Favorites of the 20th Century

A few weeks ago I set out to make a list of my 100 favorite songs of the 20th century. It sorta blew up in my face because I couldn't keep it at 100. It's now at 139.
This link should take you to the Google Doc so that you can see all 139. Oh blast. 140. I forgot that Cher song. Long live mesh clothing.

My love for Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Staples Singers, Marvin Gay, Van Morrison, Smokey Robinson and Aretha Franklin has already been expressed.
I do need to add in Jackson Browne right here.

So can you recognize what Ralph Vaughn Williams' Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus doubles as in Mormondom?

And how about those cameos in Walking on Broken Glass. I think Annie Lennox chose poorly.
You've gotta love Biz Markie.
I can still remember my 5th grade teacher complaining about Bonnie Raitt winning the grammy for this song. He's crazy. Do you know her Angel From Montgomery?

If you're not familiar with the Estonian Arvo Pärt, you need to listen to his music. Wow.

How does one narrow down a list of Beatles songs? Well, one rotates through favorites.

And I've already mentioned Tears For Fears on my blog before. Shout and Sowing the Seeds of Love have no odd ties to my childhood, but the songs rock.

I went a bit Sondheim crazy and sorta broke my own rule of no more than 5, but I'm justifying it because they come from different musicals. Children Will Listen, No One Is Alone, Finishing the Hat, Beautiful, Pretty Lady, Children and Art, Move On and Johanna are works of genius.
Double Blast: 141. Not a Day Goes By.

Kashmir is almost universally loved.

So, yes, I'm admitting that Will Smith's Miami and Deee-Lite's Groove is in the Heart both make the list. This may change if I ever completely mature out of high school. Whitney Houston's It's Not Right But It's OK will likely never leave. I've been a closet Whitney fan for over 20 years. Rupaul's Supermodel and Right Said Fred's I'm Too Sexy were oh so close, but in the end, there wasn't enough mustard. But I'm sure you're VERY glad that I linked those two fairly awkward videos.



I'll leave it right there for now. I'm sure I'll be coming back to the list on my blog, adding more links to good songs, etc. etc. Did you make it to this sentence? Wow.

Well, she tagged me

Since I can't come up with anything über substantial to blog about, I'll finally post (sorta) what Anna-Lisa tagged me to do:

7 Things I Can Do:
1. Speak Portuguese
2. Play softball
3. Drive a stick
4. Find random things on the internet
5. Make spectrograms of sounds
6. Eat fish (a big step)
7. Make a mean feijoada

7 Things I Cannot Do:
1. Tread water worth beans
2. Control my pocketbook in bookstores
3. Run fast (Swenson slows)
4. Eat a chocolate and peanut butter together and not gag (Chris, remember my crazy reaction?)
5. Handle watching Seinfeld
6. Control my laughter
7. Do pull-ups

7 Favorite Foods:
1. Beans and Rice
2. Swenson family pizza
3. Pie
4. Christmas breakfast at the Swenson home
5. Broccoli (it's how I decide what to get at restaurants)
6. Flavored drinks
7. Salgadinhos

7 (of the) Books I'm currently reading (yes, this is a problem I have)
1. Les Mis
2. Harry Potter et le Prince de Sang-Mêlé
3. The Bourne Identity
4. 1776
5. Lectures on Faith
6. Reagan Diaries
7. Meet your Match

7 Most listened to songs on iTunes
1. Hypnotic, Craig David
2. Time, Sarah McLachlan
3. Samedi soir sur la terre, Francis Cabrel
4. Use Your Words, Owen
5. Femme Fatale, Owen
6. The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi, Owen
7. If You Ain't Got Love, Mason Jennings

7 of my favorite words:
1. Irokesenschnitt (mohawk in German)
2. paralelepípedo (cobblestones in Portuguese)
3. ustedes hermanas (I totally misunderstood the Spanish at the Santiago temple and shouted out a wrong answer. Scared the poor sister)
4. d'ac (French for "agreed)
5. Яд ([Yad] it's "Venom" in Russian and is what Megan, former Sister Neeley, calls me)
6. sipo (Chilean for yes, uh huh, right)
7. rã (frog in Portuguese, pronounce like huh? but nasally)

7 of my favorite quotes from the West Wing:
1. I'm Marion Coatsworth Hay. (CJ)
2. I thought my reflexes before, in the press room, were catlike. (CJ)
3. I don't understand. Did you trip over something? (Toby)
4. You want to tempt the wrath of whatever from high atop the thing? (Toby)
5. Abbey: Hon, this is like, nerd hot talk.
Bartlet: Who's your Commander in Chief?
Abbey: You are.
6. Margaret: Can I - can I just say something for the future?
Leo: Yeah.
Margaret: I can sign the President's name. I have his signature down pretty good.
Leo: You can sign the President's name?
Margaret: Yeah.
Leo: On a document removing him from power and handing it to someone else?
Margaret: Yeah. Or... do you think the White House Counsel would say that was a bad idea?
Leo: I think the White House Counsel would say it was a coup d'etat!
Margaret: Well. I'd probably end up doing some time for that.
7. CJ: "What are you, 4'10"?"
Annabeth: "4'11"."
CJ: "I can't believe we're the same species."


There. I sorta doctored what Anna-Lisa did, but it's close enough, at least in the spirit of it all.

Oh, so many stories to tell

If you haven't taken the poll yet, give it a go. Thanks! :D

My friends, Libby is dead. Yes, my dear Libby has a cracked radiator, needs a new water pump, the clutch is gone and she needs new brake pads. All told, we're looking at at least $1800. Ouch. I paid $2200 for her. I don't know if it's worth the $1800. (insert crying and blubbering) I love Libby, she's been a good car. I don't know what to do...I mean this is the car that Bepa learned to drive stick in--which was quite the spiritual lesson. Maybe I should post what I learned. I'll do that later this week. I'm getting all sentimental and sappy over my car. I heart Libby.

I had loads of fun last Friday night cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen. Really, I probably shouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did. But I put the Diane Rehm Show podcast on the iPod, and scrubbed away. The stupid thing is Steve grouted our shower without bleaching the walls, so there's mold under the grout that I can't get to. So frustrating. But it looks better.
Saturday morning I went and saw the third installment of Pirates, which was okay. I hate the first movie, liked the second, and liked the third until the laboriously long and tedious ending. Fight, fight, fight, nothing important happening, fight, fight, fight, tie up loose ends, create more loose ends, open door to obvious 4th movie. Meh, whatever.
But then on Saturday night I went to the Mason Jennings concert with MO, Lydia and her mission friend Bri. It was AWESOME. If you don't know Mason Jennings, click on the link. I love his music. You can stream some excerpts of his latest album on his website. The player's at the top. It was an hour and thirty-five minutes of bliss, I tell you what. I also got this snazzy shirt. I love his music because he's a story teller. He takes snippets of life and encapsulates them into his music, portraying the situation for what it is, without anything flowery. He's also great at orchestrating his lyrics; the music's always perfect. Props to Dan for introing me to Mason Jennings last summer on study abroad. I've now got like 174 songs. Ahhh, Mason Jennings, how I love your minstrel musings!
We made bank in honey pot notes on Sunday night. We've been writing many scandalous ones feigning that we're other people, or just faux hitting on guys on the ward with excessively sappy notes. We've gotten some doozies in return. Maybe I'll post a few later on for you to read and enjoy. I wish that I had the ones that we've sent out. They're racy ;)

AND I got to play softball tonight, AND we won so we get to keep playing in tournament. So here we go, game on Thursday. WAHOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Thesis is coming along I guess. But if anyone knows the best way to transcribe a prepalatal affricate to show that there is only minimal fricative representation, I would really appreciate it. I'm having a rough go.


Oh! And Kyla (our neighbor and friend for the last 15 years since she was in high school) just had her 7th kid last week. Her name is Averi, and she's adorable.
And here she is with her sister, Hannah.

Lunch at 1:45...am

Working on the thesis today for hours and hours, without moving that much meant that I had no desire to eat. Clearly instead of eating dinner tonight it was MUCH more important to watch the great Jazz game. By the time it was 12:30 in the morning I realized that I should probably go get something to eat.
Wendy's has this really funny guy who works nights at the drive-up window. I know this because I went thru a Frostie phase a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, he's great. He's always got a green bandanna under his Wendy's cap. He's a lot of fun. Kathy and I have enjoyed going to Wendy's and having him help us. Those of you that live around here (being Provo) should go to the Wendy's down the hill from the Y late one night. He really is funny.
And I don't think I'd dare wink at royalty--unless of course this is the princess in question.
And one last thing. Have you heard Mason Jennings? Dan introed me to him while we were in Brazil. I'm up to 10 hours of his music now. But the best news ever is his tour. Guess who will be here on the 2nd of June??!!!
Oh, I lied, there's one more thing. We planted a garden out back tonight under the tree at the corner of the parking lot. I'm really happy. G&K said that we could plant one if I behaved and went to a ward activity last week. I'll keep you all updated on the garden.

a great cover of a song

Sometimes the things you find on YouTube are golden. The song is actually by Mason Jennings (plug for an awesome musician), but this version of "If you ain't got love" just might be better.