Forty albums

So, one of my Facebook friends posted this earlier today, and I couldn't get it out of my mind. So I decided to take the time to jot these down now, partially because I want to look at other people's lists, without influencing mine.

"Here are the rules: List 12 albums that have stayed with you (okay, so I went with 40, ‘cause that’s just how I rock ‘n’ roll), but only one album per artist. Don't take too long, and don't think too hard. Tag ten friends to do the same thing, including me, so I can see what you put.

So, here are 40 albums that have stayed with me, more or less in order of preference:"

I decided to go with 40, and pretty much did it stream-of-consciouness, only editing when I would get repeat artists. (Really, limiting me to one RUSH album is insane cruelty.)

I was a little surprised at some of the things that popped into my head, but I think that all of these are albums that--if I were to listen to them right now--I would be able to sing along with every song. I laughed a bit as I saw my mom's music show up midway through, and my kids' music here and there.

But really, I need more RUSH.

1. RUSH     2112

2. Kansas     Point of Know Return

3. Styx       Paradise Theater 

4. Queen    The Game

5. Billy Joel     The Stranger

6. Journey      Evolution

7. Prince and the Revolution    Purple Rain

8. Lynyrd Skynyrd      One More From the Road

9. Beach Boys       Endless Summer

10. Evanescence    Fallen

11. Imagine Dragons   Night Visions

12. Lori Morgan   Something in Red

13. Meat Loaf    Bat Out of Hell

14. Bonnie Tyler   Faster than the Speed of Night

15. Bob Seger     Stranger in Town

16. Night Ranger   Midnight Madness

17.  Hootie and the Blowfish   Cracked Rear View

18. Supertramp   Breakfast in America

19. Survivor    Vital Signs

20. Boomtown Rats      Fine Art of Surfacing

21. Sugarhill Gang    Sugarhill Gang

22. REO Speedwagon   Hi Infidelity

23. Boston    Third Stage

24. Carpenters   A Song for You

25. Olivia Newton John     I Honestly Love You

26. Gordon Lightfoot       Sundown

27. Neil Diamond     Serenade

28. Eagles      Eagles

29. John Mellencamp   Uh-huh

30. Jewel    Spirit

31. Nik Kershaw     Human Racing

32. Ozzy Osbourne   Diary of a Madman

33. Bryan Adams     Cuts Like a Knife

34. Sting       The Dream of the Blue Turtles

35. U2      Joshua Tree

36. Amy Grant   Heart in Motion

37. Mister Mister   welcome to the Real World

38. Manfred Mann   Chance

39. Muse     The Resistance

40. Loverboy   Get Lucky

Happy things #5

Some of you are going to laugh at this one. I know it.

If you know me well at all, you know that rock is my usual music of choice. But I have pretty eclectic taste in music and have a little bit of folk, country, R&B, Sinatra, and even some rap in my collection. I've also been known to listen to Sunday Baroque on NPR. And I love hymns.

Then there are some old favorites. I don't know what the genre is. Seventies something-or-other. The stuff my mom listened to when I was a kid. Neil Diamond, Gordon Lightfoot, Olivia Newton-John, Jim Croce, and this one. My favorite:

I have loved the Carpenters since I was a little kid. But the reason that this CD is one of my happy things is because Karen Carpenter's voice is JUST PERFECT for me to sing along with. When I sing along with Karen, I feel like I can really sing.

And that makes me happy.

The. Best. Concert. Ever.

Wow. Just wow.

We saw Rush at the Verizon Wireless Center--which we will forever call Deer Creek--last night. It was my fifth Rush concert. The first three were in the '80's; the fourth was last year.

This one was the best. It may have had something to do with the fact that it was the final show in their two year Snakes and Arrows tour. The energy was tremendous, and Geddy Lee's voice was the best I've ever heard it. They hit all of the high points, opening with Limelight and closing with Tom Sawyer, just like last time, but the additions of Red Barchetta, The Trees, and The 2112 Overture and Temples of Syrinx were a huge treat. There was a great balance of the new from Snakes and Arrows and old favorites like the aforementioned, Subdivisions, XYZ, Witch Hunt and more.

This was the first concert for Jonathan and Andrew. It will be a tough act to follow. I've been to lots and lots of concerts, but Rush is hard to touch for sheer talent and last night was extraordinary.

Life Soundtrack

My daughter took the liberty of doing this for me after she saw it on a friend's blog. It is pretty entertaining to see the results. So if you do it and post it, let me know!

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
Here's how it works:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...
7. Include commentary

Opening Credits: Rapper's Delight, Sugar Hill Gang ( I love this! What a bizarre song for my opening credits!)

Waking Up: I Can't Fight This Feeling, REO Speedwagon (In a way this fits, because I ALWAYS try to fight the feeling that I need to get up.)

First Day at School: Good Riddance, Green Day (The time of your life??????)

Falling in Love: The Party's Over, Journey (If you only knew.)

Fight Song: St. Elmo's Fire, John Parr (Perfect, because Colin hates everything about St. Elmo's Fire.)

Breaking Up: Kyrie, Mr. Mister (Well, I love the song...)

Prom: We Belong, Pat Benatar (Prom as cult event)

Life's Ok: Kokomo, The Beach Boys (Soooooo Perfect!!!)

Mental Breakdown: The Search is Over, Survivor (Hmmmmm)

Driving: Don't Stop Believin', Journey (This is one of my favorite songs to drive to!)

Flashback: Hold On Loosely, .38 Special (Again, perfect.)

Getting Back Together: Danny's Song, Kenny Loggins (There's a miss.)

Wedding: Rockin' Into the Night, Survivor (LOLOLOLOL)

Birth of Child: Love Hurts, Nazareth (YEAH)

Final Battle: Mother, Father, Journey (Good angsty song for final battle. I think it means I lose.)

Death Scene: The Long Run, The Eagles ("I used to hurry a lot, I used to worry a lot....Oh, I didn't get it. It was high time I quit it.")

Funeral Song: Who Says You Can't Go Home, Bon Jovi (What could be better, since I don't have "Behold a Host Arrayed in White" on my iTunes?)

End Credits: Believe, Cher (Upbeat, you can dance to it, and in Heaven I know I'll be dancin'!)

American Idol Finale

It took sitting through two hours of stuff, but American Idol's results show ended with a well-deserved victory by David Cook. The judges love fest last night with David A. made the outcome especially satisfying.

We'll be looking forward to David Cook's first CD!

They're coming back!!

Less than a year after we saw them last, RUSH is returning to Indy.

I thought that we were going to have to go to Milwaukee to catch them this summer, but they will be at the Verizon Wireless Center again.

I know where I'm going to be June 25!

Meg??

Oooh, my first album!

Found this over at Elephant's Child's place. Since I am supposed to be keeping my leg up I have some time to play. This looked like fun.

Directions:
1. The first article title on this page is the name of your band.
2. The last four words of the last quotation on this page is the title of your album.
3. The third picture on this page, no matter what it is, will be your cover artwork.
4. Take the artwork, your titles, and use a photo-editing program to paste them together.


I'm still trying to figure out who my first band is, but I really like their name. The software I'm using is pretty annoying, so I'm not entirely happy with the look.

I think I'll have to try another:

Love the title on that one!

Okay, I switched editing software and liked this one better:

I think that I would have listened to this group in college.

This is fun. I think I'll make some more.
But I'll only share if they're spectacular.

Update: I think each one I do is cooler than the one before.

Photo Hunt: Music

Another photo from Symphony on the Prairie for this week's photo hunt. The theme is music. You can see some of the reenactors presenting the colors in front of the stage.

There's nothing quite like live music.

Rush still rocks

Months ago Colin and I decided to buy tickets to see my all-time favorite band, Rush, at the Verizon Wireless Center north of Indianapolis. It was a very good decision.

We had seen Rush three times in the '80's, so we were interested to see how the concerts and the band had changed. The biggest change we saw was the audience. No longer mostly teens and twenty-somethings--although still predominantly male--the audience ranged from late middle-aged to little kids. There were old hippies, many-pierced teens, and LOTS of middle-class-looking forty-somethings like us.

The band has, if anything, gotten better. Geddy Lee has amazing energy and showmanship and his voice has mellowed just right. Alex Lifeson is still tremendous on the guitar. And Neil Peart is still the most incredible drummer I've ever seen. They played from 7:40-11:00 with one 15 minute intermission, and of course we stood the whole time! From the opening notes of Limelight to the ending notes of Tom Sawyer and through the encore, the energy level was just incredible.

Bethany and Patrick went with us and really enjoyed the concert. Having seen Rush live adds another dimension to listening to their music and Patrick and I were discussing different aspects of their songs this morning.

This was one of the high points--and the end note--to what has been a really great summer.

The sound of men singing

One of my favorite sounds on this earth is the sound of male voices singing. A couple of times a year I have the privilege of being at the seminary for a service with a full-ish chapel. Today was such a day, and in spite of the mediocrity of the hymns and the less-than-wonderful Divine Service II from LSB, I did get to enjoy the full volume singing of This is the Feast and one hymn.

Those voices singing those songs in that setting always give me goosebumps.

Bubbling over with excitement

Okay, okay. I know I'm over 40 and a homeschooling mom of four, but I am so excited! Now, don't laugh.

We're going to see a RUSH concert!

I haven't seen RUSH in concert for over 20 years. Colin and I have seen them three times, and I really didn't think that they'd be touring again. But they are, and Colin and I are taking Bethany and Patrick to see them at the Verizon Music Center in August.

Pandora

If you listen to music while you're online you have to check out Pandora. I've had fun setting up some "stations" and I've already found a couple of artists that I hadn't listened to before that I am enjoying.

By the time I finally get an iPod I'm going to really know what I want.

Ballerinas, blue jeans and Barbie

Yesterday Principessa & I went to the ballet. We saw Cinderella performed by the Fort Wayne Ballet accompanied by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. It was a lovely classic performance and the music was wonderful. The costumes were exquisite.

As Bethany and I walked in behind a mom and daughter in jeans with a granddaughter in play clothes, she whispered, "They didn't read your blog." I am happy to report that they were the exception. There were many little girls in their finery accompanied by moms, aunts, and grandmas also dressed for a special occasion. (We will ignore the teenage girl in a tie-dyed tee shirt and sweats. It is too painful to recall.)

The little girl in front of us was a hoot. There were lots of very excited little ones in attendance, but she may have been the most exuberant. She had a ballerina Barbie. In fact, she had a ballerina Barbie with a spinning light-up skirt. It was quite a sight. Especially when the ushers caught a glimpse of the light flashing from the spinning skirt and thought that they had discovered another contraband camera.

As we left, my 20 year old said, "Mommy, I want to be a ballerina."