#MusicMonday: Music to get happy to.

How has everybody been? I'm still in the holding pattern with the weight loss. Holding at a loss of eight pounds so far (the ten I lost, plus the three I put back on, minus another that I lost just in time for last weigh-in), and I had better see improvement this week. And that's all I've got to say about that! I've also potentially made my first Etsy sale, and I don't even have my Shoppe up and running yet! Isn't that great? It's NOT set in stone, but someone did inquire about the adorable flamingo barware set I showed off during last Thursday's Thrift Score Thursday post, and I gave them price and they want the items at that price! They can't get it just yet, but that's okay....I have a tentative launch date of May 15 for the Etsy Shoppe, and will be listing it there if the first potential buyer is unable to take it off my hands. Now, if only the rest of my vintage stuff could sell that quickly, I'd be doing great!

Today's "Monday's Music Moves Me" theme is "Music that picks you up when you're feeling down".

#Music#Monday and a little game of catch-up

What all has transpired since I last chatted with my Music Monday friends?

Well, on my end, it's been a good week for thrifting. I managed to come across a part of my own thrifting/home/design/decor holy grail just a little over a week ago, and revealed it in a blog post here (in case you missed it - but be forewarned, I'm so in love with this piece I'll probably be sharing this post for a while yet). I also picked up some really, REALLY cool retro items for the still-not-yet-up-and-running Etsy store. I'm still trying to do inventory on all the items I'm listing because I have literally YEARS' worth of vintage dishes & such that I'll be listing. But what I'm really waiting on is a day with decent natural light so I can get some hopefully decent photos.

And oh! the storms. We haven't been hit like Texas (thank goodness!), but we've had a few bouts of severe weather here and it's rained every day for several weeks. I do love the rain - and the storms - but my lawn is way overgrown, and since I've not had a day off when it HASN'T been raining, my yard is now that yard....the shame of the block. But what can I do?

Back in the saddle again - I think

It seems like every time I think I'm ready to ride again, more stuff comes up and I end up on an unintentional hiatus for a while. That's what happened these past few weeks, and is bound to happen again. But at the moment? I'm just happy to have a few free minutes to type a few paragraphs out, share some music, and a sneak peek of something else that I'm really, REALLY excited about. Like....SO excited! You don't even know. But you will Thursday, if you come back for my #ThriftScoreThursday post.

In the meantime, it's #MusicMonday!

Super Bowled-over but ready to start the work week

That pic over on the left? (Which I actually saw on another blogger's page today and had to go do a search for it so I could have it for myself - and now I can't find that blog so I can do a proper shout-out) Really says it all. This can be evidenced in the hornet's nest I stirred up with the first of this month's Battle of the Bands installments. I knew I'd eventually find some covers basically only I like, haha! (Feel free to go give any of the covers a listen and vote, if you have the time/inclination.)

'Tis the Season (Oh, and it's Monday, and there's music!)

Indeed.  Thanksgiving has come and gone.  For the first time in my life, I actually cooked Thanksgiving Dinner for myself and my two sons.  It was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself!  I am not a cook, but my bird turned out okay and I did not burn the house down.  So yay for that!  Gives me confidence to jump in for round 2 at Christmas!

Unfortunately, I did not get a good shot of the turkey, but feel free to have some dessert....

 

That's Chocolate Pecan Pie on the left, and New York Style Cheesecake on the right.  And they were both YUMMY!  (And yes, I totally used my chest freezer as a buffet.  (What?  You don't?)  Between the approaching holidays, working two jobs, and having cable techs come in earlier in the day, I feel I did good just to get dinner done at all.)  At least it was an opportunity to use some of my vintage dishes including my Pyrex Peach Lustreware pie plate and my Homer Laughlin Priscilla plates (note:  image from link is not mine).  And since I had to work Thanksgiving, this was dinner Wednesday night, and since it was at night, it was dark, and I didn't have any natural light to work with.  But I will just go ahead and put this out there - I am terrible at staging and taking photos, especially with the iPhone.  So any tips and tricks you can send my way, feel free to!

Black Friday has come and gone.  I pulled a 5:30PM-5:30AM shift, and it was pretty brutal.  But now things are slowly winding back down to the regular hectic pace of the holidays from the superhyperohboyholdontoyourseats hectic of this weekend.

As promised, there is music.  All of the music themes this month at all the hops are holiday music, so here's some for ya -

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Wizards In Winter




This is also a sneak peek at a new hop all my #musicmonday and #4ms cohorts may want to participate in called the Mix Tape Shuffle.  I found out about it through my friend Mari at Mari, quite contrary.  It is hosted on the first Thursday of each month by Marisa Mohi.  I can't wait to participate, and hope to see it really take off in 2015!

For more Music Monday, be sure to visit X-Mas Dolly!  And if you know of any other music memes/hops, leave 'em in the comments and I will edit this post to include them!

Come hell or high water

I am getting a #MusicMonday post up in time this week!

Actually, does snow count? Because over the past week, we were under about THREE WHOLE INCHES of snow (but there was ice underneath that), causing me to miss a few days' work and therefore, not stay caught up on anything I needed to get done outside of the house. Which is kind of why this is late-ish (only it's not truly late because it is still Monday).

So Spank contacted me a few weeks ago about Motley Crue's Farewell Tour (for this decade) coming up this summer. Seriously, I thought they'd already done that back in the late nineties, but I guess I was wrong.

This was my absolute favorite band of my teenage years. I always made it a point to go see them whenever they were in town, I had all their albums, and had my walls plastered with their posters. Until recently, I had all my tour shirts from eighties (but that's another story for another post). I'm sure you get the picture. I used to be a pretty huge fan. My "fanship" of the band may have wavered over the years, but it wouldn't be right for me to not see them on their farewell tour. So I will be going. I believe the date is in August.

The song I'm sharing today is one of my all-time favorites by them. It wasn't one of their hits or singles and it's not off my favorite album, but I really loved this song because to me it seemed more bluesy and stripped-down than their others had been. I played this repeatedly throughout the entire summer of 1985:

Motley Crue: "Raise Your Hands to Rock"

Will you be seeing Motley Crue on their farewell tour this summer? Who WILL you be seeing this summer?

MUSIC MONDAY

Be There 2Day
My So-Called Chaos
Run DMT
X-Mas Dolly

Oh Monday

Why do you hate me so? You're not even really "Monday" to me (I don't usually get real weekends and real Mondays in retail), but you certainly remembered me this week. Or maybe it's the exhaustion talking. There's been lots of work, some very stressful car trouble, the launch of a new website with a Killer concert review (no, really, it's a review of a recent Killers show), and probably a ton of other important stuff I am forgetting.

But I digress.

Monday is for music, so music it shall be. Last week we had a party in a Pink Cadillac, so this week I think we'll drive all night in a Slick Black Cadillac - it's a fully equipped rock and roll machine, after all!

Slick Black Cadillac - Quiet Riot

Fun fact: before Randy Rhoads joined Ozzy Osbourne's band (quite a few years prior, actually), he founded Quiet Riot.

Music Monday

X-Mas Dolly
Run DMT
Be There 2Day
My So-Called Chaos

Get your motor runnin'

Because today's Music Monday post theme over at Dolly's this week is *MY* suggestion (clears throat and dusts shoulders): songs about cars. In other words? RIGHT UP MY ALLEY!

This selection is an old favorite from Bruce Springsteen - and this is very important because Bruce Springsteen is really not my kind of music. But there's something about this one that has always hooked me from the get-go, from the groovy bass lines to the horns to the slighty twangy, rockabilly-ish sound and lyrics such as

"They say Eve tempted Adam with an apple
But man I ain't going for that
I know it was her pink Cadillac."

Pink Cadillac

And since I wouldn't be me without a heavier song, here's another:

Jesus Built My Hotrod - Ministry

Be sure to come see all the cars The Music Mamas came up with, as well as with all the other Music Monday participants at the following sites:

Music Monday

X-Mas Dolly
Run DMT
Be There 2Day
My So-Called Chaos

I Know It's Only Rock and Roll

.....but I'm not sure how I feel about it.

And by "Rock and Roll," I mean "Rocknroll." As in Ned Rocknroll, Kate Winslet's new husband (who was born with a different name but LEGALLY changed his last name to Rocknroll). Mr. and Mrs. Rocknroll announced two months ago that they are expecting their first child together, and I have not gotten over it yet. You might say I'm just a wee bit obsessed with celebrity gossip, and this offbeat name has grabbed me from the start. Now a little baby is going to have the last name Rocknroll. That's just bizarre to me. But I will go on record to say that I hope they name the child Ivana or Olive if they have a girl!!!!

Fascinating.

Anyway.....

Enough of that. All kidding aside, the main reason I picked this bit of old news was mainly so I could segue into my Music Monday selection - and this week I'm going with "Rock and Roll Music" by Chuck Berry. Enjoy!

Music Monday:

X-Mas Dolly
Run DMT
Be There 2Day
My So-Called Chaos

I'm really ready for that vacation now...

Mentally, at least. I've been ready. More than ready. However, being on my own for the first time in over a dozen years means that in reality, I need to work more. And I will, as soon as I can get a second and/or third job. Not to mention, I am hardcore cleaning and doing what I can to renovate my home. I need to make it start feeling like mine. Oh, and I'm launching a new website this week. One that indulges my love of purple, and I can't wait for everyone to see it! So stay tuned for that.

But for now? I'm just getting lost in a song inspired by this week's "Monday's Music Moves Me" theme at X-Mas Dolly's, which is "splish-splash" and all about summertime, water, water sports, bodies of water, etc.

Here is Jane's Addiction's "Up the Beach." One of the most beautiful and relaxing songs I've ever heard. It is said that salt water cures all, either through sweat, tears or the ocean. And while life and responsibility are definitely calling on me now, I long to escape to the beach and let the salt water and ocean air recharge my nearly drained batteries!

Music Monday:

X-Mas Dolly
Run DMT
Be There 2Day
My So-Called Chaos

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The Conjuring: Yes, it was scary. Musically surprising, too.

This past Friday, my pal Stacey and I went to see The Conjuring. Like Sinister before it, this film is helping restore my faith in horror movies. Like Insidious before it, this film was directed by James Wan and starred Patrick Wilson. (And others. But Patrick Wilson was reason enough to me to see this movie.). Based on the true story of paranormal research trailblazers Ed and Lorraine Warren's account of the Perron family possession of 1971, the film was off to a painfully slow start. But once the action started? OH BOY, hold onto your seat!

As a lifelong horror fan, it takes an awful lot to scare me, and most movies just don't anymore. In fact, many of the "scares" that elicited the audience screams you see in the trailers for The Conjuring came from a few instances of what movie critics refer to as "cheap scares," such as loud noises or sudden appearances of frightening faces/objects/etc (or harmless ones that leave you sighing in relief temporarily). Having said that, this movie isn't full of them, and they're not just there as an easy way out. They were necessary and well-placed, and I am assuming the events depicted happened to the family in real life. There is a tremendous amount of tension and dread leading up to the action. The whole story is fueled by a soundtrack that made my skin crawl - an insanely creepy score supplemented by some equally creepy (at least in the context of the movie) songs such as The Zombies' "Time of the Season" and Betsy Brye's "Sleep Walk." And a truly spooky song by Dead Man's Bones, "In the Room Where You Sleep."

What some of you may or may not know and find interesting (I know I did) is that Dead Man's Bones is actor Ryan Gosling's band. I was pleasantly surprised, and you might be too. This is not what I think of when I think of Ryan Gosling and music together.

"In the Room Where You Sleep" - Dead Man's Bones

Without getting overly spoiler-ish - go see it if you enjoy horror! The subject matter is something that just goes so much deeper than the axe-wielding-homicidal-maniac-on-the-loose. While I also love a good slasher flick, I much prefer horror that seeps in, wraps icy tendrils of fear around your psyche, preys on your emotions, and just doesn't let go. The Conjuring went a LONG way in doing that for me. It may not have absolutely terrified me - very few movies do - it did cause me to sleep with the light on that night. And if you know me, you know that's saying a lot.

CLAP CLAP!

Music Monday:

X-Mas Dolly
Run DMT
Be There 2Day
My So-Called Chaos

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The music that moves me today

Over the weekend, I got a most important and exciting text from Spank telling me that Thirty Seconds To Mars will be in Atlanta on September 27, with tickets going on sale THIS WEEK!!!! As you can tell, I am pretty ecstatic about this. This concert announcement is just one of the many amazing things to come from July 2013. And the concert itself is eleven days after my birthday, so I am excited to be able to celebrate it with some Atlanta area friends and this band.

Obviously, Thirty Seconds To Mars is moving me this week.

Here's another one from their latest, LOVE LUST FAITH + DREAMS, "City of Angels." It's beautiful.

What music has you moving this week?

Music Monday:

X-Mas Dolly
Run DMT
Be There 2Day
My So-Called Chaos

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It's been a while.....

But I'm here now, with some incredible new music to which you should direct your attention posthaste!

I've blogged at The Music Mamas before about what a great experience I had at one of Thirty Seconds To Mars' Atlanta shows a little over two years ago. That's been my only show to date, but this year changes all that, because they are back with new music (Love Lust Faith + Dreams is set to release tomorrow, May 21 - go pick it up if you haven't already pre-ordered it!) and a new tour! And if my schedule and finances allow, I will be seeing them wherever I can on this tour; that's how blown away I am by their live performance.

Oh, and the music's not bad, either! If you're not already familiar with their music, the best way I can describe their overall sound is prog/alternative. They definitely have a sound all their own, but for reference think Pink Floyd, Tool (via the band's Wikipedia page), with characteristics of just about everything else worked in (I even hear a bit of older U2 in some of it). With each record they've released, they've added other elements to their sound, and with this one it looks like they could be utilizing a bit more of an electronic vibe than in past records. Thus far I've heard two songs and previewed all of them, and am REALLY excited to hear the rest of it in its entirety tomorrow.

Here is the first video, "Up In The Air." Even if the music's not your thing, you should still watch because it's eye candy as well

Music Monday:

X-Mas Dolly
Run DMT
Be There 2Day
My So-Called Chaos

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George Jones has died, and I wonder if anyone has told my MawMaw yet?

Because she is a huge fan, and I don't think she'll take the news so well. And the title for this week's Music Monday post straight-up speaks for itself.

Side note: she really is a huge fan, but I was being melodramatic with the post title. His passing probably won't break her heart or anything.

In all seriousness, I had other music lined up for this post, but woke Friday to my FB wall being filled with stuff along the lines of "R.I.P. George Jones" from every other person. It is always sad news to lose a favorite entertainer, and this one was truly a country music legend. And while he wasn't my favorite entertainer, he was obviously one of the favorite performers of my grandparents' generation. He had an illustrious career which spanned decades, earned him fans of all ages and inspired generations of other well-known country artists.

Before his 30+ years sober, he was pretty dedicated to his drink as well, notoriously getting himself a D.U.I. on a riding lawnmower. Now, rock and roll artists have done some crazy things over the years, but that is one of the most insane things I have ever heard! My hat's off to the man, though, for eventually beating the bottle. That's not an easy thing to do.

George's music still isn't really my thing, but a career as enduring as his deserves a shout-out here. And since I don't have a favorite song of my own, here's "White Lightning," one of his earlier hits:

Music Monday:
X-Mas Dolly
Run DMT
My So-Called Chaos
bethere2day

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