Category: Em on Em

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My Favorite Song This Time Last Year

Day Thirty – My Favorite Song This Time Last Year:

Wow. I can’t believe it’s been 30 days of posting songs and videos on my blog. Okay … so I’ve interspersed a few posts in between the 30-Day Song Challenge, but they were for good reasons. At least I think they were.

Regardless, this now means I get to post another NaBloPoMo badge on my “Badges of Honor” page. Woo-frickin’-hoo!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed following along with my music posts. As you can probably gather by now, music has always played a big part in my life. Somehow, I can’t see my life being complete without having a song in my head and in my heart.

But today, really is about the last song I need to name. I have a hard time remembering what I ate last night, let alone trying to remember what song I liked this time last year. I mean, give me a break … I’m getting senile in my older years. Especially since I have a birthday coming up this week.

So instead, I’m posting my favorite song once again. Except this time, I actually had time to put a video together for myself. So enjoy the slideshow below … as the description I added on YouTube says, this video is:

A photographic tale of my personal relationship with Hubby & with kids … and the fact that we can’t have any of our own. Resolving that part has been hard on us, but now we know … “Apron Strings can be used for other things than what they’re meant for.” But I would like to think that other persons (whether they’re kids or not … ) can still be happily “wrapped in my Apron Strings.”

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What is with this 30-day song challenge?

What was yesterday‘s song?

 

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A Song I Can Play

Day Twenty-Six – A Song I Can Play:

Like most first-generation Filipino-Americans that spent the majority of their formative years in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I took years and years of piano lessons. Yet even after all those years of lessons, I still can’t read notes quick enough; nor can I count out the correct melody so readily. Unless, of course I already knew  how a particular song was supposed to sound.

Yeah, I seam to have an “ear” for music, but not necessarily the talent to actually play music … at least not in the caliber I would need to in order to be that famous musician I had always dreamed of becoming in high school.

During one of the years I was playing a lot on the piano, I was able to figure out how to play the music to Yaz’s “Only You.”

Now ask me if I know how to play the entire song now? Uhm … the answer would be “Nope.”

Which is really too bad, because I would love to start playing the piano again.

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What is with this 30-day song challenge?

What was yesterday‘s song?

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A Song That I Listen To When I’m Sad

Day Twenty-Two – A Song That I Listen To When I’m Sad:

There’s something about music that can stir up the best and worst of emotions. Just like any INXS song can bring a smile to my face, so can another song drive me to tears.

I recently heard an episode of “Fresh Air” on NPR where Stephen Colbert talked about how he took voice lessons to help train for his one-time / one-performance role in Sondheim’s production of “The Company.”  Colbert, who graduated from Northwestern University with a Theater degree, said it was like having to retrain himself after all these years; exercising vocal cords and muscles that he hadn’t used in years. And while his vocal coach had taught him all the technical aspects of singing, he still hadn’t known how to sing with any “emotion.”

That is, until the day Colbert’s vocal coach told him to forget all he learned, to not worry so much about “breaking the rules” … he was told to sing “silly.”

And that’s when it clicked for Colbert. From that moment, he was able to use his voice – a voice that was meant for musical theater, according to Sondheim – and fill it with all the emotions that were required for his character.

There are certain recorded songs out there where you can “feel” the emotions behind the singer’s voice. Those are the songs that give you the goose bumps when you hear it … whether for the first time or the hundredth time.  Those are the songs that can make you cry; whether for joy or for sadness.

Those are the songs that can likely lift you up — even if it’s a sad song — out of the darkness.

James Blunt’s “Beautiful” does that to me. There’s something about his voice, matched with the lyrics to this song that speak to me … that make me even the slightest bit happier whenever I hear it.

Maybe it’s because Blunt talks about a chance encounter with a woman he will never know. Maybe it’s because it’s because he speaks of that moment with such reverence. But the way that Blunt sings his lyrics has a way of making me feel as if I could be that “angel” … that I could be that beautiful person who had caught some stranger’s eye and captured this stranger’s imagination.

Now realistically, I know that’s absolutely untrue. (Who would look twice at me?) But I think it’s the possibility that it could happen that captures my imagination … captures my smile long enough for the wave of sadness to dissipate.

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What is with this 30-day song challenge?

What was yesterday‘s song?

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A Song I Listen To When I’m Happy

Day Twenty-One – A Song I Listen To When I’m Happy:

I’m not sure where I was when I first heard the Black Eyed Peas’ song, “Where Is The Love?” In fact, I’m pretty sure I liked the song more for its addicting beats and catchy chorus more than I did for the actual lyrics of the song.

What got me listening to the song over and over (and over) again was on a trip to London, Ontario for my cousin’s wedding back in May of 2004. The only decent television station we could manage to get in our hotel room was Much Music (Canada’s version of MTV) and that Black Eyed Peas video must have been on high rotation for that weekend.

Regardless, it’s because of that weekend that I got a chance to listen closely to they lyrics for the entire song. And every time I heard it, I could feel the “hippie chick” in me growing stronger; the high-school and college activist who wanted to make a change. Who thought she could make a change.

Not that I don’t think I could make a change today … Obviously writing and speaking up about infertility and living child-free as a first-generation Asian American (where infertility is a “taboo” topic) is one way that I can make a change  …

But hearing the Black Eyed Peas singing exactly what I had always thought in my head (and with a catchy dance beat, at that!)? That was refreshing; especially knowing that there are still people in the world that are trying to affect positive change.

So that’s why I listen to this song when I’m happy. It reminds me that there are times where you can feel down in the dumps … but if you at least try to change the situation you might be, you can take that step forward in becoming a happier person.

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What is with this 30-day song challenge?

What was yesterday‘s song?

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A Song From My Favorite Album

Day Nineteen – A Song From My Favorite Album:

There is no doubt in my mind that my favorite album of all times is INXS’ “Kick” … Although, I must admit that there was a period of time that I shunned away from it.

Blame it on youth, but I remember liking INXS for so many years before they had become commercially huge. So when “Kick” was released and gained so much popularity with the masses, I felt as if the rest of those people had no clue as who INXS was before they became Global Rockstars. And that’s when I stuck to listening to their old albums more than I did “Kick.”

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