Music to My Ears

For valentines day dr soc gave me tickets to for "Music of the Beatles with the Charlotte Symphony." The event was on Saint Patrick's Day and it was amazing! It was so much fun, so entertaining, people were dancing in their seats (and waving their phones like lighters) and so many songs gave me the feels/goosebumps. I spent the entire song "Good Night" clutching my heart knowing I need to learn that for the baby (and her hopefully one day sibling).  If this amazing group comes back in the area I would buy tickets in a heartbeat

You know, I'd forgotten how much I love live music. I've said before I'm not really a "music person," but that's not really true. I was in choir from fifth grade until high school graduation. I was in color guard/marching band for 3 years of high school, and in elementary school I played the (bigger than me) cello and the clarinet (that was also too big for me since my hands weren't big enough to reach the bottom holes) a year each. I could sight read sheet music. I loved going to the philharmonic with my parents and have a true appreciation for the skill and dedication professional musicians have. I recognize classical pieces and can sometimes give you the name of the composer. I mostly listen to NPR in my car now, but I sing along to the radio if I know the song.

But my music education fell by the wayside in college and "music" at that time became more along the lines of going to a rock concert. And I pretty much only went and to John Mayer before-he-became-a-total-douche concerts. In my 20's I stopped singing along with the radio because my ex would always ask if I was singing about him no matter the song or was an ass and changed the station in my car. (after I very pointedly said I didn't touch his radio he stopped that). And the only live shows we went to were in smokey bars where his heavy metal band was playing. So because I didn't like his music, I probably said I wasn't a "music person" to get him off my case at some point and believed that after a while. So I didn't go to any type of concert for a while and turns out I missed it.

So I'm so glad we went to this concert. We had babysitters so dr soc and I had date night and it was wonderful. We went to dinner, heard some of the best music ever written live and I remembered how much I enjoy live music. What a great night!    

Words Matter 2.0

Last week Cheeto-in-Chief read from a teleprompter and acted like an adult for about an hour.  He quickly received pats on the back, praise from the media (which he has previously vilified), stayed remarkable quiet on Twitter for the next 24 hours and the republican party was tickled pink red that he gave an unremarkable politician-type speech. Yay!

Really? You want to give him a sticker for that?  Don't "yay" him for acting presidential- that's his job. Which he has had for over a month now and flooded the swamp with dimwits just like himself btw. Don't praise him for reading the teleprompter and simply not yelling. Don't laud him for not being an asshole for a moment in time. He's still the tiny-handed puppet for the aforementioned replenished swamp of über rich racist sexist ignorant fools that is his administration.

So he didn't yell gave a stump speech. In it he said he condemns the hate crimes flourishing under his tenure, and judge him on what he said. But he also judge him on what he doesn't say. His tolerance and downplaying the sheer volume of hate crimes matters too. The lack of those words matter just as much, maybe even more.  

Words Matter

You know that part of the first amendment that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech..." part?
FYI: Freedom of speech ≠ Freedom from ramifications of that speech.

It is not an excuse to spew vitriol and be indignant when someone calls you out on it. It doesn't mean you can say whatever you want and then not be held accountable for that.

It bugs the hell out of me when anyone claim their freedom of speech right is being "threatened" whenever there is backlash over something they've said. Like when the the fcking president commits sexual assault and brushes off the bragging as "locker room talk." Then acts indignant when he's held accountable for those crude words and despicable actions. His mouthpiece Conway makes up the Bowling Green Massacre and acts like the wounded party for her "honest mistake" when she was being made fun of. It took condoning pedophilia to finally make that Milo troll shut up for a while (he'll be back, roaches like him are hard to keep down). And that racist Georgia couple had the nerve to bawl in court after being handed a well deserved prison sentence for threatening a child's birthday party.  
All of them, along with countless others behaving like insolent children when their right to speak freely didn't protect them from any consequences those hurtful words may have caused.

I'm frankly sick of it. Just SHUT THE FUCK UP. Because words matter.