Music, Music, Music

As I've been catching up on all things blog, I learned that I was "tagged" by my blogbud, MoDigli, in one of her posts to answer some music questions. I was able to comment with some general info on her blog, but as I was trying to come up with more complete answers, it was much harder than I thought it would be; it took a couple of days to work it all out. There's just too much music to narrow down! Anyway, here's my attempt to play along.

Total volume of music files on my computer?
As I check my iTunes library, my most recent count is 1817 songs, 6 days, 8.68GB. Those numbers will be increasing soon as I'm somewhat of a LimeWire junkie.

A little background:
I originally started downloading songs for a birthday party video I was editing, then I got the idea to create CD compilations to give as gifts—I even sold a few. Even though my CD collection is substantive, you can never have enough music; I also needed more diversity.

I grew up primarily on black music, especially R&B and gospel. That's still what I listen to most, and is the bulk of my collection, along with jazz, which I acquired a taste for in college. Because hip hop came into being while I was still in high school, its also an influence. I'm not always crazy about it lyrically, but I can definitely appreciate it musically. Bottom line, I just love good music, especially anything with a smooth groove and a generous dose of funk.

The last CD I bought was:
Fantasia's Free Yourself. I loved her so much on American Idol that I knew I'd be buying her album. I especially love the title cut, and her version of Summertime from the musical, Porgy & Bess. You can hear them on her official website, or on Launch.com.

That's the first CD I've bought in a while, but I recently joined the music club again, so I'll be stocking up again soon. I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Song playing right now:
Nothing was playing when I started writing this, so I scrolled through my iTunes to see if anything grabbed me. I came across a gospel song I hadn't heard for a while called Set The Atmosphere by Kurt Carr & The Kurt Carr Singers. It actually moved me to tears. I forgot how music can affect you sometimes when you least expect it. It's from the Awesome Wonder CD. For those into gospel music, I recommend it highly.

Five (5) songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order): (Album titles are in parentheses.)

1) Little Things from India.Arie (Voyage To India).
I love this song so much because it reminds us to appreciate what we have in life and not take anything for granted. No matter how much we aspire to and acquire in life we should never lose sight of what's truly important. After all, big gifts do come in small packages.

2) Video from India.Arie (Acoustic Soul).
This song should be the anthem for every little girl born in the universe. Societies of every culture really do a number on women with all the "values" and "ideals" they impose on us. In the new millennium it's got to be about self-love and acceptance no matter what size and shape we come in. (Can I get an amen!)

3) Far Away from Kindred The Family Soul (Surrender To Love).
As someone born and raised in a big city, I can definitely relate to the need to escape it every so often, especially with someone special. I love the whole neo-soul thing going on now, and this husband & wife team is right at the top of it. There's definitely a Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway vibe going on here.

4) Can We Change The World from Maysa (Maysa).
Maysa Leak is the lead singer for the awesome British jazz/funk band, Incognito. This was my favorite song from her first solo album back in 1995. She's got one of the smoothest voices out there (like a female Luther Vandross); I can listen to her all day. The message that "only we can change the world" is dead on. The fact is, we've got to change ourselves first, working from the inside out.

5) Bag Lady from Erykah Badu (Mama's Gun).
Not only is the beat on this funky as hell, the message is on point too. It's basically telling us women to take better care of ourselves and let go of all the excess stuff (and people) dragging us down. We've just got to keep it moving and trust that "love will make it better."

Wrap Up:
As I don't have many blog friends yet, I'll only tag three people right now—Erin at Poetic Acceptance, Lorianne at Hoarded Ordinaries, and Zenday at Inside Zenday's Head. Anyone else who reads this is more than welcome to play along. Please let me know what you come up with.

To Comment or Not to Comment …

I'm still trying to get a grip on this commenting thing with the blogs. Sometimes I don't know where to post a comment. Do I do it on my blog or on theirs—or both? Or do I email them? I've done all of the above and it can be a little confusing. Sometimes I feel so rude if I don't comment, but when I comment in too many places it feels redundant. And when I comment in my own blog I'm not sure they actually get to see it and I'll still look rude. It's also weird to get an email telling me that I made a comment to my own blog. (Can you feel my pain?)

My blogbud MoDigli's got a pretty good system going. In her blog, she comments in response to everyone else's comments. Is that how it's supposed to be? It seems to work so well for her. She also comments on other people's blogs. It seems like everyone just gets into the flow of it. It's like she's got her own call-in (OK, write-in) talk show going on with a regular set of guests. Or one of those telephone party lines, just cheaper and more intelligent.

Well, Mo, if you read this just keep doing what your doing. It's working great for you, and I'm glad to be a part of it. I just hope I can figure this thing out before I totally offend and confuse everybody. :-)

Maybe Next Year?

For the last two years, I marched with God's Love We Deliver in the Gay Pride parade. Even though it's a long walk, and a long wait before we can hook up with our float, it's always a lot of fun hanging out with my buds at God's Love. With all the people cheering us on from the sidelines, the music, and the wacky cast of costumed (and considerably less clothed) characters, I always have fun being "gay for a day."

A shot of the God's Love float from the 2004 Gay Pride parade.

Me and some of my Thursday night buds at the 2003 parade.

I missed the parade yesterday because I had a wedding to go to. For once I was an invited guest as opposed to being the videographer. (I did end up shooting video for this too, but unofficially.) I actually got to dress up for a change.

Although nice, the wedding wasn't too elaborate. They just had way too many kids running around. (There were 6 between the bride and groom alone!) They almost knocked me down while I was taping some of the dancing. I believe that certain events should be adults only. The best behaved kids can be hard to control sometimes, but if they're untrained to begin with it's sheer terror, especially when given an open dance floor to run around in and other kids to influence and encourage them.

Overall, it was a nice day, but I do hope to be marching again next year.

My New Cyberpet

I was checking out a blog from my newest commenter, Zenday, and saw a link to a site called bunnyherolabs.com, where you can adopt a virtual pet. I decided to adopt a goldfish which I named Midas 3rd. Check him out in the sidebar. If you want to see him swim, you'll have to click on the "play with me" link.

I named him Midas 3rd in tribute to my last two goldfish (real ones) that died tragic, untimely deaths a few years ago. As you may have surmised, they were named Midas and Midas 2nd.

Midas originally shared the tank with a laid back black moor named Sammy that he ultimately harassed to death. I replaced Sammy with a calico goldfish named Jasper which was a much better match for him. After they died, I replaced them with identical fish, Midas 2nd and Jasper 2nd, who eventually went the same route.

Watching them all die was far too traumatic, so I didn't want to do the fish thing again for a while. Maybe one day I'll set up another aquarium, but in the meantime my cyberfish will make a nice transition.

Babies, I'm Back!

I'm finally over the phone trauma that's plagued me for the past month. I've got my phone service back, I'm online again, and I can finally start blogging. I actually could have gone to the library, but I was much too lazy for that (even though it's just across the street from my house). It's hard to change how you do things once you've set up a routine.

I did attempt the audio posts, but they just weren't the same for me. I thought I'd be doing that everyday, but I couldn't quite get into the rhythm of it. It was an interesting experience, but it's hard to hear the sound of my own voice. I just like writing better.

Thanks to anyone who has checked out this blog or New Word, and for anyone who has commented on either site, thank you, and I apologize for not answering back.