The Music Man

So, no, unfortunately, I did not get cast in a touring production of The Music Man. This has absolutely nothing to do with The Music Man. This is all about music, as in music one listens to on the radio.
Music has always been a huge part of my life, even in my couple of disgruntled years as a vocal performance major at the University of Illinois.
My love of music all started when my parents used to sing to me when I was very young. I don't remember much of it, but I do remember always liking when they would sing Camptown Races. The imagery of those horses was mindblowing at the age of 2!
As I got older, I got a hold of some cassette tapes of Raffi, Ella Jenkins, Tom Chapin (the brother of Harry Chapin of Cats in the Cradle fame). My whole life I never have known lyrics to songs, even my favorite ones. i just don't pay close enough attention. However, I can still sing you bits of songs by these artists 20 some years later.
At around the age of 7 or so, I got a hold of my dad's old records (yes, that's right...records. We actually had two record players at the time. 1 nice once with great surround sound speakers, and a kids fisher price one, which i got to use!) and instantly fell in love with The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, along with some other random surf bands. My first experience of rock music. And probably my influence in always being a wannabe surfer (despite my terribly huge dislike of swimming). The songs were catchy, fun, and beautiful. Dead Man's Curve scared me to death, which I loved. And Sloop John B is still a personal favorite today. There has never been a song with better falsetto harmonizing.
This discovery led me to the oldies stations where I fell in love with a wider range of music. From folk...The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, Simon and Garfunkel, Peter Paul and Mary - to psychadelic...Jefferson Airplane, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Iron Butterfly - to faux psychadelic...The Lemon Pipers, some of the Monkees stuff. But it was those crazy brits that really got me...Crispin St. Peters, Herman's Hermits, and most importantly The Beatles. Every song I heard by the Beatles completely opened my ears. When I first heard the song Yesterday, i had an immediate cathartic meltdown. Instantly learned the lyrics and would not stop singing the song, with a bad British accent. My oldies phase started when I was around 7 and still goes strong today.
I hit a rough period when I hit my teens. I was actually a happy teenager, it wasn't rough in that way. Musically I hit a bit of a bad spell where I had no idea what type of music I liked. This is exemplified by the fact that my first two CDs ever purchased were Public Enemy's The Muse Sick In Our Mess Age, and The Lion King soundtrack. Whoa! Other band's I'm proud to say I enjoyed at the time were 4 Non Blondes, Right Said Fred, The Proclaimers, Expose, Tony Toni Tone, Paperboy, The Real McCoy, Erasure, Snoop and Dre, Garth Brooks, John Michael Montgomery. We have a little of everything folks, and most of it is not that good!
Thank God Weezer came around when I was in 7th grade and got me on the right track.
Finally, my senior year of high school i was listening to the top 25 indie songs of the year on a little local radio station at New Years time. And around number 8 on that list was a song I now consider my favorite song ever. Cathedrals by Jump Little Children. The most beautiful song ever written. The lead singers voice is a better sounding, less dramatic Rufus Wainwright, and the instrumentation is complex and harmonious. I followed that band for 6 years liking nearly every single song they wrote. Unfortunately at the end of 2006 they sadly broke up...for now. If you haven't listened to Jump Little Children find them and listen to them now!!!
I immediately had to start to look for a new band. In the past year, I found some whole new styles of music that I never knew existed. Bands that are playing with crazy rhythms and harmonies and time signatures and layering. Some favorites are Battles, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, Sigur Ros, Cloud Cult, Josh Ritter. Priscilla Ahn, is my new favorite singer songwriter. She records her voice live, then harmoniezes with her just recorded voice then layers that, and harmonizes again, and keeps layering, but she does it all live. Crazy!!! I just found the band Mates of State which I can not get out of my head. A fun husband and wife team. The wife playing the organ, the husband playing the drums. Their tunes are catchy, super fun, with tight harmonizing. And just by listening you can hear their loving chemistry. My new current favorite band (nobody will ever beat Jump Little Children) is a group called Menomena. I first listened to them, and just didn't get it. It sounded kinda awful. The music is so complex and weird, that I think my ears didn't know what hit them. They never heard anything like it, so it just sounded bad. Just like a tritone sounded bad (dubbed: the devil's interval) when it first started to be used. Anyways, as my ears got used to Menomena I just can't stop listening to them. They are that good.
I have no idea why I just wrote all of that for you all to read. There was really no point. Maybe you can check out some of this music and be inspired by them as much as I am!

What Is Going On?

So, I'm shocked and utterly confused about the economy. After this huge bailout for businesses, along with General Motors recently asking for money, it was announced today that Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Phoenix...yes the cities...are asking for the govt. to bail them out. Supposedly more businesses are going to follow soon. Are people thinking they can take advantage of a new soon to be president, that he will just keep handing them money? Maybe, maybe not, I have no clue what is going on? I don't understand a whole lot about this issue. I was at first against the initial bailout because it seemed like way to much money that could be going to things that help out people that are actually in need of it immediately. For God's sake, with the amount of money given out, you could build a homeless shelter that would be as nice as one of the Trump Towers. That would actually be beneficial to society! Then, I went on board with the bailout because all the insiders said it was necessary for an immediate fix. Since then, it doesn't seem to have done anything, and more and more people are asking for money.
American citizens were up in arms when it was rumored that Barack Obama was secretly Socialist. However, when Capitalism starts to fail, people start crying that the Government should equal them out, like what happens in a Socialist country. Sooooo hypocritical.
My Father's business finally is closing shop after 94 years of existence. It has provided our family very well over the years. However, when suits became more exclusive in wear, and then with the economic situation, and with my dad and uncle getting closer to retirement age, to my understanding it wasn't worth keeping the business around. Never once did my family complain, never once did my family ask the government to help them out. That is the way Capitalism works. It is a sink or swim...or a get out when your riding the high wave type of game.
This leaves me wondering why AIG, Lehmann Bros, GM, etc., and these cities are crying right now. If anyone knows the fundamentals of Capitalism, it is these bigwig corporations. And in my totally uneducated guess, is if these corporations fail, new ones will come up after some years.
Again, I know very little about economics (however i did get a big 3 on my AP econ. test), and I'm an idiot and hate dealing with money (unless i'm playing monopoly), so I'm probably completely wrong about everything I've said above, but really. America is supposed to be a tough country. So let's do our John Wayne impression: be strong and stop whining for more when we really haven't earned it!

Migraines

So, I get migraines a few times a year. I just recently came to the conclussion that they were being triggered by caffeine. About 12-24 hours after i had a cup of coffee I would get nasty nasty migraines. So I one hundred percent stopped drinking caffeniated coffee, and 95% stopped drinking decaf coffee. Last Wednesday, before rehearsal for Stormy Weather I decided to get a hot chocolate. It was freezing cold outside so I got a venti (large). Did that turn out to be a mistake. I got the worst migraine over my right eye that I ever had. I got my usual blind spots about an hour before the headache while i was at work Thursday morning. I immediately left work and went home. There my head just started killing me. If i went under the sheets to make the room as dark as possible it was too dark and i need a little light. The second i got the light, I needed dark. I couldn't keep my eyes open, yet, it was also too painful to keep my eyes shut. It hurt under my eyelid, it hurt above my eye on my forehead, it hurt on the side of my head above my ear, and it hurt in the back of my head. Then the nausea kicked in. Things started spinning. I felt like I had an empty stomach (Like completely empty, like hollow). I'm dry heaving. My nose got all congested. And I had a big zit on my head that already hurt before the migraine started!!! I was in bed the whole evening minus about 20 minutes when i got up to eat and go to the bathroom. The next day I told people I feel like I just got knocked out by Mike Tyson.
Move ahead three days. I finish rehearsal and start eating dinner with Lauren. I start feeling extremely fatigued. Like I'm going to fall asleep on the spot, no control over the matter. Then the blindspots hit, and I couldn't believe I was getting another Migraine. No trigger!!!! I was so tired i couldn't really control it and immediately fell asleep. I woke up shortly after with a terrible headache over my left side this time. I had Lauren help me out with the lights and blinds and then went to sleep for the rest of the night, not getting out of bed until 8:45 the following morning.
Here I am now at work with the worst Migraine "hangover" ever. I just felt like I was in a 12 round slugfest that immediately followed me running the New York marathon. I am so fatigued I can barely sit up at my desk at work. I still have a bit of a headache especially when i bend over. I'm dizzy. My motor skills suck. There is a time delay between me telling me to do something, ie moving my limbs, and actually doing so. Oh and did I say I'm exhausted.
It's going to be a long day as I have to finish 4.5 more hours of work and then go for three hours of physical rehearsal and an hour sub ride home.
Oh boy, thank God that i can at least daydream of my bed!!!!