Tag Archives: music

Cookies & Music

I made chocolate chip cookies today.  I had bought the necessary supplies to make them but could never muster up the energy to actually bake them.  So I of course wait to make them once it becomes 90+ degrees outside, as you wouldn’t want the oven’s heat to be comfortable inside would you?   Of course not.   They came out spectacularly, as per usual.  I finally have something for dessert.  Last time I made these was for Ken’s Oscar party back in January (?), which honestly feels like a decade ago.   Larry’s death is still so raw but it also feels insanely like it happened in another life.  Anyway, cookies!

Yoga status:  63 days straight!   For my own purposes, my first 30 days was Yoga w/ Adriene’s HOME program,  the second 30 days was her “30 Days of Yoga” program, and currently, I’ve embarked on her Yoga Camp program, and I like it a lot.  Can I straighten my legs yet while doing downward dog?  Nope, but it’s getting better.   And my back is feeling strong, and I love that.   I recognize I can probably add more to my daily routine, but having yoga to start it off every morning is nice.

The new Dyson vac is spectacular.   Stairs are clean, and the floors are also getting vacuumed much more often than before.

Video game status:  FF7R is simply superb, and I am loving it to death.   Of course, tragic events have occurred in the game and while those bummed me out, I’m still totally in awe of the game and can’t stop playing.   I think I’m finally in the home stretch, and it surprises me how well Square Enix was able to do in making this game.  So much fun.

Oh, and Wine.com has been a godsend.  I’ve become a charter member for the free shipping and then I’ve also gone and signed up for some virtual wine tastings – it’s something, right?   Last week, we had a Pinot Noir tasting between a California and a French one.   Definite differences.  Delicious.

Finally, music:  When I finish yoga in the morning, usually Youtube has recommendations for videos I should watch.   For some reason, the following video was waiting for me, and I couldn’t help but check it out:

It’s magical.  How have I not known about Postmodern Jukebox before?  Seriously, never heard of them, and their gimmick is totally up my alley.   The group’s main man, Scott Bradlee, is a master cover musician, but instead of decently straight-forward covers, he reworks the songs into various other retro styles.   The above, “Wannabe”, is done in 1940s style.   Not only that, but he has musicians and singers who just bring the charisma and talent to whatever it is they’re doing.  I think there are over 300 videos so far, and I think Postmodern Jukebox tours too (in pre-Corona times, obvs).  1940s style isn’t the only thing they do though – they do it all.  One of my other initial favorites is the following:

The tap dancer, on top of the Gatsby-esque rendition, is mesmerizing, not to mention I fucking love this song anyway and it fits this style so well.  I ended up watching/listening to a 1990s playlist they put together and oh man, it’s so good, and the Friends theme song “through the decades” is awesome.   One thing I’ll note is that the talent are all very attractive – the women are beautiful and striking, and the men are frequently distractingly handsome.   So yeah, fun music, hot guys, and entertaining videos?   Sure, why not.  The linked video below is for the 1990s playlist – it just happens to start again with “Wannabe”.

Other than that, it’s been an up and down week, emotionally.  I still can’t accurately predict when my mood turns south and I’m feeling utter despair or when I’m not really sad about much at all.   I typically get emotional going to sleep regardless of how the day went.   Still hard to believe Larry’s not sleeping next to me anymore.  I don’t like being alone.  Also having to manage my mom’s finances, and it’s definitely not easy to do much of anything with the Rona out there.   Anyway, I just wanted to get a post in while I had the energy.  I was going to make another of the pork chop recipe tonight, but after cookies today as well as waffles this morning, I’m kind of done with cooking for the day.

I did see the Guy Ritchie take on “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” last night and oh man, it was soooo good.  Larry would have loved it, as it had all the 1960s Cold War style on a very fun spy movie, and jesus, Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer are hot as fuck in this thing.   It’s really surprising it didn’t do better in the theaters when it was out originally.

Larry Loved: Stereogum’s ‘The Number Ones’ article series

Don’t hold me to this, but I think I want to capture some of those things that Larry loved and write about them on my site.   Something that immediately came to mind was the article series on the Stereogum website:

https://www.stereogum.com/category/franchises/the-number-ones/

The author, Tom Breihan, has written about every single #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 charts since it’s inception in 1958.   As of today, he’s currently up to January 1979, where we are still apparently in the clutch of disco (nothing wrong with that).   Larry loved to always talk about what song was #1 during someone’s birthday – on his birthday, it was Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Shining Star”, which really is a fantastic song.

For my birthday, it was one of Larry’s favorite bands:  Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now”.   I narrowly avoided it being Rick Dees’ “Disco Duck”, so thank god for small miracles.

This past year, Larry thoughtfully sent along the article for when it was ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”.   The write-up is beautiful, frankly, so read it, and the song does mean a lot to me.   It was the last song we danced to at our wedding reception, and just for that alone it will be forever special.  Plus, it’s just pure ABBA perfection.

Larry just loved lists like these – he was so happy to get the comprehensive book containing the listing of every Television show up through like early 2000s.   It was something I loved so dearly about him, as he was just so into stuff and I couldn’t help but be into it too.

Rescue Me

Well, hello there.  You may notice that I took a bit of a sabbatical there.   You see, 2019 has not been what you would say is “a great year”.  I don’t feel quite like going into it all, or trying to post pictures (there’s too many), or explaining anything, but I have been wanting to post on the site again for a long time, but I kept feeling overwhelmed by all that I thought I’d want to cover.

Instead, I’m going to talk about a song today, as it got me out of a bit of a funk this morning.

It’s Madonna’s “Rescue Me” from her Immaculate Collection greatest hits album.   I put on the iTunes “Madonna Essentials” playlist this morning as my shower music, and while I half-heartedly sang along to “This Used to Be My Playground” and “Crazy For You”, when the opening storm sounds started on “Rescue Me,” I was like, heyyyyyy.

“Rescue Me” is a fantastic song, and it comes at the very end of Madonna’s amazing collection of 80s hits (which as one of the earliest tapes I owned, basically locked in my gayness).   It doesn’t sound much at all like her earlier songs and paired with “Justify My Love,” basically welcome you to what the 1990s were going to be for Madonna.

For me, I remember picking up the CD Maxi-single of “Rescue Me” and becoming obsessed with the Houseboat Vocal remix.  It basically opened my eyes to what contemporary dance music would sound like and continue to sound like.

Inject it into my veins, it’s still that good and could power up a dancefloor tonight at any club, gay or otherwise.

Madonna’s Erotica album followed up after this and both “Justify My Love” and “Rescue Me” clearly could fit in that album’s groove.  Pure 90s dance goodness and I am always here for that.  Not much else to say but I needed to hear it this morning to get my head straight.

2016: The Highs & The Other Stuff

Larry asked me yesterday what my favorite movie of the year was, which led me to thinking about other highlights, and of course, lowlights, throughout the year.  So, with no particular order in mind:

Favorite Movie:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

La La Land, by a lot.

Other Notables:

  • Arrival
  • Star Trek: Beyond
  • Rogue One
  • Zootopia
  • 10 Cloverfield Ln
  • Secret Life of Pets
  • Moana

Disappointments:

  • Jason Bourne – UGH
  • Girl on the Train – bored ugh
  • Independence Day: Resurgence – just…why?

Favorite Song:

I love this damn song.  From the first time I heard it while eating breakfast to even now, still love it.

Other notables:

  • Cake by the Ocean, by DNCE
  • Make Me Like You, by Gwen Stefani
  • Hold Up, by Beyonce
  • Can’t Stop the Feeling, by Justin Timberlake
  • The Riddle of the Model, from the Sing Street soundtrack
  • We Know the Way, from the Moana soundtrack
  • Another Day of Sun, from the La La Land soundtrack

Favorite TV:

Obviously, Jeopardy! gets a nod.

  • Game of Thrones; the last episode where Cersei goes and makes her move?  Woah.
  • Westworld:  Wasn’t sure if I was going to like the show, but yeah, definitely liked the show.  Just have to wait 2 more years for more.
  • Crazy Ex-Girlfriend:  Everyone should be watching this hilarious, musical show.  Rachel Bloom is mesmerizing, and all the attractive men she has cast in the show opposite her is brilliant, as it keeps us tuned in!  White Josh and Greg 4eva.
  • Broad City:  In it’s 3rd season, it’s still fucking great.
  • $100,000 Pyramid & Match Game:  ABC brought these back over the summer and they were fucking great.  Time to consider my next game show move!

Not so good?

  • Scandal:  We are in the hate-watch zone.  Get your shit together.
  • You’re the Worst:  I don’t know, we couldn’t get past the 1st episode of the new season, and so, maybe we’re done with it.
  • American Horror Story:  Not sure if it’s bad yet, but it really was all over the place this season.  Sometimes it was good, but a lot of times, not?  I liked last season’s Hotel.  Maybe next season will be good.

Fun Video Games I Played:

There’s plenty in this list.

  • The Witcher 3:  Hot damn, this game is amazing and gets you involved immediately and doesn’t let go.  And it’s freaking huge.  I still am not sure how far along I am and I’ve played a LOT.
  • Rise of the Tomb Raider:  So glad that the Tomb Raider franchise has been brought back successfully.  It’s so damn fun too, and they’re telling great stories while providing a wonderful action experience.
  • Prison Architect:  I totally got obsessed with this game for a while.  So well done.
  • XCOM 2:  A really hard game that I couldn’t stop playing.  I did finish it, surprisingly.
  • Flame in the Flood:  Another of these random games I got obsessed with for a good while as it was such a relaxing game play rhythm.
  • Uncharted 4:  I just finished this one and man, what a beautiful and fun game.

Disappointment:

  • Fallout 4:  I really really really wanted to love this game.  And I played it a while, hoping it would get me.  But nope.  They have too much around settlement creation and management and let the story be incidental.  I want to have the option to take the story slow if necessary, but not like this.  Kind of a bummer.
  • King’s Quest:  Once it was clear that you couldn’t easily restart and were stuck with decisions, plus the game gave very limited guidance, I kind of lost interest.  There are 3 more chapters to play through and I’m not sure I ever will?

Life Stuff Highlights!

Okay, I guess I should talk about some of the things I liked about 2016.

  • Larry & I got married!  There may have been a lot of stress and a not insignificant amount of money spent, but damn, the event and surrounding days were so worth it.  The weather was perfect, the venue was perfect, the wedding and reception were perfect, seeing all the family and friends was perfect….it was just amazing.
  • Honeymoon in Europe!  This trip was much needed and a welcome return to traveling somewhere outside of the country with beautiful surroundings to soak up and lots of food and wine to savor.  Would go back in a heartbeat if we could.
  • We got a new niece, Rachel, in July of this year.  It’s a wonderful addition to Alyssa & Jon’s family and of course to all of ours.  It was also nice to be back east for that little bit of time too.
  • Hollywood Bowl is always fun, as is going to the theater and seeing some shows.  Seeing Beautiful and Cabaret were definite highlights, as was the various shows we saw at the Bowl, including Diana Ross and the Sound of Music.  Also glad mom was able to join us for many of these!
  • Being on Jeopardy was certainly a wonderful adventure and something I can always remember.  I’ve also been able to meet and be part of a very select group of individuals, those who have also been on Jeopardy.  It’s quite an honor.

The negatives:

  • Certainly not happy with how the election turned out.  I’ll cross fingers and toes that perhaps I’m wrong about my fears.  Based on a certain Twitter feed though, I’m fairly convinced the incoming man on Jan 20th is frightfully immature, unfit, and unprepared for the job.  Buckle up your seatbelts, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
  • Work, well, it’s certainly something right now.   Here’s hoping for a more productive and illuminating 2017 in that realm.
  • Turning 40.  Eh, I guess it’s not the end of the world, certainly.  But kind of a bummer, nonetheless.  And to have that one-two punch with that and the election made November 2016 one of the shittier Novembers I can remember!
  • A lot of these actors and musicians and artists and entertainers dying….I think I’m reaching that age where a lot of the people I did grow up with seeing out there are reaching that age.  But some?  Some are way too young.

Honestly, I just want to not be afraid of what the future holds, whether it’s for myself, Larry, family and friends, the country, etc.   I want to be an active participant in making things better, whether that’s my personal happiness, or if I can, be an advocate for making things better on a larger scale.  I don’t want to be afraid of making a change just because it’s a scary thing to do.  Life’s a one-time thing, so why not make it what I want it to be, and not just grin and bear whatever comes my way.  So yeah, that’s kind of where my head is at when it comes to a mindset for 2017.  Call it a resolution, call it a philosophy, but yeah, 2017, here I come.  Here we all come.

I’m making a cake for 2017 New Year’s Eve.  Larry & I are staying in again, as previous NYE outings have kind of gone to shit.  Last year we stayed in, and it was great.  Doing it again, and happy about that as it’s raining this evening.  Fuck that noise.

Loving Gwen Stefani’s “Make Me Like You”

During this year’s Grammys telecast this past weekend, there was a long commercial break in which Target had bought about 4 minutes of time in which the purpose seemed to be just showing Gwen Stefani’s newest video and single.  I thought that Target was going all out for this because they’re getting some exclusivity on the pre-order for the new album.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the song but I had hopes, as everywhere that I’d read about “Make Me Like You,” it was positive raves about a great dance number.  As the video played, I definitely was charmed by it and the song definitely was infectious.  The video was a lot of fun and when it was done, I was like, why is there cheering at the end?   Turns out, this whole video was filmed live during that commercial break!  VERY cool, and made me love the video and song even more.

So yeah, today I was listening to it a lot while at work, and made my coworkers listen once.  One of my friends there noticed the similarities to The Cardigans’ “Lovefool” which is a very apt comparison.

I’m definitely intrigued by Gwen Stefani’s new album though, and looking forward to what she does.

Speaking of looking forward to things:  BROAD CITY SEASON 3 starts tonight!!!!!