Sing Along Sunday: Just Be in July

Happy Sunday, readers!

Can you believe that tomorrow marks a full month into summer? July has brought many beautiful summer thunderstorms, resulting in a healthy patio garden for me! The grape tomatoes have been delicious so far. I love my little personal oasis right in the middle of the city. There's nothing more satisfying than watching the sunset surrounded by flowers, vegetables, and herbs you nurtured since late May.

Being able to sit back and physically look at what you've accomplished is a great way to calm down, especially after getting bad news. After waiting two years for a decision, I've finally got the verdict for my court case against my old employer in France (J'expliquerai plus en français un autre jour!). That very same day, I saw over half of my company laid off as a result of a recent merger. Emotions ran high that week. As a result, this month's playlist consists of old time favorites from past difficult chapters in my life as well as recent discoveries, including a few favorite, new dance songs. As I'm finally able to lock the door to the last chapter in my life, I continue to readjust my posture moving ahead: head up, heart open, and hair long.

To listen along with the song descriptions below, be sure to click on this link. You can also follow me on Spotify by clicking here. As a friendly reminder, you need a Spotify account in order to access my monthly playlists. I've included both the artists and song titles below, so if you're not keen on the idea of signing up for another music platform, you can always search and listen to these songs elsewhere.

Enjoy!

1. "I Couldn't Care Less" by Leslie Clio: Sometimes I have a really hard time discovering new music through Spotify's Discover tab, and other times, well, I find gems like this lady. I found a German playlist and was surprised to find this voice among all the rock and punk songs. 
2. "Worried About" by Lissie: While I first fell in love with this song after a break-up with an  ex-boyfriend, I now listen to it with a much different application. While only three years later (not four), I no longer have to worry about how my story with France and their judiciary system will finish.
3. "Just One Day" by Mighty Oaks: This is a refreshingly positive song that reminds you how much you're capable of in one day. The best part occurs at the 50 second mark. 
4. "Talk Show Host" by Radiohead: While Romeo & Juliet is not my favorite William Shakespeare play, the 1996 movie adaptation with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes is one of my all-time favorite movies. The application of the prose to modern sets, clothing, and culture proves that such a story continues and will always continue to be someone's true life no matter the year or city. The scene that this song plays in is breathtaking: a before the storm moment, where Romeo looks out at the beach, pondering life. They always say you never see love coming.
5. "East of the River Nile" by Augustus Pablo: A lovely song to play at the beach or while relaxing on a boat. How have I never heard of this Jamaican legend before?
6. "Take Me to Church" by Hozier: Holy mole, this song is powerful. I highly suggest watching the music video to get the full effect of Hozier's words. Listening to the song already gives me goosebumps every time, but the story shown in the video made me cry. 
7. "Coffee" by Sylvan Esso: Coincidentally, I heard this song playing on Spotify when I came back from getting a second cup of coffee at work. Apparently, I forgot to hit pause on the radio station I was listening to when I got up.
8. "Gooey" by Glass Animals: This song is so smooth. Hailing from Oxford, this group just put out their first full length album in early June. They're definitely on my "to watch out for" list!
9. "Female Robbery" by The Neighbourhood: The perfect song for when the wind starts howling warnings of a coming thunderstorm. The Neighbourhood show a dark, stormy side with these lyrics.
10. "Map Of The Problematique" by Muse: My obsession with Muse began towards the end of high school. Much to my dismay, their more recent albums have turned them more towards pop rock. (You can't head bang quite the same to "Madness" as you can to "Hysteria").  This will always be one of my favorites, not only for the beautifully written lyrics ("I can't get it right since I met you", "Why can't we see, That when we bleed we bleed the same"), but also because of the slow, progressive crescendo.
11. "Closer" by Kings of Leon: I wrote one of my favorite short stories in college while listening to this song on repeat. The story is as twisted as the song sounds.
12. "R U Mine?" by Arctic Monkeys: I love the band's latest CD, AM. While I thought I understood the entire song for once, I had to yet again look up the lyrics. 
13. "One Day I'll Be Rich" by Current Swell: As they sing, "Be careful what it is for which you dream." A lovely, honest song perfect for summer and traveling by bus or train.
14. "Doninké" by Knadia Kouyate: Now, away from the rock and onto African music! I came across this song after listening to Tinariwen. Knadia's voice blew me away.
15. "Watina (I Called Out)" by Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective: Andy came from Barranco, Belize, a city where the Garifuna language and its traditions still exist. The Garifuna culture stems from the mixture of two cultures: the Carib indigenous tribe and West Africans (who were were on their way to slavery when their ship sank by St. Vincent Island). Unfortunately, Andy pased away in 2008. I hope his legacy to preserve this culture continues to live on; the scenes in his music video intrigue me to learn more about them.
16. "Karibou Ya Bintou" by Baloji: My sister wrote her senior thesis on this Congolese musician. Naturally, I became interested in his work after listening to her explain her findings. For the music video with accompanying English subtitles, click here.
17. "Rude" by Magic!: The lyrics don't make all that much sense (Word choice: rude? Cruel, might have been better), but the vibe is pretty darn catchy. It'll soon be on your typical top 100 radio station if you haven't heard it played already.
18. "Elastic Heart" by Sia: I have listened to this song every single morning for the two weeks. Her lyrics are absolutely perfect. Sia's story is a beautiful one; I'm so glad she's found the strength to pull herself away from inner demons. Her new CD is equally as powerful lyrically as her first two.
19. "Changes" by Faul & Wad Ad: I came across this song after listening to way too much Avicii in one week. 
20. "Badri" by Dounia Batma: I was introduced to this singer a few months ago. She was runner-up during the first season of Arab Idol in 2011. While she hails from Moroccan, she often sings Khaliji songs. Can you believe she's only 23?
21. "Gharqan" by Rashid Al Majed & Mona Amarsha: Last month my belly dance teacher introduced us to Khaliji, a style of music and dance coming from countries in the Persian Gulf (think Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates). It wasn't until I started taking this folkloric class that I was really able to differentiate between the various styles of Arabic music. We danced to the remix version in class, but I prefer the one listed here. 
22. "Sodfa" by Yara: Yara is a Lebanese singer who also goes by her birth name, Carla Nazih Berkachi. She came out with a solely Khaliji album in 2009 which was, to many music producers surprise, a huge hit. 
23. "Neseeni" by Sherine Abdul Wahab: A Tunisian friend sent me a ton of Sherine's music a few years ago. I fell in love with her first single, "Ah Ya Leil" when I first started listening to Arabic music in France, but "Neseeni" is my latest go-to song. She has such a strong voice and does such a great job portraying the emotions of her lyrics.
24. "Bridges" by Broods: A duo out of New Zealand, Broods are a huge hit on the other side of the world, trailing right behind Lorde on the charts. I hope they come tour in America.
25. "Truth" by Alexander: Alexander is most commonly known for his hit "Home" produced with his group, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I can never concentrate when I listen to any of his songs; it must be the whistling.
26. "Soft Shock" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz! got me through a whole heck of a lot during my last year in college. This song always seems to calm me down, no matter the circumstances. 
27. "What Goes Around Comes Around" by Rebirth Brass Brand: It says it all in the title. Karma always gets you in the end, so remember to treat others how you want to be treated!

There you have it, folks! I hope you have a wonderful week! Enjoy this brief summer Polar Vortex before the humidity and heat come back to us.

Bises,

La petite pamplemousse

Virtually Friendless for Ten Days

Ten days ago, I decided to log out of Facebook. I didn't delete or suspend my account. I simply wrote a post explaining that if my friends wanted to follow the experiment, they could come here for updates on my life; then, I signed out. Originally, I thought I write about how I felt as a virtually friendless person every day. I imagined it would be quite a difficult feat, resisting the urge to start typing "face..." into my web browser. I had an idea in my head that I would track email reminders to sign in, or the number of times I went to the web page before realizing I shouldn't log into my account. Yet, I'm already over a week into this personal challenge, I haven't done any of that, and, truth be told, I don't feel all that different.

Meanwhile, the Internet continues to pump out more and more opinion pieces on the world's recent finding that Facebook conducted an "emotional manipulation" experiment on some 700,000 users. It seemed that all I came across were negative takes on the issue...that is until I found this PC Magazine article. John C. Dvorak brings up a very valid point in the third paragraph in regards to the public being malleable prior to Facebook or their experiment. While his tone borders the line of being a bit too sarcastic, his article did made me chuckle. I believe it's exactly what people need to read in order to get that this concept of being "manipulated" really isn't new.

Perhaps that's why I don't feel any different sans Facebook. I still get my daily dose of one-sided news stories through online newspapers, blogs, and radio. My emotions are still a reflection of what occurs in my immediate surroundings, virtual or physical. To put it bluntly, reading about Syrian women struggling to keep their families alive without a job, the recent admission of Apple using child labor as a means to build its products, or even the continuous coverage on young children crossing the Texan border in hopes of escaping a drug-gang run country makes me feel like a useless piece of shit.

While I may not feel changed emotionally thus far, I do see a slight improvement in how I handle my free time. I've returned to cranking out 300 plus page books like I once did in my undergraduate days. One of the two books I finished over the weekend was so hard to put down. Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House is Valerie Plame Wilson's memoir on the CIA scandal that took over her personal and professional life during President George W. Bush's administration. "Weapons of mass destruction" is a phrase we all ought to remember, for the "alleged" proof of their existence led to Bush's war on Iraq announcement in 2003. While I vaguely remember fighting with certain family members over the legitimacy of these claims, I do not recall the scandal that followed Valerie and her husband years after the original declaration of war. I'm not a huge memoir fan, but I would highly recommend this to anyone who thinks a Facebook experiment is detrimental to our civil rights. As I move onto my third book this week (Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East), I realize how much I've missed reading physical books. Taking those ten minutes I would have spent stalking my Facebook News Feed every few hours to read what actually interests me has been really refreshing. And, while I regrettably admit to missing out on friends' pictures and posts (especially those abroad who I can't see in person), I know a simple phone/Skype call or handwritten card goes a lot farther than pushing the Like button.

Out and over,

La petite pamplemousse