Mathom Room

Over on my other blog Snapshot Chronicles, I’m collaborating with fellow bloggers Tracey Clark of Picture This and Sheri Reed of The Little Zygote That Could on a photo contest for kids called A Little Perspective.

The contest starts next Tuesday, July 24th. Submissions end August 10th and we’ll announce the winners on August 24th. We’ve got neat prizes, including this cool pocket camera case donated by Photojojo and some stuff  from the HP Store that kids would like.

If your kids like taking pictures, check it out!

Tags: A Little Perspective, photo contest

Pal Mary Schmidt tagged me in the "songs that lift your spirits" meme. The goal of meme originator, life coach Hilda Carroll, is a collective playlist.

Mary comments that it is hard to pick just one song because she has different soundtracks for different parts and times of her life.

Yup. How do I pick?

Bob Marley. Aretha. Nina Simone. Eric Clapton. Jimmy Cliff. Warren Zevon. Norah Jones. David Sanborn. Bonnie Raitt. Cream. Blood Sweat & Tears. Chicago. Monk. Billie.  And yes even The Who, Beatles and Stones.

I can get it down to three.

Pretty much everything by Crosby Stills & Nash, but most particularly Southern Cross.

For What It’s Worth, Buffalo Springfield

And for the sheer joy of it, Ella Fitzgerald’s Berlin version of Mack the Knife.

{spoken} thank you. we’d like to do something for you now.
We haven’t heard a girl sing it. and since it’s so popular,
We’d like to try and do it for you.
We hope we remember all the words.{}

Oh, the shark has pearly teeth, dear
And he shows them, pearly white
Just a jack knife has macheath, dear
And he keeps it out of sight

Oh, the shark bites with his teeth, dear
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy gloves though, wears macheath dear
So there’s not, not a trace of red

On a sunday, sunday morning
Lies a body, oozin life
Someones sneaking round the corner
Tell me could it be, could it be, could it be
Mack the knife?

Oh, what’s the next chorus?
To this song, now
This is the one, now
I don’t know
But it was a swinging tune
And it’s a hit tune
So we tried to do mack the knife

Ah, louis miller
Oh, something about cash
Yeah, miller, he was spending that trash
And macheath dear, he spends like a sailor
Tell me, tell me, tell me
Could that boy do, something rash

Oh bobby darin, and louis armstrong
They made a record, oh but they did
And now ella, ella, and her fellas
Were making a wreck, what a wreck
Of mack the knife

{louis armstrong imitation}
Oh snookie taudry, bah bah bah nop do bo de do
Bah bah bah nop do bo de do
Just a jack knife has macheath, dear
And do bo bo bah bah bah nop do bo de do {}

So, you’ve heard it
Yes, we’ve swung it
And we tried to
Yes, we sung it

You won’t recognize it
It’s a surprise hit
This tune, called mack the knife

And so we leave you, in berlin town
Yes, we’ve swung old mack
We’ve swung old mack in town
For the darin fans,
And for the louis armstrong fans, too
We told you look out, look out, look out
Old macheaths back in town.

( lyrics found on LyricsFreak)

Before you ask, yes, I am aware that  my three songs are all from the 60s. I like contemporary music and just about every genre, except country music, but the songs I grew up with lift my spirits the most. 

I’m tagging Mom 101, Jeneane Sessum and Kent Newsome. Because I know they’ll tell us about interesting music with great posts.

I was tagged today by dear blog friend Mary Schmidt  in what is apparently the latest blog meme going around. You are supposed to blog five things that folks don’t know about you and then tag five more people. Here goes.

1. This is the first time I’ve ever been tagged in one of these memes. Thanks Mary. Really. As Sally Field once said, "you like me, you really like me."

2. I am a closet romantic. No surprise to anyone who reads the blog that I am a huge science fiction/fantasy fan. What you don’t know is my shippy little heart. Aragorn and Arwen, Lessa and F’lar, Buffy and Spike, Mal and Inara, John and Aeryn (major swoon) and lately Starbuck and Apollo with a side dish of Adama and Roslin. (For the non-believers, Lord of the Rings, Dragonriders of Pern, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Farscape and Battlestar Galactica.) All started with LotR and Luke, Laura and General Hospital in the 70s and 80s.

3. I have a 6-foot cardboard Spike in my exercise room that my mom gave me for Christmas a few years ago. My husband keeps moving him to the basement and I keep bringing him back upstairs. At least I don’t put him in the bedroom 🙂

4. Bond, James Bond. When I was 12 years old, I loved Roger Moore. He was a great successor to Sean Connery as James Bond.  I also thought he was great in The Persuaders with Tony Curtis, a mostly forgettable series other than the buddy chemistry between the two leads. Back to Bond:  Pierce Brosnan was great.. Less said about George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton the better. Looking forward to seeing what  Daniel Craig has to offer.

5. My most vivid political memories from childhood. There are two. The first is a distinct memory of watching TV in my grandparents’ house and seeing the reports that Martin Luther King was dead. I don’t recall the rest, but my family tells me that I came downstairs and told them that the King was dead. Since the monarch of Britain was Queen Elizabeth, they were confused. I was only six years old. The second memory is a compound – the Watergate hearings and Nixon’s resignation. I was riveted. Probably part of the reason I am a lifelong Democrat.

Okay Andrea, Kami, Todd, Elisa and John, you’re up.

Tags: Five things you don’t know