So, I have been working on another song that I started to lay down some tracks for.  I have to give my brother some credit for this one as he is the one who introduced me to the original Woody Guthrie tune and a recent cover by Billy Bragg and Wilco.  I like folk music, it is always fun to play.  I wish I had the chance to play this song over the summer with my brother, but he never made it up to camp.  He wanted to play it too, so maybe sometime in the future.

The song is “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key” and it is a great, simple folk melody.  Here is my current recording, hopefully if time permits I will be able to add a little more depth to it.  Right now all the tracks are me, I played guitar and did all the vocal tracks.  nothing fancy, just some help from Garage Band.  So, let me know what you think, I am always open to comments and criticism.

Mmmm I want to linger
Mmmm A little longer
Mmmm A little longer here with you
Mmmm It’s such a perfect night
Mmmm It doesn’t seem quite right
Mmmm This is goodnight and not goodbye

For all we know
We may never meet again
Before you go
Make this moment sweet again

We won’t say goodnight
Until the last minute
I’ll hold out my hand
And my heart will be in it

For all we know
This may only be a dream
We come and we go
Like the ripple on a stream

So love me, love me tonight
Tomorrow was meant for some
Tomorrow may never come
For all we know

Every camp probably has some version of this song or at least most camps.  I am always intrigued by the people I find who I would never expect to know bits and pieces of it.  The above is our camp’s version of the song, which I discovered is actually a conglomeration of two songs, but hey, it’s camp!

Last night was the final Friday night services at camp.  Mind you we are not actually at a religious camp, it is a tradition from the past that has been kept alive and is now a time to reflect on the past week and the weeks or days to come.  Over at the girls camp it is a special time that I think people really enjoy, though the final services generally tend to end in a sob-fest as the oldest girls pass the flame on to the youngest girls and reflect on their years here.  it is sad that another summer is drawing to a close.

After services we went down to the field for the final campfire of the summer.  Ironically, this is the time that the girls come out of the woodwork with skits and songs to do.  It isn’t a bad thing, it is nice that they want to get involved, it just makes a campfire that started late on account of the slideshow at services run even longer.  It was a beautiful night though, and hopefully there were plenty of kids who turned their eyes towards the skies to really appreciate how special it is to sit around the campfire together in such a wonderful place.

It was a perfectly clear night, and laying back with all the girls, listening to people perform and watching the sky was pretty magical.  We saw a host of satellites fly by overhead and I caught two shooting stars.  It is so fun to point them out to the girls and watch the wonder in their eyes as they look up at the sky.

After carrying a sleeping junior up the hill to her cabin I cam back down to get my guitar and the older girls were sitting around the remnants of the fire.  It was the last campfire they would have together as campers.  They asked me to sit and play a few songs with them so I did.  Having such a connection to camp and the kids is so wonderful.  That they think enough of me as part of their camp experience to have me sit with them on their last campfire night is pretty cool.  It made a beautiful night even better.

It is that time again.  Bloggerstock is here and this time we have expanded beyond the ten founders of the event.  Personally, I have been quite impressed with the turnout, and how easy it was to really keep things organized.  I shouldn’t dawdle on that subject though, that is not the purpose of this post!

In an ironically convenient twist of fate, the bloggerstock post date falls on a Monday, which suits the theme that I sometimes have for Mondays, “Mondays on Music.”  So, here to tell you a little bit about personal theme songs is Susie Q from Out of the Ordinary.  Susie Q is a blogger who doesn’t hesitate to just lay it all out there.  Her blog has recently moved, but if you track down her old one, you can see she has been at it for a while.  She is days away from graduating from uni, and has just lined up a great job.  If you like to read life unedited, you might enjoy reading Susie Q.

If you are looking for my post, you can find it over on That Ain’t Kosher.

Without further ado, I give you Susie Q!

Hello peeps, Susie Q here! I am guest posting here on Alex’s blog today after Bloggerstock enticed me to do a blog swap! If you haven’t checked it out already, click on the link and see what’s going on! Basically it’s a ring of bloggers who all love taking using and abusing other people’s personal space. Nah, it’s a great way of discovering new bloggers and readers.

Every month there’s a new topic that all the bloggers will write about. Then all these bloggers are muddled up and write on other people’s blogs. It’s not just a simple swap of “you write on mine and you write on mine” but all blogs link together. Like, I’m here on Alex’s space and I have received a wonderful post from Michael. You can read his post right here. Go ahead, click.. It’s a good one!

When I heard the theme for this month’s bloggerstock, the first thought that came to my mind, was *zomgh* am I meant to know what my theme song is? But I don’t listen to music unless it’s pounding in my ear as I’m doing my daily run!

But as I thought about it, it did become very clear what my theme song is. It’s the one song that gives me that tingly feeling in my tummy as it comes on. It’s the one that makes my heart skip a beat as it plays on my iPod.

Now, I have to tell you; there is a backstory to the song. Basically, my ex left me two years back. He left me while I was at work; he must’ve started packing as soon as I left. Imagine my surprise as I came home in the early hours of the morning! He did come in the next morning to explain but the damage was already done. It hurt. It was the betrayal that I cried about, not the ending of a year-long relationship.

So I went to my safe-place, where I felt happy. I pulled out my Tori Amos cd’s and stuffed myself full of ice-cream all the while whining about how terrible my life was. I trawled the internet for relationship advice (cos the internets knows it all y’all!) and my search led me to youtube. It ended up being a pointless link that had nothing to do with relationships. It was this girl doing hip rolls. (search it if you don’t know what they are. If done right, it looks so sexy!) I was just about to close the screen as the music came on. ‘Ice Box’ by Omarion. And the melody caught me immediately. And I sat there and started feeling better. The song was all about the break-up. The lyrics were about the break-up. EVERYTHING in the whole wide world was about the breakup!

“I got this ice box where my heart used to be … Why can’t I get it right? Just can’t let it go/I opened up, she let me down, I won’t feel that no more/I got memories, this is crazy/She ain’t nothin’ like the girl I used to know”

And that’s how it stayed for a long time. Every time I heard the song, it reminded me of him. Every time it played, I would go to that sad time in my life. Up until a few months ago even. And that’s when it all changed.

You see, I’ve been called the ‘Ice Queen’ by some. Because unless you’re in my inner circle, you would not know that I have emotions. I do not talk about problems, I hide them like a secretive mole. I don’t cry in front of people, and even smiles have been few and far between. And it’s because I’ve been hurt in the past.. “Just can’t let it go/I opened up, she let me down, I won’t feel that no more” So there I was, listening to this song again. And I realised; I am no longer THAT GIRL. I no longer drag my past with me. This song no longer reminds me of the ex. Now reminds me of the past. It reminds me of how far I have come.

“She ain’t nothin’ like the girl I used to know” Yeah, I am nothing like the girl you used to know. I’m stronger, wiser and unfortunately older. I am who I am and where I am because of what has happened in the past, not despite that. But sometimes, just sometimes it’s quite nice to jump deep in the pool of the past. So here you go guys; my past.

Thank you Alex for letting me invade your personal space, I enjoyed it! Now people, get clicking!

So, I have had a song stuck in my head for weeks, maybe months.  I have even started to learn it on the guitar.  What song you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you.  Fireflies by Owl City.  It is only on the radio every  day.  Sure, generally I listen to classic rock stations, but i mean really, sometimes you just have to surf for something different or to avoid the commercials.  Though sometimes it seems like every station goes to commercials at the same time…. Whatever.

So, what is it about this song that is so great?  I am not really sure, but it sure is catchy.  I think that the first time that I heard the song was at camp last summer because I am pretty sure that it made it into one of the promotional videos for the camps.  Not sure if it had the words or if it was the just the instrumentals in that.  Then, a little while back I got a tweet that Ithacappella, the men’s acappella group from  Ithaca College (my alma mater) had a video of them singing Fireflies with the PS22 chorus.  It is actually a great video and arrangement of the song that went pretty viral on youtube.  While this may be a little late coming, here is the video:

I suppose maybe the biggest thing about the song is that it speaks to the inner child in a lot of people.  How many people tried to capture fireflies in jars are kids?  I usually still find fireflies to be pretty fascinating when you are sitting out on a summer evening.  I think maybe the fact that the song speaks on that level, the level of innate wonderment with the world that probably keeps it pretty popular.

It will certainly make a great song for campfire at camp this summer.  I bet most of the kids (the girls anyway) will know it and be able to sing along.  I like finding songs that get people involved or singing along!

Over a winter I get out and do a lot of skiing. Last season I had something like 50 ski days, and this year I am still working on my count. One might say that I am a regular ski bum, but I can be due to the fact that A lot of the work that I do at the theatre is in the evening. It is really a great life!

A good portion of the days that I go skiing, I go by myself. NOt many of my friends have as flexible a schedule as I do. One of the things that keeps me going through the day is having a song in my head. Having a song keeps my skiing rhythm going, and I think it must help keep me focused. The crazy thing is that the songs that get stuck for a ski day are often the most random.

The other day I found myself singing “You’re the top” from Anything Goes!. I would be cruising through the powder singing out loud, but sure as anything I was making pretty turns. I also commonly find myself humming the soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean as I make my way down the mountain.

I know that I am not the only one who gets a tune stuck in their head while skiing. My uncle does the same, though his repertoire is slightly smaller. For him, the runs that are cruisers are “Santa Baby Runs.” Personally I don’t find “Santa Baby” to be a particularly great song for skiing, but when you ski a lot around the christmas season it can be catchy.

Generally I feel like I have my own personal soundtrack playing in my head most of the time. I like to actually listen to music too. When I get in the car I love to put on what I call “Epic Driving Music” which usually consists of soundtracks from epic movies. It is just fun.

What music defines the soundtrack of your activities? Do you have music or songs that get stuck in your head when you go running or to the gym or hiking or biking?