I love the lyrics of Beyonce’s new song. I look at Frederick every day and am still amazed that I shared my body with him for 40 weeks exactly. And I will always be grateful for the joy he’s brought to my life. This Thursday, my #1 blessing is Frederick Daniel. ❤
Tag: music
Repost from the blogosphere: If I Could Do It All Over Again
This was so special. I can only imagine how I will feel when Frederick is graduating from high school and I’m reminiscing about the past 18 (or 16 if he’s like me) (or 14 if he’s like this notable Chicago girl) years with my darling boy. Check out these tips. They all make me smile. 😀
My Soundtrack of Life
I came across a song on Spotify yesterday that made me travel back in time and up to today’s reality within the 3 minutes and change that the song lasted. It reminded me of a song by Musiq that I loved from the moment I first heard the opening melody and provided me with a timely follow-up/update to it. Here’s Greatestlove by Musiq–the song that represents the past.
Baby, you and me, we’re so good together
Look at how we harmonize
Girl, we’re like the perfect melody that keeps getting better
We can stand the test of time
All we had were letters till we formed the words
Started from the lyrics till we found the verses that can bridge us through
Baby, we could be the greatest love song…
And here is the song I found yesterday. I’ve listened to Karina Pasian on YouTube and added her to a couple of playlists, but I had never heard this song until I searched her name in Spotify. I looked for the song on YouTube so that I could share it and only found the live version, which is still good but you can’t hear the lyrics as well as you can, of course, in the official recording. You would think I would have had this epiphany after hearing Melanie Fiona’s Wrong Side of a Love Song, but that song didn’t speak to me the way this one did. Although, I could probably have gone with Toni Braxton’s Another Sad Love Song, but it doesn’t use the metaphor of music like these two (Musiq and Karina) do. Anyway, here’s the song that represents the present.
Now all that’s left of us is just another melody
Just another song I sing
Can’t believe you’re just music on my radio
Not in love with you no more
I’m over you
We used to be a symphony
You used to be my everythingNow you’re just just another melody…
If you know me, you know how much of a music fiend I am, so using music as a metaphor for love is just perfect to me–touches my soul in a special place. I love how songs can capture how I feel at a given moment or over a span of time, so I thought I’d share a little glimpse of my experience (which makes me a wee bit uneasy, but I’m going for the gusto, lol). Happy Friday!
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Amazingly, I currently weigh less than I did before my pregnancy. In an attempt to keep my slimmed down body while toning, I have started going to water aerobics, which I really really enjoy. Since I don’t know how to swim (no not because of my hair), I never fell in love with water the way I’ve seen in others, so I was really surprised at just how much I really like going to this fitness class. The time flies by, and even though I didn’t tire myself out in the pool, I can totally feel all that I’ve done once I get out.
Anywho, that’s actually not really the topic of this post. Music is! This past Saturday, during our class, which featured lots of oldies I sang along to while trying to keep up with a teacher many years older than I, this song came on. Although it was Stevie crooning on the mixtape, I was transported back to my childhood and my love of California Raisins. 🙂
I naturally have added it to the list of songs I sing to my baby at bath time, lol. Another flashback that I sing to my honey darling is this.
And then the other night I had my iTunes on random, and this one came on.
Last but not least, ever since he first started opening his eyes (for the first couple of weeks, my baby would only peek and we couldn’t really see what his eyes looked like), I always think of this song and most of the time I start singing it, lol (just a couple of bars since it’s not a “happy” song).
As you can see, this little guy has me wrapped around his little sweet fingers. 🙂 And daydreaming about him at work sometimes makes me daydream about my own childhood and special moments with my parents. So here’s a record my daddy used to play for me all the time!
Happy Love Day
If you know me or have been reading my blog over the years, you know that I love Love Day. Regardless of your boo status, it’s a day to focus on all kinds of love in your life. This year, it’s a little difficult for me, but hey, that’s what my own words are for, right? So, I went back and read a couple of my own posts, and here are a couple that made me go ok ok ok, I shouldn’t be feeling bad on a day I’ve always enjoyed.
And then yesterday, while listening to my fave Whitney songs (I really thought I would wake up today and just post my fave Whitney love songs, but you know I operate on the whim as it relates to this here blog), I heard a song that I hadn’t heard in a while but hadn’t HEARD in even longer. Sometimes lyrics come alive when it’s something you need to hear. This all-time favorite talent show hit seemed to explode on me, and I started crying in the middle of it. Like not a tear here or there, but seriously crying. A song can never be too throwback to send a message.
The greatest love of all is easy to achieve <–[note from Nada Jo: not always]
Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all
And if, by chance, that special place that you’ve been dreaming of leads you to a lonely place
Find your strength in love
So any of you that may be having rough time in your life, listen to Whitney. Find your strength in love. And if love is part of your issue–maybe a romance gone wrong or a fallout with a friend or family member or something that has made you a little distant in your relationship with the Most High–you have to focus on those people who do give you love and remember who you are and what you’ve already made it through. It’s not always easy. Whatsoever. By any means. But you can’t wallow in the negative or it just keeps getting worse and worse. And the worse it gets, the harder it is to pull yourself back into the pleasant parts of life.
Now, I guess I’ll do something for myself today to show myself some love, which I haven’t been doing much lately. Not sure what. Maybe a manicure or something since my polish is chipping, lol. And maybe some lunch that I hopefully will keep down. And of course I have two special Valentines. One I carry around with me, and one who patiently waits for me to get home every day. Here’s my Valentine for my little sweetheart who’s been a brand new anchor at times.
And here’s my Valentine for my super brave and resilient pooch.
Happy Love Day, all! Focus on the positive and love yourself and appreciate those who love you today. Tootles.
Tuesday Tunes just for me
I haven’t really been feeling like writing lately because I’ve been in one of my down periods but with effort I’m in transition mode to being ok. But as has always been the case, music has been my place to turn when I can’t express how I feel. So here’s a taste.
So when I stumble off the path
I know my heart will guide me back…
Ooh hey I’m trying to decide which way to go
I think I made a wrong turn back there somewhere
…Free your mind and find your way
There will be a brighter day
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they’re here to stay
There’s a shadow hanging over me.
Now I need a place to hide away…
Either i’m going to trust you or I may as well walk away
’cause stressing don’t make it better… don’t make it better, no way
There ain’t nothing too hard for my God, no
Any problems that I have, He’s greater than them all
In a Musical Mood
So I was thinking–what are the best covers out there? I mean, there are tons of awful remakes, but some artists are able to get it right. Here are some of my faves. (Yes, the remakes are kinda old too–but y’all know me–good music is timeless to me, lol).
Am I Dreaming?
Atlantic Starr (1980)
Old Skool, featuring Xscape and Keith Sweat (1998)
Midnight Star (1983)
Usher, featuring Monica (1997)
Yesterday
The Beatles (1965)
EnVogue (1992)
Emotion
Samantha Sang (with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees on the background) (1977)
Destiny’s Child (2001)
These are just a few, and both versions of each are great!! What are your fave remakes? Who do you think did it as good or better than the original?
Music for the Soul
Today, I just want to sing. That’s it. So since you can’t hear me distracting my cubicle neighbor at work, here are some songs for you. Enjoy.
Feature Friday: Gut Bucket Blues
My neighbor graciously invited to attend Kenny Leon and True Colors’ Gut Bucket Blues. Feeling slightly important on the front row, I was captured by the story line, cursing, and phenomenal music (although pretty upbeat to be the blues, but really great nonetheless). If you haven’t seen it, you simply must, and you only have this weekend to catch it before it’s gone.
I had heard of Bessie Smith, but I had never really known anything about her story. I just knew she was considered a great blues singer. Well, this lady had a loud, crazy, interesting life, and it made me wonder if some people have soap opera lives just so that someone in a future generation can become inspired and create a production like David Bell did. Being the inquisitive person that I am, when I got home, I googled her to see how much of the play was true to her life, and it seems that all of it was based on what really happened except the way she ended up in Atlanta to start her career.
Bessie Smith started out as a orphan being cared for by her abusive sister Viola who would lock her in the “shit house” (outhouse) as punishment. She and her brother Clarence made money by singing in front of businesses. Bessie eventually got “discovered” by the infamous Ma Rainey and learned stage presence from her. Once she launched her solo career, Bessie sold her songs like hot cakes. She was the highest paid black entertainer in her time. BUT history is still repeating itself. She wasted her money on stuff, a bunch of meaningless-in-the-grand-scheme stuff, on illegal booze, and on her wack, abusive husband. Seriously, by the time she passed away, she left nothing–didn’t even have enough to buy herself her tombstone. And according to Wikipedia, the money was raised twice to buy her one (she had thousands at her funeral–people LOVED this foul mouth, hoochie coochie woman who I started to love during the play), but her crazy, awful husband (that seems much worse than Ike was) pocketed it. She passed in 1937 but didn’t get a tombstone until 1970. The highest paid black entertainer of her day. The Empress of the Blues. No tombstone for all those years. And the cycle continues.
I really do encourage you to go see Gut Bucket Blues. It’s full of drama, a great story, and AWESOME singers. And if you’re anything like me, you will want to know more when you leave! You won’t be disappointed. I’ll leave you with some videos of the legends this play is about.
Listen to those lyrics. Such a sad reality. I guess that’s why they call it the blues though. 
I feel her, but maybe it shoulda been someone else’s business. 😦
Happy Friday!
MLM: Good friends, good music, good conversation
I found this post, written on 1/8/04. I took a little bit of it out cuz I have some present day things to say. 🙂
I thought this post was interesting because:
1-I was just thinking about how I haven’t been to Apache on a Wednesday in soooooooo long (way too long) and I ran into one of my old Apache buddies when I was leaving How Sweet the Sound, which was such a great concert, Saturday night.
2-This post talks a little about how much singing means to me. Saturday night, while at the gospel concert, I was thinking, if I would just take my little busy bee butt to choir rehearsal, it’s possible that I’d be on stage right now. Then on Sunday, I went to the studio and started laying down a track for a songwriter/producer friend of mine who is trying to sell a song and thought my voice was perfect for it even though it’s been years since he heard me sing. Singing is definitely a release, and I felt better when I left. I dunno why I don’t make singing more of a priority. I say this at least 4 times every year. 🙂
3-This little metaphor about boys and jeans that I wrote over 6 years ago made me smile so I want to share.
It’s a morose Monday for me because it was cold as ever this morning (48 degrees), and I’m having some other little issues. But maybe some noon time sunshine and an email or two will make me feel a little happier. Enjoy the post, and I hope you’re in for a mucho productive week!
Last night I had a wonderful time. We went to Apres Diem for dinner first then to Apache, which is one of my fave spots. Thank you to my home girl Mo for taking me there a year ago. Music is so good for the soul, I tell you. At first, I was getting agitated because there were no seats, and I was getting a little weary. Then one of the girls I was with debo’ed a table, and shortly after two more seats opened up, and I really enjoyed myself after that. I felt so glamorous too. Half the time I really don’t see anything in my closet to wear, but when I am trying to dress up, I think I do it right. I think I get that from my mama. [[words omitted]] So I’m sitting there, sipping on my White Zinfandel and enjoying the company three other black sistas, and I realize that I could get used to that. Just going out, chillin, getting wrapped up in the music. One day, I’m going to get over my chronic shyness and go up there and share a talent, share some emotions. But until then, I’ll be content feeling what other people are trying to relay and singing my heart out in the shower, in the car, and at church (while I’m in the congregation and everybody is singing).
[[words omitted]]
During dinner, my friend and I talked about alot of stuff, and one thing that she said that I am really thinking about now is that guys are like pairs of jeans. And this is both our thoughts together. We see some really cute ones, and we try them on, and they maybe fit in the waist, but not the hips. Or they fit up top but aren’t long enough. And sometimes we try on a pair that would look so good if only we could button them up or if only this, if only that, and we try and we try and we try to make them fit, but they just don’t. So we have to realize that and put them back on the rack. And maybe they were the perfect jeans, but you’re just not the right size at the time. Maybe you’ve gained weight and they would have fit before, or maybe you’re going to lose some later on, but right now, they just don’t fit. But we have to keep trying different pairs on, even if we’re disappointed about that one pair. Cuz if we don’t keep trying, we’ll never find those jeans that just fit. I wonder if I’ll ever find my pair of jeans. But I guess I do need to stop holding on to my favorite pair of jeans that split by the back pocket one day (this is for real), and get it made into a cute purse or something so that I can always cherish the memory, and go back to the mall and start trying on jeans again.
By the way, I still have those jeans. They actually made into my throw away pile FINALLY a couple of days ago. How hilarious is that! Now, in case you’re having a morose Monday like me, here are a couple of songs that always make me feel better.
Just the Two of Us 