Ethan's Musical Taste

Last night, Mark and I were watching Californication. David Duchovney's daughter on the show played a song that I recognized with her band but I couldn't place it right away because it was a teenage girl singing it and it was acoustic. We realized after a few minutes that is was "I Remember You" by Skid Row. I ran to my itunes to listen to the authentic Skid Row version which has lots of guitars and awesomeness, as any monster ballad does, and discovered *gasp* I do not own that song. What kind of 80's hair band fan doesn't have that song? It was downloaded immediately.

Today, I decided to make a CD of my favorite monster ballads to listen to while I'm cleaning the kitchen in my wall-mounted CD player. Here is the playlist:


I Remember You, Skid Row
Heaven, Warrant
High Enough, Damn Yankees
To Be With You, Mr. Big
When I See You Smile, Bad English
The Flame, Cheap Trick
Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Poison
Is This Love, Whitesnake
Without You, Motley Crue
Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad, Def Leppard
I'll Be There For You, Bon Jovi
What About Love, Heart
The Search Is Over, Survivor
I Want To Know What Love Is, Foreigner


Now, I need to tell you that although I have felt the flutters and a few kicks and punches from Ethan, the movement I can feel is not consistent yet, and the Dr. tells me it could be many weeks until it is. I mostly feel things late at night, not usually in the day. I started washing dishes and listening to my CD and suddenly, the kicking and punching is strong, fierce, and non-stop! I turned the music off for a minute and he stopped. Put it back on and he started again.

I'm not sure what this says about his musical taste. Perhaps he loves the monster ballads, just like his Mom and Dad do. Maybe he hates it with a fiery passion and prefers the lyrical hip-hop stylings of Notorious B.I.G.? I'm not sure yet. It may sound like Charlie Brown's teacher is singing to him no matter what I'm blasting out my speakers. I just found his strong reaction today hilarious and wanted to share.

Here's some 80's goodness for you monster ballad lovers. Sebastian Bach is so pretty. His hair is awesome!:

Musically, I am a Hippie

Mark's alarm went off at 5am this morning and for once, it woke me up instead of him. Wide awake. Not awesome for my chart (I take my temp at 6am every day)  but what can I do?

So I decided to be nice and make a pot of coffee and some high protein oatmeal for Mark. Anyone that is facebook friends with me knows that I love listening to music in the morning, so much so that when a particular song that I'm feeling comes up on itunes or pandora, I feel compelled to post a link to that song on my facebook and label it "Morning Music." No one really cares, but I do it all the time.

That brings me to this morning. I had made a pandora station based on the song "The Weight" by The Band because I had that song in my head for some reason. I was swaying around my kitchen, grinding coffee beans, boiling water, wiping counters and having a great time because Crosby, Stills and Nash came on followed by John Denver followed by Jackson Browne followed by Loggins & Messina followed by Neil Young followed by John Lennon and I was loving it. Then I had a moment of clarity: musically, I am a Hippie.

I am very hippie-ish in lots of other ways too, don't get me wrong but let's just focus on music for now. Most people my age would be listening to Top 40, pop-princess, latest generic rock band whatever. I can be in the mood for that sometimes too. But if I am looking to be in a good mood or to sing along or to feel something, musically, I will take this pandora station over the Top 40 songs any day of the week.

Guilty Pleasure Music: My Top 10

Have you ever found yourself rocking out to a song that you are totally embarrassed to admit you like? We've all been there. This morning I was doing my usual make coffee/check e-mail/listen to itunes on random and Phil Collins "Throwing It All Away" came on. It got me thinking about the fact that I would never drive down the block with my windows open blasting that song...but I love it anyway.

So let's blow the lid off this shameful secret and own up to our guilty pleasure songs!

10. Up Where We Belong- Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes

Cheesiest Line: "where eagles fly on a mountain high"

Reason I love it: the sentiment and Joe Cocker's raspy voice

9. Suddenly Seymore- Little Shop of Horrors 2003 Broadway Revival Cast    

Cheesiest Line: "I'd meet a man and I'd follow him blindly. He'd snap his fingers, me I'd say sure"

Reason I love it: It's totally campy, I love the musical and it is so much fun to sing along to

8. Danny's Song- Loggins and Messina

Cheesiest Line: "Pisces, Virgo rising is a very good sign"

Reason I love it: I love the chorus and the sentiment

7. Both Sides Now- Judy Collins (originally Joni Mitchell)

Cheesiest Line: "Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air"

Reason I love it: It is quite possibly the most honest song about just living life that I have ever heard.

6. Let the River Run- Carly Simon (from the soundtrack of Working Girl)

Cheesiest Line: "we the great and small stand on a star and blaze a trail of desire"

Reason I love it: I'm not quite sure...I just love it. Maybe because I love Workng Girl?

5. The Winner Takes It All- ABBA

Cheesiest Line: "The Gods may throw the dice, their minds as cold as ice"

Reason I love it: I love the buildup...soft and slow to full on disco. Love to sing along while I'm vacuuming.

4. After All- Cher and Peter Cetera (from the movie Chances Are)
Cheesiest Line: "Two angels who've been rescued from the fall"
Reason I love it: I saw Chances Are in the movie theatre because there was a character named Miranda....and I fell in love with Robert Downey jr.

3. Hungry Eyes- Eric Carmen (from the movie Dirty Dancing)
Cheesiest Line: "I want to hold you so hear me out. I want to show you what love's all about"
Reason I love it: Quintessential 80's song. I love the saxophone..and I can't help but think of the music montage of Patrick Swayze teaching Jennifer Grey how to dance...swoon worthy.

2. You Give Good Love- Whitney Houston
Cheesiest Line: "take this heart of mine into your hands"
Reason I love it: the definition of a "slow jam." Plus, I love that crackhead Whitney!!

1. It's All Coming Back to Me Now- Celine Dion
Cheesiest Line: "all the tears turned to dust and I just knew my eyes were drying out forever"
Reason I love it: I love drama and theatrics and this song is definitely those things and more. It's got a haunting background piano and lots of strings and Wikipedia just told me that it is based on the Emily Bronte novel "Wuthering Heights." Power Ballad doesn't even begin to describe how epic this song is.

This was so hard to make! I've got lots of other guilty pleasure songs hiding in my itunes but I think this list is a good representation of them. What are your guilty pleasure songs?

I Wanna Rock!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to post quickly because Mark and I had so much fun last night, probably the first time I genuinely had a good time in several weeks. We went to see Rock of Ages, a new musical on Broadway that basically takes all it songs from 80's hair bands. I was expecting it to be cheesy but fun, it ended up being just plain fun!! Here are some of my favorite 80's songs that they used in the musical:

Heaven by Warrant
To Be With You by Mr. Big
More Than Words by Extreme
I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner
Here I Go Again by Whitesnake
Every Rose Has It's Thorn by Poison
The Search Is Over by Survivor
Don't Stop Believin and Any Way You Want It by Journey

Sounds like fun right! Lot's of people were going crazy over the star of the show, some guy named Constantine, apparently from American Idol (I don't watch so I had no idea who he was.) He did a great job, so the attention is well deserved. Anyway, I recommend it for a really good time, just don't bring the kiddies!