Rediscovering Pentatonix

Are you familiar with the group?

They call themselves Pentatonix and they are all gifted singers.  When Christmas season nears, I always listen to their music on YouTube.  Their beautiful voices are out of this world.  The blending, the vocals…wow!

If you want to listen to them, you can always visit YouTube. There might be copyright infringement so I don’t want to post their songs here.

Have a beautiful Tuesday  my dear friends. I am finishing a lovely book at the moment. Will get back to you later.

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Music Is It

Goosebumps.

I am having the time of my life what music and songs to upload on my tab from various YouTube selections. Josef taught me how to download them earlier so I won’t have to go online to listen. Google Play is definitely it. Downloaded them as MP3.  I call it my music library.

Now I am listening to some classical music selections of various composers while I am updating our Catholic page on Facebook.  Talk of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy, Vivaldi, Chopin and many others. I recently read a somewhat historical novel in the box set that I found featuring some music of the great masters. I wrote down some titles which I am trying to find on YouTube. So far, so good, they are all there. What a lovely change from  the noise I often hear being sung today. Perhaps not all of you would agree with me that today’s brand of songs and music are too noisy.

Music soothes the  heart and the soul. Am I right? They bring that inner joy much like finding a good book that you can relate to. Spring Waltz 2 by Chopin is the best and the Four Seasons by Vivaldi, Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune.  Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody always reminds me of the the movie Somewhere in Time which I watched three times I think. Love them all. I remember Nate’s CDs when he was small and Nissa bought them for him to admire. They have some of the best tunes and piano selections that could put a child to sleep.  Soft and gentle tunes so pleasant to listen to.

What kind of music do you go for? I still listen to the 60s and 70s  songs most of the time.

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Dance To The Beat

Done a week-old laundry early this morning, watered the garden, cleaned the house and now it’s time to relax…. 🙂

It rained last night, first rain in May but I guess it was just a drizzle. It didn’t even wet the grass so much.  When  I woke up, the heat was terrible. It was not your usual early morning breeze where you feel the cold a little before the sun rises.

I’ve mentioned earlier that I am enjoying listening to Josef’s Bose soundlink mini – clear crisp sound, buong-buo as they say in Tagalog.  Bose’ wireless speakers are really good especially when you play instrumental music.  It delivers pure natural sound and the bass is just right, deep but whole. It’s like playing music on a big stereo but you only have a portable, wireless speaker.

Music is the language of the soul, so we hear artists say. It evokes memories. Have you ever remembered one particular event in your life that you associated with music? It makes us laugh, it makes us cry. If you love listening to it, you are in good company. According to some scientific studies, music lowers stress and improves health. Listen to it, sing along, tap your feet while listening.

Lately, I’ve used my transistor radio a lot listening to some old songs while catching on my reading. There is a radio station here that does not have commercial breaks, just good old music all the way.

Sing that tune, dance to the beat, shout with joy. Music will always be here after all.

 

 

 

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Random Thoughts

What happened to me?

My mind is blank. Oh no, that’s a lie. It is actually full of thoughts at the moment.  Would you believe, I spent  a big part of the day reading news and watching videos about politics here. I feel like I am punishing myself listening to all those lies, reading unpalatable comments, watching a little of everything.  I had a good exchange of ideas with a former office mate who is now working in another bank. She calls me “ma’am” and I  told her she doesn’t have to.  Nasanay eh (she got used to it when we were together).

Finally, The Supreme Court made a decision on Sen. Trillanes’ filing a TRO and they didn’t approve it saying the words of Duterte and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) they would not arrest Sen. Trillanes without a warrant  would hold. They however referred it back to the Regional Trial Courts, one of which has set a hearing  on the 13th September.  Until now though, Sen. Trillanes is still at the Senate grounds and the AFP said they will still arrest him. Mad, mad world. I don’t understand  it. I am afraid Duterte  won’t honor his words. Instead of focusing on the more serious problems of the country, he’d rather engage in politicizing the AFP and  his attention is solely on Sen. Trillanes.  I pity our country, I pity its people. The poor  in our midst are hungry, they barely have enough to eat because of the rising prices of basically all commodities, add that to the very high cost of fuel and the low exchange rate of the Philippine peso to the US dollar. The boat is sinking, It’s sad.

I console myself by finishing two more books. Right, they are billionaire stories again. They are  quite easy read finishing a book in a day.  At the moment I am again listening to various artists, 70’s and 80’s music this time and a spattering of instrumental music by Percy Faith and Mantovani Orchestra. Music soothes  the soul, right?

There is a strong typhoon coming this week and another one has just left the country.  I hope it would not be that strong as predicted.  Although the eye of the typhoon would not possibly hit Metro Manila, I am still afraid of the rain that comes with it. Gosh, that would be our 15th weather disturbance this year.

I am distracted by this disco music. Bye for now.

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Movie Adaptations Of Jayne Eyre

It was triggered by playing some gold old music at YouTube. Think Percy Faith, Kenny G. and Mantovani.

Last night, while listening to Kenny G. I thought of the movie Dying Young which starred Campbell Scott and Julia Roberts. Although the ending was a bit sad, I’ve always liked watching it. And the music of Kenny G. in that movie is to die for. Yes, I was lucky enough to find the book by Marti Leimbach but the latter was not as good as the movie adaptation.  I am still listening to the soundtrack as I write this. You’ll surely like this one. I have a CD too of the movie soundtrack.

This afternoon, I looked for some movie theme songs and came across one of the movie adaptations of Jane Eyre. According to Wikipedia, ” Jayne Eyre the 1847 novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë, has frequently been adapted for film, radio, television and theatre, and has inspired a number of rewritings and reinterpretations.” 

I watched the  1997 version starring Ciaran Hinds and Samantha Morton. Come to think of it, I am not even familiar with the actors in this particular movie adaptation. I read the book during my college days and clearly have forgotten the details of the story although I remember the names of the characters until now.  I have to google the summary and compare it with the movie. It was not the same as in the book but I loved it just the same. The ending was different too.

I am really into movies much except when there is one that I like to watch.  One of these days, maybe I’ll read the book again or maybe watch another movie adaptation. Jane Eyre is one of those classic books that is still popular today.

“I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into it’s expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst it’s perils.”

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Remembering Those Years And Those Songs

Feasted my eyes and ears watching and listening in YouTube from various artists of old.  This was triggered by Pete’s post called Significant  Songs (197). I love the Doobie Brothers.  I remember the songs of my youth, those years when I was growing up in the province and  all we had was  the radio. Yes, back in the 60’s, we had no TV. It was only during the early years of the 70’s when my brother and I were already studying in Metro Manila that we had a black and white TV. Then came the color television and everything changed.

Back to the music.

I actually uploaded  many songs on my wall at Facebook like America’s Sister Golden Hair and Ventura Highway, Spandau Ballet’s True, Toto’s Africa, Take On Me by a-h-a, IZ’s Somewhere Over The Rainbow and Bee Gees’ Massachusetts. I laughed while watching Let’s Dance by Chris Montes.  So that was how they did it several decades ago, the dancing – the foot works and hand gestures.  It was really a happy tune.

Back in those years, I have memorized even the lyrics of the songs, danced to it and sang along.  Really YouTube is a rich source of all those songs of yesteryears.

 

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A Night Filled With Music

I love my headset. I can always listen to my favorite music and sometimes watch films on YouTube.

Tonight is one of those that I treasure, listening to the music of Rod McKuen and Henry Mancini.  I was reading  some early posts about Rod McKuen then thought of listening to his husky voice while he recites some poems and sings his songs.  He is not probably popular with kids and the millennial  nowadays. I agree, there is only one Rod McKuen. He shared his music to the world and his poems.  I always get inspired  reading his words and listening  to his music.

I remember Mary Anne, a friend I met back in our Multiply days.  She died about two years ago,  a previous blogger here at WordPress too.  She sent me two CDs of Henry Mancini one birthday years ago. She knew I love Mancini’s music and she loved it too. Wherever you are Mary Anne, let us listen to your favorite.

My love of Mancini started when I  watched the movie  adaptation of The  Thorn Birds (a book by Colleen McCullough)  The theme song was just heavenly  so I looked for more of his compositions and there are several in YouTube.  I am presently listening to The Very Best of Henry Mancini while writing this.  Think of The Pink Panther, Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses, How Soon, Two for the Road. I could go on and on. They are wonderful music of days gone by.

My night is filled with music.

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Listen To The Beat

I grew up in the sixties so I could really relate.

I was in grade school when I first heard of The Beatles. My high school years were all about the 60’s music and early 70’s too.  Last night after dinner while I was in front of my PC reading blog posts, Josef entered the room and said “you will surely enjoy this Ma”  placing his cellphone near me.  Then I heard those lovely tunes of the 60’s.  Various artists, so many songs. They took me back to  my early childhood. I listened for more than an hour to lovely songs  of old. I asked him if he downloaded them from YouTube. He said he didn’t.  Think of The Animals, The Hollies, The Monkees, Simon and Garfunkel, Frankie Valli, Dave Clark Five,The Fifth Dimension, Roy Orbison   to name a few. There are so many of them, I could not remember all the groups but the songs  are so familiar. I remember the cassette tape I had before about the British Invasion and those CDs I used to buy on soul music of the 70’s. Now I only listen on YouTube while using the computer.

It makes me think, the 60’s  were  the most productive years  when it comes to this type of music.  Feel the beat.  Listen to the music.

 

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Only Friends

Oh please, don’t laugh.

Yes, I know some of you are pretty smiling right now.

I am having a LSS. You know, that moment when you wake up from a short afternoon nap and your head is full of a lovely melody and you begin to sing along. I have no option  but to open my PC and search  for this song.  YouTube is a little helpful when you feel nostalgic with the old days.  Those dreams you had three decades ago,  when you were just learning that falling in love was a wonderful feeling but it was  full of pain.  I was seventeen.

Now I know you’re laughing.

I borrowed Josef’s headset  and searched for the song Only Friends. Why can’t I remember who sang it? Back when I was still new to blogging, I made a blog post about last song syndrome.

I found this site with plenty of uploaded Lettermen songs, old favorites like Traces, Morning Girl, Dedicated To The One I Love, This Guy’s In Love With You ( I love the version of Burt Bacharach though)  and of course Only Friends. I know listening to them now seems a bit silly but the music is more soothing compared to the noise I hear nowadays.  And do you know, here in my corner of the world, Sundays are dedicated to the oldies and the senior citizens or what you call in their heyday, the baby boomers.  You will always find  FM and AM  bands playing the songs of the 60’s and the 70’s all day long.  You wonder, those were the days, those days you were growing up and all you had was a single turntable and your 45.  Those were the days too when you used to write on small  Hello Kitty notebooks with a  Hello Kitty pen.

Sometimes I let my mind
Drift endlessly and in the wind
your face I see
smile gently as you turn to pass

But the love that I once had for you
Is gone so is the meaning too
I guess it never really had a chance
to last………

The love is gone but the memory made you smile  🙂

 

 

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Of Dreams And Music

I haven’t blogged for more than a week. Has it been that long?  My mom’s 84th birthday celebration last Saturday  was a mini-reunion for my two brothers, their families and Nissa’s family sans of course our youngest  brother and his family whom I haven’t seen for more than five years but we get in touch often through phone calls and e-mails. He’s been in the United States since 1991 and he has embraced the American way of life.

Josef and I embarked on a bold project of painting our grills and two front gates over the weekend.  It’s fun to undergo something like this but the heat hinders us from working the whole day. Anyway, our gates are sporting a new look – in bold reddish maroon color. We were able to finish painting the two spans of metal grills fronting the house and there is a lot more to do in the coming weekends. It’s good, paints nowadays no longer have that strong smell that makes you cough. Davies paints are odorless and easy to apply. You need to have a good brush and roller though to make everything smooth. It is an accomplishment that I am proud of.

Last night, I dreamed I was teacher. Yes, I was teaching high school kids to appreciate music. It’s not the kind though where you need to recognize wind instruments and chimes or guitars. I was teaching them how to listen to David Cassidy singing Cherish and The Associations belting out their more popular Never My Love. Ancient you might say but I remember in my dream telling them about the British Invasion in the music world and what baby boomer means :).  Earlier on, a friend posted some old, old songs from YouTube and it made me remember being a child of the sixties. Then I suddenly thought of  teen idol David Cassidy. I was in high school during the early seventies and one such program that I never failed to watch was The Partridge Family. Never mind that we didn’t have our own TV set and just viewed the series on a small black and white unit of our neighbor whose children loved the same program.  It was such a poignant reminiscing of the good old days. I also remember another figure that I loved, Mark Lester. I used to scrimp on my allowance just to be able to buy the monthly issues of Jingle Chordbook magazines where most of the time, they had colored posters of popular singers back then.  I never learned  how to play the guitar though because my eldest brother who taught me was left-handed and even if I could read the chords it was hard to interpret it when you were  holding it the other way. My dad used to play the guitar and even composed some songs in the vernacular and one of my uncles played the violin. I guess I was the only one who never learned, but I am proud to say I could carry a tune. So much for dreams and music.  Hearing your favorite tunes from childhood makes you smile.

 

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