I have missed my poor blog. I didn't realize how close we had become...until I couldn't spend time with it? (Do blogs have gender identities? Hmmmmm. Perhaps that could be a future post topic...) Anyway, in pondering my remorse for being such a bad blogger -- a great song popped into my head about friends -- by Joan Armatrading.

Now, before you go and think I am in my late 40's or early 50's, I'm not. Of course, I have had grey hair since I was 19 years old -- so perhaps I have an old soul? That aside, I got into Joan as a kid because my mom used to listen to her all the time...as well as Maria Muldaur, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, et al. Her "Me Myself I" album has long been one of my favorite selections to listen to when I am feeling moody and introspective. So, in honor of my good friend-blog, I'd like to share this great song, "Friends", with you all. Might I suggest a nice glass of wine -- or your favorite smooth spirit of choice -- before you listen? Joan's voice is deep, rich and strong -- I find that it kind of sinks into you like the heat of swallowing a luscious gulp of red wine...I find Amaretto di Saronno works well, too. Anyway, I've included the lyrics here for your enhanced enjoyment. I'll be back soon...thanks for hanging in there with me, everybody!

[ Sidenote: Congrats to the GIANTS!! Woohoo! You can take the Butterfly out of New York, but you can't take the New Yorker out of the Butterfly! ;-D ]

FOR THOSE WHO ARE EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTY LISTENING TO THE SONG -- YOU CAN HEAR IT HERE: http://www.vanessaleehamlen.com/blog/joan/

[It seems as though the closing embed tag keeps getting dropped when publishing -- which makes the song player not want to work in Mozilla -- probably cock-sucking-Blogger's fault...What else is new?]




Friends by Joan Armatrading

It's been so long
Since I've seen you
My old friend
I remember your eyes
How they would shine
Those crazy times
When you and I
Fooled around
I remember the time
You fell in love
Didn't know how
To say goodbye
To your baby
And you made me take
The goodbye note
Around
And that little girl
She cried and cried
And she asked me if
I knew exactly why
You'd gone
I told a lie
I said you felt
She'd be much happier
With someone else
But then you'd do
The same for me
Remember when
We stayed out late
We'd cause a fight
But we would never stay
To the end
I loved you then
I love you still
You know I think
I always will
You're a good friend
A good friend
To me
Who was it
Who came for me when I was
Stranded in the bad man's land
Who was it
Who put up bail for me when I was
So desperate to get out
Who believed with me
That I was not guilty
Who gave me beer when I was thirsty
And who gave me twenty-five dollars to hold

Labels: beauty, blogging, butterfly, childhood, favorites, friends, hobbies, lizzard, memories, mom, music, newyork

The concert has been a smashing success over at Citizen of the Month! However, Sophia, Neil and I needed to do some fast creative brainstorming earlier today...it was brought to my attention that the original yellow (gold) Star of David was not a good idea for historical reasons. I will not dwell on those reasons here (look it up on Wikipedia if you don't know the specific history) because I don't want to take away from the positive issue at hand -- which is that we actively pursued and came to an excellent solution! The *NEW* and *IMPROVED* Blue and White Glowing Star has been incorporated into the now revised logo design.

And, if you are here for the "Concert Buttons" -- you can now download the whole pack which includes the original 5 from my previous post as well as *7 Bonus Fashion Buttons* not pictured...Slightly different versions with shadows for depth and two with a "magical glow"!

Click the button below to get .ZIP file package!




ENJOY!!!

<---------- IMPORTANT NOTE! ------------>

FOR THE HTML CODE HELP ON THESE BUTTONS -- SEE THE BOTTOM OF MY PREVIOUS POST -- OR REFER TO THE READ_ME.TXT FILE INCLUDED IN THE DOWNLOAD PACKAGE. THX!

Labels: blogging, blogs, butterfly, buttons, chk2007, citizenofthemonth, concert, friends, fun, graphics, holidays, music, neilochka, sophia, twitter

Well, if you don't know, you should! Neil Kramer aka "Neilochka" of Citizen of the Month (and twitter) is hosting his Second Annual 2007 Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah Online Holiday Concert Extravaganza! What is this exactly? Neil explains it best:

"...It is now time to raise our voices in song again in this new holiday tradition. Hanukkah songs about miracles. Christmas songs about faith. Winter songs about the beauty of the season. Kwanzaa songs about new traditions. It is the 2007 Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah Online Holiday Concert, right here on Citizen of the Month on Monday, December 10th (with a re-broadcast on Christmas Day). The concert is for YOU and by YOU — and this year will be bigger and better than last year..."

Basically, anyone from the blogging-community-at-large is welcome to share a recording of him/herself singing a favorite holiday song! It is meant to be fun...and possibly quite funny...as we all celebrate the great big inclusive Holiday of Christmahanukwanzaakah! Plus, if you are too embarassed to sing, Neil also welcomes photographs from bloggers to help "dress the set". It should be a great time. And, if you have never checked out Citizen of the Month before, you really should because Neil's blog is hilariously funny and incredibly well-written. [ I should hope so on that last part because Neil is a professional writer in "real life"! ]

That said, you'll be pleased to know that I have a submission in this year's concert. I sang "The Man With The Bag", a song that was originally recorded by Kay Starr in 1950. This song has always made me laugh because of its unapologetic theme of Christmas greed LOL! (Hence, my allusion to it in the sidebar where I have my Amazon.com Xmas Wish List!) Plus, I love the peppy big-band sound of it. As I explained to Neil, I don't have a particularly great singing voice...so I decided to really ham-up my submission in the hope that "really funny" would excuse "lack of talent". I recorded it with a clothespin on my nose so that it would be really nasal and then I tried to do a little bit of Ethel-Merman-like styling, although sans the great power of Ethel's voice. Anyway, I think it is pretty funny. I mixed it myself on the computer with an instrumental karaoke track -- not bad production value for being recorded in my home office. Join us at the concert and feel free to laugh at me and my song! I also submitted the "Winter Berries in Snow" picture from the previous post below as decoration for the concert so you'll probably see that too.

I also created the unsolicited artwork pictured above -- I was inspired by the idea of trying to create a logo design to incorporate the 3 holidays into a graphical image that was clean, attractive and symbolically cohesive. It was a great graphic design challenge! I used the three colors of Kwanzaa (black, red, green) -- the Christmas Tree symbols (which double as general holiday season/winter symbols too) -- and a gold blue and white glowing star of David -- as well as a blue background as another Jewish/Hanukah nod. I sent the graphics to Neil last night, but I still don't know what he thinks of them. He may or may not use them, but my real purpose was to create them for my own use to promote the concert because I think it is such a fun idea and concept that Neil has started. People are certainly welcome to borrow my button for use on their own blogs...I think it is kind of neat to have a "I participated in CHK 2007" badge for the sidebar so that blog readers can revisit the fun we had anytime and maybe become new participants for next year's!

[ I would love it if folks credited me for the button if they use it, but it's not necessary. Just leave me a nice word in my comments if you are going to borrow it! Share the love, baby. ]


Click the button below to visit Citizen of the Month:




<--------------------------- UPDATE 12/10/07! --------------------------->

Hey folks! I created this modified version button badge below (4 colors) that folks can also use in their sidebar -- year round if you like (!) -- to provide a link to the concert festivities any time. It's a nice way to thank Citizen of the Month for hosting this wonderful event...





You will need to host the button image on your own site and modify the code below accordingly. Here's the code you will need to use the buttons:
<a href="http://www.citizenofthemonth.com/2007/12/10/the-2007-blogger-christmahanukwanzaakah-online-holiday- concert/" title="Check out the 2007 Christmahanukwanzaakah Concert!"><img src="http://www.YOURWEBADDRESS.com/BUTTON NAME OF CHOICE.png" title="Check out the 2007 Christmahanukwanzaakah Concert!" border="0" /></a>

Labels: blogging, blogs, butterfly, chk2007, citizenofthemonth, concert, friends, fun, graphics, holidays, music, neilochka, photos, pictures, twitter

via videosift.com

Labels: advertising, aol, commercials, css, favorites, music, vdeosift, videos, web, YouTube

Since no one has stopped by here lately to take me up on my Starbuck's Song of the Day Swap offer -- I have gained another extra Song of the Day card. So, now we have 2, count 'em, 2 FREE songs to trade for other different songs -- OR, you can trade something else interesting! Whatchagot??

You people may force me to throw in a custom designed banner or Flash animation for your blog, but I hope it doesn't come to that...You'll have to be trading something pretty good for me to whore myself out! ;-D

Labels: blogging, butterfly, friends, fun, music, Starbucks, swap, trade, web

He needs to work on the physical aspects of his Axl impression, but the voice part is pretty great, considering the probable level of intoxication...

Labels: music, videos, web, YouTube

Okay, so, you know how Starbuck's has this Song of the Day promotion going on with iTunes? Well, today, the man and I went to Starbuck's and we received 2 cards -- obviously, we don't need both. Anybody out there got an extra card you don't need from another day that you wanna swap for today's (10/20/07) song? No Kenny Chesney, please.

Drop me an email and we can exchange download codes -- 'cause hey, free music is fun!

If you don't have a Starbuck's card, but have something else cool to trade, let me know. I'm open. Besides, it might be more fun to do a "totally random items, interweb swap meet..." Whatchagot, bloggy friends?

Labels: blogging, butterfly, friends, fun, music, Starbucks, swap, trade, web

All You Need Is Luv's - video downloaded from Metacafe


Today, I had the misfortune to see this Godforsaken travesty of music. Truly a turd, which I suppose, is appropriate to the product in question...

All I can say to Michael Jackson regarding this disgusting misuse of The Beatles' music? To quote Joseph Welch's famous words, "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

Labels: advertising, anger, annoying, commercials, music, videos

For a few months, I had the Last.fm "Music Like..." widget in my sidebar. You all may have actually played some music from it in the past. (??) It was nifty.

Lately, I was noticing that when I clicked play (usually while I am writing a blog post, I will play it to listen to something while I write, etc.) the first song played completely, but then, the songs that followed would play about 4-5 seconds before skipping to another song snippet of 4-5 seconds...over and over...and over. It was like channel surfing against my will. Little "preview" snippets of songs, one after the other.

I don't know if this is a problem with Last.fm -- perhaps it is a glitch? -- I don't remember this happening in the past. Maybe, there was a trial period on Last.fm for the widget, and then, it was meant to stop working? Who knows? [Maybe one of my readers who uses Last.fm knows something about this? Let me know if I missed something.]

Anyway, it was annoying me. I decided to scrap it and substitute in my own player -- because I already have plenty of musical content available from my WBFR radio project that I could use. Now, you will see in the sidebar my own radio player that will play music at random from my personal library. Currently, it is playing from the WBFR_dance and WBFR_winter_2007 mixes. I will keep adding more songs to the XML playlist that pulls the music from my WBFR project, but I also need to add some newer content. Eventually. The point is, my own radio station player will not annoy me and will be more reliable. Hopefully, some of you will enjoy the music. There is some really good stuff in there, if I do say so myself. ;-)

For more information on any of the artists or albums, send me an email (check the sidebar for the address) or leave me a comment. I am always happy to talk music.


[NOTE TO SELF: You'll have to sub-out the Last.fm widget on The Daily Lizzard also...a future task...with uploaded music to suit the Jazz-theme we have going on over there...Fun! Yeah, very future task.]


UPDATE: Put together some fast and dirty content for The Daily Lizzard's radio player yesterday (!Last.fm was really bugging me!) because I had some free time while I was waiting for somebody...And, I am excited to say that not only does she have some really great jazzy music to play over there, but a lot of it is from indie artists who deserve exposure -- so this is really nice all around. Plus, I used a beautiful color-coordinated player for her blog that I love. Take a listen if you have the chance...play it in the background while you surf the web...You'll feel like you are in the Lizzard's personal Jazz Lounge with martinis for everyone! But, I'd like an Amaretto Sour, please! [The more sour, the better...with an orange slice and cherry...K-thx, bai.]

Labels: annoying, bands, blogging, butterfly, code, Last.fm, lizzard, music, templates, WBFR, web, widgets

Some of you may remember this funny video from The Daily Lizzard? -- it was a Mothers' Day surprise for Mommie Dearest posted on her blog. That Trudy sure can dance...

[Don't worry -- we didn't make her dance for the whole song -- we shot a little chunk that she tolerated pretty well and then we looped it to make it longer for the whole song ;-D ]

Labels: cats, ChooChoo, funny, lizzard, mom, music, pets, video

With the most recent upgrades to our area's cable service, we now have VH1 Classic -- which is really great incidentally -- because we get to see all kinds of old music documentaries and vintage videos. Periodically, I will see a Smiths' video and it will make me laugh...I have never gotten over the enormity of Morrissey's head and that extreme-high hair of his. He was like a caricature...or a bobblehead! Whenever I think of The Smiths, I see him in my mind's eye with his big head, high-styled hair, a loose plaid shirt, and drooping Levi's with substantial footwear, dancing around the stage in that lazy-crazy "I don't give a shit" way. Reminds me so much of my NYU days and all of the serious brooding types (gay and straight) that I knew.

[Photo credit: Steven Wright http://www.wrightphoto.co.uk ]


But, it also makes me think of how my mom, her friend Robert and I were all so tickled by the lyrics of one of our favorite Smith's songs:




[Morrissey photo: The uncropped version can be found here.]

Labels: art, bands, favorites, funny, lizzard, mom, music, pictures, TV, VH1, videos, vintage

Labels: cats, Clipmarks, funny, music, pictures, web

Labels: blogs, Clipmarks, funny, GoFugYourself, music, photos, scary

Ah, push it
Ah, push it

Oooh, baby, baby
Baby, baby
Oooh, baby, baby
Baby, baby

Get up on this!

Ow! Baby!
Salt and Pepa's here!

(Now wait a minute, y'all
This dance ain't for everybody
Only the sexy people
So all you fly mothers, get on out there and dance
Dance, I said!)

Salt and Pepa's here, and we're in effect
Want you to push it, babe
Coolin' by day then at night working up a sweat
C'mon girls, let's go show the guys that we know
How to become number one in a hot party show
Now push it

Ah, push it - push it good
Ah, push it - push it real good
Ah, push it - push it good
Ah, push it - p-push it real good

Hey! Ow!
Push it good!

Oooh, baby, baby
Baby, baby
Oooh, baby, baby
Baby, baby

Push it good
Push it real good
Ah, push it
Ah, push it

Yo, yo, yo, yo, baby-pop
Yeah, you come here, gimme a kiss
Better make it fast or else I'm gonna get pissed
Can't you hear the music's pumpin' hard like I wish you would?
Now push it

Push it good
Push it real good
Push it good
P-push it real good

Ah, push it
Get up on this!

Boy, you really got me going
You got me so I don't know what I'm doing

Ah, push it


Special thanks to Salt -N- Pepa and Spindarella for helping us to successfully push another post (with video) off of the page... lol

Labels: blogging, funny, music

Yeah, we did a ChooChoo-the-Cat music video for theDailyLizzard...as a Mother's Day surprise!

But for those who would like to see the original diva in action...



Sing a long with the lyrics:

At first I was afraid
I was petrified
Kept thinking I could never live
Without you by my side
But then I spent so many nights
Thinking how you did me wrong
And I grew strong
And I learned how to get along
And so you're back
From outer space
I just walked in to find you here
With that sad look upon your face
I should have changed that stupid lock
I should have made you leave your key
If I had known for just one second
You'd be back to bother me

Go on now go walk out the door
Just turn around now
'Cause you're not welcome anymore
Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye
Did you think I'd crumble
Did you think I'd lay down and die
Oh no, not i
I will survive
As long as I know how to love
I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my life to live
I've got all my love to give
And I'll survive
I will survive (hey hey)

It took all the strength I had
Not to fall apart
Kept trying hard to mend
The pieces of my broken heart
And I spent oh so many nights
Just feeling sorry for myself
I used to cry
But now I hold my head up high
And you see me
Somebody new
I'm not that chained up little person
Still in love with you
And so you felt like dropping in
And just expect me to be free
But now I'm saving all my loving
For someone who's loving me

Go on now go walk out the door
Just turn around now
'Cause you're not welcome anymore
Weren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbye
Did you think I'd crumble
Did you think I'd lay down and die
Oh no, not i
I will survive
As long as I know how to love
I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my life to live
I've got all my love to give
And I'll survive
I will survive (oh)

Go on now go, walk out the door
Just turn around now
'Cause you're not welcome anymore
Weren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbye
Did you think I'd crumble
Did you think I'd lay down and die
Oh no, not i
I will survive
As long as I know how to love
I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my life to live
I've got all my love to give
And I'll survive
I will survive
I will survive...!

Labels: lizzard, mom, music, video, YouTube

So we have all heard of The Sneeze, haven't we? Ya know, the guy who is "Half zine. Half blog. Half not good with fractions..." Well, if you haven't, you should check out his blog. But, I have said all of this before. That's not why I am here today --- at least not directly.

The reason for today's entry? Steve has long extolled the virtues of his favorite band (and friends), Cloud Cult. And, I am ashamed to say that I never paid those particular posts of his much mind because they were usually regarding Cloud Cult performances in his native Los Angeles area. Being on the East Coast myself, I skimmed onto his more funny "haha" material. However, today, I listened to the YouTube video post on The Sneeze for Cloud Cult's song, Pretty Voice. Then, I clicked on another song...and another song...then, I went to the Cloud Cult website and launched the "Wimpy Player." All I can say is: Wow! I have been a fool.

If you are looking for some new musical goodness to add to your collection, you should check them out. They just might be the diamond you need in your daily rough. :)

Labels: bands, CloudCult, music, the sneeze, videos, web, YouTube

Biography has a very cool Black History website this month --- it's chock full of videos, a historical timeline, and lots of great reading material resources. You can check it out here:
http://www.biography.com/blackhistory/

In honor of one of my favorite historical figures:



...and favorite gospel songs...



and if that was too spiritual for you...here's a favorite sinner!

Labels: black history month, charles, hawkins, king, music, videos, YouTube