Song of the Day - Praise You - Fatboy Sim

We've come a long long way together

Through the hard times and the good

I have to celebrate you baby

I have to praise you like I should

lifeforthelord

Though this retro dance tune from 1999 has never been considered a Christmas song (I don't think it has anyway), I think it fits perfectly.  Must be why I woke up with it in my head...Merry Christmas to you and yours...

Song of the Day - All I Really Want - Alanis Morissette

Do I stress you out?
My sweater is on backwards and inside out
And you say, "How appropriate"

I woke up to this classic opener to Alanis Morissette's breakthrough 1995 album Jagged Little Pill and so I just had to post it.  God, every single song off that record was full of clever lyrics over irresistible rockish-instrumentation.  If you're too young to know it the song or the album, you should definitely take a listen to this one and then go find the whole Jagged Little Pill album somewhere...You're gonna love it!

Song of the Day - You're So Cold - Mariah Carey

wallpaper95

It's a late, late post for me as I have not been able to get my hands on my pc all day.  I just got back from a trip to Pennsylvania that was cut a wee bit short because it got so cold outside.  Brrrr.... Great song, though!

Song of the Day - Kind and Generous - Natalie Merchant

You've been so kind and generous, I don't know how you keep on giving
For your kindness I'm in debt to you
For your selflessness, my admiration
For everything you've done, you know I'm bound
I'm bound to thank you for it

I normally reserve the posting of this particular song for the Thanksgiving holiday, and I may very well do so again in a couple of weeks, but it is very appropriate for me to post today because I need to thank a very special person who will be leaving my side so to speak, for good.  You see, for the better part of the last year, I've had an assistant in my classroom who has done so much to make my life easier at work, and after today she'll be moving on to her own classroom in another school district.

I've always believed that ESL teachers are made from the same cloth.  We are the kindest, most selfless of people who care deeply for our students and dedicate much of our time and energy towards nurturing them and helping them learn and grow.  Brittany is surely one of those people, and for the last nine months or so I've been only too happy to share with her my students and my crazy world and she has responded with the greatest modicum of responsibility and caring that I believe is so lacking in today's world.  

So, to Brittany I say thank you, thank you, thank you!  I am so  proud of you and I know you will serve your own students with the same great care and attention that you have shown to mine.  They'll be lucky to have you, and I wish you nothing but the best of luck. I am surely going to miss you!

    

Oh I want to thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you
Thank you

Flashback Friday Song of the Day - Stay (I Missed You) - Lisa Loeb

You say I only hear what I want to. 

You say I talk so all the time, so. 

And I thought what I felt was simple, 

and I thought that I don't belong, 

and now that I am leaving, 

now I know that I did something wrong 

'cause I missed you. 

Yeah, I missed you.

Here's a song I had totally forgotten about until I heard it yesterday.  It's hard to believe that this song came out twenty years ago, but sure enough this #1 tune off of the soundtrack to the film Reality Bites was released in April of 1994.  It's the kind of song that you can't help but sing along to, and surprisingly after this long I still remember all of the words.  Check out Lisa Loeb's Stay and then go out and have a great day...

Song of the Day - Fade Into You - Mazzy Star

Today is the first day of autumn, and after my post last night, I wanted to post a song that I believed fit both my mood and this new season.  Mazzy Star's one hit is such a melancholy tune it just makes you stare off into space when you listen to it.  So simply click play and venture off into space for a few minutes.  It'll do ya good!  Oh, and Happy Autumn!

Song of the Day - Unspeakable Joy - Kim English

When I wake up in the mornin' gets me outta bed
Keeps me runnin' skippin' jumpin' like a little kid
You know sometimes I can hardly keep it inside
It overtakes me, overwhelms me and I'm more alive

creativesoulartists

Joy, unspeakable joy
'Cause they did not give it, they cannot take it away
Joy, unspeakable joy
As they did not give it, they cannot take it away

Last night I went to Cherry Grove with a bunch of friends and had a blast.  As with any evening out in a club setting, the music sometimes makes the night, and last night the deejay was on fire!  She played all sorts of great stuff...a lot of 90's dance club hits, a lot of Madonna (unusual choices, too!), and nice choices from today's scene, too.  Here's one I hadn't heard in a long, long time.  It's from a singer named Kim English and it was THE dance floor anthem of 1999...

P-Town Song of the Day - Nobody's Supposed to Be Here - Deborah Cox

Today's song was easy to choose.   Monday's 'Tea' was an I Love the 90's theme and beginning with Diana King's Say a Little Prayer, I danced on the crowded dance floor for the better part of the next two hours. Dance music from the 90's was oh so awesome, and this one was one of the best...

Song of the Day - Freedom 90 - George Michael

Summer is rolling right along and it's hard to believe, but Independence Day is only a day away.  Here's a lil bit o' Freedom from George Michael, with the help of some model friends....

Song of the Day - Stayin' Alive - N-Trance

Everybody in the house

C'mon, lemme hear you say

Ho oh!....(Ho oh!)


usatoday

Today's Song of the Day is all about the NY Rangers, who successfully fended off the LA Kings last night to stay alive in the Stanley Cup Finals.  The game sure wasn't pretty, with seemingly the whole 3rd period being played on the Rangers' end of the ice, but this time Lundqvist and the rest of the team were able to prevent a Kings' goal to tie the very tight game and they won by the thinnest of margins, 2-1.  So now the series moves back to LA with the Rangers down 3-1 and the Kings still needing only one win to take home the Cup, which I'm sure they'd love to do at home tomorrow night.   Of course the situation is still dire for the Blueshirts, but you know what, they're still alive!

For Nana, My Angel

Ugh, I've been so, so busy lately and I've had so little time to dedicate to any sort of writing, but I cannot let this day end without acknowledging a very special and solemn anniversary.  It was 20 years ago today that my nana, my mother's mother, Mary Randazzo, passed away.

Nana always was and still is one of the most special people in my life.  In many ways, she was like a second mother to me, especially during the couple of years I lived with my grandparents in the early 80's to attend Fordham University in the Bronx.  Nana was so many things, an awesome cook, a loving wife, mother and grandmother, and a selfless caregiver to anyone that ever needed her help.

She had a self-deprecating sense of humor, yet she could hold her own against her husband Joe, my loud-mouthed grandpa with a Sicilian temper, when need be.  All of us kids loved spending time with her.  She fed us, entertained us, and always had a way of making us laugh, never afraid to make a fool of herself just to get a chuckle out of the nine of us grand kids.  She'd serenade us with lines from songs like "Ride a cock horse, to Danbury Cross, to see a pink lady upon a white horse" (we'd all take turns riding her knee as she sang this), and whenever we'd leave her house from a visit, she'd say to my dad, Now George, make me look good," and then she'd appear to push our car out of the driveway with her brute force. These are the kinds of things you never forget.   (I'm smiling right now as I write this...)

This is the only picture I have of my 

nana, from when she was probably in her 20's

I'd love to tell you more about this very special person, but unfortunately I am short on time.  I will get to it, though.  There's so much to say about this wonderful lady who was full of life and full of love and that everybody loved back.  A few weeks ago, when I had my Tarot cards read, the psychic told me that I've inherited a lot of traits from her and that she is out there somewhere looking down on me and rooting me on. I have the opportunity to live a life that she would have liked to live, using the gifts that she passed down to me, and I want to make her proud.  Ever since that day, I've felt a little better knowing that even though she's been gone for 20 years, she's still there, watching over me.  She's my angel...

To see more of what nana was like, check out A Weekend Full of Memories.

Song of the Day - I'm Gonna Get You - Bizarre, Inc., featuring Angie Brown

Yo deejay, pump this party!

Here's a feel-good throwback to 1992.  It's really too bad today's disc jockey seem to have forgotten this song.  It's simple in construct, with very few lyrics, but the vocals and the music are both oh so fun!  Happy Memorial Day!