November 2014 Playlist

I know I know, still playing catchup, but there were a lot of powerful songs in November that I couldn't resist sharing.  Enjoy

1. Animus Vox- Glitch Mob: What better way to start a playlist than with some Glitch Mob.  Genius, pure genius in sound J   Always motivating.

2. One and Only-Adele: This is one of the songs that made me fall in love with Adele.  This song always spoke to me, because I know I have been in this position before…. it is still a powerful song even if that situation is long since passed.

3. Stereo Hearts-Gym Class Heroes feat Adam Levine: This song is too hard not to love!  I love both of these amazing singers.  The analogies are genius J

4. Chasing the Sun-Sara Bareilles: Sara always has vivid lyrics.  A picture is painted for you, with her soulful voice.  This voice is a definite story.  “capture the feeling that my earth is somebody’s ceiling”

5. Let It Go-Frozen/Idina Menzel: I only include this song for my son who is still obsessed with this song, and refuses to refer to the movie as Frozen, instead insisting that it is called “Let It Go”

6. 4 am-Melanie Fiona: This is probably why I have been a hermit for about 2 years now.  Went through this with the last person and I will never be put in that position again.  Yes I am damaged goods, I know.  Listening to this song, I can totally feel her pain.

7. You & I-John Legend: One of my favorite John Legend songs.

8. The Worst-Jhene Aiko: Although it is slightly repetitive, I always liked this song and Jhene’s voice.

9. Cold-Crossfade: Another spectacular song from the Punisher soundtrack.  Always ready to rock out with this song :)

10. Where The Lines Overlap-Paramore:  I don’t know any Paramore songs that I don’t love, but this is another great one to add to the list.  Great lyrics as always: “too much distance, to measure it out loud”

11. We Never Change-Coldplay: Coldplay is always great music to lose yourself into.

12. Tell Me-Groove Theory: Had to throw some mid-90s music into the middle of my playlist since the 90s were so awesome and this is a great song.

13. Anytime-Brian McKnight: Such a classic R&B song, and all that there was to love in R&B music growing up.  Always nice to through in a reminiscent song.

14. Please Send Me Someone to Love-Sade: There are no bad Sade songs.  All of her music is fantastic.  But this song is definitely true for me.  I am definitely always open to the right person to come into my life for me to love. 

15. Been a Long Day-Rosi Golan: I find myself relating to this song :)

16. Take Over Control (Extended)-Afrojack feat Eva Simons: It’s always nice to have some fun catchy music in a playlist :)

17. Give Me Everything-Pitbull feat Ne-Yo and Naya: I love love love this song :)

18. Be Your Girl-Teedra Moses: Great song also

19. Chasing the Sun (Hardwell Remix)-The Wanted: Always great to spice up a popular song with a good remix.  Haha I just realized I have two songs on this playlist called Chasing the Sun…

20. Lose My Breath-Destiny’s Child: Oh the Memories, and I also loved the preppy versus hood Destiny’s Child dance fight in the video.

21. Relentless-Blackmill: Had to have Blackmill grace my playlist with their iconic flowing beats :)

22. Heist-Lindsey Sterling: This song always makes me picture a high-speed chase, maybe even on the open seas, or else a car chase on windy roads for some reason.  Great driving, cleaning or dancing around the house song.

23. Wonder Woman-Trey Songz: I always liked this song, but I definitely prefer Trey with the clean cut

24. Hold It Against Me-Britney Spears: No reason needed…  It’s Britney B*tch :)

25. Shake It Out-Florence and the Machine: A Great rejuvenating, upbeat move on with your life song :)

26. What Do You Want From Me-Cascada: I love to work out to Cascada, plus the lyrics are great.  Get that out in the open, no playing around.

27. Don’t Wake Me Up-Chris Brown: It’s fun, it’s catchy, it’s true

28. E.T.-Katy Perry feat Kanye West: I always felt that this song was fitting for me.  That the man I am meant to be with is obviously not the norm for this world.  I guess I need an alien ;)

29. Edge of Desire (Acoustic)-John Mayer: I don’t understand how anyone can NOT like John Mayer..  He just speaks to my very soul…  It’s like he sings to my whole being with all of his lyrics and his guitar and there is no one else in the world. I always dance around my house to this song, envisioning someone there with me.

30. Fearless-Colbie Caillat: Oh how I love Colbie.  This song speaks volumes.  It gives me strength in heart and reminds me that it’s ok to say goodbye and go on stronger and better from any situation.  

Frozen

This was the first movie that Liam ever saw in the theater.  Grandma was here and insisted on taking Liam to his first movie, and auntie Shayna came along as well.  I was very worried about Liam going to see a movie and actually sitting still through it at his age (he is three in case you don't know).  He actually did remarkably well...  Now as far as the movie selection, the big Disney movie showing at that time was Frozen.  It started off kind of awkward with the new revival initiative of Disney to try to add on snippets of old black and white Mickey cartoons at the beginning of movies.  Now Disney makes a living on mostly children's movies, and in so doing you think they would have picked a bit more of a tasteful excerpt.  Instead we had a cow flashing her udders and someone kidnapping and trying ti simulated take advantage of Minnie Mouse....  Now I didn't have a problem seeing it myself, but I did think that Disney studios have to know the society of parents and children right now and that it probably wasn't the greatest choice to show before a kid's movie....  With that being said let's move on to the actual movie.
Frozen is about two sisters Anna & Elsa.  Elsa is the elder sister and has a magic with ice, winter, snow.  This is something that can be used by evil if anyone were to find out and so her parents force her to hide it from everyone so that no one will ever be hurt, forcing her to look herself away while growing up.  Anna is the littler sister that has no idea why her sister is locking herself away and is spending her life being lonely.  When Elsa accidentally released some of her power on her coronation she runs away leaving Anna to fend for herself.  Anna only wants to find love and to have her sister as a friend, so they set out on a treacherous journey with unlikely allies in an attempt to save her sister and her kingdom.

Voices featured in this movie:
Anna is voiced by Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Sarah Marshall, Gossip Girl)
Elsa is voiced by Idina Menzel (Rent, Enchanted, Glee, wife of Taye Diggs)
Kristoff (an unlikely ally) is voiced by Jonathan Goff (Glee)

Frozen is a 3D computer animated musical fantasy comedy movie.  It was released in 2013 and is the 53rd Disney movie to be released.  It is loosely based on the story the Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson, which may explain why it has a bit of an older feel to it.   So far is has grossed $764 million worldwide and has won several awards.  The awards won include Golden Globe & Critic's Choice for Best Animated Feature as well as Critic's Choice award for Best Original Song for "Let It Go" also sung by Idina Menzel.  Frozen became Fandango's top advance ticket seller among animated features beating out Brave.  It is the 4th highest grossing 2013 film.


Disney has been looking at producing their version of the Snow Queen since the 1940s but had trouble getting the story to a place where they felt that the audience could relate to it.  They had a hard time modernizing it and trying to lighten up an originally dark and seemingly inhumane story.  One main way in which this happened was by making Anna & Elsa sisters.  In the late 1990s Disney picked the story back up and worked on it for almost a decade before it was scrapped again in 2002.  In 2008 a new idea with the film was pitched by director Chris Buck under the title of Anna & the Snow Queen with plans to use traditional animation and portray the Snow Queen as light-hearted as opposed to a villain, but by early 2010, there were again complications with making the story work.  In December of 2011 after the success of Tangled Disney decided to again pick up the story and move forward with 3D and a new development team.  With the character Anna now being written by Chris Buck as the Snow Queen's little sister they were able to show new dimensions in the relationships of the characters while subtracting a lot of the darkness away from the story.  Jennifer Lee (one of the screenwriters from Wreck-It-Ralph) was brought onto the team.  Her work and involvement became so involved and extensive that she ended up being promoted from screenwriter to songwriter and pre-devlopment and was brought up to director alongside Chris Buck.  This was a major accomplishment as in all of these years Jennifer Lee became the first woman to direct a full-length animated motion picture by Walt Disney Animation Studios. 

Frozen had a very nice clear and crisp picture.  It was definitely a musical and seemed like there were more songs than dialogue.  The songs were quite pretty though and easy to sing along.  I did however feel that the theme of the movie was more directed at the tweens-pre-teen age group as opposed to the younger crowd.  There wasn't much for a young child to relate to like there is in some Disney movies.  Liam was definitely enthralled with the snowman Olaf and I myself found Sven the reindeer to be the best character in the movie.  I did notice that with the older theme, that when the sister Anna finds her independence and possibly older, slightly darker stage that her whole appearance changed, her hair was now in a messed braid instead of in a tight orderly braid, and she was wearing a lower cute almost sheer dress, it was definitely showing that becoming darker is sexier and more appealing...  but perhaps I was reading too much into it.  On a positive note it did a great job of showing the independence of women and was the first Disney film to question a woman marrying a man that she just met.  There was the grand theme that true love comes in many forms.  My adult self sees Disney movies in a different light and as a mother knowing how much every little detail is sponged into the minds of youth.  Overall I give this film 4 out of 5 stars.  I would give it 5 stars because it had great songs and great characters, but it seems like there were a lot of holes in the story and if given more time it could have told more about the story instead of just touching upon elements such as Anna's power and the Trolls.

You can visit Disney's Official Site here: Frozen

I suggest not watching this hilarious unnecessarily censored video of excerpts from the movie unless you have seen it already,  It could ruin it for you.