Raige Creations

Writing has been difficult for me lately. The words just do not come easily, or if they do they are a jumbling mess of rambling on. And not good rambling. So to ease back in I thought a Music Monday would be a nice, easy effort. Well, turns out that wasn't as easy as I thought.  Let the rambling begin! Can you believe this is only the 2nd blog I have done in 2022? I have had lots of stress, work is ridiculously busy and there was an incident that has been quite stressful to deal with. I do hope to write more about that soon. But the words to write about that are not pleasant words, and what I have to share about that I (finally) realize is precisely why I am struggling with writing.  What happened to me made me more reserved, questioning every action I did. I realize now the effect this incident has had on me, and the effect it had on my writing.  Now that I realize what has been the cause of my writing difficulties, I can begin to work through it and get back to writing....

Coming on to the light of day We got many moons that are deep at play So I keep an eye on the shadow smile To see what it has to say Mood of today. Poetic groovy-ness. This Chili Peppers groove hits just right some days. Today is one of those days. A nice holiday Monday, with vacation days the rest of the week. Plenty of time to just listen to music and groove. This song is full of groove. In fact, I was just craving the groove, and didn't even pay attention to the words until today. I didn't even know it was called Dark Necessities ( good lyrics I found out, just now, today).  Just wanted the groove , man.  (An added bonus, I had fun browsing for tickets thinking how fun it would be to go to a Chili Peppers concert ! ) I do hope you get some groove time, whether to just flow with the dark necessities or something a little lighter and necessary, or even unnecessary and just for fun. I don't know what you would prefer this Monday, so choose yourself. Just be sure to add ...

Surprisingly, this song had the distinct effect of making my day...well....lovely.  I was driving to work one day last week, in heavy traffic. I have mentioned before , perhaps a few times , how bad traffic is. A normal 20 minute drive takes me 40 or 45 minutes during rush hours. I was getting more and more irritated, going 4 miles per hour, then 12, then 4, then stop. Oh, and excuse me I was leaving space between vehicles, not saying please cut me off.  Geeze. And then this song came on. Well, it was just a lovely song really. So mellow. It has quite a nice message too. I mean how sweet the lyrics are! Just lovely. By the time I got to work, it actually WAS a lovely day. No the traffic didn't get better. My mood did. I was noticeably in a better mood, humming along this quite , well frankly quite repetitive, song.  After so many lovely days you just start having a lovely day! Just goes to show you, we can change our moods and perspectives. Sometimes all it takes is...

 A little positive thinking for this Monday. Here we are staring at only a few full work weeks until that cozy holiday, Christmas, coming up. One we hope we can at least see a small group of family or friends.  I am honestly tired of thinking about yesterday, and each day, these days. Though each day does bring a little bit more hope, I am struggling through the todays lately. I have had enough of this stress. Yes 2020 has tested all our strengths, revealed our weaknesses. We have many of each. Just when I think a today may be alright, the day 'explodes' with something that has happened, some news, and I am stressed again.  Tomorrow is all we have to look forward to. It will soon be here, we sure hope. And tomorrow will be better, it has to be. If each day can get a little better, we may just be ok. Here's hoping it WILL be better than before. There is so much potential in tomorrow. We can open our eyes, and see things in a different way. I like having this song in my h...

 Back to work this morning, after a lovely, slow, relaxing yet a tad productive break from work. I so enjoyed the slower pace, the reading , the writing. I even am planning to submit some photos for a show, I am a bit nervous about that.  But today, I feel a little bit off today. Having to get back to the daily grind and to some unpleasant things in progress at work.  A friend said she was feeling a little off last week. She had this song on repeat. Good choice, I say, when this is part of the lyrics:  I don't really wanna try today. I love getting suggestions for music, and ones that fit my mood tend to end up here, at Music Monday. And yup, this one fits for a Monday back to work from vacation. It fits for the mood at any given time during this crazy year, pandemic, life. And sometimes music just helps us through, helps us focus on something else, gives us a little mental strength. Perhaps have a Five Finger Death Punch album ( click here ) playing while you get...

 Aimlessly scrolling this morning, while I enjoy my coffee, I came across this: I sang it to hubby, and yup, he said bang bang . No finger guns though. Perhaps he wasn't the finer gun type. But me? Well.... Now -  I am the warrior ...well I am the warrior...and heart to heart you'll win...if you survive..... Finger guns and all. I am right there, back in 1984, with my besties...back then we didn't call each other that. We called each other sisters, BFFs perhaps. We were a group of 8, then 10. The Great 8 Plus 2 . Inseparable in those crazy years, gathering at one of our houses (whosever parents were out of town, preferably, but not necessarily. We could cause a bit of trouble with or without parents around).  I even had the half a head of short hair, half a head of longer hair, hair cut - oh so 80's style. One of my friends cut my hair in this "hip" style, and cut part of my ear along with it! I am missing a little bit of my left ear. We were definitely shooti...

It is never a bad way to end the weekend, watching The Big Lebowski . That we did, for the I don't know how many-eth time. We have seen it a lot. (Plus a little Monty Python , always a good time for that really.) But now back to work from my completely do nothing vacation, well staycation really. Honestly, I did a little more than nothing, but not much. I hardly cooked, didn't go anywhere but the grocery store, did minimal laundry (that still needs to be folded). I sat on the couch most of the time. I successfully lounged and read several kindle fun books. So this is a nice way to ease in to tackeling my work emails, a nice tune from Bob Dylan . (website here if you want to get lost in Bob ) Besides hubby requested it, and it is kinda nice to hear him sing along, even if he is immitating Bob, he is a bit better than Bob. But, if I have to play it again, and read him the lyrics, having heard him say one too many times 'What is that he said there?' , I may ...

Yup. Hooked on this song apparently. I heard it on the radio driving in to town the other day. I cranked up the volume, and sang along as loud as I could. And then over the weekend it came up in conversation...can't remember that conversation now but I got to hear it again. And there it has been in my head, stuck. Every time I hear it, I want to sing it, and sing it loud. I like sing along songs, particularly since singing is good for you . Plus, both sing and dance are on this great list of advice for living. What a GREAT feeling that was in the car, though! There is something so liberating about singing alone in the car while your driving. I hadn't let loose like that since, well at least since before the lockdown . And honestly, I didn't let loose much before that because traffic was so bad people sitting in cars right next to me would have seen me blaring out the song and doing a little dance sitting behind the steering wheel and that would have just been we...

Carry on. What we must do. It is hard, these days, but in the end, we must carry on. A popular WWII slogan the English came up with back in 1939. Much unknown then, it's resugence took the world by storm in the 2000's. The original was  Keep Calm and Carry on . The original displayed at Barter Books Many  Keep Calm and.... slogans  are out there. So, so many variations; some are funny, some are motivating, and they all have Keep Calm to start, because that is actually very good advice in so many situations. This song is a fun song, (yes I know, the name of the band too , but it really is an uplifting fun song), it lifts the sprits. Mine anyways.   Cause we are We are shining stars We are invincible We are who we are On our darkest day When we're miles away So we'll come We will find our way home A good reminder to keep that one foot moving forward, carrying on. We are who we are, after all. We must remember to Keep Calm a...

Another Monday, another week of what the heck will happen this week? source And we are just floating around waiting for the next WFT moment. I say, it is time to enjoy some Modest Mouse then and we can all float on together. Alright, already, we'll all float on, alright Don't worry, even if things end up a bit too heavy We'll all float on Alright, already I kind of love that the video has the band in a little puppet show, moving around with magnets. Being controlled by someone. Read into that what you will, I sure we could draw some real life parallels. And then there are the sheep. All singing along, as we float along. Perhaps another real life parallel can be found here. But I won't be drawing or finding any parallels today, it is Monday after all. Asked about the song in an interview with The A.V. Club , Isaac Brock , the lead vocalist and guitarist for the band, said that he consciously intended to write something that felt more po...

As the daily news keeps plugging the negatively and violence, this past weekend we were reminded that when we work together we can accomplish huge things. We can go to SPACE ! We were reminded to look to the stars to remind us how small we really are, and to strive for big goals regardless of the hurdles. And soon, we could possible hitch a ride with a commercial spaceship!!! Of course, what other song is appropriate when thinking about going off to space? This past weekend, we were reminded we can get the heck off this earth and live in space by none other than NASA with  SpaceX and of course Bob and Doug  - the astronauts . (NO NOT Bob and Dough  McKenzie , though I could not get them out of my head whenever someone mentioned Bob and Doug taking off... , and I was tempted to use their song , but really Bowie's is better, imho, so take off, eh ? You hoser !).  It didn't sink in to me that we (humans) have been in space, living there in the ...

A wonderful memory that came back to me, thanks to my sister. Our Dad playing this song throughout our childhood, a memory of his from his teenage and young man years. Our dad was a musician, among other things . His mother a piano and organ teacher, back when jobs for the wives and mothers were unusual unless in times of economic need. Which was the case back during the Great Depression, when my father was a teenager. She taught him the skills, and he was a very decent pianist and organist. She taught us too, when we were little. Though I never practiced like I should have, and it was evident during my lessons. I think I was 5 years old or so. No surprise there that practicing was never long enough or serious enough. There were too many other things to keep me occupied when I was that age, like the fish tank that was right near the piano. Hard to stay focused on boring scales when little fish-ies were so much more interesting. But this song was a favorite of our dad. He pl...

As I head off to work today..... A few staff home self isolating, some have to stay home with their kids because school is closed, gotta work on getting staff access to work from home, notify public about our limited services, etc, etc, etc, etc. Did I mention last week also included a massive dump fire that halted traffic for an afternoon spewing toxic smoke across the island? Yeah, there was that last week too. We can do this, it can't get much worse...either that or it will get worse before it gets better....either way....the show must go on.... Happy Monday.

Boy, did I jam. For the past week I have knocked out gobs of jam. I have even had days where I made 2 batches in one day! (which is a lot harder than it sounds, especially when you are making at least a batch a day.) With still plenty of mangoes to do more. It is why I haven't blogged much lately. I have been too busy cutting mangoes and measuring sugar and squeezing limes and mixing, and mixing, and, mixing, and mixing. Jam. And plenty more to make more. And of course I made some juice too, so jamming and juicing. So it should be no surprise if asked what I have been up to, well, JAMMING mon. Thus, there is no other song that has been going through my head. I found this video that also has the Spanish lyrics, which  me encanta ! (Have I mentioned I want to learn Spanish? I do. But that is another story. ) Cupboard Full of Jam.  Ooh, yeah! All right! We're jammin' I wanna jam it with you We're jammin', jammin' And I ...

It has been very hard for me to blog lately. I have started writing, thinking it would be therapeutic, but then it just hurt too much. It started really with a big life change, a sudden instability, uncertainty in my life. About 3 weeks ago. Then, a random terrible thing about 2 weeks ago. (A garbage truck smashed into a parked vehicle of ours in front of our house. Cue fighting with insurance company, about the worst thing to have to do.) Then a certain uncertainty. My life was truly upended. I was raw, hurting, lost. I just could not bear even writing about it. About anything. Then hubby showed me the news. Last week it was the environment. Las Vegas and the  grasshopper swarm , Greenland's Ice sheet melting . Biblical levels of scary shit. My nerves were fragile. I really could not bear writing. Then,  the shootings . Last week, California was terrible. Last Saturday, El Paso was horrific, I was glued to the TV in shock. I even sent my kids each a messag...

This is a song that has been playing in the background of my mind ever since hubby got me on this Collective Soul kick. A beautifully written song, musically and lyrically. The meaning, the general consensus writes, is about the shallowness of life. After doing everything, buying everything, life has no meaning. Do I have a long way to run - to find the meaning of life. Read more interpretations here. I guess we are continually searching for meaning, for satisfaction, for happiness. Society would like us to be continually consuming to find these things. However, is that where we will find it? I think not. Admittedly it has taken a long time to come to this conclusion. I guess I have been running' for years. I am not saying I have solved this by any means, but certainly I am not 'running' like I used to. I am more content nowadays with what I have, and try to enjoy each moment and the little things. I am now sauntering along quite happy. Maybe too heavy for a ...

A surprise suggestion, this song was. I asked a friend-who-is-family for some ideas, as I wanted to do a Music Monday this week, but was having trouble picking a song. Just didn't have any that felt right at the time. So this friend, who by the way is someone we (hubby first actually) 'met' online. Communicated for quite a while before actually meeting in person. But you just know when you click with someone and we are going on over 8 years of friendship, I believe, though it feels like we have known each other forever. She has been a wonderful addition to our extremely small circle of friends. She is 'auntie' to my kids, she is who I vent to almost on a daily basis via messages, she is always willing to listen unconditionally. And that, my dear readers, is hard to find these days. She became family. Source So after complaining I was not inspired by any songs, she said she would see what songs came on over dinner with her Mama, and give me some ideas. Her Ma...

Seriously - the only reason I picked this one is the last line in the song. It totally took me off guard, as I was enjoying some great old music Friday afternnoon , because I took off from work and was doing some much needed 'chilling'. It is a nice background song. I was just scrolling the internet, with this on in the backgroung, and enjoying the peace and relaxation of no work on a Friday afternoon. And of couse I was blogging too. And well, I hear the the last line, and it stopped me and I even said out loud 'did he really just say that'?  So enjoy this song, sit back, relax, go about your business with it playing.  And then hear what I would have told anyone of the  hovering office space invaders and paper pushers   if they approached me if I was working Friday afternoon. Here are the lyrics if you would like to see it, and use it as well.

This song brings back memories of Easter and church for me. It was played many Easters at our church when I was growing up. My father was the organ player, and I loved to hear him play this in practice at home, and then again at church. When I heard it playing Cat Sevens version on the radio, I loved it. A church song playing on the radio - how cool. I was then, and still am, a Cat Stevens fan . I was a kid then, I thought AM radio was cool. I still do actually - it WAS cool back in the 70's. Whatever it takes to bring the idea to the masses that we should give thanks. It was said by the editor of the hymnal it was first published in (In 1931) that:  " there was need for a hymn to give thanks for each day ." There IS a need to give thanks each day. A habit I have been trying to keep up with. So give thanks, even though it is Monday. Give thanks that we have..... beautiful music , sunshine , rainfall , wind , chocolate (I am sure you all have...

We skipped the light fandango Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor What a mood Whiter Shade of Pale creates! Hubby was searching for this song the other day. That organ haunting his mind. He just had to find it, and we must have listened to it 6 times that day. But who doesn't love the imagery of skipping the light fandango ? The poetic nature of Procol Harum songs is wonderful. I never knew any other songs they did, so I searched, and found it is not just their popular hit that is like reading a great poetic story. And though I hoped for something to find I could see no maze to unwind I feel it is safe to say, most people don't remember the unusual name of the band of that enduring classic song - one of the few singles to have sold over 10 million copies . And probably most are like me, and never heard  Conquistador , their second hit. I still get a kick out of their name, certainly not one that sticks with you, named after a cat . It never hurts ...