Category Archives: music

Feb11

Great Grammy program

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It seemed like it was more of 3.5 hours of a musical extravaganza than an awards show this year. It was the 50th anniversary, and they did a wonderful job of entertaining us for all that time. The View just showed the highlight of the evening-Herbie Hancock, Lang Lang and a full orchestra doing their rendition of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’. Loved seeing Beyonce booging with 68 yr old Tina Turner. And the opening number with Alicia Keyes singing along with old film footage of Frank Sinatra was awesome too.
Keyes sings with ol’Blue eyes

I spent the time stitching the zebra, who seems ok now, not a stitch off or anything. I am also clipping magazines-and being really selective about what I am clipping. I am looking for images for my art cards/collages and some recipes and craft ideas. I happened upon an article about thyroid issues. I was told I didn’t have a problem, but one of the woman had ‘normal’ readings and had 3 or 4 different opinions before a specialist said she had a thyroid problem. I think mine gets wonky maybe? I plan to have a physical after Brian gets his bloodwork results back. Frankly, I am nervous as my nerves have been tested a bit these last few months.

My brother had a meltdown about my mom’s house yesterday. I knew he would sooner or later as he is trying to do too much in too short a time. I was angry to hear he threw an nice tall boy kind of desk away. I had spent a long time scrapping paint off it years ago. It’s made out of an unusual wood too. I am so glad I got my great aunt’s hutch out of there years ago! I love antiques. I wish I could help more, but I can’t lift. I can sort, I can take stuff to the Goodwill. I can certainly dust and clean. I think he needs to take a break and do something he likes.

I’m probably going out later to mail some books. I got a half.com sale too-probably a book I had listed for over two years-I need to find it!

And it was about 10 degrees out this morning and around 2 where Sean is. Speaking of Sean, he needs to get his housing issue settled soon. I need to proof a paper for him too.

Dec16

Another old lang syne

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My heart is very heavy tonight as I learned of the passing of one of my favorite singers Dan Fogelberg.

Rest in peace Dan

Dan had prostate cancer for about 3 years or so and this is what took him at the age of only 56. He left behind some beautiful music. Brian and I saw him at the Spectrum in Philly back in about 1983 or so and he was wonderful. Mom reminded me that we used Dan’s song ‘Longer’ when we got married. We’ve been hearing ‘ Another Old Lang Syne’  a lot  as it’s in the Christmas mix on the radio. I kept wondering how he was. My uncle is a prostate cancer survivor and in his early 80s. Dan’s website expresses how we need to get our men in for that ‘exam’. I really want Bri to get one now that he is 50.

Dan Fogelberg

I don’t know if I can listen to Dan anymore. That happened to me following the passing of Jim Croce and then John Denver. Right now it’s hard.

Sep15

Found this neat place

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Frazy.com lets you search for your favorite books, music and movies so you can make a neat table like this. These aren’t all of James Taylor’s lps, but a nice sampling of them. I have my list of movies up on Myspace-the link is in my sidebar.

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powered by frazy.com

I’m still working on the Photo Hunt about plastic. I think I’ll just point you down to that plastic college ID of yours truly!
Got up a little late as I didn’t get to sleep until after 2 am. Driving sometimes does that to me since I am over alert (a good thing, when I am on the road).
I happened upon ‘Meerkat Manor’ on Animal Planet-what funny little creatures. I know the producers, etc. don’t want to disturb the balance of nature, but how can they let the little babies die from starvation? I was hoping they take them back to a animal rescue, if there is one out there.

Meerkats!

Apr1

Feeling cultured

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Woo-hoo! I’m the blog of the minute on wordpress as I type this. : ) **bows** Hey is that April Fool’s maybe?

SO, last night the three of us headed to Wilmington, DE to hear The Delaware Symphony Orchestra at the Grand Opera house. The ride there is very scenic, and I don’t know why we don’t go to Wilmington more often. All the years we lived here and we never took Sean to the Brandywine Zoo! They say three is the charm (how many times Bri and I have been to the GOH) and we didn’t get lost, we actually got there 40 minutes early. A requirement for Sean’s History of Western Music course was for him to hear a professional concert of classical music. We were thinking of Philly, and then the instructor mentioned the DSO. I also have an Entertainment coupon book and we have one for the DSO and got $13 knocked off of one of the tickets-Sean was only $10.

I can’t really remember hearing a symphony orchestra. I have heard orchestras with stage plays though. We sat in the balcony and it was awesome up there. Many of the other patrons were elderly folks. A few kids were mixed in.

The guest pianist was a man named Christopher O’Riley. He was wonderful. First he played a awarding winning composer’s ode to Liberace. After that he played Strauss which was what Sean came to hear. He reminded me of a shorter and brown haired Conan O’ Brien.

Christopher O’Riley

I would recommend anyone going to hear a concert like this. It’s interesting to watch the musicians play and to distinguish the different sounds of the instruments.

We amazingly didn’t get lost going home. It’s always good to have directions printed out, but we just had to back track.

Nov30

JT’s Musicare Man of Year show

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Thanks to Sean, I had a nice evening last night. When he came home from classes, he said he had read that James was going to be on PBS at 9. It didn’t take me long to realize it was probably the show honoring him from March of this year-Musicare’s Man of the Year award show to be exact. It was really a great program! Lots of musicians singing JT songs. JT looking so fine and modest in the audience in his dark suit and ice blue silk tie. Seeing the little 5 yr old Taylors-Rufus (I thought it was Logan) and Henry booging with their uncle Livingston on stage while dad got into ‘How Sweet it Is’. So this was a treat for me and I know what to ask for, the DVD for Christmas!

Nov17

Bianca’s First CD!

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Bianca Ryan’s first CD is out!! Remember she’s the young lady who won ‘America’s Got Talent’ back in August? I am thrilled for her (she’s from Philly too). I hope someone here gets it for me (Sean is shopping today, so just maybe!) Be sure to click on the yellow arrow on the page if you can get to it. I thought I gave you the correct linkage. Let me know.

Oct18

Showing some JT love

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This is a screen capture of James and his only daughter and eldest child, Sally about 9 years ago in Milan. She sang with her dad here. We got to see Sally with her own group about 5 yrs ago.
And this is one of the little Taylors-not his grandson, but one of his five yr old twins either Henry or Logan. James had won the Musicare award this year and this was probably after the ceremony. I hope to get the DVD of the event-hint-hint guys!

Why do I like JT so much-because I’ve listened to him since I’ve been 13. : )

Oct17

I’m so excited!

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Even though this will be the fourth time (third for Brian, God bless him) I’ve seen James Taylor, I can’t wait until 8 pm! I’ve seen him with my brother Don back in 1979; Bri in ’82 before we were married; and then with Bri and Sean in ’97. Those concerts were at the Mann Music Center in Philly-partially indoors with lawn seating too. Tonight should be like a private concert (well almost) as it’s just JT and his keyboard player. I’ll update this post later.
Update-We had a nice evening with James even though the traffic on 69th St near the Tower Theater was stalled for about 15 minutes and I thought for sure we’d be late. He didn’t come on stage until 8:20 anyway. I had a clear view of him for about 45 minutes until the couple in front of us showed up. Then it was hard to see as the guy had his arm around his girlfriend and invaded my personal space-so I moved over. I guess we were about 75-80 feet from the stage.
It was a nice chat, show some photos on a big screen and sing about what he just talked about kind of show. He opened with ‘Something in the Way She Moves’. He brought this contraption out that was a computer programmed drum set basically (I read in a review that he had built it himself!). He sang a song ‘Slap Leather’ through a bullhorn-too funny! I liked when he showed a short video of his nephew James as a tyke before he sang the song he wrote for him called ‘Sweet Baby James’. People think that’s JT’s nickname.
James had a video of the chorus that his wife Kim is in and he sang along to ‘Shower the People’ and ‘Traveling Star’ with them. When he was on ‘Saturday Night Live’ many years ago, he sang along to a reel to reel tape recorder (of famous singers at the time) to ‘Shower the People’.
We scooted out before he sang his second encore which I think was ‘You Close Your Eyes’. The area where the theater is located is a little run down now, so we got ahead of the mass of people and got home by 11:45 even after stopping for milk and bread.

My mom is having cataract surgery at the beginning of December. Yesterday was the day she had all the drops put in her eyes, not the day I went with her. She had to sit a while afterwards, but she found her way to the mall where she purchased Sean some birthday gifts. That guy is so hard to buy for! I have a few things for him-some coming in the mail. I hope the shirt will be the correct size. Not sure if the size pull-down menu even recorded the correct size. Guess I’ll find out in a few days.

I had Jehovah’s Witness people ring my doorbell twice before 10 this morning. I’m not dressed as I have to shower, but that’s a great way to get them moving on their way. They haven’t been on my front step in years.

It’s a rainy day here too-drats! I hope it clears a bit by the time we have to leave.