Words fail me, briefly. 

This news from today is a bittersweet sadness that took a few hours to really sink in.  God loves her and has her and Martin in His arms now.  One of the greatest women of our time, and a real angel and example for us all.  Mrs King exemplified all that is good on this earth...she sang like a bird, loved unconditionaly, devoted herself to those less fortunate, and set the standard for caring contemporary human behaviour. 

I'm in too many tears to come up with anything else.  Love. 

During a phone meeting with my boss today, my mind starting drifting off as he was rambling on about net sales reports or some other nonsense and I momentarily blacked out and had an epiphany. Let's pray the following scenario never happens.

If Lenny Kravitz and Angelina Jolie ever spawned a child, the world would instantly implode, because I dont think the delicate balance of the universe would be able to tolerate the extreme existance of that type of beautiful, sexy, and supreme specimen of a  human. The grand human genetic ultimate would be acheived and at that moment the world as we know it would end.

Next to Febreze, I'm fully certain that Real Rhapsody http://www.real.com/rhapsody is the greatest innovation of the last one hundred years.  I don't know what I did before deciding to shell out the meezly $9.99 a month for this incredible program.  Well, I actually do know...I either was a criminal during the wild west days of the illegal first incarnation of Napster or spent a bloody fortune on CDs every week.

More than a million and a half tunes and growing.  You can look up just about any artist, tune, or album and hear great stuff. 

One of the coolest features offered is an ability to construct your own "radio stations", based on a list of artists that you input.  Rhapsody then will proceed to not only play tunes from these artists, but also plays artist deemed similar to the ones you input, letting you experience great new music you may never have come across otherwise! Just amazing.

I make sure I keep myself open to as many genres of music as possible, thanks in large to Dennis, an aquaintance of mine back in Chatta_Vegas, TN.  We were kickin it at the Brass Register back in the mid 80's.  I was convinced that no good music was being made anymore and was boohooing the fact that David Bowie, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop just sucked now and music as I knew it had died.

Dennis absolutely lambasted me about this statement and I got an earful about how great new music is being made every minute and it should all be appreciated for what it is.  I have given as many types of music a fair listen since then and now my musical taste is very far flung and wide. The music I love covers a lot of varied ground.

There are some great artists that I could spend a solid night listening to nothing but any one of their catalogs of  music. My ABSOLUTE favorites in no special order are....

David Bowie (always first..THE absolute genius still)      

Kate Bush      

Lou Reed      

Patti Smith      

Marvin Gaye      

Serge Gainsbourg (thanks Tiffany for that Valentines night)       

The Police     

Kraftwerk      

Elvis Costello      

Nina Simone (swoon)      

Parliament/Funkadelics/Bootsy/George Clinton       

Aretha Franklin      

Mahalia Jackson (swoon)      

Big Mama Thornton (my girl that never gets the rightful credit for creating rock and roll..she was rocking hard core in the late 40's/early 50's way before EP..EP ripped off her song Hound Dog and scored a big hit.  Big Mama made it all happen and is the real deal....listen.)     

James Brown (in my opinion you have to be in a coma or dead if you don't love him)

Patsy Cline (swoon)     

Loretta Lynn       

Tammy Wynette (Shawn and I recorded a pretty mean version of "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad" when we were kids..this is to this day my chosen kareoke song)

George Jones

Johnny Cash

Ludacris (gotta love the ATL boi)      

50 Cent      

Snoop      

Etta James      

Billie Holiday  (swoon)    

Bette Midler       

R.E.M.      

Siouxie and the Banshees      

Antony and the Johnsons      

The Cure      

Barry White

Janis Ian         

Pink Floyd       

Talking Heads       

Air      

The Clash       

XTC      

Blondie      

The Pretenders      

Ruth Brown      

Johnny "Guitar" Watson       

The White Stripes      

Beck       

The Smiths        

Andrew Bird       

Astrud and Bebel Gilberto       

Elton John (yet another ATL boi)     

Lenny Kravitz (doesn't hurt that he is d/d gorgeous)      

Grace Jones        

Theivery Corporation        

Rinocerose      

Scissor Sisters       

Yaz and Alison Moyet      

Eurythmics      

OMD      

Gary Numan       

Kid Loco       

Mott the Hoople      

T Rex       

Outkast (also ATL bois)       

The Kinks       

The Who       

Mozart      

Chopin (swoon)       

Pink Anderson       

Zero 7       

Nat King Cole (swoon)       

Chemical Brothers       

Fischerspooner        

X (have a crush on Exene to this day!)        

Pearl Jam       

Tina Turner      

Miles Davis       

Chet Baker (swoon)      

Bob Marley       

Black Uruhu       

Cesaria Evora (swoon)       

Bebe and Cece Winans      

Cypress Hill      

Lena Lovich       

Leon Redbone   

Sure I may have left out a couple, but these are the brilliant tune makers that have provided the soundtrack to my life. 

I can't imagine a day without touching base with at least one of these great artists.  I either listen to them or some of their tunes run through my mind every single day.

What is the soundtrack to your life?                                      

 

 

 

 

 

This photo was included in an email from Shawn, among several very cute photos of cats and dogs in various adorable poses.  Oh please don't flame her or me, I AM NOT an advocate of violence toward any creatures, and I do like cats ok and she loves em.

This would be a great "fill in the caption" thingy.  Was this some drug deal gone horribly wrong?  Did a homeowner find the little bugger trying to break in the window and steal his Plasma TV?  Is this a hold up...does the desperate thug not clearly see the kitten does not have any pockets, and can therefore not be in possession of anything of true value?

The email she sent included this nice quote from Dr. Suess.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. (Dr. Seuss)

 

I got this in an email from John and thought it was kinda funny....

"What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever
wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We
have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over
100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these
questions:

If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that while Hard Work
and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's
the Bullshit and Ass Kissing that will put you over the top"