365 Day Journal Challenge

Dec 19-Favorite Singers and Actors

Who are your favorite actors and singers? Why?


Singers:

Not so new ones: Simon and Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, John Denver


All four I love for similar reasons.  The music is great but the words are such wonderful and thought provoking poetry.  I listen to the words far more than the music.  With Simon and Garfunkel, my mom had me listening to this when I was a kid.  Now my 3 yo says “I want to hear the breakin your heart song” which is Cecelia.  The kid can sing half the song off the top of his head.  His other fav is John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High.  I’m trying to raise them to love good music.  Will loves the Boxer and My Little Town with Simon and Garfunkel and Annie’s song with Denver. As for me, my latest favorite is Borders by S and G, and Poems, Prayers and Promises by Denver.  Now, for Cohen.  I love “Everybody Knows, Suzanne, and Who by Fire.  My oldest isn’t wild about him but the youngest son loves it b/c its low (he doesn’t like high pitched voices) and you can’t get much lower in pitch than Cohen.  Basically, I was raised with Denver and Simon & Garfunkel and discovered Cohen while dating a guy in grad school who liked his music.  My love for the music remained-can’t say much about the guy but he did like good music. 

Newer artists (compared to the others).

Martin Sexton –
He uses spaces between notes as much as he uses the words.  His music reminds me a bit of Van Morrison, soulful, sings about mistakes he’s made, and the lyrics are terrific. He was an opener for Nickel Creek at the Alabama Theater about three years ago and I left with three of his CD’s and not of NC.  (I already had the NC cd so I’m not complaining about their music-love it too.)  Anyway, the guy is great on stage but hard to understand at times (might still have a thing with the bottle judging from later videos I found on the internet but then, artists sometimes dabble there, you know.  Its worth checking out the cd’s if you can find them (not likely at Walmart but maybe at small record stores (or Razor’s Edge in Homewood Alabama – you can order online).  My little son, the 3 yo, will listen to this cd all the time and never complain.  Usually he hollars out the song he wants but with this guy’s cd’s he will just relax and listen to all of it.  There’s one about seeing a house on the highway carried by two 18 wheelers and he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry-he’d broken a home up once (then tells about how he showed up at home and his woman wouldn’t let him in.  This is the Prodigal son/Black Sheep (title of one of his cd's ironically) over and over.  He’s done wrong, been on the road, and is ready to come home again if he still has one.  Really touching stuff.  Kind of jazzy but not really.  And this guy can scat like the old timers.  He makes noise with his own mouth to the point he doesn’t need a band.  That’s why live shows with him (if sober, lol) are fascinating.
http://www.last.fm/music/Martin+Sexton/Black+Sheep (this is the best cd-Freedom of the Road is the one about the houses I mentioned. 

Josh Ritter-
Politically thought provoking lyrics and some really, really good poetry in his lyrics.  They make you listen and listen just to get all the meanings there.  Wonderful stuff, especially the one that has the song “Girl in the War” about a man whose fiancé is in Iraq and he is telling God, I know you can protect her-if not I have no use for you) –I’m oversimplifying but it is touching-my oldest son’s favorite of that album.

Josiah Leming-
And please don’t laugh here but I absolutely love the lyrics that young kid writes who got kicked off American Idol in Feb last year-Josiah Leming.  Look him up on the internet and check out some of his songs and piano playing (“One last song”, and the one he wrote for his mom called “Angels Undercover” – the kid is going somewhere. Here’s a site with the lyrics.

http://www.lyricsreg.com/lyrics/josiah+leming/ANGELS+UNDERCOVER/

Okay, I’m done with the plugging for my favorite music, I guess. 

About actors????
A few just for the looks, eyes, yeah, that’s it, just the eyes (LOL): Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Mel Gibson  (not necessarily in that order), oh, and maybe a little bit of Patrick Dempsey.  Oops, remembered another one from my teenhood who is back with those blue eyes of his –Rob Lowe (Brothers and Sisters  (now)/St. Elmo’s Fire (then)

Fav. Movie that has many greats in it-Love Actually (Liam Neeson, among others).

I like George on Greys Anatomy just b/c I like who he is in the movie.

Women: Queen Latifah in Last Holiday.  She’s really good in acting parts-I keep forgetting she was a musician too.  Katherine Heigl (SP?) is pretty funny.

I’m more into what part they are playing than the actual actor most of the time.  I really like Morgan Freeman and Katharine Hepburn though, and of course Jimmy Stewart in the older movies.  I like actors with some depth.  Good guys off the screen too. 

Well, in general, I want to be learning something when I listen to music-I was in that generation squished between hard rock (9th grade-didn’t like it though) and Techno music (first yr in college –like Depeche Mode).  In my senior year, everyone thought they had invented the Beatles and the Monkey’s (and I had been listening to this stuff all my life).  So I have an affinity for real poetry in the lyrics and always have. 

Can’t explain my love on TV for dark headed guys when I haven’t really dated but maybe one dark headed guy then I married a red head.  Go figure. 

That’s All Folks.

SWPoet

Some cool sites: I'm assuming you've heard of Simon and Garfunkel ("Sound of Silence") and John Denver, but here are some lesser known ones-just in case you want to explore a little.  The lyrics of all these guys are worth checking out, even if you don't like the music. 

Leonard Cohen's poetry :  http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/poem.html

One Last Song by Josiah Leming:
      http://www.lyricsreg.com/lyrics/josiah+leming/One+Last+Song/

Link to Martin Sexton's music: http://www.last.fm/music/Martin+Sexton/Black+Sheep

Lyrics and video to Josh Ritter's "Girl in the War"
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqLssKusGzM
Front of CD this song is on-they played his song "Good Man" on House recently. 
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxq8ZCxfu3I&feature=related





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