Tag Archives: song of the moment

Song of the Moment: I and Love and You

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I went to Julie and Nick’s wedding on Sunday, and it was great. They’re in New York now on their mini-moon, and yesterday they ate at Cheeseboat, this Georgian restaurant in Brooklyn I love.

Ever since I heard this song, “I and Love and You” by the Avett Brothers, I think of it every time I hear the word “Brooklyn.” There are so many lines in this song that just stick with me:

Oh, Brooklyn, Brooklyn, take me in

Are you aware the state I’m in?

My hands, they shake, my head, it spins

Oh, Brooklyn, Brooklyn, take me in

 

That woman she’s got eyes that shine

Like a pair of stolen polished dimes

 

Dumbed down and numbed by time and age

The dreams the catch, the world the cage

The highway sets the traveler’s stage

All exits look the same

 

 

Song of the Moment: The Mother

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For Mother’s Day, here’s this song from Brandi Carlile. I adore this song- it somehow manages to be both specific and universal. It’s about Brandi’s experience becoming a mother after the birth of her first daughter, Evangeline, but also about motherhood in general, and the ways it changes you. I love the last verse, which refers specifically to the experience of being a family with two moms:

You were not an accident where no one thought it through
The world has stood against us, made us mean to fight for you
And when we chose your name we knew that you’d fight the power, too
You’re nothing short of magical and beautiful to me
I would never hit the big time without you
So they can keep their treasure and their ties to the machine
Cause I am the mother of Evangeline

And here’s a cover of the song by the late Nick Cordero, whom I’ve written about here before. He sang this song at his show at 54 Below, which was held just about a year before he got sick. His wife was pregnant at the time of the concert and he was so excited about becoming a father. <3

 

Song of the Moment: A Long December

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I’m going to post more about this awful year and my experience with it. But for now, I’m going to post the song that I’d be posting on my AIM away message if this were the early 00s: “A Long December” by the Counting Crows.

It’s been a long December and there’s reason to believe

Maybe this year will be better than the last

This year has kind of felt like an eternal MARCH, so really it’s been more like a long March.

But we have vaccines that work. Trump is leaving the White House in 20 days.

There is, indeed, reason to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last.

Song of the Moment: Live Your Life

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Some very sad news today- Nick Cordero, who played Earl in Waitress when I saw it on Broadway in 2016, has died after suffering from COVID-19-related complications for three months. He was only 41, and was healthy before contracting the virus. I’ve been following his wife Amanda’s Instagram updates about Nick. She was always so upbeat and positive throughout the entire horrible situation, and one thing she would do is encourage people to play and/or sing Nick’s original song “Live Your Life.” And she’d repost all of the videos people sent on her stories. Nick’s friends from Waitress made a recording of all of them (separately) singing it.

Rest in peace, Nick. Everyone else- wear a mask. Don’t be part of large gatherings. Continue to be vigilant so that this virus doesn’t spread any further.

Live your life.

 

Song of the Moment: All I’ve Ever Known

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I’m hoping later this year to go to New York to see some theater. One show I really want to see is Hadestown, which won the Tony for Best Musical this year. It’s a re-telling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

This one song, a love song between the two leads, really jumped out at me when I heard it, mostly because of this one line: “All I’ve ever known is how to hold my own, but now I want to hold you, too.”

And I could be completely off-base, and overly optimistic, but I’ve always thought that if I ever do meet someone and fall in love, after a lifetime of loneliness and independence, that is exactly how I will feel.

Song of the Moment: When He Sees Me

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First, quick follow-up to my last post: if you don’t follow the Oscars, Free Solo WON Best Documentary Feature, which means my cousin, Evan Hayes, is an Oscar winner! I’m super happy for him. There have been some articles about him since then, linked here!

So: song of the moment. I’ve had songs from Waitress here before, and here’s one that’s kind of underrated. The character singing, Dawn, has just started online dating for the first time and is anxious about it, which she expresses hilariously in this song. But while it’s a funny song, there is so much truth in here for those of us who have been unlucky enough to have to do online dating. For me, it’s been over eleven years now.

Eleven. Effing. Years.

And STILL I find myself like Dawn in this song, nitpicking the things guys do (He could eat Oreos/But eat the cookie before the cream), worrying about my future (You cannot be too careful when it comes to sharing your life/I could end up a miserable wife), getting anxious about what the guy will think of me (What if I give myself away, to only get it given back?/
I couldn’t live with that), catastrophizing (He could be criminal, some sort of psychopath/
Who escaped from an institution/Somewhere where they don’t have girls/He could have masterminded some way to find me) and worrying about what will happen if it DOES work out (Or even worse he could be very nice, have lovely eyes/And make me laugh, come out of hiding/What do I do with that?).

It works out for Dawn in the end. But I’m losing faith that it ever will for me, and this endless cycle of bad online dates- or GOOD online dates where the guy isn’t into me- is just absolutely miserable. The only thing more miserable would be resigning myself to a life where I never get to feel romantic love.

 

 

 

 

Song of the Moment: Dead Hearts

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I’d forgotten about this song, by Stars, until I recently heard it again and it stopped me in my tracks the way it did when I first heard it. When I first listened to it, I thought it was about an alien encounter. Then I realized it sounded more like ghosts…specifically, metaphorical ghosts. The “kids” mentioned in the song are, I think, people and places from the past, and maybe lost innocence and hope- “they had lights inside their eyes.” Whether it’s about ghosts or not, it is, for lack of a better word, haunting.