Queen Connect

 

 

I wanted to do this challenge for several reasons.  Number one, every February I get into this introspective mode, where I want to evaluate my life and I guess February's association to Valentine's Day makes me think about love and romance and my life.  Number two, I feel the need to challenge myself in writing.  I do this often, but this is a big challenge because it's difficult for me to stay consistent...in anything. Number three, I want to write about something that's difficult for me to express because that makes it even more of a challenge for me because it means that I have to look within. This year, I decided to challenge myself to review my favorite love songs, but I wanted it to be different.  At first glance, when you hear about someone's favorite love songs you might expect the love expressions that are happy, and romantic and special.  However, I realized that there are a variety of expressions of love that I wanted to discuss.  I like the love...

I do want to know what love is and I immediately fell in love with this song when I first heard the lyrics that are vulnerable and open.  This is a song that I've listened to over decades now and it still makes me want to turn it up when the first chords are struck. Foreigner is a popular British-American rock band that released, "I Want To Know What Love Is " in 1984, two years after I was born. FUN FACT :  T he song features backing vocals from the New Jersey Mass Choir affiliated with the  Gospel Music Workshop of America ,  Dreamgirls  star  Jennifer Holliday , and featured keyboard work by  Thompson Twins  frontman  Tom Bailey . [10]  The choir also appears in the song's  music video . I was watching an episode of Modern Family and one of the main characters, Phil Dumphy wanted to surprise his wife with a song at the school's fundraiser.  However, he begins to have second thoughts after having to follow up a great performa...

You ever heard a song and it fit your current relationship story perfectly?  That's how it was when I rediscovered Patti LaBelle's, "If You Asked Me To."   LaBelle, released this song in 1989 from her album, Be Yourself . I remember hearing the Celine Dion version as well and falling in love with the song all over again.  Celine Dion is another artist who has hits! I love the way she covers Jennifer Rush's, " The Power of Love. " It wasn't until I was in my late 20s that "If You Asked Me To" began to represent a moment in my love life. I was dating a guy, and we were in the car driving to his family's house because they all lived on one block.  They would all gather together on the weekend to play cards and cookout and all the kids could play freely and random games would start, and it was a lot of fun.   I loved that he enjoyed spending time with his extended family, and I could see that his nieces and nephews really loved him and enjo...

  A staple voice of the late 80s and early 90s is Keith Sweat.  The running joke would be that he always "wines" in his song.  People would say, "he's always begging in his music."  And after you heard someone say that you couldn't listen to a Keith Sweat song without hearing it. Nevertheless, he's definitely one of my favorite male R & B artists and he has hits. My favorites are "How Deep is Your Love", Don't Stop Your Love, I'll Give All My Love To You" to name a few.  I remember hearing Keith Sweat on the radio late nights.    I felt like he had the perfect voice for the after dark shift.  I loved listening to his calls where he would give advice to women that would call in for dating advice.  I would always laugh when I would hear him encourage all the ladies to share their problems and the solutions always involved him.   Little did I know that my son's father was listening to those very same late-night shows but havin...

  Come with me on a typical day--well maybe not typical because my life is pretty unpredictable.  But I try to bring as much order to it as possible. On this day I went out for a morning walk thanks to my oldest son's encouragement.   I also met up with Kathy Lewis, the author " My Life in My Pocket " book collection for lunch at Brick City Pizza in Lutz Florida .  Kathy will be the next cover person for Pasco Connect Magazine, and we sat down for lunch to review the first draft of her article, conduct follow up questions and have a nice catch-up chat. I attend Kathy's virtual book club which is very exciting.  I love the books that the group discuss, and I learn a lot from the discussions.  Everyone in the group bring a lot of valid points and we don't always agree which makes for exciting discord. We used this time to also discuss wardrobe for her photoshoot.  I was able to bring her designs shipped from Jacksonville Florida from Syn Style Fashi...