I've been thinking about making a mix with inspirational, get-up-and-face-the-day songs. A few have been kicking around in my mind, but I haven't started making the set list yet. When I do, I know that the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" will make the list.
The song is just pure energy. I dug it throughout the summer during its reign at the top of the Billboard charts, but hearing it live at the Rose Bowl, closing out a fantastic set that featured a guest appearance by Slash, nearly every one of the 90,000 people packing the stadium on their feet, arm waving, jumping up and down, the energy climbing with U2's set just around the corner, has deepened my enthusiasm for the song.
It's Friday, the weather may suck but the weekend is here. Whatever you're doing, wherever you're going, have a ball. With a theme song like this, it's kind of hard not to.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
His Stupid Mouth
The Twitterverse exploded early this morning after Us magazine published excerpts from John Mayer's new interview with Playboy. I haven't seen the Us snippets and, because it's not on newsstands until Friday, haven't read the Playboy interview yet, but intend to because I like John Mayer and am always curious to read what he has to say.
I've been a fan of this singer-songwriter-guitar hero for nearly a decade, his song "Why Georgia?" hitting me just right when I was a 23-year-old facing down a quarter-life crisis. I've felt a similar connection to each album he's released since his major-label debut, "Room for Squares." Even though I don't love his latest, "Battle Studies," as much as I did its predecessors, there are still songs on the album that I know I'll be as excited to listen to and sing along with in 10 years as I am today ("Perfectly Lonely," "Edge of Desire" and "Friends, Lovers or Nothing" standing out the most).
I have tickets for his show in LA next month. I have pictures of him on my cubicle walls. His sites are part of my regular Internet sweep. I think he's talented and smart and a great writer and an amazing guitar player and, honestly, super-hot to boot. I appreciate the amount of work he pours into his music, pushing back or refusing to commit to release dates until he's totally satisfied with the end product. I like his introspective side, the columns he used to write for Esquire, the occasional honest, inspiring, life-affirming blog post. I mostly like his sense of humor.
It's that sense of humor that's gotten him in trouble today. For whatever ridiculous, immature, boy reason, he ran his mouth in Playboy, said some things for laughs, for shock value, to bolster his standing in the eyes of the magazine's red-blooded American male readers or something, and the whole thing has failed pretty miserably. Even if the stupid, childish things he said make up only a tiny fraction of the long interview and the remainder is thoughtful, interesting and insightful, it won't matter, the focus will remain on the bad, at least for this news cycle.
John Mayer used his Twitter account this afternoon to try to do some damage control. Here's what he had to say:
"Re: using the 'N word' in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word. And it's such a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was in the exact opposite spirit of the word itself. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it, because I realize that there's no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged. And while I'm using today for looking at myself under harsh light, I think it's time to stop trying to be so raw in interviews... It started as an attempt to not let the waves of criticism get to me, but it's gotten out of hand and I've created somewhat of a monster. I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock. I don't have the stomach for it. Again, because I don't want anyone to think I'm equivocating: I should have never said the word and I will never say it again. I just wanted to play the guitar for people. Everything else just sort of popped up and I improvised, and kept doubling down on it..."
John Mayer is now one more of my favorite artists who's had to learn a very hard lesson on watching what you say and will now have to fight even harder to make his music the focal point and not the regrettable interviews and tabloid headlines. John Lennon had to fight that battle, as have Bono and Madonna. Even though they were never able to completely put those little scandals and missteps behind them (it's been 44 years since John Lennon said The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now" and apologized for it, yet practically every documentary on Lennon or The Beatles brings it up), creating great music and trying to do good in the world has helped.
John Mayer has a show in Tennessee tonight, his first official stop on his global redemption tour. Perhaps he'll play one of my favorite songs tonight, "My Stupid Mouth," because it's fitting and because maybe the lesson has finally sunken in for him, "think before speaking."
Here he is playing "My Stupid Mouth" at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum a few years back:
I've been a fan of this singer-songwriter-guitar hero for nearly a decade, his song "Why Georgia?" hitting me just right when I was a 23-year-old facing down a quarter-life crisis. I've felt a similar connection to each album he's released since his major-label debut, "Room for Squares." Even though I don't love his latest, "Battle Studies," as much as I did its predecessors, there are still songs on the album that I know I'll be as excited to listen to and sing along with in 10 years as I am today ("Perfectly Lonely," "Edge of Desire" and "Friends, Lovers or Nothing" standing out the most).
I have tickets for his show in LA next month. I have pictures of him on my cubicle walls. His sites are part of my regular Internet sweep. I think he's talented and smart and a great writer and an amazing guitar player and, honestly, super-hot to boot. I appreciate the amount of work he pours into his music, pushing back or refusing to commit to release dates until he's totally satisfied with the end product. I like his introspective side, the columns he used to write for Esquire, the occasional honest, inspiring, life-affirming blog post. I mostly like his sense of humor.
It's that sense of humor that's gotten him in trouble today. For whatever ridiculous, immature, boy reason, he ran his mouth in Playboy, said some things for laughs, for shock value, to bolster his standing in the eyes of the magazine's red-blooded American male readers or something, and the whole thing has failed pretty miserably. Even if the stupid, childish things he said make up only a tiny fraction of the long interview and the remainder is thoughtful, interesting and insightful, it won't matter, the focus will remain on the bad, at least for this news cycle.
John Mayer used his Twitter account this afternoon to try to do some damage control. Here's what he had to say:
"Re: using the 'N word' in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word. And it's such a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was in the exact opposite spirit of the word itself. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it, because I realize that there's no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged. And while I'm using today for looking at myself under harsh light, I think it's time to stop trying to be so raw in interviews... It started as an attempt to not let the waves of criticism get to me, but it's gotten out of hand and I've created somewhat of a monster. I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock. I don't have the stomach for it. Again, because I don't want anyone to think I'm equivocating: I should have never said the word and I will never say it again. I just wanted to play the guitar for people. Everything else just sort of popped up and I improvised, and kept doubling down on it..."
John Mayer is now one more of my favorite artists who's had to learn a very hard lesson on watching what you say and will now have to fight even harder to make his music the focal point and not the regrettable interviews and tabloid headlines. John Lennon had to fight that battle, as have Bono and Madonna. Even though they were never able to completely put those little scandals and missteps behind them (it's been 44 years since John Lennon said The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now" and apologized for it, yet practically every documentary on Lennon or The Beatles brings it up), creating great music and trying to do good in the world has helped.
John Mayer has a show in Tennessee tonight, his first official stop on his global redemption tour. Perhaps he'll play one of my favorite songs tonight, "My Stupid Mouth," because it's fitting and because maybe the lesson has finally sunken in for him, "think before speaking."
Here he is playing "My Stupid Mouth" at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum a few years back:
Friday, February 5, 2010
Hope in the Ruins
Last night on the drive home I tuned into KNX for its "Traffic on the Fives" but instead was presented with a news special called "Hope in the Ruins," a collection of reports the station has run from Haiti since the nation's capital was hit by a devastating earthquake last month. The stories alternate between heartbreaking and inspiring, with each one showing exactly how much need still remains and how long it will take for this country and its people to live in any kind of normal way again.
You can listen to or download the special report here.
You can listen to or download the special report here.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Believe in Grace
I moved into a new desk today, my fifth move with this company. It took me very little time to pack up the old desk or settle into this new one because I believe in packing fairly light and moving about rather efficiently.
I was plastering my gray cubicle walls with pics of some of my favorite girls and guys, trying to get everything to fit on these new walls pretty much like they had done before. I got my areas just right—Madonna, Gwen, Audrey Hepburn, John Mayer, U2, Pete Wentz. I laughed on my lunch break when I saw a girl with a license plate holder that read, "I ♥ Pete Wentz". Good to know I'm not the only one.
But today, it's not Pete Wentz, The Edge or even John Mayer that I'm majorly ♥-ing, it's the glorious Eddie Izzard. A dear friend was kind enough to join me at the Nokia Theater on Saturday for Mr. Izzard's "Stripped, Too: Big Intimacy" show and we both laughed ourselves sore.
If you don't know who Eddie Izzard is or have never seen one of his comedy specials, get thee to Netflix!! He is so smart, so clever, so odd, so amazingly, superbly, fantastically funny with the way he blends together history, science, linguistics, philosophy, religion, politics and pop culture. His sets are so brilliant and quirky and divine and hilarious.
Eddie Izzard may be best known by some as an "action transvestite." He sometimes wears woman's clothing (and knows how to work a pair of pointy-toed, stiletto boots like no one's business), nail polish, eye makeup or lipstick, but lately he's been in "boy mode" and looks damn good doing that, too (although even in boy mode he wears eye makeup, but I'm a fan of guyliner—witness my love of Pete Wentz—and with his stunning blue eyes, it works).
In his recent documentary "Believe," there's a section about Eddie Izzard being a sex symbol in boy and girl mode. One man said his wife was quite "besotted" with the comedian. I know I am, as were the many women at the show this weekend who were posting suggestive Tweets to his Twitter page during intermission. He is pretty much the total package—super smart, totally funny, fairly dorky, a bit odd, generally lovely—so can you blame us?
Here's a picture of Eddie in boy mode for the current tour:
And live a few years back from the "Dressed to Kill" tour, available on DVD and regularly shown on BBC America:
Eddie Izzard doesn't believe in God, but he does believe in the potential of people and he believes in grace. I believe in all three, which was furthered by the arrival this weekend of my new nephew. In honor of his birth, I made him his first mix CD (I did the same when his sister was born). Here's the tracklist:
John Lennon "Beautiful Boy"
Madonna "Little Star"
REM "Everybody Hurts"
The Beatles "Here Comes the Sun"
Madonna "Imagine"
U2 "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
The Beatles "All You Need Is Love"
John Mayer "Wheel"
Mariah Carey "I'll Be There"
John Lennon "Stand By Me"
U2 "Fourth of July"
Brian Setzer Orchestra "Sleepwalk"
The Beatles "Good Night"
Welcome to the world my new little love! I can't wait to take you to your first concert, your first museum, your first Eddie Izzard show. There's so much to see and explore, and I'm happy to be beside you on your journey through this amazing world.
I was plastering my gray cubicle walls with pics of some of my favorite girls and guys, trying to get everything to fit on these new walls pretty much like they had done before. I got my areas just right—Madonna, Gwen, Audrey Hepburn, John Mayer, U2, Pete Wentz. I laughed on my lunch break when I saw a girl with a license plate holder that read, "I ♥ Pete Wentz". Good to know I'm not the only one.
But today, it's not Pete Wentz, The Edge or even John Mayer that I'm majorly ♥-ing, it's the glorious Eddie Izzard. A dear friend was kind enough to join me at the Nokia Theater on Saturday for Mr. Izzard's "Stripped, Too: Big Intimacy" show and we both laughed ourselves sore.
If you don't know who Eddie Izzard is or have never seen one of his comedy specials, get thee to Netflix!! He is so smart, so clever, so odd, so amazingly, superbly, fantastically funny with the way he blends together history, science, linguistics, philosophy, religion, politics and pop culture. His sets are so brilliant and quirky and divine and hilarious.
Eddie Izzard may be best known by some as an "action transvestite." He sometimes wears woman's clothing (and knows how to work a pair of pointy-toed, stiletto boots like no one's business), nail polish, eye makeup or lipstick, but lately he's been in "boy mode" and looks damn good doing that, too (although even in boy mode he wears eye makeup, but I'm a fan of guyliner—witness my love of Pete Wentz—and with his stunning blue eyes, it works).
In his recent documentary "Believe," there's a section about Eddie Izzard being a sex symbol in boy and girl mode. One man said his wife was quite "besotted" with the comedian. I know I am, as were the many women at the show this weekend who were posting suggestive Tweets to his Twitter page during intermission. He is pretty much the total package—super smart, totally funny, fairly dorky, a bit odd, generally lovely—so can you blame us?
Here's a picture of Eddie in boy mode for the current tour:
And live a few years back from the "Dressed to Kill" tour, available on DVD and regularly shown on BBC America:
Eddie Izzard doesn't believe in God, but he does believe in the potential of people and he believes in grace. I believe in all three, which was furthered by the arrival this weekend of my new nephew. In honor of his birth, I made him his first mix CD (I did the same when his sister was born). Here's the tracklist:
John Lennon "Beautiful Boy"
Madonna "Little Star"
REM "Everybody Hurts"
The Beatles "Here Comes the Sun"
Madonna "Imagine"
U2 "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
The Beatles "All You Need Is Love"
John Mayer "Wheel"
Mariah Carey "I'll Be There"
John Lennon "Stand By Me"
U2 "Fourth of July"
Brian Setzer Orchestra "Sleepwalk"
The Beatles "Good Night"
Welcome to the world my new little love! I can't wait to take you to your first concert, your first museum, your first Eddie Izzard show. There's so much to see and explore, and I'm happy to be beside you on your journey through this amazing world.
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