Changing Horses in Midstream

         Changing horses is not the same as changing a diaper.  One might be more a matter of avoiding a mess while the other is a necessity to get rid of a mess.  And if one does change horses midstream they can always get back on that same horse later on.  Which brings me to the question:  Does anyone not use disposable diapers these days?

 example for camera tossing foto technique, done by Nadja (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

      Have you voted on my most recent Battle of the Bands?   I've gotten a number of votes so far but as always I could use more.   In my highly biased opinion it's an outstanding Battle related to an interesting topic.  So if you have not voted on this Battle I'd appreciate it if you'd do so now.  After all, Battle of the Bands is really my main focus on Tossing It Out despite of what things might have appeared in recent months.  I try to revolve all of my posts around those music battles and not politics.  Maybe hard to believe, but it's true.

       Back in November I started my series about Donald Trump in response to some encouragement of sorts from other bloggers.  Originally my intent was to blog about the negativity concerning President Trump and related issues until the Inauguration.  But the lies and hate spewing continued after that day and since I still had more to say I kept presenting what I felt were calm reasonable posts in response to the nasty mentally unhinged ranting from the liberal left and others who didn't like our new president.  The dishonest negativity continues in the mainstream media as well as social media.  My series could continue for months, maybe years.   Still there are other considerations for me to heed.

        Looks like it's time to end my President Trump Acclimation Series, not because I'm giving it up, but because I want to "sanitize" Tossing It Out from contentious politics as we head toward A to Z April.  For those who are not aware, there is this little blogging event coming next month and I have participated in this event for the past seven years.  This next one will be my eighth year of involvement.  If you want to know more you can visit the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge blog to get more details.

         My April theme will not be politics (unless I change horses again) so that's why I need to step back from my intelligent countering to anti-Trump absurdity.  On Monday March 20th I'll tell you what my theme will be as this will be A to Z Theme Reveal day--the day when many participants will jointly tell the world what they will be blogging about in April.

        As for the posts on President Trump and politics in general there will likely be more to come unless the world suddenly gains sanity and the United States has begun to progress in the direction of becoming greater.  And even if I don't blog politically, I will continue to Toss It Out with controversy now and then.  I might make some readers angry, annoyed, amused, or just contemplative.  It's what I've usually aimed for on this site in one way or another.

        So stay tuned.   My Wednesday post will be my announcement of the winner of my current Battle of the Bands match.   Will your favorite version be the winner?   My Friday post will likely upset a few readers--it's not meant to be political, but since so many celebrities insist on sharing their opinions then some might construe my post to be a revenge based on politics.

         Hope you'll stay with me in whatever I discuss in my posts.  And most of all, I hope you'll keep contributing to the comment section.   The comments are the best part of the blog.

          When do you have a tendency to "change horses in midstream"?   Do you think it's best for me to avoid politics during A to Z April?   Do you think the topic of President Trump is worth coming back to later?

Should Some Things Stay As They Are? (#BOTB results)

Is It Almost Sacrilege to Tamper with Tradition?

       If it were up to some folks, things would always stay the same.  Over the decades we've seen updates on Shakespeare, Beethoven, and even the Bible.  Some might argue when a story is a good enough one then it doesn't matter how you tell it as long as you tell it true.  Others might bemoan the idea of taking a beloved classic and putting a different twist on it.   Beethoven's Fifth Symphony disco or rock style?   Really?   But actually it did kind of work didn't it?

        There might be some musical works that might be better not tampered with.  Do we want to hear a rock version of Debussy's "Claire de Lune" or an up-tempo jazzed up version of Schubert's "Ave Maria"?   I'm not sure, but I won't pass judgement until I hear a well done version of either if that ever happens.

        The recent mash-ups of 19th century novels such as Pride and Prejudice with an inclusion of zombies and other popular literary works done in similar ways were fun (though I've heard the film version of PP&Zombies wasn't so great), but probably more novelty than any real literary breakthrough.    

        We've come to a time where almost anything goes when it comes to the arts--or it's at least worth giving the change up a try.  Jazz and rock  have probably broken more musical barriers then any other music form, but musical artists in all genres have explored the possibilities of what can be done with music.  The question for some still remains--should you mess with a musical work that was outstanding in its original incarnation?

Sigmund Romberg's Musical Masterpiece Goes to Battle

       My most recent Battle of the Bands contest put a sultry 1930's style jazz version of "Lover, Come Back to Me" that was closer to its intended light opera style up against a swinging upbeat big band jazz arrangement from the fifties.   Either way you look at at the song works well in both styles.  After all, a darn good song is a good song no matter how you play it.

         The voting bore this out well I think.  Each version had its fans which resulted in a nail-biter of a musical battle.   There were turn-offs as well as big pluses to each version depending on the ears of the beholders.  Some preferred the energy of Brenda Lee while others found her version "Las Vegasy", but most agreed she did a good job.  Other listeners felt that Tamar Korn and Gaucho captured the essence of a musical era with their slowed down version.

         In the end I was left with--are you ready?--a tie!  What this means is that I get to break the tie with my vote for my favorite.  I've got to go with that forlorn sound of Gaucho which seems more appropriate to the lyrical content of the song.  The lyrics work for either style, but to me it's more of a sad song about the singer yearning for a lost lover.  And I loved that smoky speakeasy sound of the jazz ensemble.   This was some wonderful music.

         This made for a great battle and kind of a tiring one.  After that I need a slow song to wind me down.

Final Vote Tally

Gaucho           14

Brenda Lee     13



Next Battle Will Be Next Friday July 1st!

          Hopefully you'll enjoy this next Battle of the Bands post.  Between now and then I'll have a couple of posts about looking back and reliving old memories.  My previous Battle may have dealt with an old song in old styles, but my next Battle will consist of two different not as old songs that were released in the 80's a couple of years apart.   The songs will deal with the topic of living in the past and neither one is by Jethro Tull.   Both song artists have ties to one another.   One artist became a huge star while the other remained only a regional favorite.  You're free to take a stab at guessing any part of this upcoming battle or you can just wait for the fun to begin next Friday.  Please don't miss this one!

           Do you enjoy twists on musical classics?   What is your favorite re-imagining of a popular literary work?    Would you prefer that something that works well not be tampered with?  

Resistance to Change (#BOTB winner)

Changes are happening daily whether you like them or not.

Rhynchophorus ferrugineus larvae (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

       Recently I was watching a PBS documentary about exotic adventures.  In one segment, the featured adventurer was hunting with a group of indigenous people in Paraguay.  At one point the group came upon a cache of grub worm larvae which is considered a delicacy among those people and they started popping them live into their mouths and gobbling them down happily.  The lady who was hosting this segment (yes, the adventurer was female) warily held a squirming white larvae between her fingertips to display before the camera and then proceeded to pop it into her mouth and chew it up.  It was thoroughly disgusting to me, but she seemed to handle the experience well.

       Okay, so there are some things that I am reluctant to try and perhaps would probably not try.  I seriously doubt whether you'll ever find me eating brains out of a monkey skull or snake in some marketplace in China (though actually I have eaten rattlesnake meat).  I tend to be a fairly adventurous eater compared to many people, but certain preconceptions and cultural aversions put some things off limits.   Besides, if food is overly disgusting to us it's because you've got certain issues of taste and aftertaste, appearance, smell, texture, and even sound (like if something squeals when you bite into it).   Otherwise, if I'm not just totally turned off from the start and other people seem to be enjoying the food, then I'm likely to at least give it a try.

      Now music is very different than eating stuff.  I'll try music that is new to me, even when I'm pretty sure that I don't like the genre.  Especially if the music is popular, then there must be a reason for that popularity so I'm willing to give it a chance.  For example, as I write this I'm listening to Kanye West.   I've never paid attention to his music and I've tended to reject it based on the person doing it and the genre.  Actually, what I'm hearing now is not too bad.  Kind of catchy as they say.  I probably won't be listening to Kanye's music on a regular basis, but I will acknowledge his talent (yes, I would call it talent--I haven't created anything like he has and he's got millions of fans who appreciate what he does).

         Years ago I dismissed genres like jazz, country, gospel, and other styles as music that wasn't of interest to me because it sounded crappy.   Jazz was just a bunch a silly annoying noise produced by weird musicians who were probably heroin addicts or something.   Country was twangy garbage performed by a bunch of backwoods hicks and hillbillies.   Gospel was something that was screamed and moaned more than actually sang.   If I didn't like a genre I would dismiss it as something not worth my time to listen to.

         At some point I began to come to a realization that I was already listening to a lot of music in all of these genres and enjoying it.    Somehow certain music like recordings of Johnny Cash, Stan Getz, and the Staples Singers were charting and getting radio play mixed in with the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Simon & Garfunkel songs.  Then, once I realized that Johnny Cash, the Statler Brothers, Skeeter Davis, and the like were country I started exploring other artists like Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and the Stoneman Family.   I was missing out on tons of interesting music just based on my own resistance to changing what I was willing to listen to, but at the same time I realized that I had always had some innate curiosity about all types of music that opened my mind to new possibilities when I was willing to give it a chance.

          I guess I've always had a stubborn streak in me that made me resistant to change.   At times I still do show that stubborn side, but I also try to listen to what others have to say about what they like and be reasonable in my response to them.  It's not likely that I'm going to try any wiggling larvae and I'll probably never become a huge sports fan.  But I will consider the idea of anything that others enjoy and hopefully be nice in my response to them.   I enjoy sharing the music I like and hope that others enjoy it.  I'll listen to the music other people like and try to figure out what they see in that music and ask them to turn it down if it's playing to loud or turn it off if it contains too much language that offends me.  But I'm open to giving music I normally don't listen to a chance.   At least that's the way I like to see myself--less resistant to change than I used to be, but I know I'm not always successful at appearing so.


Battle of the Bands Results

        As I predicted, my recent Battle using covers of the Justin Bieber song "The Feeling" stirred some strong sentiments among some of the voters as well as with a few who absolutely refused to vote.   Personally I think it's a very good song and though it can't be proven, I think most voters would have had a far different opinion of the song had they not known about the Bieber connection.  In the final analysis, I suspect that many of the votes on this Battle were of the "a vote for the least obnoxious of the two" variety.

         Bieber obviously has some real haters out there who were unwilling to separate the music from the artist.    Arguments were posed as to what was wrong with the song or the delivery or whatever, but I wasn't convinced by those arguments and I still think "The Feeling" is an excellent song.  And by the way, if you noticed the Billboard Music Awards which were televised last night (Sunday May 22nd), Bieber didn't do too badly with 12 nominations and the award for Top Male Artist.

         One surprise in the comments was the appearance of Braden Hallman, one of the band members from Kingdoms.  This in turn opened up an exchange with Mary Burris from Jingle Jangle Jungle who may be featuring Kingdoms in an upcoming article so you might watch for that.   Keep us posted Mary.

          I had a tough time choosing between the two artists in the contest as I felt both were excellent.  To me the Kingdoms version was entertaining and innovative, but as many of you indicated the heavy metal growling was a bit of a tough listen.  However I also saw it as a bit of cheeky fun on behalf of the performers--and this video was indeed a performance.  The Mayven version is beautiful and over the long run a version that might hold up better for me under repeated listenings.   But in this Battle my vote is going to Kingdoms.  Doesn't help them with the win though.

Final Vote Tally:

Kingdoms       12

Mayven          26

         
Next Battle on Wednesday June 1st

        Seriously?  June already?    I guess so and I hope you'll be here for that Battle of the Bands installment.   After offending so many this time around maybe my next effort should be an offering of atonement.  Or maybe I should just continue with my typical adventures in music.    I don't have to give this much thought actually as I already have my next Battle in place.  What will it be?   Here's a clue:  It's a huge hit.  Also, be here on Friday as I participate in Flashback Friday (which will be another BOTB clue).

          Do you like to give new things a chance or do you tend to resist change?     Did my Bieber song Battle disturb you, annoy you, or affect you in any other negative way?    What do you think I should do for my next Battle?

Change Is Not Always Good--Except When It's to My Advantage

i want change (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

        Changing diapers is no fun by my estimation nor would I think many others are thrilled with the prospect of doing the chore.  Someone's got to do it.  I think I got pretty good at changing diapers during my parenting years, but I'd prefer not to do anymore diaper changing in my life.  In the case of diapers, change, though not a pleasant task, is a necessity.

         Not all change is a necessity, but often it is inevitable.  Change might not be pleasant for everyone and can even be burdensome.  Some may benefit from change while others pay for it.  Time can change things as can circumstances.  While some change might be barely discernible, other change can be traumatic and life-changing.

         New life situations such as marriage, children, or death of someone who affects us greatly can lead us to become very different people than we formerly were.  We can welcome change as much as we can fear it.  However we think of change, it is something that can happen and will happen.

         This being a presidential election year in the United States we are hearing a lot about the promise of change as well as the threat of change.  There are some who try to ignore the politics that are all around us while others are following closely.  Whether you embrace the goings on in the political news or try to escape the election chatter, one fact is inescapable:  The coming change is going to affect you and possibly do so in a big way.

         Change is continually happening.  We can only hope--and pray--that the coming change will be for the better.

           Do you adapt to change easily?    Do you like change when it alters your way of living?   What are some changes that you hope to see as a result of the next presidential election?

           This post provides a clue to my next song choice in the Battle of the Bands which will be on Monday February 15th.    As I mentioned in a previous post, the song I'll be pitting in Battle has something to do with the season--or in other words, specifically February.   Can you guess the song?

Clean Up Time

             Changes are coming as promised last Saturday, but the process may be gradual at first.  Don't expect a remarkable transformation to suddenly occur before your eyes--at least none is planned yet.  What may be a big, but almost imperceptible change will be occurring in the upcoming week in this blog.   More on this later.

           First let's look at the big change that occurred over the past week on Tossing It Out.   The week started out with Alex J Cavanaugh's Movie Dirty Dozen Blogfest.  My blog topics turned away from the music fixation that I have had for several weeks as I posted my twelve favorite movies on Monday.  There were about sixty participants in this totally fun blogfest.  I'm still not sure if I got through all of them, but I found a lot of movies I may need to check out over the summer.  Thank you Alex for hosting this wonderfully successful blogfest. 
          As happened with the music favorites lists, I could not confine myself to just one list.  During the course of the week I listed my dozen favorites that came after 1990,  my favorite show biz movies, and my favorite dark movies.   Then on Thursday we had an interesting debate day question about censorship and movies.   There were some sharply divided opinions but as always the discussion was amicable.

          On this upcoming Monday I will return to music with the 10 FAVORITE LOVE SONGS / 10 FAVORITE BREAK UP SONGS list.   If you have some you'd like to suggest, be sure to sign up on the Linky list at the top of the page.  The following days will consist of cleaning up.  I'll begin wrapping up the music and the movies and start moving back to business as usual on Tossing It Out.  There is one more scheduled event which will be the favorite Spanish or Latin albums on Monday July 5th.  After that  music topics may appear on occasion, but this blog won't be all music.

Now please give me your opinion:

      First I have a few questions:    Have you ever seen the number of your followers drop unexplainably?   Would you like it if somebody notified you before they drop you to let you know why?  Was it something you did wrong?   Is there a way to see which follower has dropped you?     

        Do you ever stop following blogs on your list of the blogs you are following?  Here's why I ask--I'm planning to do exactly this.   I have a number of blogs that I follow that I never look at because they don't interest me.  There are also blogs that I have commented on and they never acknowledge me or comment on my posts.   I'm also planning to get rid of some of these.  Now you who are reading this have nothing to fear. If someone is following my blog I will continue to follow theirs.  However if I'm following someone's blog and they do not follow mine and never acknowledge me in any way then I don't see where we have any real relationship and they are taking up space that could be occupied by someone for whom I care more.  My dashboard reading list has become very full and I think housecleaning is due.

        I want your honest opinion.  Am I being petty?  Do you do this sometimes?   Should I notify the parties that I am going to drop just in case there has been an oversight in reciprocation?   I can think of some blogs that have been up longer than mine and regularly post very fine blog bits, yet they rarely get comments and only have a few followers.  Why?  Probably because when someone does comment they rarely acknowledge the commenters and they never seem to make comments elsewhere.  I wonder why they have blogs if they aren't interested in some kind of interaction?

        If any of you have any thoughts about any of this I'd love to hear them.   The way I see it my first change in the interest of helping me organize my blogging activity and free up my time for other things is to start doing some house cleaning.   Please--if you are currently following my blog and I am not following yours, let me know so I can fix that.  Also, if you see that I have stopped following your blog and you are still following mine let me know that I have made an error.  I do plan to notify anyone whose blog I intend to stop following to see if they want to have a reciprocal relationship or if they even care.

        Changes have to be made but I want to do it carefully and fairly--in other words I want to do it right.

         What do you think?

Create a MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

I'm Gonna Change

         Something's going to change on this blog.  I don't know exactly what, but I have been tossing around some ideas.  Tossing It Out has been changing since it's inception and that's normal and that's a good thing.  Since the A to Z Challenge I have been seriously reassessing this blog and how it relates to my life, which is something I have been seeing with many other bloggers as well.  I do not plan to blog any less days--I am still aiming toward daily blogging until September 21.   The way I blog may change.

          One change coming up this week will be a switch from music to movies.  Some of you may be saying, "Thank you!".  If you've had enough music already, I'm still not done.  There is a bit more music coming so I can get it out of my system on this blog for a while.  But Monday I will be contributing my list to Alex J. Cavanaugh's Movie Dirty Dozen Blogfest -- twelve of my favorite movies.  Hope you'll check 'em out and let me know what you think.  And I'll busy all day checking up on all of the other lists.  This should be fun.

           During the rest of the week I'll be looking at some of the movies I didn't put on the first list.  And there will be a lot of them.  For one thing, on my Dirty Dozen list I'm not going to include anything less than twenty years old.  That really leaves it open for some great movies to be left off the Dirty Dozen list.  My reasoning in taking this approach is that some things need to stand the test of time.  If it still impacts me after twenty years then it is a film of merit--a classic.  That's the way I approached by favorite album list for the most part and when you're older like me this method works just fine.

             I hope you are going to participate in the Movie Blogfest so we can all share in the experience.  And if you don't contribute I hope you'll check out mine and tell me what you think.

            ....but back to this change thing.  And this has nothing to do with Obama or anything political.  This has to do with Tossing It Out.    I want to hear your opinion.  Is there anything you'd like to see me change on this blog?   What can I do better?   What do you want to see me get rid of?   I'm going to change things, but I don't want to lose readers.  I want to gain more readers.   Can you make a suggestion that might make more people want to read and interact with this blog?   Are you making any changes on your blog?

And Now, time for an award:

       This award was given to me by Swimmer at Books, Writing, and More, Oh My! .  
Since I received this award I have to do a few things.  Here are the award "rules":


1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award (as I said this came from the fabulous blog, Swimmer at Books, Writing, and More, Oh My!)

2. Share seven things about yourself (look below)

3. Pass this award along to fifteen bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason! (Since this can be very time consuming I'm not going to check and see whoever already has this, or try to be extraordinarily discriminate, or even give it too much thought-- and as always if you feel like I should have passed this on to you, then feel free to take it and then follow these instructions).

4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award  (I'm going to change this rule for me.  I'm not going to contact 15 people--if I come up with that many.  If you see it, you got it.  If you missed it, well that's life.  Sorry, don't mean to sound callous or anything but I'm running out of time here.)

Seven things about me:

1. I like change.
2. I used to change my kids diapers sometimes (I don't like that kind of change)
3 I've never changed horses in the middle of a stream (not literally at least)
4. I usually signal when I change lanes on the highway.
5. I'm not afraid to change my mind if I see my plan is not the best.
6. I often carry a lot of change in my pocket.
7. My blog is going to change--stay tuned.


I bestow this award upon the following:

1.    Yvonne Welcome to My World of Poetry   -- she always gets my awards and she is very versatile.
2.    L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick
3,    Alex J. Cavanaugh 
4.   Glen's Blog Spot
5.  Gregg at Gospel Driven Disciples
6.  Wolfie at Writer Person
7.  Trudy at Third Time's a Charm
8.  Ocean Girl
9.  Carol at Under the Tiki Hut
10.  Jemi at Just Jemi
11.  1 Wasabi Mommy
12.  Ruby at Blabbin' Grammy
13.   Rotten With Images
14.   Sig at Beadedbear's Nonsense and Complete Waste of Time
15.   Ellie at Ella's Edge

Create a MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com