Christmas Song of the Day - Stop the Cavalry

Let's call this a reluctant Christmas song. The song only comes across during this time of year, but it's more of a war tale than a Christmas song. There are two versions: This one is the by the original artist Jona Lewie. Another which is has more of a band arrangement is by The Cory Band and Gwalia Singers. I first heard the latter, but I enjoy both versions equally and distinctly.

Christmas Song of the Day - Carol of Bells

okay i was so gonna put up the one where the house lights turned on and off to "Carol of Bells" by the Trans Siberian Orchestra, but in my search i stumbled upon THIS. Enjoy, you pervs LOL

Christmas Song of the Day - Merry Christmas Darling

Oddly enough, it was Glee that helped me recall this Christmas song I loved. Below is the original Carpenter's version and then the Glee version. Glee did a great version of the song and this is why I'm posting it LOL

On a side note, I know I haven't been doing song of the days for a while. Sometimes I just need to step away and recoup. This week will be all about the Christmas songs, but I will return to doing normal song of the day post again. Hopefully, i won't burnout again. I think I'll do a twice or three times a week thing, rather than try to push it out every day, we'll see.

Merry Christmas all!

Song of the Day: Kylie Minogue - Better Than Today

Squee! new Kylie Video!

and as Andy Towle put it on his site:

populated by Pac Man characters and Murakami-style flowers.

Cute!

Song of the Day: Shriekback - Nemesis

So... I've been listening to a lot of new stuff and dancy stuff, Robyn, Far East Movement, Richard Vission, but now I've switch over to Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Smiths, and now Shriekback. What can I say, I have an eclectic taste.

Song of the Day - Halloween Edition

For some reason Halloween reminds me of this song. Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead.



Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead (1998)
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It's been over a year....

So there I was over a year ago at 242 pounds.

And here I am now at 212 pounds.

I still want to get to 200 and go from there. I just recovered from a bad cold so I'm starting anew in my workout. Oddly, I thought my time being stationary would make it a bit hard to come back, but I got back into my run/jog/walk pretty good. . I've also changed the time I work out. It's getting difficult to wake up early and the new schedule is forcing me to get to my commute earlier, so I figured I'll workout at night.

Thanks for all who have supported me and encouraged me.

Song of the Day: Elastica - Stutter

delving back to my high school days... post grunge, brit pop band. Short, sweet, four chords! ah simpler times :-) LOL

Song of the Day: Erasure - A Little Respect

I dedicate this song to @frogboy229, who loves Erasure so much >:-)

Song of the Day: Robyn - The Girl and the Robot

So Robyn is my latest acquisition, if I haven't tweeted or tumbld it enough. I really enoyed the eponymous album and Body Talk Pt 1. I'm getting into Body Talk Pt 2 right now. The Body Talk albums are going to be three album set with the third coming soon. Some may be a bit put-off that some songs on Body talk were on Robyn, but I enjoyed it, "Handle Me" has been on there three times: it's original, dance mix(sorta), and acoustic. All three versions have their subtle changes making each another experience.

So here is the Girl and the Robot from the Robyn Album. This is one of those vids that i thought wasn't made and so never looked into it until now. Sometimes I wonder how US-centric we are, because there are so many talented artists out there that are out of country, but they get very little air play here. Even on MTV on the VMAs Robyn was there performing, but we only got a short blip of her... sigh. Is good music really that hard to find now?


Röyksopp Feat Robyn - The Girl And The Robot / NEW
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Song of the Day: Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out

I thought this would be appropriate, since today is National Coming Out Day.



Just a bit about myself. I came out when I was 23. I actually didn't know i was gay until about 18 or 19. I truly was a late bloomer. I didn't date in high school, I just wasn't into that. It wasn't until I left home, (left San Francisco - odd I know) that I started to question my sexuality. I went through the whole thing of trying to understand my feeling, the moral implications, how it would affect my family, the worry of never being accepted. I did this as an adult, I can only imagine the pain teenagers go through.

Well here I am 32 years old, and okay at where I am in life :-)

Song of the Day: Johnathan Coulton - Still Alive

The Nerd in me had to post this and ofcourse @filmbear started playing it on his banjo *swoon* :-)

Song of the Day: Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

Congrats to Lady Gaga on her wins at the VMAs yesterday. If you didn't see she was looking amazing in her dresses, each time she came up to accept an award she had a different dress.


and ofcourse my favorite:


Say what you will about the meat dress, it takes a lot of balls to pull that one off. It was amazing to see Cher there giving the award to Lady Gaga and the whole thing about Cher holding Lady Gaga's meat-purse, memorable. Above all I loved Gaga's acceptance speech, not only the fans, her "little monsters", but also the gays (heh) for their remakes of her vid and also bringing the discharged soldiers under DADT. She knows her fan base. Last night was yours Gaga, you earned it.

Song of the Day: Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock

Doesn't the early days of Hip hop seem innocent compared to now?

And even though I'm not a fan of today's incarnation of hip hop, I like it's history. It was underground, it was different, dare i say... alternative? Rap, of course, is a direct result of hip hop. But without those early hiphop artists we would not have the forms of dance, electronic and pop music we have now.

Song of the Day: The Gossip - Pop Goes the World

They are so flying under the radar of pop music!

Local and great, I so want to see the Gossip go big, but right now I'm glad just knowing this band is out there. I've heard their shows are just high energy, love to see them one of these days.

Song of the Day: Deftones - Be Quiet and Drive

Sometimes I just need some scream therapy.

and ironically the song is telling me to be quiet.

Song of the Day: Aaliyah - Are you that Somebody?

hmm I was thinking about Aaliyah the last few days and I find out today was when she passed away almost ten years ago.

This is how my music taste vacillates. I could be listening to grunge/alternative/rock/ and then the next moment i would be listening to r&b/rap... of course Aaliyah can fall under dance too. Please tell me you've tried to do the choreo like i did? No? I'm just kinda lame then LOL.

Song of the Day: Hole - Doll Parts

Uh oh. I'm being 90s nostalgic again.

Well since I did Nirvana yesterday, it seems only natural to post Courtney Love's vid. Yes, she is a trainwreck. I love her, I hate her, I love her again. She's a singer, an actress, something else. But I can't deny that "Live Through This" was one of the best albums that came out of the 90s. It's so angsty, so raspy, it feels like the epitome of girl groups of that time. Yeah, there was a guy in the group, but it was more about Courtney than anything else. I recall high school, one of the girls I knew loved Hole just because of the screaming and hurt that seems to resonate with her, I wonder how she is today?

Now I wonder, was my whole generation angsty and disillusioned, since the music of that time seems that way? I'm trying to figure out what this generation is... the only thing I could think of... it's a bit ADD :)

Song of the Day: Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

No judging ;)

So last night I was on cam4 and as I was going through, I came across somebody who had Nirvana playing in the background. Not only that, he had Nirvana and Kurt Cobain posters everywhere. He was only 20. I am reminded of my age, not only by how young he is but the fact that he was listening to something that was around while he was still in diapers, granted i was really a kid myself too :-).

Nirvana will always have a special place in my music appreciation, that group spearheaded my conversion from r&b/rap to rock. Without them I would never have gotten into the stuff i love now and oddly enough 80s new wave stuff. I embraced alternative in all its form. And though my appetite for music seems to have waned into a few things here and there rather than I want it ALL, I'm so glad that Nirvana is pretty much the heart of it.

Song of the Day: Scissor Sisters - Any Which Way

OMG I am way too excited for when the scissor sisters come to Seattle!!!!! um is Babydaddy shooting sushi out of a flamethrower?

Song of the Day: Usher - OMG

Usher is one of those artists, I must admit, that when I hear him on the radio, I instantly turn up the radio and want to dance along.

Song of the Day: Radiohead: Knives Out

I loved Radiohead in the early 90s but towards the late 90s and 2000, their music went a direction I couldn't follow, except in videos. It seems like their music became an accompaniment to the video or better yet a soundtrack. I really like "knives Out," but it is not something I would belt out in my radio anytime soon. In fact, I'd probably pass it by if it was playing on the radio. However, the video just keeps me attached. With all the abstract imagery and disconcerting movements, the video can be rather nauseating, but the music helps me keep up with the story and understand the feel. I love/hate deconstructing stuff like that, it can be so messy because i may not have got everything and interpret it wrong butI do enjoy all the subtle and not so subtle bits music, videos, movies, shows, do to get me to continue to watch or listen. My favorite part is the train scenes we see through out the vid. It's of course the life journey of the couple from the start of their love to the unfortunate end and then retrospection.

Song of the Day: Information Society - What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)

OMG! talk about the 80s! The hair, The colors, the heavy use of synthesizers. It's funny I looked at it with such disdain for a long while and now I just can't help but think, what were we thinking? and laugh at it. This song of course has a special place in my heart; it was my first tape. Yes you heard me TAPE! It was that thing, before CDs but after 8-track... don't know 8 track? okay before cds and after vinyl. :-) I was actually up here in Seattle, when I got it. I spent a year up here for school and it changed my perspective, though i wouldn't know it until later on. My cousin was listening to Duran Duran and New Kids on THe Block (yick) but she was listening to other stuff too and this was one that I heard I liked it so much I bought the tape. Really wish I still have it. I actually don't remember what happened to that thing now. But the memory lives on :-)

Song of the Day: Erykah Badu - (I think you better) Call Tyrone

Good vid quality versus swearing: I chose vid quality (you can figure out the cusses)

So I'm not really a fan of Erykah Badu, but there are a few songs out there that I really enjoy. It's one of my mood music songs. The song is great because I've seen that scenario happen way too many times.

Song of the Day: Cage the Elephant - In One Ear

Okay so after taking a week hiatus, I'm back with more music videos for your viewing pleasure.

I'm realizing as I get older I'm clinging more and more to the music of the 90s, then embracing today's music. I think it's because during my impressional/emotional teenage years the music really meant something to me. Now I listen to songs now and I feel detached from them. I realize that I'm less angstsy now and so the music isn't really touching me. So now I listen more from an observational standpoint, feleing out what others are thinking and feeling. I have to say, if radio is a reaction to what the listeners want, then the listeners are not as angry as they were in the 90s... of course my rock station still has some, but not as prevelant. I wonder what this generation's music genre will be set as, because mine is grunge and post grunge.

Artist of the Week: Siouxsie and The Banshees - Kiss Them For Me

This is my favorite song from Siouxsie and the Banshees, that is why I saved it for last :-)

Again a very dark subject matter for a rather upbeat song from the subjects obsession for fame to her untimely death.

Artist of the Week: Siouxsie and The Banshees - Peek A Boo

I see you! ;-)

Artist of the Week: Siouxsie and The Banshees - Cities in Dust

This is my second favorite song by Siouxsie and the Banshees, but the first vid I saw from the band. This was when I was introduced to the Cure and Bauhaus so it also marked my black clothes wearing time of my life. Dark times but I'm a better person for it.


Siouxsie and the Banshees - cities in dust
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Artist of the Week: Siouxsie and The Banshees - Dear Prudence

Probably the only High Quality Siouxsie and the Banshees video I can find not on Youtube. I may need to use Youtube for some more vids my Siouxsie vid search continues...

Artist of the Week: Siouxsie and The Banshees - Hong Kong Garden

Okay this one may be a bit harder for me to get, as we know the 80s bought the rise of MTV, but not everyone made a music video and not everyone made one for a lot of their good songs. I love Siouxsie and the Banshees and came across this gem when searching for their vids. It doesn't look like one done with MTV but the concept was new back then, so MTV probably didn't have it at all. I'm glad people hold on to these just so we can find them many years later.


Siouxsie and The Banshees - Hong Kong Garden
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So one thing I love about some of the music I listen to is the contradictory nature of the song. Take "Hong Kong Garden": upon hearing the song, you get an upbeat feel to it. The beats are faster, the use of a xylophone, the extended guitar solo at the end all are rather uplifting but take a look at the lyrics:

Harmful elements in the air
symbols crashing everywhere
Reaps the fields of rice and reeds
while the population feeds
Junk floats on polluted water
an old custom to sell your daughter
Would you like number 23?
Leave your yens on the counter please
Hong Kong Garden

Tourists swarm to see your face
Confuscius has a puzzling grace
Disorientated you enter in
unleashing scent of wild jasmine

Slanted eyes meet a new sunrise
a race of bodies small in size
Chicken Chow Mein and Chop Suey
Hong Kong Garden takeaway
Hong Kong Garden

Is it just me or is the song about racial stereotypes, especially how it talks about a culture and then strip it down to ordering food. Maybe it's heavy thinking on my part, then again lyrics can be very thought provoking.

Artist of the Week: Scissor Sisters - Fire With Fire

Latest Vid from New CD... Did I mention I'm going to see them in September and I'm totally excited?

Artist of the Week: Scissor Sisters - She's My Man

Alrighty now from Ta-Dah! I had my reservations about the vid for She's my Man. You could see the people in black helping with all the stunts. At first I thought okay that's a rather low budget video, but then I realized the charm of that concept. No fancy graphics, no complex fight sequence and it looks like they probably had fun doing it too.

Artist of the Week: Scissor Sisters - Filthy Gorgeous

You know I sing along to this song all the time, but i just can't belt out, "you gotta work for the man, but your biggest money maker is flaccid." People may stare at me oddly, well they do already, but I don't need to give them ammo LOL.

Artist of the Week: Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb

What? A Pink Floyd cover?! yup and it works for me. Both versions are ethereal and fluid, but on different side of that feeling, hard to explain. I appreciate both originals and covers of a song, it gives us an idea on how others interpret the song.

Artist of the Week: Scissor Sisters - Laura

Yup I am a a Scissor Sisters fan. And as soon as I found out they were doing a US tour for their latest album, I was all over it finding dates, trying to get presale info, etc. Last time they went on a US tour I missed getting tickets by a day and was not gonna repeat that :-p

Like last week, I am devoting a whole week of Song of days to an Artist, especially since I am ecstatic that i got my tickets for their show in Seattle. I am starting it off with "Laura" from their first album.

I was telling a coworker that i got my tix; he didn't hear about them and asked me what their music was like . I think I discredited the band because the best thing I could come up was "kinda glam rock/pop." Hard to give a band a certain label when they play with so many types of music.

Also, I'm so bummed that they aren't as popular here. It seems like they have a good fan base all over the world except in the US and they are a US band.

Artist of the Week: Kylie Minogue - All the Lovers

Okay final one.

I couldn't end without adding her newest single from Aphrodite.

Artist of the Week: Kylie Minogue - Speakerphone (live)

I haven't gone to concerts in a long while and i started to again this year, she is on my list :-)

Artist of the Week: Kylie Minogue - Slow

Okay so I just realized I really wanted to play more vids from Kylie but not enough days in the work week. So since I'm posting more songs in one day I'm calling this and subsequent posts Artist of the week... i know it's a cop out but there are two more vids i wanna post dang it.

Obviously this is one of her more sexy vids... simple and sexy.

Song of the Day: Kylie Minogue: Can't get you out of my Head

I'm Pretty sure I sent a blurb about this a while back ago, but I just love this song too much. Reminds me each time when I went to the bars and an awesome guy I knew back then did karaoke to this song and even did bit of choreo then went to Scorpions "Rock you like a Hurricane." Good Times.

Song of the Day: Kylie Minogue - The Locomotion

To continue my all Kylie week, in promotion of her new CD Aphrodite, I'm showing very early Kylie. I mean VERY early, 1988 in fact. Here she is covering a song a think everyone knows. Oh the 80s, scary and yet fun.

Song of the Day: Towa Tei f/ Kylie Minogue: German Bold Italic

I am back from vacation, and so are my song of the days... since Kylie is out with a new album, lets have a week with Kylie shall we?

A Work in Progress

Take a look at this goober.


Alrighty I said I would do this, and I'm now working up the nerve to do so. Maybe in a few months I'll show the one year photog, but I wanted to compare my progress. Above is before below is after.

So back in October, I started taking after workout pics to chronicle this undertaking. I have lost 40 lbs since then. I actually can't believe it and there have been a few times when i felt like giving up. I've hit plateaus where nothing would happen, I've been sick so i'd stop working out, but somehow managed to get back into it. I've taken up the treadmill and have been more consistent with my run/walk. I have 20 more lbs to my goal weight, and from there i may shoot for more but we'll see. I'm starting to get comfortable in my skin again, but not comfortable enough to take off my shirt in public LOL

Oh and if you want to see all the pics, go here.


Jeez you look tired!

Song of the Day: Katy Perry - California Girls

Okay do I consider Katy Perry a guilty pleasure? This song is just so pop and summer-y and it makes me feel good. The video is so naughty and the snoop dogg cameo is great. Unfortunately, this song is gonna be a summer hit only. Oh well, gotta enjoy it while it's here right?

Song of the Day: Len - Steal my sunshine

Well I'm actually getting a little sun in Seattle, so figured this song was rather appropriate. It actually isstarting to feel like summer around here *knocks on wood*

Song of the Day: DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince - Summertime

Lets go old skool for this one.

Happy Summer Solstice! The longest day of the year. My only problem with the longest day... it's cloudy here in Seattle and cold, seems like my summer is coming a little late.

Song of the Day: Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek

Last night my tumblr friend Jambos6 invited me to see Imogen Heap! It was an amazing show. This was the first concert I have been to in a couple of years. Imogen is one of the artists that has been on the fringe of my music appreciation. I've listen to her but never really in high rotation. I'm gonna remedy that because she has renewed my faith in music and showmanship.

So obviously the tour was for her latest album Ellipse. Since it was short notice I essentially missed the first act Geese. Very experimental group using violins, as I have mentioned during the concert, I can get into experimental stuff, but I have to be in the right head space for it; luckily, I was. There were sounds that I normally don't associate with music and their instruments and it was good. Next came Ben Christophers, nothing too unique about him, but did enjoy the music. Oh, he is a leftie though (what can i say I pay attention to these minutia). I did enjoy that these acts were Imogen's band mates when she came up.

After a brief break, Imogen comes up and she has this showmanship that just brought me in. She was telling stories, giving us bits about what inspired her songs, the musicality of simply things like a bonfire. What I really enjoyed was the comedy involved. She accidently grabbed a toy rather than a shaker so here she was shaking the toy that produced no sound, grabbed the shaker and continued on. I was so into the music that i didn't notice until she said something and how she was trying not to laugh through the song. Imogen did an a capella performance with a group of people for "Earth." She pretty much made a song with a key and a tempo shouted from the audience. "Little Bird" and another song I can't remember the name of were inspired by sounds of nature. My favorite song though was "Bad Body Double" I can relate to the song's subject and again the stage performance just made the song more alive and real. Though it was a bigger venue, this is was one of the most intimate concerts I have been.

and of course she ended with today's song of the day. Which if you have been listening to pop music you know from the video below:

Song of The Day: Sugarcubes - Hit

Hey it's Bjork, pre-Bjork! I loved the Sugarcubes, this is pretty much how I got into Bjork.

Song of the Day: Benni Benassi - Satisfaction

Okay as you can see there are two videos for the same song, personally I like the one above more than the one below, but I like to give you all the option to choose: So eerie slow moving people or scantily clad women working power tools :-/

Song of the Day - The KLF - Justified and Ancient

Just me remembering the 90s.

Song of the Day: Bronski Beat - Small Town Boy

@BrienBear Thanks for the song of the day! This has been in my head since you mentioned it earlier today :-)

Song of the Day: Bananarama - Cruel Summer

Fitting song for Seattle... It's June and it's still raining. As much as I want to cry,it would only make the ground more wet. :-\

Song of the Day: The Cranberries - Linger

Song of the Day: Gravity Kills - Enough

Gravity Kills falls in my angry artist/songs list. If I'm feeling frustrated, hateful, spiteful, and in an all around "YOU SUCK" mood, usually anything in this list makes me feel better.

On top of that I realize now there was something else about Gravity Kills that I like... the lead singer is hawt. Wonder how he looks now.

Heh. I should've known.

Song of the Day: The Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood

When I saw the first Gorillaz video, I was amazed. Yes it was a cartoon band, but I love it. The comic geek in me loved the animation (later on I found out it was the same artist who did Tank Girl) and the music was different but appealing. When Demon Days came out, I had to get the CD. I knew it would be amazing. Many years later, I'm listening to Plastic Beach that just came out. Stylo was the first single and very charting oriented, but the rest of the album seems less so. Maybe this album will weed out the pop fan and bring in the more band oriented fans. I have to admit I was slightly disappointed with Plastic Beach, but the more I listen, the more I realize there are moods to each song. It's one of those albums that grow on me. I love it when I grow to appreciate songs rather than instant love. It makes the experience more rewarding.

Song of the Day: Robyn - Dancing on My Own

I really like Robyn. I remember "show me love" 14 years ago. It was a guilty pleasure because it felt so bubblegum. Now here she is and there's this harder edge to her, I love it.

Well, this song has been playing at my radio Dance station and I've been loving it since it came out and now there is vid! All I can hope for is that there still will be music videos because they help visualize songs. It was so revolutionary over 30 years ago, I just hope it wont cease to exist.

Song of the Day - Madonna - Justify My Love

Mood Music.

Amazing how this video is still being censored and has adult content warning before being able to proceed... I think the eroticism is way less provocative than some of the smut that is out there now. Because sexual imagery is bad but barely covered asses shaking in my face is not

30th Anniversary of the Death Of Ian Curtis

In music tragedy history, Ian Curtis lead singer of Joy Division passed away on this day, 30 years ago. Though not as popular as Jimi Hendrix, or Kurt Cobain, Ian Curtis was a major player in the post-punk movement. The remaining members of Joy Division became New Order which was a popular act in the dance/new wave genre.

30th Anniversary of the Eruption of Mt St. Helen

Above is CBS news footage about the eruption and below is footage from a survivor of the blast. you can almost hear the desperation despite him being very calm about the situation.



I was only 2 when the mountain erupted, but I would always hear tales of it from my cousins, aunt and uncles who lived up here before I did. I've passed through the area few years ago and nature has an amazing way of taking care of itself. You can see where it occured, but after 30 years the landscape shows some of the scars but the green all around masks the damage.

I'm also reminded how I'm in a potentially dangerous area, Mt St Helens, Mt Ranier, Mt Baker are all in range with Rainier looming beautifully in our skyline on any given day. And not to mention, this area is part of the Ring of Fire. However, I've lived through a major earthquake and just love the West coast way too much. Why fret over what may be, when yoo can enjoy what is.

Song of the Day: The KLF - 3am Eternal

I think I've posted this before, but it came up on the radio today and had to post (again?) I think my music mojo is stuck in the 90s right now... I'm sure it'll come back to present day again, but I'm in a nostalgic mood.

Song of the Day: Dee-Lite - Groove is in the Heart

Time for a fun one today. I love this song; it's so funky and fun. I can so have the sun roof openm, windows down and this song blasting from my radio! Have a good weekend everyone!

Song of the Day: Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

Let me tell you my turbulent relationship with Wuthering Heights.

When I was in high school this was one of the books we analyzed in class to exhaustive extent. After that class, I avoided anything with the Bronte name. Somewhere in that time frame, I started listening to Kate Bush. Kate Bush falls in the artist realm for me with Bjork and Imogen Heap: eclectic, evolving, mood-driven. I was listening to my aunt's Kate Bush CD and of course this song was on it. As soon as I heard the chorus, "Heathcliff, it's me, Cathy, come home, I'm so cold, let me in-a-your window," I cringed. I instantly thought, "Is this Wuthering Heights?!" I looked at the CD and cringed again. After all that pain I endured in class because of that book, here it is haunting me.

Of course I no longer cringe at Wuthering Heights, in fact, the hopeless romantic in me actually loves the tale (but I still won't touch a Bronte Novel - give me a good sci-fi/fantasy book). I've come to terms with that book, now anything by Faulkner and Fitsgerald can go F*** off. Well not that bad, I was going for hyperbole and alliteration.

Song of the Day: Rihanna - Rude Boy (redo)

okay so i have an iphone 1/4 full of music i can find videos for, but right now this song is just totally in my head right now. I'm guessing it's the nature of the song and the kinda mood I'm in. And to all who have been putting me in this mood, thanks! >;-)

Song of the Day: Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love

I loved "Genius Of Love" before Mariah Carey had to make several bad songs sampling the song. #justsayin'

I admit a heard Tom Tom Club before Talking Heads. It was actually the sampling thing and it was during my transition from Rap to Alternative. I can' t exactly remember what song I heard it from but the sample was heard and I looked further and found it was Tom Tom Club. As my music appreciation progressed I found they were the side project of Talking Heads members. And even though I only like a couple songs from the Tom Tom Club, I am glad that through them I heard the Talking Heads.

Song of the Day: INXS - Need You Tonight/Mediate

I don't know where in my music appreciation INXS came into place, this was the time I was listening to R&B/ rap and before I started listening to Alternative stuff, but I do recall seeing the video when it came out. The most recognizable part of it was the transition to "Mediate." I think it was the simple visualization of the song lyrics that caught me. I've seen bands playing or an actual storyline, and for some reason seeing the band hold up signs with generally one word was as powerful a metaphor as I have seen.


Sidenote: It's getting increasingly difficult to find good quality videos from the 80s. I had to muddle through half a dozen bad quality vids before I found this one! And I would probably have an easier time with youtube, but with my current resources, youtube is unreachable.

Song of the Day: Nancy Sinatra - These boots are made for walkin

Yet another example of "I should've known early on."

I saw this video when I was a teen. I liked the song instantly, maybe it was the beat or her voice or her message or all three. I felt kinda odd enjoying the song so I listened very privately. Now you can see me doin a little dance when I hear this song!

Song of the day: My anthem for today.

It's Monday... I have to be at work...

Say it Aint So!!!!

Song of the Day: CeCe Peniston - Finally

Alrighty so the song was played a few days ago on my ipod, but I had other songs in mind until today. In a tumblr post, I mentioned "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert." I keep forgetting how old this movie is now. A fond memory of this movie is when they meet that mechanic and his wife, being Filipino I saw her and thought yup she's Filipina, and then she says, "Putang Ina Mo!" I just about busted out laughing. Look it up if you don't know.

I have the movie on tape... i think it's time for me to archive it away and get a DVD.

Song of the Day: Soul II Soul - Keep on moving

My group is on the move; I have a sort of appropriate song. So it has been a long time coming and now the time has arrived for my group to go to its new home. As you can see someone absconded with a letter from our sign already










but now:




























I figured I should have a momento of our old arrangement. I am actually quite E-lated that I got this letter. I actually am squEEling on the inside. I probablEE should stop...
Okay I'm done. Enjoy the song, it's an oldie now and almost forgotten. Thank goodness for random searching :-)

Bear with me... also with Song of the Day

Forgive the pun, but what can I say I'm all about the cheap laughs. So I'm not gonna go into what the bears are, you can look all over for that if you want to know. Instead I'll talk about my experiences.I never consider myself a part of the bears just because I don't fit the narrow definition. So maybe I'm an admirer... nah I'm somewhere in the middle. Recently, I went to one of the bars here in Seattle for a bear events. I actually met an online friend there and I had a great time. But I realized something, I was not who I was many years ago when I went out more frequently. I'm now more social, more talkative, more flirty. I was still kinda the scared guy in the bar, but I was not worried about what others thought, I was just having a good time. I recall a saying with age comes wisdom, does confidence come with age too?

Speaking of confidence, do you visit chat sites? It takes a degree of confidence to talk in them, I always wondered why no one spoke to me, then I realized I may need to initiate conversation, as awkward as I am. Anyway, visit beargrind.com. It's a new chat site for well bears and their admirers. If you are looking around for new friends to talk to well I'm around but there are quite a few others to connect with and it's still growing. I am actively on tumblr and was notified to the site and me being curious I had to check it out. The interface is cool and you can look at messages whenever. Come say hi on there. Lets help a young promising site make it.

Song of the Day: I'm having a moment this week

Shoes


I know it's few years old now but this song still tickles me.
"Tom Skerritt" LOL

Song of the Day: I'm a bad boy.

So part of my morning ritual, I go to Starbucks. Contrary to popular belief, there is not a Starbucks on every corner in the Seattle area, just in the Seattle city limits. Otherwise there's a good distance between Starbucks. There are only three potential locations between me and my freeway entrance and only two near my work.

Anyway, there is a belief that there has to be at least one cute barista guy at every location and I cannot do anything to debunk that because in each of "my locations," there is one guy.

In my naughtiness, I attempt to take discreet pics of these guys, but I'm horrible at them. As you can see he turned around before the pic snapped. Despite my failure. I tweeted the pic for my friends to enjoy my failure/randomness/naughtiness. As a consequence, this was blipped by a friend. Funny guy.

Song of the Day: A random song from my Ipod

Unwritten Law - Seein' Red
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Unwritten Law - Seein' Red

Probably the only UL song I would have. I own the CD but was only for this song. MeFail? naw just me being less selective about what I bought. Now I'm way more stringent in my album purchaases.

Song of the Day ('00 Edition): Jimmy Eat World - The Middle

My Karaoke Song... I of course need a few drinks before I sing it :-p

Song of the Day (90s Edition): Presidents of the United States of America - Lump

Seattle: Post Grunge.. but still rockin' Nerdy, quirky and love it! Was it a song about a zombie or were the zombie metaphors actually about a really lazy girl?

Beware this song gets stuck in my head, it may do the same to you.

Home Improvement. Day 4 - 10

Hello Again. So after birthday celebration, it was back to manual labor in the name of home ownership. With the help of my friend/coworker and his tools, we got to work on the laminate flooring bought at Costco. My friend pretty much started the flooring and helped me with the pattern so it will look all pretty. There's a small area at a corner passed the fireplace that he took care of (thanks man!) The mantle is in it's spot where we will bolt it and now we just keep going with the flooring. Also, the existing moulding was going to be painted but we might as well change all the base moulding too! It'll be white but not the white I bought so some more painting will be done. More as it progresses.




It's starting to look very nice downstairs (except for here):

Song of the Day (80s Edition) Cyndi Lauper - She Bop

One of the best songs about masturabation, don't you think? Even the video showed metaphors about "self-service." I was told about the meaning of She Bop a long time ago and I refused to acknowledge that, it just seemed so sinister that such a pop song can have such a dark meaning. Of course that's when I thought masturbation was a dark thing. I'm glad it's out there though, I think it helped a generation be more open about their sexuality. I understand the potential for exposure to adult content, but children are inherently curious about themselves and their surrounding. Speaking from experience, repression only leads to confusion and pain. A frank and open discussion can only help in making better decisions about these things.

Okay now that I'm done with the serious part of this blog, can we dance now?

My Birthday

April 9th, 1978: I was born. *thunder rumbles* I hate when that happens.

So yeah, that makes me 32 years old. I don't know how I feel about that. I feel like I'm still a youngster, though certain parts of my body are telling me I can't do what I did when I was 21. I'm in the path to being a responsible adult. I have a nice job, I own my home. No kids, but still, responsibilities. The last time I got completely plastered was so many years ago that I can no longer recall. I now think of that as an immature thing. Funny thing is, I wouldn't mind doing that again one of these days. I'll have a few drinks but nothing that will get me wasted.

So for my 32nd Birthday, I went on an awesome excursion in Seattle. Which involved a lot of walking, drinking and eating, in various combination of those activities. The original plan was to go to Anthony's on the waterfront, but I soon learned that that was not really going to happen.

First place was the SFM/EMP Science Fiction Museum/ Experience Music Project, where the sci-fi geek and the music geek combines into the uber-geek that is me!

From EMP

From SFM

Here are the pics that I managed to take before my iPhone died on me, damn battery.

After that we went to Pacific Place Shopping Center which had the Gordon Biersch Restaurant. I love their Hefeweizen. I noticed a fruit tasted that I really loved to it and was told it was banana. I'm in no way a beer aficionado but I do love beers that are more sweet then bitter. And to complement the bad for me beer we had some garlic fries and chips that had bacon and bleu cheese toppings.

I so needed to walk those beer and appetizers off, so when I was told we were gonna walk around for a while before Anthony's I was okay. I did find it strange that we were walking the opposite direction and it was getting a little late. But these kinda things happen so I argued but went along because if they wanted to walk this far by all means I'll be the one to say I told you so in the end.

So we walked along and was pretty much in the direction of Pike Place market, when we ended up walking through the doors of this restaurant.

Yeah Anthony's wasn't happening at all. Loved the place... prices were high for the food and the drinks were okay, but just listening to all the background music (with all the artists I love) and just the general surprise, I loved it.

On a side note: one of the music videos on the monitors all around the restaurant was my first tape: Information Society - Pure Energy.

Song of the Day: Goldfrapp - Rocket

So the cool thing about actively searching for music is actually finding new music or, as the case usually is for me, loking into artists I heard about but never heard or seen. Goldfrapp keeps coming up in my radar and I never heard any of her stuff until now. Of course, right now, I'm basing my thoughts on the one music vid that I found which is currently number three on the Billboard Dance chart. So far so good, and since the artist has been floating around in my sphere of music I'm now gonna actively look for other songs. I love when I discover new music.

Song of the day (Happy Birthday to me!): The B-52s - Rock Lobster

All I can say is check out 1:34, I got a fever...

Song of the day (1978 edition): Chic - Le Freak

Continue to dance your buns off people!

Okay so I was 8 months old when this song hit the charts and it may actually fall into 1979 more, but release date and charting sends it to my birth year :-)


Chic - Le Freak (Disco Inferno)
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Song of the Day (1978 edition) A Taste of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie

Round two of songs from my Birth year... I was wondering why I had an affinty to some of these songs... besides the whole gay thing :-p

Song of the Day (1978 edition): Sylvester - You Make Me Feel Mighty Real

My birthday is coming up and I figured in the next few days leading up to my birthday, I'm gonna put up some songs that were playing while I was but a babe.

Home Improvement. Day 1-3.

Hello from the Home Front. Thanks to my tenure at work I received my semi-annual bonus. This is the part where I get to catch up on some bills and do some home improvement stuff. When I got the place all the walls were white. I remedied that real quick except for the ceiling downstairs and upstairs and the walls that go up the stairwell. Downstairs was carpeted w/ linoleum in the usual spots. My project this time is to get rid of the carpet/linoleum downstairs and install laminate flooring and to paint the ceiling downstairs and turn a green wall burgundy. The question came up about the tile around a fireplace and it was decided might as well re-tile the "hearth."; then a mantle was thrown into the mix. FUN!

I should've started what the place look like before, but I'm messy so the starting pictures are not too far off of what the place looked like :-p



Here is the original ceiling color. Yay, white. Actually I'm just making it an off-white that is the rest of the walls downstairs. White to off white, I'm not bold at all,


Green walls: The one on the left is turning off-white and the wall we are facing is becoming burgundy. Now I will truly have and accent wall.


Here is my messed up living area. You know besides the paint supplies that are littering the pic, that is how my living room looked like.


Supplies Supplies Supplies.


New tile that is going to be at the fireplace. yes I need a fourth tile and the mantle is yet to arrive.


The ceiling painted. Can you tell the difference? Probably not from the pic.


Various work done or being done. Noticed the wall with the opening is now off-white and I was in the middle of taping off the now dry ceiling so I can paint the green wall (like how I was snapped in the shot, I told him not to take a pic of me :-/) Also, carpet is being torn in stages, eventually all of it will be gone.


And finally, stacked up furniture covered in a garage and a disconnected xbox360 *cries*