90's revisted

Happy Thursday!  A and I are back from FLA and we had a blast.  Lots of beaches, pool time, boating (and seeing dolphins up close and personal) and of course many cocktails. 

One thing A and I realized about Florida is that their music selection is pretty ridiculous.  If it isn't bad pop/rap, it is country or 80's and 90's stuff.  Thank goodness for the 90's stuff (or most of it...)

While listening to one of the many 90's rock stations, I heard a Cranberries song and before I knew it, I was singing along.  I didn't even realize I still knew the song that well.  But then again, I really loved the cranberries back in middle and high school.

Which leads me to this new piece to my blog-90's revisted.  every so often I'll give props to either a band, or album from the 90's. Today, let's look at the cranberries. 

I guess I don't have tons to say on the topic other than I really enjoyed their first two albums, and they became a big part of my life when I was a teen. 

And just because I want to, I'm going to add a few videos for you all to enjoy.  I hope you enjoy the flasback....I sure have!

images

Today in Rock (or jazz, or pop vocals)

 Hello Friends!  One more quick post before I hit the air for Florida. Let's talk about the importance today in rock/jazz/pop vocals history.  It was this day back in 1915 that the great Billie Holiday was born.  Holiday (known as Lady Day to her friends) changed the sound of vocal (IMO) forever.  Holiday co wrote some real classics, such as  God Bless the Child, Strange Fruit (which is one of the most raw/emotional protest songs ever) Lady Sings the Blues, etc.  

Holiday, like many incredibly talented musicians/singers/songwriters suffered from long term drug abuse.  She was arrested more than once, and struggled with heroine, among other things.  This eventually led to her death in 1959.  Her sad life story led to some very real/heart felt music, using the blues as her catalyst.  Not to mention her very distinctive voice.

 When I was a kid, my mom really loved Billie Holidays music.  I remember when CD's were still new, chipping in with my brother to buy her the box set.  I didn't know most of the songs, but enjoyed listening with her.  I didn't completely understand everything being said, but I knew that it affected my mom deeply.  (sorry....just a little memory for you). 

(all photos/clips from either youtube or wikipedia)

On that note, HAPPY FRIDAY JUNIOR! and have a fun weekend :)

Ft Myers or BUST!

 HELLO!  Guess what....A and I are heading to sunny, beautiful, LOVELY florida tomorrow.  And man, I can't wait for this vacation. 

A's mom lives down in Ft Myers.  We have visited her (well I have visited her) once and it was a pretty good time. 

What is really lovely about this vacation is that A. A's fam not only lives in a "gated community," which entails a pool, hot tub, workout area, and in general is nice in a golden girls sort of way B. they have a boat! and the boat is held in a canal near the pool, and this canal leads straight to the ocean, and C. they have a lanai.  You all know what a Lanai is, right?  If not, (sorry for the secondary reference....) go watch some golden girls. 

Another great thing?  FtMyers is very close to Siesta key, which according to A, is BEYOND beautiful.  below is a beach pic from this key.

 If we are lucky, we can rent a bike at siesta key....maybe a tandum!?  Believe me, I'll take a ton of photos to share.  So until next Tuesday, Take care friends.  enjoy the high 60's here in minni and I'll think of you as I'm getting sunburned on the beach.

map  siesta key

Water Street Inn

Hello! Three posts in one day! craziness.  I guess my weekend was just that fun.  Anyhow, I want to just show/tell a little about this amazing Inn that we stayed in (by Inn, I mean rad old hotel right on the river, which supposedly housed more than one ghost.)

We arrived at The Water Street Inn for our 4pm check in and already I was feeling pretty good.  The guy that booked the room for us (AJ) was super nice and it turned out he was working when we checked in.  He ended up being the nicest guy and willing to humor us (a little) about the ghosts.

 We were put in a room on the second floor-each room had a name on it, so I kept talking to our room, referring to it as "Edward" or Eddie....kinda hoping to make the ghosty in the mood to fuck with me. 

 The room was AMAZING!  when you entered, there was a hallway that hooked left, to another hallway that had the HUGE bathroom off of it, and then there was the actual bedroom.  Which had 2 big windows, an old porch from 1895, and a gorgeous bed. 

 The complimentary wine wasn't comp at all, rather it was $28.  We walked to the booze store instead. 

 The electric fireplace was a great touch, especially for A, who is often cold.

 And while we though there would be no TV (thus we brough our macbook and some dvd's) we actually had full cable, and started the night by watching Sex in the City 2 (yes, it is as bad as you predicted.)

 The bathroom was very spacious and had a giant whirlpool/shower with 2 shower heads.

 And green-arched ceilings! so pretty.

 Oh yeah, the whirlpool was shaped like aheart :)

 Doesnt this bed look amazing.  The pillows were super fancy.  and the giant down comforter was also great.  I wish this was my bed.  It was amazing. 

All in all, A and I had a great time.  Even after I tried to "reach the spirits" several times, I had no such luck and was not visited by any ghosts,.  But, there was live Irish music being played in the bar all night, which was a lot of fun to listened to....even if I was by myself because A fell asleep :)

Discover Stillwater!

 Recently A and I got a groupon for the Water Street Inn in Stillwater (more on the Inn later).  We decided that it would be pretty fun to go during the afternoon and walk around this little town right on the St Croix River, just across from Wisconsin.  This old town is pretty Rad, with lots of antique stores and cute shops and decent bars. 

 We parked kinda far because we wanted the exercise, and A thought it was a good idea. 

 Almost right away we stopped for lunch at this place called the Mad Capper.  It was pretty cool.

 They had a huge beer selection, including a smoked beer (seriously, it has a smokey flavor-it was a classic in Germany, and tastes smokey because the barley is smoked/roasted over a fire.) which I had never tried.  So I tried it, and it was both good an smokey,  But not something I could have more than one or two of.  A had a cider.

 With all the walking, we decided to split a few appetizers for dinner.  chicken sliders, potato skins, and a classic old cheeseburger.  Needless to say, we had some leftovers.

 We went into a few antique stores, and found a few things.  Unfortunately, this amazing pillow was already sold, or else we would have already had Sara's birthday taken care of.

 After checking into the hotel, we went back out to a few shops, and a bar called Rafters.  It was upstairs, and had an AMAZING view of the river.  The bartender was also pretty nice and made us a few interesting and yummy shots. 

 After shopping more we went to our hotel and enjoyed some tv, dvd's, huge hot tub, dinner in our room, and live Irish music.  It was a pretty good time.

Good Times!!!

Vinyl Goldmine!

Hello Friends.  This past weekend, A and I spent a night in beautiful Stillwater MN (more on that later.)  On our way, we spotted this little salvation army boutique.  Little did I know that this place was going to greatly enhance my vinyl collection.

 Because A loves to thrift so much, I get to see a lot of vinyl collections.  Usually I will find 1 somewhat decent album that I could use.  I was hoping to walk away with 1 or 2 new albums, because this store had about 6 boxes I was going to go through.  After the first box, I found 1 album that I *may* have bought had I not looked through the second box, whioch was tucked under a table and dusty as all get up.  I started looking through teh box and within a minute or so, I knew I had falled upon something amazing. Here was a box of albums that must have not yet been looked through.  There were PLENTY of gems in there and I couldnt beleive what I was getting my hands on.  Below are the albums I selected.  These were the very best and because I didn't want to spend all my pay check pn vinyl, I stopped looking after another box or two.

Nina Simone, Fleetwood Mac (tusk), Simon and Garfunkel (bookends) Led Zeppelin (II) Rolling Stones (beggers banquet and Exile on Main Street, Stevie Wonder (songs in the key of life) Elton John (goodbye Yellow Brick Road), Beatles (white Album), Bob Dylan (Nashville Skyline).
Seriously, I cazn't wait to just be at home so I can take time listening to these!

Like i said, more on stillwater in a bit!

One year later

bike cake

It's true.  It has been a year since I started this little blog.  While it started out slow, it's become something I enjoy doing.  If I could only get back to making mixes and sharing them.  I'll work on that.  Thanks to the 5 of you who actually read this.  And double thanks to the 2,385 of you who google image search 80's pop stars, San Francisco, and scary movies and get thrown to my page. Who knew that would be my target audience ;)  But really. I've enjoyed the past year.  I hope you guys still enjoy seeing/reading the highlights of my every day here in the lovely Minnie-apple.  And here is to April 1st.  While we *may* still get snow, I'm real glad march is behind us.  Happy Friday, friends!!!!!