Album Cover

To Walk Very Far by Flaminio Ponzio

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I discovered this on Facebook and posted it there, but I figured I would post it here as well. I thought it was kind of fun and I really like the results (though I might have chosen a different picture if I had the option...)

Here are the "rules" if you want to try it:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5 - Post it with this text and TAG the friends you want to join in.

My Love Affair With Eric Benet...His Music, That Is!

(Sorry about the spacing. Blogger is being wonky again.)

Surrounded by everything I want

But nothing that I need

I was blinded by the absurdities

Losing all identity

Sometimes what you fear the most

Is what you need

To find that road

Right around that curve

A lesson learned

Now that I have the eyes to see

Sometimes I cried

But tears wouldn't fall

And sometimes I tried

To break those walls

And feel your love

But I came alive inside

When I finally found my way

(from Hurricane)

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Some say that love's just a myth

It's a wonderful dream but it doesn't exist

But to look at you you're such a precious gift

That I know, I know

(from I Know)

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It's so very hard to know
Which way to go
A lie can be the gospel truth
If eloquently told

Some people live their whole life
And they'll never see
The only way to find true happiness
Is to thine own self be
(from True to Myself)

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I seem to blog in spurts these days and I am definitely having an "on" spurt lately. As I was driving home, I was listening Eric Benet's most recent CD, Hurricane and the song lyrics to the title track reminded me of my quotes posting from earlier today. I've posted those lyrics (along with some others) above, but now I'm going to ramble on a bit, well a lot actually LOL!

I remember exactly when my love affair with Eric Benet's music began. I was on a road trip with my dad and sister on December 30, 1997. We were headed from San Diego to the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Arizona because Syracuse (my sister's alma matter) was playing and my sister got free tickets from some football players she knew.

It was an insane trip because after the Fiesta Bowl on December 31st, we woke up before dawn on January 1, 1998 to drive to the Rose Bowl back in Pasadena. Michigan, my dad's alma matter, was playing and had a shot at the National Championship. I could go on about that, but I am getting far from my original point.

As you can see from my rambling above, we were on the road a lot in just a few days. My dad usually drives on road trips, but in the middle of the desert on the way to Tempe, he let my sister drive for a while. To keep herself entertained, she popped in a tape: Eric Benet's first album, True to Myself. That's when my love affair with Eric Benet's music began.

It took me a while after that first night, though, to realize it was love. One song stuck in my head that night and when I went back up to school and no longer had access to Nicole's tape, I broke down and bought the CD. It's still one of my favorite CDs.

When I was working, I bought CDs like crazy (including Eric Benet's second album, A Day in the Life, which is a bit more mainstream). Since leaving work to pursue my graduate degree in math, I can count on one hand the number of CDs I've bought. Mostly because I was on a tight budget, but partly because of the new downloading craze. I am usually more song oriented, so I pay per song to download most of the time these days. Well, actually I haven't paid to download in quite a while thanks to MP Free which gives me free music downloads (at BuyMusic.com) for signing up for email newsletters and such. But yet again, I digress!

Eric Benet's latest release, Hurricane, is one of the few CDs I've purchased in the last two years. It was well worth the money and the 5 year wait. Yes, it took FIVE YEARS to get from A Day in the Life to Hurricane. It released on my sister's birthday last year. Guess what she got for her birthday, LOL!

Anyway, if you haven't checked out Eric Benet, I urge you to do so. His music is not only catchy and full of soul, it contains some thought provoking lyrics as you may have noticed above. If you want to hear some of his music click here, here, and/or here. His official MySpace page is here, but isn't a music page, though you can see one of his videos there. I'm not too keen on the remixes, but the originals on those pages are great!

Quotes!

Today, I thought I would offer some quotes on random (what else? LOL) topics from my collection along with a couple pictures I took in Hawaii when I went in 2000. The pictures were taken when I was about half way to the top of Diamond Head (before the infamous stairs). Now, on to the quotes...

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.”
--Helen Keller

"The only people that you should get even with are those who have helped you."
--Unknown

"Your love is like a chunk of gold: hard to get and hard to hold. Like a rose that's soft to touch, love has thorns that hurt so much."
--Bill Withers in The Same Love That Made Me Laugh

"No one can fill those of your needs that you won't let show."
--Bill Withers in Lean on Me

"We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly."
--Sam Keen

"Nothing can make you feel inferior without your consent."
--Eleanor Roosevelt

Let It Be A Dance

Let it be a dance we do
May I have this dance with you?
Through the good times,
And the bad times, too,
Let it be a dance.

Morning star
Comes out at night
Without the dark
There is no light
If nothing's wrong,
Then nothing's right
Let it be a dance.

Let the sun shine,
Let it rain
Share the laughter,
Bear the pain
And round and round
We go again
Let it be a dance.

--Excerpt from Let it Be a Dance by Ric Masten

Do-Re-Mi!

So, along with photography, music is and has been a large part of my life for many years. I can't even tell you how many times I've seen the musical The Sound of Music and sung along. I grew up participating in choirs and such. Once I got to high school, I even joined the show choir! I spent two years in the all-girls group, Sound Unlimited, and one in the mixed show choir, The Music Machine (shown in the picture above which I borrowed from showchoir.com as I only have hard copies.) Bonus points if you can figure out which one is me lol. While the clique-y girls drove me nuts at times, I love to sing and we even had the opportunity to travel to Europe and perform in various venues (schools, retirement homes, and even in a pub/brewery lol). In fact, I can say that I am a member of the first show choir to ever perform at EuroDisney!

Before I took up singing, there were piano lessons (starting at age 6) which I truly wish I had continued. I discovered jazz in college and so wished I could be a jazz musician, but I just don't have the talent...sigh. I later attempted to learn guitar, but haven't kept up with that either. I still have my guitar though. Yet another hobby to work with:)

Now my involvement is usually limited to discovering new bands and music that I love...and singing along in the car of course!

In the spirit of the music post, I thought I would include some misheard song lyrics from two different sources noted below. Enjoy!

From "He's Got The Whole World In His Pants...And other misheard
song lyrics"

Song: Aretha Franklin's "A Natural Woman"
Misheard Lyric: You make me feel like a rash on a woman
Correct Lyric: You make me feel like a natural woman

Song: Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"
Misheard Lyric: Wake me up and make me cocoa
Correct Lyric: Wake me up before you go-go

Song: Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
Misheard Lyric: Totally blitzed by a fart
Correct Lyric: Total eclipse of the heart

Song: Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson"
Misheard Lyric: Here's to you Mrs. Robinson/She's a slut more than you will know
Correct Lyric: Here's to you Mrs. Robinson/Jesus loves you more than you will
know

Song: The Beatles' "I'm Looking Through You"
Misheard Lyric: I'm looking through you and your underwear
Correct Lyric: I'm looking through you and you're nowhere

Song: Unlce Remus' "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah"
Misheard Lyric: It's the truth, it's sexual
Correct Lyric: It's the truth, it's actual

Song: Ini Kamoze's "Here Comes the Hotstepper"
Misheard Lyric: I'm the leprechaun gangster
Correct Lyric: I'm the lyrical gangster

Song: The Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself"
Misheard Lyric: Sugar-pie, honey butt
Correct Lyric: Sugar-pie, honey-bunch

And a special Christmas bonus from "Deck the Halls With Buddy Holly...and other
misheard Christmas lyrics"...

Song: "Santa Baby"
Misheard Lyric: Jeff's disabled under the tree
Correct Lyric: Just slip a sable under the tree

Song: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"
Misheard Lyric: Pees on earth, and then he smiles
Correct Lyric: Peace on earth, and mercy mild

Song: "Winter Wonderland"
Misheard Lyric: Walkin' in a woman's underwear
Correct Lyric: Walkin' in a winter wonderland

Some Favorite Quotes...

"Never give up on a dream just because of the length of time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway"

-- Life's Little Instruction Book, Vol. III

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"Remember, it's not your job to get people to like you; it's your job to like people."

-- Life's Little Instruction Book, Vol. III

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"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence."

-- Frederick Douglass

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"Remember that love doesn't always make things easier- just worth it."

-- Life's Little Instruction Book, Vol. III

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"When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear."

-- Life's Little Instruction Book, Vol. III

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"Believe in miracles, but don't depend on them."

-- Life's Little Instruction Book, Vol. III

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"Never forget the power and potential that comes from doing the little things well."

-- Life's Little Instruction Book, Vol. III

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"I have found that in life everything, no matter how bad, comes to an end."

-- Bryce Courtenay, The Power Of One

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"A dream is a vision of the future, in light of the past, tainted by imagination."

-- Judge Dana LaMon

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"Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts."

-- Charles Dickens

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"An innocent heart is a brittle thing and one false vow can break it."

-- Lord Lytton

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"He that loses his honesty has nothing else to lose."

-- Anonymous

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"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."

-- Anonymous

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"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell."

-- Harry S. Truman

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"I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy."

-- J.D. Salinger

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"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."

-- Albert Camus

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"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

-- Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes

The Magic of Jazz

Each composition intimates an endless number of potential meanings and permits an infinite variety of expressive interpretations.

Jazz is, after all, an improvised music. It demands sensitivity, spontaneity, and flexibility on the part of performers and listeners alike. The magic of the jazz experiences lies in its irreplicability. Every sound is precious because it will never again be played (or heard) in precisely the same way, at the same moment, in the same place, with the same feeling.

Thus it is best to think of these compositions not as exhaustive aesthetic dissertations but as loose tonal suggestions. Each song implies a basic mood. Each tune establishes an overall theme. After that it is up to us, as improvising musicians, to take these themes and weave them into personalized, inspired, spontaneous narratives. And it is up to you, as listeners, to take these moods and use them as windows to your own souls. Ultimately, these songs will be about your experiences, your impressions, and your emotions. They can mean whatever you want them to mean. They can be whatever you imagine them to be. They can take you wherever you wish to go.

So long as they make you feel.


----Joshua Redman, April 1994, excerpt from liner notes of Mood Swing

Peace...

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal."

--Martin Luther King Jr.

Thought for the Day...

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing."

--Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Life's Little Instruction Book...

"Remember that love doesn't always make things easier- just worth it."

-- Life's Little Instruction Book, Vol. III

There are a lot of great quotes to be found in the volumes of Life's Little Instruction Book. Today's is just one of many that I have in my collection. Hope you all enjoy. If I get a chance, maybe I'll actually ramble a bit more later on today, but for now it's almost 4am which means it's bedtime for Michelle!

Today's Quote (song excerpt)

From I Ain't Movin'

by Des'ree

Love is my passion
Love is my friend
Love is universal
Love never ends

Then why am I faced
with so much anger,
so much pain?
Why should I hide?
Why should I be ashamed?

Time is much to short to be living
somebody else's life
I walk with dignity
I step with pride

Cause I ain't movin'
From my face
From my race
From my history
I ain't movin'
From my love
My peaceful dove
Means too much to me
Loving self can be so hard
Honesty can be demanding
Learn to love yourself
it's a great, great feeling

When you're down baby
I will set you free
I will be your rememdy
I will be your tree

A wise man is clever
Seldom ever speaks a word
A foolish man keeps talking

Never is he heard

Regular Posting...

"And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course." --Khalil Gibran

Ok, so I've obviously been slacking lately! I haven't posted in ages. I had a feeling this would happen. In the spirit of posting regularly, I'm going to at least try to post one of my favorite quotes every day, as I do have quite a quote collection. And in addition or interspersed, I may post some photos that I've taken as well.

As I'm too tired at the moment to actually coherently write anything (and I have a bandaid on one finger that is making it a PITA to type...), I am starting with both a photo and a quote. In the spirit of Valentine's Day and romance, I am going to post romance related quotes for a while :)