tuckergurl

Live Your Life

I have some great entries in my journal.  They'll be up on this blog in the next week or so.  One of my resolutions (and of course I have some) is to blog more but, more importantly, to not write entries that basically consist of me talking about my needing to write more. So this is the last time I will mention this in 2009.  Moving on. 

Rihanna kind of gets on my nerves.  It's not really rational.  It's just how I feel.  (Though she has great style -- or rather a great stylist.)  But I love love love T.I.  So when their duet, Live Your Life, came out, I had mixed feelings.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I just love this song.  I sing it in the shower.  It's so catchy and I feel so badass when I sing it. 

Now, I won't get into how I am over the "It's so hard to be rich and keep your soul" song.  (Poor T.I.  He is so virtuous even while the rap game is changing into a shallow pool of money and drugs.)  Still, I think this is my anthem of 2009, contradictions and all.  What is your anthem for 2009?

One last thing, though T.I. is cute, this video is pretty bad.  Feel free to clean your house or dance around in your underwear while it is playing.  That's what I do.

Mo Better Blues

Bill Lee was honored this week and I was reminded of one of my favorite songs from his son, Spike Lee's film, Mo Better Blues. Such a talent. Enjoy!

Green Light

My new running song.

Said Friend

Can Scarlett Johansson sing? Well, the answer to that question lies in this video and is open to interpretation. I describe her voice a bit like this:

Let's say you have this friend who one day tells you she has joined a band and is the lead singer.

You are surprised by this. She never mentioned that she liked to sing.

You've never heard her sing.

You have faith because she is a hip, cool girl who can pull most things off.

Plus she is so attractive that really, if she can't sing, what difference does it make? She's not going to lose any coolness points or anything.

So you, nervously, go to hear her sing.

And she isn't bad.

But she's not Norah Jones or Christina Aguilera or anyone whose voice is so impressive that she should immediately quit her job and start auditioning for something.

Her voice just has a nice, interesting quality to it.

And the songs she chooses to sing are cooler than you thought they would be.

Tom Waits covers are a good idea because they are great for people who can't sing that well.

She struggles to hit some notes.

She struggles to hit a lot of notes.

But you gotta give it to her for just doing it.

It's not something you would do and you're voice is as mediocre as hers.

You realize it really is just about presentation and your friend is good at presentation.

Go her.

You actually begin to enjoy her more now.

Yeah, you sort of enjoy her.

You're not putting her on your ipod but you enjoy her.

Scarlett reminds me of a few friends like this. Here's her video if you want to watch it. It might grown on you.

I Will Possess Your Heart (Death Cab For Cutie)

There is something about this song that I love. It is just so unabashedly romantic. It makes me feel so hopeful.

(For purists out there, this is the edited version. If you want to watch the version with the 4+ min instrumental at the open, it's somewhere on You Tube. That version makes me feel a bit less hopeful and a bit more, well, bored.)

Another Great Andy Samberg Short

I do not want to spoil this for you. It is a great serenade to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a great special guest. I can not stop listening to it!

Is it me or does Andy Samberg just keep getting cuter and cuter ...

New Lenny Kravitz!

I used to be obsessed with Lenny Kravitz. Truly, it was unhealthy. Whenever anyone came over my house, I would ask, "Have you seen the Lenny Kravitz Behind the Music?" Their answer was usually no so I would pop it into my VCR (Yes, I had it taped.). This is a great episode. Lenny cheated on Lisa and then regretted it. His mother, Roxie, succumbs to cancer and Lenny has to find himself. What a life my Lenny has lived!

I actually might watch it right now. Ain't nothin on ...

Anyway, Lenny is back dredless and angst ridden. I was a bit surprised -- and somewhat disappointed -- by his new song. I wanted a fast one. I didn't want a slow one. I think though that I am less into slow songs overall so that's just me.

Listen to it and let me know what you think.

What to do?

When you have nothing to say? I could mention that I think Amerie is pretty in this video. It's not deep but it's all I got on this vegging Saturday.

Rosa Rosa

Number 3 on my bucket list is learning Espanol. I know a bit but am not fluent.

Yesterday, I had my first lesson with my friend, Beth, and I accomplished something I could never do in my four years of Spanish classes in high school: I rolled my rs! I learned with the assistance of this classic by Sandro. You've gotta watch it. Truly a video classic.

Something I Am Loving

VH1 Soul is having a marathon of videos from The New Jack Swing Era in honor of their upcoming Hip Hop Honors.

Here is their definition of New Jack Swing:

These days hip-hop and R&B are kissing cousins. It wasn't always that way. Thirty years ago, the two genres were seldom mentioned in the same breath.

But in the late '80s, during the era of high-top fades, and parachute pants, producer Teddy Riley and label boss Andre Harrell successfully fused and marketed the two sounds in a sexy, exclamatory music that critics termed New Jack Swing. It sparked a revolution.

"Rappers and singers didn't want anything to do with one another," Riley told The Source. "Singers were soft, rappers were street. But New Jack Swing showed that it was okay for a rapper to have feelings, and that it was cool for a singer to have a little bit of thug in him."

It was a more innocent time: Whitney and Bobby were still respected music-makers, MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice were bona-fide stars, and Will Smith was still calling himself the Fresh Prince. Riley's blend of sweet melody and big beats was so pervasive that it characterized the period; ultimately its sound touched everyone from Keith Sweat to Michael Jackson.

This "era" was during my teen years during my musical coming of age. I put era in quotes because that word seems a bit strong to use. However VH1 uses it often in their promotional materials and are presenting the pioneers of this movement awards at their upcoming ceremony. As I write this, I wonder what makes a musical era. Did I put era in quotes because the music was so light and fluffy that I see it as having less merit or gravitas as other types of music? Can Guy's "Groove Me" and Another Bad Creation's "Playground" be part of a musical era? Or am I feeling strange about being old enough for a time when a style of music I loved is seen as a past era.

New Jack Swing was really huge when I was a teenager. I was into hip-hop and R&B mainly because it all resonated so much more with me then. Now, I suppose I have lost my innocence. Or music sucks now. Who knows?

One thing I have noticed so far about New Jack Swing's songs is that, much like the music of a modern day child of New Jack Swing, Timbaland, each artist has one beat that they begin almost all of their songs with. (Take BBD's I Thought It Was Me or Poison) Then the songs morph into slightly different songs that all sound a bit the same. I am not hating on this style. A good beat is a good beat, even if you use it a 100 times.

The marathon is from A-Z and I am cleaning my apartment (and blogging) to Al B. Sure's Night and Day. I had a massive crush on him. I still have the audio tape of his first and biggest album.