music monday: lullabies

After a hectic Friday, a tiring Saturday and a wonderful but busy Sunday, I'm in the mood for a calming lullaby. Here are some of my favorites!

1. "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)," by Billy Joel. This is the song I want to sing to our future child. Beautiful piano, beautiful lyrics, timeless! It's such a gorgeous and meaningful song. "Someday your child may cry and if you sing this lullaby / Then in your heart there will always be a part of me." Tear! :*)



2. "If You Can't Sleep," by She & Him. Zooey Deschanel was taking a risk with this one, and I'm glad she did. Really good vocal arrangement and simple lyrics. It makes you feel like you're sleeping on clouds!



3. "Lullaby," Jack Johnson and Matt Costa. From the very cool Curious George soundtrack. Kinda weird that he's encouraging the child to sing the lullaby to himself. But I love Jack Johnson's harmonies and echoes here.



4. "Farewell and Goodnight," by Smashing Pumpkins. This one might only appeal to Pumpkins fans and is found on their masterpiece Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It's the only song I know of that features vocals of most of the former Pumpkins bandmembers. I don't know how soothing Billy Corgan's voice might be to a child... :)



Here's to a sleepy Monday.

word wednesday: mondegreen

Mondegreens are misheard versions of common phrases and expressions. An interesting tidbit: the term mondegreen is a mondegreen itself. There's a Scottish ballad that read: "the hae slain the Earl o' Moray and laid him on the green," which was misheard as "They hae slain the Earl o' Moray and Lady Mondegreen."

I can think of a few:

- A lot of people say "I could care less" when they actually mean the opposite, correct phrase: "I couldn't care less." (Wow, someone actually made a diagram for this one!)
- A staff writer at my high school newspaper hilariously wrote "took it for granite" when he meant "took it for granted."
- If you look at the internet long enough, you'll find tons of people writing "per say" when they really mean "per se" which means "by or in itself or themselves; intrinsically" (I thought it also means "necessarily")
- A line in Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" is sometimes heard "Hold me closer, Tony Danza" when it's really saying, "Hold me closer, tiny dancer."
- And you can't forget precious Sydney's Pledge of Allegiance: "I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the I don't belong to America."

Here are a couple that I don't really use but I've seen them used incorrectly all the time:

far be it for me

This is a mondegreen. The correct phrase is far be it from me, which means "I don't want to presume..."

for all intensive purposes

This is also a mondegreen. And it doesn't even make sense! The correct phrase is for all intents and purposes which, the Grammarist says, is a totally useless phrase anyway. It says that sentences work perfectly well without it. Hm! Good to know!

very, very expensive

New York is so expensive! I can't believe how much it costs just to apply to get a teaching certificate there! Here's the breakdown: 

Three certification tests: $294
Two trips to New York via BoltBus: $50
Fingerprint processing: $96
Getting my fingerprints done: $30
Certification application: $100


Grand total: $570.

Getting certified to teach in New York: NOT PRICELESS. VERY, VERY EXPENSIVE.

music monday: awesome cover songs

I didn't know what a cover song was until college because I was too young to know whether a song was an original or a remake!

I wonder how artists feel when the cover is actually better than the original. Jeffrey Gaines said in an interview that he spoke to Peter Gabriel after he heard the cover of "In Your Eyes." Peter Gabriel loved it so much that he said something like "This is how I intended the song to be. You captured it." How gracious is that??

Anyway, here are some cover songs that I think the original artists should approve of.

"Free Fallin'" originally by Tom Petty, covered by John Mayer

I love how the chorus just soars, even with his falsetto and the changed melody. The breakdown section is also awesome.



"Under Pressure" originally by David Bowie and Queen, covered by The Used/My Chemical Romance

The original version of this song totally rocks, but I like how The Used and My Chemical Romance sped it up a little and made it a little more relevant to the 00s. I also love the "ba-da-dee-da-deh!"s



"In Your Eyes" originally by Peter Gabriel, covered by Jeffrey Gaines

I mentioned this song in a previous post, but I just can't get enough of it. I love what he did with the build-up into the chorus, love his thick voice and the sound of that guitar. Mmmm.



Can you suggest any others?

i actually kinda like sports

I think I'm actually starting to care about sports. Maybe my own desire for the Celtics to win is mixed in with Cyrus's desire for them to win... Or maybe I'm associating good feelings with sports because we usually watch games with friends we love... But even aside from all that, I think something is actually happening here!

I still can't stay awake through a whole basketball game (half-time through the end of the third quarter is nap time for Ina), but I think I actually do care when the Celtics win or lose. They work so hard! And when they lose? Oh, the heartbreak! I guess you can say that about any team, but I'm following the Celtics here, okay? :)

So here are some of the things I think have helped me to like sports a little better:

- Cyrus has been patient with me. I think if he were more forceful about trying to get me to like sports, it would probably have the opposite effect.
- Cyrus tells me about the players and their different characteristics. I don't know if this was on purpose, but it brings out the drama in the game for me.
- Cyrus lets me fall asleep.
- Cyrus answers all my questions.
- I've been watching more games. In the past, I've only watched the finals/Superbowls/World Series games, so I don't know anything about what it took a team to get there. But now that I've been following some teams for a little while, they're starting to mean a little more to me.

So when Cyrus asked me if I'd be willing to watch tonight's game after a long day of errands and tutoring, I was excited to say yes!

Let's go Celtics!

word wednesday: nerve racking vs. nerve wracking

Which is correct? I thought I knew, but it turned out I'd been using the wrong one my entire life!

That doesn't beat a high schooler's misunderstanding of "took it for granted" when he wrote "took it for granite" or my very good friend's use of the abomination "kinda've," but this one's a confusing one that I had no idea about!

Apparently the correct usage is "nerve racking" according to grammarist.com, my new favorite website. One definition of rack is to torture with a rack (a Medieval torture device). So when we use the word rack in reference to the brain, it means that we're thinking so hard about something that it's like torture ("I had to rack my brain to remember...").

Similarly, when we talk about the phrasal adjective nerve-racking (I almost typed "nerve-wracking!"), we're describing something that tortures the nerves ("What a nerve-racking experience!").

FYI!

when it's time to leave the gym

Sometimes it's difficult to know how hard you should push yourself. Sometimes that decision is made for you.

Last week I was running on the treadmill, and I was doing okay at minute 16. I could go on, but I didn't really feel like it. I usually make goals for myself ("One more minute!"), and I was wondering what my new goal would be. But before I could do it, something made up my mind for me.

The sweat from the guy next to me splashed on my leg.

That's when I knew it was time to leave the gym.

Gross.