Snoskred – Life in the Country

Ok. So I have a confession to make. I’m not a fan of top 40 music anymore. In fact, I haven’t been a fan for several years. I thought this might have just been something that happens to you once you hit the age of 30 and become “unhip”. I haven’t even bothered visiting the music channels on pay tv in at least 6 months.

But last week, late one night, I was flicking around and there was nothing on.. I ended up on one of the music channels and I was.. how can I put it.. Blessed.. Perhaps led by some kind of higher power.. I found a song that signals for me the complete death of any kind of decent music industry.

This unbelievable disgrace that is supposed to be a song actually ended up at number one in the US charts. In case you were thinking “Oh, it is just an American thing” – I hate to tell you it ended up at number 3 on the Australian charts. WTF is going on with this world that this shyte becomes a hit? I am just thankful I didn’t know anything about it until now – this song was released in September 2007.

And there I was thinking Nelly was a nitwit for having that stupid band aid on his face for ages. Nelly is a MUSICAL GOD compared to this delicate genius.. now that is really saying something! (and I did spot a recent Nelly video, he has got rid of the bandaid – what the heck was that supposed to be about anyway?)

And yes, call me a hater if you will – but how can anyone like this enough to buy it!

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not anti-rapper. I like me a bit of 50 cent, I like a bit of Kanye. In fact this song played right after the above clip, and I really like this. This song also got to 3 in Australia – but only 52 in the US.

It is not often that I buy a CD and like every track on it. In fact it is incredibly rare that I like a CD enough to want to write about it on my blog. Even with a favourite artist there is usually something which doesn’t sit right or something I don’t like. How many times do you buy a CD and find out later you only like 2 or 3 tracks? I hate that. That is exactly why so many people download music these days.

A couple of months ago we bought some CD’s. For long drives The Other Half likes something with a beat, something that keeps him awake. We had a few Madonna tracks on our compilation CD’s and I have always liked her music but I had no idea what a treat we were in for when we bought Confessions On A Dance Floor. If you like your music without all the ho’s and beeyotches that you find in (c)rap these days and you enjoy dance music, you will enjoy this cd.

You may recall a couple of the songs from this album – if nothing else you may remember the film clip where Madonna was dancing in a pink leotard. Yes, the outfit was just wrong for several reasons, not the least of which was the tan panti-hose which ended mid calf. However it is mesmerizing to watch precisely because it is so wrong.

This was soon followed by the track “Sorry” which contained a couple more equally wrong outfits, namely a purple leotard and silver leotard. The ugly tan panti hose was thankfully nowhere to be seen.

Every track is wonderful but my favourite would be Future Lovers which is like taking a bath in bass when it gets played in the car, and I love the “Give me evidence of his brilliance” lyric, and the harmonies. There’s no official film clip for this track but I found the song on you tube anyway.

The bottom line is simply this. When I have to do housework I like to put music on that makes me move and this music is exactly that. It’s just over 55 minutes long and that is the perfect time – you do chores till it’s done, then you take a break for 5-10 minutes. This CD has been played over and over while we moved, at least once a day for almost two months. I still enjoy it as much as I did the first time I listened to it.

Madonna has always been a controversial strong female artist. She doesn’t do those silly high notes like Mariah does. Her voice is much more sing along and Confessions On A Dance Floor is much more dance along than any of her other albums that I can recall. If you don’t have it and you like the tracks posted as videos above? Keep an eye out for it because if you liked that you’ll enjoy the entire cd.

Obviously this was not a sponsored post – I wish it could have been! I wonder why music artists don’t seek reviews from bloggers because if we like something we’re going to tell everyone. Maybe there’s not enough money in music these days with all that downloading.

If the following image makes you laugh hysterically until you are unable to remain on your chair, I apologise. It had the same effect on me. I laughed until it hurt. Kanye, Kanye, Kanye! What the? Seriously, what were you thinking? Did you look in a mirror before leaving the house? Kanye, you’re a fine looking guy. Some would even say hot, perhaps. The sight of you dancing around on stage makes the ladies temperature rise. That’s a good thing.

However, making the ladies laugh because you are wearing something so amazingly.. odd. That’s not a good thing. Making your entourage wear it too, so you don’t look quite so silly, that’s completely uncool!

These “sunglasses” completely miss the real purpose of sunglasses. They won’t protect your eyes from the harsh sun. How can you even see through them? Worse still, how can the ladies see your fine eyes?

Please Kanye, I’m begging you. Take these sunglasses and throw them in the nearest dumpster. Or better yet, sign them and sell them on Ebay, where a fan can pay insane amounts of money for them, and you can donate the proceeds to charity.

Readers, have you any thoughts on this photo? Leave them in the comments, I’d like to know if this made ya’all laugh as much as I did.

When I go to sleep at night, the road back from from the place I want to live flashes before me. Big tall trees on either side of the road but it’s like I’m flying so fast, they all blur. And my fear is, something’s gonna jump out in front of me and I’ll hit it. The faster I go, the more things I see threatening to jump out. I know I have to keep going. Moving forward.

I am not a perfect person. I am many things, and germophobe is one of them. You know those people who can’t go out of their house because they’re scared of germs? I’m not there yet, but I can see there from here. Germophobia is different for different people.

For me, I have trouble with –

- door handles
- sponges, teatowels, tablecloths
- food preparation – things have to be clean, clean chopping boards, clean knives, clean utensils
- needing to have clean hands
- people sneezing in my presence
- germ overload when I touch too many dirty things I begin to freak out
- getting to a place where I throw my hands in the air and say “I can’t deal with this” (such a place might be called germ overload)

I am in the process of making positive changes in many areas in my life, and today I have taken a big step towards a goal I set myself recently, which is having a cleaner house. You see for me, it is easier to live with dusty surfaces than to clean them. Cleaning becomes a big deal because if I am going to do it, I want to do it 100% all the time but I don’t have the energy to do this. An Olympic athlete does not have the energy to make things as clean as I would like them.

I have recently decided this all or nothing approach is a really bad idea. Spending 8 hours cleaning one bathroom is really not for me and in the past, it has been easier for me to just throw my hands in the air and say “I can’t face cleaning it” than to do a “lesser” job.

Carl Jung said – “We cannot change anything unless we accept it.”

I accept that I have a problem with cleaning. I accept that I am a germophobe. I accept that it is better for things to be somewhat clean than absolutely spotless or very unclean.

The serenity prayer says “grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”.

I cannot magically snap my fingers and make myself a non-germophobe. I have to take baby steps towards making things better, and I have the courage and will to do this. I can create positive change. I cannot solve all the problems in the world, but this I can work on.

So recently I accepted that wiping things down with an anti-bacterial cloth once a week was a good idea and a positive change that I could make that would help me get to a place where I wasn’t throwing my hands in the air, unable to act. Over the past couple of weeks I have spent some time cleaning things obsessively.

3 days to do my bookshelves, come on you guys, that is NOT normal, it is not like I have an entire library here, there’s two book shelves with a total of 24 alcoves in them. Not only did I clean the shelves, I cleaned each book, each ornament on the shelves, all the picture frames, anything nearby. Obsessively. They are now spotless, and this means I can just wipe the shelves over, wipe the books which are getting dusty. If I do that once a week, I’ll feel a lot better.

Today I tackled the difficult subject of the bathrooms. I have been putting it off. The other day the other half said to me that he had no idea how someone who claimed to be a germophobe could live with such a bathroom situation. They were filthy. I said this germophobe could not live with having to clean these bathrooms. Whoever designed them is a real idiot. There are many spots for germs to hide. To clean the vanity tops usually takes me 2 hours alone and it is backbreaking because of the height of the darned things. They were designed for very short people.

That’s not even getting into cleaning the toilets. There’s not enough anti-bacterial hand wash in the world for me to cope with that. So I’d rather put it off, and put it off, and keep putting it off until I can’t take anymore.

When one does put in the hard yards and does the work, one feels a real sense of accomplishment. Now, I intend a quick wipe over once a week, and then I won’t have to do this evil backbreaking hours of work chore because it won’t get that bad. The trouble is having stuff on top of the vanity means you have to move all that stuff when you want to clean it. That’s what was stopping me from cleaning the bookshelves for so long. Too much stuff in the way which I’d have to move, and clean. I’m thinking a box with a lid would be a lot easier.

I just went into the bathroom before to wash my hands, and took great pleasure in the clean surfaces. I have to remember that when I start to think I can’t reach this goal. I can reach it. I know I can. And who put can’t in my vocabulary? I don’t like that word. Will not, sure. May not, fine. Do not, okie dokie. Can not – it has to be one of the previous three.

I’m so tired. I’ve been up since 7:30am and most of the afternoon was spent in a cleaning frenzy. I’m going to sleep for hours. Tomorrow it’s weekly wrap up time.