It was hot and there was nothing pressing on my to-do list besides catch up on all my blogs and edit some pictures. Instead, I found myself out at a friend's house in the country out back on the patio hanging out under the stars
Managing to make it home before the crack of midnight, came home to the lone dog in the house, and did what I always do in this quiet museum of mine...turned the music on.
Somewhere on random select, I was graced with this song and yes, again my "new" favorite who I've always heard a single at a time, but never really listened to.
I listened to this rendition of Otis Redding's classic at least a half a dozen times while the dog ran around chasing down flies.
I remembered the time I broke my toe a few years back at the Fillmore in San Francisco and rolled my eyes at myself. Logic failed me that night as I wore open toed shoes to a rock concert.
Oh well, what's a toe to sacrifice for a great concert and a good memory?
If you ever get a chance to go to a concert there, make sure you take advantage.
It's a legendary place and the walls are graced with some of the most colorful poster art you can find.
Art you'll find in museums and in private collections these days.
If those walls could talk, they'd tell you they've played host to the musicians of the ages: the rock gods, the rebels, and the lyrical game changers.
I leave you with another soundbyte in this soundtrack that is my life & a snippet from the photo journal of my misadventures I've been making one picture at a time for many years now.
{I've got to pay homage to the original, a classic feel good song you just can't help but sing along with.}
{3 Doors Down concert, 2008, don't let the smile distract from the broken, swelling toe that now points slightly to the left. It can tell you when the rain is gonna come}
My dad called to tell me he had been doing some baking and had a pie he wanted to bring to me at work.
Just out of the oven, it was "on the porch" cooling off.
Yeah, out of the blue pie-baking from my Pops.
Would me and "the shift" like it and could I meet him out front to get it.
Who turns down warm homemade rhubarb pie?
So, I waited out front on the second story of the building looking for him to pull in.
As I stood there watching the clouds roll by, hands in my pockets, whining in my head about the cold and how I might as well be on the Cliffs of Ireland {insert dramatic eye roll}, I thought,
"Self, stop whining. How many people have their dad bring them warm, homemade, rhubard pie at work on Monday night? Also, (Self) one day you will be standing on the Cliffs of Ireland and you will really know what cold is then."
One headphone in, as usual, this song had been playing as background noise whie I waited there until I heard this lyric:
I made up my mind when I was a young girl I've been given this one world I won't worry it away But now and again I lose sight of the good life I get stuck in a low light But then Love comes in
Pie deliveries, a constant stream of music, few worries at the moment, travel wishes that I know will come true some day, maybe sooner rahter than later.
Things change so quickly, take advantage of today,.
What have I been saying in the last few weeks and months?
Life in this day, be anxious for nothing, pay attention to the details around you.
Sound-byte lesson of the day:
This is the good life.
...and one more sound byte just for good measure...
because the blues is where my heart is at
because I should have been listening to Sara Bareilles for many more years that I have currntly
because this is just a damn good song
Today's musical nugget is courtesy of a YouTube recommendation
&
it's what I have to imagine is the love child of a Steve Job's inspiration
but packaged up after a night of jagerbombs, tattoos, electric guitars, and amps.
I present: Stellar Revival "The Crazy Ones"
Yes, here's to the Crazy Ones, in quote, in song, in lyrics, and in Manifesto
Put your rock horns up and open your ears to the lyrics!
we are the heart breakers, risk takers anything but boring cause we are the crazy ones the mavericks, the dreamers the forgotten sons we color outside the lines for fun we are the crazy ones
When my mom, my aunt, the neighbor, or society tells me to turn this racket down,
I'll say this to them:
This is Janis Joplin, Big Mama Thornton, Hank Williams, and Count Basie.
There have always been rebels;
they just have a different sound, a different look and a different beat these days.
And....well, if that's not enough,
I'll tell them this:
I know crazy, it's runs through my veins, we cannot escape it.
Crazy is 2.5 years younger than me, bearded, and leathered by the sun:
{Ocean Springs, MS}
Crazy on this very day last year, one year ago exactly, after more than four months of walking, running, and crawling along this entire nation, ran directly into the Atlantic Ocean in Florida and put a loud exclamat!on point on the end of his Declaration of Crazy, his Batten Journey.
Here's the to Crazies, to the Steve Jobs, to the Noah Coughlans, to all the dreamers who refuse to hear doubt, give up their bus seat, to step back from the ledge, or put down their guitars.
After reading today's Monday post from Bits of Splendor, I had intentions to share something else as my bit of spendor for the week, but then this song came on and I knew I had to share this instead.
It's another "love at first sound" song delivered to me courtesy of Pandora.
{looking for late night writing inspiration, I put on Adele Radio and it didn't disappoint, not one bit}
For all us women, girls, ladies who occasionally and sometimes unexpectedly get distracted by our mirror images, in the labels sewed into the backs of our clothing,
or just the constant social stream & pressure of what is "sexy" or "trendy"
what make us "it-girls" and directs us on what we "must have",
just listen to this melody, read these lyrics
let them silence that often sneaky voice of doubt, of self-concious, of ugly, of comparison
let these lyrics remind you of Who and in Whose image we were all created
I don't wanna be her I just want to be little old me Shouldn't have to think Who am I suppose to be today And what give you the right To tell me who I should be Who gave you that right
Cause I, I feel lovely Just the way that I am Yes I feel lovely The way that I am
I know you want the best Yeah only good things for me But you have to realize I can't be all these things you project on me Cause I'm beautiful to me Doesn't that mean a thing
I feel lovely Just the way that I am Yes I feel lovely The way that I am
I need that to be enough for you Need that to be enough for you Cause it's enough for me It's enough for me
Am I suppose to give up everything I am Just to make you happy I thought I was the one you Always wanted me to be It turns out I'm just little old me I'm just little old me And that's fine by me
Cause I, I am lovely Just the way that I am Oh yes I am, Yes I am lovely The way that I am I am lovely lovely I am lovely
Music and pictures, they are a BIG part of my world.
There is rarely silence.
I drive, I sing.
I shower, I sing.
I cook, I sing & dance.
I work with headphones in one ear most of the time...
XM, Sirius, Pandora, Spotify, Shazam: words that look like they belong on prescription bottles.
How fitting. Music, like laughter, is often the BEST medicine.
Sometimes when conversation just falls flat, music fills the void.
Lyrics become the poet.
Tempo becomes the heartbeat.
I listen to with my eyes, my ears, my heart, my mind.
So, I present a new label: Snippets and Sound-bytes.
The music that is the soundtrack of my life.
These will be frequent pit stops in this thing I call my blog - the chronicles of my life's adventure.
For what is a good road-trip with out music?
Just.another.boring.drive. & we will simply have none of that here.
Here are a few of my new and old favorites that spoke to me this week:
This sunrise, 6am on July 5th after a long mid-week holiday graveyard shift,
I walked out of the building and it was unusually windy and cool for a July morning.
The air was kind of hazy, I suspect it was still smokey fireworks remains from the spectacular, spectacular show the neighbors put on all over town.
I ended up taking the long way home to try and grab a picture of this sunrise before I went home to bed and came across this heard this new song and instantly picked up on these lyrics :
We are listening
and we're not blind
This is your life
This is your time
Yes, Snow Patrol, this exactly the message I've been hearing over and over lately!
Oh, Florence, you sultry redhead you, sing to me!!
I was never a huge fan of this song until the beginning of this year in a Vinyasa class, a 2.5 hour workshop actually, all about hips and twists.
My two favorite teachers taught they class together - they are like Lucy & Ethel.
To break it all up, this song came on, and we all just did what the lyrics said to do:
shake it out, shake it out, ooh woah!
I had to actually feel this one before I heard it, but when I did, these words stuck with me:
It's always darkest before the dawn
&
It's hard to dance with the devil on your back, so shake him off
Do yourself a favor, find a couple of minutes, maybe a spot where you can dance like no one is watching or like you were a kid again and turn this on and turn it up:
And finally, these guys, 7Lions, what can I say?
I couldn't find the Shazam button fast enough when this song came on?
I never heard this before but I turned it up and rocked out with the quickness!
I went home and pasted it on friend's FB walls and demanded that we find our sports bras, go to the gym, and start running immediately!
I pictured a svelte version of myself in some fabulous running attire chasing down a marathon barely breaking a sweat like I was part gazelle and not the actual version of how I run like I have developed sudden onset asthma and my lower body feels like it's encased in Papier-mâché.
Bruce Springsteen, you rock God you, you will always be the Godfather of Born to Run, but this is my new workout JAM!!!
So what did you hear this week? What songs do you have to share with me to add to my musical arsenal?
