Songs to fall asleep to and those that keep you awake

I had a hard time falling asleep last night, for unknown reasons (and I’ve got terrible headache now). As usual when I can’t bring myself to sleep, I count sheeps (it never work) or listen to music (sometimes it work). And here is a list of songs that help me fall asleep and those that I avoid as they will just keep me awake.

1. Aubrey by Bread

(Basically Bread’s songs are very effective in bringing me to sleep. Try ‘If’ or ‘Make It With You’, too.)

2. Together Forever by Carol Banawa and RJ Rosales

3. Have I Told You Lately by Rod Stewart

4. Three Times a Lady by Lionel Richie

5. Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum

 

I think one of the reasons why these songs get me sleepy is the fact that they are familiar songs that give comfort and remind me of home. Now a list of songs that help me stay awake.

1. The Prayer by Charlotte Church and Josh Groban

(Ok, it is nice and soothing at the beginning, but when they start picking up the notes and ’screaming’ at each other –Groban in Italian (or Latin, I don’t know) and Church in English, you can’t possibly fall asleep. The song is just too grand.)

2. Don’t Be Stupid by Shania Twain

(I’ve tried listening to Shania Twain’s songs to get myself asleep. Some, like ‘You’ve Got A Way’ or ‘From This Moment On’ or ‘You’re Still The One’, do work. This particular song, however, irritates the hell out of me. Imagine how everytime you are about to fall asleep, and you’re saying to yourself ‘yes, finally, i’m about to fall asleep’, Twain replies curtly ‘Don’t be stupid!!!’ Talk about bursting bubbles.)

3. I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie

(OHKAY. So it’s a sweet song. But to listen it in the middle of night, with leaves rustling and wind blowing and wolves howling (the latter is an exaggeration obviously), it’s plain creepy.

4. U.R.A. Fever by The Kills

5. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

(Definitely a song to get you high, and not one that can get you asleep.)

Caroling X’mas Carols

Something on my to-do-list for Christmas this year (too early? No way) is to compile a CD of rare Christmas songs for my mom (well, actually they are not rare, just not the boring ones we keep hearing every year).  Here’s a list of the songs:

1. A Marshmallow World by Brenda Lee

I listened to the version by The Rat Packs and I loved it. But this version is even more wow. I can imagine the postcard scenery of white rooftops and all

2.  Mistletoe and Holly by Frank Sinatra

Hmm. Mistletoe. How romantic.

3. It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas by Bing Crosby

What’s Christmas without Bing Crosby? I love all his Christmas carols

4. Santa Baby by Marilyn Monroe

I bet my sisters will love this one.

5. The Christmas Song by Jackson Five

Ok, so the song itself is not as rare. But Jackson Five? That’s something that my mom will love a lot.

6. Warm and Fuzzy by Billy Gilman

Just a variation to the oldies carols. I love his angelic voice.

7. Here Comes Santa by Linda Eder

Believe me, I’ve never heard the sung version of this song. Most of the time I only listen to the instrumental version, the monotone version from the lights on the christmas tree at home. By the way, this song comes with Santa Claus Is Coming At The Town medley.

8. A Holly Jolly Christmas by Dean Martin

Again, what’s christmas without Dean Martin? My mom has this CD of christmas songs by Nat King Cole and Dean Martin, and it’s our bestest christmas carols collection. Let me add one more by Dean Martin into that collection

9. Christmas in The Trenches by John McDermott

A variation to the joyful songs. This one is more mellow, ballad-ish and I love it because it’s sooo meaningful. It’s about christmas in wartime.

10. Christmas Alphabets by The McGuire Sisters

Took me forever to find this song. Fell in love with it when I first heard it on Gossip Girl (the episode Roman Holiday).

 

My friend thinks I’m born 30 years too late. I think so too. In fact, I think I’m born 50 years too late. HAHAHA. I’m so retro

The wonder (and curse) of a small town

Ah, I’ve been wanting to write about this a long, long time ago. You see, I came from a small town passed by the equator line on the third biggest island in the world. Only the town is small, by the way, everything else is big. We dream big, we have big house on a big land, even our mouths are big. That brings me to the first curse of a small town: everybody knows everybody, and words travel fast. My parents practically recognise at least one person on the obituaries on the newspaper everyday (oh-kay, so that’s a rather gloomy example). And when you do something wrong, the WHOLE town, believe me, the WHOLE town knows it (a little bit of hyperbole won’t hurt here). I’m reminded of that song “Secret” by The Pierces: …coz two can keep a secret if one of them is dead… Yeah, I guess that applies to people of my town.

Ever heard of this saying “You can take a girl out of a small town, but you can’t take a small town out of a girl” or sooomeeething along that line? Well, I think it’s true. You can’t really change the small-town ambition to prosper and to wander everywhere to achieve the Big City Dreams (another favorite song of mine by NeverShoutNever!). Well, this is the wonder of a small town in my opinion.

Another curse of a small town, I guess this applies to people of my town only, their greetings when they see you, is not hi-great-to-see-you or hello-how-are-you, but more of “Hi, how stuck-up you are for not contacting me” Oh-kay, so they mean it in a friendly way, but it’s getting irritating. Come on, if you’re dying to contact me to the point that I become a no-good stuck-up loser once you see me, why didn’t you contact me first?

Finally, the wonder of my lovely small town is the FOOD. Duh. Even after many generations of those who have migrated to other places, they will still retain their food culture and they will always come back to my town for the food! As one of the folksongs of my town muses “Once you drink the water of Kapuas River (that’s the famous river in my province, now you can guess where I’m from ), you’ll never forget this place” And you the excellent food vendors in my town have also run for generations. There’s something called the rich-people noodles vendor which apparently closes most of the time, so you’re really lucky if you get to eat the noodles, or something called the cock-and-hen kway teow because the vendor is run by this lovey-dovey old couple (if I’m not wrong, one of them has passed away recently, that’s so sad), and there is the forever-waiting noodles, coz it just takes forever for the vendor to cook the noodles but many people love them anyway (I LOVE THEM TOO!). Here’s a picture of one of my favorite dish, called “yam mee” which is definitely very yummy

OHHHH, my eyes have grown misty. I wanna go hoommeeee, let me go homeeee….

Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree

I used to love this song (“Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree”), a lot! When I haven’t really understood what the lyrics mean, I have loved the tunes. And when I learnt about the lyrics, I loved it even more. Plus, this manga I really love (“Lovely Mari-Chan” by Kimiko Uehara), had similar theme as the song. You know: patience, distance, homecoming, mistakes, forgiveness, second chance, yada yada yada. But then the Yellow Ribbon Project (about accepting ex-con back into the society) spoiled it all, don’t get me wrong, it is a totally cool project and it’s really appropriate for them to use this song. Just that, my bad habits, I don’t like my favorite songs being commercialised, because I’ll get bored of it and it loses its appeals.

So anyway, talking about forgiveness, I realise that sometimes it’s difficult for me to forgive others. Ok, so I told them I forgave them, but I remember what has happened ,like, forever. Like those girls who snatched away my swings when I was in kindergarten (I GOT THEM FIRST, I RAN ALL THE WAY FROM THE CLASSROOM JUST TO CLAIM THE SWINGS, but we are quite good friends now, haha). But then, I tried to forgive, you see. I just see it as something very funny now.

Now, let’s talk about second chance. Another bad habits of mine, although I try very hard not to believe in gossips before witnessing them myself or in first impressions, I’m easily swayed by them. And guess what, I might have been very mean to those who actually wanted to change and to have the second chance. Oh well, I hope I’ll change for the better.

This is a very personal post, sobs. Don’t use it against me (or I’ll remember you till my dying breath…OOPS).

Another fruitful song hunting

I finally found the song “Jessica” by Harpo, and the lyrics, too!

You can listen to it at mp3sparks.com but here’s the beautiful lyrics:

When I walk down Boulevard Saint Michel
I still feel those lips that kissed me farewell
In a bohemian room at Monte Martre
We discussed Picasso Jean-Paul Sartre

Jessica love, I’m feeling so sad
‘Cause the dreams that we had
In seventy six
They are gone gone

Champs-Elysees in a street cafe
We smoked Gitanes
And drank red wine
Like in a book of Hemmingway
Forever and ever and ever to stay

Jessica love, I’m feeling so sad
‘Cause the dreams that we had
In seventy six
They are gone gone

So beautiful I’m melting lol. Anyway, this song somehow reminds me of Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes, the settings I mean, although the setting of this song is in France while in the book, it’s in Switzerland

An emo post

I pity people who think they know me but in fact, they know only very little of me (yeah, I’m mean). But I take great pleasure in reavealing the other sides of me to people (HM!), but some people are just plain clueless har har!

Shucks, I’m emo-ing!!!

Let me attribute this to all the emo songs that I’ve been listening to these days. Some breakup songs:

1. Not A Day Goes By (by Lonestar)

2. Stay (Chris Sayzer)

3. Separate Lives (Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin)

And some songs that make you miss your parents:

1. My Little Girl (Tim McGraw)

2. In My Daughter’s Eyes (Martina McBride)

3. I Loved Her First (Heartland)

Why I Belong to The Retros

This is a crazy post, but I want to publish it nonetheless.

Here are some of my theories on how I will be better off in those retro years:

1. I love oldies songs. They make up a great proportion of my top rated songs in my iTunes. And I still think, to these days, that the singers of the past relied heavily on their singing talent and not so much on their dancing (make that ‘grinding’) or looks (The Carpenters vs The Pussycat Dolls?)

2. I think John F. Kennedy was cool, and his wife Jacqueline Onnassis was wow!

3. I also happen to have naturally curly hair in Connie Francis’ style. I told my friend that my Plan Z in my life is to be a bar singer, and I’ll make sure I sing Connie Francis’ songs hahaha!

4. I am a great fan of the retro comic Archies. And I happen to love that bubblegum pop “Sugar Sugar” (I’m getting bored of it though)

5. I secretly think (not much a secret anymore) that Elvis Presley looked good. And I can imitate his trademark leg rocking while singing “All Shook Up”

There, I relapsed into making a list again But unfortunately, I couldn’t find five more good reasons. So let me keep it at that.

Fruitful Songs Hunting

I finally got some songs that I’ve been looking for months.

Malaguena by Connie Francis…This is my mom’s favorite. She has it on her cassette tape (in case you don’t know what this is, wiki it!), and it was a great Connie Francis’ album.

Goodbye Girl by David Gates…Sigh, isn’t that a nice song? It’s the type of song that when you listen to it, you feel like the singer was singing it JUST FOR YOU…I used to feel the same everytime I listened to Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton, but it bores me nowadays, especially if I tune in to Gold 90 FM, they play that almost everyday I suppose

A very good version of La Cumparsita by Mandragora Tango Orchestra…My grampa’s favorite, I’ve never grown bored of playing it on my electric keyboard at home. I wish one day I may try playing it with a bandeon, hahaha, dream on val…

Galveston by Glen Campbell…Such a beautiful and heartbreaking song. This is also one of my mom’s collection, she has this superb album of songs titled places’ names or people’s names. But the ultimate track that I’m looking for, and haven’t found to this day, is Jessica by Harpo. The lyrics goes like this: When I walked down boulevard St Michel/still feel those lips/kiss me farewell/in the bohemian room/at Montmartre/Jessica love, I’m feeling so sad/’Cause the love that we had/In… Byootiful lyrics, tell me where to get this song if you know it

Move Shake Drop by Pitbulls/DJ Laz…A crazy song, lol, it took me a while to like this song, and there’s this suspicious lyrics “booties and tig ol’ bitties” that I don’t understand (no, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know, honestly) But I guess if you swap some of the first letters, you got something that is very gross…

And finally, two versions of I’d Really Love To See You Tonight, one by Dan Seals, another by England Dan and John Ford Coley (if all men named ‘Dan’ can sing that well, I’m so going to name my future kid Dan :p ) Great song, especially the part “I’m not talking about moving in”, I feel like retorting “yeah, right” LOL

My mom’s teacher used to scoff at her fondness of listening to music, saying that those who love to just sit down and listen to music are lazy, no-good daydreamers. I think I might be one of them.

Things that stir up my very special memories

I have a very good memory of what happened in the past, complete with all the sensation and the graphic details. I seriously think I might get a serious case of forgetfulness when I grow older, coz my memory is stuffed with all these things in the past.

Boiled prawn reminds me of this terrible nightmare about my mom turning into a prawn queen ^^; I was having this tiring nap in my hot bedroom, and I remembered crawling under the cupboard to hide from the prawn queen. I was in primary 1 then.

Yo Te Amo (song by Chayane and F4) reminds me of a street to my tuition place in my hometown . I was in junior high school then. One day, I saw a full rainbow (that is, full half circle) at the end of the street. That was the first time I saw such a beautiful rainbow. The song also reminds me of quick dinner inside the white Honda sedan (KB 291) because my tuition started at 6pm.

Love of My Life (song by Queen) and Stay (song by Chris Cayzer) are both wonderful break-up songs, LOL! They remind me of my silliness and total lack of maturity then, and contrary to the past, they make me laugh now. (I know, how can I possibly laugh to Freddie’s heart-wrenching song!)

The smell of the Multipurpose Hall in my junior college reminds me of the smell of the impossible Physics paper.

Spaghetti reminds me of sleepovers at my childhood best friend’s house, about playing organ in her house and playing SimCity (the very first version) and Aladdin games on her computer, and the swing at her backyard, and her ballet dancer neighbour, and her car, and going to English tuition together. And of course, eating homemade spaghetti cooked by her mom.

A song album Car Stereo (with red cover picturing a red sedan) reminds me of this long road to a peaceful town 3-hour-drive from my hometown. It reminds me of the hilly roads to Bethesda (a leprosy treatment centre) and of a narrow road surrounded by sea. It reminds me of a porcelain pottery centre. And a long, long road with paddy fields on the sides. Aw, it’s making me sentimental now. Anyway, the album is always in my papa’s car dashboard and my mama pointed out to me and my sisters on how the songs in this album will make us cry when both my parents pass away in the future.

Quein Sera (song by Trio Los Panchos) reminds me of lazy holiday and waking up late on a quiet morning. It reminds me of my old house, and of my bolsta of course (tee-hee).

Every Morning (song by Sugar Ray) and Stay The Same (song by Joey McIntyre) remind me of a terribly fierce teacher and my first love <3 I was in primary 4 then.

I realise songs are very powerful in helping us reminiscing our past. I have a longer list to share, but I can’t remember now. One thing for sure, in the future, KFC’s Zinger and the Taiwanese Shihlin Chicken will be among things that remind me of the present