Locked and Reloaded shot glass from the Miranda Lambert concert in Albuquerque, New Mexico (2013)
Check out the Locked and Reloaded shot glass that my gurl B scooped up for me. She went to the Miranda Lambert concert in Albuquerque last Friday and came back with this lil glass shaped like a shotgun shell. What a sweet surprise! It also lights up so you can remember where you put your drank! Haha… Naw~ I’m on a one way mission in the gym, so the dranks are few and far between. It’s kinda small for a protein shake ha? It’s a cool keepsake though! We have been lovin’ us some Pistol Annies (Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley). Their new disc is smokin’ just how I like it!
This afternoon I had a horrible headache. I really started feeling it right before I left work for the day. When I got home, all I wanted to do was lay down and pass out. I tend to over think things and it can really be mentally exhausting. My eyes seriously felt like they were going to pop right out of my head!
I figured I would turn in super early and try to sleep off the pounding headache. Sometimes it’s torture for me to insist on dealing with aches naturally. I put on my headphones and started with some slow music by Tank. While I laid there I realized that a good sweat may be better for the ache. With a flick of the switch~ Fire Hive by Krewella got me up and out the door.
I was so right. A good workout took my headache away. I actually cranked out an awesome outdoor workout using: the wall (stiff legged deadlifts); a scaffold (pushups and pullups); pieces of flagstone (hammer curls and kickbacks); rebar (straight bar curls); a swing set (external hip raises and squats); and a lawn chair (scissors and crunches).
Next time you feel bad, try a workout. Sometimes we need to move in order to feel better. Now I will listen to Tank again and peacefully slip off into dream land. Fitness is indeed curative.
~Ending the day in heaven (oh, I mean the bathtub) surrounded by my beloved candles and bubbles.~
Today was a good day. I got a lot of things done. Hopping from one thing to the next I stayed busy all day.
I started by completing about half of a newspaper preservation project I’m working on. It took a few hours to photograph and encapsulate the pages of a newspaper that is over 100 years old. I also completed research associated with the Battle of Puebla and Cinco de Mayo. Maybe if I’m lucky, I will finish the entire project by tomorrow night for my friend and her family.
Now that it is starting to warm up it’s nice. It was the first day I was able to hang clothes out on the line. Clothes are softer straight out of the dryer, but it wastes so much energy. During the winter I wait patiently for the chance to use my clothes line.
After that I moved from: planting sunflowers in just the right spot; to filling up a swimming pool equip with toys for D; to listening to Tank while getting my tan on; to grilling it up; to cleaning up; and then to washing dishes. See? No liquor on Friday night and eating right obviously payed off today!
I ended the night in sheer heaven (oh, I mean the bathtub) surrounded by my beloved candles. I don’t use the tub often because I feel bad about wasting water. Once in a while it is a glorious treat! It was great to close the day listening to my chimes in the wind while emerged in luxurious bubbles.
When the sun disappeared last night I attended the 3rd annual Outdoor Vision Festat the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. It was amazing to see some of the multimedia exhibits that the students created. They were interactive, animated, colorful and very creative. The media students include animators, filmmakers, graphic designers, and photographers. Some exhibits were projected onto buildings, trees, geometric shapes, glass, water, and material.
One of my favorite projections was designed by Keith Riggs, who is married to my cousin Jessica. There was even a projection with poetic quotes by infamous authors. I also adored a piece which was flapping in the wind, had edgy music, and a human body which appeared to be ripping off skin. It must have been a symbolic piece. Last night I decided it is finally time for me to dabble with Adobe After Effects. I need to see what I’m really made of.
Without art, writing, technology and music, I would certainly die! I guess when you’re in love~ you’re in love. Here are a few of the photographs I took last night.
~Felicia’s new purple headphones
(Beats Solo HD by Dr. Dre)~
I have been so impressed by ear candy over the last year. How did I ever live without real headphones? Laugh if you will but where I go— my genre blind iPod and headphones go. It was time to upgrade to the killer purps. My last set was black and red, but then Dr. Dre went and released his color line with King James by his side! This high definition sweet set has titanium coated driver technology for precise sound and distortion free bass. What can I say? This woman has needs!
Plato once said “music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” I do agree. It is natural for my body and mind to diffuse into sound. With music I get by, move forward, push harder, feel love, shake fear, become a fantasy, dry tears, and devour lyrics. My mind transforms with words and beats. Adrenaline provoking music is also critical to my workouts! I always have time for those things which make me feel alive.
I have been waiting since 2012 for the release of Native, the third studio album of OneRepublic. Ryan Tedder is such an awesome songwriter. He is also the lead singer and a producer with skills. The new album was officially released last week in Germany. It is finally scheduled for release here in the US tomorrow! I can’t wait to hear the acoustic versions of a few songs. I have heard Feel Again and snippets of Counting Stars, What You Wanted, If I Lose Myself, and Burning Bridges. Love-love-love them all! Tedder and the other writers seem to pluck some of the lyrics right out of my mind!! What the?? I can’t wait to hear the full album. If you support these boys– trust me– you will not be disappointed.
Rihanna goes ahead and premieres the official video for her new single ‘Stay’ featuring Mikky Ekko. The simple visual features RiRi naked in a tub and is directed by Sophie Muller. “Unapologetic” is in stores now.
I have been waiting for this video.
The fact that she is naked is symbolic.
Being weak, helpless, exposed,
and vulnerable is always painful.
-----Felicia
So here is my breakdown of the 55th Annual Grammy Awards~ or what I feel was worth a mention anyhow. The awards were hosted by LL, who is also a winner of two Grammy Awards. He opened with a shot out to Beyonce, Carrie Underwood, Adele and Rihanna (who looked super smokin’ with her hair down and with red lips).
I’m not sure how to feel about Taylor Swift being the opening act. I don’t think she pulled off the Mad Hatter with that “we are never ever getting back together” noise. She has way better songs on her new album Red. She also needs to learn how to move with the music~ and was lookin’ rather stiff. Only Adele can stand up there with just her flawless voice and pull that off.
JLo and Pitbull gave out the first award of the night lookin’ super hot with lots of leg and swag. The award was for “Best Pop Solo Performance” and it went to the lovely Adele. She is simply awesome!
Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert (with her hot pink mic) did a good job on two songs. Her dress was pretty. She seemed a little nervous or something? I gotta love the acoustic guitar that Bentley stroked.
Miguel and Wiz Khalifa were~ just wow. They didn’t get enough time on stage! I loved the completely red set with black and white outfits. “Adorn” is one of my favs from Miguel, though I did post the other night that I wished he would have performed “Hard Way.” They presented a country award afterward. Ha??
Faith and Tim are a straight sexy couple. I just can’t believe the award they presented didn’t go to Miguel? Really?
Mumford & Sons did such a good job. I have been listening to them a lot lately. Now that is what you call jammin’ on a banjo!
I am so excited that Justin Timberlake is making a comeback. I luv JT, but I gotta say that “Suit & Tie” does not tickle me just the right way. Unfortunately~ a special intro from Beyonce and the guest feature by JayZ did not help in the least bit! Hopefully he finds his mojo soon cuz I do miss him.
Kelly Rowland had on a super hot black dress. It was my favorite dress of the night! Her arms were buff making it look even better! Beyonce who?? Kelly and NAS presented an award to Frank Ocean who so deserves it! Still~ I couldn’t help but feel that Miguel should have taken that award!
Do I even need to comment on Maroon 5? Adam is always awesome~ plus he hired Minka Kelly (go Albuquerque~ NM) to be in the 2012 “One More Night” music video (which is a hot video). Then the M5 performance had to be ruined by Alicia Keys.
Hands, hands, hands down…. In my book, the best performance of the night went to Rihanna and Mikky Ekko. “Stay” is just *such* a great song. Rihanna looked so beautiful in a plain black dress with a hint of red. That song reminds me of a friend. How appropriate that she said the new music video for “Stay” will be released tomorrow (on the 11th). The woman is very sentimental when she sings that one. I can feel her soul in that song.
Did JayZ really dis on The Dream’s hat instead of thanking anybody when he won a Grammy for “No Church in the Wild” ~ Really? Talk about rude. What a schmuck!!
The Bob Marley tribute with Bruno Mars, Rihanna, Sting and the Marleys was cool. A bit of Marley takes me back.
Carrie Underwood’s butterfly light effects were interesting.
I loved the guest appearance by Prince! He came out to present the Grammy for “Record of the Year.” I wish Prince would make a comeback. He presented the award to Gotye and Kimbra. I thought Frank Ocean would take that one.
The finale was much better than the intro. It featured LL Cool J, Chuck D and Travis Barker on the drums. For being older, LL still rocks some big ole gunz.
The 55th Annual Grammy Awards were good this year. For the first time in a few years, I was able to watch the long show from start to finish. I stayed entertained throughout the night. I still say that Rihanna gets my vote for the most heartfelt and beautiful performance of the evening.
On Friday I took the time to pull all of my old and new Donell Jones CDs together. He has to be one of my all time favorite RnB artists. Now there is one gifted man. There are not many artists that you can say bring it on every single track when they put a new album out.
I want to make a mix with some of the best tracks Mr. Jones has given us. At this point, I have a few ideas for a mix title. Today while I was exercising at the track, I combed through my mega Jonezzz list~ deleting the songs that I didn’t see fit for the special mix I want to create. While the cold chill brushed my cheeks I wondered what happened to Mr. Jones? How could such an awesome man just disappear?
There is one web site I check regularly for music news in this particular genre. Tonight I checked it and low and behold~ just a few posts down I discovered that Donell is indeed looking to make a major comeback in the first half of 2013. The post went up on January 31. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! I just can’t wait!!! Check out the video for Shorty Got Her Eyes on Me~~ That’s some pure awesomeness!
After hearing that song, if you still don’t believe that DJ has the love sounds on hot lock, take a look at the February 14th event scheduled at the Warfield in Cali. Blaqline Ent is presenting “Love Affair” on Valentine’s Day with Donell Jones, Teedra Moses, Musiq Soulchild and Netta B. Wish I could be there…
Yesterday the Audacity® team released a new version of the free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds. Nice! Version 2.0.3 is now availablefor Windows®, Mac®, GNU/Linux® and other operating systems. If you are so inclined, you can also opt to build Audacity yourself, by downloading the source code. This software is for all those people with a headphone fetish!!
Changes between 2.0.2 and 2.0.3
General
Crash using Undo whilst time-shifting a track.
Crash using Repair if the selection extended into an empty track.
Export Multiple didn’t prevent export if there was no audio or all audio was muted. This allowed export of small invalid files.
Time Track
Loop Play of a speeded-up track inserted silence.
Playback and rendering was significantly inaccurate, creating audible and visual glitches.
Accessibility
The mnemonics character “&” was read out by screen readers in most of the Preferences choices.
NVDA did not read static text in most dialogs. Text can now be read by using INSERT + B.
JAWS and Window-eyes misread the “Duration” control in Silence Generator.
Toolbar buttons could not be pressed by ENTER
Other interface bug fixes.
Resampling
The SoX Resampler library (libsoxr) has replaced libresample in Audacity releases, offering both higher quality and greater speed. .
Time Tracks new features
“Set Range” now changes only the range of the Time Track, preserving the pitch/speed set by any existing warp points.
Vertical scale added with options for linear and logarithmic display and interpolation.
Upper and lower speed limits will now be remembered when saving and reopening a project in 2.0.3. Warp points in projects saved by previous Audacity versions will be correctly restored in 2.0.3.
Warp points saved in a 2.0.3 project will be preserved if opened in previous versions but playback and display will be incorrect.
New effects
Studio Fade Out (uses a filtered “S” curve).
Adjustable Fade (accessible effect for creating partial fades and adjustable fade shapes).
Bass and Treble (replaces Bass Boost).
General
Real sample rates up to 384000 Hz are now supported for playback and recording in high resolution devices (the maximum is up to 192000 Hz for Windows DirectSound host).
Labeled Regions in Edit Menu is renamed to “Labeled Audio” and now allows splits to be placed at point labels. Labeled audio regions that touch without overlapping are treated as separate regions. Overlapping labeled audio regions are treated as a single region.
Tonight I saw the music video for Stay by Rihanna featuring Mikky Ekko for the first time. I have been listening to the song for a while now and I absolutely love it. It is such an awesome song. Now that I see that the video is set in Havana in 1956, I like it even more. This is just a couple of years after Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize in Literature. In late 1956 he is said to have been reminded of writing notebooks he had hidden in the late 1920s. Hemingway located the the lost treasures and by 1957 returned to Havana to complete a memoir. In the video, Rihanna is enveloped with a Cuban man.
Adam Levine of Maroon 5 in his Dr Dre Headphones~ The Voice
Nicholas David in the Live Finale~ Season 3 of The Voice
When amazing voices collide you are watching the live finale of The Voice. The season 3 finale included a star studded list of sheer awesomeness!!! There were so many good performances in the two hour long show. I love me some music. The last three “voices” standing in the competition belonged to Terry McDermott, Cassadee Pope (the winner), and Nicholas David (my favorite who didn’t win).
Rihanna flawlessly performed “Diamonds.” She is very connected to that song and it is obviously about someone she cares deeply for. Rihanna put her heart into that performance. I could literally feel the emotion in her smokin’ lyrics. Of course the “diamonds” in this song are not really diamonds, but the word is symbolic of something worth a lot or maybe even priceless and rare. The “diamonds” represent stars~ or more precisely what lovers create when stars collide.
Nicolas David and Smokey Robinson’s performance of “Crusin’” was good. Still~ the best rendition of that song goes to D’Angelo~ hands down.
My man Adam (Maroon 5′s frontman~lyrical genius~and my tattooed super hero) was highlighted as a multi-talented musician. He was rockin’ his Dr. Dre headphones~ no doubt professional grade. Nice…
Terry McDermott performed “Baby I Love Your Ways” with Peter Frampton and that was an ok performance.
Rascal Flatts was in the remote spotlight to sing Happy Birthday to Mz. Christina.
Bruno Mars performed~ but I really wish it would have been “Locked Out of Heaven” and not “When I was Your Man.” (right Marlene?? )
Nicholas David performed “End of the Road” by Boys II Men, an old school favorite of mine. He opted to perform with Trevon, Amanda and Dez.
Season 4 of The Voice will feature Usher and Shakira as new coaches. It is sad to see Christina and CeeLo go, but the addition of Usher is sweet!! I can’t wait for season 4!
Well I learned many things after hours here in Annapolis. I’m still not up on the two hour time difference, but I’m getting there. It’s barely after 11 in good ole New Mexico! Here is a list of some things I found interesting tonight.
~I can only wonder what is going on inside the cabins of house boats on the bay. Hum?? Several people were at work and play there.
~This is a very historic site. It would take me days to write about just that. Annapolis was once the capitol of the United States. I didn’t know that.
~At least two Presidents (if not more) have deep roots here in Annapolis (GW and AL), which is awesome.
~Christmas lights were beautiful on the docks and around the bay.
~Oh and over here the Salvation Army bell ringers were two cute women. They were playing songs by request on a kazoo! Really?? Now that deserved a small donation right?
~What is the only decent seafood I have come across so far? Yes- crab cakes. Still not sure why??
~Ice cream is good to eat right before cardio! Really? What the? No really— what the??
~There are about as many runners who are into fitness as there are pubs, bars, or watering holes (whatever you like to call it) with people into drinking. I must have seen 20 pubs and 20 people running on an evening stroll in 1 hour!! Strange I know? Ummm… I prefer running~ and so that’s what I did.
~LifeFitness makes a sick-sick-sick with the sickness treadmill. Oh yes they do! The fitness center in my hotel is small, but well equip. Who doesn’t want to jam hot Ciara videos while burning off crab cakes and ice cream?
~And…a long bath is simply divine after all of thee above!
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Silently, one by one, in
the infinite meadows of
the heaven, blossomed
the lovely stars, the
forget-me-nots of the
angels.
— Henry W. Longfellow
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Basically this blog will have whatever is on my mind more than often in the form of Poetry, but we will see what happens down the line. Sincerely, Taylor Menczynski
A way to put my thoughts into words... May be I am just talking to myself...may be aloud...These are my thoughts in a poetic form, which are very much a part of me and which makes me what I am...
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