Tagged ~ My Top Ten Favorite Albums

Here's the thing ... I just could do a list and leave it at that.  But I can't.  And you know why too; I'll be the first to admit it:  I'm a little verbose.  Or some days, a lot verbose.

I checked into Facebook on my lunch today and saw that I was tagged to list my top ten favorite albums (Hmmm, thanks Alexis!).  No time then to consider it and I worked straight through dinner until my evening meetings which ran until after 10:00.  That meant I had all day to ponder the question in the back of my mind and what could have been a list turned into a post.

Here's another thing ... I love everyone's lists on Facebook:  the albums, the books, the movies, the vacation spots, etc.  But what I really want to know is why?  Why is that book so important to you?  How did that movie affect you so deeply it made an indelible impression?

So here's my list ... plus a little more.  Feel free to read just the large print (the list) and skip my inevitable ramblings ....

These are in order--chronological order.

Pete Seeger, Children's Concert at Town Hall, 1963.  I actually wrote about this record recently.  A classic, the recording had a profound influence on my childhood and provided a framework, I think, for how my brain became wired for certain kinds of music--music that makes a statement or tells a story of some sort.

The in-between years:  The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Bobby Sherman, The Osmond Brothers, David Cassidy

John Denver, Poems & Prayers and Promises, 1971.  When I looked up the date of this record on line, I was surprised it dates back to 1971.  I think I listened to John Denver during my high school years (a little after 1971).  There are so many songs on this LP that I can still sing and that folk-rock-pop thing has stayed with me forever.

Seals and Crofts, Summer Breeze, 1972.  Love songs. Lovingly written and lovingly performed.  

Rick Wakeman, The Six Wives of Henry the VIII, 1973.  I played this album until the grooves were gone.  This is the first solo project of Rick Wakeman, a composer and keyboardist who may be best known as a member of the band, Yes.  It's an all-instrumental collection (in the classical world we would have called it a suite) of his musical interpretations of the personalities of King Henry VIII's wives.  As a pianist, my most successful performances were always of pieces by one impressionistic composer or another.  This album is very impressionistic.

Barry Manilow, This One's For You, 1976.  We played it to death on my floor of the dorm at my college--an all-female dorm.  On any given day some one (or more) of us was breaking up or making up with some guy (who probably didn't deserve us) and this was one of our soundtracks.

Willie Nelson, Stardust, 1978.  Thus began my love of both country singers and old standards ... an unlikely combination but if you listen to this record, you'll get it.

The other college stuff:  Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, The Eagles

The '80's:  Lionel Richie, Cyndi Lauper, more Bruce, more Billy

Garth Brooks, No Fences, 1990.  What Garth says about the 8th track, Unanswered Prayers: "sometimes happiness isn't getting what you want ... it's wanting what you've got."

My lost years:  Stephen Curtis Chapman, Soundtracks from Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail and not much else.

Gavin DeGraw ~ His Whole Catalog (2003-2014 but not discovered by me until 2012).  This is what I call a phenomenon in my life.  I can't explain it.  I just continue to ride it and go wherever it takes me.  And I can't pick just one record.  I play them all--all the time.

Michael Franti and Spearhead, All People, 2013.  I first heard of Michael in the context of a Gavin DeGraw concert and was immediately a fan of not just his music but his very ethos.  A force for good, a champion of justice, a poet ... when you hear him live, you fall under the spell and he makes you want to be a better person.

Sara Bareilles, The Blessed Unrest, 2013.  Every song reminds me of a prior chapter of my life or points me to the future I hope to have.

There are so many other recordings that belong on this list, chief among them the Horowitz live recording of the Rachmaninoff 3rd piano concerto with the New York Phiharmonic.  Unspeakably beautiful.  The Mozart and Durufle requiems belong somewhere here too.  And don't get me started on cast albums ... Les Mis, The Man of La Mancha, Chorus Line ...

I need to stop.  This was a fun exercise but I'm sure I'll never be tagged for one of these lists again.  Thanks for indulging me!

Socially Acceptable

Once upon a time .... to say something was "socially acceptable" meant that it was within the bounds of the generally accepted social practices of the day.  These practices have evolved over the years as the pendulum has swung from corsets, bloomers, calling cards and gloves to dates without chaperones to short shorts and corsets now worn on the outside.  Like everything else in life, what's socially acceptable has changed.

Enter "social media."  Boom.  Total game changer.

The cyber world has changed the real world ... I like to think for the better.  There's so much good happening on the internet:  information to be had, conveniences like bill paying and reservation making,  shopping, the ability to take classes and much much more.  And then there are the social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr among others.  

I, for one, was totally sceptical of the worth of social media at the outset.  I didn't see the point or value in connecting with people this way and could never have pictured myself doing so.  But when my Girl Scout community (yes, the Girl Scouts tweet!) started using social media as a way to communicate, I decided to check it out for myself.  And I became a believer.  I've enjoyed renewing acquaintances on Facebook, sharing my thoughts here and engaging with people on Twitter.

For the purposes of organization and to try to rein in the rambling which I'm so prone to do (see, I did it right there), I'm going to use Twitter as the basis for the thoughts I'm about to share although I'm a frequent user of Facebook, cruise through Pinterest once in a blue moon, dipped a toe into Tumblr and enjoy reading sites like Huffington Post which I consider more social media that true news outlets.  I will mention however, that because of Twitter, I feel like I do hear about real news much more quickly than I ever did before.

I've loved my time on Twitter, about two years now.  I follow lots of different people there from the different Girl Scout adults and organizations that first brought me to it to various priests on the national and international levels of my church to friends and relatives and of course, the musicians, actors and entertainers whose work I believe in or whom I feel have something interesting to say.  I also follow people "seasonally" (my term).  That is to say, during the Olympics, for example, I followed a few athletes to read their reactions during the games and then unfollowed them after the games were over.  I've "met" a lot of wonderful people with similar interests through Twitter and subsequently have actually met many of them and count them among my friends.

Most of the time my Twitter time line, because of the people I've chosen to follow, is a fast-paced stream of information, ideas and opinions that is interesting, humorous, thought-provoking and often inspiring.  To me.  Because I've chosen the people who contribute to my feed, I'm comfortable with the vast majority of what I see and read about.  If you were reading my time line, you might be bored or uninterested or even appalled--because I lean liberal and you might not--by what you're seeing because what I've chosen to indulge in might be of no interest to you or in complete opposition to your beliefs.  That's part of what's so interesting about social media.  You get to choose.  You choose for yourself who or what or how often you'll check in.

You also get to choose how you'll express yourself. You can decide to be friendly or not, funny or encouraging or not.  You could be a light or light-hearted or passionate about the things you care about.  You can advocate for causes--social and political. You can do one of these things all the time or all of the things sometimes.  Most of the people I follow and especially those with whom I interact hold to the norms of socially acceptable forms of expression in a public forum which is what social media is.

But sometimes there is a disconnect in my time line.  I mean, there is a disconnection for me.  Here's an example:  I follow a priest (an Episcopal priest) who wrote a book I liked to use with parents in my former career as a Christian Education Coordinator for a large local church.  The book was a collection of funny touching spiritual essays about raising young children, marriage and church.  His on-line blog is much the same on a wider variety of topics.  He's very funny and his approach to the ancient institution we call church is fresh and energizing.  The disconnect for me is how totally and utterly snarky he is on Twitter.  All the time.  And he knows it and is rather proud of it.  While I think it's funny much of the time, the snarky edge is getting old and tiresome.  I wish he'd just make his very astute comments without the snark and choose that attitude to make his point more emphatically when the occasion warrants it--not all the time.  When did it become socially acceptable to inject sarcasm into everything?  Isn't it exhausting to have to couch ideas in such a way as to blanket the world with crabby, snappish comments every day?  However, when I weed through the attitude, I find truths I can live with so I'm willing to put up with it.  For now.  I predict I will one day become tired of having to read through the snark to find the truth.

Sometimes the disconnect comes in the form of mean-spiritedness.  I must be very naive but I'm afraid I don't understand how the invasion of meanness and rudeness finds it's way into my little world, which, after all, I've carefully constructed and chosen.  While I realize that I won't agree with everyone at all times and that all people are entitled to their opinions, most people are aware of socially acceptable ways of discussing the endless variety of subjects that might catch one's attention.  We talk about our ideas and beliefs in a civil way and offer our points of view without being offensive.  We agree to disagree and generally agree that it is this diversity of opinion that can force one to examine a question from a new angle.  It contributes to a broader perspective.  When done with care and respect, friendships are open and honest and relationships grow despite fundamental differences of opinion.

The meanness which seems to be rising all around us in society saddens me.  When did it become socially acceptable to reach out to people whom one doesn't really know and attack them for their personal opinions?  When did whining become an accepted form of expression?  When did polite debate devolve into derisive commentary?  When did a minority of very vocal people decide to hijack the conventions that allow us to freely discuss ideas within boundaries that keep the discussion civil?  When was common courtesy thrown out of the window.

I will not engage these people in their tirades.  I can't be part of the negativity that they thrust on me.  Even though I have banished the worst purveyors of snark and meanness from my created world, I can see that they are still out there and that the nastiness lives on.  I'm sad about that and I genuinely feel sorry for people who spend their days criticizing others' beliefs, putting down those who don't agree with them and spreading gossip and hate.  It must be very draining and constraining to live that way.

So I would like to propose something:  If we who regularly use social media as a way of connecting, learning and sharing could refrain from engaging with those whose expressions cross over from healthy debate to meanness and attack, could we raise the bar of civility a little?  Could we find and revel in the potential of all the good in social media?

I hope so.

I hope you join me.