Music

I love music. All kinds of music. I write this random blog tonite because my MP3 player died and I had to transfer all my files around and reload...blah blah blah ...My uncanny talent is bursting into song with lyrics that are appropriate at the moment. I'd say that the only kind of music that I can't get on board with is hard core rap, screamo ( which I didn't know what that was until just recently) & really hard core punk rock. Other than these I can find something to appreciate about it...

The Standards
Who can't get on board with the great American Standards. Sometimes when I want to look at the world in an idyllic sort of way- I listen to standards. Sinatra, Buble & Harry Connick Jr. ( covering them for my generation), gotta love it. *sigh*

Sarah McLachlan
In my world she belongs in a class all by herself. I own every album (including every rarities & b sides albums) and have never missed her when she comes to town. I was at every Lilith Fair (a celebration of women in rock..organized by the great Sarah..) I LOVE HER (but not in a freakshow stalker sort of way) "Answer" is probably my favorite. "Vox" is the first track on my gym playlist.... She's my cup of comfort when my soul needs musical soothing

Angry Chicks
Every girl has angry chick music residing somewhere within her. Alanis Morissete (warning: she's heartbroken & angry again) on her latest album and I LOVE IT. Melissa Etheridge, Brandi Carlisle, A Fine Frenzy, The Dixie Chicks, Tori Amos.. I'd love to have them all for dinner. Have some wine and just listen to the conversation... Good times. What would I cook? Hmmm...

Country & Oldies
My parents' radio had two settings growing up... country and oldies... I KLUV my oldies people!! they both have a special place in my heart. Sometimes I get a hankering for Charlie Daniels, Conway Twitty, Willie Nelson or Don Williams... Elvis, the Supremes, Aretha Franklin...they remind me of my childhood. As for oldies- I can remember there were a few songs I could always remember if you listened really hard you could hear my dad sing "American Pie" & "Leroy Brown" stick in my mind...

Classical
Sometimes I just need classical. Pachelbel's Cannon in D Minor *sigh*

Playlists- Just to name some of the songs you might stumble onto on my iPOD
Angry Playlist:
"Not Ready to Make Right" by the Dixie Chicks... "Say" by John Mayer.. "Why" by Annie Lennox "Enough" Melissa Etheridge "Hate Me" Blue October

Sad Playlist
Ain't No Love by David Gray... Answer by Sarah McLachlan... This Year's Love by David Gray.. "Not as We" by Alanis Morissette "Shine On" James Blunt "Full of Grace" Sarah McLachlan

Gym Playlist
"Vox" by Sarah McLachlan.. "Calling You" Blue October... "Faith" George Michael.. "Freedom" George Michael "Remedy" by Black Crowes.."She Talks to Angels" by Black Crowes

Flash Back
When I want to flash back to high school I think of these relics:
"Jeremy" Pearl Jam -November Rain- Guns N Roses (yes I just typed Guns N Roses- I stumbled onto "Patience" the other day on my iPOD and started giggling like a school girl..) "What's Up" 4 Non Blondes.. "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" Sarah McLachlan... any track by the Pretenders.. or Aerosmith or The Cure or the Violent Femmes...

I think this love of music is because I was a band nerd (please spare me the American Pie red head band nerd jokes-) and being a band nerd you learn to read music and well I was a pretty good band nerd/clarinet player and you appreciate the difficulty of making music a little more when you've studied it. I miss playing an instrument.... I'm running out of excuses not to pursue that interest again. No worries- I'm not gonna pick up my clarinet and start rummaging thru old sheet music.


Well it's time for me and my iPod to jam on back to my new bedroom..complete with new paint..and new attitude.. and take a bath.. do a little reading.. a little praying and go to sleep... But what will I listen to? Holla!

Traveling Mercies

So Traveling Mercies is a book I read quite some time ago..by accident really. The book found it's way in my stack of reading materials after my Mom and I duplicated a Christmas Gift to Rockin Rachel... And well now it's this battered looking piece of a book. One that I've savored and remains in my nightstand and I re-read certain chapters regularly.

Here's what I like about Anne Lamott. She's not the vision of the church lady. Her walk in Faith is a honest, flawed one that I totally relate to- but at the end of the day she just puts it all there for God and humbly asks for Grace. She's relatable. For me she's real. I get annoyed sometimes with Spiritual books that paint this picture of what we should be or do or say. That's been sort of the focus of the series at church lately..the demise of the Church as we know it. "Christians" have the wrap of being too busy judging you or trying to save you to just embrace you. Pretty deep stuff if you think about it.

Kinda got off track there. Traveling Mercies so I just visited wallwords.com and I'm working on my newest project for the house.. over the door I'm thinking I'll tell folks what Traveling Mercies means when they leave mine & Cole's crib... "Traveling Mercies: love the journey, God is with you, come home safe and sound." When I finally got to know what Traveling Mercies meant on pg 106 of the book it made me think of my Jr. High Speech Teacher. Theressa Patrick. Every Friday she would say: "Don't get in the car with strangers, say No to Drugs and come back to me safe.." It never failed. Funny how you remember those things...

So while I was thumbing through Traveling Mercies for my wallwords project...this passage managed to move me again..and I'm throwing it out there in my random blog tonite because we've got a team leaving for Uganda later this week...

"...our preacher Veronica said recently that this is life's nature: that lives and hearts get broken-those of people we love, those of people we'll never meet. She said that the world sometimes feels like the waiting room of the emergency ward and that we who are more or less OK for now need to take the tenderest possible care of the more wounded people in the waiting room, until the Healer comes. You sit with people, she said, you bring them juice and crackers.."

Or you bring kids in Uganda shoes and socks so they can go to school. Traveling Mercies.

Holla!! I gotta go watch some TiVo'd Bachlorette.. I know that officially classifies me a a LOSER but it's summer TV and when I began this blog I said I would be honest and I'm kind of rooting for the dorky single Dad...