Good time music

It's Friday! The week is almost over, my husband will be home to help me for, count 'em, three days thanks to President's weekend and I'm going to get my hair cut tomorrow morning. My kids are watching their Friday movie, happily munching some graham crackers (also known as covering the carpet in a fine dust of graham flour), and I am having my Friday indulgence, a Dunkin' Donuts latte (I know, CRAZY!), and listening to some tunes while I write. Everybody say PAAARTY! Everybody say WEEKEND!

Putting together a mix to write to got me thinking about music in general and in the Friday spirit I have decided to share with you a list of "good time" music. Some of this is music I run to, some is music I listen to when alone in my car - notice I didn't say "van" - this is music I listen to in our old, red Jetta when I'm trying to pretend I don't have three kids. Some are old favorites, some are new finds, all rock the party, and I hope you find something to spend a buck on at iTunes to brighten your Friday.


Party Up in Here by DMX - An odd choice for a white, mother of three living in the suburbs? Maybe. Appropriate lyrics (at least the chorus)? Definitely. "Ya'll goin' make me lose ma' mind...Ya'll goin' make me go all out...Ya'll goin' make me act a fool...Ya'll goin' make me lose ma' cool...Up in here, Up in here." I imagine a fast-action montage of me trying to get the kids dressed and ready in the morning and this is the perfect soundtrack - minus the lyrics about prison rape and baby-mamas.

Blackcat by Janet Jackson - This song takes me back to an ill-advised audition for the Colgate women's dance troupe my freshman year. While I can shake it on the dance floor, I was way out of my league and should have known it when I didn't show up in Capezio's and leg warmers. We were given this song to practice to and then perform a group routine for the judges. Let's just say my audition consisted of me squeezing my freshman fifteen into a leotard from my eighth grade jazz class, dancing the first five steps, losing my place and standing in the middle of the floor mouth agape as ten other girls danced around me. It's amazing I can listen to this song without dying of shame.

Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi - My husband I consider this the anthem of our "dark days" - our name for the unemployment spell - except we change the lyrics. "Mary works at Starbucks all day..." Get us drunk and in the right environment we will be shrieking the climatic lyrics, "YOU LIVE FOR THE FIGHT WHEN THAT'S ALL THAT YOU'VE GOT!" Dorks in love...

1985 by Bowling for Soup - My hubby hates that I love this song because it makes it seem I'm unhappy with my life which, of course, I'm not, but who doesn't contemplate what could have been, once in a while, when you're driving three screaming kids to another playdate operating on five hours of sleep? And are there any better lyrics than "She was gonna shake her ass on the hood of Whitesnake's car"?

Rock the Casbah by The Clash - I love this song simply because I have a great memory of dancing with my sister to it in Egypt. We were on a cruise ship going down the Nile staffed entirely by Egyptians who thought American women were easy whores. I spent the whole trip body-blocking my little sister who was attracting a lot of attention because she's so little and cute. She even got hit on at the damn Sphinx.

Weird Egyptian guy jumping in front of my sis: "You very beautiful American girl."
My sister: Shocked silence.
Me: "And you're a pig. Now move!"
We didn't do much to improve their opinion of American woman getting down to The Clash, but I'll never forget it.

Supermodel by RuPaul - Proving you can never be too fabulous, RuPaul rocks the party. If you are a woman and you don't love this song you need to turn in your estrogen pronto. "You betta' work!"

Welcome to the Jungle by GNR - Oh Axl, what happened to you? This song is the epitome of your teased hair, anorexic-looking, crazy-ass glory. Before you had more plastic surgery than Janice Dickenson, before you went out on your own, you gave high school football players something to scream when drunk, "You know where you are? You in the jungle baby!" and me a song to jog to twenty years later trying to lose my baby weight.

Here Comes the Hammer by MC Hammer - OK, shut up. You know you love him, you just won't admit it. This song is not for the fair-weather Hammerite. It is for those of us who actually bought his album and are hiding it in a box with our high school stuff in our mother's attic. "Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Here come the hamma'!"

We're Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister - This song is just a timeless classic. While Dee Snyder has moved on and ditched the make-up and shoulder pads, his anthem still rings true for enraged thirteen year-old boys everywhere. "We're right! We're Free! We'll fight! You'll see!" I'm sure Dee is laughing all the way to the bank, and forty year-old men are feeling betrayed, as I recently heard this song being used to hawk birth control pills.

So there you have it - my Friday mix. Cool? Probably not, but I know we all have a list of songs that we secretly love and would never admit to (anything by Celine Dion or Micheal Bolton). I just have the balls to share mine.