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Friday, May 30, 2014

Fiddy Cent and Portlandia....HOLLA!

As you know I don't like to post bad language here, but today at the gym the familiar spin tune "In Da Club" by the rapper/hip hop artist 50 Cent came on, and it reminded me yet again why going to spin class keeps me checked in with current music.

How timely, since Mr. Curtis Jackson was all over my Instagram feed today.  I'm not gonna research it, but my guess is he has a new album out.  He was on Good Morning America this morning.  No, I didn't watch it.  Yes, I saw some photos on Instagram.

I really love the beat of "In Da Club" and despite the cursing, here is the video which I have no idea what it looks like.  View at your own risk.

Remember when I mentioned my friend's husband Chad, who referred to this blog as hyper liberal?  If I were uber liberal I wouldn't post the lyrics to this tune, which I'm not.  But maybe it is pretty liberal of me to post this video.

So I will state again:  View at your own risk.  Not exactly wholesome stuff.





This week I finally started catching up on this season's episodes of "Portlandia," and while it is all so ridiculous, and I mean that in the best of ways, one of the funniest sketches is when Fred talks about how he missed hip hop.  And then he gets all academic on Carrie and learns all about hip hop.  That's how I feel:  I missed hip hop, too.  All 25 years of it.  I was busy with figuring out how to transcend my Phish newbie status by studying the Helping Phriendly Book.  I think I have graduated.  More so than Fred, at least I knew that it originated in NYC.  More like da Bronx.





Seriously.  So ridiculous.  So funny I want to pish in my pants.

Which leads me to Eminem's new tune, "So Far."  Gotta love how he samples the classic Joe Walsh tune "Life's Been Good" whose riff is so familiar to me, having been reared on classic rock.

Eminem sings (?) about staying true to his roots.  He likes staying in Detroit, eating Hamburger Helper, and just wants to be a normal dude shopping in his local grocery store (Kroeger).  Gotta respect that.  Though it would be healthier for him if he ate more healthful options and shopped at an organic market.  Point being, he isn't all about the shmancy food delivered on silver platters despite his success.

Again, lots of cursing, but he has a good message:  he's got the fame but he wants to just be true to his humble roots.





Here's the original tune it samples, which is along the lines of what I listened to in high school before I got to the better stuff later in life.





Back to Portlandia, I had the good fortune because of Instagram this week to meet (online) the very lovely Kittee Bee Berns.  She is a Portland resident, blogger, vegan, cookbook author, clothing maker, and overall funky hip person.  Her design style, from what I can see of her online photos, is vintage 50s inspired.  She knits (I think?), wears cool glasses, and takes colorful gorgeous photos of her life.  She's the real deal indie-sassy-funky-DIY type (not to label or anything)  and I told her that we decided numerous years ago that a move to Portland wasn't going to happen for us.  She gave me an infusion of creative energy that I simply rarely get to see and experience while living in the suburbs where the focus is on the soccer mom life.

Just when you thought you heard it all and thought I was hyper liberal, check out this lovely LV Damier zip around wallet I found today.  And gosh darnit if I wanna still wear flowers in my hair, I will.



Good Shabbos, homies.  Time to holla about some delish home baked challah.








Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Spiderman and the Mailman

Look folks, this is America.  The land of Capitalism.  This is the place where dreams are made and anything can happen in this beautiful democracy of ours.  I happen to like that.  Even if I do sometimes like to wear flowers in my hair.

So, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised today when I saw a mail truck that looked like this:

Spiderman and the USPS co-brand, license, blah blah blah.  Everyone makes a buck. photo courtesy of the USPS

I'm all for that.

Big Bucks no whammies.

I'm just glad that my children know the original Spiderman 1960s TV show theme song.  And I have Uncle Goalie to thank for singing it over and over when I was little that it stuck in my head.




Uncle Goalie taped himself on our Panasonic tape recorders with one of our cousins.  I recall the day my dad brought home that amazing black piece of technology.

photo courtesy of Prop Hire

There was something  lasting with those tape recorders.  Oh, kids these days what with all the digital stuff.  The tape recorders had a finite supply of tapes, so inevitably you listed to the same tapes over and over again.  Or you recorded over them.   But not the good stuff.  Not the recording of you and your cousin joking around singing "Spiderman."

Over the weekend, a friend's husband who I don't think has ever viewed my blog called it "hyper liberal."  I was a bit taken aback by that.  I mean, most of you know I don't get into politics.  Sure, I have mentioned Pete Seeger, tofu, and other things someone might associate with a liberal person.   But at the beginning of this blog I'm all about Capitalism.  Aren't the pinko lefties very much *not* into The Man?  Aren't the Hippies *not* into the big bucks?  Truth be told, I'm a mixed bag, Chad (name has been changed).

I'm into the hippy chic and so is the wonderful designer Jonathan Adler






Sunday, May 25, 2014

Travelin' Prayer

Some people are travelling this holiday weekend.  How apropros, then, is this video I finally uploaded from a few years ago.  In it, you will clearly see the early childhood educator and seasoned Music Together parent in me that gives my then-3-year-old child instruments of his own to use to play along with while his father plays the tune.

Such a bummer that where I live now doesn't have a Music Together franchise that is convenient.  Now, that is a quality program.




You'd think that I would have known that tune in the 80s since I was supposedly a big Billy Joel fan.  Leave it to Stango to pick the good, lesser played, more gemstone quality tunes from the repetoire.

I didn't own the Piano Man tape where "Travelin' Prayer" was on.  In fact, I didn't have all that many tapes.  My disposable income was limited and so I only had perhaps a box of tapes.  My music education continues even in 2014.