Archive for the ‘music’ Category
Snow in Calabria!
“Amò! Guarda la neve!”
“Honey! Look at the snow!”
P opened the balcony shutters this morning and found that it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas–we got snooooooooow!
Don’t you just love how at the bottom, the land around the olive trees is all green but then by the time your eyes reach the sky, everything turns all white?
Oh that Mother Nature . . . .
So, yes, it’s just a dusting, but it’s actually visible from my house; usually you have have to go farther up into the mountains before you hit the white stuff.
A lot of people don’t know this, but there’s actually some great skiing in Calabria (they tell me; I’m not a skier) in the Sila Mountains where you’ll find the Sila National Park.
And yes, I know a lot of you are having blizzard or blizzard-like conditions right now, so this may not seem exciting (by the way, I do hope you’re all safe and not throwing out your back shoveling), but for someone like me who despite now living in southern Italy grew up with
snow days
and school delays
and watching flakes fall in complete silence
and flapping my arms and legs to make snow angels
and sipping hot chocolate with marshmallow
while wet gloves, hats, scarves sizzle
and dry on the radiator
even a simple dusting can make my entire winter.
I love snow!
It’s still raining and cold cold cold, but no worries, because I have a lot of this in store today (much like yesterday):
But I won’t be lonely. Besides the pooches and remaining pups, I’ll have P around as he’s been enlisted to help (official nutcracker and crusher), and also this guy and his heavenly voice:
Don’t worry, I’ll also make time to take Stella’s cue and find a nice lap by the fire.
Buona domenica!
seven songs say so much
Well well well. If it isn’t The Other Girl up and tagging me with a meme.
Although The Notorious OG was tagged with something like “List the seven songs you’re currently listening to,” she adjusted the question to more reflect her own music habits so that it’s now “The Seven Songs I Would Pick If I Could Only Listen To Seven Songs For The Rest Of My Life, Which, Yeah, Like Someone Is Going To Impose That Condition On Me, And Assuming I Can Even Come Up With Seven.”
I prefer her version as well, so here are mine:
1. Me and Bobby McGee, Janis Joplin
One of my favorite songs of all time. It just beats out Call on Me, another Janis favorite, because it’s more upbeat and easier to sing along to. I like to sing along, especially if I only have seven songs for the rest of my life.
2. One Shining Moment (the theme song from March Madness), any rendition
The ball is tipped, and there you are
You’re running for your life
You’re a shooting star.
And all the years, no one knows
Just how hard you worked
But now it shooooows….
I’m quite certain I can do anything after I hear this song. After I wipe the snot from my nose, of course. The fact that I’m currently missing yet another NCAA tournament has nothing to do with this nostalgia either. I swear.
3. Everybody Hurts, REM
Because, well, sometimes, everybody *does* hurt, and I like for REM to share those moments with me.
4. Crash, Dave Matthews Band
For, ahem, intimate times, sometimes following those REM times if you’re lucky. No pun intended.
5. The Way You Make Me Feel, Michael Jackson
Hoo-hoo! You knock me off of my feet!
How can you not be happy when you hear this song (ignoring any and all creepy MJ vibes, of course)?
6. True Fine Love, Steve Miller Band
It was hard to pick just one Steve Miller Band song because I like them all so darn much, but the opening of this song always makes me smile. And stick my neck out and, alternately, in, like a turkey. Seemed like as good a reason as any for it to make the top seven.
7. Iris, Goo Goo Dolls
On my final song, I was pulled in many different directions. I mean, this is forever! Only! Seven! Songs!
And then I realized it’s just a meme (not to disrespect the Power of the Meme, of course), so I brushed aside something Sinatra, Connick Jr., or Van Morrison and went with a song I do happen to listen to an awful lot. The whole City of Angels soundtrack, actually, which is impressive because other than the soundtracks of The Big Chill, Shrek, and The Blue Brothers, I don’t do that much.
And now the really fun part. I’m supposed to tag seven people to play as well. I’ve never tagged anyone, but what the hay. It’s Monday morning, and we only changed our clocks this past Saturday night, so I’m feeling like it’s only 7.15 a.m. as I type this, and well, Cherrye, Shannon, Karen, Loulou, Annika, Christina, and Giulia, you’re it! Feel free to use either version of the Seven Songs Meme.
If you do choose to validate our blogging relationship, and I so hope you do, leave me a comment to know where to find your list. You wouldn’t want to reject me on my first attempt to tag, now would you?
P.S. I’m trying out that Italian mamma guilt thing…how’s it working?
Hoo-hoo!
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[tags]music, seven songs meme, memes, songs[/tags]
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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