Welcome to Song Lyric Saturday, a new feature for my NaBloPoMo month of March–and it may make occasional appearances even after that’s over, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m not a big fan of short stories in traditional form, but when they’re set to great melodies and last for under four minutes, sometimes they really work for me. The “summer place” of my childhood was Budd Lake, New Jersey, where my maternal grandfather and […]
I’ve been taking part in the Music Diary Project this week, posting daily updates to it on Tumblr. At some point – once it’s over, probably, and in the mythical time when I have “more time” – I plan to go back through the entries and see what sort of thoughts they provoke. Most of the posts are just straightforward lists of whatever music I was listening to over a period of time, but a couple […]
Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music Marisa Meltzer Faber & Faber (2010), Edition: 1, Paperback (ISBN 0865479798 / 9780865479791) Nonfiction (music/women’s studies), 176 pages Source: personal/purchased copy Reason for reading: topic of interest; blogger recommendation (Viva la Feminista) Opening Lines (Chapter 1): “The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, is the kind of university that offers neither grades nor majors. Its central quad is called Red Square; its concrete-block, riot-proof buildings are nestled among […]
I was born the same year that the Beatles took over the world, but by the time I became aware of the band, they’d already been broken up for several years. I’d become a serious fan by the time I was in high school, though, and had learned a lot about their lives and music. Throughout the 1970s, fans still harbored hopes for a Beatles reunion, wondering if each collaboration between two (or occasionally even […]
We’ll start this week’s travels at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and LaBrea Avenue… …where this pavilion marks the beginning… …of this! This song gets stuck in my head every time I take this walk: Everybody’s a dreamer, everybody’s a star, And everybody’s in movies, it doesn’t matter who you are. There are stars in every city, In every house and on every street, And if you walk down Hollywood Boulevard Their names are written […]
When I think of “songs I never need to hear again,” I don’t necessarily mean songs I absolutely can’t stand. I do my best to avoid hearing those already, unless they happen to be on my husband’s playlists (I am in the car listening to you under duress, “A Horse With No Name”). There are other songs that I don’t actively despise, but in close to 35 years of paying attention to music, I have […]
There are songs I’ve heard enough times to last a lifetime, and they could go away tomorrow…but that’s actually tomorrow’s topic. Today, I’m thinking about “songs that never wear out their welcome” – songs that I’ll almost never change stations on or skip over on the iPod. These are songs I never get tired of hearing, no matter how many times I have. I thought I’d done a post on a related topic at some […]
I really like movies, but as you may recall if you’ve been reading here for a while, I’ve grown to really HATE Oscar Week, which has come to signify my Annual Traffic Nightmare. My office is one street north and about four blocks west of the Kodak Theater. As it gets closer to the Academy Awards, more and more streets in the area will be closed off in preparation for the ceremonies, and the street […]
When I mentioned this week’s Ten on Tuesday topic, “10 Songs You’re Embarrassed You Like,” to my family, I phrased it as “10 Songs You’re Embarrassed to Admit You Like.” My 15-year-old asked, “If they’re embarrassing, why would you tell anyone?” For a long time, I would have considered that a totally reasonable question. I’ve always been much more tentative about sharing musical tastes than almost anything else. I may have a hard time narrowing […]
The song appeals to me for its classic pop sound, but also for its combination of an upbeat melody with rather wistful lyrics. The theme is a fairly common one in Christmas pop music – it’s supposed to be the happiest time of year, but you’re separated from someone you love and that makes it sad: What song is it? The lyrics are quoted, and other thoughts about the song are shared, in a guest […]
Ten on Tuesday can usually snag me with pop-culture prompts. This week, Yano asked for “10 Favorite Movie/Song Remakes” – I went with songs, and over on Blogenstein, Tall Paul took the movie route. That’s pretty much in character for us. He’s more of a cinemaphile than I am, although “cinemaphile” is probably too highbrow a word for his tastes; better to say “movie maven,” perhaps. On the other hand, he recently asked me – […]
One of my blog categories here is “pop culture: music” because I’m just the slightest bit addicted to it. I used to post random lists of songs from my iPod regularly, and I like responding to music-related prompts I find on other blogs (although I was at a loss for last week’s Weekly Geeks topic: songs that remind you of books). I’m responding to one of those prompts at another blog today. Susan Helene Gottfried […]
