The wedding is in five days! FIVE DAYS! Needless to say, I can’t seem to think about anything else but that. Not ArtPrize. Not writing. Not the size of my backside. Nope. Just the wedding. In my mind, when I think of the wedding, I don’t think of it like: “This is going to be MY day and I’m going to look so great”. I think: “This is going to be so much fun. I can’t wait to marry that man and have all our friends and family there to cheer us on, and possibly make fun of us.”
I’ve been picking music for the reception. On my iTunes list is your standard current Top 40 stuff. When I’m in the car with the kiddos, I turn on the radio and the kids tell me songs they want at the wedding. They include songs by Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, etc. And, yes, my kids are 5 and 6.
Then there’s the music I have in my personal library. A LOT of jazz standards sung by Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, and even Michael Buble. Then there’s my collection of singer/songwriter music. You know, moody intellectual music set to guitar. (I won’t be playing a lot of that, but I do like to write and cook and be moderately depressed to it.)
With a few 80s songs thrown in and a little 60s soul, I have about two hours of pure danceable music. I then went to Kealoha’s music library to see what he had.
5 hours later….
The man has like 140 artists and 140,000 songs, and I’m probably underestimating. He has over a dozen albums of ukulele music, dozens of polka albums, and a collection of Weird Al Yankovick. And that’s not even the kitschy stuff.
I think my favorite albums are by people who shouldn’t record music: Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Bruce Willis, and even a song by Bruce Campbell (of Evil Dead fame).
I’ve pulled the Campbell song to play during dinner. There are a few people coming who will deeply, deeply appreciate this homage.
Then there’s the lounge music, the marimba concertos, and the songs from Hawaii. And like two hundred songs by Elvis. I had no idea the man sang so much.
There are compilations that promise Sexy Bachelor Pad moments, and Swing Time for Singles. Most of that is music from 1960s elevators. I guess in the Mad Men era, people really did get it on, especially to organ music. Organ. Music. Get it?
I grabbed some world music tracks, some Otis Redding, U2. Kealoha grabbed a few more. I’m pretty confident that we’ll have a musical playlist that will inspire people to dance and laugh, because, really, when Leonard Nimoy is singing to you, what else can you do?
And it occurs to me that you can tell a lot about someone's personality by what they listen to. For example, Kealoha's dad likes cowboy music. Real cowboy music. He's shown me the record. My son seems to like Talking Heads and electric stuff. My daughter likes anything she can sing to.
What I’m hoping is when Saturday rolls around, I won’t stress about what I look like, or the flowers, or if people are entertained. I hope I can just sit back and enjoy the food and laughter and celebrating with the people I love. And I’ll laugh when Kealoha sings the lyrics to any Weird Al Yankovick song. He’s a fan.
I leave you with this. Let's see if you can take it.