I think this is song is appropriate for the final song of this month.
Not only did I spend the day with my husband while he flew with eagles,
today is the one year anniversary of us getting possession of our new home.
Plus this was one of my uncle's favorite songs.
I think the lyrics will carry us through to the next year... enjoy!
You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord
Who abide in His shadow for life
Say to the Lord, "My refuge.
My rock in whom I trust."
And, He will life you up
on eagle's wings.
Bear you on the breath of dawn.
Make you to shine like the sun.
And hold you in the palm of His hand.
The snare of the fowler will never capture you.
And famine will bring you no fear.
Under His wing your refuge.
His faithfulness your shield.
And, He will life you up
on eagle's wings.
Bear you on the breath of dawn.
Make you to shine like the sun. And hold you in the palm of His hand.
You need not fear the terror of the night, Nor the arrow that flies by day, Though thousands fall about you, Near you it shall not come.
And He will raise you up on eagle's wings, Bear you on the breath of dawn, Make you to shine like the sun, And hold you in the palm of His Hand. For to His angels He's given a command, To guard you in all of your ways, Upon their hands they will bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
And He will raise you up on eagle's wings, Bear you on the breath of dawn, Make you to shine like the sun, And hold you in the palm of His Hand. And hold you in the palm of His Hand.
This takes me back to the summer between my senior year in high school
and the start of my freshman year in college...
Later on, I would be a surgical resident where "playing with the boys" took on a whole new meaning and pushed my competitive nature to a whole other level.
Love the song, love the video, sort of liked the movie...
and, this is one of the very first soundtracks I bought on CD...
remember those marvelous flat discs that replaced tapes??
I've spent a lot of time at Starbuck's. One of the things I always liked about Starbuck's is the Music Download of the Week. Do they still do these? It introduced me to a lot of music that I might have not otherwise been exposed to. Like this song. It was a free download, and I love it; makes me think of a dark Cuban 1960's nightclub.
I also associate Dizzy Gillespie with the buccinator muscle. That's your cheek muscle. He had some strong cheeks...! Enjoy...!
For some reason I remember this song more for this movie... Skip ahead to about 5:30 for the "Luck be a Lady" section, although the whole thing is pretty funny.
I always think of this as my theme song when heading with my mom for a gambling weekend. I have a few Frank Sinatra songs on my iPod. Again, love singing out loud to them. I think I like singing along with most of my music... hmm...
We had another death at the farm. So let's review the body count shall we...? A bit morbid I know, but seriously, this has been the worst weekend/week ever...
Arrived on the property almost a year ago. July 31st I officially was able to take possession of my new home. Toward the end of August, I was allowed by my husband to get three chickens, and I added 6 guinea fowl.
Then we moved up here officially around the end of November. But, it was in the beginning of November that we started to have a bear problem. Then about a week or two later, having been informed that we needed to "take care of our own problems," DH did shoot at the bear one night, and we hadn't seen it since.
So, officially as of December 1st, we had 3 bantams, 6 guineas, 3 cats and 2 humans living up on the property.
Then, in mid-April, the rooster and a bantam hen disappeared, and while I was out of town my DH took care of the "problem" when it went after the guineas.
Then, one by one, the bantams started to disappear. DH missed the new "problem" when it came stalking around, but not before it killed one of the female guineas. So, new count:
Then this Massacre Week happened... and last night while I was at work a new "problem" came around and killed the final female guinea. DH was surprised by the noise in the barn and didn't carry his firearm with him (which, by the way he's been keeping close given recent events) and the feline predator escaped, but not before we'd had another loss.
We're not sure if we'll get goats again, but I think perhaps during the next several months we'll reinforce and redo all of the fences, bring Boots back along with a new companion, maybe having one or both bred and start over. Maybe a llama?
Hopefully Benny will do his part and add to the population. We may need to reconsider what to do with the guineas since there's two males and at least the female one laid eggs.
And, I think I mentioned that we were looking at a new canine member to the family... now if we can only decide which one...
Life ends, life begins anew...
it's all a part of this new experience which I think is only just beginning...
but for all those that have been lost, you won't be forgotten
We're winding down to the last week of this month... wow, a lot of stuff has happened looking back. And, we're not through yet...!
Everybody, Everybody
Black Box
I don't know what this song means, I just know it's one of those "get up and dance" songs. Released in the early 1990's, I remember it as a work-out song. I actually had a life when I first graduated from college, with a Monday through Friday 9 - 5 job. I had time to go to the gym and do scheduled aerobics. I could follow a sensible eating program because I had a routine. I also did a lot of dancing because I had weekends off... and weekends were made for fun! Sigh, to be back in my early 20's when I could eat everything and didn't have to worry about it...
Of course, Sting made this song famous, but I will always remember this version of the song because of Michelle Kwan and the 2002 Olympics. I searched a while to find this version, and, again, Napster was my friend. The song is about commitment, love and eventually death.
I know I've mentioned before about my goal of being in the Olympics while growing up. Figure skating was one of the sports I liked. I still imagine skating around a darkly lit arena with a single spotlight on me while I perform skill after skill. In this performance, I lived vicariously through Kwan. You could feel her passion and emotion. It made me love this song all the more.
Suddenly within just 3 months we had our own little herd.
Life on the farm was pretty pleasant until Friday night...
We left for an evening out and came home to find all of the goats missing.
This is completely unusual because the goats are always by the barn. If they make it through the fence, they always manage to end up back at the barn.
But, that night, no goats. No goats anywhere.
Betty wears a bell so we called out and listened... nothing.
The next morning we spent three hours searching around the borders of our 25 acres.
We visited bordering neighbors. Even called the police department in case the goats
made it onto the road and into someone's yard. What we couldn't understand is how all four of them just disappeared. Josie always was the "alpha" goat, so we knew Betty would follow. Of course, the kids would come right behind. It was all so very strange.
Finally, around noon we heard goats calling from the front 5 acres. I called, they called, and my DH hiked up the trail and found them. But, only 3 of them. Jazz the baby was missing. We listened for her call, but Betty's milk sack was pretty full, so we knew it had been several hours since she'd last fed.
The goats had no markings on them. They didn't seem especially skittish. They came right up to my DH and he led them to me, and we led them up the driveway back to the barn. We kept them locked in while we went out, and then we let them out in the pasture for a bit in the evening.
They didn't move away from the house, it was business as usual.
DH put them up in the barn for the night and that was that...
Until this morning...
DH went out to the barn to let the goats and chickens out of the barn and noticed a large pile of bear scat in the yard. The back door of the barn was wide open, and the goats were missing.
DH went to the back and around the side and found Boots just standing there. She came right up to him which is unusual because she's usually very timid. But no sign of the other two goats.
DH came back into the house, and off we went again in search of the goats. He hiked back up to the spot where he'd found them on the day prior and found Josie's body in the brush. No sign of Betty. No sound of her calling, and no sound of her bell. Josie was a lot bigger, and she always stood up to a fight, so I had some hopes that maybe Betty, who was always a little wild might have made it.
We haven't found her yet, and I don't think that we will.
It's heartbreaking to be in the back yard and hear Boots calling out for her momma, or for any of the other goats. She and Jazz always played around the garden, trying to sneak into it, and jumping off of anything that stood still.
We talked to the breeder, and she will be taking her there for safe-keeping. I don't know if we'll ever bring her back. This is too hard. I love my rural life, but I don't know if I can handle having to deal with the Wild Kingdom that we're surrounded by. Sure, it was hard to lose our chickens to the bobcat, but the chickens don't get into your heart the way a goat does.
At least our goats. Our spoiled, overfed, driving us crazy goats that would have become BBQ if they'd ever managed to escape and climb up on the car (not really, I would have forgiven them). Just like I forgave them for eating my rose bushes, my jasmine, the tops of my tulips...
We gave them a great life and only asked that they munch down the briars in return. But, they did much more than that. They made my heart happy and some days that was all that kept me going when the shifts were long, when I was tired of the state of remodel our house is in, or when I just needed a break from the world. There were the goats, serene, comforting, annoyingly perfect...
I'm really going to miss them... and, even though they drove my DH crazy having to wire the entire yard with electric fencing, I'm sure somewhere deep inside, he's going to miss them too...
I like this song on so many levels. I like the lyrics. I like the beat. I like the video.
The song is based on the songwriter's struggles growing up. Somewhere, when I was a teen, I remember someone telling me that 10 years from now, none of this will really matter. And, looking back now, they were so right. The drama and the angst and the confusion of just trying to survive through high school, and even my first couple of years in college... none of it really mattered. Sure, those experiences have helped to form the person I am today, but in some respects if I had just lived life in the moment and not let the little things get me down, I think I would have done some things just that much differently. Sigh. You can't go back, but you can always look forward... and, in a way, I think that's what this song is about.
It's one song I have on my iPod twice... Once by Wynonna Judd from the movie "Lilo and Stitch" and the other by the King himself, Elvis. Which version do you like better...? I lean slightly toward the Elvis version, but this song always makes me sing out loud regardless of who's singing it..!
Lump - The Presidents of the United States of America
There's a lot of discussion regarding what this song is about, all I know is I like the beat. I didn't listen to a lot of alternative music while in high school, and even early into college. Seems like when I graduated, I finally started listening to all of that music I hadn't really paid attention to before, and this is one of those songs. The song came out in 1995, and again, it's the beat that makes me like it so much.
I think it's about a girl who has no ambition and who spends her time mostly as a "lump" - not moving around, not thinking about anything, just being carried by the things around her, but not making any purposeful movement on her own. Which is kind of sad when you think about it... Which I don't... I just bop along to the rhythm...
I love Grey's Anatomy. Or, I should say, I used to love Grey's Anatomy. Mostly it was the medicine and remembering how it was to be a surgery resident. A lot of competition, a lot of late nights and hard work, and a lot of camaraderie. The drama and romances... well, at least not in my residency program.
This song is sometimes the theme music for my day. I work in an Emergency Department, and there are days when I do hate everyone. The physician's desk is near the triage window, so I get a "preview of coming attractions" throughout the day. Sometimes, the presenting complaints just make me cringe and wish I'd gone into something else... back to surgery perhaps...?
Patients that drive me the most crazy:
- multiple medical problem patients that don't stop smoking, don't stop drinking, forget to fill their medications on time and come in because they're on the verge of collapse. They get admitted, all of their medical problems readjusted, sent out with scripts and follow-ups and then come back several weeks later to do it all over again.
- dental pain. Your teeth are bad, you continue to smoke, you'd rather spend money on meth than a toothbrush and a dentist. And, they always seem to come in on Friday or Saturday nights or at six in the morning... funny about that...
- as seen on WebMD. Stop looking up differentials on your smart phone and arguing with me about diagnosis and treatment.
- repeat customers. I know you're a drunk, everyone in town knows you're a drunk. Sit in the middle of your room away from stairs, porches, your cat, chairs, ladders, and car doors and maybe you won't fall down three nights in a row needing to call 911 and getting so much radiation you glow. If the liver cirrhosis doesn't get you, cancer from all of the scans and films we've had to do just might.
- rashes... I just don't like them...
This was our wedding song. About two weeks before the wedding, we realized we didn't have any of the music ready. Granted, we only had 4 months total in which to plan the wedding, so songs weren't at the top of the list.
Hubby and I sat down one day via phone (he in Atlanta and I in Buffalo), and we went through song after song trying to decide. Finally we had everything but the final song, the one we would exit as man and wife to. I had always liked the band Mana, and I started going through videos of their songs. Then we came across this one. The rhythmn, the words, everything about it spoke to the way we had met and fallen in love. We had it..! Enjoy...!
Bendito el lugar, y el motivo de estar ahÃ, (blessed the place and the reason for being there) Bendita la coincidencia, (blessed the coincidence) Bendito el reloj, que nos puso puntual ahÃ, (blessed the clock, that put both us both there at the same time) Bendita sea tu presencia. (blessed is your presence)
Bendito Dios por encontrarnos, en el camino, (blessed God for finding us on the same road) Y de quitarme esta soledad, de mi destino. (and for taking away loneliness from my destiny)
Bendita la luz, bendita la luz de tu mirada, (blessed the light, blessed the light of your glance) Bendita la luz, bendita la luz de tu mirada, (blessed the light, blessed the light of your glance) Desde el alma. (from the soul)
Bendito ojos, que me esquivaban, (blessed eyes that peeked at me) Simulaban desde que me ignoraban, (stimulating even though they seemed to ignore me) Y de repente, sostienes la mirada. (and suddenly you held the gaze)
Bendito Dios por encontrarnos, en el camino, (blessed God for finding us on the same road) Y de quitarme esta soledad, de mi destino. (and for taking away loneliness from my destiny)
Bendita la luz, bendita la luz de tu mirada, (blessed the light, blessed the light of your glance) Bendita la luz, bendita la luz de tu mirada, (blessed the light, blessed the light of your glance)
Gloria divina, diste suerte de buen tino, (Divine glory, you gave luck) Y de encontrarte justo ahÃ, en medio del camino, (and to find you there in the middle of the road) Gloria al cielo de encontrarte ahora, (Glory to heaven for finding you now) Llevarte mi soledad, y coincidir en mi destino, (Taking away my lonliness and putting my fate together) En el mismo destino. (in the same fate)
Bendita la luz, bendita la luz de tu mirada, Bendita la luz, bendita la luz de tu mirada, Bendita mirada, Bendita mirada desde el alma, tu mirada, Bendita, bendita, bendita mirada, Bendita tu alma y bendita tu luz.
Tu mirada, oh, oh, oh, Digo es tan bendita tu luz, amor, amor, Bendito el reloj y bendito el lugar, (blessed the clock and blessed the place) Benditos tus besos cerquita del mar, (blessed your kisses close to the sea) Y tu mirada, amor, amor, (and your glance, love, love) Que bendita tú mirada, tu mirada amor.
Just a fun song. Another one of those you can sing along to. Rumor has it the lead singer was a juvenile delinquent and the song is about being on the run from the law. Or, it's just about a road trip on a crazy kinda day. Either way, it's on my iPod as just a fun song...
I couldn't find the scene in English, but you get the point.
Oh, Yeah by Yello
I love "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and I know I have written about it before. This song is just musician's having fun, and it's been used widely in movies and commercials. I'll always remember it from the "Ferris Bueller" movie. The Ferrari scene for sure, but also for the ending. It's probably one of the first movie endings I remember being told to actually watch until the end of the credits. And, I did. And, I enjoyed...!
This is another one of those songs that didn't appear in the soundtrack and which I had to track down to add it to my collection. Again, thank you Napster...
Today is my birthday so I spin the big iPod wheel and come up with...
Surprise!
Veronica by Elvis Costello
Hey, it's my birthday, and I can cheat if I want to...
When I posted about this song last year, it was the song I started the month off to. This year I thought using it as my song on the day if my actual birthday seemed more apropos... N'est pas?
Enjoy!
It's funny the memories a song can bring back, and to me this song was one of the quintessential songs of high school dances. I think that every high school band I ever heard at a dance played this song. It was loud and raucous and all you really had to do was basically jump around to dance to it. Not that I did much dancing at high school dances.
High school dances for me were a time to hang out with friends and be "out" for the evening. We piled into a parent's car, got a fresh layer of make-up in the bathroom, inhaled the scent of cloves which the "older girls" smoked, and then hung out like wall flowers watching everyone else until it was the assigned time to be picked up. I watched other people dance which is probably why I couldn't dance when I got to college. That took a summer of going to 18 and Over clubs with my friend PAB to be able to accomplish.
Now I could dance to this song. Now I sometimes do dance to this song... at home... in the kitchen... while I'm cooking. Hey, don't laugh, you just gotta move your feet when the music moves you...
Cha Cha Cha by Jimmy Luxury and the Tommy Rome Orchestra
I think I might have mentioned somewhere that I love music from movies. A lot of the music on my iPod is from movie soundtracks. Sometimes I will research a snippet of a song I heard in the background of a movie or TV show until I find it. That's what happened with this song.
It's played for just a few seconds in the movie "Ocean's Eleven." If you remember the scene where Brad Pitt is sitting staring in a bar. The one where he tells the bartender, "I'm sleeping with your wife." You hear just a few bars of "Cha cha cha..." and that's it. That's all there is in the whole movie. But, as soon as I heard it, I knew I wanted the music. I had to wait until it came out on DVD to get the full movie soundtrack listing. Then, once I found out the name and the band, how to get it for download...?
Luckily, at that time, I was a member of Napster, and.... enough said. Of course, now you can enjoy the video which was on YouTube... you can get just about anything on YouTube... except that bar scene which I was looking for... but here is the trailer... Enjoy! I can watch this movie over and over...
Here I am, Lord - John Michael Talbot
Catalina Island, summer camp, talent show. I used to play guitar. I think I started playing guitar because my mom encouraged me to join the church choir and got me a guitar. I have to admit I wasn't very good. I could play chords, sure. I could sing, sure. I just wasn't very good at it. I'm sure if I had applied myself and actually practiced, I might have been better. But, I digress.
While in high school, I was a member of the church youth group, and my junior and senior years I went to a week long church camp at Campus by the Sea on Catalina Island. At the end of the week, there would be a talent show. I played this song with one of the other campers singing. Her talent was showcased, I just basically strummed along in the background. But, I loved this song.
It's one of several religious pieces of music on my iPod. I find them to be inspirational, and I find them at times to help me reflect on what I am doing in my life.
This song especially spoke to me as a teen working my way through conflicts with my mom, trying to find my independence, looking ahead to college and the unknown. I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing, and there was a certain peace in just being able to say, "Here I am; I am ready to do Your will."
Given the twists and turns my life has taken to get here, I guess I still am.
1 Samuel 3:2 - 10
2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
4 Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am. ”
5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”
7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel! ” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
I am a California Girl. I grew up in Southern California; land of beaches, hot summer sun, and the Beach Boys. While I like a number of their songs, "Warmth of the Sun" has to be one of my all time favorites. Brian Wilson and Mike Love wrote the song as a tribute to John F. Kennedy on the night of his assassination. Love was thinking about a woman who didn't reciprocate his feelings for her, and set it to the melancholy tune that Wilson had come up with. I just like the melody and the harmonies that only the Beach Boys could create. Ethereal.
Many people say that Elton John's writer Bernie Taupin wrote this about himself. Taupin was a country boy who probably didn't like getting caught up in Elton's high class city lifestyle. I like to think about it as a song about getting back to basics.
Dorothy followed the yellow brick road and found that what she was searching for was right in front of her the entire time. All she had to do was click her heels and say, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home."
Wow are the memories coming back...
Overjoyed by Stevie Wonder
Again, like yesterday, college, Freshman Year, unrequited love song to the max... funny how this week's songs are all taking me back to that place and time. I've got to give my iPod a good shake tomorrow, but regardless.
Stevie Wonder actually was going to use the song in 1979 for an album he released, but it got left off that album and wasn't released until 1985 when it was released as a single.
The lyrics that always get me are:
"And though you don't believe that they do
They do come true
For did my dreams
Come true when I looked at you
And maybe too, if you would believe
You too might be
Overjoyed, over loved, over me
And though the odds say improbable
What do they know
For in romance
All true love needs is a chance
And maybe with a chance you will find
You too like I
Overjoyed, over loved, over you, over you"
Oh, to be able to go back in time and tell that crazy, stupid 18 year old, "this is leading nowhere good..." Knowing me, though, I wouldn't have listened.
I grew up with Elvis. He's my mom's favorite singer. I like certain Elvis songs, and this is one of only 5 that I have on my iPod. Not my favorite of them, but still a good one. Last year, "Hound Dog" was on Day 14. And, I mentioned at that time how I was glad "Lilo and Stitch" was able to bring Elvis to a new generation. His songs are fun, and I still always find myself singing along to them.
Speaking of Stitch, hubby and I are eagerly awaiting the birth of Dixie's siblings some time this month. Dixie is a red merle Australian Shepherd, and for variety, we are hoping for a blue merle male to add to our family... I want to call him Stitch. Still trying to convince the hubby... Or maybe Sylvester...?
The Way He Makes Me Feel - Barbra Streisand
What can I say...? I can think of one or two, ok maybe three crushes in my life that I can totally relate this song to. I know that a lot of people dissed this movie, but I actually enjoyed it. And, who wouldn't love a naked Mandy Patinkin?
Short entry, but there really isn't much more to say about this song...
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
I loved "West Wing." It was such a smart and ground-breaking show. Music was always a major part of many of the scenes; like this one where C.J.'s Secret Service agent is shot and killed, and where the Chief of Staff Leo asks for a foreign dignitary to be killed. The haunting tones of this song, with "Hallelujah" in the chorus gives the scene a religious and somber overtone. What's funny is that the song is actually about scorned love, women and how evil they can be.
I like this song on so many levels. One is the images from favorite TV shows where it's been played. Two is the heartache and mistrust that comes through the lyrics. Finally, it's the sultry underlying truth that something like love and sex can be both so glorious that it carries you to the heavens, yet can also plunge you down to the depths of hell. Yeah. Hallelujah.
Around Christmas, I'll have to remember to post about my most favorite "West Wing" episode ever...
Last year, I decided that I would blog every day during my birthday month and reflect on the past, think about the future, and have fun going through my iPod shuffle. Since I am over 1000 songs, I shouldn't have any repeats, but if I do, I will shuffle past to the next one... that's not cheating, right...? Let's spin the wheel and see, shall we...?
Scarborough Fair/Canticle by Simon & Garfunkle. Did you know that this is actually two songs in one? Scarborough Fair is a ballad and the first and last stanzas while Canticle is the middle part of the song. I always wondered about the "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme..." lyrics. My research has showed that different spices in medieval times were associated with different virtues. Parsley was comfort, sage was strength, rosemary was love, and thyme was courage. I can't say I love this song. I can't really say this song is particularly associated with any part of my life. It's just a nice "easy listening" kind of song. Oh, and I always found it to be kind of anti-war with the "generals order their soldiers to kill, and to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten." We'll have to see what the rest of the month holds...
