Life With The Stanfords

October

October 1st just passed me right on by -- didn't even wait up for me! We've had some really full days at our house lately (so what else is new?). I miss blogging terribly. I keep hoping I'll get a few spare minutes to catch up, but so far, it hasn't happened.

Ah well, this month's playlist is a tribute to songs from the 60's and 70's that make me think of Fall. Is that weird and specific enough? Don't ask me why, but they do.

Autumn Leaves, Miles Davis - Smooth as buttah' version of the quintessential Fall song.

Windmills of Your Mind, Sting - This is the theme song from The Thomas Crown Affair, which was redone in the 90's and starred Pierce Brosnan and Renee Russo. The original starred Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen.

Moon River, Audrey Hepburn - Audrey was perfection in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Love her clothes! Moon River is from the movie.

One Less Bell To Answer, Kristen Chenowith & Matthew Morrison - I like a lot of Burt Bacharach songs; I had a Burt Bacharach piano book when I was growing up. I always liked the opening line of this song - "One less bell to answer, one less egg to fry..." for no reason in particular. OK, glad I shared that.

Happy Days Are Here Again, Judy Garland & Barbra Streisand - Good news! You don't have to be gay to love Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand. Whoops! Is that a stereotype? (Note: Stereotypes come from somewhere - usually from similar behavior by a particular group of people that is repeated over and over. Just sayin'.) Anyway, this song makes me feel hopeful about the days to come. A change in the seasons tends to do the same thing.

I Say A Little Prayer, Aretha Franklin - Another Burt Bacharach jewel.

Autumn In New York, Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Gracie, this song is for you. Have a wonderful time! We will miss you terribly and see you at Christmas. Be excellent! : >

It's Probably Me, Sting and Eric Clapton - I just like this song. If I remember right, it's from one of the Lethal Weapon movies, none of which I really liked. Maybe it was Mel Gibson's mullet that was the problem...

Don't Rain On My Parade, cast of Glee - I just happened to catch this number one night when I was flipping through the channels. Wow! This girl is, dare I say, on par with Barbra? I felt like I had just won something when she finished. I've always loved this song. Memorize it and belt it out when you need a little courage...

"Don't tell me not to live, just sit and putter
Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter
Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade
Don't tell me not to fly, I simply got to
If someone takes a spill, it's me and not you
Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade?"

Baby music

Presently, it is 1:02 a.m. I am holding a beautiful baby boy in my arms and typing this at the same time. I have about 60 seconds before he wails to be fed. Will post again tomorrow - I think. Enjoy this month's playlist. It's dedicated to...well, you know.

Lullaby - "How long do you want to be loved? Is forever enough? Is forever enough?"

I Won't Grow Up - I heard this song long before I had children. I, personally, never wanted to grow up. Is it possible to have too good a childhood?

Stay Awake - The first movie I ever saw was Mary Poppins with my Mama. It is still my favorite movie of all time. Do you remember this song? The children were lying down in their big, fluffy, beautiful beds and Mary Poppins magically pulled the covers up over them while she sang. Blissful.

Peace Piece - I wish I thought Bill Evans was going to be in Heaven so he could play this for me over and over again.

Dat Dere - Anyone who's ever cared for a small child knows about all the questions they ask. Lately, I've gotten lazy about actually answering the questions. I will try harder. 

African Alphabet - Anything Ladysmith Black Mambazo sings instantly become beautiful. I love African music and this is a lovely rendering of our good ol' alphabet.

Up To The Moon - Sung by Kim Hill; all about mama love.

Who's My Pretty Baby - I have six pretty babies. I bet your baby's pretty, too.

Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing - Thank you Lord for this new blessing. "Tune my heart to sing Thy praise."

Count Your Blessings Instead Of Sheep - What we lack in riches, we make up for in so much more. After all, "the best things in life aren't things".

Three Little Birds - How many times have you said, "Don't worry about a thing, 'cause every litle thing's gonna be alright." This is one of our family's happy songs.

Little Sack Of Sugar - My kids are so sweet, I just want to eat them for dessert. What a "sweet" song.

Ah, Summertime!

I realize I was absent for almost all of May. End of school. Enough said. I hope to be a better blogger this month. I have a backlog of things to post. We'll see how it goes.

This month's playlist is, of course, a tribute to Summer. Here's the thing. When I was thinking of all the songs that reminded me of great summers past, I realized I couldn't put many of them on my blog. There were so many that had bad lyrics!

So here's my sermon for the month:  Talk to your kids about what they listen to! Jade and I have talked to Claire on a few occasions about "the soundtrack of her life". When I think of all the music I listened to as a kid, a teenager and a young adult, I wish my parents would have taken a little more interest. Those songs are embedded in my happy, sentimental memories. They are part of my life, and it's hard for me not to listen to them, even though I know they're not songs I want my kids to listen to. I also don't want them to continue to influence my thinking, because guess what? They do!

O.K. Done. Stepping down off of proverbial soapbox now.

Summertime (The Sundays) -- I loved The Sundays from the first time I heard them in the early 90's. Their best CD is Blind.

Mockingbird -- One of the greatest, happiest songs of all time. Dance with your kids while you're listening to it.

Lemonade -- Another happy, optimistic song.

Hot Fun In The Summertime -- Who doesn't like this song? I love me some Sly and the Family Stone.

Intoxicating -- I like the "musicality" (Is that a word?) of this song. 

Stars -- I've had this on my playlist before. Makes me think of the wonder and awe that I have for God and how very beautiful His creation is in the summer.

Kids Again -- Well, we all need to look for our inner kid. After all, "unless you become like a little child..." 

You and Me -- Jade and I heard this for the first time on the Grammys. We both loved it. Makes me love my husband and the "team of one" that we are.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow -- This is the only version of this song I have ever liked. Really cool.

Dueling Guitars -- This instrumental is from the movie August Rush. Amazing guitar work.

La musique française est jolie.

Translation: French music is lovely. Yes, it's Foreign Language Music Appreciation Month here at Life With The Stanfords. I was over at MckMama's photography website and heard "A la Claire Fontaine". I fell in love. It's a French children's song about lost love.

I also shamelessly copied "It's A Beautiful Life" by Fisher from my favorite photog's site. What a great, happy song. Kimberly has great taste. My niece's picture is the one with the pink umbrella. She also has a lovely picture of my own family on her home page. Like I said...

Then I went over to playlist.com and started digging around for more French music. I found Paris Combo; really cool stuff.

And I found "Via Con Me" by Paolo Conte, which I think is actually Italian. So then I added "Nessun Dorma" sung by Luciano Pavarotti. I've always loved that song. It moves me.

Of course I had to add "Que Sera Sera" by Doris Day, naturally.

Diana Krall does a great job with "Besame Mucho", so I added it.

There's also a song by the infamous Carla Bruni, former First Lady of France (also on MckMama's site).

Oh yes, and "Girl from Ipanema", which is a song that makes my sister and me laugh for some reason. It's kind of a cheesy song from the 70's. I used to play this on the piano when I was young. This version is much better than mine.

Appréciez.

Playlist additions...

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Liz and Tamra, your prize for telling me whose music you like is that the artists you mentioned get added to the Playlist! Yeah!!!! Congratulations.

Tamra, I didn't realize that I had heard Matt Kearney before. He has a great sound. Interesting that he is being played on Christian stations. He definitely does not proclaim himself as a Christian artist. I picked "Won't Back Down" to play because his new stuff is not on Playlist yet. Good listen. Thanks!

Liz, I have Lucinda's CD Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. Did you know she's from Lake Charles, Louisiana? That's right down the road from here about two hours or so. I was going to add "Bus To Baton Rouge", but it was just too depressing. I chose to play "West" in your honor.

Just more interesting music to expand your horizons. Hope you guys had a great weekend!

Mayday, mayday...

Happy May Day, ya'll! Join me in dancing around the Maypole today, because...three weeks until school is out. Wahoo!!! Is everyone on the countdown with me? How many dance recitals, baseball games, and graduation parties does everyone have on their calendars this month? Have you bought your Mothers' Day gifts yet? Just three more weeks 'til a little less responsibility and a little more "You're not the boss of me; You can't tell me what to do."

 

Thought I would share some information on my Playlist this month. I've gotten the nicest compliments on my music. Ha! Take that Cathy Rucker and Sharon Colomb!

That said, I will begin by saying again -- I LOVE MUSIC! All kinds. I sometimes spend hours in the middle of the night listening to new music on iTunes and looking for music on Playlist. It's always exciting to discover a new group or a new sound.

I realize some of the music I play might be an acquired taste and some of it you just won't like no matter how long you listen to it. No matter. It's fun just to hear what's out there, you know?

When I listen to music, I try to keep an open mind. I'm really big on lyrics. They matter to me. That's why Claire doesn't get to listen to our popular music station here in town. There's lots of great "music" out there, but if the lyrics are telling my kid to kill herself, drink herself silly, to have sex 20 different ways, and that she's not worth much, I can't let her listen to that (and that covers about 95% of that music).  

As for the music, I'm big on beats. Jade loves guitars. We both love interesting harmonies. I'm especially fond right now of stripped down, acoustic songs (you probably guessed that by my lists). Perhaps the love comes from listening to Jade sing late at night with just his guitar to accompany him. Lovely.

On the list this month...

Life Is Wonderful, Jason Mraz. I first heard this song a couple of months ago when some missionaries showed a film from their country accompanied by this song. Man, it moved me. As "It takes no time to fall in love, but it takes years to learn how to love," played, they showed the beautiful faces of the needy children they minister to. Wow.

She Is Love, Parachute VA. You may have heard this on a Nivea lotion commercial. This is the perfect example of the kind of stripped down, acoustic music I'm talking about. The lyrics are very sweet.

Superman, Dave Matthews Band. I've always loved the Dave Matthews Band. I loved them from the first time I heard, What Would You Say. They play fun music and they have fun singing it. They are a blast to watch. They really know how to use a violin and a saxophone.

Singin' In The Rain, Jamie Cullum. I found Jamie Cullum on iTunes last year. I suppose he falls in the Harry Connick, Jr., Michael Buble' category. However, he has a great gift for adding a modern edge to "crooner music". He also sings some very good original music. Check him out.

Gravity, Shawn McDonald. Love this guy. I really detest most Christian music because of it's mediocre marshmallowness. Shawn does not participate in the marshmallow movement. His music has grit and style. It's just good. Wonderful, original lyrics.

Better Together, Jack Johnson. I don't know much about Jack Johnson (I need to Google him, I suppose). I do know I like this song. Nice song for couples.

Celos, Gotan Project. Thanks, Nony! Jade's sister told me to give this group a listen, so I did. They're like a modern, French mood kind of band. I know that doesn't make sense. Their music is really cool and groovy, though.

Ordinary Miracle, Sarah McLachlan. You probably heard this recently on a pharmacy chain commercial. It's also on the Charlotte's Web soundtrack. You know, Sarah McLachlan could sing Snoop Dogg lyrics and it would be beautiful. She sings like an angel.

Stars, David Crowder Band. The more I listen to David Crowder, the more I like him. Again, this is not stupid Christian music. It's good. It's excellent. He has an original sound and great lyrics. The words to this song combined with the music are just so poignant.

Paper Wings, Gillian Welch. This song was on the Hope Floats soundtrack several years ago. That whole soundtrack is great, but this is one of the standouts. I just like it.

Hard Sun, Eddie Vedder. We have any Pearl Jam fans out there? Here's one! I absolutely loved their sound in the 90s. Eddie Vedder is solo now. He recently performed the whole Into The Wild soundtrack. Provoking movie. Great music with a provoking message. I don't agree with some of his messages, but his music makes me think and that is good. This song is a little harder than the rest this month. The harmony got me, though. It goes all through me when I listen to it. Eddie Vedder is just so dang cool.

If you are reading this, you did not fall asleep during the above lengthy post. Bless you. I encourage you to spread your musical wings this month and listen to something out of the ordinary for you. Try Gotan Project or jazz or Jimmy Needham or Broadway! Then maybe you won't be one of those grouchy, old people who only wants to listen to "their kind of music".

Have a great weekend, ya'll. Don't forget to go to Sunday School on Sunday. I love me some Sunday School. Yep.