Now Playing: Janine And The Mixtape

Yes friends, it's time for more music that is new to me and possibly to you too. I've all but lost hope in the Amazon free MP3 section but luckily SoundCloud has graced me with some new music recently.

The artist is called Janine and The Mixtape. According to her SoundCloud bio she writes, plays and produces her own beats. Pretty cool I think. Plus she has a nice voice and some good songs. In my opinion she has a very smooth R&B/Pop feel. Similar to the artist Nylo who I talked about in this post. Anyway, give her a listen for yourself down below.

Now Playing: Nylo - Cocaine Hearts

More music for your listening pleasure. Aren't you excited?!

Anyway, I honestly can't remember how/when I first discovered Nylo. Possibly on Spotify this time around. Usually I find my new music on Amazon but since they've changed their MP3 store setup I rarely even search there anymore. I guess Nylo could be described as a mix between soul, R&B, electro, alternative and maybe a few others. Bottom line is she's got a great voice and good music. What else really matters right? Oh, and you can download her songs for free on SoundCloud and free is always good. 

Give her a listen!

Newly Discovered Music: Jillette Johnson

New to me, maybe not so new to you.....

Yes, it's time for me to once again put you on to an artist you may not have heard about before. For once my discovery isn't from Amazon.com (ps: They all but erased the free mp3 section...smh). I found Jillette Johnson's music via a Facebook link for some magazine (can't remember which, sorry) listing the top 10 most underrated albums/artists of 2013. The list included her song 'Torpedo' which I instantly loved. I decided to head over to Spotify and listen to the rest of her album 'Water in a Whale' and I liked what I heard. My favorite song of hers is 'Pauvre Couer' with 'Cameron' as a close second. As a side note, another favorite of mine Tori Kelly was also on the list.

Give a listen for yourself if you haven't already or if you want to again....

Music Monday: Tori Kelly

Time for another installment of Music Monday. Today's feature is 'Dear No One' by Tori Kelly from her Foreword EP. I like her, I like the song and hopefully you will too if you don't already. 'Dear No One' is basically a love song to your future soul mate. Cool concept if you ask me. Enjoy!

Here's Tori performing an acoustic version of 'Dear No One' on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (honestly I prefer the original).

Music Monday: Amel Larrieux - For Real

I randomly found this song on Spotify. Although 'Tell Me' by Groove Theory will forever be one of my all time favorite songs, I haven't followed Amel's career so I didn't realize this song was a few years older. I believe it came out in 2004 on her 'Bravebird' album. Either way I'm obsessed with it now. Listen for yourself if you haven't already. Enjoy!

A Random True Story: The Stalker

I'm bored, eating shrimp lo mein and watching Living Single so I decided to write a random blog post about this guy I was never involved with for your entertainment. Enjoy.

So, I knew this guy in high school, we'll just call him "Dan" as I'm not into putting people on blast for my personal enjoyment. Unless they've pissed me off but that's neither here nor there. Back in school Dan and I weren't really friends. I mean, we were acquainted, had classes together and traveled in the same social circle but we never actually hung out or anything. Anyway, the years went on, we graduated and went our separate ways. Me with barely a thought about Dan because, as I said, we were hardly friends. 

Cut to college and the beginning of the Facebook craze. Back then you actually had to have a college email address in order to sign up. Ahh, the good old days. Dan and I became FB friends and eventually AIM buddies as well (that's AOL Instant Messenger for the youngins). Am I the only one who would spend an obscene amount of time trying to come up with a catchy away status? More often than not it would just end up being song lyrics but now I'm getting off topic. I wanna say around freshman year of college was the first time Dan started showing some romantic interest in me. I wasn't interested. In fact, I went out of my way to avoid any type of in person meeting with him.

There were several times Dan asked me to hang out via AIM but I wouldn't. There was one incident in particular that threw me off. Dan is a black man and he told me that he'd never dated a black girl before. My teenage mind was shocked by such a revelation. Then he said something to the effect of "Your black parents would be happy" if we went out. Huh?! I just......what does that even mean? I don't know, it just through me off. Either way, I definitely wasn't interested.

Now, it's some time later and I'm home for the summer or winter break or something. Either way it's like I see Dan everywhere. Out at the club or at my favorite chain restaurant where he happens to work. What are the odds right? I began referring to him as my stalker when it seemed like I was seeing him everywhere all over town. I'm sure I was exaggerating but so what. I had a stalker. 

Fast forward to now and Dan randomly starts talking to me on Facebook messenger. I'd say it started a few months ago, it was still warm out. He asked me out yet again and I finally agreed to meet for drinks one evening. He said he got out of work around 7p so we agreed to meet about 730ish. Mind you, we'd never exchanged numbers all this time. I go, I sit, I wait for about a half hour to forty minutes. He never showed. Then I get a FB message from him asking what I'm doing at almost 830. Say what now? I'm sitting here waiting for you! Fuck you mean what am I doing?! Then he says he JUST got out of work. But I thought we were meeting at 730. Oh, the time I get out of work can vary depending on the case he tells me. This would have been nice to know BEFORE. 

Now, I really didn't want to go out with him in the first place but I was bored and sick of him asking. Plus now that I've matured, I figured I should just go for it because who knows, I might actually like the guy if I give him a chance. Well, he blew it. I felt like I was stood up. In fact, an older gentlemen at the bar left before I did but I ran into him on the way back to the parking garage. He actually stopped me and asked "Did your date not show up?" BURN. He then proceeded to ask if I wanted to grab a beer but he was easily in his 50s so I wasn't into it. Nice guy though.

I told Dan maybe some other time. We finally exchanged numbers but never made any real plans to hang. Then he started FB messaging me again. Not sure why since he was the one who wanted to exchange numbers in the first place. A couple of nights ago he asked if we could make plans to meet up again. I said I didn't think so. Why he asked. Because I'm not interested (never really was tbh) and now I have a boyfriend so that would just be fucked up. He didn't reply and I haven't heard from him since. 

And that is the random true story of my stalker. Now that I've written it all down, he wasn't all that much of a stalker. Oh well, too late to find a new nickname now. Bless your heart if you actually read all this. I'd probably just see the length of this post and decide to not even bother. But thanks if you're still here.

Good day kiddies.

Newly Discovered Music: Banks

Welp! Amazon has done it again. Yet another discovery made while browsing the mp3 section is this lovely lady called Banks. I listened to a preview of one of her songs called 'Waiting Game' and instantly loved her. Naturally I went over to Spotify to find more of her songs in full. I really don't have much to say about Banks other than I just really, really like the vibe of her music. I'm not sure which genre of music this would be considered but honestly, who cares? I like it regardless. I wasn't able to find much information about Banks (i.e. didn't look very hard) but to my understanding she's a new artist so there isn't much to be found at this point. Give her a listen for yourself.

Marriage: Yay or Nay?

There's lots of talk about marriage these days. I think I'm noticing it more because I'm now at an age when the first thing people want to know is when I'm going to get married and have kids. No pressure or anything -__-. The big debate I keep seeing is whether marriage ruins relationships. Many people today don't see the value in marriage other than from a legal standpoint i.e. taxes, healthcare, and other rights that come along with that little certificate. I just feel like our current generation no longer values the institution of marriage for whatever reason.

One argument is that marriage ruins relationships which is understandable to a degree but not necessarily true in all cases. I read somewhere a while ago that marriage enhances the relationship you already have which I firmly believe. If you have a good relationship already, marriage will make it better. But if your relationship is a disaster, getting married will only make things worse. This logic makes perfect sense to me.

Now, with all this being said, I've never been married or even close to being married so I don't speak from experience. Just basing my opinion off of things I've heard and what makes sense to me. I think marriage is challenging either way and something that you need to put effort into to make it work, just like any relationship. But like I said, I have no experience to speak of when it comes to marriage so I'm just guessing here. Hopefully I'll find out someday.

That's all for now.

Music Monday: Birdy

I actually discovered this young lady quite some time ago but for some reason I never thought to make a blog post about her. Weird. Anyway, is another young artist I discovered once again while browsing the free MP3 section on Amazon.com. I'm telling you, they have some good stuff over there. You don't hear me though.

Birdy is a 17 year old singer/piano player from the UK. That's about as much of a bio as you're going to get from me. I'm only here from the music. My favorite song that she does is 'People Help the People'. I saw a YouTube comment that another song she does is a remake but I never bothered to check for sure so who knows. Either way, I enjoy her version. Give a listen for yourself.

Another one I really like is 'Without a Word' (actually I think I like it more than People Help the People)

Newly Discovered Music: AlunaGeorge

That's right, more randomly discovered music for your listening pleasure. I was once again over on Amazon.com browsing the free MP3s but there was nothing that caught my interest. AlunaGeorge was a part of my recommendations based on previous searches. I'm not sure what made me hit play, sometimes I just like the cover art. Who knows?

Anyway, after doing minimal research I found that AlunaGeorge is a group from the UK made up of a young lady named Aluna and a young man named George. Aluna does the singing from what I can tell and George, well, I'm not entirely sure what his role is. Producing? I honestly couldn't tell you. Their music is something of a mix between pop, R&B, electronica, etc. Hard to describe but it's definitely catchy. They also do a remix to Montell Jordan's 'This Is How We Do It' which is pretty cool. Check them out!

My Favorite Snacks (of the moment)

"These are a few of my favorite things......."

Originally I did NOT like Chobani Greek yogurt but this little snack has changed my mind...sort of. I still don't like the plain vanilla flavor but these raspberry with dark chocolate chips bites are really good. I can't get enough.

I bought these on a whim while I was in Trader Joe's. I do a lot of snacking so I picked these up because I figure they'd be a healthier choice than my usual bag of Reese's Minis. Sweet potato tortilla chips. What's not to like? 

These Tostitos chips I literally bought today. I was actually looking for some guacamole chips (which I'll list later) but happened upon these instead. Very good. No salsa needed.

These things are just.....I love them. I can't even describe how much. I've convinced myself that they're a healthy snack because it's dark chocolate. I could be wrong but IDC!!!

There are plenty of others but that's all for now. Good day.

Newly Discovered Music: Lorde

Have I mentioned how much I love finding new music? Well I do. Maybe it's not new to you but it is to me. In this edition I'm talking about a young lady called Lorde. I say young because she honestly doesn't look much over 16 to me but I actually have no idea how old she is. Anyway, I was turned on to Lorde by someone on my Twitter feed mentioning her. I decided to check out her website and listen for myself. I liked what I heard and decided to download a couple of her songs. Lorde has an EP out called 'The Love Club' and I definitely recommend it. 'Royals' is the single but 'Bravado' is my favorite.

Newly Discovered Music: Jessie Ware - Sweet Talk

Yet another artist and song discovered in Amazon.com's free mp3 section. You really should check it out sometime if you haven't. They have some decent music over there. This was supposed to be a 'Music Monday' post but I was so busy I just didn't have the time so here we are. I really don't have anything to say about Jessie Ware, I just want to share this song with others who might enjoy it as much as I do. The song is called 'Sweet Talk' from Jessie's album 'Devotion.' Happy listening!

Stuff I Like: Wholesome Sweeteners

To be more specific, organic blue agave vanilla flavored syrup by the company Wholesome Sweeteners. I found this product while I was browsing the aisles of Whole Foods yet again. I was actually looking for honey and more coconut manna but I happened to see the line of agave syrups and sweeteners. Now I've never tasted agave anything before so I wasn't sure about this purchase but it was definitely the right decision.

As soon as I smelled it, I knew I did the right thing because it smells SO good. Then of course I had to taste a little drop (just on my finger because I didn't want to just pour it in food without knowing how it would be). Heaven. I seriously want to eat this stuff by the spoonful it's so good. I may never buy regular sugar or honey again. It's that deep. The best part is that it's healthy. According to the label it's "organic, low glycemic, gluten free" AND it's 25% sweeter than sugar. I'm in love. You MUST try this stuff if you haven't already.

Music Monday: Alice Smith

Alice Smith is yet another artist I discovered while browsing the free mp3 section over on Amazon.com. The song available at the time was called 'Cabaret' which I've grown to really love so of course it's on repeat on my iPod. I haven't listened to much of her music but I really like her voice.

Here's Alice giving a live performance of Cabaret. She sounds amazing live! 

Music Monday: Delta Rae

I first heard of the group Delta Rae when I was browsing the free mp3 downloads over on Amazon.com. The song available was called 'Bottom of the River' which I love. I decided to listen to some of their other music and found that they have quite a few songs that I really like. I've added two of my favorite songs below. Give them a listen.

Newly Discovered Music: Wynter Gordon

I've never heard of Wynter Gordon before but I recently heard a song of hers that I really like. If you watch the show Chef Roble & Co you've heard the song called Stimela by Wynter on the latest episode during the Mataano fashion show. I remember thinking that I really liked the song and luckily Chef Roble tweeted the name and artist after someone asked about it. Anyway, I looked her up on Facebook and she has some free downloads available as well as paid songs on iTunes and Amazon. Honestly, there's a few of her songs I like but I'm not yet sure if I like them enough to download.

Here's the video for 'Stimela'

5 of My Favorite TV Theme Songs

The title of this post is pretty self explanatory so let's get right to it shall we? Okay, good. In no particular order....

The Golden Girls 

Half & Half

A Different World Theme (Aretha Franklin version)

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Dawson's Creek 

There's plenty of other tv show theme songs that I like but these are definitely some of my favorites and the first ones to pop into my head. Enjoy the nostalgia kids.

Stuff I Like: Bolthouse Farms

Has anyone heard of the company Bolthouse Farms? I'm sure you have. They have a pretty decent sized line of drinks and salad dressings but to be honest the only thing I really pay attention to are their drinks. Mostly healthy and full of protein, fruits, veggies, etc. Anyway, the point of this post is just to highlight my two favorite drinks of theirs (so far....I haven't tried all of them). The Vanilla Chai Tea drink which I've been a fan of for years and the Green Tea Soy Latte which I discovered only a few weeks ago. I'd definitely recommend giving the entire line a try because everything I've had has been pretty good. Look in the produce section of your local grocery store.

A small idea of the rest of the drinks but they have WAY more than this.

New Music: Beyonce - Bow Down/I Been On

Unless you've been living under a rock today, you've probably heard that new music from King Bey is making the rounds all over the internet. I didn't expect a song like this from Beyonce but she's definitely channeling her inner ratchet with this one. Either way, I'm not mad at it. I really don't have much else to say. If you haven't already, give it a listen below.....