My favorite O'l time singer and Tribute to Billy Holiday

Billy Holiday – My favorite singer of all time.. her lyrics always have had a way into my heart. Since the first time I was introduced to Billy’s music I have thought what a star, a wonderful talented woman. Who knew she would always be in my life from that moment on. Who would have known at such a young age that I would have had such taste.

I think it was growing up with musically inclined family members I knew instantly how powerful this woman’s voice was. I have heard stories from grandma about Billy, people in the army would listen to her music and have killed themselves listening to her music. Some people say it’s depressing and rather sad.. I think it’s just beyond their intelligence to appreciate such an artistic woman of wonder. It amazes me that ever since I’ve been introduced to Billy’s lyrics, songs, music, talent there has never been anyone who could come close or even compare to how beautifully she sings, the woman she was and is still today. Billy will always be alive in my heart and those that know music and appreciate it as much as I do. A lot of

Billy’s songs will always be a favorite of mine.

“Billie Holiday was the real thing: an artist ranking with Ellington and Armstrong and Picasso and Romare Bearden as the greatest of her era.” – Robert G. O’Meally

Some of Billy Holiday’s songs are:            
 East of the Sun

Blue Moon                                
You Go to My Head

You Turned the Tables on Me             
Easy to Love

These Foolish Things                       
I Only Have Eyes for You

Solitude                                      
Moonglow

Everything I Have is Yours                 
Love for Sale

Tenderly                                 
If The Moon Turns Green

Remember                                 
Autumn in New York

My Man                                   
 Lover, Come Back to Me

Stormy Weather                          
 Yesterday’s

He’s Funny That Way                    
 I Can’t Face the Music

How Deep is the Ocean                   
 What a Little Moonlight Can Do

I Cried for you                             
Love Me or Leave Me

P.S. I Love You                             
Too Marvelous for Words

Softly                                      
I Thought About You

Willow Weep for Me                      
Stormy Blues

Say It Isn’t So                          
I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm

I Wished on the Moon                    
 Always

Everything Happens to Me              
Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me

Ain’t Misbehavin                       
 Etc…… so many  more!!!!     

Billy Holiday (Vocals) Oscar Peterson (piano), 
Charlie Shavers (Trumpet), Flip Phillips (Tenor Sax), 
Barney Kessel (Guitar), Ray Brown (Bass), 
Alvin Stoller (Drums).

“Everything you made with her was a pleasure, because it wasn’t a task… Whatever you played behind her, you felt at the time. She would put you in that mood. And if you couldn’t play in the same mood as she was singing in, I don’t think you deserve to play horn.” – Harry “Sweets” Edison (interview 1990)

I’m Traveling Light – Billy Holiday Lyrics-

Typed out by JustSweetAngel

I’m traveling light/Because my man has gone/So from now on

I’m traveling light/He said goodbye/And took my heart away

So from today /I’m traveling light

No one to see/I’m free as the breeze/No one but me /And my memories

Some lucky night/He may come back again/So until then/I’m traveling light

No one to see/I’m free as the breeze/No one but me/And my memories

Some lucky night/He may come back again/So until then /I’m traveling light

“You have to live with my tunes. When I sing a song it’s got to mean something to me, something I’ve had to live. Otherwise I can’t sing.” – Billie Holiday (rehearsal, 1955)

“You got a hard kind of voice …. You know, like callused hands. Strong and hard but gentle underneath. Strong but gentle too. The kind of voice that can hurt you. I can’t explain it. Hurt you and make you still want to listen.” – Gayl Jones, Corregidora

Lady Sings The Blues – Billy Holiday

Typed out By JustSweetAngel

Lady sings the blues/She’s got them bad/She feels so sad
/And want’s the world to know/Just what her blues is all about

Lady sings the blues/She tell herself /Nothing to hide/Now were alone

Just when the blues is all about/The blues ain’t nothing 
/But a pain in your heart/When you get a bad start
/When you and your man have to part/I ain’t gonna just sit by and cry
/I know I won’t like because I love him

Lady sings the blues/I’m telling you /She’s got’em bad
/But now were alone /She’s never gonna sing them no more
/Cuz the blues is nothing /but a pain in your heart
/When you get a bad start/When you and your man have to part 
/Ain’t just gonna sit around and cry/I know I won’t lie cuz I love him
/Lady sings the blues/I’m telling you /She’s got’em bad 
/But now were alone /She’s never gonna sing them no more/No more~~.

All the Way – one of my top faves!- Dedicated to Paul @PaulBritPhoto

When somebody loves you/It’s not good unless he loves you /All the way 
/Happy to be near you/When you need someone to cheer you/All the way

Taller than the  tallest trees/That’s how it’s got to feel/Deeper than the Deep blue seas/
 That’s how deep it goes if it’s real/When somebody needs you /Your no good unless he needs you/All the way

Through the good or lean years/And for all the inbetween years /Come what may

Who know’s where the road will lead us/Only a fool would say

But if you let me love you /It’s for sure im gonna love you/All the way 
/But if you let me love you/It’s for sure im gonna love you/All the way/All the way

Billie Holiday’s music has been exhibited as “a pathetic lady of sorrows: a junkie whose trouble with drugs, the law, and hard men explained everything she sang.”  Billie Holiday “on stage, the familiar myth goes, she performed her devastated life.” [As stated by Robert G. O’Meally in the cd cover of The Complete Verve Studio Master Takes, Billie Holiday]

Sources:

O’Meally, Robert. Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday. New York: Arcade, 1991.

Some other great Artists

Nat “King” Cole        Jack Teagarden        
Louis Armstrong

Lester Young         Duke Ellington            
Bing Crosby

Charlie Parker       Benny Goodman            
John Coltrane

Sarah Vaughan       Johnny Hodges            
Oscar Peterson (Pianist)
@MicBudda

Ella Fitzgerald        and many many more!

Roses in a different Light..

Roses are often given to women for various reasons. Red, pink, orange, white, yellow, a different color for a different emotion. Some say Red Roses denote love, white resemble purity, and yellow - friendship and so forth…

Personally I have a small pet peeve about Roses, I love roses in a garden, maybe even at the cemetery, I love smelling roses I love arranging them in vases. But to receive a red rose, even a dozen red roses from a man is rather disappointing. Now you may ask why.. and most men right now are probably shocked at the idea of a woman refusing roses.

But here is my simple but ideal response;

When I was younger, my mother and father would argue and the first thing my step- father would give my mother would be red roses. One day (this was funny), they argued and he left and came back with one single red rose, a large one, I hadn’t seen this type before. He laid it on her chest as she was asleep on the couch. She woke up and threw it at him and asked if he was preparing for her funeral.

 I didn’t understand at a young age but this became a negative reason why I don’t like to be given red roses. Another reason is that generally it’s just done so often that the gesture is outdated, old, or abused.

Another reason is that it takes a true man to learn about his woman and know what type of flower she likes and desires. My Grandfather would take an Orchid to my granny every year on her birthday and it was a corsage. Granny would put it in her fridge and it lasted for a long time. The idea of Orchids in my life became significant.

Lillies have always had a place in my heart just because of Easter, and every Easter someone would bring me a pot of Lilly’s I would sit them in the dirt and never touching them the root would grow through the pot and eventually become rooted in the soil and sprout everywhere.

Sunflowers- are also another favorite because every time I had a vegetable garden I would see at least one. One sunflower would always stand out and the idea growing up of having sunflower seeds was fun.

Amongst the many reasons I’ve stated so far of why I don’t like being given Red Roses the biggest reason would be that my Grandfather whom passed away had his casket covered with Red Roses. Now just because of the negative reasons I have stated about having real Red Roses doesn’t mean I detest them entirely.

 I would prefer a photograph of any color Rose preferably the Red Rose over the actual Rose itself. One because it doesn’t die. Two because you can imagine what it smells like, and come up with your own idea. Three because now you have created a memory rather than just having a rose sit on a counter wilting.

 When photographed usually Red Roses tend to stand out and with droplets of water on their leaves or next to a book or face, it ads more character to the actual rose than when it stands alone. 

Rant’s Raves and BLOCKS!

I am writing this blog as a rant and rave about Blocking and Listing these are my concerns & suggestions as follows;

We’ve all found it necessary to block someone and at least in my view block means I don’t want to see them, and I don’t want them to see me. Recently I’ve been Re-tweeted amongst people I really don’t want to see. Nor do I want them seeing me.

With the advent of lists and the present Re-Tweet system involving lot’s of names. It is very easy for someone you’ve blocked to still read your entire stream.

There are many concerns, involving security/Privacy breaches. One of the many concerns I have is that I have had many underage (that's if they are even underage followers some people have avatar BABY PHOTO's, How do you really know!?) followers that follow celebrities request to follow me. Also many followers with out photographs who are very private about who they are request to follow me as well. I have blocked these underage and suspicious followers but my greatest concern is my tweets can still be seen by the youth/suspicious followers via lists.

All that would need to be done is if they try find who’s lists that I appear on and follow those lists. The only protection against this is to lock my account which in my opinion negates being on twitter at all.

 There are private lists, which an individual person cannot see. But the public lists are available to all. And listed in the front under the number of followers you are following. That’s why most of my lists are set to private. Unless the followers are Social media guru’s who don’t mind being seen or contacted by anyone.

So if you block anyone make sure that you also remove them so they aren’t on any of your lists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And that doesn’t really do any good because even if they are blocked they can still follow one of your lists. They can also perform searches through the search engine that brings up their tweets. They can just go to your main page, even if they are blocked.

I’ve had security concerns since day one that the lists came out in beta. Because, we had a preditor on twitter sometime back. When blocked, such an individual can follow a list of “Friends” and read everyone’s time lines.

So my final analysis is that blocking is ineffective! Boy am I annoyed by seeing my name especially when im Re- tweeted by someone I blocked! Or mentioned in another person’s tweet with the same person ie., followfriday’s or any other lists of random names. What can we do about this?

I don’t need this and neither do you what are your thoughts about how we could possibly have this changed.

Sincerely,

Sarah Saldana

What Does Integrity Mean to Me?

Integrity, what does it mean to me? I could tell you right off the bat what it doesn’t mean. But Integrity is so hard to find even in the encyclopedia these days because the word alone defines so much within itself.




It is not only defined by an honest person, and someone who stands up for their morals, But our Country has lived a lifetime of striving to live up to the word Integrity, How many years have our president’s mention the word. We (Society) define Integrity by our character and good judgement. That means a person who has Integrity is someone who doesn’t lie, steal, cheat, rob, or murder, neglect responsibilities, abuse children, or abuse their spouse, etc. You get the idea.




On other hand a person who lives their life abundantly, and with Courage and Honor knows exactly what Integrity is, Devoting, their lives to their Country let alone their family/Husbands/or wives. They are not just Service Men & Women. But individuals who have high standards, morals and the “will” to live their life dedicated to being something More! Always striving for the best someone dressed professionally, And someone willing to help others in dire need.




Integrity, I walk down the street and I think to myself, am I living a life of Integrity? Do people look at me and say I want to be like her? That’s the question we should all ask ourselves. Is that person living the way I want my world shaped? How do we want to be remembered when we die? Are the people around you encouraged by you or tired of hearing your nagging dreadful stories of she did this he did that and life isn’t just worth living anymore and woe is me. WAHHH, crying like a ninny. “Get it together”!




Do they look at me and wonder why in the world is she, wearing those blue orange sox with that purple outfit. What defines Integrity in our dress code? Form our clothes to our customs and wearing uniforms at work and uniforms at home. What I mean by wearing uniforms at home, is that we define ourselves by what we wear alone. Women for years have put aprons on and that alone signifies that they are going to cook. Now men are cooking and we’ve come along way from discrimination. We brand ourselves with logos and name tags, from Gang affiliated monikers to just plain social reform.




Integrity??? Again- From wearing hoop-earings and saying “what’s up my brotha!” To “Hello, How may I help you!” When was the last time you helped someone else? Integrity?! – In our communication. Are you speaking with Integrity tall and honest and able to look into someone’s eyes and know that you can speak freely without doubt that this person knows you’re an honest person? This is how I define Integrity… So when I look at someone you know what I am looking for. In business and in everyday social gatherings amongst friends. Who is going to understand and encourage and enlighten my life with positive words. Verses who will not be in my life and what can I do for those that have been good to me. It is necessary to take care of yourself first. But it is also necessary to heed the feelings of others. What are you bringing to the table, at work and in friendships and in relationships? Something I’ve been thinking about for some time now. And this is how I Define Integrity.




• It’s the men and woman who bravely wear the uniform of the US military and are ready and willing to fight, and even die, for America.




• It’s the mother and father that put their children to bed at night with a bed time story.




• It’s the Police Officer who dedicates his time to the community and ignores that his birthday just passed and is unable to celebrate it with his family.




• It’s the Gardeners who wake up everyday to be on time to do their job to make your property look nice.




• It’s your children and their innocence.
It’s you! YOU ALONE and everything about you is and can be about Integrity. How will you decide to live your life in 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

So I didn't want to wake up early this morning i was dreading it. I had been cleaning the house all week long. And taking care of grandma and she's been pretty demanding lately. But I did, i forced myself out of bed.. And boy is it a good thing i did. My mother had invited a family to have dinner with us this thanksgiving. And not only did she soften her heart to allowing my Step-father come and have dinner with us also. Since he had been up to his usual old self lately. As you already know yesterday i spent a big part of the day preparing for today chopping and making sure things were ready for cooking. We'll my mother woke me up with a yell asking me to help her get the turkey pans out and then from that moment on it was one thing after another because she was tired already lol.

So from that point she had stuffed the turkey's and put them in the oven. Then my mother and sister went to the store to get extra things. So while they were gone i washed all the dishes my mother dirtied and put the other dishes in the dish washer away and then i rinsed the potatoes and put them to boil for mashed tatoes.

• I thank God that I'm alive! 

• 
  

Then i got a call from my Step-father saying he was around the block and that he was going to bring some pies.. and drop them off and i said well come in and he brought them in and he said he was going to visit his two brothers and he had brought his dog which i had given him years ago the dog looked healthy. I had named the dog freddie but my step-father changed his name to Sparky and well he taught him a few tricks he was showing me it was pretty funny. My sister and mother drove up at that time from the store and then my sister and my Step-dad spent some time alone talking you know how fathers and daughters do.. I think it's good for my sister that her father is in her life. But at the same time with that token it bother's me to see him talk down to her because she's pregnant or make her cry because of it.

I also feel kinda sad that i don't have that you know but that's alright I guess i do have a father when you really think about it. "God" He's been my father. A spiritual father. Moving on.. after I did the potatoes and my step-father left and was on his way back the family showed up. They took a taxi to our house it was so cute they were all excited to come to our house it was a nice feeling sharing this thanksgiving with them they are "Family".

I like having the kids help me prepare the meals. They like helping me too! It's funny I was baking a cake and baking the turkey's and making potatoes and heating the corn and the string beans and i even defrosted and heated the gravy it was frozen! The kids names are Richi, Sean, and Gus. Well richi is the youngest and has really long hair and gets teased sometimes because they say he looks like a girl. Gus had long hair before and used to get teased by his teacher so he cut his hair and wanted to donate it to the cancer society but he was told that the only play to do that was in NY and his father didn't know how to go about it. He told me that story tonight.

Everyone was watching t.v. while i was preparing the dinner and mom was taking a shower and getting ready and sister was doing her hair. and then mom took Gus to go pick up the tables and chairs we borrowed from the office so everyone would have a place to sit. And Sean well he was counting to a hundred over and over again while he was beating the cake mix. lololol he had me laughing so hard he loves helping me. Here Sean is my little helper holding the baby - Mochi! 

Well my Step-father showed up after awhile and we all fixed the tables and the fixings and we said a prayer and sat down to eat. I even made mac & Cheese that's richi's favorite i figured since the kids don't usually like vegi's they might like mac and cheeze! and they did when i told them it was ready little Richi said thats our call lol it was too funny! and the kids and the family made our thanksgiving a real homely feel at home. since our real family isn't much of a family. This family made our night. Sure they have some problems these kids almost lost their father he is sick. I don't want to spill the whole deal on a blog it's their business. but i only mention it so you could keep this family in your prayers!

After our thanks giving dinner we had some desert and then we all sat around and talked and had fun and the kids played with the dogs. and then we all decided to go see the christmas carol it was really good! My step-father wanted to take the kids out to see a movie i guess the whole festive and holiday feeling got to him and for some reason he wanted to do something nice. that made the evening for the kids, and I when we went into the theatre we seen the chipmunks stand and i had the kids stand by it and i took their picture it was kinda cute.. here they are below.. we seen the movie and then after the movie we went to get some hot chocolate and then we came home and my sister took the kids back home and i am now home and going to rest after a long day! i hope you enjoyed the fun! I am thankful for all of you that have made life worth living! Thank you! 

THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD IS FAMILY.... BUT WHAT IS FAMILY WITHOUT LOVE.. 

DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MIN. TO TELL SOMEONE YOU LOVE THEM! DON'T SIT THERE SAYING TO YOURSELF I WISH I HAD DONE THIS OR I WISH I HAD DONE THAT.. 

THE GIFTS OF LIFE, LOVE HOPE, PEACE, UNITY, LOYALTY.. - QUALITY FRIENDSHIPS!