Saturday, May 31, 2008

Muffins

Origins

Hello!  Sorry I have not updated for so long!  Sometimes I look at other people's blogs and I'm frustrated they don't entertain me with fun and new exciting entries and then I forget I haven't updated mine.  So I wanted to give a little background on this thoughtpad I call a blog.  So the term "easy as muffins" came up when Clifford came over to my house to think of some lyrics for a song which eventually became "Strings Released".  So we were in the kitchen eating something trying to think of the first line of the song.  We had some parts down but I remember Cliff wanted to have another verse cuz it was short.  So if you listen to the song, the first line is "we have this night to share, this easy lovin summer night so fair".  You can check out a rough copy on www.myspace.com/i dont actually know.  just go to www.myspace.com/cliffkang and his buddy is makeshift_28 :).  

so we were trying to figure out the first line and cliff said that i could just write whatever and he'll sing it no matter how long or short it was (Clifford you may correct me if any of this is wrong).  So I came up with this genius phrase which is the title of this wonderful blog.  I thought "Easy as muffins" was already a phrase and when I realized nobody had ever heard of it before I was surprised that such a chic saying was not being said across the world.  We tried so many different possibilities.  I remember specifically trying really hard to rhyme "easy lovin" with "toaster oven".  Needless to say, the phrase did not get into our song but I loved it so much so I had to put it somewhere else.  Anyways, i wrote a poem about muffin heads because everyone loves muffin heads right?  Who doesnt like to eat just the top of the muffin.  Nobody wants that crumby/crummy base.  See what I did there?  I just made a homophone joke.  

So here is my muffin poem which may turn into a song.
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Muffin Heads 
By AJP
Squeaking slippers in the kitchen/ Sleepy ticking in key
with body swinging looking for a morning beat
up and open the blinds and I finally see 
An early morning muffin patch in a basket weaved

Mmmm I love them muffin heads

I'll take the roof off with my hands the twister
blueberry dots in the vanilla mixture
turtle shell cracks so easy crisp
A dreamy cloud sweet singing in my mouth like ella fitz

Don't want to undress your paper ridges
So giddy and smiling I begin to fidget
Bust you off the top like a kettle hot
sail to the mouth doing 50 knots

bridge
O Bottom aren't you a collection of crumbs
it would be nice like fair weather if you got yourself together
and come from remainder to sum
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I don't have a chorus yet but we'll see if the phrase can get in a song on its second attempt.  In other news, I played w/blessed at a wedding for the first time today.  It was really fun!  We played 2 songs and enjoyed the wedding.   Hopefully one day I'll be able to play jazz as a wedding band.  ;-) Busy week at school this week.  I had a lot to say on my spiritual state but maybe that will come later because this is so much text already.  Have a good day!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Beverly Kenney

BK the Queen

I first heard about Beverly Kenney when I was listening to the John Pizzarelli radio show and they played two of her tracks: "Give Me the Simple Life" and "Surrey on the Top".  There's not that many people who can pull off "cool" so easily and her simple and clean tone shows the honesty of her singing.  She sadly committed suicide at the height of her career at 28.  Now, she is nearly forgotten but she left albums that are waiting to be re-discovered.   

I listened through it twice and I really like it.  The quality is amazing for being recorded in the 1950s.  For the Johnny Smith CD, I recommend "Destination Moon" (currently my favorite song) but all of them are awesome.  Johnny Smith is the guitarist and I love the style.  She even does a song in the style of "Greensleeves".  The one for Playboys is actually only bass and piano so I was surprised.  It's not as punchy as the Johnny Smith CD but it's so sweet and it showcases the two instruments really well.  There's such a simpleness about it that I love.
 
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Something funny happened to me today.  A while ago I flunked a pop quiz test and I was sad when I got my grade online a couple days later, a 9 out of 20, but I was glad I got some right because I had absolutely no idea what the quiz was about.  I circled everything randomly.  So in one part, I had to mark either Reflectional or Derivational concerning a list of 10 words.  So I chose them randomly and I was kind of happy that I thought I got around half right.  So today I get back the quiz and I look at the Reflectional v. Derivational part.  It turns out that out of 10 of those problems, I got 9 of them wrong hahaha.  But the amount wrong was so great that the grader thought that I just had the two concepts mixed up so they gave me 3 more points haha.  hurray!  

I just realized how low and sad my standards have become.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

The Human Touch

Communicating

I am slowly realizing how important human relationships are. There are different seasons and times and while spending alone time w/God is important, maintaining the body of Christ is essential as well. I've been in Christian environments for so long that I've taken for granted the quality of the relationships I have w/people. I didn't realize that even people in the church often don't even have one Christian friend whom they could depend on consistently and the results are harsh. Getting plugged into a church and letting iron sharpen iron is necessary especially when we live in a time when the alternatives look so much easier and better.