Aaaaaaaaaah! Summer is finally here! Time to relax, kick-back, take a
load off. I'm planning on sleeping in every morning for at least a
week.
What do you do to relax? Are you a hot tub/candles/wine kind of
person? Or do you relax by exercising? Do you like to leave town? Spa
it? Or maybe just curl up in bed with a good book and ignore the
children.
Or maybe you never relax. Sad.
Write your spin on "Relax". Post it. Let me know. I'll link it.
Check in on Friday for my spin on Relax, and to find out next week's Spin topic.
Yes, I know I assigned "Bucket List" to you all as your Spin Cycle topic of the week, and now I'm saying I hate them. I don't hate other people's bucket lists, I just hate the idea of making one for myself.
I feel like it would just be setting myself up for failure. There are SOOOOOO many things I want to do in my life, and SOOOOOOO many places I want to go. And realistically, I won't get to most of them. I know it. So putting them down on a list is just too depressing.
But every now and then, there's something that you've always dreamed of doing, and never imagined that it could really happen for you, and then it just falls into your lap. Something you can officially check off your mental bucket list...
Y'all may or may not remember that I sing in my church choir. We're a small but mighty group, who sing at the 11:00 mass at Blessed Sacrament Church in Hollywood. We sing good music. I should make that with a capital g - Good music. Like Handel. And Beethoven. And classic hymns. And...Mozart. Hmmm, Wolfie.
A couple of years ago, we were blessed to get a new choral director, Dr. Joe. Doctor as in PhD. He's wonderfully talented and great fun too. Well, Joe has been invited to conduct Mozart's Requiem. In New York. At...brace yourselves...Carnegie Hall.
And so, in three weeks, on May 22, I'll be flying to New York. We have rehearsals on Thursday and Friday, and then at 8:00 pm, Saturday, May 25 I will actually be performing in Carnegie Hall. I am so excited I could spit.
We will be part of a large chorus, composed of 5 choirs, and Joe will be conducting us along with a professional symphony and professional NYC soloists. A tiny voice in the large group. But I don't care, it's something that every performer anywhere always dreams of.
Now granted, I'm not performing based on my own personal talent or merit, but simply because I'm lucky enough to be in Joe's choir. But I don't care.
I don't know if any of you know Mozart's Requiem. It's one of the most beautiful and thrilling pieces of choral music ever written. I get goosebumps during every rehearsal. It's Big Good music - that's two capital letters. You may remember it as the last piece of music that Mozart wrote at the end of Amadeus, when he's dying and going sort of crazy and Salieri helps him notate the music.
Remember that part?
It is good stuff, y'all. Here's a video of the Dies Irae movement...
Outrageous, right?! I honestly don't know if I can describe the thrill that comes from singing something this beautiful in a choir. Especially a choir of people you love. And the idea of this choir that I love together in a huge choir + symphony + soloists in the most famous venue in the world is just mind-blowing. Here's the Kyrie...
We've been practicing hard, because we really want to sound good for Joe.
But more importantly, what am I going to wear?! Does anybody have a long black skirt I can borrow? Where does one even purchase a long black skirt?
If any of you are in the NYC area, and want to see a performance of Mozart's Requiem at Carnegie Hall, let me know. I have a connection for discounted tickets.
So I guess the answer to the age old question "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" isn't "Practice, practice, practice." but " Know Joe."
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Check out the other "Bucket List" spinners. Have you crossed off anything on their lists?
Growing up in Texas, I tried very hard to hate Country Music. I was part of the Rock and Roll generation. I thought Country was old-fashioned and hickish.
But my sweet Daddy loved Country-Western music. It's what we listened to on the radio in his car. And I have always hidden a deep and abiding love of the Country greats. Hank Williams. Patsy Cline. Loretta Lynn. Glen Campbell. Eddy Arnold. Johnny Cash. Merle Haggard. Tammy Wynette. Willie and Waylon and Dolly. Bobbie Gentry. And "The Possum", George Jones.
Jones lived a hard life, filled with heartbreak and drinking and torment, but nobody could channel heartbreak into music like he did.
RIP George Jones. 9/12/1931 - 4/26/2013.
In honor of George and of my Daddy, please listen...
The topic of this week's Spin Cycle is Apple/Tree.
As in "...doesn't fall far from...".
Which tree did you fall directly beneath? Do you find words coming
out of your mouth and then gasp "Holy Christ, I've become my mother!"?
Do you look down and see your father's ugly, bony feet sticking out the
bottom of your pants?
Or maybe you are the tree. Do you see things in your children that are JUST LIKE YOU?
Is all of this a good thing? Or a curse? Do you revel in the sameness? Or gasp in horror?
Write your spin on "Apple/Tree". Post it. Tell me. I'll link it.
Come back next Friday for my take on "Apple/Tree" and to get the next week's spin topic.
This one is inspired by the fabulous Keely the Un Mom's post HERE.
Go read her post and you'll understand. No really. Go read it now. NOW.
Keely's great, right? Oh, and she just happens to be the brilliant
artist who designed my very own Spin Cycle button AND the little Thespian Avenger and Water Boy picture! Cool, right?
So what things do you keep doing for no apparent reason? What futile,
useless, habitual things do you continue to do long after you no longer
have reason to? What misguided, foolish, nonproductive choices do you
continue to make over and over?
- a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung.
In 1954, American writer Sylvia Wright coined the word "mondegreen" based on her childhood mishearing of the 17th-century Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl O'Moray". Wright said that whenever she heard the song she always thought they were saying...
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where have ye been?
They have slain the Earl O' Moray,
And Lady Mondegreen.
The actual fourth line is "And laid him on the green". But her mishearing of the phrase led to a lifelong concern about the death of poor Lady Mondegreen, who surely had done nothing wrong, and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and got slain along with the tragic Earl O'Moray.
For my part, I have at some point in my life, labored under the misconception that I knew the correct lyrics to the following songs. And I sung them incorrectly with great enthusiasm. In public. Repeatedly. Before I was...corrected. And so here are my own personal mondegreens...
Kodachrome by Paul Simon
Correct lyrics:
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away.
Mama don't take my Kodachrome, Mama don't take my Kodachrome, Mama don't take my Kodachrome away...
Lyrics I thought were correct:
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So Mama don't take my clothes and throw 'em away.
Mama don't take my clothes 'en throw 'em, Mama don't take my clothes 'en throw 'em, Mama don't take my clothes 'en throw 'em away...
I felt so sorry for Paul Simon, because the thought of my mother throwing my clothes away crushed me.
We Three Kings
Correct lyrics:
We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar...
Lyrics I thought were correct:
We three kings of Orientar
Bearing gifts we travel s'far.
For an embarrassingly long time, I thought that there was a country in the Far East called Orientar.
Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Correct lyrics:
Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your life.
There's a bad moon on the rise.
Lyrics I thought were correct:
Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your light.
There's a bathroom on the right.
And though I was worried that somebody wanted to take my light, I was grateful to know where the bathroom was.
Guantanamera (traditional Cuban song)
Correct lyrics:
Guantanamera
Guajira Guantanamera
Guantanamera
Guajira Guantanamera
Lyrics I thought were correct:
One ton tomato
I need a one ton tomato
One ton tomato
I need a one ton tomato
My guess was that they were making a really big batch of salsa.
Bennie and the Jets by Elton John
Correct lyrics:
She's got electric boots,
A mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine...
Lyrics I thought were correct:
She's got electric boobs,
A mo' hair suit,
You know I read it in a magazine...
Though I had never actually seen any electric boobs, I thought I had an idea of what they might be. But I thought that a hair suit must be something much like a hair shirt, worn for self-punishment by monks and heretics. Bennie must have been ascetic hermit.
She's a Lady by Tom Jones
Correct lyrics:
Well she's all you'd ever want.
She's the kind I like to flaunt and take to dinner.
But she always knows her place
She's got style, she's got grace, she's a winner.
The lyrics I thought were correct:
Well she's all you'd ever want.
She's kind I'd like to font and take to dinner.
But she always goes her place
She's got style, she's got grace, she's a wiener.
How does one font? Never understood that. And I thought that referring to someone as a wiener was, perhaps a groovy, Welsh way of saying she was cool.
Harmony by Elton John
Correct lyrics:
Harmony and me,
We're pretty good company...
Lyrics I thought were correct:
Hominy and me,
We're pretty good company...
I loved hominy. And I appreciated that Elton, a Brit, enjoyed a plate of good Southern hominy as much as I did.
Blinded By the Light - Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Correct lyrics:
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce
Another runner in the night.
Lyrics I thought were correct:
Blinded by the light
Wrapped up like a douche
Another roller in the night.
I had absolutely no idea what this meant. My BFF Kaysie and I would listen to that part of the song over and over, picking up the needle and dropping it on the LP in just the right place. We assumed it meant something very deep. But we giggled every time we heard "douche".
What mondegreens do you have in YOUR life?
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Please go NOW and read our other songful spinners...
This one is inspired by the fabulous Keely the Un Mom's post HERE. Go read her post and you'll understand. No really. Go read it now. NOW. Keely's great, right? Oh, and she just happens to be the brilliant artist who designed my very own Spin Cycle button! Cool, right?
So what things do you keep doing for no apparent reason? What futile, useless, habitual things do you continue to do long after you no longer have reason to? What misguided, foolish, nonproductive choices do you continue to make over and over?
Write your spin, post it, I'll link it here.
Check back next Friday for my spin on "Things I Keep Doing" and to find out next week's spin topic.
And let me know if you'd like to be added to my weekly Spin Cycle Topic reminder email!
Share your spin! Highlight the code. Copy to your HTML. Et voila! Linked!
I've got "Why?" spins this week on The Spin Cycle.
Inspired by Vandy J's "Why?" section of her "Sometimes" post last week. If you don't
read Vandy, you SHOULD. I'm very excited because in a couple of weeks I
get to actually meet and hang out with Vandy in real life! Aren't you
jealous?
Join the fun anytime this week. Just check out Vandy's "why?" post HERE. Then make it your own.
