My 50th Post… Or, How I Spent a Lunch Hour With Joan Osborne

50 posts!  Wow… I can’t believe I’ve been able to write this many posts and still have people stop by and read them! 

At the beginning of the past week I realized this would be a milestone post, so I tried to come up with something interesting to write about.  It didn’t take long for me to realize there weren’t any good ideas in my brain.  So I did the only thing that makes sense when faced with a challenge – I procrastinated!  For days.  That doesn’t usually accomplish anything but wasted time, but luck was with me this week.  I received a phone call from my sister one afternoon that changed any plans I might have thought I had for post number fifty.  One of our local radio stations – WDVX - has a program they call the ‘Blue Plate Special’ which airs live Monday through Saturday at noon.  Various musical acts perform in front of a live studio audience and my sister wanted to let me know that Joan Osborne was the guest Thursday.  !!!!  Ms. Osborne is a singer-songwriter that is, perhaps, best known for the song ”One of Us” from her 1995 album Relish.   In my opinion, ‘One of Us’ was one of the weaker songs on the album while most of the others showcased more of a rich, edgy sound that the single lacked.  It was certainly more of a radio-friendly song, but many of the other tracks far outshine it.

We’re not here, however, to discuss Joan Osborne as I remember her from the 90′s… we’re here to discuss Joan Osborne from a couple of days ago when I was lucky enough to join a room full of people gathered to hear her sing a short set for WDVX.

Joan and her band were actually the second part of the show - the first performace was from the group HuDost.  I don’t know much about them, but they had a very unique and creative sound that everyone seemed to enjoy.  If you’re interested in eclectic world music you should definitely check them out!

Moksha Sommer of the group HuDost~

After HuDost finished their performance Joan and her band came out and took the stage.  Their set was not a long one – 30 to 40 minutes – but it was so much fun.  Her voice is still as gorgeous as ever and I was thrilled to finally be able to see her live!  Performing songs from her new CD Bring It On Home – she captivated the crowd filling every corner of the small room with the selection of vintage blues and soul songs.  Bring It On Home rocks with songs from R&B greats like Ray Charles, Al Green, and Otis Redding, and Joan was in her element singing them.

If you haven’t heard her new CD and enjoy that type of music you should look it up and at least listen to a couple of songs.  I doubt you’ll be disappointed.     Everyone in our small group had a great time and agreed that having a ‘Blue Plate Special’ with Joan Osborne was a great way to spend a lunch hour!

Singing "Shake Your Hips"!

Answering some questions about her new CD - "Bring It On Home".

If you told me Monday that I’d have such an experience to write about by Friday, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.  It was a great week to have a milestone blog post and I’m so glad my sister heard about the opportunity and invited me along!

Such a fantastic voice!

The lovely Ms. Osborne...

A huge THANK YOU to Joan for a wonderful show!!  Thanks to my sister for bringing some ‘glad you’re feeling a little better’ cheer to the week and thanks to hubby for making sure I was able to get out of the house to enjoy it!  lol!

And as always – thanks to you for stopping by and visiting me here…  Hope it’s a great weekend!

~heather 

difficult to understand…

Monday is not usually a day that finds me with a lot of things on my mind… Just dealing with the start of the week is ordinarily more than enough to keep me busy.  Today has been different from most.  I’ve been puzzling through a few things.  Some of the weird things in my life that are confusing. For example – although it seems counterintuitive, insomnia can actually be a symptom in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  Does that seem like a cruel and ironic joke to anyone but me?  That sort of defies comprehension.  Debilitating exhaustion is already one of the identifying problems with the condition… it would seem that sleep would be easy.  Not the case!  For some patients, anyway.  (I am pointing at myself while typing this.)  It’s not something I deal with every day, but I go through phases dealing with horrible insomnia.  It’s cruel and unusual punishment but can occur with anyone dealing with CFS or Fibromyalgia.  (Yay!  I get it from both sides!)

Sorry!  I sound angry and I’m not – honestly!  (most of the time, anyway… lol)  : )

I didn’t intend to go on and on like that.  One more mini-rant and I’ll be done, okay?  Okay!  : )

Another thing I’m having difficulty with – last Friday I was hauling stuff up and down the stairs to the attic and it made me sore and wasn’t easy, but I was physically capable of doing it.  Yesterday I made cupcakes and it took me almost 20 minutes to fill a twelve cup muffin pan.  Why?  Because I couldn’t hold the KitchenAid mixer bowl with one hand – my arm just wasn’t strong enough.  I had to hold the bowl against my stomach and lean against the counter.  It just doesn’t make sense how things could change so drastically over the course of two days… The good news – I was able to finish not just one pan of cupcakes, but two!  Orange creamsicle cupcakes – baked, frosted, the whole shebang… And then, of course, I was also able to eat them.  lol!

 

On a lighter note – I have a weird movie quirk that I can’t understand.  While working today I was trying to find something on the TV to listen to in the background.  Moulin Rouge! was playing on one of the stations and was about halfway through.  I love the movie and the music, so I figured it would be a great choice.  Only problem – I can’t watch it, even in periphery, without crying at the end.  Every. Single. Time.  So, why do I watch it??  Singing a medley of love songs in a golden elephant boudoir with Ewan McGregor IS on my bucket list, but that would make me happy… lol!  The end of the movie – not so much.  So why I torture myself by watching it when it just makes good sense to avoid it altogether?  My heart would remain unmoved, my tears unshed and if I need a fix I can just sing the songs in the shower.  Wouldn’t that be a great solution?  But no!  If it’s on and I watch any part of the last 30 minutes or so, 8-9 times out of 10 I will end up teary-eyed.  Most people who know me are aware of my extra tender and sensitive heart and would not be very surprised by this admission.  Few are aware, however, that I consider a handful of movies worth the tears no matter how many times I’ve seen them (and cried).  Apparently Moulin Rouge! is on the list.  lol!  (The Fall  also comes to mind as another movie in that category.)

Love this movie!

 

So there you have it!  A few of the things I’ve been trying to find peace with this afternoon.  : )  Nothing shocking or spectacular I know, but more excitement than I see on most normal Monday afternoons…  Hope your Monday has been interesting and exciting in some way, and that you find peace with the puzzling questions in your life!  : )

Life Should be More Like a Musical

Anyone that knows me knows that I love musicals.  I get swept up in the cheesy, impromptu singing and dancing.  Suckered into thinking it was permissible to run out into the street, spontaneously burst into song and be able to finish a musical number without someone trying to drag me off to seek professional help.  My love is deep-rooted and began in childhood – honestly!  I’m not just saying that as a story telling device!  : )

When I was younger (much, much younger) my family moved to New York.  Since I didn’t really know anyone and spent most of my time with my cousin, we became very close.  I’m not sure how it began, but we ended up with what I believe was probably an *ahem* 8-track tape.  (I know – it doesn’t seem possible that I could be that old… Trust me, I’m not!  lol)  Anyway!   Each time we drove anywhere we wanted to listen to this 8-track.  Perhaps you’ve heard of it… it’s the soundtrack to a little musical called Grease.  It became my favorite music and my cousin and I would sing the songs wherever we went.  At some point this probably should have concerned our family considering some of the lyrics, but we were too young to understand what they meant and didn’t even really get all the words right.  The only drawback to the whole scenario was the fact that my cousin’s name is “Sandy”, so she felt she should be the female lead in our play… which relegated me to the male role of Danny.  I was actually just happy to sing and play so it didn’t really matter to me!  Even though many other musicals have made their way into my heart, Grease will always hold a special place as the first.  It isn’t solely to blame for my belief that life would be better if it contained more group numbers, but it definitely paved the way!

It’s easy to dismiss the ‘life would be better’ notion if you don’t consider the full impact of what it would mean.   Think about it.  Being a part of a large musical number takes lots of practice and cooperation.  You have to coordinate with different people and work together to bring about the foot-tapping, hip-shaking crowd response that would prove the success of the venture.  It would also be much more difficult to fight or go to war if we adopted and implemented these skills.  Don’t believe me?  Perhaps you need to watch West Side Story and pay particular attention to any ‘rumble’ scenes.  Consider the time and effort that would go into choreographing those scuffles!  By the time the two combatants learned all the moves and practiced them to perfection they would probably be too exhausted to actually fight and would have to go home to catch some Zzzz’s!  And who can forget the epic love scenes and duets?  No one would ever lose the love of their life if able to confront their soul mate with stars in their eyes and a choir to back them up.  It would be nearly impossible to resist - you have to admit!  Still not convinced?  If for no other reason, living life like a musical would enable each of us to get in touch with our inner child and empower it in a magical scene complete with a town full of people we don’t even know following our lead and dancing in sync with our every step.  Talk about an esteem boost!  Who wouldn’t like that??

It seems impossible to pull this off, I know. Yet, there is a modern version that is one step closer to living in a world full of dance numbers and potential lovers singing their hearts out!  Consider the ‘flash mob’.  It’s seemingly spontaneous,  completely unexpected by a group of people who will ultimately serve as the audience, begins with one or two and grows in number until it becomes a full troupe that use their jazz hands like artistic weapons… Pure magic!  (On a side note – my sister recently directed a flash mob to support a local production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Regretfully, I was not included in the mob and with my elephant memory will probably remind her of it for many years to come.  In fact – I only mention it here on the off-chance that she’ll read this in the future and feel obligated to include me in the next episode she produces… lol!)  Where was I?  Oh!  Before I got caught up between the parentheses I was expounding on the valid contributions of flash mobs as support to my theory of awesomeness.  However, I don’t think I’ll be able to convince you with words so I’m including one more video for your musical enjoyment!  It’s a flash mob my mom recently saw at Americas Mart in Atlanta.  Wouldn’t this be fun?

 

Kinda makes you want to jump up and dance, huh?  You could say they make a perfect pair.  Life and musicals, that is… They go together.

“Like ramma lamma lamma ka dinga da dinga dong

Remembered forever as shoo-bop sha whada whadda yippidy boom da boom

Chang chang changity chang shoo bop that’s the way it should be… Waooo, Yeah!”     : )

Cinematic Magic

Driving is usually pretty relaxing for me.  I enjoy many versions of it: taking in the scenery, hanging my arm out the  window and making “waves” in the air current, quiet moments of silence and reflection, or singing along LOUDLY with good (and sometimes bad) music…  While I was driving home yesterday I engaged in the latter, with mostly good music.  After singing along with several popular hits, a great song came on the radio that not only has musical emotional power, but has cinematic emotional ties as well.  It’s one of those songs with the power to transport you to another place or time.  Like a track on the internal soundtrack you have filed away as background for the big moments of your life.  Once connected to a moment or memory, it becomes linked forevermore.  Do you know what I’m talking about?

The song was Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer”.  A song, for me, that is inextricably associated with a scene in a fantastic movie.  (It’s also tied to a hilarious scene in a “Friends” episode, but that’s another story altogether!)  The movie is “Almost Famous”, Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story of a young journalist trying to make the most of an amazing opportunity while traveling with an upcoming rock band and their bandaids.  (Not groupies!)  There’s no way to summarize the movie adequately, so if you haven’t seen it you should bookmark this page, go experience it and then come back and we’ll compare notes!

“Tiny Dancer” is just one song in a soundtrack FULL of gems, but it is a pivotal moment in the film and perhaps my favorite scene in a list of many.  It begins with Elton’s lovely piano as background music for tension filled silence of a group of  characters and swells, adding one voice at a time, to an entire bus full of people singing joyfully and without abandon.  It underscores the ability music has to bridge any gap or difference and connect. It shows how, regardless of the number of struggles or battles, these people will always have a commonality.  A unique and beautiful way to communicate and resolve their differences without ever having to ‘say’ a word.  And the scene itself!  Even without all of the layers of meaning and the use of music as a vehicle to move the story forward, the scene is like the best love letter.  It starts simply and sweetly with something familiar and layer by layer it becomes a complete, heartfelt whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts.

I don’t know if I’ll ever fully understand why this particular scene resonates so strongly with me.  It’s not my favorite song.  It’s not a song that has deep, personal connections for me although I’ve always liked it a great deal…  And it’s certainly not a singular event in an otherwise dull cinematic experience.  Yet, it moves me just the same.  Crowe manages a magic that fills my chest and leaves a lump in my throat even though I couldn’t tell you why.  Like the group on the bus, I find myself pulled in and singing along with the same sense of camaraderie and glee.  And, much the same as he begins it, Crowe ends this masterpiece of a scene as simply as it began.  William, our young journalist, looks at Penny and tells her, “I have to go home.”  Surrounded by the people who have come to represent his true family, she responds, “You are home.”

Brilliant.

(Although I would NEVER recommend taking the scene out of the context of the movie, lest you cheapen the emotional effect of it, you can view a You Tube video of ”Tiny Dancer” from the movie here…)