Okay... so I was just watching "the naked chef" (or whatever he's called now) on Food TV and he was doing a salad with some turnip looking thing (I missed the beginning) and parsley and olive oil and lemon to dress... It was something to watch here in the middle of the night and I thought if it looked yummy enough I could look up what the turnip thing was a make it... Then he brought out pomegranates.
At first I thought "I can do this" and I watched him slice the pom up... And I really got all freaked out about it. My heart started to race, my eyes teared up .... I couldn't watch anymore.
I know I say I'm afraid of clowns...And I ma... But I can still kinda watch them on TV if I try. They freak me out, but I can work thru them Not pomegranates. I am totally freaked out by them and can't even stand to see them on TV. I will never get over this phobia. This phobia that doesn't even have a name.
I am such a freak to be afraid of Pomegranates and Pomegranate seeds.
6/11/04
Ray Charles, master of many musical styles, dies at 73
Ray Charles, master of many musical styles, dies at 73
Ray Charles, master of many musical styles, dies at 73
BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) - Ray Charles, a transcendent talent who erased musical boundaries between the sacred and the secular with hits such as "What'd I Say,'' "Georgia on My Mind'' and "I Can't Stop Loving You,'' died at age 73.
Charles died of acute liver disease at his Beverly Hills home at 11:35 a.m., surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.
Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, the gifted pianist and saxophonist spent his life shattering any notion of musical categories and defying easy definition. One of the first artists to record the "blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them,'' as legendary producer Jerry Wexler once said, Charles' music spanned gospel, R&B, soul, rock 'n' roll, country, jazz, big band and blues.
He put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South. Smiling and swaying behind the piano, grunts and moans peppering his songs, Charles' appeal spanned generations.
Aretha Franklin called Charles "the voice of a lifetime.''
"He was a fabulous man, full of humor and wit,'' she said in a statement. "A giant of an artist, and of course, he introduced the world to secular soul singing.''
Billy Joel, a fellow piano man, said many artists tried to emulate Charles, "among them myself, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Steve Winwood and countless others. Ray Charles defined rhythm and blues, soul, and authentic rock 'n' roll.''
"People remember the big hits and the visual image of him, but they forget what an innovator he was in the 1950s as a jazz musician,'' said country music singer Marty Stuart. "He made inroads for all of us when he did 'I Can't Stop Loving You.' It took country music to places it hadn't been before.''
His health deteriorated rapidly over the past year, after he had hip replacement surgery and was diagnosed with a failing liver. But he kept on working.
"There were a couple of times where he would say, 'I'm not feeling well today but I'll take a stab at it, and I can come back to it later.' And he never had to come back to it later,'' John Burk, who produced Charles' last album, the upcoming "Genius Loves Company,'' told The Associated Press.
Charles' last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago, as a historic landmark.
"I lost one of my best friends and I will miss him a lot,'' Willie Nelson said in a statement. "Last month or so, we got together and recorded 'It Was a Very Good Year,' by Frank Sinatra. It was great hanging out with him for a day.''
Charles won nine of his 12 Grammys between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years ("Hit the Road Jack,'' "I Can't Stop Loving You'' and "Busted'').
His versions of other songs are also well known, including "Makin' Whoopee'' and a stirring "America the Beautiful,'' which he sang for the late President Ronald Reagan at his 1985 inaugural ball.
"I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of,'' Charles said in his 1978 autobiography, "Brother Ray.''
Charles considered Martin Luther King Jr. a friend and once refused to play to segregated audiences in South Africa. But politics didn't take.
He was happiest playing music, teaming with such disparate musicians as Chaka Khan and Eric Clapton. Pepsi tapped him for TV spots around a powerfully simple "uh huh'' theme, and he appeared in movies such as "The Blues Brothers.''
"The way I see it, we're actors, but musical ones,'' he once told The Associated Press. "We're doing it with notes, and lyrics with notes, telling a story. I can take an audience and get 'em into a frenzy so they'll almost riot, and yet I can sit there so you can almost hear a pin drop.''
Charles was no angel. His womanising was legendary, and he struggled with a heroin addiction for nearly 20 years before quitting cold turkey in 1965 after an arrest at the Boston airport. Yet there was a sense of humor about even that _ he released both "I Don't Need No Doctor'' and "Let's Go Get Stoned'' in 1966.
He later became reluctant to talk about the drug use, fearing it would taint how people thought of his work.
"I've known times where I've felt terrible, but once I get to the stage and the band starts with the music, I don't know why but it's like you have pain and take an aspirin, and you don't feel it no more,'' he once said.
Ray Charles Robinson was born Sept. 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia (He later dropped his last name for the stage, in deference to boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.)
The singer's father, Bailey, was a mechanic and a handyman, and his mother, Aretha, stacked boards in a sawmill. "Talk about poor,'' Charles once said. "We were on the bottom of the ladder.''
Charles saw his brother drown in his mother's laundry tub when he was about 5 as the family struggled through poverty at the height of the Depression. His sight was gone two years later.
Glaucoma is often mentioned as a cause, though Charles said nothing was ever diagnosed.
He began dabbling in music at age 3. After he was sent away, heartbroken, to the state-supported St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind, Charles learned to read and write music in Braille, score for big bands and play instruments _ lots of them, including trumpet, clarinet, organ, alto sax and the piano.
His early influences were myriad: Chopin and Sibelius, the Grand Ole Opry, the powerhouse big bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie, jazz greats Art Tatum and Artie Shaw.
By the time he was 15 his parents were dead and Charles had graduated from St. Augustine. He wound up playing gigs in black dance halls _ the so-called chitlin' circuit _ and exposed himself to a variety of music, including hillbilly (he learned to yodel) before moving to Seattle.
He patterned himself for a time after Nat "King'' Cole and formed a group that backed rhythm and blues singer Ruth Brown. It was in Seattle's red light district were he met a young Quincy Jones, showing the future producer and composer how to write music. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
Charles developed quickly in those early days.
Atlantic Records purchased his contract from Swingtime Records in 1952, and two years later he recorded "I Got a Woman,'' a raw mixture of gospel and rhythm 'n' blues, pioneering what was later called soul. Soon, he was being called "The Genius'' and playing at Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival.
His first big hit was 1959's "What'd I Say,'' a song built off a simple piano riff with suggestive moaning from the Raeletts, which was banned by some radio stations.
Producer Wexler, who recorded "What'd I Say,'' said he has worked with only three geniuses in the music business: Franklin, Bob Dylan and Charles.
"In each case they brought something new to the table,'' Wexler told the San Jose Mercury News in 1994. Charles "had this blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them.''
His last Grammy came in 1993 for "A Song for You,'' but he never dropped out of the music scene. He continued to tour and long treasured time for chess. He once told the Los Angeles Times: "I'm not Spassky, but I'll make it interesting for you.''
Charles, who was divorced twice and single since 1952, was survived by 12 children, 20 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. A memorial service was planned for next week at Los Angeles' First AME Church, with burial afterward at Inglewood Cemetery.
Ray Charles, master of many musical styles, dies at 73
BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) - Ray Charles, a transcendent talent who erased musical boundaries between the sacred and the secular with hits such as "What'd I Say,'' "Georgia on My Mind'' and "I Can't Stop Loving You,'' died at age 73.
Charles died of acute liver disease at his Beverly Hills home at 11:35 a.m., surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.
Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, the gifted pianist and saxophonist spent his life shattering any notion of musical categories and defying easy definition. One of the first artists to record the "blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them,'' as legendary producer Jerry Wexler once said, Charles' music spanned gospel, R&B, soul, rock 'n' roll, country, jazz, big band and blues.
He put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South. Smiling and swaying behind the piano, grunts and moans peppering his songs, Charles' appeal spanned generations.
Aretha Franklin called Charles "the voice of a lifetime.''
"He was a fabulous man, full of humor and wit,'' she said in a statement. "A giant of an artist, and of course, he introduced the world to secular soul singing.''
Billy Joel, a fellow piano man, said many artists tried to emulate Charles, "among them myself, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Steve Winwood and countless others. Ray Charles defined rhythm and blues, soul, and authentic rock 'n' roll.''
"People remember the big hits and the visual image of him, but they forget what an innovator he was in the 1950s as a jazz musician,'' said country music singer Marty Stuart. "He made inroads for all of us when he did 'I Can't Stop Loving You.' It took country music to places it hadn't been before.''
His health deteriorated rapidly over the past year, after he had hip replacement surgery and was diagnosed with a failing liver. But he kept on working.
"There were a couple of times where he would say, 'I'm not feeling well today but I'll take a stab at it, and I can come back to it later.' And he never had to come back to it later,'' John Burk, who produced Charles' last album, the upcoming "Genius Loves Company,'' told The Associated Press.
Charles' last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago, as a historic landmark.
"I lost one of my best friends and I will miss him a lot,'' Willie Nelson said in a statement. "Last month or so, we got together and recorded 'It Was a Very Good Year,' by Frank Sinatra. It was great hanging out with him for a day.''
Charles won nine of his 12 Grammys between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years ("Hit the Road Jack,'' "I Can't Stop Loving You'' and "Busted'').
His versions of other songs are also well known, including "Makin' Whoopee'' and a stirring "America the Beautiful,'' which he sang for the late President Ronald Reagan at his 1985 inaugural ball.
"I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of,'' Charles said in his 1978 autobiography, "Brother Ray.''
Charles considered Martin Luther King Jr. a friend and once refused to play to segregated audiences in South Africa. But politics didn't take.
He was happiest playing music, teaming with such disparate musicians as Chaka Khan and Eric Clapton. Pepsi tapped him for TV spots around a powerfully simple "uh huh'' theme, and he appeared in movies such as "The Blues Brothers.''
"The way I see it, we're actors, but musical ones,'' he once told The Associated Press. "We're doing it with notes, and lyrics with notes, telling a story. I can take an audience and get 'em into a frenzy so they'll almost riot, and yet I can sit there so you can almost hear a pin drop.''
Charles was no angel. His womanising was legendary, and he struggled with a heroin addiction for nearly 20 years before quitting cold turkey in 1965 after an arrest at the Boston airport. Yet there was a sense of humor about even that _ he released both "I Don't Need No Doctor'' and "Let's Go Get Stoned'' in 1966.
He later became reluctant to talk about the drug use, fearing it would taint how people thought of his work.
"I've known times where I've felt terrible, but once I get to the stage and the band starts with the music, I don't know why but it's like you have pain and take an aspirin, and you don't feel it no more,'' he once said.
Ray Charles Robinson was born Sept. 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia (He later dropped his last name for the stage, in deference to boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.)
The singer's father, Bailey, was a mechanic and a handyman, and his mother, Aretha, stacked boards in a sawmill. "Talk about poor,'' Charles once said. "We were on the bottom of the ladder.''
Charles saw his brother drown in his mother's laundry tub when he was about 5 as the family struggled through poverty at the height of the Depression. His sight was gone two years later.
Glaucoma is often mentioned as a cause, though Charles said nothing was ever diagnosed.
He began dabbling in music at age 3. After he was sent away, heartbroken, to the state-supported St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind, Charles learned to read and write music in Braille, score for big bands and play instruments _ lots of them, including trumpet, clarinet, organ, alto sax and the piano.
His early influences were myriad: Chopin and Sibelius, the Grand Ole Opry, the powerhouse big bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie, jazz greats Art Tatum and Artie Shaw.
By the time he was 15 his parents were dead and Charles had graduated from St. Augustine. He wound up playing gigs in black dance halls _ the so-called chitlin' circuit _ and exposed himself to a variety of music, including hillbilly (he learned to yodel) before moving to Seattle.
He patterned himself for a time after Nat "King'' Cole and formed a group that backed rhythm and blues singer Ruth Brown. It was in Seattle's red light district were he met a young Quincy Jones, showing the future producer and composer how to write music. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
Charles developed quickly in those early days.
Atlantic Records purchased his contract from Swingtime Records in 1952, and two years later he recorded "I Got a Woman,'' a raw mixture of gospel and rhythm 'n' blues, pioneering what was later called soul. Soon, he was being called "The Genius'' and playing at Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival.
His first big hit was 1959's "What'd I Say,'' a song built off a simple piano riff with suggestive moaning from the Raeletts, which was banned by some radio stations.
Producer Wexler, who recorded "What'd I Say,'' said he has worked with only three geniuses in the music business: Franklin, Bob Dylan and Charles.
"In each case they brought something new to the table,'' Wexler told the San Jose Mercury News in 1994. Charles "had this blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them.''
His last Grammy came in 1993 for "A Song for You,'' but he never dropped out of the music scene. He continued to tour and long treasured time for chess. He once told the Los Angeles Times: "I'm not Spassky, but I'll make it interesting for you.''
Charles, who was divorced twice and single since 1952, was survived by 12 children, 20 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. A memorial service was planned for next week at Los Angeles' First AME Church, with burial afterward at Inglewood Cemetery.
6/10/04
WOW! Where to begin? Well, we went to see RUSH on Tuesday night. It was fabulous! (as always) Altho we missed the first 1/2 hour of the show because we took an alternate route instead of taking 75. See there was a fatal accident on 75 at Baldwin, just 5 miles before we had to get off to get to Pine Knob (yeah I know...DTE Energy Center, but it will always be Pine Knob to me:p~) so I searched for an alternate route online before we left. Found one, it was golden... Until we took it. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get from West maple and Livernois to Pine Knob. It should have only taken us about 1/2 an hour. Traffic was ATROCIOUS!!!! And we didn't even have RUSH music to keep us company because we didn't have a CD player and Joel's RUSH tapes were stuck at home :(
So we got there in time to hear "Roll the Bones" and right after... yeah that's right... YYZ!!!!! I LOVE that song!! Instrumental and I can still sing along with it lol... Some of the others were 2112 overture... Tom Sawyer... Some Vapor Trails songs... A couple of covers... Neil Peart's amazing amazing Drum Solo... And they ended with Limelight. It was a fabulous show... Not much different than the last time we went a couple years ago...
I almost forgot the most important part tho! Kevin wasn't able to go!!!! We had made these plans way back in like march with Joel and Jason and everything was golden until 2pm Tuesday afternoon. I get a phone call from Kevin. Tony had an "accident" and so Kevin had to work a double. The one day we planned something and he had to work a double! I was so pissed! Not at Kevin, altho I'm sure I sounded like it, but at his workplace. They so totally take advantage of him. The only positive of it is that they have given him the Saturday before we leave on vacation off too, so we can do all the last minute stuff we have to do then. It works out golden. But it still doesn't totally make up for the concert that he missed that we had to pay for anyway. Luckily my mom was able to go. No wasted ticket. And she had a great time. She kinda knew RUSH, they just aren't a band she's totally a fan of.
So we all had a great time, altho I know Joel and Jason were upset that we missed the first 1/2 hour. they were already making plans to see them again in Toronto in August.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So our trip is coming up. We leave in 10 short day. June 20th. My fantastic friend Cindy is going to be watching out Kikyo for us *hugs* love you girl! We finally got a digital camera.... $50 at Office max (clearance) It's an off brand (Digitrex vs. something like a sony or kodak) but it is such a nice camera!!! Only 2 megapixels, but really we don't need much more than that. We just bought a 128MB Compact Flash card thru Ebay last night. It should be shipped in time. $17!!! It should allow us to take over 100 pics on the super high quality.... over 200 on the middle quality.... and perhaps over 400 on the lowest!!!! (i'm guessing here, cuz with the 7MB it comes with we get 6 / 12 / 26)
6/9/04
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST!
Jazmyn, you're an Observer!
That means you're one of the more kind-hearted people around. You are unusually intuitive, and you probably understand yourself, as well as others. That also means you're a good mediator — though you may prefer to spend more quiet time on your own than most.
Because of the self-knowledge you already possess, you are better equipped than many to steer your life in the right direction. Understanding more about the components of your personality will reveal unique information that even people like you might not realize. And the better you know yourself, the more confident you'll be making decisions that affect your life.
How do we know this about you? Because while taking the test, you answered questions that measure the basic traits that make up your personality. We scored your answers on different personality characteristics and discovered not only that you're an Observer, but where you stand on those proven scientific scales.
take the test
That means you're one of the more kind-hearted people around. You are unusually intuitive, and you probably understand yourself, as well as others. That also means you're a good mediator — though you may prefer to spend more quiet time on your own than most.
Because of the self-knowledge you already possess, you are better equipped than many to steer your life in the right direction. Understanding more about the components of your personality will reveal unique information that even people like you might not realize. And the better you know yourself, the more confident you'll be making decisions that affect your life.
How do we know this about you? Because while taking the test, you answered questions that measure the basic traits that make up your personality. We scored your answers on different personality characteristics and discovered not only that you're an Observer, but where you stand on those proven scientific scales.
take the test
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