I love making mix tapes.  Okay, let me rephrase that for the twenty-first century:  I love putting together thematic playlists in iTunes and burning them onto CDs.   So, last night, I was in the mood to make a emo playlist (in the emotion sense of the word, not the hardcore music sub-genre sense of the word).  In search of inspiration, I reached out to my Twitter followers:

I received a ton of replies – quite varied in genre. I also received a few requests to post the list of responses.  So, here are the answers I received (without appropriate capitalization nor spell/accuracy-check, my apologies):

placebo - running up that hill

harry nilson - i can't live

mazzy star - fade into you

jeff buckley - last goodbye

sarah brightman - love changes everything

dead can dance - severance

glen hansard - falling slowly

gary jules - mad world

queen - the show must go on

leona lewis - happy

kelly clarkson - sober

christina aguilera - if you're out there, ordinary people

sigur ros - hoppipolla

elgar - nimrod

beach boys - god only knows

peter gabriel - book of love

al green - lets stay together

lauryn hill - ex factor, a song for you

pearl jam - black, in hiding, rearviewmirror, present tense

david grey - the other side

coldplay - speed of sound

tracy chapman - at this point in my life

kd lang - a case of you

amiee mann - wise up

velvet undergound - candy says

david bowie - word on a wing

john cale - ghost story

pink - long way to be happy

peter gabriel & kate bush - don't give up

annie lenox - into the west

loreena mckennitt - lady of shalott

wilco - my darling

israel kamakawiwo'ole - somewhere over the rainbow

dar williams - i had no right

the dresden dolls - sing

ani difranco - angry anymore

c.r. avery - pocket knife

joni mitchell - case of you

kate bush - the woman's work

u2 - stuck in a moment you can't get out of

springsteen - if i should fall behind

colin hay - i just don't think i'll ever get over you

pink floyd - wish you were here

ryan adams - la cienga

Also received the answer "anything by" the following groups:

the smiths

fiona apple

death cab for cutie

portishead

andrea bocelli

And several songs given sans artist:

danny boy

that girl crystal

piano man

total eclipse of the heart

major tom (coming home)

its raining men

leaving on a jet plane

amazing grace

swing low sweet chariot

And finally, soundtracks/movie songs:

suo gan from empire of the sun

hans zimmer  - thunderbird & gladiator soundtrack

god is trying to tell you something from the color purple

i know where i've been from hairspray

ae ajnabi from dil se

I haven’t had an opportunity to look up/listen to all of these songs yet, nor add my own choices & make a mix… but I will! Thanks Tweeps, you rock.  Literally.

I love the positive renewing energy that comes from a new year – and with 2010, we start a new decade!

In that spirit, here’s my list of things to improve upon, goals to reach, and things that I will do in 2010:  

1)     Get Healthier. Okay, yes, #1 is uber-cliché & conventional as far as New Year’s resolutions go.  But who couldn’t be healthier? Personally, I need to increase my HDL (“good cholesterol”) and reduce my TSH (thyroid level).  To achieve these goals, I have three things in mind: exercise more, eat more raw, fresh food, and keep better tabs on what exactly I DO put into my body & how much I actually DO exercise.  Fortunately, we have an elliptical machine, a fantastic Blendtec smoother blender which makes super-good fruit & veggie smoothies, and my ever-present pal, iPhone.  With all these convenient, modern technologies how can I not get back to a place of better health?  Of course, losing a bit of weight & getting stronger in the process are, of course, nice side benefits! :)

2)     Practice peaceful, positive discipline with my children more consistently and effectively! I recently purchased a pack of 52 cards to help me stay on track, called “Positive Discipline Parenting Tools: 52 Cards to Improve Your Parenting Skills”. The ideas presented on the cards are fantastic reminders to stay kind, positive, encouraging, and consistent in your interactions with your children.  They suggest positive discipline techniques without overusing praise or punishment. Just perusing some of the cards, I’ve found them to be helpful in making a natural progression from the Attachment Parenting techniques we’ve used with our children as infants/toddlers to preschoolers! If you’re interested in the cards, I purchased them here (not my site & I’m not affiliated, just had a good experience with my online purchase). 

3)     Read 10 books.  Now, ten may not sound that lofty to most.  Frankly it’s not to me either.  But with working, parenting, homemaking, gardening, blogging, etc., one of my favorite pastimes, reading, often gets left by the wayside, so I’m being realistic here folks. One book every 1.25 months I can do. I have 7 on my bedside table, ready to go. In fact, I just cracked the first one open!

4)     Write. More. Often. I so enjoy writing, yet like many other time consuming personal activities, since having children, I’ve pushed it to the backburner. So, 2010 is the year to bring quadrant two (non urgent, important [Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here's a quick review of Steven Covey’s Quadrants] to the forefront, and push quadrant 4 (non urgent, not important) to the background. And when I say write, I’m not talking about Twitter - because while it’s a fun place to share information – the time spent “writing” on twitter (and I use quotations as 140 characters dsnt leav mch rm 2 actuly wrt) could be much more productively spent actually writing. Like in my blog, or my novel (oh yes, I WILL complete it).

5)     Seeing Dave Matthews w/Tim Reynolds in concert. Yes, this is on my new years resolution list.  Why? It’s been nearly 20 years since I’ve had a real concert EXPERIENCE.  I’m craving one again, and from everything I’ve read, Dave will pull through for me.  I wasn't more than a sometimes fan of Dave Matthews until about two years ago when I stumbled upon his & Tim Reynolds’ Live at Radio City video on the home theatre display with my daughter in an unnamed big box store.  We sat & watched, entranced.  What a performer! Been a big fan ever since (and even got Adam hooked too). Its time to experience it in person!
 

So there you have it:  Get healthier, parent better, read more, write more, and see a good show.  That shouldn’t be too hard, right?  I’m up for the challenge! Who’s with me? I’d love to hear your resolutions – please share your comments!   

But I  -
I love it when you sing to me
And you -
You can sing me anything

~Peter Gabriel

And to my children, I have sung pretty much anything & everything to help them to sleep.  As a teen & 20-something, I sang in several choirs.  Many of those songs stayed with me; so naturally, when I became a lullaby-singing parent (to a colicky infant who required constant motion & song) my favorite English Madrigals, Sacred Songs, and Spirituals came right to mind. I admit, to not only not knowing (or bothering to learn) many “lullabies”, but to preferring interesting lyric & melody over repetitive humdrum (think Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star – ack!). As a result most of what I’ve sung as stand-ins are neither particularly light nor baby-related.  Not that rock-a-bye baby is light of lyric. Baby falling from a tree – sheesh.

Yet, certain songs I love to sing, and as a bonus, over the years I’ve found really work well to help baby (or toddler, or child) sleep. (Babies don’t care one lick what the words are; just keep singing.  And toddlers think my Latin is hilarious).

I’ll share with you some of my most beloved bedtime songs (random choirs on you tube just so you can get the tune – I do not vouch for the quality!):

Ride The Chariot (my son’s favorite)

I'm gonna ride the chariot
In the morning Lord
I'm gonna ride

Ride the chariot
In the morning Lord

I’m getting ready for the judgment day

My Lord, My Lord

Are you ready my brother/sister?

Oh yes

Are you ready for the journey

Oh yes

Do you want to see your Jesus

Oh yes, I’m waiting for the chariot ‘cause I’m ready to go

I never will forget that day
When all my sins were taken away
My feet were snatched from the miry clay

Blow The Candles Out  (my daughter’s favorite)

When I was ‘prenticed in Plymouth

I went to see my dear

The candles they were a-burning, the moon shone bright and clear

I knocked upon her window to ease her of her pain

She rose to let me in, then she barred the door again.

I like your good behavior darling, thus I often say

That I cannot rest contented while you are far away.

The winds they are so cold, that we cannot stay there out

So roll me in your arms, love, and blow the candles out.

Now Father & Mother in yonder room do lie

A-hugging one another, so why not you & I

A-hugging one another without a fear or doubt

So roll me in your arms, love, and blow the candles out.

Psallite! 

Psallite unigenito
Christo, Dei Filio,
Psallite Redemptori,
Domino, puerulo
jacenti in praesepio.
Ein kleines Kindelein liegt in dem Krippelein.
Alle lieben Engelein dienen dem Kindelein
und singen ihm fein.
Psallite unigenito...

(English Translation: Sing Your Psalms!

Sing your psalms to Christ,
the begotten Son of God,
sing your psalms to the Redeemer,
to the Lord, the little Child
lying in a manger bed.
A small Child lies in the manger.
All the blessed angels fall before Him
and sing.
Sing...)

The Silver Swan

The silver swan who living had no note
When death approached unlocked her silent throat
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore
Thus sung her first and last and sung no more:
Farewell all joys oh death come close my eyes
More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise

If Ye Love Me

If ye love me,
keep my commandments,
and I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another comforter,
that he may abide with you forever,
e'en the spirit of truth.

Please share with me YOUR favorite bedtime songs!

Inspired by an accidental (thank you  iTunes randomizer) listen to The Cure’s Staring At The Sea album yesterday morning, I realized I’ve often thought about & talked about my “top 10” albums ever, but never have actually created a list.

I know so many of you hang on my every word, as is evidenced by the amount of comments I get on my blog (Anyone?…Bueller?…), and so I’m sure you’ve be anxiously awaiting the day when I’d actually come through with this list, instead of incessantly chattering on about it. Well, dear readers, the wait is over!

Now, I’ve decided, seeing that it’s near impossible to narrow down hundreds, nay, thousands of albums to “ten favorites”, to instead, make this my “Desert Island Discs” list. That is: we shall imagine that at some point in the future, were I to be stranded on a desert island, with only 10 CDs, and a solar-powered CD player (that has, obviously, no other way of transmitting or otherwise getting myself off the island, or giving me access to additional music.  OBVIOUSLY.), that these would be the albums I would choose to listen to. Ad nauseum. Forever and ever, amen. 

So, the major qualification to make it on to THIS list, then, is that if a particular album came on, I’d willingly listen to it, in its entirely, pretty much any time, and could listen to it repeatedly. Which means quality of each song on the album, plus the album as a whole - is key. Which also means, that there COULD be better songs out there – in fact, I know there ARE better songs than what I’ve chosen, as I have several favorite artists (Tori Amos for one BIG one, actually – darn it, woman! And REM for another. Sheesh. And yes, I do notice that only one female artist made it on this list, and for that, I am annoyed and apologetic, yet perhaps more annoyed that I couldn’t find another female musician in my collection where I’d say an emphatic “YES!” to every song on the album.) that didn’t make this list because of their consistent inability to create an album with a cohesive mood or quality throughout. My reasoning for this qualification is that when you only have 10 discs to listen to for the rest of your life, you can’t have an album that contains one or two songs you’d like to fast forward over (okay, yes, I realize I’m dating myself with this post – both in use of the word DISCS and phrase FAST FORWARD.  But what can I do, I’m a child of the 70s. And 80s.).

These are in no particular order. That’s a challenge for another day (month, year, whatever).

So, with no further ado (and I often have quite a bit of ado), my 10 Desert Island Discs:

The Cure – Staring at the Sea (1986) - Good background music, no complaints.

The Pixies – Doolittle (1989) - For when I'm feeling a little riled up - say, I'm running out of coconuts.

Depeche Mode – Black Celebration (1986) - For my darker, moodier moments on the island.

Dave Matthews Band – Under the Table & Dreaming (1994) - because there's no way I could be on an island forever & not have Dave along for the ride.

Chopin - Nocturne #2 in E Flat, Prelude #4 in E Minor, Nocturne in C# Minor, Impromptu #4 in C# Minor  - Need piano.

Sinead O’Connor – I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990) - Got to have a strong woman along.

Peter Gabriel – So (1986) - Because there's nothing wrong with this album. And, In Your Eyes. 

John Denver – John Denver’s Greatest Hits (1973) - The only thing missing is Annie's Song, but I've got to have John.

Simon & Garfunkel – Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits (1972) - Couldn't go the rest of my life without harmonic perfection.
Coldplay – Parachutes (2000) - Just goodness.