Music Monday Part IV

Unrelated picture tra-la-la-la-la. Also, 15 was so fun. I miss 15 sometimes. 

Everything by Michael Buble

I would be lying if I said my favourite Michael Buble song wasn't a Christmas song. But this is a favourite of the non-Christmas variety! Also, can I just point out that I also think Emily Blunt is everything and I'm incredibly jealous she got this song AND ended up with John Krasinski....some people have all the luck!

Love on Me by Galantis

I have a handful of songs that give me the same visceral reaction every time I hear it. This is one. For some reason every time I hear it I revert to the same exact dance move. Also, personal apologies to my downstairs neighbors.

That's Life by Frank Sinatra 

This song makes me act different. Catch me out here smoking an imaginary cigar, not giving a fuck. 

Everybody Plays the Fool by The Main Ingredient 

I first heard this song in an Uber a few years ago now when I was out here feeling like a damn fool. Every now and then I go back to it to when I need someone to tell it to me straight.

                             Lost Without U by Robin Thicke 

Let's pretend Blurred Lines doesn't exist and let me live in this Robin Thicke bubble. booty poppin' to the cymbal hits and living my best life in front of my bedroom mirror. Thanks!

Little Red Corvette by Prince

Ok I have a bone to pick. This woman keeps used condoms in her pocket.....That's never a good sign girl, get it together!

Champion by Kanye West

We are the champions, my frieeeeends......wrong song? Oh well. 

I'm Still Standing by Taron Egerton

Firstly, I prefer the version on the Sing soundtrack over the version from the Rocketman soundtrack. That's important. Now, if anybody needs me I'll be cleaning my apartment and jazz kicking all over my living room feeling like a true survivor. 

....And We Thought that Nation-States were a bad idea by Mad Caddies

Ska teeters on a fine line between love and hate for me. Some songs make me want to stab myself in the temple, others I fuck with. This song, I fuck with.

You Make Me Feel like Dancing by Leo Sayer

Do you ever love a song and think, hmmm I feel like I should be embarrassed for liking this? This is one of those songs for me but I'm too busy "Saturday Night Fever'ing" to care. 

Frankie Knows Best.

Shame Cone.

I was 15 when I first discovered Frank Turner.

I was scrolling through a BBC radio list and the song Photosynthesis was on it, we had the same last name so I checked it out.

A few minutes later I went to Facebook and updated my status to,

And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up

A few hours later my older brother saw this and accused me of copying him, he had also just discovered Frank Turner (although I stand by the fact that Sam didn't introduce me on this occasion, he did later introduce me to Larry and his Flask who are one of my favourite bands, so don't say I don't give credit where is is due!)

At the end of that summer, Sam headed back to college leaving behind a few CD's and oversized sweaters that I went ahead and stole. 

A few years later I got my license and a bright green car that still housed a light-up CD player identical to the one I vividly remember my childhood neighbor popping out and hiding under his car seat in fear of it being stolen. In a heavy rotation with my fire mixed tapes was the Love, Ire & Song album I stole from Sam's stash.

I know every word of that album frontwards, backwards....maybe even in German, who knows, it's a possibility.

Although I have claimed on numerous occasions that Long Live the Queen is my favourite Frank Turner song (I'm not actually sure why, it's just always the one that pops into my head first) there is a different song that I always turn to when I need to be kicked in the ass....

Do you ever listen to a song and think....oh....this was written about me, I don't even know you Frank Turner, why did you make me your muse? I'm flattered. This is that song for me.

Now time for a slight detour but we will meet back up with the original path a few miles down I promise.

After sending out my last blog post just a few hours ago,  I immediately read an article about Selma Blair and an update on her battle with MS. A side-note here, that scene in Legally Blond where Elle Woods proves she is the ultimate queen and goes about showing Warner and Vivian who they are fucking with is the kind of energy I aspire to bring to my every day life. I definitely WWEWD on the regular, and yet here I was lamenting about my own poor choices and confusion while the Vivian Kensington is going through some hardcore shit. After crying over the idea of Selma turning to social media to let the world know she can't cry and wants her Mum (I feel that in my bones, always) and of course forwarding the article to my friend to let her know about said tears, I hit shuffle on my Spotify and ran myself a relaxing 6am bubble bath. 

And wouldn't you know who popped up? My man Frank with the song he definitely wrote for me. A tag team early morning reality check, here to remind me I'm so wrapped up in my invisible armor, I've only got myself to blame and I need to stop being an idiot.

Thanks Frank, maybe I'll actually take the advice to heart this time....

***I just reread this and boy is it clear I got like an hours sleep last night, yikes. Driving and blogging, two things you should not do while drowsy.

4 years later.

It's currently 4:27am.

My sleep meditation video isn't working and I'm wide awake, so you know we are about to get deep.

In March of 2015 I wrote a blog post called Give it a year.

Home.

I think about this post a lot.

It's been over 4 years and yet somehow I find myself in that exact same position. If I scrunch up my eyes and breathe for a second, it actually feels like I am that 22 year old girl in her New York City apartment wanting away her days.

Now I'm 26, in my Los Angeles apartment, still rummaging around for my place in life.

One of my biggest fears is that I will live my whole life as "the grass is always greener" girl.

The worst part of this whole tale is the older I get, the more I watch people find their place in life and settle in deep.

Suddenly it becomes harder to connect to new people because they are stationary and you are flashing by, leaving behind nothing more than a faint whooshing sound.

I'm somebody who has only really experienced loss once in my life, yet I spend most of my time bracing for the impact from the next blow.

This makes it hard to let people in.

If I get attached it means that I will one day have to experience another loss.

If I don't have you, I can't lose you.

If I whoosh by, you will never notice I was even there.

I'm hoping one day I break out of it.

I know the ball is in my court, but I don't quite know the rules of the game yet.

Sometimes I'm proud of my ability to move to a brand new place all on my own and run a lap on a new track. I'm able to keep the pace, before circling back to where I started and firing off in another direction. Other times, I'm jealous of those people who have everything they need in the bubble in which they started and have no need or desire to venture off in search of anything more.

When I wrote that post four years ago I was publicly telling myself to get it together. It's still a work in progress and even though I cry and worry, I want to believe deep down I'll end up exactly where I need to be.

I really hope that in four years time when I'm newly 30 looking back on this post (and the one before it), that I have a better result.

I really hope the next step is the right one.

Music Monday Part III

Oh shit, two weeks in a row? Come through Music Monday!

Proud girl being proud of herself.

Peaceful Easy Feeling by Eagles

I find myself loving songs for different reasons. They hype me up or calm me down, make me dance or make me cry my eyes out. This song calms me down, while at the same time leaves me swaying like a Dad cradling an icy beer at an outdoor concert. 

A Sunday Kind of Love by Etta James

Catch me soaking in my bubble bath, this will be playing on repeat while I live my best soapy, zen'd out life. 

Love Foolosophy by Jamiroquai 

Ok, hear me out. Back in the day a friend and I both became randomly obsessed with A funk odyssey by Jamiroquai as our pump up album before we went out. I think it started as a joke, but soon turned into our favourite thing. This entire album now just makes me so damn happy, judge me, don't care.

Read My Mind by The Killers

I never really got into The Killers.They were always a band that was just kind of there but I felt pretty indifferent about. This song randomly popped up on my Spotify a few months back while on a weird 5am beach walk. I had this instant feeling that it would forever be tied to that very moment. It was as if I felt myself storing that moment in my long term memory and I can picture myself in 10 years randomly hearing it and remember how I was feeling at that exact time. Too deep? Gotta go. 

You're Gonna Live Forever in Me by John Mayer

Yes, I'm back on my John Mayer shit. Random fact, I really like Disney music. I don't really get in to the movies themselves, but I feel attachment to the songs. This song always reminds me of a Disney song, I think it's the whistling, either way, it gives me that same nostalgic feeling.

Merry Go 'Round by Kasey Musgraves 

Recently I've been super in my emotions about realizing what life is. Growing up you feel like you are always building for something, it's like you keep passing through different stages and then that flattens out and you are wondering what the next stage is. Eventually you realize oh, this is life. You can have hopes and goals to work towards, but the typical wake up, go to work, breath for a second and go to bed to do it all over again is how you are going to spend most of it. It's not as glossy as you once thought, and you realize that the destination is actually a hole in the ground, and the journey is all you have. 

She's Got a Way by Billy Joel

Damn, I didn't realize I was so in my feelings with this weeks Music Monday. I really like Billy Joel, although my favourite song is probably Vienna, this has been more heavily played this week. I don't have some great story, I just like Billy Joel (and I don't care what you think Sam!)

Somewhere in my Memory by John Williams 

This is my number one favourite Christmas song. I know what you are thinking. Uhm, it's July? You would be correct, but I listen to Christmas music all year long because I genuinely just love it so much. 

Living Years by Mike & The Mechanics

 

Some backstory, My father and I don't always have the smoothest relationship. We love each other and get on well in the day to day, but there is some deep shit underneath it all that we handle most of the time but every now and then pops up and gets in the way. After one particular blow out we didn't speak for a few years. During this time my then boyfriend and I were driving to work one morning, chatting away while this song playing on the radio in the background. I didn't even realize I was listening to the lyrics until I was bawling my eyes out. It was incredibly dramatic, and my boyfriend sat there in shock as to what the heck had triggered such a response. This song still makes me cry every time I hear it, but I'm also weirdly attached to it all the same for some reason. 

Boogie 2Nite by Tweet

Ok everything got a little emotional this week obviously! Let me round it out with my shower jam, catch me almost breaking my neck while dancing my heart out every morning.

Brain Pain.

I've had a migraine for over a week and the only thing that makes me feel any better is pressing ice cubes against my under eyes and holding them there until they melt down my face.

Life is great.

Music Monday Part II

Almost four years ago now I made a post titled Music Monday which was essentially a list of song I had been listening to the most that past week. I'm starting that back up, and by "starting that back up" I mean I may make it a thing, or I may forget about it all together by next week. Who knows! That's show biz.

Dancing Queen

Better Be Home Soon by Crowded House

I recently went through a breakup due to wanting different things at different times, and it was a big old confusing mess. It became clear after a few weeks that we wouldn't be living in the same timezone anymore and that left me sitting on an airplane listening to this song on repeat and trying to hold it together at, 'cause when you get back home maybe I'll be gone. What a moody little story, yikes. 

Beyond by Leon Bridges

Picture me riding my banana-yellow beach cruiser along the Pacific Ocean groovin' slowly, imagining love is real and definitely isn't fake and made up. 

May the Bird of Paradise Fly up Your Nose by Little Jimmy Dickens

Let me set the scene for you. My Dad and I were walking across the parking lot and in an ongoing effort to stump people with random trivia I asked him a question regarding the Bird of Paradise in the garden. Being the fountain of random crap he is he started singing this song about elephants caressing you with his toes and it's been in my head ever since. 

Bonfire by Childish Gambino

When I was in high school I used to drive around blasting music and rapping in my true white girl form in my green Ford Taurus. Camp by Childish Gambino wasn't released at the time but there is something about this song off the album in particular that takes me right back to that time. 

When you Were Made by The Growlers

I'm a child of divorce far more so than I ever was a child of marriage because of this I feel like it never really bothered me that much. Nonetheless, when I want to get deep into my feelings regarding the issue this is where I go and it 100% always makes me feel worse. Whoops. 

Roam by The B52's

My Mum always complains about her children's annoying habit of picking one lyric from a song and repeating it until she physically can't handle it anymore. For the last few weeks, this has been that song for me. Can not remove from brain, it will live for eternity on a loop in my skull.

Roll Over Beethoven by Chuck Berry 

Chuck Berry makes me get shit done. I think it's the guitar solo's, or the fact that I associate him with the McCallister family running through the airport in a rush to catch their flight to Paris. 

That Thing You Do! by The Wonders

People I love in no particular order: Tom Hanks. End of list. I grew up watching Forrest Gump on repeat, and it still sits atop my list of favourite movies. If someone told me I had to die for him to live, I would take that bullet. God, what a legend. Stan for your man ladies!

Gravity By John Mayer

Speaking of stanning for your man, I love John Mayer. I have a very eclectic taste in music and tend to favor individual songs by certain artists instead of their entire catalogue. John Mayer is one the few people where I can go to their Spotify, hit play and not skip a load of songs. Murder me with your guitar John Mayer, I've got the time. 

The Joke by Brandi Carlile

Every now and then I find a song that just fucks. me. up! That is one of those songs. Whenever I'm feeling emotional and I need to just lay on my bed listening to something while I stare at my ceiling contemplating life, this is it (I definitely don't do that though.....that much at least)

One Foot Before the Other by Frank Turner

I once got caught by a janitor furiously "air guitar-ing" to this song. That was fun. 

Through the Wire by Kanye West

I love Kanye West and his cute ass kids and I don't even fucking care. These last few years he's been doing some questionable shit, but after watching his interview on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman I'm back onboard. Also, fuck it up Kanye, rap with your jaw wired shut, live your best life. Fun Fact, I once watched a guy drop acid with his jaw wired shut and it was equal parts terrifying and a mess. 

Sex and Candy by Marcy Playground

This was my Myspace song for a long ass time. Throwback of a throwback of a throwback.