A Life in Six Songs
A Life in Six Songs is a music-interview podcast focused on those particular songs that have a strong connection in each of our lives. These are not necessarily your favorite songs, but rather those times music was seared into your memory attached with what you were going through at the time.
Check out all the info at ALifeinSixSongs.com
So many of the discussions around music are about who the better band is or why a certain genre is not as good as another. Those discussions miss what is so fundamental about our interaction with and enjoyment of music. Here, we lead with Love, Kindness, and Curiosity, to counter the Hate, Anger, and Judgment in the world (and there is a lot of it!) We are a judgment-free zone where we do not critique our taste in music, but are focused on understanding the unique role music has played in each guest’s life.
"Don't ask me how I survived. Ask me what song I played on repeat when I thought my whole world was over."
Listen to the songs from the show! Check out the Life in Six Songs Playlist on:
Apple:
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/a-life-in-six-songs-podcast-playlist/pl.u-kv9lq9mFNvoRK
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4EmPAPejwNo6WwCKDeVmwU?si=a7b1957c464844f8
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Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit or educational use tips the balance in favor of fair use. The original work played in this video has been significantly transformed for the purpose of commentary, criticism, and education.
A Life in Six Songs
Ep. 12 - Marissa Huber-East - From Lullabies to Legends: Joy, Growth, and Loss Through Music
On this episode, we sit down with Marissa Huber-East, a creative soul, devoted mom, and connector of people and ideas from South Florida, and explore the songs that have been part of her journey. From the soothing lullabies of "Rainbow Connection" sung during childhood bedtime rituals to the socio-political anthems of Tupac Shakur, Marissa opens up about her relationship with music as a backdrop to her memories and a bridge to deeper connections with others. We uncover how music has been a constant companion in her artistic and familial bonds. Marissa shares her grief and the cathartic power of songs like David Bowie's "Heroes" in processing the personal loss of her brother. Tune in to hear how music not only encapsulates complex emotions but also offers solace and hope during life's most challenging moments. Pull up a folding chair, grab a drink, find a spot “around the fire,” and enjoy the conversation and community.
Connect w/ Marissa on her: Website, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn
Follow your hosts David, Raza, and Carolina every other week as they embark on an epic adventure to find the songs that are stuck to us like audible tattoos that tell the story of who we are and where we’ve been, to help us figure out where we’re going. It’s a life story told through 6 songs.
WHO WE ARE
DAVID: Creator & Host @ALifeinSixSongs
Drummer | Educator | Philosopher | Combat Veteran | PTSD Advocate
CAROLINA: Co-Host @ALifeinSixSongs
Storyteller | Professional Facilitator
RAZA: Co-Host @ALifeinSixSongs
Lawyer | Producer | Solo Project: Solamente | @razaismyname
RESOURCES & LINKS
- Liked songs from this life story? Check out A Life in Six Songs playlist on Apple Music and Spotify
- Follow A Life in Six Songs on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube
- Are you a veteran who is struggling? Call the Veterans Crisis Line: Dial 988, then press 1.
- Support our work!
- Reach out to us at alifeinsixsongspodcast@gmail.com
Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit or educational use tips the balance in favor of fair use. The original work played in this video has been significantly transformed for the purpose of commentary, criticism, and education.
I don't know.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of A Life in Six Songs. I am your host, David Rees, and I'm joined by my co-host, Carolina and Raza.
Speaker 3:Hey, hey.
Speaker 2:Hello For those of you new to our podcast, each week we embark on an epic journey to find the songs that are stuck to us like audible tattoos, that tell the story of who we are and where we've been, to help us figure out where we're going. It's a life story told through six songs. We approach our conversations with love, kindness and curiosity to counter the prevalence of hate, anger and judgment in the world. Our goal is that, by listening to these stories, you can bring more love, kindness and curiosity into your own life. With that, let's go have a listen together. Our guest today is Marissa Huber-East.
Speaker 2:Marissa wears many hats, but her favorite is being a mom to her kids, henry and Sloan, and her chocolate lab, max. She is a connector of people, ideas and resources and uses that in her professional career as a consulting director, focusing on workplace strategy and employee experience and culture. In 2015, marissa founded Carve Out Time for Art, a community of approximately 33,000 people on Instagram, and in 2020, she co-authored the Motherhood of Art with Heather Kirtland to inspire other artists' mothers to find time for their creativity. In her free time, marissa cycles around interests and passion projects, including painting, drawing, writing, coaching creatives, embroidering and hanging out with her kids. Being kind and a good human deeply matters to her and what she most wants to pass along to her kids. She lives back down in South Florida with her artist husband, kids and mom, after 18 years away in Indiana and Philly. Marissa, welcome to A Life in Six Songs.
Speaker 1:Hi, I'm so happy to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 2:To warm us up a little bit before we actually get into your six. Briefly, just what role does music play in your life? How do you see music fitting into your life?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny because I was thinking about it. I love music and doing this process I was reminded of how important it is. But if I had to pick, I was always reading as a kid. So in some ways I would think that it's reading and then music to me. But I realized music is just, probably it's always the background, but it's it's memories, it's connecting, it's bringing people together, um, so I think that I think it is really important and I think it's more of my identity than I realized you know, looking back yeah, for sure, for sure like like bonding over bands.
Speaker 1:you like, like rosa, that's how we we would bond in ninth grade together hanging out talking about white zombie or guns and roses, and we're just like learning new bands and having albums that you listen to in your friend's rooms and you know, read all the notes and memorize all the songs and like those things just kind of I don't know. Just, it's a part of who you are and your chemistry and it comes back later.
Speaker 2:The way you're describing it almost sounds like how, when they talk about how a fish thinks about water, right, it's necessary for them, but they don't necessarily aren't aware of it all the time. It's just there, and so, like you said, it's this thing that's always there and it's a way to connect with people and, you know, tell our stories and all those types of things.
Speaker 4:So yeah thank you for sharing connection and I think when we were, when we were gearing up for this season, you know, we we think of people who we kind of innately associate with with music, that are also now, you know, as adults doing, doing really cool things which I'm sure we'll get to I was like, yep, white zombie marissa gotta gotta see if she's up for this oh well, and it's funny, I was packing up some things and I I saved the drawing you made for me, which was such a kind gesture I'll send you a picture I was like I took a picture.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's like if a friend makes something for me that's cool. Yeah, it was awesome. You're so good at drawing anyway thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, rosa the artist.
Speaker 4:I didn't know that's a new dude super talented at many things, yeah, musician, artist, lawyer and reasonably okay at all of those, I think.
Speaker 3:There, you go.
Speaker 1:I same.
Speaker 4:Little jack of all trades. Nah, you've done fantastic work. I haven't touched drawing or art, that kind of art drawing, sketching, painting since high school actually.
Speaker 1:I think that's okay though.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's there, it's in there, but I think guitars are more fun these days. Yeah, it's there, it's in there, but yeah.
Speaker 2:I think, guitars are more fun these days. Yeah, exactly, multi-passionate, it's all art, exactly, all expression, all right. Well, with that, I'm going to kick it over to Carolina, who's going to quarterback our questions for us today, carolina go ahead.
Speaker 3:So, to kick us off with your first song, we're going to start at the beginning. What is your earliest music memory?
Speaker 1:So my dad, who has since passed, but he would sing to us when we went to sleep all the time and he had a pretty good voice and he would sing like Yesterday's by the Beatles, but the song that was our song was Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog and he would say, like this is going to, this is our song, and when you get married, when I was like I don't want to get married, he's like we'll dance to it and we did like we danced to it and like that's always been our song and it always would make me cry.
Speaker 1:But it's a special one to me.
Speaker 2:Awesome, let's take a find it the rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers and me. All of us under its spell. We know that it's probably magic.
Speaker 3:How does it feel listening to it now? How?
Speaker 1:does it feel? Listening to it now it just, I mean, it just brings me back to just. You know like sitting in the dark, you know, cuddled up with my brother would be there too. You know he would put us to bed. It was just like a special time. You know he was at like work all day but he would always make like bedtime rituals fun, like he'd be like all right, we're going to walk like trains.
Speaker 1:You know like we're going to be a choo choo train and go to your room or like ET, and he was always really playful and I try to bring that into my parenting somehow, but I liked that. It was like like when I look at the words and listen to it, it's a really hopeful song and it's kind of shows about. You know it's good to dream and have like, think about rainbows and find the beauty in things.
Speaker 2:What was it like dancing with him at your wedding to this song, having it been like I mean, that moment is going to be powerful regardless, but it being this song that was, you know, set so far in the past. What was that? What was that like?
Speaker 1:you know, set so far in in the past. What was that? What was that? Like it was, I was basically cry the entire time, but my dad was also like kind of like a real, like new jersey, like pain in the ass as well so he would he had this big soft heart. But he'd also be like oh you know, don't make a big fuss, I'm like dude and like he was being silly and like swirling me around and it was just like it was so much fun we had a great time and we were just nerds, you know, and you know just, it was nice to just be together and have that moment, you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. But I wanted to say one thing about. It's funny. So you mentioned, I think I listened in one of your maybe Raza and yours you, I think I listened in one of your maybe Raza and yours you're talking about like the Count and the Muppets and Jason Segel and okay, so love the Muppets, core memory like one of our favorites.
Speaker 1:And when I was in Palm Springs in 2020, I am a big fan of Jason Segel and I randomly saw him at a hotel and I was like, oh my gosh right. I was like, but I just wanted to be like I didn't want to bother him, but I also wanted to just show like how much that meant to us and like his puppeteering.
Speaker 1:So I'm like I'm not going to say anything, but I walked, I like ran past and I just said I love your puppeteering and like wanted to just not bother him and ran past. But he stopped and he's like oh my gosh, thank you so much. And then my, my one of my best friends. She's like I'm so sorry, can I please take a picture?
Speaker 4:and I was like no, and he's like yeah just just quickly.
Speaker 1:But and he's smiling in this picture and I'm glaring like stop it, heather. And it's this funny, like there's a picture that looks like I'm so mad to be asked right, right, you're the celebrity being bothered that's awesome, carolina, that was.
Speaker 4:That was like your, one of your I don't know, not life goals, but certainly something that you kind of asked the universe for right, like a run-in with Jason Segel to just say, hey, love your stuff. And then I remember you mentioning that once.
Speaker 1:I just listened to your podcast recently. That's why it's fresh in my mind.
Speaker 3:But I was like this is so funny of my mind, but this is so funny because it was, because it was because raza, your typo negative. His voice reminded me of jason siegel's voice in the vampire in the dracula opera yes and yeah, that was like such a silly like scene. But also I was just like I'm sorry, but this musical is kind of amazing, like I was blown away by it yeah, yeah, and the same stuff with. I think sorry, david.
Speaker 3:I'll finish this again. The same stuff with Kermit. I feel like there's a lot of you know, children's songs and children's like things that are put out there and Disney stuff, but like I felt like Kermit as a character was like the kindest soul.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 3:And his like pure and deep love for miss piggy and like just I, don't know.
Speaker 2:Kermit is, just like, special among puppets, yeah, children's characters yeah, special kind, but also like wise, but kind of like not overbearing about it in ways you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, totally, and I think just about like how it's funny, like as a parent now I'm conscious of what music are we playing that are part of our kids memory and what they remember and like I do remember like music being around um, you know playing records sometimes and, just like you're like absorbing it and it becomes part of, like your history and identity of, or your preferences perhaps growing up, was your house sort of you know, full of music, you know via your parents, or was it just like like random, you know, like just watching Sesame Street, and then you know one, one song just seems to resonate.
Speaker 1:I, you know, like there I had a little Fisher Price Price record player that I could play and I would like put in records and dance to them and I was. I was telling my kid last night I was like I couldn't listen to the back album of a bambi because it was the fire and the you know scary part and I would always like hide that. You know, I remember that.
Speaker 2:But so I remember playing records a lot and then sometimes my parents would, or, like you know, cassette tapes from like footloose or you know whatever was going on it's great yeah dancing to these mixtapes for sure yeah, I was just gonna say I, I really appreciate that story about, um, you know, running into a celebrity like that and your approach to it, because, uh, one I'm just, I'm similar in that way.
Speaker 2:I, I I see celebrities just as people doing their thing, and I feel a lot of times people get like they're like some special kind of being that they somehow want to like take a picture with and like be like look, I met this person and I just think, you know, especially with this song like the rainbow connection, and it's about dreaming and following your dreams and those types of things, and I feel like those people that make it to celebrity that we know that all they're doing right, they are just have been following that, and so, you know, in in another way. I think we put, you know, celebrities on pedestals in this sense, but really it's like you know, we, we should, like you know, be inspired by them, not just in awe of them.
Speaker 2:I think henry rawlings said that once about celebrities. He's just like you know. Don't be in awe, be inspired, right.
Speaker 1:I like that Well, cause they're just people. They're just people, Right and and yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's like we can all. We can all have dreams like big and small, like it could be. I want to learn how to make bread better and like. Maybe you like and I look and you also look at celebrities and you think there are so many, so there's probably a lot of pressure and so many of them have like issues or maybe like insecurities around their job or whatever. I feel like I'm luckier to not have that pressure that others might.
Speaker 1:Caroline, I think you were going to say something before. What were you saying?
Speaker 3:No, I thought that came to mind for me just in particular with Jason Segel, and that movie and the the dracula opera was like it felt like like the whole movie was the whole movie, but it felt and I don't know if this is true like I don't know if he wrote that piece or what, but it felt like that little piece was like jason seagull being like this is who I am, you know right, this is me right, I get to make this movie, but I'm gonna put this piece in there because that's piece of me.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, I really want to share that.
Speaker 3:Maybe that's why, when you were like I love your puppeteer, he was like you saw me like thank you.
Speaker 4:You know, you appreciated the real him Right. A little tiny bit of real him. Well, the fight and we, we didn't.
Speaker 1:he's like I just want to stay on the down low, and Absolutely so. We walked away and then we probably screamed in the parking lot because I was completely fangirling.
Speaker 1:The funny thing was this was March 2020, right before COVID. My girlfriend and I Heather we had just worked on a book, we were about to launch it and we're like 2020 is going to be our year. This is the best we've ever. I mean, it's awful. The pandemic was terrible, but I have to laugh because it was just so funny. We're like we're going to go everywhere in 2020. So we go to the conference and we're like we can't tell anybody at Palm Springs because then they'll go bug him to her brother, who's like a theater guy. He goes. I'm sorry, who are those?
Speaker 3:people. Is that the couple who fix houses?
Speaker 1:in Texas. I'm just getting funnier. I mean, we would just look at each other and laugh all day long.
Speaker 3:All right, let's move on to your next song. What is a song for you that just opened you to an entirely new perspective, and how did it do this?
Speaker 1:I think I don't remember when I started listening to like Tupac. I mean, I always. I always like different types but I put Keep your Head Up by Tupac Shakur, if you don't know his last name. I remember like probably I don't know, maybe 10th grade, just listening to his music and I liked the beats. I always liked, you know, the beats of things, but with his work I always could. I could always listen to the lyrics, because that's not what I usually do, I usually like pulled into some bass or whatever the songs are, and then the lyrics are second.
Speaker 1:But I could always understand what he was saying and hear it and what resonated with the words he was saying, which was, you know, I feel like it was like an ode to Black women, which I am not a Black woman, but as a woman, it resonated to hear how he was talking about issues and women's rights and sticking up for women and asking men to kind of do better, and also talking about, I would say, socioeconomic things that I'm privileged to not have to deal with as a two-parent household having a home, good family, all of these things, disposable income, and I mean I guess it.
Speaker 1:Just I don't know if it opened my eyes because I had seen things before, but it really made me feel it more deeply to hear it told as encouragement to other people, especially to women. I wonder why we take from our women, why we rape our women. Do we hate our women? I think it's time to kill for our women, time to heal our women, be real to our women, and if we don't, we'll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies and make the babies and since a man can't make one, he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one.
Speaker 1:So will the real men get up? I know you're fed up, ladies.
Speaker 3:But keep it in.
Speaker 1:Give me your petalooja, I think he was like 22 when he wrote that yeah, you know Right right.
Speaker 1:But I don't feel like there was a lot of young men, I mean 22 years old. There was not a lot of young men sitting here talking about writing an ode to women, and he also talked about other things in that song, but I just thought that was really powerful, where here's somebody who had, you know, risen up pretty, I would think, pretty quickly, and he's using the platform to send a positive message of encouragement and hope and to show people that I see, you, you know, and the fact that his music right now like what is it, uh, 25 years later or whatever- yeah I mean I remember listening to some of his song like changes around the pandemic and like the 2016 election or 2020 and stuff, and just thinking it all holds so true right now.
Speaker 3:The song today, right now too yeah, yeah, I think for his age, um, for the genre, right, we don't see a lot of like progressive messages of women's rights coming from male hip-hop artists then or now. Um, and I hear you that, like just the way he would rap was so clear, I could understand his lyrics too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure Like a storytelling versus you know, like and all types are fun. You know and I want to. I would say like giving a shout out to like Tribe Called Quest and like other people who were definitely doing more positive messages as well, but versus like just you know know, like gangster rap or something perhaps right right, it's great that he could do both.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean he was associated with the like the west coast. You know I'm not going to call it gangster rap, but but he was there, was there, was there was definitely things that were not sort of activist related, that were also that he was also part of, and knew him, and snoop and, and and the west coast um guys I love.
Speaker 4:I think that that's also part of and knew him and Snoop and and the West coast guys I love. I think that that's the purpose of art, right, it's. It's to give a voice and to allow artists to express stuff and and and put out there. But then it's cool, this is, this is the receiving end of things. I mean, and you're absolutely right, you know, we I don't think any of us have experienced directly the stuff that maybe Tupac experienced as a child and how he was brought up and things like that. But I think it's great to get that perspective, to at least appreciate it and acknowledge it. I see that in art all the time. It's what's really's, it's what's really really a great thing about art. It's just being able to see other people's perspectives and and and at least know about it. You don't have to, you don't have to experience it directly, but but but to just know that it's out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think I mean that's one of the most perhaps. But like if you see a painting, if you see a film even if you're watching like a Netflix show and you can see what a character is or a book, you can enter into an understanding, like if you're open to it, you can really get outside of yourself and say like I might not understand how somebody could be X, but if you can get a gist of that and understand like that, that sticks with you and I can think that can help the world in a way. Understand like that that sticks with you and I can think that can help the world in a way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. And I think that's where, like you know the, you know dominant society, you know the, the, the white dominant society, when you know gangster rap and hip hop and rap in general was coming up. You know they, they didn't get it in ways because I think in a lot of people's minds it was like these people were pretending, right, they're trying to be tough and talk about this kind of street kind of cred or whatever. And when you realize that these were real artists sharing their experiences it's not this like pretending, like we're trying to be tougher than we are, like a white kid in the suburbs whose life is pretty comfortable and stuff, and it's like I'm hard and stuff, and it's like, no, they're talking about like the real experiences they're going through.
Speaker 2:And you know, tupac is someone for me who is like I. You know, obviously we all heard it growing up and things like that, but it wasn't one that I was like going to a lot to listen to and I remember being like man. Why is everyone so crazy about Tupac and stuff? And just over the years, as I've come across it more and more and doing things like this and hearing it, you just see it and, like you said, marissa, it just stands the test of time so well that you're like, wow, really, really just genius writing and rapping and all of it, so yeah yeah, he did a good job, I think, at like articulating things, where it walked between like very high level, uh, like you could tell he he knew what he was talking about with some things and I know he was like risen, his mom was an activist and such right right like, but then it also like could just anybody, anybody could access that Like?
Speaker 1:it didn't feel so highbrow, it's like you're going to talk about maybe a complicated concept or whatever, whether he knew a lot about that or not, but then it could be accessible by anybody who might not even know about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:I think I think he also had just like a depth and breadth of talent, like he made a lot of different kinds of of songs. You know, this was like much slower, more like melodic, more an ode to, you know, women, there was like more harder core stuff to say, like he wasn't a perfect individual. He had he made mistakes there were. You know he had problematic moments in his life, his life but he always also had like moments of empathy and clarity and justice and like yeah, yeah, he was he was kind of human and human way absolutely, or he let his humanity like come through with music yeah, yeah, I mean he was a good actor.
Speaker 2:Thinking back to yes, yeah, yeah he was that too totally, and I think it also goes back to what we were talking about with Jason Segel in the previous song. You know of what we want from our celebrities, right? Or artists, or our, you know, people we all admire or in awe of or whatever. We want to say that we feel the need to have them be perfect in ways right, and when they're not, we're somehow like, oh, that's, you know, now I can't listen to them anymore, or something like that. Right, you know, it's like there's, there's a part where it's like, no, we're all complicated individuals and things, and why would these artists that rise up and speak to so many of us be any different?
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure no. And I have noticed that, like you look at in the world or film or which I don't even necessarily want to get into today, but I'm like because it's very complex. It's like you can appreciate someone's art and then just be like oh my gosh, wow, this person has done some really terrible things. And how do we blend that?
Speaker 1:And it's better not to be obsessed with celebrities and hear everything about them and just have the music or art stand alone, but it does tarnish it I can for sure, and I think each one of us has to make that decision for ourselves, right of like.
Speaker 2:Maybe somebody does something that crosses a line for you where you're like I just can't listen to their music or watch their movies anymore, because I just can't. I it's too much to be able to keep it separate in that sense.
Speaker 4:So yeah, exactly yeah, I think someone in the night I think it was a um, an nba player may have been charles barkley, but famous famously said if we don't know the actual story, let's not name names. And but I love charles barkley all right, a, a, um, a celebrity from the nineties who shall remain, uh, nameless, uh. But some will definitely said you know, I'm not a role model but you know, don't judge me for for what?
Speaker 4:I for what? I for what I do outside of whichever entertainment you know, um avenue that I'm known for, it's like let me do my job, um, but then the stuff that happens outside of this entertainment sphere, don't?
Speaker 2:you know, I'm not a role model, yeah, I could see dennis rodman saying something like that yeah, yeah, but I remember, we don't know I'm not saying he said it, I'm speculating that it sounds like he's yeah yeah, that's gotta be weird.
Speaker 1:But speaking of meeting celebrities, one of my good friends saw Charles Barkley and he was in front of her at the Acme, bagging his own groceries and gave her a high five. Nice, I do love him and Shaq and their friendship and how they just make fun of each other oh, they're relentless. It makes me laugh so hard.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I've seen Kevin Hart get in the middle, in the middle of that too, and he'll, he'll, he'll get both of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see, we need. I think we need like humor, and laughter is so important, I think, in life, because it just it makes those hard moments, it makes life worth living. You know, it brings us together, it makes us laugh.
Speaker 3:Yeah, totally All right, let's let's move us ahead. Lots of times, we can associate music with just a particular moment in our lives, and so for this next song, what is a song that was a part of just kind of like a perfect moment where everything just felt right? What was the song and what was the moment?
Speaker 1:I chose. There's a band, neutral Milk Hotel, who I hadn't heard about. But there was this one summer in Indiana where I went to college and I met my now husband. There we worked in an art store together and we were just hanging out with all of our painter friends. Everybody had graduated, it was the summertime and we were just having fun. We were just hanging out in the studios and this song was just in the background, was like playing in someone's studio or like we would be driving around and it's just kind of like a weird kind of eerie, ethereal song.
Speaker 2:Um, I can let you hear it, I can chat about it out there, be in the arms of all I'm keeping here with me, me I.
Speaker 1:I realized that, like all my songs are tingeded with the shadows of existentialism, which kind of sums me up, even though I didn't realize that when I yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's part of this too. This process is that there's there's something revealed to us as the guests and the people that go through the process, more than just a report of here's facts and here's songs. Right, you kind of see things in it, yeah. Yeah, I also had to make sure to get that trombone in there, because I just love when that comes in. It's so perfect.
Speaker 1:And you know what it is too Like. I can't always like say, oh, I want to listen to this whole album straight, but start to finish. There are some that I absolutely can and it's like fun, but this album is like just a solid album. It was so good, kind of like. So my husband one of his roommates was this woman, courtney, and they're best friends, painters and I. Just one of my favorite memories was just getting to know her and become really good friends with her. That summer, like my husband was working two jobs and a boyfriend at the time he was like always working. He was working like 80 hours a week and it was crazy, um, but so we were pretty broke during this time. But it was also great that I could just like hang out in courtney's studio and like watch her paint and like play music and drink coffee and it was just I don't know just kind of a really wonderful summer. You know new friends and you know creativity and stuff.
Speaker 4:Can you, can you talk a little bit about how obviously you're an artist now, maybe about how this experience, or maybe during college, how that kind of inspired you to go down the path of becoming an artist, sort of I guess? I mean, I don't know if I don't know if you do this full-time, but but you know it's a big part of your life. So maybe tell us a little bit about how the college experience led to where you are now from an art perspective oh, absolutely so.
Speaker 1:I would say that, um, kind of like what you meant we were chatting about earlier, raza, that I always felt like I was decent at. You know a few things. You know I was like good at art, but I was also like good Sorry From the time I was like eight to like 18. I dove all the time but I fell in love with water polo in ninth grade and like switched over. You know I still dove because I kind of just did it, but my friends on the water polo team were just like the most fun. I felt like I truly belonged and they were nice kids. You know they weren't like I don't know. I felt, felt like not, I didn't fit in for a lot of my life, but I felt like I fit in with that group we would hang out and listen to music and just like go swim and play sports.
Speaker 1:But back to art, where it was like I was like not arty enough and not sporty enough. I was like this mix. I was like smart at school but I also like would get bored and want to daydream, you know. And um, I was like not Asian enough but also like not all white. So in many ways I've always felt like I'm between the things, but it's also like a superpower. Because I'm a bridge, I can kind of feel like I belong nowhere and everywhere at once. Oh, and how does that relate to art? Sorry.
Speaker 3:So I probably have a little.
Speaker 1:ADHD I'm thinking too, but not in a bad way. But I wanted to go to art school and I actually majored in studio art, but I just was like I thought you had to like know what you were doing and to be like a real artist and I just I was like I don't have all the ideas, I get bored and I want to do other things, which I realized is just, that's just fine.
Speaker 1:That's who I am. That works for me. So I ended up like not doing studio art. I'd got psychology and then I ended up doing interior design. But when I I always did art and when I started hanging out with all these real artists, there was a little bit of imposter syndrome around that, because I'm like, oh my gosh, these people are real painters and stuff and I'm just playing around. However, they were so encouraging about what I did and they never treated me like I couldn't do my own thing as well, and over the years I think I've just sort of embraced like I'm a maker, I'm a creator, I'm always doing something with my hands, even if I have pauses in time, but like being around all these people inspired me. And then I think being a mother was like if what I want to do most with my limited free time as a new parent is like still make time for art, then I needed to like start calling myself an artist and, um, lean more into that.
Speaker 4:So that's where I did more. Sounds. Sounds like a calling, right, that's at that point. You can call it. That.
Speaker 1:You can call it a calling, yeah maybe and I like to like kind of what you're doing, this podcast, you guys, like I, wanted to inspire others, because it's like I feel like if, if I'm feeling a certain way that I'm sure others are too.
Speaker 1:And because I'm at a point in my life where I feel pretty confident in myself and I can talk about like, oh, I felt really insecure about that, but that was kind of in my head and if I can help somebody else to then do what they want to do rainbow connection maybe- then it's like why not?
Speaker 1:We're here for a limited amount of time. Like why not try the things and have the fun and just go after it, Even if we look stupid? I'd rather look stupid than be resentful that I didn't try things that I wanted to, even if they don't work out how I want them to. Yeah, but totally have a day job, that's good. Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. I was hearing the song. I've never heard the song before, but hearing your intro into it and talking about like the summers and like fields and playing sports and hanging out with your friends, and like the melody of it like totally rang true to that, I felt like I could like see it. And then I was just thinking about like the really, really special time. I feel like there's this tiny window when you graduate college and you're like an adult but like real hard life hasn't quite hit. You know, I'm a family maybe yet, or something like that. There's this tiny window of fun that you have. You got a little bit of money, maybe like tiny, you know tiny bit.
Speaker 1:You can buy a drink or something, um, and you have long conversations with friends and like lazy sundays oh yeah no, I agree, it's almost like a yeah, long conversations till two in the morning exactly I was talking to somebody at my daughter's preschool I said I want to go to adult summer camp. We were at like a petting zoo for the kids. I'm like, let's, I'm sure we probably a million dollar idea we should do it. Yeah, totally, I mean that's what we want to do. We just want to like hang out with our friends and like have fun and enjoy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Not grind harder is in my opinion right, yeah, and and without the like, um, uh, concern of time, right because that's what gets me now is like, even if we get together, it's kind of like we have an hour, because that's you know how long the kids are at the, the, the night camp or whatever they're at it's kind of like so restricted and you feel like, okay, we got a limited time, we got to get to whatever we're going to talk about, and so, yeah, kind of like a summer camp, yeah, where you go away for a week or something like that or more.
Speaker 2:But yeah where you can just hang out and like you're not worried about. Okay, we got to get done with this activity because we got something else to get to.
Speaker 1:You're just like no we can stay in this conversation around the fire or whatever it. If yes, could it be awesome if we could all go to summer camp for like two weeks? And so my consulting job is employee engagement, workplace strategy and I help companies figure out what to do to keep their people happy and what to do with their real estate and space. But I always think about what brings us together and experiences. I always think about, like what brings us together and experiences. But even if we say, okay, we can't go to summer camp, but like what's a Saturday where we as a family can just say, okay, we're not going to do anything, we're going to maybe invite our friends over and just have like a super lazy day, and if we have a five-hour conversation, awesome, let the kids be 80s kids and figure it out. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And all too often you're you're right in that sense of like we feel like we've got limited time and we've got so many things to do, but we actually maybe don't Right and we can turn that off, and so it's just as much of a mentality as an actual sort of the limit of our time or something like that.
Speaker 1:I like that and I like that time is fluid, where you can. So one way if I'm swimming not like when I played water polo and you'd have to like swim underwater 20 laps without taking a breath or everybody has to do it again like kind of torturous, it was awful, but like that minute would last an eternity but then hanging out with you guys, like this is a fun conversation, like that's going to fly by. We're doing something that you enjoy, so how can we? Filter time maybe.
Speaker 2:Right, right, and allow ourselves those times to not be so focused on the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and having more intentionality, maybe, and just reshifting things. What do I need? I think about that when I'm helping a coaching client. What is it that you actually want and how can you find a way to do it, even if it's not perfect? If you want this, but you can go from here to the middle part, why not go for that? Maybe do one hour instead of five hours.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:But we're empowered to do that. I don't know where this conversation came from, but I feel like this is the place where this conversation came from, but I feel like this is the place.
Speaker 3:Well, it's existential Cause then. I'm like time is a construct and like why do we do that to ourselves? And like, limit our time and start counting our time, and it's like it happens.
Speaker 2:Bill our time.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm a consultant too, and so the billing of time constantly the counting, oh man, the counting of like minutes and time at work, oh no, I know, but you know, you guys. So cringy.
Speaker 1:I know We'll have to have an offline conversation because I'm like, oh, I love what you do.
Speaker 2:It went from like oh, summer is right after college to oh God, billable hours, billable hours.
Speaker 4:That's not where this conversation was supposed to go.
Speaker 3:My bad, my my bad.
Speaker 1:My bad. Maybe we need billable hours goals for fun For ourselves, exactly.
Speaker 3:Oh, there you go, there we go.
Speaker 2:Can you imagine? That's why you're the coach You're hired.
Speaker 1:It needs a better name than billable hours.
Speaker 4:I was just thinking, you know we should carve time for billable hours.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:It's like the nightmare never ends.
Speaker 1:The people that work with me. I'm always like, okay, what can you take off your plate? Or how can you like, can you half-ass that a little bit? You know, I think people put so much pressure on themselves and why can't we go back to some of these things? You know, this is our life. I want to have more, and not that I don't do all these things. I'm like I got to do this, I got to do this, but you know, I can just go be present and do something. That is like sitting on the couch watching stupid YouTube videos with my kid, and I feel like that should be a priority for me.
Speaker 2:You know he's only going to want to sit next to me for so long.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe right when I think you, you like, you hit on something so great and just bringing it back to you know this, this show, and like one of the ideas behind it was it came from. We were at a corporate holiday party with carolina's firm and everyone you know, like you do. There people were kind of talking about work and whatnot and stuff and I was just like I don't care about any of this, I want to hear what's the last concert you went to. And that was like and everyone was like I love that. And everyone started talking and it was just such like a a change and a shift in the, the vibe of the, the group, and so that was one of the things that was like, yeah, let's just do that, let's get together and have these types of conversations. So in a sense, like, yeah, this is what this is, it's carving out some of that that time, and so I love that and um.
Speaker 1:Carolina, I think we have a lot in common, but um, like I have a friend who we're brainstorming right now for fun he's he has like his and we're brainstorming friendship how to ask better questions, because he wanted to pick my brain. And it's like you said, david. First of all, with certain times in the economy, I almost think don't ask somebody what they do. Conversation. I would rather hear that you love oatmeal and you're like crazy about something like give that to me for five minutes, and I want to hear about like your weird fiber routine.
Speaker 2:And I really mean that it sounds so silly, but like, whatever your thing is nerd out, and I want to, just yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, I would like to like what makes, what lights you up, what are you excited about? Yeah, like asking a specific question. What's? A fun trip you took last year.
Speaker 3:Totally. You're so right when asking what you do, and I feel that now, because we live in Tennessee and I'm a DEI consultant and so I don't know how that's going to go and I'm like I'm a consultant and they're like, oh, what kind? And I'm like, oh shit, diversity, equity, inclusion, consultant. I had one guy just walk away, he was just like, and he just like walked off and I was like oh okay, all right, and so, yeah, yeah, I feel like you never know where that conversation's gonna go but then it's funny just get to know each other.
Speaker 1:It's better, yeah, but yeah. But at the heart of it it's like, okay, so somebody sees this title and they instantly are like, at the same time, you help people belong and make things more equitable, right, like that's not a bad thing, that's something that many people could agree on. You know at its core, Right, right. And then when you put this weird label on it, it's like, oh nope. It's just so funny, yeah, weird label on.
Speaker 2:It's like oh nope, it's so funny. Yeah, and that person themselves that walked away if you asked them. It's kind of like the things we say with titles and things and you sort of you know, they'll do things where they like describe socialism to people or something like that, but without the word, and they're like, yeah, I love all of that. And then you're like, yeah, that's this. And you're like, oh, you know, or whatever.
Speaker 2:And it's like I'm sure that person, if you said specific things about how they feel at work, they would be like, oh, yeah, I'm bothered by that, or I don't feel this is good or I'm not as this. And then you're like, yeah, that's the stuff we work on, right, you know. But it's just because it's this name and it kind of divides people into their two camps and they're like they're either for or against and that's what it is. And so, yeah, it's always about getting you went to or whatever. It's like I don't even care if I like the band or not, right, because that was the other thing. So many music conversations I had were just not enjoyable because it was the whole dei or not, or this side, or right or left. It's like you'd say a band you're like, and people would be like, oh, that band sucks, this band's better and stuff, and I'm like yeah, I knew them before
Speaker 3:they were totally right. Right, who Right?
Speaker 2:It's this whole thing about who's like you know more of a music person, right and and and whatnot, and I just was always like that misses the point of what it's what it's all about in that sense, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like instead of like. The one thing I love about music is like, I don't know I these people who are going to say the Taylor Swift concert. I saw Paul Rudd. He was saying wow, that was an experience. He's like it was amazing.
Speaker 1:It was really cool to hear like the dads talk about their daughters, the girl dads, yeah, yeah, and just saying, like, one person creating this music, you know, with other people, whatever brought together so many people for the shared experience, or like, but Beyonce's Renaissance tour or whatever, I'd love to go to these things, but you know I need to do that. It can bring you together or it can divide you, and if you're gatekeeping and one-upping with that and it's like, why can't we just let it bring us together, you know, and share this moment in this experience, cause it's so special, if you can.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. My big joke now about my job is I. Instead I just say I teach people to be nice to each other at work and that works.
Speaker 1:I um, I used to call myself. I was named by the CFO. He's like you're my office hostage negotiator and I put it in my bio Cause also. It's like telling people, if you're going to work with me, like I'm very professional, but I'm also going to like we're going to have fun, I'm going to do my job well and I'm going to listen to you. You're going to be seen, you know I love that, why not?
Speaker 3:I totally do that. Yeah, my goodness, all right. Well, there are perfect moments in our life, sometimes real challenges or difficult times, and music can help us there too. So for your next song, what's that song that maybe has helped you through a difficult time or situation?
Speaker 1:So I put my brother passed away when he was, when he was 24 and I was 27. He wonderful, wonderful person we were best friends, andrew but he had bipolar disorder and he had some addiction problems that kind of aligned with that. He had an accidental overdose when he was in 2005.
Speaker 1:So terrible, sad, but I wanted to say here, especially on this podcast, my family was so proud we are, we continue to be so proud of him because it is not easy to go through depression, to go through whatever people might be going through, and to me I think that if someone cannot understand what it could be like for another person, then count that as a blessing. You know I'm not going to assume that we're so proud of him for getting the help, for going to rehab, for trying his best and trying to destigmatize some of these things that so many people go through. But the song I picked was Heroes by David Bowie, which I want to just do. That song is about like lovers that I forget that when I read it I was like, oh my God, I just this is about my brother. It has nothing to do with. It's just like the platonic friendship, like we were felt like a pair, like two peas in a pod, so that and I'll talk more about the song, but I just want to be like disclaimer.
Speaker 2:You know that I just realized I'm aware that this is this, but that's not how I took it yeah, exactly yeah, when I was going through to pull out the clip of the song, um, I was like there and I'm like, okay, that lyric definitely doesn't work, we're going to leave that one out and stuff, but yeah.
Speaker 1:When I like, thought about it later I'm like, oh my gosh, yeah, thank you, david All right, let's take a listen, we could still time just for one day.
Speaker 4:We can be heroes forever and ever what you say.
Speaker 1:Thank you for pulling out a neutral clip.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I could totally like, in going through it, there's definitely ones where it's clear that these are lovers. But I, you know, knowing the story behind it and why you chose this song and why not just why you chose it, but why it was there at that time I could totally see how it would speak to you and and and your relationship with your brother and things like that, and it just it, yeah, it, it, yeah, it's powerful yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think like, well, this song, like I remember, so I don't know, I was able to take off three weeks for work because it was around christmas and stuff, but you know, blessing and curse, which which was good, and I remember like coming back like I don't know, going through grief and stuff.
Speaker 1:You know, you all know, sometimes, like driving in the car, it's like that's the safe space where apparently everyone like cries and it's probably dangerous. Like you know, you can scream, you can cry, and I just remember playing that song like times during, like that was like a very raw grief. You know where I'm not kind of unexpected and I just remember, like, like it feels like you're just, you know, maybe standing with the standing out, like there's an abyss, you know, and just thinking about like I will never see him again. And the parts of that song you guys are making me a little bit clumsy now the parts of that song that stood out was like when it's like, you know, people would like judge a little bit, like they would say like, oh, maybe if he hadn't had a mohawk, you know, or like, assume that because he listened to punk and he listened to hip-hop, everything, like, oh, if he hadn't done drugs, it was his fault, or that the loss wasn't as deep of a loss because it wasn't an accident, it wasn't a health issue.
Speaker 1:He did this to himself and I just remember you're seeing my pain, you're seeing your parents like they call it, like this double edged grief. I'm totally okay Like watching my parents go through this and then also like your sibling is, who is like two peas in a pot, like that's the person that you go through life, your whole life with.
Speaker 1:Hopefully they know your history and I felt like it was all person that you go through life, your whole life, with, hopefully, they know your history and I felt like it was all gone, you know, but also like that song had so much hope to it, where it's like just for one day. You're thinking that maybe one day I could see him just for one day, and that would, that might be enough you know, I wasn expecting this, but I'm totally okay with that.
Speaker 1:Like I think it's okay to feel the feelings and it speaks to the power of music and like being with like minded people that you know I think get it, you know, and the there's like angst and anger in it and like hope, and those were the feelings that made me feel hopeful and more like like empowered versus just like I can't get out of this. You know it's going to be okay. So, anyway, that's what that song was for me. I just play that over and over on my way home sometimes and you know I can't remember and I didn't want to forget I think it was the remembering to that part really right now Not any other lyrics.
Speaker 3:Well, with I start to see themes with with guests you know we've had multiple guests with losses and like you know just all kinds of things and you start to see just like themes of humanity, like the way our lives kind of tend to go. I mean, we humanity, like the way our lives kind of tend to go, and we've said it a bunch of times I feel like you don't pick the song, the song picks you and so like, whatever those lyrics were, this song just like picked you in this moment to represent things that maybe you needed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's just like the. So like I mentioned before with the Tupac reference, where I don't always listen to the lyrics, but it's just like this feeling of like you, without even the words. You can feel like the hope, the angst, but it seems like there's going to be a good ending, in a way that it's going to be worth it or something. You'll get through to something I don't know and it's just like dude, David Bowie is just awesome. Like I don't know, and it's just like dude.
Speaker 1:David Bowie is just awesome Like he's so much fun I loved him.
Speaker 2:Of course, of course, yeah, I was like operatic type things yeah.
Speaker 4:That's another theme. I feel like it's amazing how different songs have completely different meanings and I think, just yeah, carolina, like you were saying, we've had people on the show express all sorts of different emotions and songs tied to those emotions and you know the ones that are tied to grief and loss are, at least for me. I always remember those and the songs that are tied to those emotions, and now this song, the fact that, marissa, that you have this specific event attached to this song, it just makes it that much more poignant and significant. And, again, lyrics have nothing to do with your meaning behind it but, like you said, certain words, certain words, certain just phrases resonate with you, with you based on your experience, in a certain way, and that's just really, really amazing to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's funny though, cause it's like you guys got me thinking with the survey and, as I thought about it, it's like, oh, okay, berlin wall, Like the song was about you know two people, no-transcript. He listened to everything and, you know, would wear like eight inch tall mohawk. That was blue. They called him Blue Stegosaurus. But then I remember one time he was at like BCC and there was a talent show outside. It was also really funny and these kids were singing like I think it was like everybody in the club getting tips or something on a talent show stage, but they didn't know the words to it. And he's like yo, why don't you know the words? And they're like you think you can do better. There was four guys dancing and he's like yeah, so he gets on stage with them and he starts. He rapped the whole song for them. They were like what? And these guys were in the background dancing and it's on a video. I've I've never seen anything like. That was my brother.
Speaker 2:He would just surprise you that's awesome sounds like a really cool dude, hey, well, let's see this good boy yeah, I also think this is, you know, just that thing of why I don't really like as much talking about music in an objective sense as just the song out there and whether it's good or where do we rank and stuff like that. Because I've had this idea before about just within, like each one of us, how you know we don't like. When it was me, I was like I've never read the same book twice. Don't get me wrong. I've read the same title multiple times. There's books out there that I've read multiple times throughout my life, but it's never been the same book. Because I'm different, right, I'm in a different place, and so in so many ways, I feel like art, whether it's literature, music or whatever, is just a mirror for ourselves, right, and we can never look in the same mirror twice because we're always different in that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, David, why weren't we?
Speaker 2:friends in high school. What the heck we're all figuring ourselves out and stuff you know. But you know, this is such a perfect example for it because, like what you're saying, how you know, it's not just the lyrics, lyrics, and I could imagine some asshole coming up to you and being like you know, that shouldn't be the song, because it's really about two lovers and what you're in love with you and it's like yeah, yeah, shut the fuck up.
Speaker 2:You know, come on, that's not the point and and I say right, and I say that because I know this song.
Speaker 2:I mean I know from david bowie, but where I hear it a lot. You know, we're a big hockey family and our daughter plays hockey and this was a song one year for the NHL. It was either in the video game or like the NHL, and they would play this highlight reel of, like you know, champions going for the Stanley Cup and it's like we could be heroes, right, and it's got a very different feel there than it does with the story you're talking about, with the loss of your brother, and it's like, well, which is it? What kind of song is it? And it's like it's both Right, and that's what is really important is that it's what it is to you and that's it.
Speaker 2:These pieces of art don't exist just out in the ether, right, it's only through interaction with us that they become something. And so I just really appreciate you sharing this story for one and everything you said about your brother and addiction and things that go along with it, but also really just hitting home that point for us of how like it's about that interaction, like how the song hit for you and how it served as a mirror for you. That really matters.
Speaker 1:I think that's so true, though, because we relate to what we know. You pull out, you're like cherry picking bits and for fun we could look at. Oh, what is the meaning? You think about the walls that we put up, or the walls of isolation, that if someone is dealing with depression or grief or isolation, or how if, even though someone you love so much, you can't access a part of them, perhaps because they're they can't, they're not there- physically or they can't show up in that way, for whatever that is, and it's just yeah, okay, we are gonna.
Speaker 3:we're going to do quite the pivot, so get ready. Sometimes music can transport us back to a particular time or place. So for this next song, what is that song for you? And when you hear it, you're just like instantly taken back to a particular time and place. What song is it to?
Speaker 1:a particular time and place. What song is it? I will say, as a South Florida person, this is the real train song. For anybody who likes other songs, it's Scarred by Luke and to me this is the best. I don't know 90s booty music. It was just the beats, the start. It brings everybody to the dance floor. It transports me to a club trying to make sure no, a club trying to like make sure no one's trying to dance with me, because some of those guys were gross just being with my friends.
Speaker 1:You know you know, I mean, like I do the elbow move, I do you make this like circle with your girlfriends, that is like, yeah, and then you throw your elbows.
Speaker 2:So if anybody tries to get too close, you're like get out there drinks up high so they don't get spilled. Yeah, all of that, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:And for everyone listening if you are not as familiar with this. This is the beginning of the song, and so most of the time I pull out clips kind of in the middle, cause that's where the music song is. But the key part of this and and what Marissa is talking about is when you hear this song- come on and you get to the dance floor, this dance floor.
Speaker 4:This is how it starts, and this In the house, bitches Butch Watchin' my feet, feet On feet, and girls Do the Cut me. Yeah, yeah, like my whole, never hung up this Feet On Feet, this, this, this, this, this, this.
Speaker 1:This, yeah, you got to respect how it was written.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's just like core memory of high school for me. If I had to like summarize one song, that that song. I don't know anybody who didn't love that song. I don't know. If you don't like that song, I'm not going to be no.
Speaker 4:I loved it. I love it. I never admitted.
Speaker 2:I probably never admit, but I can see you in the corner with your typo negative shirt on going.
Speaker 1:Maybe, but you don't know the daddy.
Speaker 4:Yet yeah, and that's the funny part is that I again maybe a South Florida thing, maybe a you know, Fort Lauderdale plantation, Florida thing. We were exposed to everything, all the different types of music. I loved type O and Metallica and like the heavy stuff as much as I really enjoyed this as well. I could not dance and I was probably out in the corner with long hair, but man, did I enjoy it, Did. I love the vibe and everything Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I liked about our school. I know you guys talk about Plantation High School a little bit. There were so many, at least in the 90s, and it's funny. I'll talk about this with my husband who same year graduated in 97. He was a skateboarder, he was listening to NWA in fifth grade too, all of the things. We both had an experience where everyone was kind of open to different music and kind of just got along Because I think that we had such. It was a good thing that we had so much diversity at our school and we were exposed to things. But I thought that that song and the step team, for whatever reason, because they were amazing, could bring everybody together.
Speaker 1:I don't know anybody who would say I don't love watching the step team perform because I think they were, they're bad-ass. Shout out to Jason Gibson, you know, and like that song just made everybody enjoyed it and it's like totally South Florida.
Speaker 2:Whether you were listening to heavy metal or even like country music.
Speaker 1:I feel like everybody liked that.
Speaker 2:I remember at a school dance in middle school, at Plantation Middle School, and the DJ, who was like hired, was I forget if he was like one of the assistant principals or what I can't remember his name, but middle-aged white dude, beard and stuff like that, and he'd play all the cool stuff or whatever.
Speaker 2:But I remember this key point where a student middle school student he allowed him to come up and DJ a little bit and it was just this scene of this middle-aged, bearded white dude and this black middle school boy just rocking out and it was music like this, it was booty music and dance music and stuff and he was up there DJing the kid and stuff and it was exactly what you're describing there. This moment of just like this is what it's about. These are, you know, we talked about sort of the divisions we have and the different things and stuff, and here's a thing where people from two different worlds coming together around music and stuff and and, of course, every, all of us were just having a blast with it and it was a great time and just, yeah, really powerful.
Speaker 1:I'm like I think I was. I might've been at that dance. You probably were, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you were.
Speaker 1:No one asked me to dance, but I remember like um they were playing doodoo Brown.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like yes, this is Brian Adams, or an intro to a song yeah Brown opening.
Speaker 2:And I think it, I think it might have been doo doo brown, that the the kid I can't remember who the kid was, but was was actually, like you know, mixing. He had like both playing, you know, and kind of going back and forth and doing a little scratching or something like that. But I want it.
Speaker 1:That probably was a song it just made you feel like I don't know. It just made, I mean, I was listening, like I think about, like if what was I listened to is like a fifth and sixth grader, I don't know how I got uh, my hands on um like gnr lies, which I'm like, oh, like I love them, but I'm also like oh, really misogynistic and like really a lot of problematic themes that we kind of mentioned, but also I love some of those songs, but then like listening to like all this, like you know, dirty rap music either that was coming on, but it was great.
Speaker 1:And the kids today, when we're like like, oh, what do they listen to? Oh, we listen to stuff with a lot of adult themes as well, like right, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:We told our daughter like yeah, there's, there's nothing. You could probably play for us, that wouldn't blow we grew up on two live crew and stuff like yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's really good to see that.
Speaker 2:And just such a strong connection too with with this music and and uncle Luke and two live crew, because, going back to plantation middle school again, when Luke Skywalker was on his you know obscenity trial, one of the assistant principals at plantation middle school was on the jury for that case and stuff and so it just felt like so cool, it was us, it was ours right, this fight, this battle of free speech, and everything was happening right where we were.
Speaker 1:In that sense and yeah, I think too, like those, like so a lot of people knew two live crew because my husband's like they were listening to two live crew for whatever reason, like this song. I don't think it didn't seem to have left South Florida as much, because people I speak to outside they're scarred. They don't necessarily know that one, but I do remember. I was actually, I was in college my boyfriend at the time he was a DJ and he was DJing a party and I had, sadly, one of my friends from high school, from water polo, had passed away. So I I went home for the funeral and, kind of as a shout out to me, so I wasn't there. They played some booty music at this party and they played scarred and everyone was like what is this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, if you're listening to this and you were from somewhere else than South Florida and you're a zennial young, younger gen X, you know. Is this a song you were listening to in middle and high school, or or not? Let us know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they also can be called the Goonies. That's what they said.
Speaker 3:Let's Oregon trail, generation X zennials and goonies goonies, which I'm down for. Yeah, nice, it's a fun song. It is a fun song I, I think of college. Um, I went to university of miami and, okay, there was a club and the top floor of like coco walk. It was it baja. I don't remember okay memories no, it wasn't kim, I think it was baja beach Club. But I remember I remember like this kind of song playing and I remember all of us dancing to it and I remember like the big buckets of like beer with like servers and like the stuff and it was just.
Speaker 3:It was just a free-for-all of like fun.
Speaker 1:I think it's funny that it brings like there's like a pride that everyone has across every I don't know every type of person For certain types of music. It's just kind of like oh yeah, we love our, you know, south. Florida booty music. You know that's funny. You know I work in corporate real estate, like as a consultant there, which is, you know, professional, but I feel like people who are, you know, like real estate brokers are usually kind of like a little fun Maybe sometimes they're not as corporate as, like you know.
Speaker 1:So I'll be in on teams getting ready for a meeting or something, or like sending a message, and a lot of the gifts or gifs that I send to people, I'll send like trick daddy one to somebody you know or to one of my favorite miami brokers. I'm like, all right, good job. You know, here's this and it's like a picture of trick daddy and I just think it's so funny that it still continues to like resonate. You know everybody yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4:This is when they get, when they get the joke right, like especially in the in the corporate world and I mean I can speak for like lawyers and stuff like that there's nothing that that's more fun than you're right Like like a really sort of you know, official, professional, corporate win and, like you said, you know you share some sort of a meme or something and it's completely unrelated to work, but they get it. The humanity it shows, the inside of people. Absolutely, it's awesome.
Speaker 3:I always want to send a pitbull, like you know, dally but then I'm like no one's gonna get it.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. No, well, they don't.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mr 305 god, I know I don't. I don't work with anyone. That was like from like the south floor, I work very like he's mr worldwide yes it's which is?
Speaker 2:it? Is he 305 or worldwide?
Speaker 3:This is my question how is he both? But that's a discussion for a whole other episode and we can have him on.
Speaker 1:He went to high school in Carroll City with one of my friends.
Speaker 3:Here's your invitation Come on the show and we'll talk about your worldwide-ness and your 305-ness. Yeah, which is it Hard-hitting?
Speaker 2:questions. That's what we really want to know.
Speaker 3:Oh my God. All right, we are at your last song, like that kind of flew, but we're at your last song and for this one we'd love to know what song that is just like intimately connected to another activity you might be doing. Could be a book or a trip to a certain location, something like that what is it for you?
Speaker 1:I location something like that what is it for you? I picked a kind of silly song, but it's awesome. It's by this band called BER that I think did music, but it's called the Night Begins to Shine. But I know of it from watching Teen Titans Go with my kids and it's this awesome scene. So parents who have watched it with their kids, or if they're just fans of the show, they either like are like oh my gosh, I love that song, or like they're like what is this? I have no idea.
Speaker 2:Let's take a listen the night begins to shine.
Speaker 3:The night begins to shine. The night begins to shine. The night begins to shine.
Speaker 4:This one sounds more disco-ish. It's like an ABBA type feeling.
Speaker 1:ABBA, that's what I was just about to say it's just funny.
Speaker 1:It's like there's this show and it's like characters but there's like, well, it's just funny. It's like there's this I don't know this show and it's like you know characters, but there's like a cyborg and he's just he's actually cleaning and he's thinking about like the song and he and all of a sudden he's transported and they have like this 80s music video that is making fun of itself, because the show is silly and it's like eagles are flying and there's unicorns and it's hilarious, right, eagles are flying and there's unicorns and it's hilarious, right. So my son and I will like the thing about that is like I want to show up for my kids, right. But I'm also like an enthusiastic person and I'll get hooked into stories. So it's not like I'm not necessarily trying, I'm just watching things with him and I'm like, okay, what's going on? Well, are they dating? Like what's? Is that person mad? And I'll get like hooked into the storylines, like why, where did the dogs get the money to get these vehicles, you know, and um. So I'm like I'm all in.
Speaker 1:But in this show it's just like this video just summarizes it up, because it's like totally 80s, totally ridiculous, it's over the top and um, and we just crack. So it just makes me think about like times with my kids and just trying to like show up for their interests, but then also like getting sucked in and I think that's a good thing. Like I want them to remember that I love spending time with them and if they're interested in something, I love to learn more about that. You know, like, dude, we talk about Godzilla. I know so much about Godzilla now and Kaiju, and you know all the Jurassic world. You know it's fun yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's awesome Unicorns.
Speaker 1:Unicorns is the new one. I have a five-year-old daughter, so you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's really the essence of it. I mean, like this isn't't a show about parenting, but you know it comes up a lot because you know a lot of people we interview are parents, and so it comes up, and especially because we're talking about music from our younger time, this, you know, the thought of, you know how we are as parents, comes up and it's really that thing of you know what I say about the show we're focused on curiosity, not judgment. Right here we're not judging people's musical tastes or anything like that. And what you just described is exactly that. You just got to be curious about what your kids are into. Don't judge it, just be curious and you'll learn so much about them. And so often I think we can forget that right, and it's so important to just embrace, just be curious with them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I remember when I was a, a kid, um, my one aunt, um called her aunt Sissy. She was, she still is. She was always curious about what we were. She always talked to us like we were people, not like we were children. And that made such an impact on me because they're not a lot of adults who treat you like you're worth you know. I don't even know if they mean to, but they just assume that you need help or whatever. Right.
Speaker 1:Or that you know let me teach you something, instead of being like oh, what are you learning about? What do you think? And I love that about her. And so I try to like when I I've always loved children and babysitters club and I would always babysit and stuff. I always try to remember that and like, oh they're, they remember what it's like let me be the same like my aunt was, and they are interesting.
Speaker 1:I mean, we have so much I feel like we can learn so much about them and we can, like we're all trying to unlearn all the stuff that we learned. You know, let's just right, totally sorry, rosalind, what were?
Speaker 4:you saying, yeah, no, I think you just touched on something really really important, um, for for us as parents, Um, I think we're all parents here and you know our kids are different ages and stuff.
Speaker 4:Um, I, I, I definitely noticed that there's a difference between how kids our age or my, my kids' age through their teens and they look at adults nine times out of 10 as these weird old, old fart, you know, whatever. And it's funny because my goal as a parent before becoming one was always that, look, I want to be a young parent, I want to be interested in whatever it is that my kids are interested in whenever I, you know, we decide to have kids, and it's funny that the, the, the uh, the little anecdote you just mentioned about your aunt, that's that is the right way to be, I think, Um, you know, just showing an interest in, in, in, in these little people, because they have their own, they have their own lives and interests and things like that. We don't need to be scolding them all the time. It's like just ask questions, things like that. We don't need to be scolding them all the time. It's like just ask questions hey, what are you interested in what?
Speaker 1:do you do? Tell me about your day.
Speaker 3:You know just something very basic like that yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was fun, well, and that's such a key, right?
Speaker 2:That's such a key point, right? Parents are, you know, almost universally frustrated by that. Kid. Come home from school or camp or whatever and it's's like how was your day? Fine? And you're always like, why don't I get more? But I guarantee, if you ask them a question about their thing, they're into the tv show, the music, the video game, whatever it is they do.
Speaker 1:You're gonna get a ton of information right and so that's your, that's your way into them yeah, like it goes back what we were saying before on like instead of like, asking what is your job. It's like you know not that this always works. Like what made you laugh today? Or like who's in a fight today?
Speaker 1:like something specific that can help them like maybe have an analogy, because it is hard to be like how was your day? I mean I might say fine too, or you just exhausted after school because they have to sit there all day.
Speaker 2:I also read something once recently that was like you know, stop asking that. Not because it's not even just a good question to get information, but it's actually setting them up to make themselves feel like they need to have a good day and if they had a bad day, that's somehow wrong, right? So getting more at these questions of like, what did you struggle with today, or what was difficult or whatever you know, so you're not putting this value judgment on they have to like because that's what we all get to right we get frustrated because we feel we have to put a brave face on for everybody and just be like everything's great Right. And we kind of learned that from young, because when people ask us how was your day, and you're like I guess I need to say it was good, because that's what they want to hear rather than no, it kind of sucked and you know so, and so was mean and this was tough and whatever it was, hard it is.
Speaker 1:I try to share some of that too. Like, yeah, you know, like I, somebody was mean to me today and it hurt my feelings and then I remembered, you know, like, just like that happened with you and your friend, you know, or I think like it was funny. I was my, my kid needed. He wasn't gonna like tell me of something, um, but we ended up going for a walk. He was super frustrated. I was like, let's just go for a walk, let's move our legs and whatever. Let's walk the dog. And then he just like held my hand and he started talking about all of these things, all the drama. I was like what happened, but it was.
Speaker 1:You know, I didn't want to make a big deal about it, but I felt very honored that he wants to share all of these things with me.
Speaker 3:You know, and it's like just being a safe person for when they need you. Mm-hmm, you know. Yeah, well, marissa, we have come to the end of your six songs. How does it feel to like hear your life reflected through music and these particular six songs?
Speaker 1:I think it was really fun. Um, and I was actually surprised with the songs, like when I was thinking through, like what songs are really meaningful and like what I like that there's this, like six, there's like a nice parameter. Um, kermit totally, absolutely would have thought that, but some of the other ones I'm kind of surprised at because I might not be like oh, this is my favorite song, but this is like a real, I don't know historical milestone or placement of life that kind of characterizes something you know and also just thinking about, like, what parts of life are really important.
Speaker 1:You know, because, like I've been with my husband for like I don't know 20 I can't do them since 2002, whatever.
Speaker 1:That is like 22 years 22 years yeah I'm not one of those people, but I'm like who knows all the dates? But I'm like that's a long time, but I think, um, there's so many of the earlier years that are so formative that, um, I don't associate all of those with him, but I don't know why, it was fun, okay, yeah, I'm not surprised that scarred showed up, though yeah, I mean, yeah, I went for I wore a shirt for you guys, a band shirt yeah and there's some sense of like you know your questionnaire, right, the full amount of questions is.
Speaker 2:You know you had multiple songs for certain questions and stuff, and so if we, if the show was a Life in 27 song, right, it might be a more perfect reflection. And so you're somewhat like you're sharing this full story and then you know we're pulling out six that we're going to talk about, and so there is a little bit of a selectivity of like these are the things we're going to talk about, and so in some ways, yeah, it might be like oh, that's interesting, that that's the one that made it in, or something like that.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, but I think editing is important. Like in anything, let's connect it back to life. It's like we can't do all the things, but when you're like what is the most important or what is the most meaningful, and just yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's why the name of the show is a life in six songs and not an entire life in six songs, right.
Speaker 1:It's six moments. I enjoy this and I would reckon, would reckon. Yeah, I'm like I told one of my friends actually another person from high school I was like you need to go on this show. Like this is my friend, tarika. I'm like she just like her wealth of knowledge and music, and she's one of the best humans that I connected with at plantation. We weren't like best friends or anything, but we just um like we're soulmates, like kindred spirits. And this is up her alley. I'm going to send her your way, maybe.
Speaker 2:Nice yeah, definitely Please.
Speaker 1:But we're not done yet, okay.
Speaker 2:Quite yet All right, kick it over to Raza for our little lightning round Cool.
Speaker 4:So lightning round, Marissa, Cool. So lightning round, Marissa. What is your first, last and best or favorite concert?
Speaker 1:Okay, my first and I'm counting this, it was Raffy. Do you guys know who that is?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Dude Raffy is amazing.
Speaker 2:Okay, we got Blank Stairs and others yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know, baby Beluga.
Speaker 4:Oh baby Beluga.
Speaker 1:We, we saw him at like, at like the Parker playhouse and he, he was amazing. You know I was probably like eight, but it was just so much fun. We got to see the live music and those were songs that we loved and he was so much fun and I just love that Nice being Rafi and then the oh nice thing raffy, and then the oh my gosh, the last one I.
Speaker 1:It's been a long time, you guys, since with kids and child care and stuff, I think the last show I might have gone to was, um, it was cool. I got to see the national in yolo tango in philadelphia. It was like 10 years ago though awesome yeah, it was a really fun show.
Speaker 1:The national was their um high violet album, which was a really fun one. The national was their high violet album, which was a really fun one. And I I liked to yellow tango a lot. I mean I liked them in college. They're beautiful, beautiful songs, but it was really fun and the show was in this like really cool, like historical place in Philadelphia and then they taped the show, so it was just like a really neat experience.
Speaker 2:Like they taped the show, so it was just like a really neat experience.
Speaker 1:Like they taped the show and they were running around. It was a wonderful performance. And then probably the coolest show I went to, I was gonna say the roots. But randomly, and again, in philadelphia they have this like it was. It was the first unitarian church. It was this place called the church. They would have like a lot of punk shows and stuff, but randomly the vaselines were playing there. We're like, wait, what you know? Because that was really cool and like it was a small show, we we showed up and we went and it was just, it was very cool. There might have been like I don't know a hundred people or less in the room, but it was like a really small venue and it was just really cool to hear these songs. You know, I think that one was really cool.
Speaker 4:Nice.
Speaker 2:Very cool, that sounds awesome. Love it, love it.
Speaker 3:So, as we get ready to sign off, in the last couple minutes we have left, if you'd love to plug or tell us something you've got going on that people might be interested in, or if your story maybe really resonated with somebody how they can get in contact with you, we'd love that.
Speaker 1:Thank you First of all. Thank you. I had such a fun time with all of you, getting to know you a little bit. I'm happy to talk to you in the future not on a podcast anytime and help to spread the word and support your project. What am I up to? I'm kind of in a weird transition where I'm just trying to prioritize, like creating for myself. I've been what am I doing? I've been embroidering.
Speaker 1:I've been like having fun embroidering this jean jacket for fun like just to make art for myself and kind of painting, but I'm not doing a ton. People can get in touch with me. I'm not doing a ton People can get in touch with me. I'm on Instagram a lot, so Marissa Huber is my, my handle, and I like to use Instagram stories as like a little mini playlist to have fun with songs. That's a little tie in Nice. Yeah, find me on Instagram or Marissa Hubercom.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Thank you so much for being here and for vulnerably sharing. We appreciate it, you're welcome.
Speaker 1:I had a really wonderful time. Thank you for having me and for creating this wonderful safe space awesome.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, marissa. All right, everybody. Um, you know the drill with this remember, like and subscribe so you are abreast of future episodes. If you like what you've heard here, share it with your friends, your community, your circle, so we can get more people hearing these stories and connecting back with music in a kind, loving, curious way. And with that we will see you next time on A Life in Six Songs.
