Fireworks and Doobie Brothers

Thank you 10th century China for inventing fireworks, they are amazing. Fireworks turn everyone into a kid. It doesn't matter how old you are, as soon as the fireworks start everyone stares slack jawed up into the night sky.

4th of July 2009 - Jackson, WY

Here in Alaska we have fireworks in the summer, but they are somewhat of a disappointment, it doesn't ever get dark enough to make them look really cool and, for at least the past 2 summers, it's been raining on the 4th of July so they get lost in the clouds anyway. Not that that stops me from watching them.  We also have winter time fireworks, obviously, and according to my reports, (I'm always out of town) they are much cooler. No pun intended. Last winter the city lifted the fireworks ban (for the public) in Anchorage and apparently everyone and their brother went out and got fireworks. They city was lit up like...well, the 4th of July (in places it gets dark enough to be lit up)

Midnight 4th of July  2010 - Seward, AK

There is one instance of fireworks that I particularly remember. It was 4th of July, I was 10ish and my family and I went to watch the fireworks. At that time, they would shoot the fireworks off barges in the river, so we were down on the riverfront somewhere in Aurora. For those of you not lucky enough to have ever been in the Midwest in the middle of summer, there are a lot of thunderstorms. As the storm was rolling in the fireworks were just starting. It was an amazing mix of lightning and pyrotechnics. Everyone knows you shouldn't be out in an open field when there is lightning afoot, but it was so cool looking that nobody left.

The hot jam of the week is Black Water by the Doobie Brothers. I've always had a little bit of a hard time taking the Doobie Brothers seriously. Mostly because they chose to call themselves the Doobie Brothers. In 1970. A little cliche, if you ask me.

There is one reason I love this song: the a capella part at the end. I'm a sucker for a good a capella sing along and this one is great. AND it's good to clap along with. Clapping and a capella sing alongs? Hot jam for sure.

This video is from February 2011 when Doobie Brothers made their Grand Ole Opry debut. Not the best example of the sweet a capella section but it's still pretty great. If you want to listen to the original version, you can hear it here

Small Towns and 3Oh!3

Apologies for the delayed post, summer time is busy around here!

This week's favorite thing was inspired by my recent trip to Seldovia, AK for 4th of July. I love small towns and Seldovia definitely fits the bill. The year-round population is a little over 250 and it's only accessible by boat (although it's not an island, there just aren't any roads that go there.) I had a fabulous time. There are no stoplights, people mostly get around by 4-wheeler and everyone waves at everyone.

Did I mention it's also beautiful?

I think holidays in small towns are particularly amazing. Seldovia's 4th of July celebration included events such as a hula hoop contest (where I took 3rd place), fish toss, pie eating, rubber ducky races, canoe jousting, log rolling, tug of war, and a survival suit relay (which my team won!)

Canoe Jousting

This is a survival suit

Speaking of small town celebrations, my grandparents live in a small town in central IL and it features an amazing summer time festival called Old Settlers. There's carnival rides and games and pie and elephant ears and music and a parade and all sorts of other amazing things. When I was little we always went down to visit for Old Settlers and one of my favorite parts (besides the carnival) was the parade. My family would go claim a good spot along the parade route, watch the whole thing, then as soon as the last candy-tossing float went by, my sister and I would take off through the backyards and meet the beginning of the parade on the next block. Double parade viewing = double candy. Pure genius.

This week's hot jam is I'm Not Your Boyfriend Baby by 3Oh!3. 3Oh!3 manages to combine 3 genres of music into one song and still make it sound amazing. There's a little something for everyone. You like rap? Got it. Emo? That too. Techno? It's in there. Okay, maybe not something for everyone, but at least a lot of people.

This song is probably NSFW, unless your boss is down with some F-bombs.

Dancing and Anne and Pete Sibley

This week's favorite thing is dancing. I love dancing. I think if people danced more often the world would be a better place. (I also feel that way about eating popsicles.) Much like my tendency to sing whenever I hear music (see Singing and Justin Bieber) I almost always dance to the music too, or at least tap my toes/fingers, bob my head, etc. And not only is it super fun, but it's also great exercise! (And anyone who knows me knows how much I hate to exercise. So if I can do it without realizing, all the better!)

I love dancing in just about any style:

Partner dancing

The Robot

Barefoot dancing

The Twist/Michelle Tanner

Raptor impersonations

Summer in Alaska is full of bluegrass music. There is a bluegrass festival just about every weekend, and I make a point to attend as many as possible. This past weekend I was in Sutton, AK at Granite Creek Bluegrass Festival and Old Time Picker's Retreat, it was amazing as usual and Monday morning I was still feeling blugrass-y, so I got out Anne and Pete Sibley's CD Coming Home. The first song that played was Past the Point of Rescue. I had forgotten how much I love it, so it's this week's hot jam. I saw Anne and Pete when they came to perform at Teton Science Schools. They are possibly the nicest, coolest, most awesome singers and people I have ever seen/met. In 2009, they won Prairie Home Companion's Great Duet Sing Off and they definitely deserved it. They have amazing harmonies and mix up their songs with guitar and banjo.



Fun Fact: I regularly type "hot ham" instead of "hot jam". I'm always tempted to leave it.

Smells and Nelly

I think smell is an extremely underrated sense. Given the option, I think most people would choose to give up smell or taste over touch, hearing or sight. Sure, it would be bad to not be able to smell your dinner burning in the oven, but at least you could hear the smoke detector. I love the way things smell (see Dirt and The Distillers) and it's mostly because of the connection to the memories associated with those scents. According to scientists, scent and memory are closely linked in the brain (something about the olfactory bulb and the limbic system).

Here are some scents/memories that are particularly important to me:

Vanilla - baking cookies and my mom telling me that vanilla extract doesn't taste as good as it smells
Pink erasers - Standardized testing. Okay, it's weird, but I always liked filling in those little bubbles
Old books - the inside of the Bookmobile
Fall scented candles (pumpkin, apple cider, etc) - fall (obviously) and by association apple picking, and the Utica, IL Burgoo Festival

There are some scents that I can't place, but always remind me of something. For example, all elementary schools smell the same and remind me of a specific time I was walking down the hallway at my elementary school. I must have been coming back from the bathroom because the hall was empty and it was the first time  I noticed the smell of the school. So whenever I'm wandering around some elementary school and I catch a whiff of that smell it always makes me smile.

Hot jam of the week is Ride Wit Me by Nelly. I fully admit to owning the Nellyville CD (which actually doesn't have Ride Wit Me on it, but shows my support). Ride Wit Me is light rap, if there is such a thing. They played it on the radio all the time, there is actually more singing than rapping in it, and even if you don't know all the words, there are enough commonly known words that you can still sound like you know it. Also any song that mentions Vanna White is awesome in my book.

Sorry (or you're welcome) it's the clean version
Bonus points for anyone who can name members of the St. Lunatics before watching the video

Porch Sitting and Something Corporate

A teacher once told me that only boring people are ever bored. I can't even remember the last time I was bored, so I must be an incredibly exciting person, right?

It's more likely that I'm never bored because I like really boring things. I can sit for a million hours doing nothing and not get bored. One of the dull things I really love is porch sitting. It's exactly what it sounds like, hanging out on a porch, preferably sitting in a rocking chair or porch swing. I know, I'm 90 years old.

Porch sitting often combines some of my favorite things: people watching, reading, drinking lemonade, watching thunderstorms, etc. When I was living in Wyoming, all of the buildings had fabulous giant porches, great for eating breakfast on a Saturday morning or relaxing after work. I could have sat out there all day.

According to people who know about this sort of thing, rocking is a sign of schizophrenia. Is loving rocking chairs a precursor to rocking without a chair, and thus a precursor to schizophrenia?

Speaking of rocking, this week's hot jam is If You C Jordan by Something Corporate. The late 90's to early-mid 00's produced a lot of what I like to call "punk for the masses." Boy bands were on their way out and rock was on its way in. Power pop and pop punk bridged that gap and made punk music accessible for even the most devout boy band lovers. Don't pretend like you didn't rock out to Good Charlotte (or any number of other similar bands) a time or two. Pop punk is fast, catchy, and unlike more traditional punk songs, most of the time you can understand the words and sing along, which is why it was such a hit. The lyrics spoke to a whole generation of teenagers, with songs about stickin' it to the man, fighting with friends and parents, unrequited love, and even tougher issues like death. Pop punk provided a little something for everyone. At least for awhile.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I still listen to a lot of the same music I did in high school. Okay, I listened to some pretty bad music then, but I listened to some pretty good stuff too, which is probably why I still bust out the old scratched CDs occasionally. One of the CDs that never disappoints me is Something Corporate's Leaving Through the Window. I love every song on the album, but If You C Jordan is one of my favorites. It's everything you ever wanted to say to that jerk who went to your high school. Best part: Jordan was the name of the actual jerk that went to Andrew McMahon's high school. (Click here if you want to read about it)

Andrew McMahon is an amazing piano player. I've seen him perform a few times and it's always awesome. Even standing on the piano keys (literally) and jumping up and down he can still make it sound like the song. If that's not hot jam worthy I don't know what is.

Hot Showers and Bryan Adams

I take obscenely hot showers. I turn the water to "scalding hot" then turn it back a smidge to "barely not scalding" and get in. When I get out of the shower I'm neon pink. I'm not sure when I developed this affinity for boiling myself on a regular basis, but nevertheless I do it everyday.

I think I do my best thinking in the shower. Maybe all that steam cleans all the stuff out of my head? In fact, I wrote most of this blog in the shower. Or at least outlined in my head. Remember these bathtubs crayons that you could write on the bathtub/shower walls with? I think they are made out of soap.

I had a blue one when I was little and I remember my mom getting mad because it wouldn't come off the bathtub, even though that was its intended purpose. Anyway, I need one of those now. Maybe they've made them easier to remove in the past 15 years. I make lists all the time. For everything. And most of the time those lists come to me in the shower. It would be really great to be able to write them down somewhere. Or maybe I should just keep at Rite-in-the-Rain notebook in my shower. That could be a new marketing idea for them!

Do you think the boiling water and high humidity of my shower counts as "All Weather"?

I heard the tail-end of this song on my way to work this morning and I found myself disappointed that I didn't hear the whole thing. Ah Bryan Adams, that Canadian pop star knew what he was doing. Reading over a list of his songs, practically every last one sounds like something that should/would be played at a wedding reception. You can't tell me you haven't danced to Summer of '69 or (Everything I Do) I Do It For You at a reception somewhere along the way. Good planning Bryan Adams, you are probably making a ton in royalties. Not to mention his songs play on the radio ALL THE TIME.

I had never seen the video for Heaven before and I was not disappointed. It's awesome in all its 80's glory. Great hair, great tight jeans, and a deep underlying theme: Bryan Adams is cooler than drunk drivers. MADD would approve.

Singing and Justin Bieber

According to my stats I hit 500 views of my blog this week. Weird! Maybe it's just one person who really likes to read my stuff?

Anyway, this is a musical week here at a few of my favorite things. I love singing. Now, don't let this mislead you into thinking I'm good at singing, I'm definitely not, but I love it all the same. If there is music playing somewhere, chances are I'm singing. In the car? Yep. Shower? Yep. Grocery store? Yep. (By the way, my grocery store plays the best/weirdest assortment of music. Mostly obscure pop songs from the 90s). Muzak in elevators? This scene was based on me.



Except I would have sung the correct lyrics. Speaking of lyrics, I'm totally convinced that I could be a super genius, if only my head wasn't filled with practically every popular song lyric written since1955. I might not be able to sing, but dammit, I'll get all the words right.

I love karaoke, but because I can't actually carry a tune, I only pick rap songs from the mid- to late- 1990s. My go-to song is Forgot About Dre by Dr. Dre and Eminem. Second choice is Shoop by Salt-n-Pepa. Both are crowd favorites.

Judge all you want, but this week's hot jam is Baby by Justin Bieber. I love pop music. It's fun, it's danceable, it has great hooks/choruses, and you can't help but sing along. Say what you will about the Biebs, but this video has 555 MILLION+ views, and that makes it a hot jam.