#315 of 366: With a Smile, Maiah Manser

Killer voice on Maiah. I think there’s a tik tok or something rolling around with the headline “can you imagine walking by a club and hear this coming out?” when she really belts at 2:09.

I’d walk in! No doubt about it. Gorgeous, ethereal, otherworldly.

Always love discovering voices like hers. Keeps me coming back!

Be good, do good.

#314 of 366: All I Know, Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa

Big Sean
Wiz Khalifa

If you sample Bloc Party in your Hip-Hop song, I’m a fan forever. One of my favorite things about music, is that we all like all different kinds. It’s super easy to extrapolate that out to the artists themselves, right? Love to see things bleed into one-another like that. The listening experience is richer when you’re a fan of both!

Be good, do good. I think it’s an ice cream night.

#313 of 366: Edge of Town, Middle Kids

We haven’t heard from Middle Kids on here since May, and we’ve been overdo.

“I came a little closer to the truth that day, I heard it’s call in the alleyway, and the one resounding answer that I could take, is that I don’t know nothing and I got no way, I got all muddled up and journeyed to the edge of town, and then the road cracked open, sucked me in, and I went down, now standing face to face with the king of the underground, some things just don’t add up, I’m upside down, I’m inside out”

Upside down and inside out is ok sometimes. Gives us perspective. That’s important!

Be good, do good.

#311 of 366: Black Friday, Tom Odell

Man oh man, when the waves break on the song and it lets go at the end. Amazingly gorgeous.

Short one tonight. Kind of just had a “well shit, now there’s no reason to wait to start changing things about your life for the better” realization so I’m gonna go to bed a little earlier. Probably finally go for a walk tomorrow too. Friday of a three day weekend always feels good.

Life’s too short. Change what you wanna change. Cut off what doesn’t work for you any more. Not cruelly, just, it doesn’t fit us anymore, so we’re letting it go.

Love you, mean it. Be good, do good.

#310 of 366: Ripple, Sycco, Flume, Chrome Sparks

This is where the About The Artist photo from Spotify goes. This is Sycco’s. 😀

I feel like somewhere on the internet I encountered the phrase “if you’re between a rock and a hard place, be water.”

Google tells me otherwise, so I don’t have a source.

Initially, I picked this song because I felt like it was uplifting. The melodies and sounds make you wanna move, and dance. I haven’t felt like doing that much today.

The more I times I listened to Ripple, though, the more I started to feel like it related to that quote. It would be easy to let ourselves give in to dread. Spin out, like the song says. I think the water and the concept of ebb and flow can be applied to time periods in our life. Yin and Yang. Hard times make us value the good, the valuable.

I think it’s important to recognize these feelings of dread we might feel. Genuine fear. Anger. Many of us are grieving.

Coincidentally, I wrote a blog post the last time Trump got elected, eight years ago.

https://wordpress.com/post/everything-etc.com/833

I titled it Don’t Choose Fear. I quoted a Will Smith movie. The idea though, was akin to “be the light”. It may feel like it’s pitch dark all around us. Here’s the other thing; 67.7M people and counting agree with us. Have the same worries we do. We are not alone in this.

“We’re all going to have to wake up tomorrow morning and work like hell to move the world toward what we prefer it to be.”

Let’s choose that. No fear. Never fear.

BE GOOD, DO GOOD!

#308 of 366: Top Down, Swizz Beats

Gotta up the energy a little here. Picture it, Saranac, 1998.

I’m a sophomore from Redford and get introduced to “Ruff Ryder’s Anthem”, and more specifically, DMX. I knew Swizzy was a member at some point back then, but I didn’t know he produced RRA.

Fast forward to last year and I just loved the message that this song leads and ends with.

“Wherever you are, SHINE!, whoever you are, SHINE!”

I have a fun playlist called “On my Ted Lasso Shit”, which I’ll link below, and the vibe of this song fits it. Be you. Don’t let haters dim your light. Swizzy says “shake em off “. Do your thing. Change the world a little bit at a time.

Didn’t think Golden Girls and Ruff Ryders made sense together did ya? They do in my life! 😀

Be good, do good.

#307 of 366: What Was I Made For?, Billie Eilish

The more time goes on, the more music she releases, the more I’m in awe of how talented Billie is.

This song is so poignantly beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. Barbie was also a dope film…but this song from the soundtrack really grounds it.

“I used to float, now I just fall down, I used to know, but I’m not sure now, what I was made for?, what was I made for?, taking a drive, I was an ideal, looked so alive, turns out I’m not real, just something you paid for, what was I made for?, hm, ’cause I, I, I don’t know how to feel, but I wanna try, I don’t know how to feel, but someday I might, someday I might, Mm, hm, ha-ah, hm, hm, hm, when did it all end, all the enjoyment?, I’m sad again, don’t tell me boyfriend, it’s not what he’s made for, what was I made for?”

Just floors me. A song that just personifies ache…but that ache let’s us know what pure joy feels like too in a way.

Can’t appreciate the light without the dark. I think at it’s core that’s what this song is about.

Be good. Do good. Love you.

#306 of 366: Heartbeat, VÉRITÉ

Been a little under the weather and got myself a bit behind with posts. That kind of stuff used to stress me out a bit, missing deadlines, even self-imposed ones. Just thinking about it now though, I realized there are a ton of things in our lives we probably don’t give ourselves enough grace with.

We need to be kinder with ourselves.

Love the prose VÉRITÉ uses in her songs.

“Dark distant remarks are calling, to remind me what we are, dim romantic sparks, we all fall down, so we can all cover our eyes, from explosions in the skies, can you feel them burning, can you feel the Earth tilt?, can you feel my heartbeat, pounding into nothing, broken bones are floating, in my empty body, can you feel it reaching?, moving through the feeling, won’t you bring me down?, won’t you bring me down to size?”

Rapid fire posts incoming to catch up!

Be good, do good.