Despite having broken Tristan Prettyman’s heart (see yesterday’s post), I still like Jason Mraz. He was born and raised in Mechanicsville, VA which is right outside of Richmond, so he’s practically a home-town boy.
He’s had a number of hits, or at least songs on the radio. This one is my favorite. Actually heard it first on Pandora, I assume it was on the radio at some time.
I heard earlier in the week that Bristol Palin, daughter of Sarah, called off her wedding that would have been held today. Poor Bristol – she seems a bit unlucky in love. Sarah commented “It’s better to wait a while and have things fall into place than to rush and have things fall apart.” Well friends, mark the day, Sarah and I agree on something!
Plenty of weddings have been called off and I’m sure in the public eye, it is always hard to deal with the situation. A few years ago I went to see Ben Taylor, son of James Taylor and Carly Simon perform. The opening act was Tristan Prettyman. I really enjoyed her music and became a fan. Fast forward, she was engaged to fellow singer Jason Mraz. They announced they would not be getting married until same-sex couples were allowed to marry. Then, the engagement was abruptly called off and she chronicled her feelings in the song “I Was Gonna Marry You.”
So for Bristol, and all the others out there, who’ve called off weddings – amicably or not, this one’s for you.
This weekend is the official start to summer. I think we are allowed to wear white now. Is that still a fashion rule? I think I wore white shoes the other day and if I broke that rule, it would hardly be the worst of my fashion faux pas.
There are some obviously summer songs in my IPod and I will (of course) pick a classic 80’s song by Bryan Adams “Summer of 69.” Here’s hoping everyone enjoys the summer and who knows, it may be the “best days of your life” as well.
As I mentioned the other day, while working at the Washington Ireland Program (WIP), we had extra help during the summer to run the program. Since this increased our office staff significantly, we had to rent summer office space.
That first summer, we had a pretty decent set up in an office building in Washington’s West End. We were down the street from a Walgreen’s that sold everything from sundresses to watermelon. If you needed something, it was likely to have it. We were also right next to Bread and Chocolate, where the employees did not understand the need for water heated in a kettle, versus the microwave, for tea. much to the disgust of Ciaran.
I’m not sure they loved us as tenants but we tried to be good office mates to the other people who were renting office space there. To be fair, it wasn’t just us – we shared the space with our sister organization SAWIP and we had any number of the 30+ people on the program that summer in and out of the offices.
Late one afternoon, a workman came in and basically drywalled us into the office, it almost seemed to be a joke. They installed a wall in the hallway that led to our offices that blocked us out of the rest of the office space. I remember thinking of some movie I’d seen where they killed someone by this way – walling them in a room with no way out. In this scenario though, there was a side door in our office area, but we didn’t use to get in our offices because we didn’t have a key.
I walked out that side door, in the front door and asked the guy in charge how we were supposed to get in our office. He looked totally puzzled – as if he had totally forgotten we were back there. He sort of brushed it off with a statement about using that side door. When I asked about a key for it, he called the maintenance guy, who didn’t have a key. After a lot of back and forth, they finally got a key for it.
I would like to say that was the most bizarre thing that happened that summer but honestly, it wasn’t. In fact, it was just a normal day at the WIP office.
While they didn’t technically brick us in, I thought Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” was a good choice for today from my IPod.
Today is Cher’s 69th birthday. Wow. She’s one of those people that you don’t think of aging. I know she’s had some work done physically, but her spirit is ageless.
There’s hardly a person my age that didn’t watch “The Sonny and Cher Show” each week. It was a mix of singing, skits and guests who would perform in the skits and such. It was there we met Chasity, now Chaz, and if America had a sweetheart, it was probably Chasity for that time she was on TV. I think it was that affection we had for her as a child, that allowed Chaz to have a pretty drama-free transformation (at least from my perspective).
When Cher wasn’t making headlines with her love life after her split from Sonny, she was making the papers with her “wild” clothing. Compared to what people wear now, she was practically wearing bedazzled body bags.
Who doesn’t love Cher in “Moonstruck” or a number of her other films? She’s certainly a role model for anyone who wants to reinvent themselves, step out from behind someone else’s shadow and be a success.
I had the album of Cher’s Greatest Hits” featuring “Half Breed”, “Dark Lady” and “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.” All songs that added her mystique.
I’ve picked “I Got You Babe” from my IPod because not matter who does a cover of it, it will always be a Cher song.
Yesterday I highlighted a song by Nanci Griffith. I was introduced to her at The Chieftans concert I went to with my Dad. The Chieftans, the wonderful Irish band, usually brings a few musicians with them on tour. The night I went with my Dad, Nanci Griffith and Ashley MacIsaac were playing with them. Nanci, is best known more in the folk music world and Ashley is a fiddler from Cape Breton Island in Canada. Cape Breton is known for producing fabulous musicians in traditional fiddle. This musical tradition was brought to North America by Scottish immigrants during the Highland Clearances (according to Wikipedia).
While I don’t have any of Ashley’s music, I do have music from another fiddler from that area, Natalie MacMaster, who happens to be his cousin. Natalie has toured with The Chieftans as well. She’s married to Donnell Leahy, of the group Leahy, and is as well, an accomplished fiddler. Just last month, they put out a CD together, “One”. My sister bought it for me for my birthday and I’m really enjoying it. While I don’t quite have it on my IPod yet, I’ll cheat today and still feature one of the songs.
The song below is a tribute to Natalie’s uncle Buddy MacMaster, who was one of the most renowned artists in the tradition of Cape Breton fiddle music and died last year.
I’m not sure I really have a bucket list (that requires actually making one), but if I did, Cape Breton would be on it. Would love to visit and take in its beauty and music.
5 years ago this week, I went to the Philadelphia airport to pick up 6 people who would be spending the summer helping to run the Washington Ireland Program’s summer portion of its leadership and development program. I’d only heard their voices on the phone and seen old, and what seems like ridiculously serious pictures of them (I’m especially referring to you, Anne Parsons!).
Of course, it was a very hot day. Hot, humid and super uncomfortable. I was going to take my own van but luckily my friend Mary suggested I rent a larger 12 passenger van. They might have lots of luggage, she said. So, I get to the airport, rent the van, leave it in the lot and take the shuttle bus to the terminal to pick them up. I get a call that not only have they already arrived but they have their luggage etc. How many planes come in early?
I find 6 tired looking souls with the largest suitcases I’ve ever seen. I’m not exaggerating on any level – I’ve never seen cases this large before. We trudge out to the shuttle bus to the car rental lot (did I mention it was very hot?) and load up. Thank God Mary suggested the large van – it was packed.
We get going and soon run into traffic that had suddenly stopped. I had to slam on the brakes. Maybe it was a little too much on the brakes as when I looked over at Sarah, who had obviously drawn the short straw and had to sit up front with me, she looked as though she was either giving herself last rites or saying some serious Hail Marys. I’m not sure which. Of course as I was glancing over, I noticed a big message on the dashboard that the van could roll over or something. Then I was in a panic but I did what any self-respecting person would do – I told them I was testing the brakes.
I’m glad to say despite such a jolting start, it was smooth sailing after that. So glad that while years have passed, people live in various countries around the world, that we still keep in touch and it is always a great day when I hear from or about them.
In honor of this anniversary, I found Nanci Griffith’s song “Ford Econoline” on my IPod. Apparently I’m not the only crazy van driver!
Mike is always annoyed with me because I walk at least 5 paces behind him. It’s not like I’m subservient – I just like to poke along, look at stuff and enjoy the walk. What’s the rush when we are out at the park? I like to look down the tree lines for deer or if I hear something in the bushes, stop and listen. Plus, Mike is really good at spotting stuff like animals etc and so he should walk ahead as the look-out.
This weekend we had a great time at Chincoteague Island. Part of the island is a wildlife refuge with wild ponies, birds, Sika deer etc. We saw a 2 day old foal with its mom, a number of different kinds of birds and most exciting, bald eagles and their young. A few years ago when we were there, we saw the nesting area. Apparently when Hurricane Sandy came through, she wiped out their original nesting grounds but when they came back, they just moved over to another clump of trees. We saw the nest and one of the parents last night and then today, as we were biking around the nature loop, we could see the two babies on trees limbs and a parent watching them. We rode around the loop and got off our bikes to walk down a path. We thought the treat was the pony in the distance and then one of the adults eagles came and landed nearby. If was interesting to see a pair of crows try to get the eagles to leave. They were basically bullying it but it wouldn’t go. Finally, the crows gave up.
I’ve put the photo of the pony and her foal along with another photo of the area in this post. Not the greatest of photos but will give you an idea of the beauty.
In honor of all the babies following their parents and people like me, who follow a few steps behind, today’s song is “Where You Lead” by Carole King. After the “The Gilmore Girls” used this song as its theme song, a whole new generation (and more behind it) now know the song as well.
As I’ve previous noted, lots of my favorite music is old. Old enough to be featured on Classic Rock or the Oldies station. At least they are still playing it. One of those old groups is Pablo Cruise. They had a number of hits and one of my favorites is “I Go To Rio.” Some of their other big hits are “Love Will Find A Away” and “Whatcha Gonna Do.”
Enjoy!
Today is my 20th wedding anniversary. Mike and I did not have a traditional wedding, we had a planned elopement and got married at Sanibel Island, Fl. Every wedding has a few glitches and we realized our first one on the way to the airport when it became clear that we each thought the other had brought the wedding bands. Luckily, we were just plan
ning on exchanging plain gold bands so we were able to buy them once (again) we got to Fl.
We had a Justice of the Peace marry us and to cover all possible religious and spiritual bases, she spoke from many different viewpoints of marriage from religious to non-religious, to spiritual to Native American. It was at the Native American section that you can see my eyes roll in the video. In my defense, it was hot. It was just the two of us. Let’s move it along!
After the ceremony, the photographer took a number of photos on the beach. When we got them, a few looked like artwork from the cover of a condom box. We didn’t pick those but we had a good laugh at them.
A friend of mine asked whether we had a song. I couldn’t think of one and suggested to her I pick “I Need a Lover Who Won’t Drive Me Crazy.” Apparently, couple songs are not things you joke about.
We still don’t have a song but I will pick this for today. It is from Yusuf (Cat Stevens).
Happy Anniversary Mike! Here’s to 20 more.
spooningwithsmokey 