What are you listening to right now?

Yesterday, I read an Esquire article about Creed Bratton. He played Creed on the Office - the American version. He’s had a weird and wild life, including once belonging to the group The Grass Roots. They had even worked that into the plot of The Office, when he tells his co-workers that he was once a member of The Grass Roots.

Reading about The Grass Roots immediately brought back memories, and I recognized the name of the group, even though no songs came to mind. So after reading the article, I went on YouTube and searched their songs - and I remembered all of them. I absolutely LOVE that music! They were big around 1970, when I was too young to remember the singers of the songs that I heard on the radio - other than David Cassidy or The Osmonds! Today, I went on Spotify and made myself a playlist of Grass Roots songs. It’s funny how some things never change - listening to those songs made me want to turn the volume up really loud, like I used to do when I heard those songs on the radio.

Watching those old videos on YouTube is hilarious because those guys look like they’re wearing bad disguises - long messy hair, moustaches, sideburns. And I still don’t know which one of them is Creed!

I love listening to Cabin Pressure while working around the house because it lets you know exactly how much time has passed - and it’s hilarious, so the hard work becomes a bit more pleasant.

I want to add a shelf along one wall in the garage, and I’m looking forward to listening to Cabin Pressure while I do it! (I just need to wait until it’s less humid out - it’s unbearable right now!)

Well, we're thinking of selling, so I'm painting everything in greys and beiges. My kitchen had been the exact same purple as the 'Friends' apartment since we moved in, 16 years ago!

I know this is going off topic, but since we’re talking about colours . . .

After spending so many years studying art, you learn a lot about colours and what they do! A few years ago, we had a work party at the home of one of my co-workers. She lived in a brand-new house - one of those new open-concept houses where you can see the entire house from the front door. Because of that, all the walls were the same taupey colour. That wasn’t a problem, but they had also chosen shades of taupe for their trim and doors, and furniture, carpet and curtains - even their art work! After a while, I started feeling anxious and I didn’t know why. I realized that my eyes were frantically searching for colours - any colours - in all the taupe. The only colours were in some people’s clothing, so as long as I focussed on those people, I was ok.

If your eyes spend a long time seeing one colour - like red - they will automatically make you see the opposite (green) when you look away. It’s just the way we process seeing colours. But when you don’t see any colours at all (like all taupe or brown or white or black), it produces an anxious feeling - in me, anyway. So in my (almost) all taupe house, you will see bright colours throughout - in the cushions on the couch, the carpets, the artwork and photographs displayed, the ceiling light fixtures, the dish towels in the kitchen. My sister loves red, so a lot of our accessories are red. We even have red Ikea kitchen chairs in our kitchen!