music

30 week blog challenge – week 6: favorite songs

Ha. After doing the epic music confession post the other day, I find out that this week’s blog challenge is to talk about our favorite songs. OF COURSE it is!

Random Wednesday Night

I’ll start with my absolute favorite song forever and ever amen, this blog’s namesake. Anywhere Is by Enya. The funny thing is that I love it so much, but I don’t allow myself to listen to it all the time. So it’s an extra special rare treat to hear it.

I have a list of songs that are my all time favorites. Songs that are ALWAYS welcome to pop into my ears if I’m playing the playlist on shuffle. Songs that never fail to make me smile or bring up some good memory or make me want to dance.

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This is some of my Eleventified™ playlist. Some of the songs are from long, long ago, and some of them are from as recently as a few months ago. Funnily enough, as with Anywhere Is, I don’t play this playlist often. I think I’m scared of getting tired of these songs that I love so much, and I want to keep it a treat to hear them. Is that weird? Yeah, it’s probably weird.

What are your favorite songs?

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i confess part 3 {the music edition}

Concert! :)

i confess… sometimes i listen to disney world music just to get myself whipped all up in a frenzy. i’ve been to disney world twice this year and this music always makes me want to go right back.

i confess… i also dance to disney parade music. yes, i bought the actual CDs and i put them on and dance to them. i am so cool.

ROCK ON

i confess… i listen to yanni and i like it. in fact, i also like kenny g. what?

i confess… my father used to play the blues all the time when he’d drive us around. i’d pretend i hated it but i secretly liked some of it. except for the guy who used to snort. he was disgusting. i think it was bobby blue bland who did that. gross.

i confess… i stole my father’s george michael tape, his karyn white tape, and his david sanborn tape. my sister stole his bobby blue bland and bb king tapes. she embraced the blues a lot earlier than i did. i fought it for a long time.

don’t nobody get outta here without sangin’ the blues–adventures in babysitting

i confess… that adam and i have been listening to a lot of country music lately. we like to count how many of them aren’t about the following things: beer, small towns, creeks/rivers, and/or cheating. we could totally make a drinking game out of this.

i confess… even though i tell myself i’m not going to, every time i go to half-price books, i end up checking out the 50¢ cd section. because honestly, if i pick up a CD for 50¢, and it has ONE good song on it, that’s still an entire CD that’s cheaper than anything i can get on itunes! and last night was a gold mine. they had mariah carey and britney spears and the beastie boys and the twin peaks soundtrack and some maxi singles that i never even knew existed. i was so excited to get mariah’s first album on CD. because of course i had it when it was new and popular… but it was ON TAPE. now i can listen to it in my iPod or on my computer. yay.

i confess… yes, i still like to buy CDs. i just got n*sync’s greatest hits from best buy the other day for $5. i know everything’s going digital and CDs are being phased out. the poor CD section at best buy is only an aisle and a half now, and there are a lot of “bargain” CDs. but i still like to open the case and flip through the liner notes and put the disc into my computer’s disc drive and import the songs into my iTunes, and then onto my iPod. and new CDs smell almost as good as new books or binders with PVC in them. i know, it’s weird.

Half Price Books CD Haul. :)

i confess… even though i still buy CDs, i do love music downloads. i have a monthly subscription to emusic, i regularly buy music from iTunes, and i am always checking out whatever free downloads are offered, usually from new artists. (amazon, itunes, and last.fm all have loads of free downloads that are totally legit and some of it is really great stuff.) i used to get all of them before i discovered the nifty “preview” button. i love how convenient downloads are. it’s like when i used to be able to buy a single instead of an entire CD, in case the CD sucked (and back then, they were way more than 50¢ let me tell ya–some of them are STILL nearly $20. what?)

i confess… one of my favorite things about a new year is wondering what new music i’m going to hear and discover. and what old favorites i’m going to rediscover from my vaults. like this mariah carey CD. i’d forgotten how much i used to love “vanishing” and “it’s all in your mind.”

i confess… i adore this gif of the president listening to music. it makes me smile. i wonder what he’s jamming to? i find myself bobbing my head and smiling just like he does when something i like comes on.

Barack-Obama-Listening-to-Music

i confess… shazam and google. a heavenly combination when you hear a song you like but have no idea what it is? shazam will listen and tag it for you. or you can type lyrics into google and more than likely a youtube video will come up. genius.

i confess… i used to segregate music pretty good in my life. when i was little, i listened strictly to kids’ records until i fell in love with michael jackson. then it was mostly him (with a little bit of prince, and lionel richie thrown in). let’s be honest. i mostly listened to r&b when i was younger and would not, could not stray from that. when i got to intermediate school (like middle school but only grades 7 and 8), i listened to keith sweat, guy, dana dane, mc lyte, pebbles, babyface, etc. i would not listen to white people sing (unless it was george michael apparently). i just refused. i even watched the video for “please don’t go girl” and predicted that “those white boys wouldn’t go anywhere.”

Just. I mean. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I FELL IN LOVE WITH NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK. i mean, obsessed head over heels wallpaper the walls buy all the things TAKE ALL MY MONEY AND MY MOTHER’S MONEY TOO PLEASE in love with them.

there are pictures. of me. covered in nkotb gear. buttons. sweatshirt. watch. earrings. i was a hot mess.

Sixteen
16 year old me
with my favorite music people
on the wall behind me
{notice pandernoodle?}

and because i had to watch or listen to the “white” stations to hear them, i started listening to other music by other artists. i remember hearing the guitars in an amy grant song and feeling like i was betraying myself or something. AMY GRANT you guys. also, music was starting to really cross over. white kids were listening to envogue and bobby brown and mc hammer. it was starting to be ok to listen to music outside of the color lines. oprah even did a special on it. i still have it on tape. eventually, i started to get over the musical segregation rules i’d put upon myself (or maybe society thrust them upon me?), but things really changed for me when i got to college and saw black kids listening to stone temple pilots and n.i.n., and sincerely enjoying it with no shame. and that’s when i finally embraced my own musical leanings full heartedly.

AND NOW….??

i confess… i will listen to anything once. my music collection is insane. look in my iPod and you’ll find kirtan, move scores, musicals, r&b, pop, country, metal, pagan, jesus music, folk, alternative, adult contemporary, hip-hop, dance, electronica, trance, house, celtic, traditional chinese, meditation, new age, chants. there’s something for every mood, and i’m always open to new stuff.

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my top 25 played

Music is powerful. For me, it’s more about the beat, melodies, the vocals, and the way it makes me feel rather than the lyrics. But I like music, and I am so glad I live in a world where there is so much to listen to, and so much to discover.

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Oh Hi!

Me on the Beach

So, I’ve been in kind of a funk for a while. I have’t had anything really good to write about, I’ve been tired, and I’ve been busy as well. If I start posting memes or really short entries, then you know that I’m either super busy or just uninspired. This time I was uninspired. And busy too, I suppose. But mostly lazy. 😉

I don’t take my medication like I’m supposed to. Part of the reason is that it’s expensive and I’m trying to stretch it out as long as I can. I cut the pills in half, and I take it when I feel like I need it, and I felt like it last night, even though I knew I’d probably have a hard time sleeping. I was so tired, though, I figured I’d be OK.

So… I was up at 3am. Wide awake. I scooped the litter boxes, cleaned up the kitchen and bathroom somewhat, finished the first draft of the September Moksha newsletter, turned in my timesheet for last week, and did a yoga practice, in which I did ANOTHER breakthrough pose: Mermaid. MY HOLY GRAIL POSE. Guys, I DID MY HOLY GRAIL POSE THIS MORNING.


Mermaid Pose.
This is Kathryn Budig,
who I got to study with this weekend.
I love her outfit.
[via]

I went through a yoga funk for most of July. I was just NOT INTO IT. I didn’t go to classes regularly, I barely practiced at home… it just wasn’t the thing for me. I even skipped one of my Tuesday classes (arm balances because guys, I suck at most arm balances and I just didn’t want to be bothered), and yeah. It wasn’t good. I think it had something to do with Mercury being in retrograde, because now I’m back to loving yoga again. Or maybe I was just in a tamasic (lazy) period.

Anyway, I’m glad to be back. 🙂

Here is me and Ariel at last week’s homework review. We were talking about Viparita Karani (Legs-up-the-Wall Pose) and well, we had to demonstrate. 🙂

Me and Ariel in Viparita Karani (Legs-up-the-Wall Pose)

And in the random….

I have loads of playlists on my iPod, but I think I finally got my Commute Mix sorted. At least for now:

See how everything has a genre, an artist, and an album? I am super anal about my playlist. I hate to see blank spaces or jacked up genres. I’m also not above making up genres to suit my needs (like “Marching Band” or “Patriotic”). What’s on your playlist these days?

And finally, It’s a chilly 64F outside right now with rain. Adam’s loving this weather; it’s his favorite. You all know what I like and fortunately, it’ll be back tomorrow. But I figured that since today is fall weather, I can wear fall clothes.

Got My Buckeye Pride On
GO BUCKEYES!

And finally, I’m featured over at Crazy, Beautiful, Unique today! Celeste is a super sweetheart with awesome hair. 🙂 Go visit!

‘Til next time! 🙂

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Better Day

Land of a Thousand Drips

I feel way better today. 🙂

I’m feeling more like myself. I have more energy and I’m feeling less overwhelmed.

I decided that I needed to hear a certain Mozart song, even though I had no idea what it was called. I had the Baby Mozart CD when Aidan was a baby and I knew that the song I wanted was piano and there was a really bouncy part where I used to bounce Aidan around to. I really wanted to hear it. Well, I found a Mozart piano radio station on iTunes and darned if that song wasn’t the second one to come on. Piano Sonata in 11 in A, K 331, Mov. 3 Turkish March.

Now I know. I even went over and bounced Aidan. It was different, trying to bounce a nine year old, though…

But hearing that cheered me up quite a bit.

This morning, I headed to Moksha for a music class with Arjun Baba. I am sad I missed his kirtan last night, but I needed to be home. Probably the kirtan would have done me a world of good, though. But I got to see him today and hear him sing and HIS VOICE IS AMAZING. *He* is amazing. Usually, when Moksha gets special guests, they don’t have a lot of time to just relax and talk with us students. But he and his drummer were hanging out and chatting with us and it was so awesome. I need to get some of his music ASAP because you guys, seriously.

Video doesn’t do him justice. But video and recordings never do these things justice.

Moksha is a healthy place for me. To walk in and be embraced almost every time I go there. I went again tonight for Nina’s candlelight restorative yoga class. Which is likely my favorite class of the week to attend (followed closely by Mia’s tantric hatha class). It was just what I needed. It’s ALWAYS just what I need.

Sometimes, I feel bad because I don’t really go for the aggressive asana. If I do any level 2-3 classes, it’s likely going to be a Hatha rather than a Vinyasa. You won’t catch me in a led Ashtanga class (although I might get up the nerve to try MySore one of these days). I feel like I’ve talked about this before, but maybe only in one of my drafts that I abandoned. Still, I feel like, as a future instructor, I’m going to be crap if I can’t do a handstand or any of the advanced arm balances. I just don’t go after those inversions and advanced poses like a lot of my classmates do, and I wonder if I’m doing it wrong.

Anyway, tomorrow is the start of another week, kicking off with a tantric hatha yoga class (if I can drag my butt outta bed), a meeting, and then a trip to the post office to mail a package I should have mailed months ago. It’s been sitting here READY to go… God, I don’t even want to deal with the post office. Every time I go, the APC is broken and the line is always two hours long and there’s always only one clerk working and everyone in front of me has 95 different things to mail. I might just suck it up and pay the surcharge at the UPS store. It might be worth it to check *something* off the list of things at the back of my mind, anyway. My planner looks empty, but my brain is not. Work work work (at least it’s from home), reading, yoga teacher training, newsletters, laundry, yoga classes, life. I’m tired just thinking about it. (Kinda hungry, too.)

Next Week

Well, here’s to a good week. *raises glass of spa water*

12 Comments

You Are Now Watching the Throne

I love discovering new music, but I don’t talk a whole lot about what I listen to other than the little last.fm chart in my sidebar. I don’t listen to a whole lot of rap. Now, I enjoy hip-hop, but I don’t listen to rap much. I listen to more hip-hop/rap. Yes, there is a difference!

The other day, a friend of mine introduced me to the track Otis by way of YouTube. I loved the video and the track. Couldn’t stop watching it. Grown men jacking up a Maybach so that freaking FIRE shoots out of the back of it? Yes, please. OK, it’s a disgusting flaunting of wealth, but they’re having fun and not hurting anybody, so I’m not mad at ’em. Experience it for yourself:

I decided that I needed to own that track. I ended up getting the entire album and I regret nothing. I love Who Gon Stop Me, Ni**as in Paris, No Church in the Wild, and Made in America the best. The only song I hate is The Joy.

I’ve always respected Jay-Z as an artist, but my feelings on Kanye were lukewarm. I like their collaboration, though, enough that the album’s been on repeat for the past three and a half hours.

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