March 17, 2009

The Sounds of Summer

March is SUPPOSED to be the snowiest month in Colorado. Today is March the seventeenth. St. Patrick's Day. Hooray! I believe in celebrating every day...ESPECIALLY the seemingly random selection of days we have coined, "holidays." Plus I love green....just not in my beer. Overly techno-colored foods look unnaturally vibrant and taste weird. Sorta' creep me out. But here, I'll pour you one. Just brush your teeth right after or they'll stay that color.

Not the point.

So this unseasonably warm weather fills my head with Summer, even though it isn't even Spring. Spring in Colorado is a complete and utter tease. She whets your appetite with the sweet promise of unclouded days and wavy,navy nights...then runs away-leaving you with the extreme chill of an April blizzard.

But summer! Summer is the union of yin and yang, fire and ice relationship that melts to warmth in the gooey center blurring the line that separates the two-forming a perfect whole. The blend of severe and mild. That rarity of finding someone that has the innate sense of knowing precisely what you need and gives it to you before the desire reaches your own consciousness. By far the most seductive of all the seasons. The heat, the bronzed, glistening skin, the sweet fruit and powdery floral scents that fill your nostrils. Summer possesses an effortless sensuality, the frivolity, the water, the sand...there is just no competing with Summer. Winter hibernates the senses and Summer heightens them...breathe it in with me....close your eyes, throw your head back in reckless abandon..that's right...now!mmmmmmmmmmmmm... And the sounds! splashing, crashing, humming, purring,pulsating, rhythmic, sizzling... that sensation when the sun mingled wind-tugs your hair, the sun spilling out over your skin...and the music! It always comes back to the music. Doesn't it? At least it does for me. So...before I get too, too carried away. Here is my soundtrack of Summer.

Top 10 Summer songs, artists, sound tracks...

1. Anything from Dirty Dancing, Grease, Footloose,Stand by Me or Top Gun

To this day when Sylvia and Mickey (the song Johnny and Baby reenact in Johnny's studio-apartment on that sweltering summer day-Come hear Lover Boy...oh Lover Boy...? That's the one) , Hungry Eyes,the Time of My Life, She's Like the Wind, Stay, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow- or anything else from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack (either of them) drowns me in summer's essence...Oh, oh, oh and makes me wish Patrick Swayze would have taught me to dance...on a log over a river. The only time I will EVER wish I was Jennifer Gray.
Grease- Summer Lovin' and You're the One That I Want... Still think of myself as a Pink Lady...bababumba...and at seven after seeing Grease, I started 'smoking" those skinny little pretzels and saying, "Tell me about it- stud"...My parents LOVED that one- especially when I did it at the church picnic.
Foot Loose- theme song and Let's Hear it for the Boy-still would like to try that car trick where she has one foot in each car...not sure insurance covers idiocy though...and the barn dancing was memorable too.
Stand by Me...If you don't love this movie, stop reading now. This movie captures youth and summer more than any other that I can bring to mind...and my mind is over flowing with useless information. Keep reading if you don't believe me. River Phoenix, Will Wheaton, Corey Feldman, and Vern (always forget his name-the guy who is married to John Stamos' ex-wife Rebecca Romaine-no longer Stamos)...also Shawn Astin(sp?) (whom I met at a cheer competition in ninth grade- post Goonies, pre Rudy-super sweet) and Keifer Sutherland... for whatever reason I have thought of him as uber cool for the past...twenty years. Anyway the sound track is oldies...like Let the Good Times Roll, Lollipop and duh...Stand by Me.
Don't let me forget-
Top Gun-Take My Breathe Away, Danger Zone and Playing With the Boys...Great Balls of Fire...and the guitar theme with no words... puts me on the back of Maverick's motorcycle in my aviator Ray Bans and a white tank...Cocktail movie and soundtrack summery too...WHAT happened to Tom Cruise?!? Guess after Top Gun, he had nowhere to go but down. Bless his heart, God Love Him...

Think I could still quote most of the lines to ALL these movies.

I SO cheated. Counting those all as one. My game, my rules. Deal...;0)

2. Jimmy Buffet...OBVIOUSLY his shtick-right. Parrot heads, pina colada's, island paradises and margaritas...My favorites are Margaritaville, Cheeseburger in Paradise, Volcano,Fins, He Went to Paris, Come Monday and Son of a Son of a Sailor...I feel freckled and hungover just thinking about it. I am the "woman to blame"...heehee. Gonna' get the hat that says so, just cuz' I think it's cute.

3. Bob Marley...No Woman, No Cry,Stir it Up... nothing like reggae-it reeks of Summer in the best way.Steel drum bands,coconut oil, Jamaican beaches, palm trees swaying in the tropical breeze..When in Jamaica...I lay on a hammock strung between two palm trees sipping on a frozen drink called a hummingbird.I drifted to the whispered lullaby of the blue topaz ocean and read some bubble gum novel- I can't remember which..I have never been so shimmery, coppery brown in my life, nor will I probably allow myself to be again...safe sun and-not wanting my face to look like a leather handbag in fifteen years. Oh and at night! The resort had this club where they played old school rap and Shaggy... and drinks were always full...So to this day, I can't resist It Wasn't Me...or Ricky Martin...La Vida Loca or Shake Your Bon- Bon...It's no wonder why Stella went there to Get Her Groove Back.

4. Again- kind of his soul purpose...Kenny Chesney embodies the sizzle of summer. Not saying HE is hot...LOVE his music, some of it is irresistibly sultry... but he does nothing else for me. Sure the feeling is mutual...hahaha. Think I have everything he has ever done, including the Christmas CD. When the Sun Goes Down, There's Something Sexy About the Rain, Anything but Mine, She Comes From Boston, Old Blue Chair, She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy and Being Drunk is a lot Like Loving You -are just a few of my gazillion Kenny Chesney favorites. Think he is the heir to Jimmy Buffet's throne, there may actually be a written agreement between the two of them.

5. Jack Johnson...perpetually barefoot on the beach with his guitar. He is a beach boy in the most literal sense...and his music is like liquid sunshine. Drink it, it's delectable. Probably BEST known for doing the soundtrack for Curious George. One of my favorite Jack Johnson songs is "Banana Pancakes." His music makes me want to live in a beach hut, barefoot and disheveled. Surfing all day-this part may require a lesson or two...hundred. But in my dream, I just know how.Have to stick a bonfire on here, only because fire, summer and salt water...all part of the beachy theme.

6. Billy Pilgrim. One of my favorite groups of all time. They are folky and soulful and I used to see them at summer festivals here. Lyrically they are unbelievable, but musically simple. Do yourself a favor and if you don't know Billy Pilgrim-get to know them. INCREDIBLE. They make my soul reverberate in ecstasy. Hoolahoop is an especially summery song of theirs. Obscure...but a buried treasure. I promise.

7. Seventies rock like The Eagles, CCR, Steve Miller Band...songs like Boys of Summer, Hotel California, Life's Been Good to Me so Far,Sweet Caroline,Sweet Home Alabama, Joker oh and anything by Van Morrison. Love Van Morrison...American Pie, the Pina Colada Song...make me want to joyride in a convertible on a sweltering summer night with the top down, tires melting into the fiery asphalt... hair blowing...devil may care -he has to catch me first...and all of that.

8. 80's and 90's Rock and Kid Rock- Anything from the Go-Go's...Vacation! Manic Monday and In Your Room by the Bangles, Think We're Alone Now by Tiffany, Prince, Little Red Corvette, Purple Rain, Let's go Crazy, Raspberry Beret...David Lee Roth's California Girls. Michael Jackson The Way You're Makin' Me Feel, Def Leopard, Billy Joel, "Only the Good Die Young", Cindy Lauper, Boy George,The Cars, The Police, "One Headlight " by the Wallflowers. Madonna,Poison,Motley Crew, Aerosmyth, Blondie and Pat Benetar...the Eddie and the Cruisers Soundtrack, Kid Rock's All Summer Long and Cowboy...Beastie Boys...Ice, Ice, Baby, Jessie's Girl...Salt n' Peppa...Raw Base. The Rhythm of the Night. Black Crows, Sheryl Crow, Counting Crows (see a theme?) Richard Marx-Endless Summer Nights...Turn the Radio Up, INXS...Mystify and Devil Inside...George Michael Faith cd, Spin Doctors- Bryan Adams, John Couger, Sonia Dada. I cannot neglect to mention NKOTB's new Summertime song. Love that too...so reminiscent. I am now jumping up and down on the couch with a n over sized man's button down and knee socks, sun glasses on and a hair brush for a microphone...Let the neighbor's look. Join me? We'll give em' a show.

9. The fifties stuff...Under the Boardwalk, Save the Last Dance,And Then He Kissed Me, Do Wa Ditty, Summertime, What a Night, Surfer Girl, Fun, Fun, Fun...Elvis, Beach Boys, Beatles...and more musicals...Mama Mia! Which btw I rolled my windows down and raced at top speed down the highway to just yesterday. Told you I had spring fever. Oh and... A-Know this isn't fifties, IS before my time...B-If you have not seen the movie-check it out. Music and scenery alone are worth the price of admission and C-you can blame me when you have ABBA stuck in your head for a week. "Don't go wasting your emo-tion. Lay all your love on me..."

10. This is a song thing...my favorite summer song of all time...Summertime by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. LOVE IT!!! ADORE IT...Summer, summer summer time...time to sit back and unwind... I will never get tired of this song. Something about Will Smith and my age...haha...makes me feel like we grew up together. Plus everything he touches seems to have some sort of redeeming quality to it... "Now this is a story all about how, my life got flip-turned upside down..." Oh and just ask my mom- everything she did that was to my disliking at age twelve, was met with my poorly adapted rendition of "Parents Just Don't Understand"...Subtlety comes with experience. Haha...it is true though...they still don't understand.
Also love Will Smith's Switch

That's my summer hit list. Love it or leave it... make up your own. Regardless- ooey, gooey, drippy, sandy, sweaty, salty, liquefied, gritty, edible, tangible, caramel, alluring, steamy, dreamy Summer-is on it's way. Embrace it. I will...

"Hello Lover..."

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