Sunday Morning Song of the Moment

This week it's a cover. A Buddy Holly cover. I thoroughly enjoy M. Ward's version of Rave On. I hope you enjoy it too!
Have a great Sunday!

Sunday Morning Song of the Moment (It feels good to be back)

As it is 11:30 a.m. EST, it is still technically morning. The past two days have found us lazing about. We've needed the time to unwind. As a family, we have been contracting and releasing, contracting and releasing ad nauseum for months. So this still time, this lazy time has been a much needed reprieve.

After months of being MIA and collecting some "new" music I give you the house special. The Sunday Morning song post. I've missed my little baby over here. It seems that these little posts struck a chord with some of you & I didn't know that until I stopped doing them for so long. Here you go...one of my latest favorites: Old Old Fashioned by Frightened Rabbits. It makes a lot of sense to me right now. I hope that you enjoy!

Sunday Morning Song of the Moment - Tuesday Edition

Sunday found us running around like well, crazy people.
We were preparing the house for a small gathering of family members
and just a few friends to help us celebrate
Connor and Gracie's birthday.

It was a picture-perfect day.
It was warm and breezy rather than
Delaware's famous hot and humid.

The kids had a great day and I think the adults did too.

So here is my song that I would have chosen.
Just two days late.

There is no story.
I just love the song.

Sunday Morning Song of the Moment

I love me some Ray LaMontagne.
His voice goes straight through me and bewitches every cell, every pore.
I've said before that if I could sing (and if I were a man), I wish that I could sing like him.
Granted, this version isn't great. The album version is sublime.

This song between the artist, what the song is about, and those blessed horns is just the right concoction for a gal like me.
It's a mixture of my favorite things.
I crank this when I'm alone in the car and hit repeat.

Enjoy. He's my man.
But I'll let you borrow him for awhile ;)

Sunday Morning Song of the Moment - Tuesday Edition

Last summer, we visited some of Rav's relatives who reside outside of Baltimore - around the Towson-ish area. His cousin works at The Merriweather.
My eyes widened and we began to talk about some of the better shows he had seen up to that point in the concert season and what he enjoys listening to.
What an occupational hazard - seeing so many concerts. For free.
Anyway, he told me that Wilco's show just a few days before was outstanding and played the CD for us while we ate crabs and threw back some cold ones.

When I pop in my Wilco CD I instantly think of that day. On a porch somewhere in Maryland. I can see Rav's cousin's face looking at me - soaking in the music. And I knew exactly how he felt. I can remember the way the air smelled and how at ease I was in that very moment to be talking to him about music and watching him enjoy it. That is the only time I really feel at ease - feel like myself - my complete, whole self. When listening to music.

Anyway, I've been listening to this CD since last summer and this song really hit me hard the other day. It's like after all of this time I heard it for the first time and it finally made sense. Almost like when you're learning a new language and you can finally read and comprehend something on your own. Much to your surprise and delight.

So, go. Enjoy this song and sorry about the long-winded explanation.
Sky Blue Sky by Wilco

Sunday Morning Song of the Moment

Sitting around this winter, spending way too much time in front of the tele, I became obsessed with a little snippet of a song I heard on the new commercial for the slimmed-down version of Apple's iBook.
I would wait by the TV and hope that the commercial would come on just so I could hear 30 seconds of the song.
I didn't know what it was, I didn't know who sang it. I just knew I loved it.
I thought to myself, "That song makes me want to rush out and buy an iBook." Those smart people at Apple. Needless to say, I didn't buy an iBook. However, one lonely evening with my kids in bed early, Rav hard at work, I diligently sat down to my dial-up connection and began my quest.
After much groaning which was had by myself and my computer, I found that song.
I promptly downloaded it & have been happily listening to it since.
This morning, I found it on Youtube and got goosebumps after watching the video for the first time.
So now that I have built this song up to impossible expectations, I will share it with you.
Many of you probably have heard it already. Especially if you watched a lot of TV over the long, cold winter.
But here she goes anyway....

New Soul by Yael Naim

Sunday Morning Song of the Moment

This about sums up it.

School is done for the year.

And we have our DSL back up and running.

Sunday Morning Song of the Moment

Are you totally confused yet?

Yeah, I'm cheating.
Today is Tuesday & I'm posting my song today.

We had some unforeseen stuff go down this weekend & it could not be helped that Sunday got pushed back to Tuesday.
Eh. Sometimes you just gotta roll with it.

I'm taking 10 minutes for myself to quickly check in on some of my old haunts out here.
I miss it.
I miss you all & the window(s) in which you allow me to peek inside of your funny, zany, happy, silly, sometimes chaotic, crazy, sometimes emotional, normal lives.
I'm finding it very hard to balance everything right now.

Anyway....I started reading a post on Phenom's blog & the song that I wanted to share two days ago popped into my head.
So I said f*ck it.
I'll share it today.
Pretend for a minute, if you will, that it is a lazy Sunday morning.
Close your eyes and just pretend.
Listen to the song & let it take you away for a moment.
Go on.
Do it.
Go ahead.
It'll do you some good.

Quiet Town by Josh Rouse

Sunday Morning Song of the Moment

I've had a song simmering on the backburner for a few weeks and decided this week would be the week to share it.

Then, oh no, I had to be reminded of this video and since I had not seen it in awhile, figured I'd share it instead.

Last Monday, in my Topics class (Western Psych. vs. Buddhism - or vice versa), my instructor was trying to drive the point home about self/not-self. For us Westerners this is a complex, difficult ideology to grasp. So he showed us a short film based on a short-story by Kurt Vonnegut. In it were two young actors - a wiley, geeky looking Christopher Walken and an adolescent-looking Susan Sarandon.
After the film two of my classmates & I (who seem inexplicably drawn to each other) began professing our great love for Walken.
I brought up the Fatboy Slim video Weapon of Choice.
And we collectively began discussing how each of us couldn't believe it was him when we first saw that video years ago.

So that is my shared song today.
Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim.
Won't you join me in paying homage to Walken.
All hail, Walken.

Sunday (Morning) Song of the Moment

No words today.
Not really.

They're....
Creepin' In by Norah Jones feat. Dolly Parton

Got any music suggestions to share with me? Drop 'em in the comments.
I'm on the prowl for sumpin' new.

Sunday (Morning) Song of the Moment

Wow. Am I like, way late on this one?!

My good friend, B. turned 40 yesterday.
And to celebrate, a small group of us (Rav, J and her husband M, and B's husband D, & I) took B out to dinner at a nice restaurant.
Many drinks were had and decent meals were eaten.
B is a special lady & I was proud to be there celebrating her.

I've laughed harder than I've laughed in a long, long
long, long,
long
time.
Like laughed so hard my face hurt and my sides felt like they were going to explode.
Like laughed so hard I had to hide my face in my napkin and wipe the tears off of my cheeks.
Like laughed so hard that Rav was embarrassed because I was becoming almost unbearably and embarrassingly loud.
It was cathartic.
Last Saturday night, I cried so hard it hurt.
This Saturday night, I laughed so hard it hurt. Yes, Jen...I had my head thrown back in wide-open laughter :)
I think I'm making great progress.

Anyway, the point of this is that, this is just one thing that happened this weekend that has kept me away from posting.
A furnace emergency, a sick daughter, and a few other obligations have kept me from it.

But here I am!

And this song is for my sick Gracie. It's her new favorite.

Jealous of the Moon by Nickel Creek
I have do just have to say for only being 3, she's got great taste. I wonder where she gets it from?
I also think she is trying to tell me something with this song as she has been making me play it over and over and over.

Sunday Morning Song of the Moment

There is no story. No background.
This song gets me everytime I hear it.
It simply sears straight through me.

And then there are the lyrics.
The lyrics just make sense to me right now.

Crank it up - Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes

Sunday Morning Song of the Moment

Certain songs/albums define periods of time.
And when I hear them I am instantly transported back to that time.
Often, I can smell the smells that I associate with that moment in time,
I can recall instantly how I was feeling, the vibe of the environment around me.

I know that you guys probably have experienced this too.

Within the past week, I have heard this one song two times. And I haven't heard the song in quite awhile.
When I heard it, I was transported instantly.

I was transported to the infantile stages of my courtship with Rav.
The stage where all we had was time together and little responsibility.
Our time was our own.
And most of that time was spent in bed.
Talking for hours on end.
And that talking would, of course, lead to other things.

The constant vascilation between deep, heartfelt conversations
and an even deeper physical connection is what comes to mind when I hear the following song.
And the entire Parachutes album by Coldplay is best easily described as the soundtrack of these days.
The seeds of the famiglia de Ravioli were planted at this time and took root.
Connor was, quite possibly, made to one of the songs on this album.

Enjoy Don't Panic by Coldplay

******on a side note, one more final to go. papers have all been turned in. and i will be able to resume my normal lurking, reading, commenting activities.******

Sunday Morning Song of The Moment

As I am usually short on blogging material on the weekends and now I am bogged down with school work, I have decided to implement a recurring feature on Sundays.
It will highlight a song that has touched me so much that I need to share it. It may be a song I've heard millions of times before or one that I've just discovered. It's hard to say what genre it will be from, as I am all over the place in my musical tastes. But one thing will ring true with all of the songs-to-be-featured on Sundays: they have rocked my world in one way or another.

So, without further ado, here is the first feature for Week One of the Sunday Morning Song of The Moment:

"First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes

This is the first day of my life

I swear I was born right in the doorway

I went out in the rain suddenly everything changed

They're spreading blankets on the beach

Yours is the first face that I saw

I think I was blind before I met you

Now I don't know where I am

I don't know where I've been

But I know where I want to go

And so I thought I'd let you know

That these things take forever

I especially am slow

But I realize that I need you

And I wondered if I could come home

Remember the time you drove all night

Just to meet me in the morning

And I thought it was strange you said everything changed

You felt as if you had just woke up

And you said, "this is the first day of my life

I'm glad I didn't die before I met you

But now I don't care I could go anywhere with you

And I'd probably be happy"

So if you want to be with me

With these things there's no telling

We just have to wait and see

But I'd rather be working for a paycheck

Than waiting to win the lottery

Besides maybe this time is different

I mean I really think you like me