I love how he refers to the experiment as living as they did in the mid 90s. Yeah, I remember back in the olden days. How did we ever survive without facebook and texting? :p

Get the Full Story

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Sara Bareilles has recently released the first single off her sophomore album.  The album will be named “Kaleidoscope Heart” and will be released sometime late this summer.

I am so fucking stoked is all I can really say.  It has been three years since “Little Voice” came out and I have just about played out the cd.  It is not very often that an album comes along that every song is great.  The album is so good that I hate to split the songs up by putting them on my mp3 player or a mix tape.

“Little Voice” was influential and changing in my life and has earned its place on my top 10 albums of all time list.  Can not wait to hear what she has for us next.

OK, enough gushing.

The new single is called “King of Anything” and it has me very excited to hear the rest of the album.  It is a bit of a Fuck You song, which is always great but it also has the driving piano melody, pointed lyrics, sing-a-long, dance in your car with it blaring out the windows thing that makes Sara so phenomenal.

Check it out and enjoy!

Get more info on the upcoming record and make sure to check out the “Making of…” webisodes

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It just happens that I am reading this book right now. I just thought that was a funny coincidence, so I thought I would share it with you.

It looks like the third book of this trilogy has just come out. Ooh, I better get reading. I didn’t even know this was a trilogy. I am a total sucker for series books. I just never want the story to end.

So far I am really loving it. It did take me three times to get through the first chapter, but I knew this was coming since a friend of my gave it to me to read and she said it is a little hard to get into, but once you get past page 40 or so it is a total page turner.

I have to agree whole heartedly. It is a little dense at the very beginning, but it is necessary back-story so don’t skip ahead. Just start this one when you are in a reading mood.  I’m really looking forward to the can’t put it down moments that are sure to come.

I will come back and update this post once I have finished the book.

For now, here are links to all three books. Let’s get reading…

Book 1: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Book 2: The Girl Who Played with Fire
Book 3: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

Or, get all three books in a hardbound collection for your library.

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This is my new favorite children’s book and I just needed to share it with you.

An important and inspiring message of living life more fully.

A must have addition to every child’s book collection.

I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine has.

The Pink Refrigerator by Tim Egan

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My Son Ian at Banks Lake 2009

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As a mom and someone who loves there mom dearly, this song makes me cry every time I hear it – every time.

Mom, I love you so much.

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Every year before our Memorial Day Weekend camping trip to Banks Lake in eastern Washington we make a “mix tape”. Wow, I’m old. What do you call it these days anyway? A compilation CD? Too formal. A Mix CD? Sounds dumb. Oh well, anyway…

We create this cd as a sort of time capsule, documenting the popular music of the year and it becomes my summer soundtrack, mostly because I am one of those people who never changes the cds in the car. Karli also does a lot of music discovery and comes up with stuff that I would never find but usually grow to love. I also try to include songs from several other categories. Something that was just released. Someone making a comeback. Songs that were influential this last year. And there always seems to be one old song that we just discovered or rediscovered.

Because it also has to serve as the music that lives in my car for the next year, it needs to upbeat, happy and sound good loud. No slow songs unless they are incredible or fit perfectly into one of the essential categories. I also take great care in the ordering of the cd. Making the perfect mix tape is an art form that I have been enjoying and partaking in since high school. The order of and grouping of songs as well as the transitions between songs are very important.

This was the first year that we had to take the kid’s likes and dislikes into account. We don’t listen to any children’s music really, sometimes some Barenaked ladies or Jack Johnson who both have children’s albums. But really our kids just like to listen to regular music. We mostly make them listen to what we like, but the Rhapsody Tivo interface was wonky for a few months and all we could easily get through the TV and stereo system in the house was the Rhapsody Top Tracks, which includes mostly top forty stuff. Because of this the kids have developed a definite opinion about what they like and so we gave them a nod on this cd.

Nickelback for Ian, he likes the hard stuff and for some reason Nickelback is his favorite, and Flo Rida and Lady Gaga for Ada, she likes the dance tracks.

I want to keep a record of these so i am posting this here and hey, maybe you will like it too. Every song has a reason and a place and I am really pleased with this year’s creation.

1.  Make It Mine – Jason Mraz
2. Poker Face – Lady GaGa
3. Break Me Out 2.0 – The Rescues
4. All Around Me – Flyleaf
5. I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ – Scissor Sisters
6. The Fear – Lily Allen
7. Peacemaker – Green Day
8. Burn It To The Ground – Nickelback
9. Right Round – Flo Rida
10. I Kissed A Girl – Katy Perry
11. You Found Me – The Fray
12. Walking On A Dream – Empire Of The Sun
13. Homecoming – Hey Monday
14. Falling Away – Jupiter Rising
15. Lisztomania – Phoenix
16. Womanizer – Britney Spears
17. Decode – Paramore
18. Boom Boom Pow – Black Eyed Peas
19. Sink Into Me – Taking Back Sunday
20. Help I’m Alive – Metric
21. Sunshine Lady (Alternate Mix) – Two Spot Gobi

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It takes a lot more guts to face that and do what you think is right than to run away and hide and I really want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

With that said, I have read the blog articles written by the “source” and by Chris Harrison and here is my two cents on what was said.  Please excuse the following rambling unformatted rant, but this is the exact IM message I sent Karli just a little while ago after he sent me these articles.  Thanks honey!

Very interesting. I guess I just don’t put anything past reality shows and it doesn’t surprise me at all that they made them break up on camera. Last night on kimmel, he said he “had to” and I believe that contractually he probably did. It would surprise me greatly though if Melissa didn’t know it was coming and was prepared for it. Sure it was ugly, but do you really think that they were going to pass up the opportunity to show something like that on camera. No way. My gut tells me that there was no big plan though. I think that something happened over the holidays that they spent together that he or both of them decided that they were not going to talk about on camera because it was too personal. The email is convincing, if it is real but there is absolutely no way for us to ever know if it is or not and this guy certainly doesn’t seem like he is above making stuff up to further his own agenda. Notice how he had to drop how he was quoted in US Weekly. He thinks he is going to become Perez. As far as the contract goes and the non-disclosure, I bet that is pretty standard in the reality show world. I bet the people that go on Survivor have to sign the same sort of thing, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t out there actually surviving, we know they are. The show has had a really good run and I just doubt they would do something so tainted and desperate as to completely jeopardize the show’s whole reputation.

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If you know me, then you know this is not a normal state for me, even on a good day.  

I even found myself busting a move and doing the humpty hump in the car on the way to the gym tonight (yes, both on the radio in one 15 minute car ride, can you believe it?) . All I needed was Funky Cold Medina and it would have been a party.  What the?

I just feel lighter.   I feel like my life is waiting and I don’t want to miss another moment.

I have been to hell and back over this last six months and I finally feel like I have turned some sort of corner.  

I approach this new mood with cautious optimism and an open heart.

As if it were a sign or something, I heard the following four songs all in a row.  Three on random shuffle as I climbed the last brutal hill of a 45 minute treadmill session and one happened to be on when I got in the car and hit CD on the stereo.

Dare You To Move – Switchfoot*
Unwell – Matchbox 20
Away From The Sun – 3 Doors Down
Say- John Mayer

As I drove up the hill a tear of fullness crept from my eye, brought there by John Mayer’s Say.

 ”Have no fear for giving in. Have no fear for giving over. You better know that in the end it’s better to say too much that to never say what you need to say.  Even if your hands are shaking and your faith is broken.   Even as the eyes are closing.  Do it with a heart wide open.  Say what you need to say.  Say what you need to say.”

Yes, I know it’s cheesy and a little over the top.  But really, can you ignore this kind of day?

*Yeah, yeah, I know.

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This week’s selections are rather eclectic.  My moods and influences have been varied and inconsistent this week and I think this is reflected here.  

The list starts with one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands.  If you haven’t seen Barenaked Ladies live and get the opportunity to, you must.  They are one of those rare bands that are better live than on their albums.  Karli and I were discussing that Jason Mraz is like this too.  Karli just saw Mraz last weekend and said it was amazing.  Artists that can really connect with the audience make for the best shows.

I love the song Grade 9 because these guys are similar in age to me and it reminds me so much of what that time in my life was like.  You can’t help but laugh out loud some of the references.  I think everyone of our generation fondly remembers that conclusion of every school dance and the haunting sounds of Stairway to Heaven. Oh heck, I’ve added Stairway to Heaven just for good measure.

Back when I worked for RealNetworks, they purchased the company that originated the Rhapsody service.  As a result we all received free memberships and I loved it so much I started paying for it when I left.  I even upgraded to the “to go” service so I can endlessly load up my MP3 player.  The point of that little ramble is to say that I have a custom radio station that I listen to all the time and in addition to bringing up some of my favorite songs from times past, it also helps me to discover new music as well.  Can you tell I love this service, it is the best, really.

Anyway,  this week I discovered an artist that I hadn’t listened to before that I find rather intriguing and will definitely get a good listening to from this song writer aficionado.  I have included Tony Lucca’s song Darlin’ I as this is the song that I first heard on my radio station and what inspired me to listen to more.   I am looking forward to hearing more of what he has to offer.

Another song to note on this list is Trick Daddy’s Sugar.  Although I don’t immediately turn to rap for my musical fix, my friend Matt put this on Saturday night and I have to say that this is a kick ass song.  Definitely on my list of favorite Rap songs, although as you can imagine this list isn’t incredibly lengthy.

The rest fall into old favorites that came across the wireless network to my TV and out through my stereo speakers.  Did I mention you can get Rhapsody through your Tivo service (I know, I will stop with the sales pitch, old habits die hard and good products deserve promotion).  

Enjoy this weeks selections and the fond memories of younger days.

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