Toe-Tapping Thursday: Celine Dion

Last week I opened the can of worms that is Celine Dion. Once Pandora's box is open, it's kind of hard to close it back up. Translation: Almost non-stop Celine at my house (there was a Tori Amos day in between, but then I went right back to Celine). So, after extensive research [aka hours of non stop listening - (English) album after (English) album] I have compiled my top 10 Celine Dion songs.

10. Beauty and the Beast - duet with Peabo Bryson: It's Beauty and the Beast people! Disney!!! Not much more I can say about that.

9. The Power Of Love: "'Cause I am your lady. And you are my man. Whenever you reach for me. I'll do all that I can!" I like romantic songs, and this one is pretty lovey. I love how it starts so quiet and then builds up.

8. My Heart Will Go On (Theme from Titanic): You know there can't be a list without this song. Hey, at least it isn't number one!

7. Seduces Me: This song is in her Falling Into You album (1996). I don't think this was a single, but I love this song. It's very sensual, and a little subdued for the most part for her. And I adore the guitar in this song.

6. Where Does My Heart Beat Now: Classic Celine. Everything about this song just works perfectly. Love the chorus, especially the last line, "Where do all the lonely hearts go." She comes down from her belt to deliver it and it's perfect.

5. When I Fall In Love - duet with Clive Griffin (from Sleepless in Seattle):  This classic song has been covered a lot, probably because it's just a beautiful song. Celine and Clive nail it!

4. Alone: I remember when this album (Taking Chances) came out. I was at FYE, and picked it up to sample the tracks and when this song started I gasped. It's my favorite Heart song, and Celine covered it! (Although I hear it isn't Heart's original song...) As I listened to Celine's cover in the store I had to force myself not to squee and jump and/or faint. I loved it. Loved it so much I bought the entire album.

3. Tell Him - duet with Barbara Streisand: Oh man, I remember when this song first came out - I died! Died I tell you! These two ladies, singing together...E.PIC! And the video is brilliant - I loved that it was them singing in the studio and learning the song and playing around. The 90's had a lot of videos like this, but this one is one of the ones that just works so well.

2. If You Asked Me To: Well, no wonder it was the song for last week's Triple T, it's my second all time favorite. Honestly, I didn't know it was that high up on the list until I made this list.

1. It's All Coming Back to Me Now: Oh yes. yes yes yes yes yes! You got the piano, you got the passion, you got the dramatics, you've got the belting, you've got the best Celine Dion song EVER! And that video matches the song to a T. Also, this song/video has always reminded me of I'd Do Anything For Love by Meatloaf. Which is funny, because Meatloaf did a cover of It's All Coming Back to Me with Marion Raven, formerly of M2M, ten years after the original came out.

So here it is, the FULL version of It's All Coming Back to Me Now - because the radio edit cuts out most of my favorite section of the song.

Toe-Tapping Thursday: If You Asked Me To

Yeah, I'm going there - Celine Dion. You can scoff and mock, but I know everyone has that one Celine song that they jam out to when no one is around. The woman has had like twenty number 1 singles, and you couldn't turn on the radio and NOT expect to hear her in the 90's, so obviously someone is listening to her. ;)

So for today's Toe-Tapping Thursday, I give you one of my (many) favorite Celine songs, 1992's If You Asked Me To - which is a Patti LaBelle cover.

Enjoy!

Toe-Tapping Thursday: Trouble Maker

So in addition to listening to English tunes I also listen to Spanish music, and a little bit of K-pop and J-pop. This week's Toe-Tapping Thursday is a song called Trouble Maker by a South Korean duo whose name is also Trouble Maker. They are a sub group of 4Minute (an all girl band consisting of 5 members, Hyuna being one half of Trouble Maker) and Beast (a 6 member boy band, Jay Stomp being the other half of Trouble Maker).

The song has this really catchy whistle hook and every couple of weeks I find myself whistling it. That's what happened this week - I started whistling it over and over again until I realized what I was whistling and then I had to go listen to it. Been listening to it all week, can't get it out of my system. I know I will eventually tire of it, but only for a couple of weeks. ;)

Looking for Ms. Rose

I have a friend who has talked about writing her own book since we met 2 years ago. I think it's why we bonded initially; she was writing a work of fiction based on her life growing up, but only had a few chapters after a couple of years of writing. I had 2 finished novellas and was thinking about getting back into writing (this was during my hiatus). I was excited to meet someone - face to face - who had a similar goal as I did. She was excited because she had never met anyone else that liked to write, period.

I talked about writing constantly and she never did. I've worked on getting my writing muscles back to where they once were by doing creative writing prompts, and blogging on occasion, and actually writing stories. She started to edit the stuff she had, but quickly stopped. Then she started talking about a children's book she wanted to write.

She sent me her children's story this weekend. I am proud that she wrote it, and finished it. Proud that she started taking steps into getting it published. I'm also proud to say, that I enjoyed reading it.

I have become a sounding board to her, not only as a critique partner for the things she's written, but also as far as getting published and the steps that she needs to take.

I am not a published author, I've barely just begun to consider myself a writer again. But I've done some research and I've submitted manuscripts in the past, and I guess in her mind that means something. I am more than happy to impart whatever sliver of knowledge I do have.

Can I just say that for someone who loves to research stuff, she sure does NOT research any of this! Haha.

My friend spent this weekend bugging me - and I say that with all the love in the world - about what to do. I tried to tell her that there are a number of ways to go about getting her book out there, including self publishing which she did not want to hear about.

After that the conversation changed to marketing - her writer's platform. Now, I recall a few weeks ago having a conversation with her, telling her she needed to get her name out there, let people get to know her. I told her to at LEAST get a Facebook page. She said no. Said, she would do all that after the book was written. Funny how life is; I remember saying the same thing to my friend Lisa and her kindly setting me straight. A writer must market themselves in addition to their product. If people "know" you, they're more likely to buy your stuff. This weekend, my friend did a bit of research and came across the term writer's platform, so I encouraged her again to create an online presence. To meet and interact with other writers, to network.

This got me thinking about my own platform and my own networking. I believe I have a voice...but it isn't a full voice. I make my passion for reading known. People know I review books. But not many of them know (or remember) that I write. And that's my fault. I purposely don't mention it. Because I'm scared. Because I doubt myself every minute of every hour. I keep telling myself that I'll start promoting myself as a writer when I know for certain that I'll finish the current story I'm writing. But that's just a cop out. I'm afraid of announcing to the world my intentions and then not following through. I'm afraid of not finishing my story. I'm just afraid, period.

I've met and have surrounded myself with a great bunch of people who I know would be supportive of my journey. I need to believe in myself and throw myself out there 100% and just do it. I need to overcome my fears - I really do!

Toe-Tapping Thursday: Stay The Night

I'm not the biggest Paramore fan. I like a few of their singles, but I'm not crazy about them. I don't own any of their CDs. I do like their lead singer, Hayley Williams voice - depending on what/how she sings. Sometimes I have to listen to one of her songs a few times before I like it.

Which brings me to this week's Toe-Tapping Thursday. This week's obsession? Stay The Night by Zedd featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore.

I heard this song a while back and I'll admit, it didn't really strike my fancy. The only reason why I heard it in its entirety was because I was watching the video - which I liked. I didn't hear it again until this week, when I started to listen to the radio and it kept coming on. Then it started showing up on Spotify and I found myself adding it to my playlist, and humming it even when it wasn't playing. I can't tell you exactly when I got hooked, but I did.

Toe-Tapping Thursday: Hook

Oh shit ya'll, it's Thursday!!! I completely spaced out. Book contests and writing and research and whatnot. But it's still Thursday, so now that I remember what day it is, I shall do this week's Toe-Tapping Thursday. Especially since I didn't do one last week. Sorry about that, I had company over all week and was a tad preoccupied.

Anywho, earlier this week, Emma Stone was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and she participated in a lip sync battle which was pretty cool. The first song she did was Hook by Blues Travelers. I'm with Jimmy Fallon on this one, I'd completely forgotten about that song! Obviously we automatically think of Run Around when Blues Travelers come up in conversation, but Hook is such a great song, and I remember jamming out to this when I was like 9 or 10.

So here's the song for this week's Toe-Tapping Thursday. Hope you guys enjoy it.

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Writing (but mostly research) Day

I've put aside my romance for now. The one I'm writing, not the one I'm reading. Things were going slow, and the YA that I've been brainstorming for months kept bugging me to work on it, so that's what I did. I had written about a page a couple of months back and I thought at one point that I would delete it and start over, but after reading it over today I actually liked it, and decided to continue where I left off. I got about another page in a half done which isn't a lot, but I needed to do some research for an upcoming description. That took a very long time, but I finally got it. Here are the pics, think of it as a puzzle, feel free to put them together. :P