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LenaLooBlog

Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Break-fast, Beatles, Bloggers, and Boys

So every time I have something amazingly awesome to blog about, I seem to forget that I keep a digi cam in my behemoth big mama purse to snap some shots of said awesome blog fodder... So my words will have to do for now :)

Last night, my friends and I had a Break-fast party... We had been fasting from specific things for the entire month of September to focus on our launch service (which you can check out here). Toby fasted from video games, Becky fasted from watching anything involving sarcastic humor (ie: Jon Stewart, Arrested Development, The Office), and I gave up refined sugar (because I had slightly elevated glucose levels and decided to give up something a little more than soda or candy)... I didn't think mine would be as hard as it was, because I am not really a sugar hound, but I didn't think of all the small things like Soy Chai's, Carmel Apple Cider's, and fro-yo... It was much harder than I imagined... Because I couldn't have them, pastries started invading my dreams... Donuts, Fritters, Funnel Cake... It was sick...

But anyway, last night we indulged in the things we fasted from together... And ate Breakfast for Dinner (or Brinner, as Frank likes to call it), consisting of Pancakes, Applewood Smoked Bacon, and Scrambled Eggs... Being the almost 8 month pregnant woman that I am, I also served up a nice 7 layer bean dip because I was craving it... Vicki also made Veggie soup as an appetizer and a bowl of Candy Corn was passed around too :)... It was quite a random meal lol... When we were done stuffing our faces, we busted out our dusty Rockband set and played some Beatles Rockband for a good couple of hours :)... Vicki and Frank kept debating what grades they were in when certain albums came out and we all had a blast singing and rocking out together :)...

Tonight I got the opportunity to join the fantastic Margret of Nanny Goats in Panties, her niece, who is a fellow WoW player and Horde girl :), and Jane of MidLife Bloggers in screening Clive Owen's latest film, "The Boys Are Back" at Downtown Plaza (or DTP as we like to refer to it as)...

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It was awesome... They warned us it would be a tear jerker, but it didn't feel like your average tragic family drama... We all three agreed that we felt like we were simply observing life, not watching a movie... The chemistry between the 3 actors was phenomenal, and I haven't seen child acting that good since Dakota Fanning's outstanding performance in "I Am Sam"... There were also some great one liners, delivered so smoothly that you almost missed them... I encourage you all to go see it, even if it is just in limited release... Oh and remind me never to leave Toby alone with our son for any good length of time lol...


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Friday, June 19, 2009

Music Through the Ages

So I have been listening to some blasts from my past lately and I decided to stick in an artist, an album, or song for each year of my life that I was probably listening to :) If you think this is fun, do it on your blog too :)

1983- (in the womb) The Eagles
1984- Wee Sing For Baby
1985- Wee Sing Silly Songs, Wee Sing Bible Songs,
1986- Mary Rice Hopkins
1987- Psalty
1988- KidSongs
1989- Raffi
1990- (Kindergarten) Greg and Steve, We All Live Together Vols 1-4

From here on out, each year happened to coincide with my grade in school, convienient huh?

1991- Little Mermaid Soundtrack, Oldies (KEARTH 101 was the only radio station I was allowed to listen to at this point), New Kids on the Block (only cause my friends big sister Tawney liked them, and she was cool), and there was def some MC Hammer time at their house too :)

1992 - Beauty and the Beast Soundtrack, Anything the Kids Incorporated or Mickey Mouse Club was singing (totally wasn't supposed to watch it BTW), More Oldies (pretty sure this is when Dad put his 8track/record player in my room and I got really into Jackson 5)

1993- Aladdin Soundtrack, Ace of Base, More Oldies, and whatever was being played at Skateland (the local roller rink, mostly Rap, R&B, and "Old Skool")

1994- Nirvana, Silver Chair, Bush, and (shhh don't tell the cool kids) The Lion King Soundtrack

1995- (again, keeping it on the DL) Pocahontas soundtrack, and Mariah Carey (yup Mimi herself lol)

1996- No Doubt (the love still continues, but this is when I got into them and surprised my big cousin cuz I knew who they were and she had been following them since she went to college with them at CSUF), Started getting into the Christian music scene, Rebecca St. James, Jaci Velasquez (before she got skanky - if you google my full madien name it pulls up a letter I wrote to a Christian music magazine about how bad she became lol), Started going to Christian concerts with youth group... Dad and I found we have very similar taste in music lol...

1997- Bone Thugs and Harmony (no joke), and sigh... Hanson :-P (def had my walls covered in pics), Continued with Christian music... Raze was in here somewhere, fun Christian dance band

1998- The OC Supertones, No Doubt, Save Ferris, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish (yeah I was cool again lol), Plank Eye - this was a big year for concert going, Knott's Berry Farm had multiple Christian concert days... Such fun...

1999- Must admit to being a bit of a teeny bopper: Britney when she was still young, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, NSYNC (not a big fan of the Backstreet Boys tho, dunno why), Jenny from the Block, lol... anything that could be danced to :)

2000- More Save Ferris love, Letters to Cleo (both from an obsession with 10 Things I Hate About You), Queen (yes, got my first real taste Sophmore year on the band bus), Aerosmith (yes, I am my father's daughter), RENT OBC Sountrack (even though I had never seen it and still haven't on stage), anything by Steven Sondheim, and over the summer got into a band called Timber that played at QMC and my dad and I went to see them a whole bunch), liked Creed as well for a bit (thanks Tobes lol)

2001- Really got into Jars of Clay, PAX217 (Dad too and we really became groupies because my cousin's buddies were in the band, Yeah Bobby and Tito), also got REALLY into Show tunes because I got more into Theatre (Little Shop of Horrors - though I already knew it by heart from Freshman year, heard Phantom for the first time, and Les Mis... omigosh...), I think Pink! hit the list around here, and I believe this is where Incubus started to get some heavy rotation too (Toby again I tell you lol)...

2002- Billy Joel, Charlotte Church, Josh Groban, Andre Boccelli (can you tell this is when I started really singing lol), More showtunes from Performing Arts Acadamey (Cole Porter, the Berlin's, Gershwin, and Gilbert & Sullivan), the Moulin Rouge sountrack became a staple on my playlist this year, as did Tori Amos (thanks Alia), fell back in love with old Michael Jackson music, and learned a love for RHCP (Red Hot Chili Peppers that is... Higher Ground is my fav song), ooo and Jamiraquoi hit the list too (alright it was the soundtrack from Center stage that did it)... was introduced to the good side of country music and way more classic rock, also got really into Jimmy Eat World, Alicia Keys, Michelle Branch, and Vannessa Carlton over the summer (singin' while driving my '65 Chevy Deuce Nova and gettin' a tan while working as a lifeguard at Knott's Soak City - my first real job)

2003- This was the year I met my love John... Mayer that is... Cristal, Ashley and I rocked out to him on many a beach day, also got way into country music (Brad Paisly, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Keith Urban, yes, even the Dixie Chicks...), The Jekyll and Hyde musical was added to my list this year when Cristal and Ash performed in it... haunting... also blasted some Black Eyed Peas while boating in Havesu with the fam I nannied for, Switchfoot, Johnny Come Lately, and Nuber One Gun hit the Christian Music list for me this year too (Good times hangin' with the JCL guys at camp, playing board games and bear "hunting" after all the kiddos went to bed)

2004- More John, also added Jack Johnson to the list and Jason Mraz, became infatuated with Evenescence... I worked at a Posh Private Junior High this year and so I got really into pop and "new" rock again... also started watching the OC... good music on that show - Keane, Roonie, Modest Mouse, The Killers, Yeah Yeah Yeah's, and Yellowcard to name a few... This was also the first year I watched American Idol straight through... Loved me some Diana DeGarmo... whatever happened to her? In Christian Music: The Elms and Superchick made it onto my list

2005- APU days... Much David Crowder Band and Barlow Girl, and lots of music "sharing" from some itunes hack we had on campus :) more country and showtunes were found, but also quite a bit of hard rock... 30 Seconds to Mars, Perfect Circle, Tool, some Showbread, Mars Volta, Coheed and Cambria (most of this stuff has left my playlist, I must say... It was attatched to someone)

2006- Moved to Sacramento (actually in summer of '05) and started dating hubby... Got influxed by everything he likes (Imogen Heap, Frou Frou, Linkin Park, much more Jars, Third Day, Garden State Soundtrack - tho I loved the movie before we dated, O Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack)...

2007- Picked up some fun stuff from Buffy and many of the other shows and movies I watched with roommate Karen (Across the Universe, August Rush tho they may have both been in '08 not sure), Michael Buble hit my playlist hard when Toby and I started taking dance lessons (tho I already had a few faves by him), Natasha Beddingfield became a fave with two little lines "try to focus my attention, but I feel so A.D.D.", Pat Monahan of Train blew me away at a small radio station concert we got free tix to, and Howie Day's Collide became "our song" when we chose it as our first dance as man and wife

2008- Sarah Barielles, Fergie, and Colbie Calliet topped the list, More Musicals (Wicked, Hairspray, and Enchanted... all thanks to Karen and Gracie), Chris Brown (after David Archuleta did "With You" on AI... watched the whole season this time and fell in love with Carly Smithson, David A, and David Cook, Brooke White has a special spot in my heart too... I spent like $45 on downloads from iTunes that I listen to all the time), also learned to love Rush (stupid Rockband), and picked up some Journey too (hee hee)

2009- Meiko, Ingrid Michaleson, Paramore (and the whole Twilight soundtrack - thanks Kare!), Regina Spektor, Plain White T's (darn those cheezy lyrics), I also have a new found love for Beyonce and Rihanna thanks to Xica, Adam Lambert stole my ear this year on AI and even though he didn't win he is an AMAZING performer (shrooms and all)... and I must say, I am on another Billy kick right now too :) and Jar's of Clay is getting quite a bit of play with their new album too :)

So even tho I only mentioned certain artists during certain years, once I started on them I pretty much didn't stop... Seriously... I still have me some Greg and Steve in a CD case somewhere (and it will probably be back to the early years for me in music once this little one decides to grace us with his or her presence hee hee)

I decided it would be fun to do this, but I have been working on it for almost 3 hours now... Baby needs some food peoples! If you enjoyed this, feel free to copy my silly idea and let me know so I can see what ya'll have been boppin' along to through the years :)


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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Lena the Critic lol

So every time Jars of Clay comes out with a new album, I push it away at first because I love their original stuff so much... The Self Titled Album is and will always be my favorite... And this is a band that basically seems to reinvent itself every time they write... I told the boys that I really don't get it this time (they laughed and said I wouldn't)... But I don't think I really tried because I am so stuck on the band they were in 1995, fresh out of college... When I started to realize that each album has been a continuation of their growth as people and artists, I began to appreciate each one differently... I read this interview with them today after listening to the album last night with new ears it seemed... I get it now, and I love how candid they are about their feelings on this album, and it is exactly what I need right now... If you haven't listened to Long Fall Back to Earth, you should give it a try... It is very human...
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Button Button, Who's Got a Button?

What? I Got An Award???

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