somebody get him a recording contract

Thank you Jonathan for sending this to me.

I'm curious where he is that only a few people even realize that he's the one singing.  I wonder if he just saw a karaoke set up and was like, "Hey record me singing this".

I was bracing myself for the high notes but they were all there.  I'm impressed.

this was really hard

Moises FOOLISHLY told me that he didn't like any Mariah after her #1's album.  I told him he was mistaken.

When I first sat down to make this mix I thought it would be easy as I had room for a lot of songs since I wouldn't be including the standards.  No Emotions, no Vision of Love, no BREAKDOWN!  So I started with Rainbow and just dumped all of my favorites in to a playlist, intending to organize them and then burn the CD.  Unfortunately my original playlist was way too long for one disc : /

This is even after I eliminated a bunch:

As you can see I had to get down to the very basics to get it all on one disc.  I messaged Kyle and Jonathan for their approval and got, "What about For The Record?!" and, "What about Migrate?!"  Yes, clearly, I could have just burned every album and called it a day but my goal was to get it down to one mix cd.

I will be delivering it today, it will be hard to not listen to it on my way to work.

I completely understand

In the long list of reasons why today SUCKED BALLS was included the fact that my battery on my phone was not cooperating with me.  I could tell it was up to no good right away, I had it plugged in all night and didn't unplug it until right before I left the house, but it had already lost a sliver of charge by the time I reached my first destination.  I didn't use my phone at all today, only to check the time, but still I lost it by the beginning of my break.  So besides the other terrible things that happened, I didn't even have my phone to distract me and lift my spirits.

My intention, per my facebook status, was to go to sleep as soon as I got home and forget this terrible day ever happened.  But I decided I should do laundry so I could wear clean clothes to work.  I think remembering dumping iced coffee all over myself this morning was what made me feel a load of laundry was in order.

Anyways, the point that has to do with Elvis is, I'm glad I ended up having to do my laundry because instead of going to sleep I decided to check the internets and have a cup of tea (hot toddy) while I wait. Had I not I wouldn't have seen this email from Kim:

So every time I listen to Elvis now I have to listen to Mariah Carey right after. Because she beat him.

And had I not read that email I would have never watched that clip of Elvis performing Teddy Bear, which will always be my favorite Elvis song after Blue Christmas.  Teddy Bear makes me think of my father taking me to school in the 2nd grade.  As I've probably mentioned before there are only a few cds I remember my father playing in the car.  Elvis, the soundtrack to Pretty Woman, and Whitney Houston's I'm Your Baby Tonight album.  I think that pretty clearly explains my musical tastes.

I had never watched that clip of him singing it before though.  He was pretty fantastic.  Oh and Kim, the two girls in the audience clapping with each other are obviously you and Ariel.

And I get your point, I feel compelled to watch Mariah too.  It's just so interesting to compare the two and the things about each that made them each so unique and incredible.




The best part is that listening to these songs and watching these videos has completely made me forget what a terrible day I had.  And isn't that what you think they both would want to hear?

scared

First of all I'd like to thank Arsenio hall for saying that his audience "deserves" Mariah Carey, because he's right.  Listening to Mariah is a privilege, not a right.

I was cleaning my room and stressing about my bedding.  I want to change my spring/summer bedding out for my fall/winter bedding but I've been resisting it because I keep thinking that I'm about to move anyways so I don't want to get it all out of it's storage deep in the bowels of my closet.  But after last nights hail storm (wtf) I just really feel like I want my cozy down blanket on my bed.  Of course the hoarder in me attached incredible weight and symbolism to the act of changing my bedding.  I was like, 'well this is it, i'm making my bed for the next 6 months, i'm going to be stuck here, i'm never getting out of construction hell...'

I started thinking about what was holding me back from just making a decision, and all it is is fear.  I mean, justifiable fear in a lot of ways, I would feel a lot less fearful if I had a job or home lined up anywhere, but still all it is is fear.  I know that if I had to I could move to any random place and be ok, but how do you reconcile that knot you always have in the pit of your stomach?

At this point I realized that mariah's cover of, "i wanna know what love is" came on my computer.  I was listening to her hit those high notes and was thinking, 'what must it be like to be able to do something so incredibly so casually.  To be so confident when doing something that requires so much skill and talent'

And then the video above popped in to my head.   This video is amazing because you can really see how nervous and scared she was to perform live.  The beginning is incredibly awkward, she's so stiff, if it weren't for her amazing perm (my mom totally had that hairstyle) I don't know if I'd even be able to watch the beginning.  But as soon as she hits that first high note you can see the relief wash across her face.  Even then though, you can tell every time something difficult is about to come up because she gets so tense and nervous.  It isn't until the very very end that you see her finally be able to just smile and sing and know that she did it.

So why do I expect to feel any differently at this point in my life.  I think because i've done so many things I expect that they would bring with them a sense of confidence, but i'm still nervous whenever i put myself out there.  And maybe mariah still is nervous when she performs live.  I guess the point is that every body's scared of everything, it's when you dive head first in to the fear that you end up having the best experiences.

thanks mariah, once again you've inspired me to change my life for the better.