A Friendly Musical Visit Every Day

My chronic illness was sparked by the onset of menopause (thank you very much, hormonal changes) and yet my mother is constantly saying to me: "I don't understand why you're so sick all the time. You were such a healthy baby." Yeah, you'd think that would have carried me all the way through life. Weird. I was listening to a Paralympian talking about proving to the world how much we (people with disabilities) can do. Because I became disabled in adulthood (well, midlife), I find it's the opposite with me: I feel like I have to somehow prove that I can no longer do things I could very easily do earlier in life. And I hate that feeling. And, realistically, it's not "the world" I need to prove this to. It's certainly not my doctors--they have been wonderfully supportive. Strangers at the grocery store and random people on the street are lovely and helpful, for the most part. The only people who challenge me are my closest family members. Main...

I have a friend who is 18 years older than I am, so she knows all about aging. All the standard stuff I'm going through is stuff she's been through already. So when I complained that I can't even have a cup of tea before bed anymore because the caffeine keeps me up, she had the perfect solution: decaffeinated tea. She took me to her kitchen cupboard, pulled out a box of store brand decaf teabags, and started stuffing them in a ziplock bag for me to take home. As she did so, she said, "This tea is actually pretty good. Well, it's not too bad. Well, it's okay. Well, it's fine." I couldn't agree less. The tea she gave me was awful. But! I later bought myself a little thingy of Tetley's decaffeinated Earl Grey, and that tea is one I would wholeheartedly recommend. It actually tastes really and genuinely GOOD and it doesn't keep me up all night.  If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest t...

I wasn't joking yesterday when I said YouTube keeps pitching me suggestive songs from the 30s. I kind of can't believe this is real. It's from 1931, apparently. "I stroke it every chance I get..." If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  Click here to sign up:  http://eepurl.com/R4b11 See you soon! Giselle

YouTube seems to have decided I only want to listen to suggestive songs from the 30s from now on. This one is from 1938. Like most things, it makes me think of menopause. My whole life, these days, is illness and menopause. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  Click here to sign up:  http://eepurl.com/R4b11 See you soon! Giselle

I learned this song when I sang in a choir, as a preteen, and I've loved it ever since. It reminds me of what my own little brain does any time I'm supposed to take something seriously, be solemn or grave, or even just concentrate really hard. My mind can always find a squirrel to chase. The other week, I learned that my sister-in-law loves Winnie the Pooh. My partner does, also, so I shouldn't have been surprised, but her whole apartment is decked out in Pooh. Before I met my partner's sister, I thought for sure she was going to hate me. She's a church lady, and there are more than a thousand things about me a stereotypical church lady would love to hate: I'm queer, I'm genderqueer, I write sex for a living, I've done a lot of sketchy shit in my life. That's just for starters. But it turns out my sister-in-law is not a stereotypical church lady. She has welcomed me into the family with open arms. She's never been judgemental. She's never bee...

One time when I visited my mother, she had a small bag of Christmas decorations sitting by the door. When I asked why, she said she was getting rid of them. This blew my mind, because my mother is a hoarder. She hardly ever gets rid of anything. I looked through the decorations, and they all looked to be from the 1950s. They were children's ornaments, I'd say: clowns and cartoony animals, Humpty Dumpty, various characters. I remember hanging these on the Christmas tree when I was a child, but they must have belonged to one of my parents. Probably my father--his mother loved Christmas. She way overbought for us grandkids, and would sometimes tell us that her family was too poor for Christmas presents, when she was growing up. When she came here from Wales in the 1930s, her family lived in a homeless shelter for a while. The only gifts she and her siblings received throughout her childhood came from a charity run by the local newspaper. My grandparents were both factory wor...

My mother doesn't often tell me stories from her childhood, but she told me one the other day, and now I'm going to pass it on to you. I'd been telling her about trick-or-treating with my friends, as a child. Since I went to school out of district, all my classmates lived in a much nicer neighbourhood than I did. Many of them lived in what I call Home Alone Houses: mansions before McMansions were a thing. Whenever I could, I went trick-or-treating with them, because you got way better candy--sometimes even full-sized chocolate bars! One of the houses on our route belonged to a real estate agent. We always saw her picture in the local paper, so, to us, she was famous. Like a movie star! And of course a movie star would give out full-size chocolate bars, so we were so excited as we raced up to her house. But when the door opened, it wasn't the real estate agent--it was her husband. And he didn't give us full-size chocolate bars. He gave us raisins.  The story m...

My partner is a grown-up person who happens to like teddy bears. When the process of diagnosing his cancer began, I bought him teddy bears for everything. Biopsy? You get a little teddy bear. Surgery? You get an even bigger teddy bear.  I kept giving him teddy bears until he told me we had enough teddy bears. The best bear I bought him happened to be on the clearance shelf at a bookstore. The bear had a brother, so I bought them both. One sleeps with us on our bed. He is the best bear. He is the perfect size to cuddle. My partner likes to name his bears, and he named this one after a hockey player. We don't fight over him, exactly, but somehow I always end up hugging him in my sleep. My partner hugs a bear I knitted, back when I was a more talented knitter than I am today. I can hear you asking: "What happened to the bear's brother?" Get ready to shed a tear, because I gave him to our granddaughter this summer, the first time we met. Because my stepdaughter and he...

 I never actually knew when my parents got married until... today, actually. Turns out my parents' wedding anniversary is the same day as the anniversary of my partner's divorce. Isn't that weird?  That's got to mean something. I don't know what, but something. This song makes me think of that Treehouse of Horrors episode of The Simpsons where Homer is fixing the toaster and keeps going back in time, each time changing the present he returns to. When he arrives in a timeline where the family is rich and everything's perfect, he leaves because there aren't any donuts. Then Marge says, "Oh look, kids, it's raining" and, of course, it's raining donuts. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them ou...

 We were doing a crossword puzzle the other day and one of the clues asked for the girl's name on The Little Rascals.  Right away, I wrote in Darla.  My partner just kind of stared at me. I'm actually terrible with trivia and I have the world's worst memory, so it's rare for me to come up with answers so fast.  As we went along solving the puzzle, we had trouble with some the intersecting words. My partner was like, "Are we sure Darla is right?"  Yes. Yes, we are.  My baby sister was in love with the Little Rascals movie that was made in the 90s. She had it on VHS. I wouldn't have said I remembered anything about the movie, even though I've probably seen it dozens of times, but I guess I remember Darla's name. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers o...

Last week I described to my partner a cartoon I had on VHS, as a kid. I figured it must have been from the Depression era, and I told him about it in detail. I watched this cartoon A LOT when I was a kid. I've been looking for it online for years and was never able to find it. My partner found it on YouTube within, oh, eight seconds? Even though I didn't know what it was called. We watched it together, and waves of nostalgia washed over me. Somewhere in Dreamland is, in fact, from the thirties.  The video I had was in black and white, so this was my first time seeing it in colour.  The song came back to me as soon as I heard it. I kept saying to my partner, "I wonder why I watched this cartoon so much. There were so many other cartoons on TV." Maybe I liked it because I was malnourished, as a child. Not as bad as the kids in this cartoon, but I must have been able to relate.  I know that's a bummer. Sorry. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing...

 I woke up with this song in my head. Can't explain it.  If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back. Oh, and I also recommend hitting the "Subscribe" button at the top of the page so you won't miss a song! See you tomorrow! Giselle

Today is one of those first sunny, warm, spring-like days of late winter. Everyone is out for a walk. Our neighbour's grandkids are racing up and down the stairs to the apartment above us. The birds are singing up a storm. The young man behind us is tuning up his motorcycle. I just got back from buying milk. The first thing I noticed about the main street, here, is that there's a sunny side and a shady side. The shady side is cold. The sunny side is warm. So I walked on the sunny side, and I came home singing this song. As I stepped inside, my partner said, "You're cheerful!" And it's true. I am. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  e...

Another track from Ghost World. This is the song Enid listens to obsessively. Maybe you will, too. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back. Oh, and I also recommend hitting the "Subscribe" button at the top of the page so you won't miss a song! See you tomorrow! Giselle

Yesterday we listened to a Cat Power cover--as track called "Salty Dog." But a cover of what? A cover of whom? I did some digging (well, I looked at the wikipedia page for the album) & the song "Salty Dog" is listed as Traditional. However, the original artist is listed as Papa Charlie Jackson, a popular Blues artist and banjo player of the 1920s. While Papa Charlie Jackson's performances of Salty Dog Blues do exist on YouTube, the ones I listened to sounded degraded due to age, which made them difficult for me to hear. Instead, I chose a rendition by Mississippi John Hurt. I can't say for sure how this tune morphed into the children's song I enjoyed in the 80s, but I'm satisfied with my investigative work. Hope you've enjoyed the journey! If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly peo...

I fell down a Cab Calloway rabbit hole and landed on this short film from the 30s, which actually contains more than one song, so lucky you! I'm not clear whether it's an ad for radios or what. It seems to imply that if you purchase a radio for your wife, she'll end up cheating on you with Cab Calloway. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back. ...

Yesterday I told you about watching The Dick Van Dyke Show in its entirety. I also mentioned that I appreciated Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam's style of comedy. Now, I knew that Rose Marie had been a child star (because I heard it in the DVD commentary--I wasn't around in the 1930s!), but I never imagined there would be lasting evidence of her performances. YouTube really is a treasure trove, isn't it? Because here's a recording of Baby Rose Marie in 1933! If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music. Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books or check them out from your local library. Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely! But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep com...

I've talked before about how much I loved cartoons when I was a kid. I had VHS tapes of many black-and-white cartoons, including this hot little number from 1934. I remember a resurgence in Betty Boop's popularity in the 80s or 90s--not of her cartoons, though. It was more of a merch thing. You saw her on a lot of T-shirts. There was another cartoon from the 30s that I absolutely loved, but I haven't been able to track it down. Maybe you remember it: it was about two little kids who are walking around town, collecting scrap wood for the fire. When they get home, their mother has nothing to feed them. The kids go to bed hungry and dream of a world where food is readily available. It's a fun place, with lots of yummy scrumptiousness. (I think this cartoon appealed to me particularly because we often went hungry in my household). When the kids wake up, they find a feast waiting for them. All the townsfolk had noticed their need, and brought what they could spare to fee...

I didn't know this song existed until just now, when I googled what I consider to be Mae West's catchphrase (although I'm sure she had a few): "Come up and see me sometime!" Apparently this song is from a 1934 comedy called "She Done Him Wrong," which co-starred my high school crush, Cary Grant. A few months ago, I watched a documentary series about American comedians of the early twentieth century, but do you think I remember a single thing I learned about Mae West? Nope! Because my memory is terrible and five seconds after I learn something new it falls out the other side of my brain. I do recall thinking she was pretty awesome and I could relate to the censorship her rampant sexuality inspired (when you write about sex for a living, you get shut down time after time, and it ain't polite), but if you want to know more you'll have to do some independent study because I am a terrible teacher. If you're wondering how you can suppor...