena.

"Beauty and the Beast" by David Bowie. This song always reminds me of the time I found that my bike rack was one of the cheaper types. Essentially, I hit a pothole going about 80 miles an hour and half the bike popped loose. I managed to pull over (in the DEEP Detroit ghetto) and secure my bike. To this day I'm still grateful that bike didn't fall off and cause havoc on the freeway.

Peanuts music just makes me feel great. I'm getting into the holiday spirit with the Peanuts, too. Vince Guaraldi was a genius.

Also, I love the healing property of music. Just yesterday I heard a story on NPR about how when JFK was assassinated, the CEO of an orchestra came out to the audience and said that some of the musicians didn't think they should continue. The CEO said when his father died, he went to the orchestra and it helped him. He wanted the audience to have the symphony help them through one of the most tragic moments in American history.

April is National Poetry Month: Wu-Tang Clan

I have been thinking about how to contribute to National Poetry Month and here it is: Wu-Tang Clan and Ghostface Killah. I've been listening to a lot of New York hip hop lately and it is amazing. Turns out the Wu-Tang Clan will be in Grand Rapids, MI in January 2012, which will require a road trip. Well worth it. These are great artists.

Ghostface Killah's "I'll die for you" is totally bad ass.



A couple related links:

• The Wu-Tang Clan: http://www.wutang-corp.com/artists/wu-tang-clan.php
• Ghostface Killah on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ghostfacekillah

Simultaneous sweet and sucky Sunday: Nine Inch Nails albums

Today's simultaneously sweet and sucky thing I discovered was the fact that there are NO Nine Inch Nails albums available through MelCat.org (with the exception of those I own). That's sweet because it indicates people are rocking out to the oldies but goodies. Of course, it's also sucky, because I cannot enjoy the goodies. I mean, come on, Pretty Hate Matchine? March of the Pigs? That's good stuff. But, I shall be the good little librarian and wait my for my stinkin' turn.

I'm well overdue to see a dang NIN show.

Today's Knowledge: Chopin's Heart

This is a great video report called Poland: Chopin's Heart. It was very moving and it ignited a longing for my homeland.

Filmmaker Marian Marzynski visits his native Poland to witness the 15th Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. “Like every child growing up in Poland, I was raised with the music of Chopin,” says Marzynski, who survived the Holocaust in Poland as a young boy. Eight hundred contestants, from 19 countries, sign up for the nail-biting musical marathon, which provides exquisite music and plenty of surprises.

Haiku: Beastie Boys new album

Every now and again I make an attempt at creative writing. Haiku is about as far as I've made it. Enjoy. Or don't. I'll love you all the same.

New Beastie Boys joint
Super fresh, ill to the core.
Funk makes you move lots