Why I Am

For me, blogging is therapeutic. It is a stress reliver.What I write is how I feel at that moment. It is a snapshot of my life or a temperature reading, whichever you like better. It helps me filter through the good, bad and funny.

For the most part, I tell stories. Stories I fund humorous or interesting. When I was in college learning about how journalists find stories, the one aspect I was always drawn to was "is it unusal"? Unusal can be so many things. But sometimes I choose to get real. It's good to be funny ha ha, but there come a time when I feel like I need to share bits of myself.

For example, yesterday's post and the post about my birthday. That was my real life with my real feelings. While unusal stories are good, sometimes sharing something personal makes for an even better story.

Music is also a form of therapy I choose to partake in. 1) It's free. 2) It's fun. 3) It helps you relate to other people. Music is one of my go to subject when I meet someone new. It helps me find a common interest. I've written a little bit about the types of music I like, but today I am going to add to it.

Yesterday, the weather was beautiful. Perfect blue sky. Not to hot, not to cold. On days like that, I find myself drawn to what I call "feel good" music. Yesterday was perfect for the following:

• Dave Matthews Band - "Crash into Me" Live at Radio City
• Switchfoot - "Always" and "You're Love Is a Song" from Hello Hurricane
• John Mayer - "Another Kind of Green" from Try
• Mumford and Sons - "Dust Bowl Dance" and "Awake My Soul" from Sign No More
• Eddie Money - "Take Me Home Tonight" from We Are the 80s
• Gavin DeGraw - "I Don't Want to Be (Stripped Version)" from Chariot - Stripped
• Needtobreathe - Any song from The Outsiders and The Heat (two AMAZING albums)
• Ray LaMontagne - "Shelter" from Trouble (One of my all time favorite songs ever)
• REO Speedwagon - "Keep On Loving You" and Take It On the Run" from Hi Infidelity
• Amos Lee - "Violin" from Mission Bell

I really love all kinds of music. I love the different sounds and beats. My mom says I love guys with guitars that sing nothing but sad songs. I can see where she gets that considering everything I listed above is sung by men. I do listen to some women, but for the most part I stick with the guys.

Now let's take a different turn in the music department. I just talked about how I love soft, acoustic music with men singing beautifully written songs. But I do love to hear some rap/R&B. A few favorites as of right now:

• Waka Flocka Flame - "No Hands" (I really can't get tired of it. I LOVE it)
• Lil Wayne - "Right Above It"
• Jeremih - "Imma Star"
• Soulja Boy - "Turn My Swag On" and "Pretty Boy Swag"
• Usher - "DJ Got Us Falling in Love" and "More" (Makes me want to dance)
• DJ Khaled - "All I Do is Win"
• DMX - "X Gon' Give It to Ya"

I am sure there are many I am leaving out. Some I can think up off the top of my head are the Ying Yang Twins, Chris Brown, Flo Rida, Ludacris and Pretty Ricky.

So there you go. I am bipolar in my music taste. I love it all. It just depends on the day. Some days I mix it up. I have also been known to go on 80s Hits kicks while in the library looking at microfilm for hours. It keeps me on my game. I listen to classical piano music with no words when I work on projects that take a lot of brain power.

Music is personal. Listen to what you love. And share it. Tell people what you like to hear. Maybe it will help you form a common bond. Who cares if it the common bond is over Justin Bieber or 3 6 Mafia.

I will leave you with this. A mix of my two favorite genres.

Enjoy! Until next time...