Powerful

I was listening to a Podcast out of BBC Radio 4 called Woman's Hour: News Politics, Culture this morning on my drive to work. It is the first time I have listened to this podcast so I wasn't sure what to expect. First, love the accents but I miss a lot of what is being said. Hopefully as I continue to listen and get used to the accents the words will become clearer. In this show they introduced a panel of people that are choosing a list of 100 of the most powerful women in Great Britain. The panel first discussed what they felt being powerful meant. That alone made me pause and ask myself the same question as I listened to their responses. Influence and money were mentioned along with the power of the written word.

I also read a few blog posts this week discussing Beyonce's performance and outfit at the Super Bowl. One of the post felt her outfit and performance wasn't befitting a powerful woman. The other post felt Beyonce's voice, performance and costume were all part of her power. 

I don't have a definite answer as yet but am curious to know what you feel the definition of a powerful person is?

via

Let's Blog Off I've Got the Music in Me!

Every two weeks Bloggers unite for a day to write about a communal topic. This week LetsBlogOff asks the question what song gets stuck in your head? 


For me it seems every song is stuck in my head.  I can’t remember a time when I didn’t listen to music. I still have my parent’s album Herb Albert’s Tijuana Brass Whipped Cream and Other Delights. 

Thankfully I have a brother 8 years older than me so I grew up listening to great music.  Motown was just getting started; The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and The Who were all the rage!  There is an embarrassing video of me (that has since been converted to DVD thanks to my brother) that has me doing the pony to Mony Mony the 1968 single by Tommy James & the Shondells, I was around 7 years of age.  No you will never see it.

I was a dedicated viewer of The Monkees   R.I.P. Davy Jones my first crush. 

and The Partridge Family. 

I sang (badly) and danced around the house all the time.  I was a huge fan of The Jackson 5 and only mildly into The Osmond’s.   Soul Train, American Bandstand and MTV were other huge parts of my life growing up.  Thinking back I must have driven my mother nuts.

I graduated from high school in 1980 and it was a fight between Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin

and Disco

Good sense won over and my class song was Stairway to Heaven!  But I did learn how to Hustle!

Nice to know a new generation is also learning it!

Thankfully I was introduced to show tunes and musicals by two roommates.  We played darts to

The Music Man

 Jesus Christ Superstar

My music tastes now range from all the above to gospel like Blind Boys of Alabama

Lady Gaga

Joss Stone

I even like some hip hop and rap.  Just some though. 

Going back to the original question of LetsBlogOff what song can get stuck in my head? It’s a Small World is the worst for me!   I am not including a link because you don’t need to hear it ;)

Please follow the links to my fellow participants posts on what songs are stuck in their head!

Highs and Lows Part 1- A real high!

Last week was an interesting week of highs and lows.  This post is going to be about the high.

I went to my very first opera with none other than Paul Anater of Twitter and blogosphere fame.  You can read Paul’s blog post about the night here.

Month's ago Paul was sharing with me how much he enjoyed the opera during a conversation and I mentioned I had never been.  He immediately offered to share the experience with me the very next season.  Paul is just that generous and honestly it kind of blew my mind.  His love of opera just bursts from his very soul. 

When the St. Petersburg Opera Season rolled around Paul contacted me and said Puccini’s Madama Butterfly would be perfect for a first time opera attendee.  Since the opera would be sung in Italian Paul suggested I read and learn about it ahead of time even sending me links to You Tube.  Seriously, what a generous person!   I love to be swept away with music so I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to listen to the music ahead of time.  I thought perhaps the surprise factor would be best.  I did however, download the libretto to my Kindle and read the story. 

Let me just say Madama Butterfly does not show American servicemen in a very good light and I was quite dismayed.  I had never given what our servicemen and women do in the many different ports that they are stationed, in all corners of the world, and felt very sad and angry. 

Working in the building industry my everyday dress consists of blue jeans, a-fabco polo shirt and jeans which isn’t exactly what I should wear to an opera, even one in St. Petersburg on a Tuesday evening.  I decided to take a half day of vacation and get a little girly having a pedicure and manicure which I haven’t treated myself too in a few years.   It was very nice.

I drove the very long (in my head only apparently) way to downtown St. Petersburg in all of 45 mins.  Sixteen years in Tampa and I have never explored this fabulous city.  Paul is very lucky to live just a few blocks away.  We ate dinner at Bella Brava and caught up on how much Paul’s life has changed in a year.  I asked many questions and he graciously answered them.  Then we walked a bit around downtown.  I would like to go back when I don’t have heels on. 

www.starlight-tower.com

Soon it was time to head to the Palladium and start the show!  First let me say the building is beautiful.  It began as a church and still has many of its original lighting fixtures and moldings. The lights dimmed and the orchestra started and my mind was swept away.  Everything was spectacular!  I had no idea that there was so much acting in an opera and yet there is.  The voices were just incredible and it didn’t matter that I didn’t understand the language, sub-tittles were displayed for convenience.  I thought opera’s were only sad and tragic and don’t get me wrong this one is but it had many funny scenes too.

 
For me the best judge of whether I liked something or not is if I would do it again – and I would definitely go see an opera again.  Thank you Paul for such a lovely evening and sharing this beautiful music with me