Songs About The Rain

Friday, 30th November 2007  


By the way, this is the last day of blogging if you’ve been a participant in NaBloPoMo! We made it, finally! So, give yourself a pat on the back today!

. . . .

Well, well… it’s actually raining “proper” this morning in San Diego!

By proper I mean that it’s really like, raining Dude!

Nice and steady and consistent, and not like it had been trying to rain in months past. I guess we’ve been having a bit of a dry spell here in San Diego. Yes, especially during the wild fires.

So, I welcome the rain for a change. Yet, I’m going to be traveling with Big Daddy Orchestra to Arizona tomorrow and I really don’t want to go on a road trip in the rain. So I hope it finishes raining later on today. I also don’t like going to gigs in the rain… I hope it stops before the gig tonight at the Fairbanks Ranch Country Club.

Anyway, I’m thinking of songs that talk about the rain, or have the word “rain” in its title:

Rhythm of the Rain – The Cascades

The Rain Song – Led Zeppelin

Come Rain or Come Shine – Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer

A Little Fall of Rain – from the Musical Les Miserables

Over The Rainbow – as forever sung by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz

Have You Ever Seen The Rain – Creedence Clearwater Revival

Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head – by Hal David and Burt Bacharach and sung by B.J. Thomas

Rainy Days and Mondays – The Carpenters

Okay, that’s all I can think of right now…. any others?

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Ponta de Areia

Thursday, 29th November 2007  


Ponta de Areia is a song composed in the early 1970s by Milton Nascimento and Fernando Brant.

Milton Nascimento is a superstar in Brazil and has been a very popular singer/songwriter for many decades.

Ponta de Areia is simply one of the most beautiful melodies I’ve ever heard!

I would definitely want to learn this song on piano, performing my own arrangement of the song.

Lyrics and chord changes below:

A7+ C#m7 D A/C#
Ponta de areia ponto final
A Bm7 F#m7 D/E A
Da Bahia-Minas estrada natural
A7+ C#m7 D A/C#
Que ligava Minas ao porto do mar
A Bm7 F#m7 D/E A
Caminho de ferro mandaram arrancar
A7+ C#m7 D A/C#
Velho maquinista com seu boné
A Bm7 F#m7 D/E A
Lembra do povo alegre que vinha cortejar
A7+ C#m7 D A/C#
Maria fumaça não canta mais
A Bm7 F#m7 D/E A
Para moças flores janelas e quintais
A7+ C#m7 D A/C#
Na praça vazia um grito um oi
A Bm7 F#m7 D/E A
Casas esquecidas viúvas nos portais

Words & Music by Milton Nascimento and Fernando Brant

And I recently download 3 different versions of the song, all performed by Milton Nascimento.

ponta de areiaI believe the definitive version is the one on Wayne Shorter’s solo album, Native Dancer in which Milton Nascimento sings the vocals. But the other two are equally beautiful. One version has a choir of children singing the melody.

There is even an instrumental version by Earth, Wind & Fire.

Milton has a beautiful falsetto voice and his way of phrasing is amazing. It’s hard to describe the qualities of his music. Earthy, organic, natural…. a somewhat humble and ascetic quality? Definitely Brazilian.

I’ve been trying to find more info about Ponta de Areia and from translating web pages in Portuguese, it is a location… town, port. And it must mean something sentimental to the composers of the song.

But it’s definitely a place….

So lately, I’ve been obsessed with this song, and trying to find out as much information about the song as possible.

If you know anything about this song, please let me know.

Below is a map of Ponta de Areia:


View Larger Map

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Thanksgiving Aftermath

Thursday, 29th November 2007  


It’s a week after Thanksgiving.

How’s everyone doing?

Well, for myself, I usually ask the following questions in the back of my mind. Or, at this point my healthy diet and lifestyle have completely gone downhill from here:

1. Did I succumb to some relative’s suggestion to eat a little turkey?

Ah, I remained strong and determined. I had no turkey this Thanksgiving. Anyway, my distant memories of eating turkey were one of consuming rather dry, heavy fowl flesh that had to be accompanied with a lot of gravy because of its texture.

2. Did I totally slack off on my healthy diet and lifestyle after Thanksgiving and going into the holiday season?

Fortunately, I’ve remained committed to eating very healthy right now… one week after Thanksgiving and for the past few months now.

I’ve pulled my electric juicer out of hiding and have been juicing: apples, oranges, tangerines, carrots, and celery.

And I’ve been eating mostly raw fruits and vegetables. Making salads and veggie sandwiches. Snacking on smoothies, nuts and raw cacao chocolates.

Where I have faltered a bit has been in buying an occasional bag of vegetable chips from the health food store. And a couple of times I did buy some onion rings from a fast food restaurant. Pretty bad, I know. But at least I didn’t get a big combo meal with the humongous burger, large fries and large soda.

Nowadays, I don’t drink soda at all. I’m totally weaned from that. And I don’t really drink coffee. I’m weaned from that too, which is a big money saver, considering all those daily Starbucks mochas I used to get in the past.

So, for the most part, I’m eating very healthy. And doing lots of gardening as a moderate exercise, and doing yoga as well.

And for the first time in like a long time, I seem to be going into the holidays eating well and feeling healthy. The feeling healthy part is the key, because the more you eat healthy, the better your mind and body feels, and you feel up to doing a lot of those things that need to be done during the holiday season.

But, with the flu and cold season coming… that would be the big test.

The Goldenseal extract is working wonders so far. I’ve had a couple of instances where I felt a cold coming on with the sniffles, and had taken the Goldenseal extract and hours later I’d feel better again.

I need to get some Echinacea extract to help in avoiding the cold.

Okay, so I’m doing well so far. But this weekend on Saturday and Sunday, the big band will be off to Arizona and the real test will begin, on whether or not I can maintain a healthy diet during that time. Life on the road is always tough. Too many bad choices for dining out, and very few healthy choices.

So I must plan a strategy to get me through Saturday and Sunday. I can bring fruits and nuts, which are easy to take along. And try to get some healthy smoothies somewhere. I may have to eat less raw vegan foods until I get home.

And I can buy a bunch of those raw vegan bars from the health food store…..

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They Didn’t Have The Part

Wednesday, 28th November 2007  


So, one of our cars (the one that needed a minor cosmetic repair and a new mud guard) was in the shop today. We took it this morning, and they said it would be done today because it was such a minor job.

At around 4:15pm I was concerned because the auto body place never called to give us a status on the vehicle. I tried calling once and got the receptionist, who transferred me to the guy responsible for our vehicle.

No answer. It rang until I was transferred back to the receptionist, who said she noticed that the guy was talking to a customer at that very moment. I said I would call back in a bit.

I call again and get answering machine message telling me their hours of operation. They weren’t supposed to be closed yet. It was around 4:30pm. I find “the guy”s business card and call his direct number.

No answer.

I tell my wife and she drives there to the auto body shop since she works close by.

She gets there and they tell her the part hasn’t arrived yet!

Okay, at this point my wife told me she let ‘em have it….

I mean, we set the appointment a week ago. So we assumed the part would be there, right?

So, now we have to leave the car at the shop overnight. And we had a car out-of-commission because it was sitting at the auto body shop when it wasn’t being fixed yet because the darn part wasn’t there yet!

And remember, they said this was a minor job that would only take a day.

Also, they called and left a message with us yesterday saying that if we could, to bring the car in to get the job done. Well, if they didn’t have the part yet, then we would’ve brought it in a day earlier and it wouldn’t be done because the part didn’t arrive.

Okay, I try to be compassionate with people and forgive them for their stupidity. But, this seems plenty ridiculous of me.

I’ve been to other auto body places before and have been used to a certain level of professionalism. But to not have the part after you made an appointment a week ago is pretty inexcusable, in my humble opinion.

So, we have to wait one more day, before they put a new mudguard on our car and do some other minor fix of our car. Some cosmetic fix…..

Whatever…

I just have to keep telling myself it could’ve been worse…. it could’ve been worse….


The Other Car

Oh, by the way…

We got the other car back today. A new catalytic converter was put in, after it had gone through a $60 diagnostic test to find out for sure it was the catalytic converter.

The grand total was about half of what the other mechanic said it would be…. $1900 versus $1007. Well, I had them fix that other car and now it’s at home. At least one of the cars is fixed.

Now, I have to take it to the original smog test to have it re-tested again and once it’s passed, then the re-registration process for that car will be complete….

*sigh*

What a hassle, eh?

I hope it passes…….

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Smog Check Failed…

Tuesday, 27th November 2007  


I’m totally bummed out right now…

My car failed the smog check. Has anyone had their car fail the smog check before?

We’re going to get it re-tested at a place that can also fix the problem.

Someone mentioned it could run as high as $1,900 because of a catalytic converter!

Okay, that’s money that could’ve been used for Christmas shopping. And if it does come to that, then it’s going to be a lean Christmas for me this year…. *drat*

I hate cars!

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iTunesBlogger and iTunes Plugin

Monday, 26th November 2007  


Have you ever wished you had the capability of having the current song on your iTunes player displayed in your blog or online journal? Along with the cover art, and other bits of info?

I always wanted to… being that I’m playing music on my iTunes player several hours throughout the day, and sometimes I have it running while I’m not even home.

itunesblogger

So, doing a search recently, I came across a method for displaying the current song playing on iTunes, which includes downloading iTunesBlogger (by Andrew Carlson and Harper Reed) and using the WP iTunes Plugin (by Nick Leeper) for your Wordpress Blog.

And voila! As you can see I have it running now on my frontpage.

Once-in-a-while it isn’t able to access the cover art for the album a song is from, but it appears that 95% of the time the plugin is able to retrieve the cover art via Amazon.com’s extensive image database using XML, cURL, PHP and Amazon’s special web services applications.

One important bit of advice if you are going to try this on your own blog… follow the instructions on the Plugin’s home page… precisely. I was in a hurry to install everything and you really need to do everything in the proper sequence or you might have a problem. I did because I was excited and in a hurry.

So, follow the instructions, which required you to modify the Plugin code before activating the plugin.

Anyways, you can now see the music I listen to throughout the day…..

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