Showing posts with label 2023. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2023. Show all posts

Monday, December 25, 2023

My Favorite Songs of 2023

Merry Christmas everyone! As this is the last Monday Monday Music™ blog of the year, I want to thank all my loyal readers for tuning in every week to read and listen to a brand new playlist of music every week!

2023 marks the third straight year that I have published a blog every Monday for a 52 week calendar year. This year may have been a little skimpy on the word count for a typical week as I have taken on more duties with D&D Learning Spaces™ as their Learning Environment Designer. 

I just want to give a quick shout out to my boss Dean Smith and his wonderful staff for making this a very rewarding year from a work perspective. After all these years, I still have the drive to design K-12 learning spaces with schools and Dean has given me the opportunity to express my creativity with educators while working with an exceptional group of furniture and technology collaborators. I am so blessed and thankful for this opportunity! 

This year with the full-time work gig kicking in, I started writing many a blog post on a Saturday or Sunday morning (like this one), but stayed true to the music playlists as they typically take several weeks to put together. My Favorite Songs of 2023 is a compilation of my favs taken from 11 months of my #NewMusicMondays playlists. I'm so thankful for the Monday Monday Music listeners who have taken the time to actually go through or even skip through a playlist that I have created. This year, I feature mostly songs from 16 new albums worth listening to.

This year, I added 60 Years of Music to cover the 1960's and the best decade of music ever produced in my opinion. Then, I continue 50 Years of Music to cover the 1970's, and #NewMusicMondays to keep you exploring new songs from young and older artists. A special hats off to The Rolling Stones for making an album in 2023 (Hackney Diamonds) of all new songs. 

Music is art and like all art we each have our own tastes. I don't expect everyone to like my typical mix of rock 'n' roll and Americana (or what we used to call Folk music). I do think that in every playlist I create, there is at least one or a couple of songs that make it to your heart. It may be an old tune from the last century, or it may be a new tune you discover today in the playlist. In any event, music is powerful. It's something that we take with us whether you are listening to a digital device or playing a song in our head. 

I also want to take a moment to thank my wife, Mary Kit and our blended-family for just being the wonderful people they are. All of us are busy, but I appreciate that we all work together to keep it all together for the combined five children, their spouses and our nine grandchildren. I think that the grandkids think that Yellow Submarine is my favorite song of all-time, and I'll will keep that going as long as they believe in Santa Claus. Someday, we'll have the talk about Penny Lane

This past week, Mary Kit and I took our three grandsons, Cole, Brendan and Drew to the Corvette Diner that has all the walls filled with paintings of the rock 'n' roll stars from the 50's and 60's. We had a great discussion of band members now dead or still alive. The conversation centered on two large paintings near us of The Rolling Stones and The Who. Now this got a bit tricky with Brian Jones and Keith Moon and our nine-year twins, as I kept it general. But, the boys just couldn't understand how adult Brian Jones could have drowned alone in his own swimming pool? I moved on to the painting of The Supremes. Anyway, there was a live DJ there and he played upon my request, Jumping Jack Flash and I Can See For Miles. He said, "These songs go out to the Wagner boys who are coming for my job!" I was born in a crossfire hurricane...            

As I say at the end of most of my posts, "Enjoy the playlist my friends." And... if I don't know you personally, but you've found your way here and listened to a song or two here, you're certainly a friend of mine!

Merry Christmas and let's all just practice a little more kindness in 2024, it can change everything.

Now here's a great little mix of album-oriented favs from 2023. Enjoy the playlist my friends!


And hey, let's not let the dust settle quite yet on my Christmas Mix 2023. 
It will make for great background music throughout this merry day!

Monday, November 06, 2023

The Beatles • Now And Then • The Last Beatles Song

I watched the short film about the making of Now and Then when it came out last Wednesday, and I began to cry. Sad and happy tears all at once. Then, I cried when the song was released on Amazon Music this past Thursday, and then Friday morning at the Peter Jackson premier of his music video of the song.

"I realised we needed the imagination of every viewer to create their own personal moment of farewell to The Beatles." –Peter Jackson

If you're a Beatle fan, my God all the emotions, still now and all those years ago. 

If you haven't watched the short film yet, watch it first, then the video song. On Saturday, I created a playlist that you might like. 

Also, avoid reading any reviews of the song. This song was re-constructed from a homemade cassette tape recording of John's while living at the Dakota in New York City. Nobody's pretending it's Strawberry Fields Forever. It's the last little scrap of Beatles music with all four of the lads on a track together. Give it a little quiet respect.

What an unbelievable gift. 

Enjoy the playlist my friends.

  • The Beatles - Now And Then - The Last Beatles Song (Short Film) - Released on YouTube, 11/01/23
  • The Beatles - Now And Then (Music Video) - Released on YouTube, 11/03/23 that includes a B-Side with the 2023 remix of The Beatles 1962 first single, Love Me Do (but...with a music video substitution).

Not to mention a couple of other Johnny come lately tracks...

Thank you forever John, Paul, George, and Ringo!

Monday, October 30, 2023

Halloween Playlist • 2023

Every year, I add a few songs to this playlist and I think every year it gets a little more separated from the standard Halloween playlists. but yes I have ghostbusters just like everyone else.

Tis the season for pumpkin! Here are two great pumpkin treats. 

First, if you haven't tried the pumpkin bread loaf at Starbucks, well it's available all year long, and delicious!!!


Next up, is Trader Joe's seasonal Gluten Free Pumpkin Streusel Muffins. 
  1. Cut one muffin in half
  2. Butter each half up
  3. Place in the microwave for... whenever butter melts in your microwave!
  4. eat with a folk like its cake, because it's cake!
wonder why I'm already packing on the pounds and it's just Halloween?


Tis the season, Enjoy my Friends!