Music to my ears

Best album .09 |   Little Joy   |  Swell Season |  Adele

It's funny, I don't really have whole albums very often anymore.  Like most of the world, I mostly pick and choose individual songs from iTunes and skip the package deal.  It certainly is more efficient and cheap(usually) and it lets me explore a lot of different music but I do miss discovering a lesser known song (ah, the demise of the B sides...) from the days of buying a whole artists' album.

I did opt for the album a few times, though:

Little Joy was a new find this year and I loved listening to it, especially this summer.

I loved Swell Season's Strict Joy (and NPR picked it as one of the top albums this year)

But if I had to choose an album of the year, one that when I hear it in the future it will zip me right back to 2009, it would have to be Adele.  Soulful, playful, gorgeous, and heartfelt.  I caught her concert at the Orpheum earlier this year and it only increased my faithfulness to this album.  So there you go, album of the year 09.

Plus, Pandora is my best friend. (Do you pandora? What's your favorite station?)

Enjoy:

Little Joy's Brand New Start

Swell Season's Feeling the Pull

Adele's Feel My Love

Adele's Crazy for You

. . .

Best of .09: Best album. What's rocking your world?

Glass choir

During Thanksgiving dinner the kids were enjoying getting a ringing sound from sliding their fingertips along the rim of the glasses. So afterwards, Lauren assembled a line of glasses, brought in the tuner and created a chromatic scale, goblet style. The rest of the weekend they spent experimenting with sheet music and original compositions (read: random playing).

It was kind of like when they were kids and they would spend hours building forts or playing with boxes.  Who knew a few glasses would keep the teenagers so busy? 

Car talk

Here's how it goes every morning: G and Lauren get up by 5, leave for seminary (early morning religious class for high schoolers) at 5:30.  G drops her off at 6 and goes on in to work.  Because she's the only one at seminary who attends her high school, I leave at 6:30 and go pick her up and take her to school, arriving home around 7:20.  (Are you with me?  Is this the most exciting paragraph you've ever read?)

Now I'm no early bird. But in spite of the crack-of-dawnness, that hour or so is one of my favorites in the day. The sunrise is usually stunning. And it's great chat time with my eldest child, just the two of us (as long as I'm not driving to seminary and all in a dither about punctuality).  Don't you love how driving in a car opens up kids to all kinds of topics and reflections? 

In addition to deepest thoughts and shallowest observations, we share music. Today Journey's Don't Stop Believing came on, a tune which always brings up memories of jr. high afternoon dances and the confusion about whether it was a slow song or a fast one.  We were singing along and I belted out the words.

"Mom, those aren't the right lyrics."

"What?! I think I know my own era songs, thankyouverymuch."

"Mom, really, listen when that line comes up again."

I did. 

She was right.

It's not "born and raised and self-destroyed" which is how I've been singing it. All. These. Years. Apparently (as I'm sure you all know) it's "born and raised in South Detroit." Whatever. I think my lyrics make more sense.  And more universal, for those of us non-Michiganites.

Turnabout is fair play, though; Lauren was just getting me back from this time.  

. . .

grateful for: the boost I feel after exercising, our 8 p.m. nightly gathering as a family, and keeping in touch with longtime friends (just had a great phone chat with my college roommate this afternoon)

Magnificent

weekend.
Thanks for coming, friends.

Jen, me, Deirdre, Vicki (behind the camera) at Burdick's Chocolate in HarvardSquare (fantastic truffles and decadent hot chocolate). Such a beautiful day. Or days. I love showing people around Boston and this weekend the city put on her best weather and represented well (not a city of blinding lights, but almost). Good food, a bit of sightseeing, great chats. It was a great chance to get together and do what friends do: show up, support + love, laugh, scheme, and be serious and indignant and silly at all the right moments. I feel refilled + replenished and hope they do too.

Anyway...

Uno, dos, tres, catorce...

Before the show. Yes, we came early...

but it was worth it.

I wasn't really prepared for how emotional an experience it would be. U2 has provided the soundtrack for a lot of my life. So many images came flooding back to me: moments of longing, joy, heartbreak, memories both manic and melancholy. There were some great melodies woven into the setlist. They combined One + Amazing Grace, added Blackbird to Beautiful Day, and a sing-along Stand by Me that got me all teary. It was such a great night*. Can't wait until next time, whenever that is. (The other three are heading to Vegas in October to see them again, the luckies.)

Now to get back to real life...

p.s. If you go (or are planning on it) get general admission tickets on the floor. I loved our seats--and they were on the 30th row so pretty good!--but if I did it again I would sacrifice sitting for being up close at the band's feet.

Hands down

...the best Michael Jackson tribute yet. (Thanks to my brother Matt for sharing.)

(and then he added "doesn't this make you want to be Episcopalian?" since he is.)