Uncategorized – Page 30

Sad Songs Say So Much

It’s Monday, right? I’m not the type to sing the Monday blues, because that’s just not my style. Every day when I can wake up and do what I love is a blessing to me.

Now that my “positive thinking” public service announcement is out of the way, let’s move on to the meat of the matter.

The blues.

Everybody gets them at one time or another for all types of reasons, but today I’m going to focus on the love blues.

“The blues are the roots, everything else is the fruits.” – Willie Dixon

What is the blues? The blues have their origin in slave songs, field hollers and spirituals. For my purposes here, the blues is what you sing and/or feel when you are feeling sad.

You lost a lover. You never had a lover. Your lover loves someone else. So you sing the blues. Somehow knowing that someone else, somewhere in time was and/or is going through the same thing makes you feel not so alone in the world. The brotherhood of mankind has kinship in sadness.

“I can’t sleep at night
I can’t eat a bite
Because the man I love
He don’t treat me right….”
– Crazy Blues – Mamie Smith

Everyday, everyday I have the blues
Ooh everyday, everyday I have the blues
When you see me worryin’ baby, yeah it’s you I hate to lose
– Everyday I have the Blues – B.B. King

Now that we know what makes us sing the blues, what blues do you sing? What sad song do you listen to when you’re feeling low?

Like what you read? Hop on over to The Sultry Scribe and sign up for my newsletter!

Monday Morning Music

This weekend was busy busy busy and therefore, I only have this hopefully inspirational song to rev up your Monday.

What’s that one song that gets you cranked in the morning? Leave it in the comments.

Cheers!

Tuneful Tuesdays – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

I loved this song when it came out because of Cyndi’s don’t give a durn attitude and her style. I also liked the way the video included different types of women – giving you the feeling that if you were in the vicinity while they were filming, Cyndi might have pulled you into the video too!

From songfacts.com:

Lauper co-wrote many of her own songs, but not this one. Like “I Will Survive,” it’s a girl power song written by a man. A Philadelphia singer/songwriter named Robert Hazard, who had a band called Robert Hazard and the Heroes, wrote it. Hazard recorded his demo of the song in 1979. Speaking with Rolling Stone, Lauper said that she had to alter the lyrics from Hazard’s original. “It was originally about how fortunate he was ’cause he was a guy around these girls that wanted to have ‘fun’ – with him – down there, which we do not speak lest we go blind,” she said.

Enjoy this 80s flashback.

Women's History Month

Hello and happy Friday to everyone out there. March is National Woman’s History Month and since I am a woman, I wanted to take some time to take a look at some women who affected history.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett – I’m sure many of you have read my little ditties about Ms. Ida. In fact, my contribution to the HerStory anthology was a fictionalized version of what might have happened on the day that Mrs. Wells-Barnett was barred from marching with her Illinois delegation because the National American Woman Suffrage Association didn’t want to offend the “delicate” sensibilities of the Southern ladies. Despite the name “woman” in the association title, these Southern flowers threatened to pull out of the march if blacks marched alongside whites. She hid out until the Illinois delegation passed, then joined in.

Nannie Helen Burroughs – Black educator and suffrage supporter. She established industrial schools throughout the South where Black women could learn such skills as bookkeeping, sewing, home economics and typing. The goal of these schools was to give these women a skill that they could later use to become self-sufficient wage earners. Her motto? “We Specialize in the Wholly Impossible”.

Mary Church Terrell – Her father is referred to as the first black millionaire by multiple sources. Mary majored in the classics at Oberlin College and was elected to two of the college’s literary societies. She earned her master’s degree from Oberlin as well. She was the first president of the National Association of Colored Women and founded the National Association of University Women, which focused on educational initiatives for blacks. Interestingly enough, she and Ida B. Wells-Barnett were the only two black women invited to attend the first organizational meeting of the NAACP. Mrs. Church Terrell was also very active in the women’s suffrage movement.

I don’t claim that these are the only women that should be recognized during Women’s History Month. I chose these women because not only are they inspiring to me, they also either overcame extraordinary circumstances, worked under duress or used their privilege to better others.

I hope you will take a look at some of the women that inspired you. Post them in the comments!

Recipe Wednesday – Baked Oatmeal

I have three little ones, 10, 9 (going on 25, that’s my girl) and 7. Needless to say, mornings in the house are a bit chaotic. Though I try to mitigate the rushing around by helping them get things ready the night before, I am a mommy who is not a morning person. You will not find me smiling with bluebirds on my shoulder, cooking eggs and bacon and pancakes at the crack of dawn. Not over here.

But I still want my little ones to have a healthful breakfast that doesn’t require a lot of morning prep. Eureka! Baked oatmeal!

If I prepare the ingredients the night before, I can mix it quickly in the morning and pop it in the oven. Or, make it the night before and reheat in the morning. Either way, this baked oatmeal recipe is pretty durn tasty.

A note about my recipes – I believe in butter, eggs and whole milk. There are a lot of variants of this recipe that substitute applesauce for the oil and so on. Children are growing. They need fat/oils, and whole foods. As long as you are eating whole foods in your diet and getting exercise, I see no reason to take out the rich goodness of butter and throwing in some applesauce. Plus, eating butter, olive oil and good fats is excellent for the skin.

Here’s the recipe:

Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients
3 cups rolled oats OR quick oats
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins

Preheat oven to 350F

GREASE a 9 x 13 baking pan or use parchment paper.

*note on additives – you can a cup of anything you want.

It’s real easy, guys and dolls! Mix the dry ingredients (oats, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, cranberries). Then mix the wet (milk, beaten eggs, melted butter, vanilla). Then, have a party and mix ’em all together. Spread in the greased pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Now you have a lovely, sweet baked oatmeal that you can serve in a bowl with a little milk or cool and cut into crumbly-ish bars.

Enjoy!