25 Songs, 25 Days – Day 8

Summer 1998.  First love.  A child’s first love.

Day 8: A song that reminds you of your “first love”
Aerosmith – I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing

25 Songs, 25 Days – Day 7

C’mon, there was one song that was EVERYWHERE this summer.  And I still really enjoy it, actually.

Day 7: A song that reminds you of the past summer
Gotye – Somebody That I Used to Know

And, the best of the Gotye memes from the same time:

25 Songs, 25 Days – Day 6

Wow.  These are getting harder.  A song that reminds you of a best friend.  That assumes you have best friends.  Or a best friend.  I can’t say that I’ve had a best friend in about seven years.  I am a chronic friend-dropper.  I don’t mean to, but usually my depression will make me fade away for a while, they get tired of trying to draw me out and eventually stop trying.  Once I’m back on my feet, my depression or my personality or my introversion or my whatever don’t allow me to really reach out again.  I have friends from college that I miss tremendously that I haven’t tried to reconnect with.  My most recent bestie was enough like me that we kinda understood each other and each other’s behavior, so we were pretty forgiving and able to pick things up where they’d left off.  Then I moved 600 miles away from her and that link was stretched too thin.  We visit every couple of years, but it’s not like it used to be.  How could it be?
Regardless of all that, she loves her some Dimebag.

Day 6: A song that reminds you of a best friend
Pantera – Walk

25 Songs, 25 Days – Day 5

I know, I know, I’m late.  No huge surprise to any of you that know me.  And if you don’t know me, I’ll tell you:  It’s no huge surprise.

Anyway, onto songs that get stuck in our heads.  I mean, I could use any number of songs.  Call Me Maybe is always especially sticky.  Lana Del Rey stays with me whenever I see the couple commercials that are using her songs.  Crushcrushcrush channels my teen angst and latches on pretty often.  About a year and a half ago, Keane’s Spiraling was firmly planted in my brain for months.  If you know children’s songs, I find Mr. Sun to be very tenacious.  Six or eight months ago it was Young the Giant and Foster the People.  I don’t think I can say that one song comes back over and over as time goes on, at least I can’ t think of one right now that does.

But the song that sticks with me lately is one that find myself emotionally connected to.  If you follow me on Plurk, I’ve spammed you with it over the last couple months.  It speaks strongly enough to me that I end up with tears in my eyes every time I hear it.

Day 5: A song that is often stuck in your head
ZZ Ward – Last Love Song

We were never the marrying type, oh no,
We won’t buy dishes or stained glass lights, oh no,
For a table we’ll never sit at,
In the house that we won’t ever get,

I won’t wake up and pick out your tie, oh no,
You won’t come home and kiss me at night, oh no,
We won’t lie in this king bed for two,
Say goodbye to us saying “I dos,”

No more white picket fences,
No more lace veils or vows,
No more “You’re the only one” ’cause that’s all done with now,
This is the last love song I’ll ever write for you,
This is the last love song I’ll ever write for you,

Take these roses and this Jameson, oh no,
Find a subway that I can sit in, oh no,
Buy a one-way out of this city,
Everything that I need, got it with me,

No more white picket fences,
No more lace veils or vows,
No more “You’re the only one” ’cause that’s all done with now,
This is the last love song I’ll ever write for you,
This is the last love song I’ll ever write for you,

All these notes and all these words,
Are all that’s left in me,
Bend these pages, count my woes,
One last song to set me free,

No more white picket fences,
No more lace veils or vows,
No more “You’re the only one” ’cause that’s all done with now,
This is the last love song I’ll ever write for you,
This is the last love song I’ll ever write for you,
This is the last love song I’ll ever write for you,
This is the last love song I’ll ever write for you, oh.

25 Songs, 25 Days – Day 4

This one has been a little harder for me than the last few days.  I’ve managed to procrastinate long enough that the day is mostly over.  Part of the difficulty is that I don’t have a music catalog that I can scroll through and look for a song that sticks out for each particular prompt.  I don’t use iTunes, I don’t have an iPod.  So I have to think of songs off the top of my head.

But here’s the thing about me:  I don’t really get wound up.  I don’t really get that sort of angry or stressed or heightened that I need to be calmed down from.  That’s one of the things about me that make it really difficult to be me.  I don’t get that stressed or angry, but I also don’t get that excited or happy.  Anyway, I went ahead and chose a song that I listen to pretty often that I do find calming.

Day 4 – A song that calms you down
The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio

 

25 Songs, 25 Days – Day 3

Day 3: A song that reminds you of your parents

For my amazing, yet tone-deaf mother, who used to sing this to me as a newborn in the NICU.
Roberta Flack – The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

And for my loving, misunderstood father, who never knew this song was always about him.
Mike and the Mechanics – In the Living Years

25 Songs, 25 Days

So.  Looks like there’s a blog/Tumblr/Plurk/interwebz challenge going around:  25 Songs, 25 Days.  It’s a simple challenge about music.  Sometimes it’s as basic as what you’re listening to at the moment, some are more meaningful and ask for a song and association to a person or event.

I’m not sure why it’s come up several times recently, but I’ve found myself saying things like, “I’m really glad I’m not an audiophile” or “I’m glad I’m not a music snob” or “I don’t really listen to music that much.”  The first two are definitely true, the third turns out to be less true than I thought.
I am not an audiophile.  I don’t need to adjust my car’s audio system for different types of music, I don’t need my music downloads to be of a certain quality.  I’m happy if I can understand the lyrics and the speakers aren’t blown out.
I am not a music snob.  If I like it, I like it.  I don’t need it to be new or old or unknown or popular or of a certain genre.  I don’t need it to be anything.  I need it to make my ears happy, and even better, I need it to touch me.  So when you listen to music with me, you’re going to hear Carly Rae Jepsen and Andrew Lloyd Weber and Volbeat and The Civil Wars and Lady Gaga and The Infamous Stringdusters and god knows what else.  AND YOU’RE GOING TO LIKE IT.  No, not that last part, not really.  I don’t care if you don’t like it.  I like it.
I don’t listen to music that much.  That one… is less true.  Honestly, I have nothing playing in my house right now, the only things I hear are my typing and the dog snuffling around in her bed.  I often drive all the way to work in the morning without turning the radio on.  But while I don’t listen to it as often as some people do, it’s still important to me.  It’s still an important element of my life.

All of that came together in my head when I thought about doing this challenge.  Originally, I said, “Nahhhh, I’m not into music enough to do that,” but I really do have a soundtrack that plays when my life flashes before my eyes.  I have songs that are linked with time frames, with places, with people, with events.  I have songs that I rely on to bring me up, to cradle me when I’m down, to give me release when I need it.  Music is a part of my life, even when it doesn’t get acknowledged that much.

But, today, and for the next 24 days, we’re going to acknowledge it.
Day 1: A song from your childhood.

For this song I’m choosing Mike and the Mechanics’ In the Living Years.  I can remember being out in my father’s garage with my sister, pretending that we were little baby greasemonkeys right along with him.  I can remember our lofty attempts at helping him by fetching wrenches and rags often evolved into drawing summer landscapes with chalk on the concrete floor.  I can remember the incessant teasing and the fighting that my sister and I used to do.   I can remember my millwright father, looking like a dark-haired version of Harley Davidson Santa, a man who should be listening to Charlie Daniels or Steppenwolf, listening to smooth jazz instead.  I can remember that in between Boney James and Andreas Vollenweider, a few “popular” songs would play on his favorite radio station.  One of the songs was In the Living Years.  I can remember that, on occasion, he would tell my sister and me to listen to that song and realize that we would be devastated if anything ever happened to the other.  This little life lesson, this emotional tidbit from a very stoic man has stuck with me for my whole life.  So maybe not a very childlike one, but this is a song that makes me think of my childhood.

 

(It also will reappear on day three, so I apologize for the repeat in advance.)

LOTD: FLF

Super quick post, folks.  I loved the Fifty Linden Friday Wasabi Pills hair so much I had to take a pic.

Credits:

Dress | coldLogic – Blair (Contrast)
Shoes | [e] Elikatira – Move Pumps (Onyx)
Hair | Wasabi Pills – Claire (Licorice, for FLF)
Skin | Illusory – Love (Caramel, Organic)
Eyes | A:S:S – Herbalist Eyes (Ocimum)
Makeup | Elymode – Solstice (Frost Purple w/ Liner)
Lashes | Cheap Makeup – Vintage Lash 1 and Babs
Ring | Whippet & Buck – Enough of That Ring (Cream)

Pose | Exposeur – Top Model Alasia

Maai, Maai and More Maai

Just a quick post, but there were too many pretties to pass up.  Maai has been doing some amazing mesh stuff lately.  Go check it out.

Credits:

Outfit 1:
Dress | Maai – Luna Laced Dress (Red)
Shoes | Maai – Supergirl Pumps (Red)
Hair | Elikatira [e] – Theory (Black 04)
Skin | Glam Affair – Roza (Natural Summer 01)
Earrings | Je Suis – Eternelle Earrings (Culture Shock)
Eyes | A:S:S – Herbalist Eyes (Ocimum)
Lipstick | Illusory – Love Lips (Burnt Red)
Makeup | Cheap Makeup – Babs Lashes 8
Makeup | Cheap Makeup – Vintage Lash 1

Pose | Exposeur – High Fashion 5

Outfit 2:
Dress | Maai – Danika Corset Dress (Black)
Hair | Elikatira [e] – Figure (Black 04)
Shoes | Fri.day – Basic.Pumps (Black)
Skin | Illusory – Love (Milk, Frenchie)
Ring | HANDverk – Serpent Ring (Green, from Arcade Gacha)
Eyes | A:S:S – Herbalist Eyes (Ocimum)
Lipstick | Illusory – Love Lips (Burnt Red)
Makeup | Cheap Makeup – Babs Lashes 8
Makeup | Cheap Makeup – Vintage Lashes 1

Pose | Exposeur – Camille

Black and White

Ohey.  It’s me.  I’m blogging.  Or something.  Anyway, I noticed that I was wearing black (surprise, surprise!) and remembered that Maci Restless had put out a Black and White Blogger Challenge, so I decided to take a quick snap.  This pic is pretty much raw from SL, short of a crop and coloring in a corner or two where my background didn’t fill the whole frame.  It’s such a quickie and it’s breaking a bunch of photography “rules,” but I thought the outfit and the scene were pretty, so I’m blogging it anyway.  BTW, I’m wearing an Elikatira hair that I picked up at her amazing annual sale.  You should get down there while it’s still going (until the 1st)!

 

I had several thoughts about the less literal concepts of black and white and grey (as well as a 50 Shades joke or two), but I’m not going to get into all of that right now.  Maybe next time.

Credits:

Dress | Bilo – Annaya (Black, partial mesh)
Hair | [e] Elikatira – Control (Black 04)
Shoes | SLink – Tiger Heels (Black)
Skin | Glam Affair – Roza (BaroQ 02, C88 August)
Eyes | A:S:S – Herbalist Eyes (Ocimum)

Pose | Exposeur – A Lil Shy