Lists

I love lists. I have found 3 lists of music that I want to save and share. Imagine, I clipped these from a magazine before there was Itunes. So much that we take for granted wasn't around 5 -10 years ago. hmmm...

CDs to Quicken the Heartbeat
Starring Fred Astaire (2 cd set)
When I Look In Your Eyes - Diana Krall
Tu, Tu, Amore - the 3 Tenors sing some of opera's most passionate arias
Il Postino
The Brasil Project - Bossa nova with the world's sexiest harmonica
Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye
Beyond the Missouri Sky - Jazz rhapsodies
Paris After Dark - Cabaret songs
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman - Sax & voice

Virtuosos on CD
Vivaldi: the 4 Seasons
Bach: Double Concerto for 2 Violins
Itzhak Perlman's Greatest Hits
Barber, Meyer: Violin Concertos
Bach: Sonatas and Partitas
The Kreisler Album
Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 5
Great romantic Concertos (Itzhad Perlmans' essential 3-CD set)
Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos

Piano Music
Emil Gilels - Beethoven Sonatas: Pathetique & Moonlight
Wilhelm Kempff - Beethoven: Piano Concertos 4&5
Arthur Rubinstein - the Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 26: Chopin Nocturnes and Scherzos
Krystian Zimerman - Liszt: Sonata in B Minor
Vladimir Horowitz - Great Pianists of the 20th Century, Vol 47
Murray Perahia - Schumann, Grieg Piano Concertos
Van Cliburn - Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 & Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2
Vladimir Horowitz - Horowitz Plays Rachmaninoff
Arcadi Volodos - Live at Caregie Hall

Random Thoughts From a Walk On the Beach

• I am amazed at home many colors of blue there are between the sky and the ocean.
• How is it that Enya with music that is reminiscent of fog and Mel Torme with a big band are both perfect for a walk on the beach?
• Mel's song about San Diego makes me laugh.
• Everything seems okay - oddly enough.
• I love it when people say hello to strangers when they are walking (so very un-LA and so very fabulous)
• I love that sometimes when songs come on they fill you with joy before your head has even figured out what it is.

Songs I walked to this morning (and yes it was on shuffle): Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss -the Bloodhound Gang; The Kill (Bury Me)-30 Seconds to Mars; Na Laetha Geal Moige - Enya; Lust for Life - Iggy Pop; You Got Me All Wrong - Dios Malos; They Go To San Diego - Mel Torme; Doll Parts - Hole

Jon Carroll

This morning I remembered something I had forgotten... Jon Carroll columns are a great way to start the day. I just read the whole weeks worth. All of them good. All of the them thought provoking. The one from Monday talks about comfort music.

I spend a lot of time teaching my students to listen to music differently. I want them to choose music that makes their bodies happy. This is almost always different from music that makes their brains happy, or their favorite song to listen to in the car. And it is probably different from comfort music. But I wonder where the overlap is. There are probably songs that make your body happy or have made your body happy (they do change) that also bring comfort.

As I think about it. What is comfort? Is it a feeling of safety? home? love? the combination of all of them? Okay I looked it up...

com⋅fort

-verb (used with object)
1. to soothe, console, or reassure; bring cheer to
2. to make physically comfortable
-noun
3. relief in affliction; consolation; solace
4. a feeling of relief or consolation.
5. a person or thing that gives consolation.
6. a cause or matter of relief or satisfaction.
7. a state of ease and satisfaction of bodily wants, with freedom from pain and anxiety.
8. something that promotes such a state.

There are many songs that bring me comfort in different ways, but two that pop into my mind right away are: Beautiful by Carole King and Big Bad Leroy Brown sung by Frank Sinatra (written by Jim Croce). Both of these go back to childhood. A third, which didn't bring comfort or a feeling of well being until this week, is the song they play for the president.

What music comforts you?

(I wrote this a few weeks ago, don't know why I didn't "publish" it then)

Morning Music

Went for a walk this morning and the shuffle on my play list took my brain on a ride...
Are You Experienced - Patti Smith
Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Amie - Damien Rice
Where Did you Sleep Last Night? (Live) - Nirvana - which during the clapping I was thinking about how much pain one might need to be in to want to end it
Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney - which in contrast to thinking about death, lifts you up and opens your heart, and I wondered if someone would feel that way about me, and I thought of my trainee that turned me on to the song and that whole class of trainees and how proud I am of them
(then sticking with the beatles theme...)
I Am the Walrus - Bono
5 String Serenade - Mazzy Star
(then making me smile as I approached home)
The Groove is On - Groove Armada

when your playlist makes you laugh

Went for a walk this morning on the beach. Was breathing into my heart as the song Ready for Love by India.Arie came on. I thought to myself "well, perfect song." Then I ran into the man I have been seeing on and off for 4 years (I haven't spent any time with him since before April) and is moving to Germany this month. He was walking with his mom. We talked for a moment and I walked on. The next song to come on Scrood By U by Lords of Acid, which made me laugh as the lyrics are how in some ways I feel about him. Then as I turned around and crossed his path again Let's Get It On by good ole Marvin Gaye was playing. Then on my way back to my apartment was Ooh La La with Goldfrapp singing about being made for love. And then my favorite Song of the Siren by This Mortal Coil. And the whole time I kept remembering to breath into my heart. And I realized that his moving away creates more space for me to love and fall in love. And as I walked into my building I revolutionary thought (for me) that I love him, but I am not in love with him anymore.

Just an interesting side note, I named my new Ipod "Soundtrack to my Adventure."

Mash ups

In cleaning out my desk, I found a website for mashups. I found two that I really like.

Pour Some Hot Sugar
by A plus D

and

Tender Umbrella
by Party Ben

enjoy!

Friday August 1, 2008

Tomorrow (actually today, but I have yet to go to bed) is my last day at work. It is weird. I plan to get all of my outstanding expense reports done and turned in. What seems really weird is that almost no one will be in the office tomorrow. My office mate (one of my bosses) will be in the OC, her assistant isn't in, my other boss is in SF, and the two big bosses are in Chicago. And I don't think many people will be in at all. odd and weird. I am taking class in the evening to end my day, which will be a good end to a weird day.

A friend said to me this evening that it is the end of an era. Which seems so apropos, and I had named my playlist for this evening exactly that. I didn't finish the playlist as I found another I really liked and hadn't used in a long time. But here are some of the songs from it...

18 - Moby
Smoke and Ashes - Tracy Chapman
Perdido en Ti - Diego
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got - Sinead O'Connor
Fallin' - Alicia Keys
Where I Stood - Missy Higgins
Like This - Mims
Fight the Power - Korn featuring Xzibit
Elevator (feat. Timbaland) - Flo Rida
I Say Hey - Kinky

(some of them are just new things that I just got, some are old favs, and some that I didn't even choose for the "theme" are very apropos).

Life is weird. And I am so glad my week now seems so full of possibility rather than full of "have to"s.

Kinky

(okay, watch your mind...the band)
Kinky is one of my favorite bands. They are from Mexico. I first saw them at a KCRW concert with Victoria and her niece, Ashley. They reminded me of a Mexican Beastie Boys. They have since gone more techno with some of their stuff. But the way they move and play off each other is so fun and lively. I love the way the lead singer moves. He uses the entire stage. Standing in a crowd and trying to dance while watching him dance is just frustrating because you don't have even of the fraction of the space he does.

Tuesday they played the Mayan (downtown LA). It is a cool venue. I went after my Spanish class (the quiz is always at the end of class). But I caught most of the show. Where I was standing the bass was so loud, I could feel my shirt push against my skin. It was wild. They seemed not as lively as normal. But they had played a gig the night before in Anaheim. Last night (Saturday) they played in Santa Barbara. I was tempted to go, but that would have made for a crazy weekend. And a weekend without travel right now is a blessing.