After my own music collection Rick Rolled me a little bit ago, it then surprised me with this song. Talk about immediate flashbacks of awkward High School dances with the dread slow dances. This was the slow song that never seemed to end. The song for the dance in which you realized you really did like the guy you were dancing with or that he was a right bore and you would rather be anywhere but there more than you had the whole night and started thinking of nice ways to break up with him without hurting his feelings.
Most of my generation doesn’t have an appreciation for Hip-Hop or Rap genres. You can blame Boy #2, or you can blame R. Kelly switching from R&B to Hip-Hop in the late 90’s. Doesn’t matter. Back to the artist for today… Lupe Fiasco. Check his Wikipedia page before you watch the video below. The song has been in my head for days. Lupe nails the struggle for so many young men in bad situations and neighborhoods, not just Houston, in this song. I see it here in Macon just blocks away from my home. My boys go to school with several young men who are praying for their music to save them and get them out of this town. If you want to hear more, look for his song “Dumb it Down.” It’s more of an example of what Lupe is trying to do with his music. This one here is more of a ballad, if you will.
A parental tool of discipline! I wish I had thought of this earlier. In past couple of days I have discovered a way to get the children to do what they’ve been asked to do. They, just like Little Bunny Foo-Foo, get three chances, if they still aren’t behaving they get subjected to early 80’s Power Ballads. Who wouldn’t do anything to make Chicago stop singing Hard To Say I’m Sorry? Bwahahahaha! And YouTube gives me quick and easy access to such atrocities. By the time he gets to, “Hold me now,” they are apologizing, begging for me to make it stop and doing what has been asked of them. I love you, YouTube.
My apologies for the lack of posting. It’s been quite hectic here. Keeping a sharp on Boy #1 while waiting for this coming Saturday to arrive when we deliver him to Ft. Gordon for his first day of classes at National Guard Youth Challenge whilst attempting to school Boy #2 and Baby Boy has been a challenge.
There are so many songs that pull at my Celtic heartstrings that I could share with you today. Songs that make my heart and soul long for home, that small Irish-Catholic farming community of one Church and one pub full of extended family where everyone is related to everyone in one way or another. Where they say our Great-great-grandfathers decided to settle because the land of gently rolling hills, valleys and streams reminded them of their homes they left behind in Ireland. But I couldn’t pick just one.
Since this week is so focused on Boy #1 taking a huge step to change his life for the better and will be ending with his departing from us for 22 weeks, the song that seems most fitting is Danny Boy. When Boy #1 was an infant and toddler and we happened to be at my parent’s house, if it was time him to have a nap or if he was simply fussy, my father loved to snatch him away from me, sit down with him in the rocking-recliner and very quietyly sing Danny Boy to him. It always quickly calmed him and now and then I would catch a tear falling down my fathers face as he watched his first-born grandchild slumber in his arms. They share a bond that at times has infuriated me beyond belief, one that I have tried desperately to comprehend over the last 16 years. Regardless, on this St. Patrick’s Day, my father’s second favorite holiday of the year, and this being the week that Boy #1 starts a new journey into manhood, I’m going to share Danny Boy.
Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.
The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling.
‘Tis you, ’tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow,
‘Tis I’ll be there in sunshine or in shadow.
Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so.
My teenagers have been going round and round about Kanye West’s remake of Daft Punk’s Stronger and the video for it. One says it’s cool the other says it’s over-rated. I finally took the time to watch it. While I much prefer the original by Daft Punk and I have political issues with Kanye, I’ve got to say I was immediately struck by the obvious attempt at not only ripping off a Daft Punk song but scenes from what is arguably one of the best anime movies of all times, Akira. The first video is Kanye’s original. The second is a mix that shows that others have had the same thought and proved it. Some call it genius. Some call it a tribute. I find it mildly fascinating as I have a love-hate relationship with Akira and Kanye.
Blogged about something you really enjoy? I mean something that brought an emmese amount of joy into your life on a daily basis. And then has the comments for that blog post made you absolutely sickened by that thing to the point that you mourn the loss of the joy it used to bring you?
Just wondering because that’s how I’m starting to feel about the song on this post. The popularity of that post and song thanks to that bleepity-bleeping M&M’s commercial is really starting to make me bitter.
While my uncle Jim may have “given” me the song from whence came the domain name of where we now are, my mother gave me two to be be stuck with forever. First was that Beatles tune which will forever haunt me and second was this Carpenters tune. Cheese city, no?
It’s not always a bad thing. Boy #2 just brought down a bunch of discs they had taken off to their room with. What was in the stack of discs but a DVD backup that I had completely forgotten about. Why is that exciting? I now have my lost music collection back! This has got to be a good omen!
Michael Bolton is where it’s at. Yeap. Today he is hot as hell to me. Right up there with Rob Zombie and my husband. Wow! Now there is a fantasy… [Pardon me while I take a moment and collect myself.] But I digress. I am a product of being raised on PBS by baby boomer Republicans who became parents before the age of 30. Frightening, huh? Adult contemporary has its place in my world. [Insert evil grin.] And now it is a part of yours, too.
1995. I was a 23 year old, stay-at-home mom of two. They were two and three years old. What can I say in my defense? They are now old enough that I can embarrass them with this sort of music and tell the girls they bring home how they used to love to sing and dance along with Michael Bolton. I knew there had to be some silver lining in this whole parenting teenagers business.
My baby-boy has been admitted to the hospital again. Details I don’t mind sharing with those who are genuinely concerned. However, email or leave a comment and I’ll fill you in via email. I’m not comfortable with the putting the details here. But I will share Sarah McLachlan’s Fallen with you. It just seems to fit the challenges of parenting a severely mentally disabled child.
Fallen - Sarah McLachlan
Heaven bent to take my hand
And lead me through the fire
Be the long awaited answer
To a long and painful fight
Truth be told I’ve tried my best
But somewhere along the way
I got caught up in all there was to offer
And the cost was so much more than I could bear
Though I’ve tried, I’ve fallen…
I have sunk so low
I have messed up
Better I should know
So don’t come round here
And tell me I told you so…
We all begin with good intent
Love was raw and young
We believed that we could change ourselves
The past could be undone
But we carry on our backs the burden
Time always reveals
The lonely light of morning
The wound that would not heal
It’s the bitter taste of losing everything
That I have held so dear.
I’ve fallen…
I have sunk so low
I have messed up
Better I should know
So don’t come round here
And tell me I told you so…
Heaven bent to take my hand
Nowhere left to turn
I’m lost to those I thought were friends
To everyone I know
Oh they turned their heads embarassed
Pretend that they don’t see
But it’s one missed step
You’ll slip before you know it
And there doesn’t seem a way to be redeemed
Though I’ve tried, I’ve fallen…
I have sunk so low
I have messed up
Better I should know
So don’t come round here
And tell me I told you so…
Don’t take the song & it’s lyrics as meaning I’m severely depressed and such. This song honestly brings me hope as strange as that might be. But if you know me, you know that strange is the norm.
Who wouldn’t do anything to make Chicago stop singing Hard To Say I’m Sorry? Bwahahahaha! And YouTube gives me quick and easy access to such atrocities. By the time he gets to, “Hold me now,” they are apologizing, begging for me to make it stop and doing what has been asked of them. I love you, YouTube. 
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