Grey's Anatomy, The Musical

Can't wait to see this tonight; if the episode is a good as the iTunes album just out today, then's it going to be good!:)

Though I absolutely hate the Callie/Arizona/Mark storyline (hate it!!), when I listened to the album online I found myself remembering the good old days of GA (a.k.a. the first two seasons!)...

...because all of the music featured tonight was played during the early years and have pretty much become iconic for hardcore fans::)

The first three soundtracks are available in compact disc. Since then, if you watch an episode and like a song, it's up to you to figure out what it's called and go online to buy it.


....


the next day:


I'm not sorry I bought the iTunes album for Grey's Anatomy: The Music Event, but I will say I enjoyed the music much more before seeing the episode.

While actually watching everything unfold last evening, I found the singing jarring and just very hard to swallow as far as believability goes.

And, really, why do Owen's facial muscles always consort so during stressful events in the E.R. or when he's making out with Cristina? Overall, it was vocally appealing, but when it came to the plot and emotional impact, I'd say: eh, so so!

Here's one professsional review:


read here

You Broke My Heart, But I Love You Anyway

I first heard "Animals" when I bought the music magazine "Clash" late last summer and downloaded its free music sampler. The song's beauty haunted me for weeks and then I stopped listening because its power was so amazing it almost broke my heart. Tonight, for some reason, I went to listen again and then discovered the Gem Club's EP (with all six songs) sells very reasonably for $5.94

All of the tracks are breath-taking. I listened and my breath actually caught in my throat. This is the kind of music you could never survive listening to if you've just gone through a very sad time. Heck, even on a good day, you might be reaching for that box of tissues on your nightstand.

Lovely, lovely, lovely stuff! Besides "Animals," three other equally gorgeous songs are: "Flax," "Acid and Everything" and "Spine."

Don't say you weren't warned: some music can only be measured in small doses, the more beautiful, the harder to take.

Gem Club WILL break your heart, but they will also quietly comfort you!

I've looked everywhere online for pictures or reviews of the new pack of pens I just bought and can't find a thing about them, so you'll just have to take my word for it:

Smart Living Comfort Grip Stick Pens write amazingly well. And they don't smear! Plus, they are comfortable to grip and only cost 99 cents for a pack of 8...cheaper than Bic or Paper Mate.

Seriously! I know it's probably odd to blog about good pens, but these are worth writing about!

more on that "regret study" mentioned in an earlier blog entry:

read here

Though the above is actually a stock photo, the hallway pictured looks a lot like my school, even enough to be my high school.

Many a person out there in the world (or so I've heard)  still dream about such trivial things as locker combinations, forgetting to study for a test, showing up to class in underwear...pretty much anything high school-related. Some of us probably dream about it more than others.

But those aren't really regrets, just moments or things from some of the most challenging four years of life.

Of the regrets mentioned in the study, some were related to high school, specifically former crushes and lost loves. Why so long ago, I wonder?

Most likely, as Marilyn Vos Savant once said, because in no other time in our lives do we have the least amount of common sense and the most amount of hormones. Surely those times stick in our memories (and maybe even subconscious) and take on an importance they wouldn't have if they had originally appeared in some other points in our lives??

So: is our mind playing tricks on us or do we really regret having lost out on love (or what we thought was love) so long ago?

I haven't even been out of bed (and out and about) for three hours and already I've witnessed three different acts of cruelty committed by one stranger to another...parking lots, on the road, inside the library.

What the $^&*! is wrong with people? Why can't we be nice to each other? Stranger to stranger or family to family or friend to friend?

Mr. Business Suit, why is your desperate need for a parking space so bad you would actually almost mow someone down to get it?

Lady in Neon Green Sweatsuit, why tell your child "you're gonna get it real bad if you don't shut up right now?" and especially when you are way, way louder and more disruptive than your little girl, who, by the way, hasn't said a peep as far as I can tell?


If "Everybody Hurts" why aren't more people kind and compassionate? Days like these, I just want to hunker in my apartment and never venture out!!! Yikes!!!

Come on, people! We share this big planet; let's be nice to each other, no matter how much we're hurting!

No matter what the situation, kindness should always win. Jeff Bridges once said, "Be kind! For everyone you meet is fighting their own battle!" (Okay, maybe he didn't say it with exclamation points, but you get the picture, right? :)  )

There is so much free, legal and new music to be found on the web...terrific free, legal, new music. Check out this:

Spin's March and April issues (both chock full of information on the familiar and new in music) have free samplers. I've listened to the March one and it's wonderful!!! Listen here

...also don't forget Amazon has an awesome MP3 store with daily free listens and a download newsletter you can get in your inbox every Tuesday.

Each week there is always at least one new free sampler with more than a dozen songs to get you hooked on groups you've probably never heard before, but are still worth a listen!!:)

A great Gloria Estefan song that has held up well since its release in the late 90s is "I Wish You." Not only is it pretty musically and one of her stronger songs vocally, "I Wish You" is very poignant with what it has to say and always makes me think of forgiveness and how it feels when we're no longer bitter towards the person we've been hurt by most. It's a powerful song and always gives me goosebumps when I hear it!

But I'm still seeking a great song that captures the pain of wanting to ask someone else for forgiveness for something you've never forgiven yourself for. I know exactly who I'd dedicate that song to if I had the nerve. Sometimes there are things some of us have done in our past that keep us up on quiet nights like tonight and we'd do anything to say how sorry we are...


I Wish You lyrics


The day I was born I knew a lot of things
But now that I’m grown I’m just remembering where I have been
Might of we met before
Suddenly something just led you back to my door
Looking to settle the score, but no more

Deceive me, hurt and mislead me
All that I wish you is love
Confuse me, damage and use me
All that I wish you is love

Believe me it’s hard to turn the other cheek
Faithful and kind might be confused for weak, an innocent streak
Learning a lot from you
Making me stronger each time you think I’ve been beat
Whatever you scatter, you reap, but doubt me

Defeat me, shame and mistreat me
All that I wish you is love
Despise me, lie, criticise me
All that I wish you is love

Then I forget but I forgive you, if it happens again
The way that I grew, I owe it to you
I have you to thank

Deceive me, hurt and mislead me
All that I wish you is love
Confuse me, damage and use me
All that I wish you is love

Defeat me, shame and mistreat me
All that I wish you is love
Despise me, lie, criticise me
All that I wish you is love
All that I wish you is love

[ From : http://www.elyrics.net/read/g/gloria-estefan-lyrics/i-wish-you-lyrics.html ]

 

It's quiet tonight (or should I say this morning?) and somewhat unnerving to be greeted by a voice from distant past...or maybe two voices.

On an old discards pile at work today I found a copy of Into the Light by Gloria Estefan, an album recorded shortly after her amazing recovery from a bad tour bus accident in mid-1990. I found the disc earlier this, no earlier yesterday, afternoon, but didn't think to put it in my player until just now. Also found: my old copy of Cuts Both Ways.

Both these albums were pretty much my musical mainstay during my time at college, just like Primitive Love and Let It Loose were constantly playing in my room during high school.

Also from high school: a chance encounter with a former classmate while I was on the information desk at my job.

The music and the classmate both brought absurdly vivid memories I hadn't thought of in years, maybe even decades...a kind of time travel that is quite jarring for something that only happened in my mind.

The music (that poor, sweet music which was once more of a friend to me than any living non-relative when I was a teenager) has not held up that well in all this time, the classmate (I'm happy to say) has!

The music seems duller and sillier than I remember it being (even if the memories it brings will always be a part of me), the classmate brighter and as friendly as he ever was, maybe even more since it seemed so much easier to talk to him yesterday than it did when I was in school.

What is it about the music from our youth that often doesn't sound so hot after having lived in our memories unchallenged for so long? As we get older, I think we learn to listen to music for music's sake and sometimes realize what we used to love just doesn't sound so great as what we like now, even if what we liked then still has a stronger hold on our heart than what we like now.




   

I found the article below comforting in an odd kind of way...maybe because I'm not asking for acceptance, just a little less hate from the religious community.


read here>>>  here

The book it refers to (Love Is An Orientation) sounds like a great resource for the ongoing and always controversial debate over gay rights.

One of the points the book makes that I agree with is that gays and lesbians do not like being referred to as "homosexuals" (especially in that certain tone far right Christians so often use).

We are more than just sexual creatures (far more!!) and I'm so glad to see a Christian acknowledge that....here's more info on the book:

go here

Under The Radar is one of the best music magazines around!! And in the most recent issue (chock full of the latest info on everyone from Foster the People to Duran Duran) the two part sampler is stupendously spectacular!!!

The first track off the sampler is "Helena Beat" by Foster the People and, if even possible, is better than their previous killer song, "Pumped Up Kicks"!!

Also amazing: Smith Westerns' "All Die Young," Toro Y Moi's "I Will Talk to You,"  Porcelain Raft's "Come Closer," Destroyer's "Kaputt" (oddly reminds me of the Carpenters), Phillip Coggins' "Find Yourself" and the Sun Travellers' "A Thousand Stars" (reminds me of a cross between something The Doors and The Moody Blues might do).

Most interesting is the group Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson's "I'd Rather Listen to Weston." (Cool name, cool title!)


take a look and listen at their site:

http://undertheradarmag.com/sampler/v17

and try code:

3537-winn11-hvy9

Been having a Duran Duran kind of day so far, which is a good thing! :)

 First off, I absolutely dig the vintage sound of their newest album All You Need Is Now. Apparently when they went into the studio with Grammy Award-winning producer Mark Ronson (a huge force behind this brand new release!) they were aiming for a kind of sequel to 1982's Rio.

What we get instead (as all music suggests) is more of a follow-up to 1983's Seven And The Ragged Tiger. Missing on the newest album is Andy Taylor, but luckily the new album doesn't suffer for it.

 All of the songs are pretty darn good, but stand-outs include: "Blame the Machines," "Leave a Light On," "Girl Panic!" (love that exclamation point!) and "Too Bad You're So Beautiful."

from Wikipedia:

Critical reception

[hide] Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMediaNY	[4]
The Boston Globe	[5]
The Buffalo News	(Positive)[6]
The Daily Mail	[7]
Consequence of Sound	[8]
Idaho Statesman	[9]
Metromix	[10]
The Music Cycle	[11]
Newsday	(B)[12]
PopMatters	[13]
Prefix Magazine	[14]
Rolling Stone	[15]

Also of note:
this amazing cover of the classic and
lovely DD song: "Come Undone"
by the Icelandic duo MoR...
it's just gorgeous!!!