Crunchy ‘Nanas

I was never a cover girl, especially if it was of a song I liked. But then there was Luka Bloom’s cover of “Bad”. And I heard David Byrne sing Whitney Houston at the Warfield. And dear god, if anyone knows where I can find a recording of Tim Reynolds playing “In Your Eyes,” please email me.

So, I’m willing to admit– there are some good ones. And covers, or talk of covers, seem to be cropping up in lots of places lately. So, how about here? Why the heck not? Here’s a list of goodies. There’s even a couple I like better than the real thing. But, I’ll not say which.

1. Video Killed the Radio Star- The Feeling (But don’t even get me started on their cover of “Don’t Give Up”.)
2. California Stars- Billy Bragg and Wilco
3. In Your Eyes- Tim Reynolds
4. True Colors- Eva Cassidy
5. Sexual Healing- Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals
6. Midnight Train to Georgia- Indigo Girls
7. Gloomy Sunday- Sarah McLachlan
8. Go Down Easy- David Gray
9. Bad- Luka Bloom
10. Human Behavior- The Decemberists
11. I Wanna Dance With Somebody- David Byrne

(Monday Mixtape? It’s either late or early. You choose.)

On our way back to San Jose from Monterey a few weeks ago (yes, I know the race report is still outstanding), the front seat, or more specifically, the driver requested my iPod. Now, I love, love, love having 30 GBs of storage. But, it makes it difficult to just press play, turn on shuffle and go. Not for me, necessarily (though I have to admit sometimes it’s hard to go from Vivaldi to Color Me Badd to Depeche Mode to George Winston to Jack Johnson to Usher to Buena Vista Social Club and back again). But, not everyone appreciates the range of music I have on this thing.

So, before handing it up, I slipped it onto my training mix, which I thought offered a better concentration of what the front seat might be looking for. Silly me.

“Don’t you like any women musicians?”

Um, yeah! And yet, no front women were popping up. iPod, why do you fail me now? (Note to self: training mix is in great need of an update.) Maddie stepped up at one point, but I got the impression she wasn’t really what they were looking for.

Slightly related to this incident, this weekend, while up at 2 am– too awake to sleep, not coherent enough to do anything useful– and scanning my music bookmarks websites, I caught this little tidbit on Tony Levin’s list of recent played on credits: “Paula Cole: Courage”.

Paula Cole, what?

Yippee! Paula Cole’s got a new album. I do like me some Paula Cole. How did I not know this? It might even be close enough to Christmas to put it on my list and wait. Maybe. I’m not sure. We’ll have to see if I can put up with just listening on MySpace until then.

Did I just say that?

Wow, in one post I’ve managed to divulge I have Color Me Badd on my iPod and a MySpace page. (No, Tom is NOT my friend.) World, I have nothing left to hide! In a quick attempt to salvage any faith you might have in my style and good taste, might I say that on the aforementioned MySpace page, I’ve posted a strange and quirky video to Andrew Bird’s “Imitosis”. (Hint to lurking Santas: another album on the Christmas list.) Not only does the song make me dance (another point the front seat would differ on), but someone in the video’s got stripey socks. Kind of makes me wish I hadn’t given up the violin in my pre-teen years. Except well, I wasn’t good.

But, back to the women!

1. Hooray for Love- Ella Fitzgerald
2. Peace Tonight- Indigo Girls
3. Hard to Make a Stand- Sheryl Crow
4. I Feel it All- Feist
5. Taxi Ride- Tori Amos
6. Kissing the Day- Mandalay
7. In Our Lifetime- Texas
8. Music (Groove Armada 12″ Mix)- Madonna
9. Dirty Little Secret (Thievery Corporation Mix)- Sarah McLachlan
10. Here with Me (Chillin’ with the Family Mix)- Dido
11. My Head is Only House Unless It Rains- Everything But The Girl
12. I Am So Ordinary- Paula Cole
13. Devotion- Tracy Chapman
14. The Song of Solomon- Kate Bush
15. The Magdalene Laundries- The Chieftains with Joni Mitchell
16. At This Point in My Life- Tracy Chapman
17. All That We Let In- Indigo Girls
18. True Colors- Eva Cassidy
19. Perfect Girl (Live)- Sarah McLachlan
20. Me- Paula Cole

“So am I. But, I can do the merengue.”

“They’re not playing the merengue.”

“They will.”

I wasn’t allowed to watch “Dirty Dancing” when it was first released. And when I finally remembered to watch it when I was an adult, I was kind of like, um yeah, okay whatever. I haven’t seen it since. However, I’ve probably seen “My Blue Heaven” 1,564 times. Just a guess. It was on the other night, and I am proud to say I’ve still got it. All the lines. Memorized. Right here. I can’t remember my age half the time. But, yes. I’ve still got “I don’t know, the pressure of Halloween. You never know what to go as!” all right here. Hot!

Tonight was taco salad night. We love taco salad night. And burrito night. We have a lot of those too. We buy Corona that was brewed in Belgium, probably (better than food miles from Mexico, right?) and avocados. I love avocados. And then we turn up the music really loud. Probably none of which is technically merengue, but well, we do it anyway. (And truth be told, what we do is not strictly merengue, but a mish-mash of latin freestyling with some shimmies, kicks, and a few strums on the air guitar thrown in because they’re fun. We feel it works. But, we don’t do it in public either. And when I say we, I actually think it’s just me.)

And then I yell at Crunchy husband for the thousandth time, “Ozomatli might very well shop at Safeway, but that’s NOT WHAT THEY’RE SAYING!!”

1. Chango- Ozomatli
2. La Sonidera- Los de Abajo
3. Lola, Lola- Ricky Martin (oh come on, when you’re getting down in the kitchen, everyone loves Ricky)
4. Tímido- Ozomatli
5. Oye Mamacita- Los Lonely Boys
6. Mi Candela- Los de Abajo
7. Miss America- David Byrne
8. 3 Cool Cats- Ry Cooder
9. I Will Be Free- Nil Lara
10. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For- Coco Freeman featuring U2

Yeah, I know it’s not Monday here yet. But it’s Monday in Australia. So that’s my story.

And I promise the next post I submit will not start with a quote. Or a series of quotes.

[For Crunchy husband. I promise not to go to see Peter Gabriel at the Eden Project without you. I can wait for Hyde Park. You just might want to take the car keys and all means of getting money to work with you on Wednesday. Just to be safe.]

1. The Feeling Begins
2. I Have the Touch (Mix from “Phenomenon” soundtrack)
3. Burn You Up, Burn You Down
4. Down The Dolce Vita
5. Growing Up
6. Steam (Oh, Oh Let Off Steam mix 12″)
7. Exposure
8. Running to the Rain
9. Secret World
10. In Your Eyes (Live, for you, with Paula Cole backing)

New(ish) music I really (and really, really) like

[For Moose, who spends way too much of her paltry salary catapulting cookies through space, but cookies that are very much appreciated and gobbled down all the same!]

1. After Party- Ozomatli
2. Salala- Angélique Kidjo
3. Bibou- Daby Touré
4. La Temperatura- Ozomatli
5. Dancing Shoes- Arctic Monkeys & Buena Vista Social Club
6. Raise the Roof- Tracey Thorn
7. Dirty Little Secret (Thievery Corporation Mix)- Sarah McLachlan
8. Collarbone- Fujiya & Miyagi
9. See You on the Moon!- Great Lake Swimmers
10. Bouncing Off Clouds- Tori Amos