Liberty

“Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying No to any authority--literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social and even political.” - Ignazio Silone
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Here's something fun to try: In iTunes (or wherever) create a playlist search of "America". These are the first few songs that came up on my search:

"Voice of America" by Asia
"Peaches" by The Presidents of the United States of America
"American Idiot" by Green Day
"Give Me Novocaine" by Green Day from their American Idiot album
"Feelings" by Offspring from their Americana album
"She's Got Issues" by Offspring from their Americana album
"Kids in America" by Kim Wilde
"America" by Yes
"Young Americans" by David Bowie
"America" by Simon and Garfunkel
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These Are The Days

A few years ago I made this album in a class at my then fav scrapbook store, which has since closed. I just finished it this morning, adding pictures from last summer when the family came up to the hideaway for a week. The words in the album are from Natalie Merchant - "These Are the Days".


















these are days you'll remember

never before and never since, I promise
will the whole world be warm as this
and as you feel it, you'll know it's true
that you are blessed and lucky
it's true, that you are touched by something
that will grow and bloom in you

these are days you'll remember

when May is rushing over you with desire
to be part of the miracles you see in every hour
you'll know it's true, that you are blessed and lucky
it's true, that you are touched by something
that will grow and bloom in you

these are the days
that you might fill with laughter
until you break

these days you might feel a shaft of light
make its way across your face
and when you do
you'll know how it was meant to be
see the signs and know their meaning

you'll know how it was meant to be
hear the signs and
know they're speaking to you
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Rock Band

We scored ourselves a late Christmas present. Jimmy and I have become rock stars. We just acquired the game yesterday...played it for 4 hours. I've played solo for 2 hours so far today. I've already toured San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and I'm currently in New York. This game is freaking FUN!! And we finally have a video game that we can play together. The music is awesome - includes songs by Nirvana, Hole, Garbage, Nine Inch Nails, Beastie Boys and tons more. The only drawback is all the equipment takes up a big chunk of our living room. Maybe we'll get our own studio soon.
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Heart

Jimmy and I went to see Heart perform at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga. We haven't been to a concert in the Bay Area in a long time but I'm hoping that will all change.

The Mountain Winery is an awesome venue, on top of a hill in the Santa Cruz Mountains with amazing views of the South Bay. We've never been up there before, which is a shame because it's so close. There's a restaurant at the winery and you can have the option of enjoying a 3-course gourmet meal before the performance. We weren't able to because I just got the tickets 2 weeks ago and dinner reservations are booked as soon as tickets go on sale. But we've certainly made a mental note of it for future reference.

Jimmy has listened to Heart since he was 7 years old. But this was the first time he's seen them in concert. When he lived in San Diego in the late 70's, he remembers they played at the Padre's Stadium, which seats 50,000 people. This was a much more intimate performance with about 2000 people. And we were in the 13th row, dead center. He knew all the words to all of the songs except 3 solo songs: 2 new songs from Ann Wilson, the other by her sister, Nancy. They also covered 2 Led Zeppelin songs and one song from The Who. I was familiar with most of the songs, but couldn't sing along flawlessly. But my favorite song of the evening was "Dreamboat Annie" which was the last song they played for the night during their 2nd encore. It was a perfect way to end the evening. Also loved Barracuda, Crazy On You and Magic Man. An added bonus was the cool weather and the full moon in the sky.

I wasn't sure if I could or couldn't bring my camera. I had a feeling I couldn't but put it in my jacket pocket...ya know...just in case. A blog post is so much more interesting with photos afterall. But they're not amateurs and I am, so I had to leave it at will call.

I'll leave you with the lyrics to Dreamboat Annie

Heading out this morning into the sun
Riding on the diamond waves, little darlin' one

Warm wind caress her
Her lover it seems
Oh, Annie
Dreamboat Annie my little ship of dreams

Going down the city sidewalk alone in the crowd
No one knows the lonely one whose head's in the clouds

Sad faces painted over with those magazine smiles
Heading out to somewhere won't be back for a while
_

And now onto music...

Ahhh...gotta love those Saturday afternoons when nothing is pressing and you can spend all day answering and sharing slam book type questions.

1. Of all the bands/artists in your cd/record collection, which one do you own the most albums by?
Peter Gabriel

2. What was the last song you listened to?
The Girl in 14G, Kristin Chenoweth

3. What's in your record/CD player right now?
At home we listen to iTunes so our entire collection gets shuffled. But I have a 6 cd changer in my car and in there I have:
Kristin Chenoweth: mixed cd made by my SIL
Justin Timberlake: FutureSex/LoveSounds
Jewel: Goodbye Alice in Wonderland
Sarah McLachlan: Afterglow
Linkin Park: Meteora
Elton John: Greatest Hits Volume II

4. Do you know what music the person before you is into?
Lifted from Ragged’s blog. She mentioned a few bands I’ve never heard of before, but if we ever happened to be in a car together, I think we'd get along. :-)

5. What's your favorite local band?
Green Day’s awesome. Primus is pretty cool although I can only handle them for a little while, they’re very excited. Totally love Cake but they’re from Sacramento so they don’t really count do they?
More Bay Area Bands Here.

6. What was the last album you bought?
Purple Onion, Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade
Which, truthfully, was a while a go and for Jimmy.

7. What was the greatest show you've ever been to?
Ok, there are 2 stand out concerts…and 1 "show".
The first one was Rush opened by Primus in 1992. It was a visual feast. I didn’t like Rush before but that concert certainly made me a lot more tolerable to their style. And Primus is just so wacky they were so fun to watch.
The second one was Peter Gabriel’s Growing Up tour in 2002. It was Peter Gabriel. Nuf said.
The 3rd was The Beatles Love performance by Cirque du Soleil. The music obviously wasn’t live, but wow, talk about a show. It was so freaking amazing. I had to add this one since the question was greatest “show” you’ve ever been to.
And as I was writing about these 3, a few more stand out performances kept popping in my mind, but I’ll leave it at these.

8. What's the worst band you've ever seen in concert?
I can’t even remember who was headlining. But I used to work for a radio station in LA and got free concert tickets. Oldies. Snoozefest. Blech.

9. What band do you love musically but hate the members of?
Ya know, whatever floats their boat. I’m not much of a hater.

10. What is the most musically involved you have ever been?
I’m musically challenged. Does Karaoke Revolution on Xbox count?

11. What shows are you looking forward to?
Uh, well…since the word “show” was used again…I’ll say anything that Cirque du Soleil does that’s similar to Love.

12. What is your favorite band shirt?
Phin’s Social Distortion t.

13. What musician would you like to hang out with for a day?
Mike Mesaros and his wife Cindy of the Smithereens

14. What musician would you sleep within a heart beat?
Keanu Reeves plays bass.

15. Are u a stalker?
Yea. Riiight.

16. Sabbath or solo Ozzy?
Ozzy

17. 80's Madonna or Kabbalah Esther?
80's Madonna

18. Punk rock, hip hop or heavy metal?
Punk rock, then heavy metal then a little hip hop.

19. Name 3 timeless records or artists?
Peter Gabriel
Paul Simon
Natalie Merchant

20. Name 3 artists that suck?
Britney Spears
Her x does music, too, right? I’ve never heard his stuff though so should I judge?
?

21. Did you know that filling out this survey makes you a music geek?
(Shrug)

22. What was the greatest decade for music?
It’s all good.

23. How many music-related videos/dvds do you own?
There are at least a couple dozen in the collective collection of mine and the husband’s.
Ohhhh…musical type movies? A handful, including Grease.

24. Do you like Journey?
Yes, along with Styx and Foreigner

25. Don't try to pretend you don't!
(Rolling eyes)

26. What is your favorite movie soundtrack?
Xanadu. Uh huh, I admit it.

Upsidedown Christmas Tree

Now, I don't normally take photos of the inside of strangers home. But how could I resist a tree hanging upside down from the ceiling? Besides, I bet I'm not the only one who's taken a photo of their tree, afterall, they leave all their blinds open for all to see. Best to enlarge the photo since it's so blurry - hard to capture a detailed photo in the dark from the street in a moving vehicle.

Currently listening to festive Christmas tunes, including ones from Ragged, thanks so much! Oh Holy Night is one of my very favorite Christmas carols and I love both Jim Brickman's instrumental and Bing Crosby's traditional versions.

We're home for the evening after an intimate dinner. Food was fantastic. I don't eat pork tenderloin very often, but tonights may have been the best I've ever had. For dessert, we ordered a chocolate souffle. When the waiter brought it out, he said "I'll be back with some chocolate sauce". When he returned, he smiled, said "Chocolate sauce" then he broke the top of the souffle and poured the chocolate sauce in the steaming middle. It looked delicious. After he finished pouring, he said "I'll leave the rest of this here in case you want more. It's an espresso cabernet sauce." Um. Excuse me? Espresso cabernet is not chocolate sauce. Oh well, we enjoyed it nonetheless, despite the overwhelmingly alcohol flavor. And now we've got another one of those pukey cute couple's secret language sayings. Whenever we'll come across something that isn't what they say it is, we'll call it "chocolate sauce".

My only explanation is that

Aliens must have taken over my body.

I just watched the season premier of Ellen and I love the new...
(I can't believe I'm actually writing this publicly)

Justin Timberlake song: SexyBack.

Before you judge me, just go here and give it a listen first.

I'll wait...

Did you listen all the way through?
Do you need lyrics to read along with it?
We're you able to sit still?
Did your ears bleed?

Ok, now that you've listened, you're free to judge me.
I suppose I left myself open for it. Justin Timberlake. Really? Before I heard this song, I would have said that I'd wear Crocs before I'd like a Justin Timberlake song.