I found out that Richard Marx’s Greatest Hits album is only $7.99 on iTunes. 8 bucks for 16 songs? Done.
Seriously, the dude has not aged. He has been married to Cynthia Rhodes who played Penny in Dirty Dancing for 21 years. I am positive that these two things are related.
I saw Gaelic Storm, a modern Celtic band, last Thursday night. And the concert was fantastic. I’ve only recently learned about their music, but it’s best heard live. Every song has a story, and the lead singer shares them with tongue in cheek.
Plus, the drummer is…amazing. He doesn’t just play the drums, he creates them. The dude has two degrees in drumming, one in hands and one in sticks. I’ll say that again. He has a degree in hands. How cool is that?
The concert atmosphere was also great. Most people there were ready to sing along and clap, sometimes even rhythmically. And we only had one run-in with a group who thought that their mere presence on Earth entitled them to whatever spot they wanted. I was ready to write them off entirely, but they were fans of Milwaukee, so they were obviously not completely irredeemable.
The weird thing about that concert as fantastic as it was is that it makes me less likely to seek out live music. I don’t often have that much fun, and I’m not so inclined at this point to spend my money on a potentially boring musical experience. So, thanks Gaelic Storm! You’ve saved me some cash AND introduced the following song into my world. Cheers.
I love the beat, but I have to ask, “Why must the new Timbaland/Justin Timberlake collaboration have such asinine lyrics?”
Baby, you’re lookin’ fire hot
I’ll have you open all night like an IHOP
I’ll take you home baby, let you keep me company
You give me some of you, I give you some of me
(You look good)
Baby must taste heavenly, I’m pretty sure that you got your own recipe
So pick it up, pick it up, yeah I like you
I just can’t get enough I gotta drive through
He compared her to The International House of Pancakes AND a Kentucky Fried Chicken in the span of 30 seconds. Nothing says sexy times like being called extra crispy.
I don’t usually write posts about what women are wearing, because the whole, “let’s tear down ladies for not conforming to the accepted beauty ideals!” industrial complex makes my eye twitch.
I can’t let this one go by unremarked. Lily Allen, she of the promising start and the unrealized potential, looks like this:
She’s adorable. She’s rocking the bangs. And it appears that she’s wearing an orange tutu. Which is just made of win.
Fast forward a few years, and Ms. Allen went out in public like this:
It looks like she’s auditioning for Blade Infinity: Electric Queen Boogaloo. She’s 24. 24! The dress and the helmet hair make her look so much older. And the whole ensemble hides how pretty and cute she is. I’m all for taking fashion chances…well, other people taking them. But this picture makes her look like she lost a bet. With someone really vindictive.
I’ve written about the song before, but Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown” is one of my favorites from ‘08. The dude may not know how to create a non-douchey image, but he sure can write and produce music that I like.
People make fun of American Idol. Call it the death of music and an affront to real artists. But truly talented singers audition and get noticed. Take Jermaine Sellars:
He’s a church singer taking care of his mom who has spina bifida. He is the opposite of cynicism. Such a great voice…
I’m sorry, but The Black Eyed Peas really ought to reconsider their song titles. When I heard that they had a new single out called, “Meet Me Halfway,” I could only assume they made the foolish decision to cover the cheesetastic love song of the same name by Kenny Loggins. Which would have been a mistake as Mr. Loggins created perfection.
I want to be this woman’s best friend.
“That’s why these feminists just need to find a man…”
Trey Songz’s “I Invented Sex”
Sex is not a light bulb or penicillin. What a douche.
I’d love to say I heard Otis Redding whole sitting on my father’s knee and listening to “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”. But I, like many other women my age I’d imagine, first heard Otis when I watched Dirty Dancing. Two of his songs play during important moments in the film (Though there really isn’t an unimportant moment in that film. Just sayin’.)
When Johnny Castle gave Baby the come hither gesture and took her out on the dance floor for the first time, 13-year old girls (and some boys too. Hey, wear your DD love proud, gentlemen.) everywhere swooned. And they swooned to the tune of “Love Man” a raw, sexy song that often gets forgotten for Redding’s more famous work.
However, it was “These Arms of Mine” that cemented my Otis Redding admiration. Baby had finally worked up the nerve to visit Johnny Castle in his cabin (soon to be their looove nest) and what played as she opened the door? Otis of course.
(Stupid youtube embedding disabled clips. If you want to see his song in the movie, here it is.
Otis had a fantastic and malleable voice. He could plead with a woman to come back to him one minute and admonish men to be gentle with the women in their lives the next and each time, his voice sounded a little different.
Otis Redding was only 26 when he died in a plane crash. To think that someone that young produced as much music as he did makes me sad to wonder what would have been. “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” came out one week after he died and is his most famous song. But if I had to choose, “Pain in my Heart” will always be my favorite.
