Tag Archives: Music

WEEK 10 – 29 AUGUST TO 4 SEPTEMBER 2014

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64 FRIDAY 29 AUGUST 2014

I’m The Greatest Star – Barbra Streisand – Top Ten Contender

064 Funny Girl-The Original Soundtrack Recording

“Funny Girl” is the first movie I ever remember watching.

I didn’t become familiar with its soundtrack until many years later when Fernando, a friend back home, introduced me to it. Most of the songs on this show have been favourites of mine for years, and I’m sure, a few will sneak onto this list.

Although this version of I’m The Greatest Star comes from the film’s soundtrack, I’d like to tell you a little story regarding the Broadway Original Cast recording.

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WEEK 08 – 15 AUGUST TO 21 AUGUST 2014

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50 FRIDAY 15 AUGUST 2014

I’m Putting All My Eggs In One Basket – Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald

050 Ella & Louis

Back in 1991, while attending American University, I had to do a project for our video production class. I can’t remember the specifics of the project, but my teammates and I decided to use I’m Putting All My Eggs In One Basket as the theme of our production. If I recall correctly, a girl invites a guy over for dinner at her place, probably their second or third date. We can hear her thoughts as she prepares the meal. (“Will he like this meal? Do I look okay?”) We can also hear the guy’s thoughts as he’s about to knock at the door (“I look so good. I’m sure I’ll score tonight”). It’s all coming back now. That was one of the tasks; we had to use voice over as part of our narrative. We thought it was tacky, but did it anyway.

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WEEK 06 – 1 AUGUST to 7 AUGUST 2014

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36 FRIDAY 1 AUGUST 2014

Sing Happy – Darryl Knock

036 Celebrating New York New York! Chicago! Cabaret!

Sing Happy is the first Kander and Ebb song to make it to the list. Now, I don’t like to play favourites, but if I did, this duo would be at the top of my list. I love everything about them; probably the coolest dudes to ever team up to write show tunes. From “Flora The Red Menace” to “The Scottsboro Boys”, I’m sure I’ll be packing many of their songs in my suitcase. Sing Happy is also the first song on the list that was published the year I was born, 1965.

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WEEK 02 – 4 JULY TO 10 JULY 2014

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08 FRIDAY 4 JULY 2014

I Got The Sun In The Morning – Ethel Merman

008 Annie Get Your Gun (Original Cast Recording) [1988 Remaster]

People! Turn down the volume on your iPods; Ethel Merman has arrived at the list. Oh! Don’t act surprised, you knew La Merman would be on the list, how could she not? Yes, there’ll be more belters joining her.
For almost 25 years I Got The Sun In The Morning has been one of my all-time favourites. It is kind of poetic that it comes on the list on the 4th of July. You see, that is the day I left Venezuela in 1990, exactly a week after my 25th birthday.
At the end of the summer, I arrived in Washington, D.C. I had been accepted in the Film and Video Master’s program at AU (American University.)

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LET’S START PACKING ON 6 JANUARY 2015

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HOW TO PACK 365 SONGS IN A SUITCASE

On 27 June 2015 I’ll be turning 50, so, I’m making a list of songs to bring with me into the future. These are songs that I have collected in my first 50 years of life, songs that in the future will make me feel alive, and give me a purpose to still dream and let my imagination fly.

LET’S START PACKING ON 6 JANUARY 2015

27 June 2014 was the first day of the last year in my forties. It is not as if it worries me to get old, but turning 50 is a milestone nonetheless. So, a few months ago, in preparation for my fiftieth year on earth, I started to take care of certain things, such as having a physical, organising my finances, etc. Things I did not want to deal with or worry around my 50th.

However, I was in search of something unique to do before I turn 50, something it could keep me occupied for a year, a build-up to my birthday.

Right around the time I turned 49 I was reading a book by Jane Pauley called Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life. On chapter eleven, Packing for a Long Trip, Jane Pauley talks about the things that figuratively we want to pack and bring with us into the future. Things that will help us shape our future. The things that will make us look forward to being 70, 80 or even 90. Jane Pauley quotes columnist Cary Tennis from Salon.com, who, among many things, talks about having in your suitcase a song that gives you goosebumps.

I happened to read that chapter while on an elliptical machine at the gym, on the morning of my 49th birthday and thought it would be a cool little project. I was going to collect my favourite songs and make the ultimate playlist for the future.

I took the over 7500 songs in my iTunes library and organized them alphabetically by album into four playlists. The plan was to listen to the playlists during the day. Then, every night I would choose the song that for whatever reason touched me the most during the day. If there were other songs I liked, I would put them on a new playlist to be revisited after listening to the original playlists.

Now, after six months of collecting songs and writing about them, I’ve decided to share the list.

By 26 June 2015, on the eve of my 50th birthday I will have finished packing 365 songs in a suitcase that I will bring with me into the future.