BigShoes

I’m going to conveniently forget how old I was when Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall came out, especially as I celebrate a birthday and feel old enough already since one of the stars of my youth…back when he was a celebrity for the right reasons…has passed on at a fairly young age of 50. Really, that is young, but maybe not for stars like Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley and the like…wait I don’t know much of what I’m talking about because there will never be more like that with the exception of John Lennon. Stars like these are few and far between these days.

Yes it was a birthday long ago that I had two wishes. I wanted Billy Joel’s Glass Houses and Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall. I didn’t have a stereo, but would you believe you could get those albums in 8-track. Those were the days, I wonder if Michael Jackson thought the same.

Here’s a great Off the Wall Medley from YouTube.

If someone told me the last time I posted that I wouldn’t post again for another month I wouldn’t have believed it. Of course I’ve had a few breaks like these here and there and well, what can I say, here I go again. My shoes these days are busy shoes and in the evening they are tired shoes that I’ve kicked off and can’t find in the morning because I really don’t want to put them on.

So I took my daughter shopping and she had to get some shoes so naturally I walked by my Sonoma sandals that I love so much and which I needed a new pair of… so I have new shoes, okay sandals. And in these shoes I’m certain I will slip into summer comfortably, it won’t be less busy, it won’t keep me from getting tired, I’ll just have comfy feet. That I can deal with, as long as it does not require socks…I’m all about big shoes, not big socks.

How about something from the late great Kirsty MacColl. Here’s Kirsty MacColl from Tropical Brainstorm.

BigShoes likes the music. I’ve been known to put down a variety of music on topics ranging from shoes to U2. From comedic spoofs to inspirational photo collages coupled with the classics I hope I’ve gathered a laugh, a tear or a good boogie through the last year for you all.

I’ll give you the rundown on last year’s music highlights and I will close with a number from the Arctic Monkeys to get you jammin’. Hope you like it because I’ll share more Arctic Monkeys throughout this year.

I apologize in advance for any broken YouTube links and will find other sources in the near future if a missing link is found.

Now for the obvious…shoely named bands:

Two Tone Shoe
Good Shoes

U2 anyone?

U2 at BigShoes
U2 Get On Your Boots
Sometimes You Can Make it On Your Own

Movie Music, yes Jaws is included:

Kinky Boots
Music from Jaws
I Go Swimming (…Jaws)

…or just movie dance
Ricardo Montalban

…and on that note, how about some more Peter Gabriel
Music Sunday

…some rock and roll
Blue Suede Shoes

…or hip hop
Boomin

…or maybe something from a musical
Edgar Allan Poe from Snoopy the Musical

Comedic Music from Colbert, Demetri and more:

Stephen Colbert’s Remix Challenge
Stephen Colbert (Rain LOL)
Demetri Martin
Sesame Street
Monty Python

Inspiration

Sunday Inspiration
Alexei Butirisky and Joe Cocker
Poetry at BigShoes
December
November

And then there is the Arctic Monkeys…put on your dancing shoes…really!

I have to talk movies. Is it so rare to find something fun and musical and inspirational? I saved Kinky Boots to the DVR a while back so I could watch and review it for BigShoes, seeing as every now and again it is good to have a topic on footwear on BigShoes for all the lost wandering shoe soles out there (don’t hold the pun against me). I don’t know that if BigShoes had to describe itself as a movie that it would be Kinky Boots… (all together now ….JAWS!) However, that being said Kinky Boots was incredible. It was incredible music, singing and humor.

My favorite part of Kinky Boots was the music, in particular the great walkway scene at the end that was an excellent collection of boot and shoe melodies sung by Chiwetel Ejiofor who played Lola (Sam). Please note, it is “loosely” based on a true story so don’t believe everything you read, see or hear. Don’t let the title or content shock or scare you away. You could view this film with your parents or most of your children.

Here is the Kinky Boots walkway scene (and a link from YouTube in case it gets disabled).

After completing a whole year, I thought of posting the first BigShoes post today but then I thought it might be better to tell you the BigShoes story. Oh yes there is a story. I’m sure many a freelance writer is faced with writing about something they aren’t sure they want to write about. I had a history in freelance writing of health, nutrition and diet topics. I could tell you about the health benefits of exotic fruits and berries that I had researched, and I could share all the things I learned about green fuel and transportation…and I could be funny when the research warranted it, hey, you can’t make some of this stuff up.

I had done some humor and rant writing, written insulting quiz results for teenage girls having fun on the internet…or perhaps not after they read my insulting answers and I was looking for some better blogs. I can’t remember where I found the Today.com ad to sign-up, but I sent them an email saying I could write for their health blog they had advertised. A very nice man replied with a quick inquiry of could I write on women’s topics.

This is where you hear the needle scratch across the record in the middle of the movie. What? Women’s topic…this man has no idea…blech…women’s topics.

Turning point movie music as I stared at the email on my computer screen “eeny, meeny, miny moe” …trust me it was exactly like that.

Well maybe writing another health blog wasn’t such a good idea, people were probably worried about a conflict of interest, should I really put any stock into that old saying write what you know…maybe I’m the only woman who applied…heck they didn’t even have a women’s interest site, it would be new, how new…brand spanking new…I’d be getting in at the ground floor of this women’s interest site…“eeny, meeny, miny, moe”…just like that.

Oh I sent that man an email, something like sure I think I could do that…I mean after all what would that site entail…some fashion, some makeup, some pink whatever…I can do that, scribble, scribble, scribble….toss that outline in the waste basket.

Well as you see I did it, and it’s been a year. I never asked that nice gentleman if sports coverage (Stiletto Run) and a 4th of July Jaws weekend, (I think we did that on Memorial Day and Labor Day too) was fodder for women. Maybe the site name was misleading but they kept me around, even though the only shoe coverage was that Stiletto Run for a while. Like I’ve said before though, you’d be amazed at all the non-fashion shoe stories there are in the news. Who would have thought it?

Well, Happy Birthday BigShoes. I’m glad I didn’t delete that email. And the moral of the story for any of you writers out there…write what you know.