Well, it’s happened… I’ve finally reached a milestone on YouTube: my 200th subscriber!
I passed the 200 mark on my YouTube.com channel a few days ago, but it’s been a crazy week. When I wasn’t at school planning, teaching, grading, and filling out paperwork, I was at home helping Jim pick out the perfect Christmas tree (if you’re a fan of symmetry, you’d agree!), recording Laptop Sessions, and watching TNA Impact! with the hope of possibly seeing Christian Cage’s triumphant return to the program. That’s the question on my mind now: Is Christian staying with TNA? Is he going back to WWE? I’ve spent a considerable amount of time and energy searching this online, and there are some decent arguments (with somewhat shady and vague sources, mostly) for each side. I’ll just have to wait and hope. Truly, he’s one of the reasons I watch every week. Even Sting, although he’s been there every week, has been in a transition period of sorts, having made friends of the bad guys.
Oh, well. What was this post about again? Oh, yeah…
I have 200 subscribers! Thanks so much to all who have clicked that little “Subscribe” button above my YouTube channel icon. I hope my videos continue to interest and entertain you!
Hello and welcome to my second to last Laptop Session of 2008! For my selection tonight, I’ve gone back to the formidable catalog of Bob Dylan. Specifically, I’ve chosen a song that I think everyone should hear — around this time of the year, especially.
“Forever Young” is a fairly simple and straightforward song, one about wishing someone health, happiness, self-confidence, and an overall high quality of life. I think it’s really interesting that Dylan recorded two versions of this song. Now, you may be wondering why this is out of the ordinary, as Dylan is well-known for recording multiple versions of the same song, often with various arrangements and different lyrics. However, in this case, both versions (each very unique) were included on the same album, 1974’s Planet Waves… Back to back!
I hope you enjoy my cover of this great song, and I hope you’ll accept it as a blessing extended from me to each one of you, each of you that has taken and continues to take the time to listen to my cover songs. It’s been quite a year with some great videos, some mediocre videos, and a few that stretched the range of what I’m able to do. And, at the end of this noble experiment we like to call “session-a-day,” I find myself being able to sing a song — this one, “Forever Young,” — that I wasn’t able to sing and play comfortably as recently as a year ago.
Before I leave you to watch the music video I’ve posted on YouTube for today, I’d like to thank Jim’s cousin Sarah for having us over tonight. Jim, Becky, Sarah, and I went to see Jim Carrey in Yes Man (and it was excellent fun!), eat at Luigi’s (where I had delicious scallops over ziti), and even got to play Wii tennis, dodgeball, and volleyball. Sarah and I were an unstoppable team, but Jim did beat me mercilessly in the gladiator event. It was good to get out.
And, as a final note, I just finished reading Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which was a Christmas present from my sister Jaime. It was an excellent book, and as I mentioned to her, I wish I had read it in high school, as I was trying to figure out some essential things about myself. That was in large part what the novel was all about — learning to understand and be confident about yourself before you can properly fit other people into your life. Now, I’m 25 pages into Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and really enjoying it. Vonnegut is great; his final novel, Timequake, really impressed me, and I have no doubts that I’ll be equally amazed with this one by the time I’ve finished reading it.
Okay, but this is enough for now. You should go watch my video, and I’m going to go back to watching episodes from the eighth season of ER, one of my favorite shows of all time. I forgot how much I cared about these characters — Greene, Carter, Lewis, and others.
Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! I hope you had a joyous Turkey Day, “stuffing” yourself in the company of friends and “spuds” — I mean, buds. If you have tomorrow off, then that’s just “gravy”…
Okay, that’s enough of that.
Seriously, I hope you had a positive day, filled with family members and friends, enjoying a day off from work. As for me, I woke up late (almost afternoon) to a phone call from my sister. Knowing me all too well, my mother asked her to call me and tell me that dinner would take place a half hour before it would actually start.
At least I got there on time!
My day essentially started as soon as I got out of bed (at the early hour of noon) and went to my parents’ house. I had a nice, relaxing time talking with my parents and grandparents, as well as hanging out with my sister and talking about music. I brought my laptop over so I could finally finish the “2008 Essentials” mix CD I’ve been wanting to make for weeks. Some highlights were…
– “Living Well is the Best Revenge” (REM)
– “Valley of the Low Sun” (Jakob Dylan)
– “7 8 9” (Barenaked Ladies)
– “Cowboys” (Counting Crows)
and, of course,
– “These Streets” (MoU)
I’m not biased about that last one, I swear! 🙂
After dinner, I spent a long time talking with my parents and grandparents. Then, once the company had gone, my father and I watched the Tom Selleck movie The Shadow Riders. It was based on a Louis L’Amour novel, so it was pretty cheesy at times, but overall, it was a fun film. Once the movie ended, the day was still long from over. I went over Jim’s parents’ house to watch this week’s special Turkey Bowl edition of TNA Impact! (the highlight of which was, without a doubt, Mick Foley “dealing with” Alex Shelley of the Motor City Machine Guns).
A half hour after TNA was over, Jim and I were back home recording this great Beatles cover song, “Thank You Girl.” Why did I pick this song, you ask? Is it a favorite? Well, no. In fact, I didn’t even know it until yesterday. The reason is that it goes along with the theme of today — giving thanks!
I actually posted this video late because Jim and I ended up playing great Beatles and Christmas songs for another hour and a half before going downstairs to snack, watch a Jack Johnson DVD, and do research for our Black Friday adventure.
And, yeah, I’m going to bed at 4am, prepared to wake up at 5am…
Well, tonight I’m bringing you yet another piece of archival evidence to prove that I have no shame. I am apparently not interested in impressing anyone, or if I am, then it’s impressing them with how willing I am to make a fool of myself… 🙂
But, seriously, I bring you this video tonight — another all-new cover by an all-new band to the sessions — in the hope that you’ll enjoy listening to it and remembering it as much as I have enjoyed learning to play it.
I actually heard it this weekend, as my friends and I watched the film Into the Wild. This song came on during one of the scenes. Instantly, I was reminded of my father’s tape collection again, as I had been for “Dead Skunk” and other cover songs that I’ve done. One of his old tapes has this Canned Heat single, “Goin’ Up the Country,” on it.
Of course, the first aspect that you’ll most likely notice is my falsetto delivery. You may even think it sounds goofy. Well, even though I wouldn’t classify the original vocal as goofy, it is certainly in a distinct voice. If you don’t know the song, then you should most likely search YouTube or iTunes for it as a companion to my Laptop Session. Or, just take my word that there is a good reason for the otherwise ridiculous vocals I have recorded here…
“Goin’ Up The Country” is how my night ends. Allow me to share the rest of the evening, which was interesting and indeed, I hope, a kickstart to a relaxing, fun, and productive Thanksgiving week. First of al, I stayed at school until six, entering grades and reading college essays. By the time I got home and changed, Becky was napping, and Jim and Dana were in the kitchen getting ready for the first Fusco-Moore Pre-Turkey Day Celebration! The best part of this story is that, as I went into the kitchen this morning to get my lunch, I found that Jim had stayed up late to prepare as much as he could. Dishes were portioned out, sealed with cellophane, post-it noted with directions, and the counter was covered with an array of foods and utensils. Now, the oven was working overtime, and the smells were tantalizing.
Before long, we ate dinner — which was amazing, by the way, and a definite home run for Jim. We broke open the bottle of wine that Jim and Becky had bought for me a couple weeks ago in the Berkshires. We watched the episode of The Office that we had DVR’ed from last week.
How much better could it get?
After dinner, we still had Two and a Half Men, Worst Week (which I regretfully missed in order to record my video), and Boston Legal (which was a wild and predictaby crazy Thanksgiving episode!). Boston Legal was actually sobering for a number of reasons, such as the fact that it is drawing ever nearer to the final episode (don’t even get me started on how disappointing that is, being that it is my absolute favorite show on TV next to, perhaps, The Office), Denny was showing signs of progressing Alzheimers’, and Katie and Jerry were having a spat. Jerry announced to her that he loved her… it’s about time! He added that she need not feel awkward; he would find her friendship to be more than an adequate consolation prize. I thought, particularly for a man with a social disorder, that Jerry handled the talk extraordinarily well. Katie didn’t respond in any certain terms, but did mention that they are a couple, if not in a romantic way, and may be in need of couples therapy.
I have a bit of a crush on the Katie character, so I’m rooting for Jerry here so I can live vicariously through him, if only until the show ends in December! 🙂
And with that, the night was over. A big thanks should be extended to Jim for cooking and to Dana and Becky for filling the house with great company. Now, I’m off to sleep and school and then a night of hanging out, talking about music, and watching an Office mini-marathon with my sister, Jaime. I can’t wait!
