Take the stairs!

A set of stairs in Stockholm, Sweden--with a moving escalator next to it--both of which lead to the same spot on the floor of the upper level. A study showed that 97% of the people took the escalator over the stairs. A group of engineers got together, and decided they wanted to reverse that percentage.

*Watch the video*

The percentage has reversed to a whopping 66% more people choosing the stairs over the escalator. Bravo for engineering!

Four Years

Four years ago today I married my best friend...I love you, Christopher! oxoxo

My playlist today features songs from our wedding reception--enjoy and have a fantastic weekend, readers!

The Troubadour Tour

The Troubadour Reunion Tour is coming. This concert tour by Carole King and James Taylor celebrates the 40th anniversary of their first performance together at The Troubadour in November 1970. All the classics, folks, and you just know it's gonna be good.

How could we pass up a chance to see these two singer-songwriter legends? We couldn't, so we've got tickets for Friday night! Until then, I'm enjoying them on my playlist here on the blog--hope you do, too.

Image via, video trailer via.

Baby, I'm a Fool

You all know I love Jazz. While listening to Internet radio (love it!) today I discovered a gem of a vocalist--the lovely Melody Gardot.

Every artist has a story. Melody's is at the heart of her music. When she was 19, Melody was hit by a car. During her recovery she used music as a form of therapy, even recording and releasing tracks while still in the hospital. Once out, she started playing around Philadelphia. Before long Universal Records signed her. Her first full-length album, Worrisome Heart, displayed her gift for transforming the traditions of jazz and blues with her intimate and personal sound.

Why haven't I heard of this gal before now? No matter, she is amazing. The song is, "Baby, I'm A Fool", the video is retro-noir-sexy and not available to embed on blogs so please, do visit the link and indulge! As for me...iTunes, here I come.

Happy Weekend, Readers!

Image via, artist info via.

Jazz: The Thinking Man's Music

Jazz has a history, which makes it stand head and shoulders above all other genres of music. Jazz is a musical conversation: a partly planned and partly spontaneous musical dialogue among the musicians who perform it. The history of jazz is a fascinating story that can be interesting and enjoyable to fans and non-fans alike. It is a story of not just music and musicians, but of the struggles, it took to achieve, to create, to invent and re-invent, and to make sacrifices for the sake of an art. It is a look at how 20th century Americans forged a very personal and unique art form that defined the culture in which they lived.


Robert Leroy Johnson

Jazz is a true American art form. It is as much a part of our cultural heritage as baseball and our Constitution. Risk takers and rule breakers, men and women who put everything on the line for the sake of their art, created it, like America itself. Jazz is the art form of individual expression, but unlike many other mediums, it is spontaneous; what is created now will be recreated differently later. Jazz is a perfect example of the American spirit and a reflection of our changing culture. Jazz is the epitome of twentieth century America.


Glenn Miller Swing Band

As far as music goes, Jazz is relatively complex. Many musical, technical, intellectual, and emotional elements happen simultaneously. Jazz makes far more demands on the listener than most popular styles of music which are fundamentally simpler than Jazz. The more you know about Jazz (how to listen to it, the history and evolution of its styles, the key players, the different forms, its relationship to American history and its cultural significance), the more you can appreciate and enjoy it. Listening to Jazz even makes it possible to gain insight into humanity via an aesthetic experience. This is the ultimate goal of Jazz.


Dave Brubeck Quartet

Jazz was created out of the social conditions that were present in the South due to the institution of slavery. The roots of Jazz can be traced to the beginnings of African and Western European music. Jazz today can be difficult to define because it is performed in so many styles and many other types of music including but not limited to Rock and Roll, Pop, Funk, World Music, Fusion, Latin Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Avant-Garde, and Rhythm and Blues have all been influenced by its sound.


John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie

Slaves brought work songs and field hollers learned in Africa to America in the early 1600s. Those forms of music were eventually adapted and then modified by religious blacks and became spirituals--the earliest versions of gospel music. What we know as early Jazz was birthed around 1895 in New Orleans from the styles known as Creole and Dixieland. Ragtime music became the rage in the late nineteenth and earliest part of the twentieth century.


Fats Waller

The standard history of Jazz generally considers the first Jazz record to have been the Original Dixieland 'Jass' Band's (a group of all white musicians) "Dixie Jass Band One Step" and "Livery Stable Blues." This record was made for the Victor label in New York on February 26, 1917. The record was released in May of 1917. It was an immediate success and this record is considered the spark that ignited the Jazz fad that seized the world in the years during and after World War I.


George Gershwin

In a decade of rebellion, the Roaring 20's was the perfect climate for Jazz. The young and the hip craved anything that was new and exciting. The more uptight members of society thought Jazz was decadent and amoral which gave Jazz an extra appeal to the younger generation. The exciting new rhythms and harmonies were ultimately the irresistible force behind society's eventual acceptance of Jazz. The first bandleader to achieve national notoriety was Fletcher Henderson who formed a band in the early 1920's. Originally, his band was a dance band, playing waltzes and foxtrots. Over the course of a few years, Jazz rhythms and blue notes became more and more prominent in the band's music. By the time the band took over at Roseland Ballroom and featured Louis Armstrong on trumpet, it had become a Jazz band.


Louis Armstrong

Most of New York's Jazz clubs were in Harlem, and in 1925-26, there appeared several popular plays and a book, which portrayed Harlem as the exciting place to be in New York City. As a result, tourists gravitated toward Harlem to see this colorful neighborhood, and the nightlife took off. From 1927 until the late 1930’s, things were so busy in Harlem that good musicians could play every night of the year, sometimes in many different bands, due to constant personnel changes in most of them.


John Coltrane

It wasn't until 1935 that Jazz with a new "Swing beat" achieved national attention thanks in large part to Benny Goodman. With the help of a flourishing radio broadcast industry Big Band Swing music was in full flower and it was shortly after that jitterbug dancing—created specifically for this style of music--also gained national popularity and bolstered American optimism throughout the era of World War II.


Duke Ellington Big Band

In the late 1940s the exploratory use of unusual instruments, the use of new techniques without sacrificing a swinging feel and a modern use of carefully written ensemble arrangements by Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Gil Evans and John Lewis had far reaching effects on Jazz. Their recordings—the most well known being, "Birth of the Cool”--represented the maturing of Cool Jazz, demonstrated the wide potential of this style and established it as a permanent voice in the Jazz genre.



Miles Davis, Billie Holiday

From 1940-1955 a new style emerged called Bebop and it created yet another evolution in the sound of Jazz. Young black musicians broke free of the mostly white- member big bands in seek of better pay and the creative freedom to play new music they were creating. The size of the groups became smaller, the arrangements had more room for individual players to improvise, the tempos were purposely undanceable—either very fast or very slow—and their sound was positive and joyful but very unpredictable. Key players from the Bebop era include trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, sax man Charlie Parker (aka “Bird”), and piano master Thelonious Monk.


Thelonious Monk

The 1960s through 1990s brought the styles of Free Jazz, Jazz/Rock Fusion, Smooth Jazz, World Music, Latin Jazz, Avant-Garde, Acid, Urban and Neo-Traditional styles of Jazz. These periods continued to reshape and remake what Jazz was and is today and carried the influence of Jazz into all other genres of music in America and throughout the world.


Pat Metheny

In each decade there are those who have said, “Jazz is dead”. While this is obviously not true, it is true that our society has become more diverse, and so has Jazz. Jazz gathers influences from new technology, different cultures and new ideas. It was originally created from a fusion of musical styles and is still recreating itself from new musical styles. That is why it will continue as part of our heritage, keep pace with the rest of the music genres, and hold its place at the front of the best in music.


Tina M. Pfeiffer, Evaluative Essay, 11.21.07
© Tina Pfeiffer, 2007 ~ do not use this writing in whole or part without my written permission...thanks!

Beauty for your Tuesday ~ Mary's Magic

The Secret Garden is truly a beautiful film, and this remix and video clip just reminded me today. And, in case you've never heard it, the original soundtrack from this movie is also quite wonderful. Please pause my playlist in the right margin to enjoy this short clip.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Like this clip? Find more magic by Pogo HERE.

Friday Music: Kelly Clarkson - Already Gone

Well, alright, Kelly Clarkson. I'm a little late to the party as this single has already been released but I sure like this version. Much nicer than the album version...it's not overdone, just emotional and lovely. I think she looks better, too, than in the "official" video. More natural, more real. Her country sound is shining through nicely as well. Pause my playlist in the right margin to enjoy this video clip...

Happy Friday, my friends!

And I quote...Miles Davis

"You want to know how I started playing trumpet? My father bought me one, and I studied the trumpet. And everybody I heard that I liked, I picked up things from."

~Miles Davis, circa 1969

Miles Davis was one of the greatest visionaries and most important figures in jazz history. He was born in a well-to-do family in East St. Louis. He became a local phenom and toured locally with Billy Eckstine's band while he was in high school. He moved to New York under the guise of attending the Julliard School of Music. However, his real intentions were to hook up with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. He quickly climbed up the ranks while learning from Bird and Diz and became the trumpet player for Charlie Parker's group for nearly 3 years. His first attempt at leading a group came in 1949 and was the first of many occurrences in which he would take jazz in a new direction...

...more on Miles FOUND HERE.

YouTube Fave: Mahna Mahna!

Pause the Playlist in my right margin to enjoy this all-time classic from The Muppet Show!

Mahna Mahna!

Neat Things: American Idol Season 8

Ah, yes...American Idol's back and the auditions "start" on Fox tomorrow night.



I am really not a big TV-watcher, and "reality" shows can be some of the worst of the offerings on the airwaves. That being said, I shall now contradict myself and publicly admit (at least to the 83 people who read my blog) that I am a fan of American Idol. It took awhile to grow on me, and yes, I get weary of the bickering, the judges, Seacrest, and the rest...BUT...as a singing competition it is always such FUN!

Leave me a comment and let me know who your favorites were from any of the past seasons and if you'll be tuning in for Season 8!

Chris and I watch together. Here are some of our favorite performances from seasons 1-7.

(Just click the pause button on my AI playlist in the right column to enjoy the music on the video clips!)













Top to bottom, Contestant/AI Season: Melinda Doolittle (4), Kristy Lee Cook (7), Elliot Yamin (5), Brooke White (7), David Cook (7), Kelly Clarkson (1), Fantasia Barrino (3), Bo Bice (4), Michael Johns (7), Blake Lewis (6), Clay Aiken (2)

Lead Me On...takes me back

Thanks to a 30 second radio clip this morning...and a few clicks of the mouse across the Internet...we're going to enjoy Amy Grant in concert on Monday night! Amy's CD, Lead Me On was originally released in 1988. On June 24, 2008, Grant re-released the album in honor of its 20th Anniversary. The two-disc release includes the original album and a second disc with new acoustic recordings, live performances from 1989, and interviews with Amy. The current 20-city tour is a chance to celebrate and remember these wonderful songs.

"Watching people shed the years and remember the vibrancy and passion of a younger version of themselves is the only way I can describe the view from my vantage point [on the stage]. Looking back and remembering the best parts of our younger selves, less road weary and jaded, just might give us fresh inspiration for the next stage of life...which I believe, is the most important chapter yet." ~Amy Grant

Amy Facts

Amy Lee Grant (born November 25, 1960 in Augusta, Georgia) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her Contemporary Christian music and pop music, and a New York Times Bestselling author, TV personality, and occasional actress.

Grant is considered by many to be one of the true pioneers of Gospel and Contemporary Christian music. She has had a strong influence on Gospel music and the Christian culture in the United States and beyond. She is the best-selling Christian music artist of all time, and is the 19th best-selling female solo artist in the United States. Grant has won six Grammy Awards, 21 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and had the first Christian album ever to go Platinum. Heart in Motion is her best selling album, which has exceeded sales of 5 million. [1]

Amy Grant has been one of my favorite singers since age 9. Through listening to her lovely voice I learned I was also an alto. In middle school, I penned poems and songs of my own inspired by her albums. In our senior year of high school, my best girlfriend and I sang a duet of her version of "El Shaddai" at our church.

Since 1977, Amy's heart has always shone through her voice and her songs. I haven't seen Amy in concert since 1991 so this concert will be like visiting an old friend. I like to think of her as a girl, sitting on a stool on a stage, guitar in hand, singing about her faith in God, her family and friends, about herself, and most of all, about love.

The play list for this weekend is all Amy Grant. I've included a variety of Amy's best through-the-years...from 2008 all the way back to 1977. If you think you know who Amy Grant is because of the Top 40 Pop charts just know that there's much more to Amy than her radio singles, "Baby, Baby", "Every Heartbeat", or the Peter Cetera duet back in '86, "Next Time I Fall". If you're a fan then you're probably already turning your speakers up. If you're new to Amy, give her a listen and find a new voice to enjoy.

Have a happy weekend, everyone!

[1] Wikipedia article, 2008.

Photos displayed are copyright by various sources.

Text copyright (except as noted), pfeiffer photos 2008.

Music Can Heal

There used to be a widget here that played a Mix Tape via Mixwit.com. Mixwit has closed shop but you can still find the music from The O.C. and listen online HERE. Enjoy!

Songs  from  the OC soundtrack cover various seasons of one of my fave tv shows of all time (someday I will buy the series boxed set on DVD). This is the TV show that introduced me to indie rock...thanks, OC!!