Something happened
Posted on Jun 29th, 2008
by 
B.B.
B.B.
Something happened to me yesterday that has shaken me to my core ;-)
Well not exactly shaken me to my core but made me ask myself if my age is catching up to me.
I wasn't feeling a hundred percent ...the brain incident and the last vestiges of the flu or something.
As I was hanging out in bed channel surfing I switched to Bravo and there was this Barry Manilow concert on. Um...hmmm,I watched it and ummm...well.....ahh,I liked it.
Aside from a 45 I owned of his somewhere in the seventies ( Mandy), I never really payed that much attention to him. Probably at some point I decided that his style was not appropriate for my taste...and certainly wasn't the main choice for the stoner I turned into in my adolescence.
Yet here I was yesterday watching this concert and liking it. The man has talent,and come to think of it I knew many words to his songs...how can that be? It had to be the fever right?
I don't think so though,I think it had to do with the fact that he's a pretty good pop song writer with little hooks here and there and a way with words that is actually surprisingly interesting....but still,Barry Manilow?
I slept really well nodding off somewhere towards the end. So this morning as I was contemplating this B.M. incident and asking myself if this is the demise of what I feel is my wonderful taste in music ;-) I said there is only one cure,and that is to haul my butt down to the jazz festival...and I did. I went with Moe and it was fun,dixie land,jazz,quebec rock,acrobats,contortionists (felt for them bc it is hot,sticky ,and a bodytard can't be the most comfortable of clothing),and no sign of B.M.'s influence anywhere...until some band decided to play Copacobana,or a weird arrangement of it....and then it hit me, the reason i know the words to many of his songs are bc they are staples in the repertoire of so many bands and he has had an influence on me and many others without me really being aware of it,he passes bc his music is good in a weird way.
Access: Public
QaR
August 2008 
Barry Manilow? OMG!!!
Actually, I've been a fan of his since I was a teenager. Mandy is my all-time favorite. I remember listening to that song play on the jukebox while I drank Dr. Pepper in the college cafeteria.
People make fun of him, but he is talented.
So it's not the end of the world.
I love Barry and went to see him in concert in 1978. And I am not ashamed to say so!
My problem is losing stuff. Or misplacing it and not remembering where I left it…if it was just a Barry Manilow fascination I'd be thrilled…but I am afraid this shakes me to my core…every day for soem freakin reason!
:)
This happens to me all the time - not the Fanilow experience itself, but realizing that I actually like something I'm slightly embarrassed to like. Movies are a prime example of this. Over the weekend I watched several trashy pop movies that I never would have gone to see at a theatre and loved them. I also enjoy those horrible supermarket magazines if I find them in a waiting room or laundromat even though I would never buy one. Oh, and I really really like YA fiction. It's my junk read and I used to sit in the library with one of my clients and I would read Holly Black novels while the client worked on what she was supposed to be working on. Oh OH and I like the terrorist cooking shows like Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen quite a lot. I think all this is okay as long as I can remember that it's a snack and not the main course….
Jamilah I know every word to that song. I rather think i could to an accapella version of it :-)….and Dr Pepper OMG I haven't had one in so long I'm going to buy one today…too funny
Aley If you remember your name,and to wear clothes when you leave the house it's o.k. ;-)
Jeannie I really like Top Chef,hell I watch The Food Network….a lot,do you ever watch Ace of Cakes? or the one I'm really little weirded out about ummm….Paula Dean I think my arteries harden just watching it…I'm laughing out loud I adore kitzchy movies (saw Hairspray,You've got mail,and Dreamgirls last week,and have read more than my share of pulp fiction. Now I'm off to wiki Holly Black. She did the Spiderwick stuff o.k. then everyone let's go to the book store,where btw I can spend an entire morning browsing,seriously i think I could live in a book store…I want to live in a book store ;-)
I think there's a small place in our hearts for any of the music that's being played out there. I am astonished when people say things like I hate country…I hate hip hop…etc. For me to watch people enjoy music I don't fully understand is a mystery….and I'm almost sad that I'm not with it enough to not be able to share in their joy. Or not open enough. Sometimes smoking a joint would help…it would slow things down enough for me to exclaim…oh wow!
we all have our guilty secrets, Bridget… I sang along with those BM songs as a child, not knowing it was dangerous :) let's see, Dan Hill, Sometimes when we touch was a huge fave with me. I was mad about the Bee Gees. Should I stop now ? :)
he he.. this not only made me laugh, but also made me go look for that box of cd's, invisibly labeled 'stuff I wouldn't be caught dead listening to' as it would so be the end of my cool it-ness..& the labels I've stuck on me for self identification.
… as it were, most of my coolness rattled loose just recently when my youngest niece insisted on going to mcdonalds for lunch. No manner of manipulation & refraiming could convince her otherwise. I finally met someone more stubborn than I.
So off we went & me & my it-ness barely made it through. I was sorta in a chock like state & thank goddess they do salads, otherwise I would have been very hungry as well as horrified…this jazzy intellectual snob did however eventually manage to loosen up with girls laughing & loving their nuggetthingies & me lil toes in trendy sandals tappin away to mcdonald muzac ;-)
Tom I haven't smoked in oh so long… yet i still listen to all sorts of music,bc music does something very powerful to me akin to getting high. Being 108 and all i don't know how cool i really am anymore but for the record i quite imagine smoking a joint and listening to some music with ya would be pretty cool.
Nicole I owned that record too,circa 1975 or something….and yup still know the words ;-)
Tara Chickie Donalds definitely not my favorite restaurant but the children like it and dad likes it cuz there's a playground,and when children are young they like to have fun…Macdonalds is definitely a non uptight restaurant,who needs attitude when you're three? You must be like the coolest aunt ! So what exactly is in the box?