Sunday 26 April 2015

Music on Sunday, Scottish Music



As you read this, I'm on a plane to Edinburgh for a few days with my sis. :) It's been a while since I've been there so while preparing for my trip I came across a nice playlist earlier this week and made this blog. Enjoy!



© KH

Thursday 23 April 2015

Inhumanity



Long have I thought about writing a blog about this subject but I feel like I have too. I can't keep quiet any longer. I am ashamed. Deadly ashamed no less. I feel so ashamed to be Dutch at this point in life. I feel ashamed to live in a country where the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer and where the government is turning it's back on poor helpless people who are fleeing from their homes because of violence, because ISIS, because they just can't take it anymore. Meanwhile the rich are filling their pockets even more, bank managers, big business men, politicians you name it, and the people of my country are screaming bloody murder. The illegal immigrants must go, they're at fault of course they're to blame!

Our government has made some decision for failed or undocumented asylum seekers.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte's centre-right Liberals said offering continued support would attract more migrants. Their Labour coalition partner backed a policy of "bed, bath and bread" for people in need, even if they had been refused asylum.
Dutch media reported that the parties had agreed a deal whereby failed asylum seekers would be housed, but for a limited time only and in just five major cities -- including Amsterdam and Rotterdam -- and not countrywide as now.

I understand that there is a big problem. But there's also something called humanity! After the accident where boat refugees were killed drowned at sea there was a lot of social media noise. Or should I call it filth. People saying all kind of horrible things about the dead people I'm not going to repeat here. Where are you in your own life that you can wish someone dead? How bad a person are you yourself if you can wish that on someone you don't even know?


Can you honestly say that this picture doesn't effect you? A dead Syrian girl? Drowned trying to escape the tyrand Assad with her family?
Even the elderly people where I work are ruthless, they should know better having lived through WWII. No apparently 70 years of peace didn't make a difference. They think they worked hard for it after the war and that others like 'them' should not profit from their labours. How can you think like that? I honestly can't fathom that!
It is beyond me! There is such a thing as Human Rights and if the place where you live is unsafe, of course you run like hell! I would!

So yes, I am deeply ashamed. I am ashamed for mankind, for people in general, for my country. Men are really the worst animals on Earth.

© KH

Sunday 19 April 2015

Music on Sunday, songs used in commercials


Ever since an add about insurances aired on our tv I'm singing along with the song. Looking it up that same song was in commercials all over the world!



So today it's all about songs in commercials.

In 1986, this was featured in commercials for Michelob beer as part of their "The night belongs to Michelob" campaign. It was a case of an advertising agency and/or client looking at the title and chorus of the song without regard for the lyrics, which reek of pain and desperation. Genesis keyboard player Tony Banks explained that using the song in the commercial was a big break for the band, since it helped it become a hit. Banks said that if it wasn't in the commercial, it probably would have remained an album track like their song "Domino."


Microsoft paid $10 million to use this for their Windows '95 advertising campaign. Although it became common practice in years to come, this was one of the first times a hit song was used in a major marketing campaign.


In 2011, Slow Moving Millie's cover of this song featured in a Christmas commercial for the British department store, John Lewis. The Smiths' decision to allow their song to be used in an advertisement sparked controversy among many fans, though front man, Morrissey said he was "very happy" with the result. Guitarist, Johnny Marr, added: "Writing 'Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want' one Friday in '84 is one of the best memories of my life. This ad has not sullied that memory one bit."


In 1987, Bowie re-recorded this with Tina Turner for a Pepsi commercial.


In 1998, this was used in a commercial for AIWA sound systems. In the ad, a guy drives around with this blaring from his car stereo. At the end of the commercial, we realize he is driving a hearse.


In 2002, this was used in commercials for Verizon wireless. In 2009, a cover of the song by the group The Hours was used to advertise Budweiser beer.


© KH

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Education






Yesterday my youngest son told me he wants to change from learning to be a cook to something else. He's in his second year and finds the hours tough and thinks he's no good at it. He went to his coach in school and asked her for an occupational test to try and find what it is he would be good at. That is the second son with doubts about the education he's chosen.

As a mother you worry, of course you do it's in our job description. But on the other hand; with all the kids these days switching schooling/education... What if they just have to choose too early in life what to do for the rest of their life? I sure didn't know what to do when I was their age! (then again; I always said I would be a mum and that was it... and there are days I even doubt if I'm doing a good job at that!) To be honest; I only now know from age 40 what I want(ed) to do in life. Be a writer and/or a geriatrics psychologist.



When I got a divorce and had to start to work again after being a stay at home mum for so many years, I didn't have a proper professional education to turn back to. So I went to work at a firm where I went to clean at elderly people's homes. Not that it isn't a proper job, I love my old peeps, but if I had a degree to turn back to I could have had a better job perhaps. So that's why I tell my kids to get a good education, that it's so damn important!
But now son number two is going to switch, because he says he feels he's not good enough, and the hours are bad and he just doesn't want to anymore. I know he is entitled to get a job he loves. He must get one he loves doing.

As his mum I worry, of course I worry. He also has a mild degree of Autism (even though he wants to deny that) and as a result has a lower degree of education. I thought he had found his place that this was what he wanted. To now know he was struggling with it all this time not wanting to tell me is even more difficult.
Raising kids is hard, raising kids with Autism and ADHD even harder, raising kids with Autism without being able to consult with their father, well I won't go there. I've closed that book or so I thought. What I do know is that it will be a tough nut to crack for him and me.



I'm trying to let it go again, I know from experience that worring doesn't solve things and if I let it go it will all work itself out.
*sings 'let it go, let it go*

© KH

Sunday 12 April 2015

Music on Sunday; songs inspired by books



It's not that easy finding different themes about Music to blog about every Sunday. I might have blogged about it before. But Songfacts is as ever very helpful. Songs that were inspired by books this time;


In Douglas Adams' comic sci-fi book and TV series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the number 42 is revealed as "the answer to life the universe and everything." Q magazine July 2008 asked Chris Martin if this song is Hitch Hiker's Guide related. The Coldplay frontman replied "It is and it isn't. 42 is my favorite number. 42 is just perfect. We've got two John Lennon songs, this and Violet Hill."


Jon Anderson got the idea for this song after reading the book The Singer: A Classic Retelling of Cosmic Conflict by Calvin Miller. The book tells the story of God through the eyes of a troubadour.


Sting produced the Brand New Day album with Kipper, a film composer he met while working on the title song for the 1998 film The Mighty, starring Sharon Stone. Based on Rodman Philbrick's young adult novel Freak the Mighty, it's about two kids with physical and mental challenges who come together as the title hero. Sting and Kipper worked so well together that Sting invited him to his house in Italy to work for what was supposed to be a few days.



This song is based on one of Robert Smith's favorite books: a 1969 novel called Charlotte Sometimes by the British author Penelope Farmer. In the book, the title character finds herself transported 40 years back in time. Smith wrote this song using the same themes of time shifting and displacement.


The song's lyrics were inspired by the writings of Charles Bukowski. The reclusive writer was known to stay in a room for days at a time without coming out.


This song is named after a chapter in the book The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. In the chapter, the main character engages in a bit of late-night prostitution in a tent in the desert with three sisters who are part of a caravan. This provided lyrical content for the song: "My sisters and I... have one wish before we die." 


Everyone who reads my blog longer will know I'm a huge Police and Sting fan so no wonder there are two of those in today's blog. 

© KH

Thursday 9 April 2015

Life is what happens..



Sometimes there are things happening in life that you cannot control, things that are affecting your mood as well or maybe even things that make you think about your own life and that it isn't so bad after all. 

Today was a day like every other day. I got up at 7, did my morning routine and went to work at my elderly peeps. I've had really strange dreams I recall waking up, about being in a hotel room and all kind of animals running around escaping from under the beds and what not. I've also had some aches and pains lately but I'm blaming those solely on myself; not excerising enough, sitting behind my laptop writing too long at a time among other things. But when I see some of my elderly women I think I really need to excersise more or watch what I eat better or I will get in trouble when I'm old(er). Anyway, when I was sitting down for some coffee her nurse came in and when we came to talk about the geese in the pond across from our home. One pair already had 5 little ones. She told us that she hoped they would live cause last year she'd seen kids from the school with a large stick with a nail in it, beating the chicks to death. She screamed to them to stop it from across the pond and called the police but it was too late.

geese with young (2012)

I really was horrified by her story and it is still stuck in my head. I love geese and I'm so happy that they come back each year which they won't if they get beaten of course!
Later on I was walking my dog and ran into a neighbour. He asked me if I knew that an acquaintance of ours was sick again. The man had stomach cancer but the last time I saw him he was better and the cancer was gone. Now it had returned and he wouldn't get better again so he told me. The man was given two months at the most. His idea was to collect money and buy flowery plants for his garden so that he could enjoy it now he still could instead of buying flowers for his grave later on. I couldn't agree more. 

But still, I went home from my walk with even more on my mind than before. Count your blessings I thought to myself, go and walk more and take care of yourself. Of course it's not to say I won't get sick but I should enjoy life more without the aches and pains and stress I sometimes have now and when I walked into my garden this little fellow made me smile with his presence after being away for the whole winter; 





You can't shut the world out, but you can't let everything consume your mind either and sometimes I let it which is not good at all. No when to let things go and enjoy the little things in life! 

© KH



Sunday 5 April 2015

Music on Sunday; music for Easter


Of course I have given you The Mattheus Passion a few times before, but there are other pieces of music for Easter to listen to.

For your listening pleasure here are some examples; Have a Happy Easter!













© KH