US road trip playlist : Suggestions wanted!

[Nostalgic by f2images]

Our 2012 travel is about to begin, and it's beginning with a bang!  On Sunday we are flying out to San Francisco (and somehow landing before we take off, which never ceases to amuse me), meeting up with the step-sons and then embarking on a bit of a US adventure!  There'll be skiing in Mammoth, followed by a drive through Death Valley.  Then it's on to the bright lights of Vegas, an aerial view of the Grand Canyon, and finishing off with a few days in the lovely San Francisco.  

I can not possibly explain how excited I am about this trip!  Not only are we re-visitng two of my favourite cities, but I'm also going to see some iconic parts of the US that I've never seen before.  And more than that it's the boys first trip to the US - it's going to be so much fun to show them around!

They don't watch a lot of American TV (although the oldest' new favourite thing to watch is The Daily Show, that boy has damn fine taste!) but they have soaked up their fair share of American cultural references (see the celebration of junk food in Over the Hedge, the New Yorkers in Madagascar, and pretty much everything in the Toy Story trilogy).  So, as well as all the big fun stuff we have planned, I'm ridiculously excited about all the little fun things - like visiting a supermarket to gawk at the cereal aisle. Oh, and the food!  Tex mex, steak houses, buffalo wings and sliders served bar-side, a tower of hotcakes for breakfast and Reese's peanut butter cups!  Oh my!

We have a car for a few days, where we'll be driving from Mammoth to Las Vegas, and I'm putting together a road trip playlist.  I want all American artists, and I'm going for a kind of folksy country dreamy driving feel.  Here's what I've got so far:

Then there'll be some Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkle, maybe some Bruce Springsteen?  I'd really like to have Beth Orton on there, but she's Bristish...

So, over to you - if you've got any suggestions sing them out please!

Our music mix

[Cassette tape card wallet by Littleclouds]

When I was a younger I considered myself a bit of a music aficionado.  I was quite disdainful of anything that lots and lots of people liked to listen to.  My pencil case had bands like Nirvana and The Cure and Pink Floyd scrawled all over it, way before most people at my school knew who they were.  I scoured record fairs for Neil Young and Hendrix and obscure Velvet Underground recordings.  I coveted my Dad's LP collection (I still do, to be honest).  I wouldn't touch Kylie or ABBA or anything that was in the Top 20 (apart from U2.  For some reason my friends and I made an exception, a BIG exception, for U2. Obsessed doesn't even begin to describe it).  

In short, I was an idiot.

Last weekend the husband and I stayed up 'til the wee hours, letting iTunes run on shuffle and taking turns to play DJ on the record player.  We happily skipped from Joy Division to Adele, from Joni Mitchell to Rihanna, from MGMT to The Lighthouse Keepers.  Because good music is simply that, good music. It might be a song that helps you make sense of the world or of a feeling.  Or it might be a song that floods you with memories, good and bad.  Or it might be a song that makes you wanna dance around your living room like an idiot (not that I do that...).  It just has something about it that is inherently good, in and of itself.

So now I say 'no' to musical snobbery!  (And to movie snobbery, and food snobbery for that matter). Don't get me wrong - this doesn't mean I like everything.  But I try to like things on their merits, not because of some ridiculous wanna-be-hipster hang up I have.  I believe that sandwiches are completely underrated, that Love Actually is one of the greatest movies ever made, and that Beyonce is a pop genius with a killer voice (and killer pins!).

What do you think?  Do you say no to musical snobbery?

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ps. the one thing our playlist is currently lacking is new music, because we are a wee bit isolated from the English speaking world, and there's only so much Kpop I can cope with.  I'd love to hear what's on your music mix right now - tell me please!

Road Trip: Soundtrack

[image by CubaGallery]

Last weekend we did a bit of a school holiday road trip: caught the train to Busan for breakfast with a tiger and a walk through the fish market; drove to Goseong and Namhae for some dinosaur footprint action, and then headed to Muju and Daedunsan for some spectacular mountain scenery (more about all of that coming your way very soon...).  It was a good road trip, and critical to any good road trip is a good soundtrack - partly because music lessens the monotony of long drives, and partly because I love the way songs become so entwined with memories.

Our car is evenly split between those who prefer audio books and those who prefer something they can sing along to (in one case, sing along perfectly well; in the other (ie. me) sing along sounding like a tone deaf drowning rat.).  And unfortunately those who prefer audio books are the, um, let's say 'more assertive' of the car occupants (plus, one was the driver and the driver always gets the veto vote, don't they?).  So our road trip sound track largely consisted of Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island and David Attenborough's Zoo Quest for a Dragon.  

As much as I adore the dry wit of Bill Bryson I must admit I am a little over hearing his voice, after awhile it all just seems a bit too clever and jolly...but David Attenborough...well, I could listen to his gently reassuring, knowledgeably dulcet tones for ever and a day.  If you're looking for some family friendly car listening I'd definitely recommend this one (especially if you've got kids who are mildly obsessed with natural history like my two step-sons are) - an interesting behind the scenes account of an expedition, peppered with amusing tales and intriguing facts.

And when we weren't listening to audiobooks?  Well, two songs did get a look in.  The husband's choice was Andrea Boccelli's Con te Partiro - not something I'd normally listen to, but it is a beautiful song and brings back happy memories of road trips in Italy, and made the beautiful spring countryside we were driving through (rolling hills, blossoms, new growth, rivers - you get the idea) seem even more beautiful.  

My choice was Adele's Rolling in the Deep which my sister introduced me to when she was here (I am so far out of the new music loop, I live in a veritable fresh tunes wasteland) and which I am currently a teeny bit obsessed with.  If I don't listen to it at least once a day I have a minor breakdown.  I know this obsession will eventually pass, but I like the thought that in the distant future if I do hear this track again I'll remember pink blossoms and Korea.  Anyway, despite an initial degree of wariness from the somewhat risk averse back seat, by day four the whole car was humming along.  Hurrah!

Saturday roast

It's been a rather rainy weekend in our neck of the woods - how about yours?

I don't mind the odd rainy weekend - it's a good excuse to have a lazy day or two at home - but it feels like it's been raining every single day for the last two months in Seoul, so I'm hanging out for some drier weather.  But we made the most of this rainy weekend with some DVDs and a game of Pictionary (such fun, even though things sometimes get a little fraught when we play...).

We even had a Saturday roast with all the trimmings.  This used to be a favourite weekly staple when we lived in Potts Point (in Sydney), but it's been an age since we cooked it last.  My husband has a keen eye for picking the perfect bit of meat.  After it's finished roasting he'll wrap it in a tea towel and let it rest for a bit - it always turns out moist and tasty and a little pink inside - delish!  For sides, I whip up some yorkshire puddings (straight out of the Australian Women's Weekly cookbook).  I'd never even heard of yorkshire puds until I met my husband.  Do you like them?  They can be a bit stodgy but they do go very well with a roast.  Then we add some smooshed roast potatoes, a huge jug of gravy, peas, corn and some fresh crusty bread - a feast!

When I haven't been in the kitchen or settling Pictionary related disputes (or possibly even starting them...), I've had this song by The National on repeat.  It's wonderful.

And I've also been daydreaming about learning the piano.  I'm not sure where that's come from.

And I've been thinking about making some owl pincushions again, but with a different shape - a fat belly full of beans, kind of babushka doll like.  I've drafted a pattern and picked out some fabrics but it'll probably be awhile before I get a chance to actually make one.  Stay tuned!

Let's get physical

Suffering from the after effects (*wobble*) of two delightfully indulgent holidays involving two of my most favourite food groups (Italian and Thai) I've been on a bit of a health and fitness kick lately.  This has involved going to the gym which has in turn involved setting up a 'Gym' playlist on the iPod.

I quite like going to the gym, but I have a feeling I may make my fellow gym goers a little uncomfortable.  I don't 'work out' on the cross trainer, I dance.  Or try to, at least.  I've even come this close to tipping one over, when a particularly good tune came on.  So, lots more fun for me, but probably not so fun for innocent by-standers who just see a sweaty, red faced white girl who appears to be trying to get her groove on while exercising.

I could tell you that my gym playlist is chock full of hip tunes by De La Soul and the Beasties Boys; that it oozes style with Gnarls Barkley, Deep Dish and Gorillaz; that it doesn't mind a bit of too-cool-for-school tongue-in-cheek pop/rock with The Darkness; that it embraces the classics with Stevie Nicks and Marvin Gaye.  Which - even though it does do all those things - wouldn't be being entirely honest...

Because the songs that really, really get me moving are hideously fairly tragic but oh so very good pop / dance numbers.  There's Lady Gaga, Destiny's Child, Kylie and Madonna of course.  But there's also SOS by A-Studio (that one even gets me running on the treadmill sometimes - unheard of!), and Toca's Miracle by Fragma, and Being Nobody by Liberty X.  I even have Danii Minogue on there!  For shame!

But I need more!  So please share - what gets you going at the gym?

[ps. I am also slightly addicted to the 'MyFitnessPal' iPhone app.  It's very good for obsessives like me.]