Lighten Up part I

Lighten up. (meaning)

Idioms & Phrases

Become or cause to become less serious or gloomy, and more cheerful. For example, Lighten up, Sam it'll turn out all right . This slangy expression transfers reducing a physical weight to a change of mood or attitude.

Verb.

1. Lighten up - make more cheerful; "the conversation lightened me up a bit"

2. Lighten up - become more cheerful; "after a glass of wine, he lightened up a bit"

3. Lighten up - make lighter or brighter; "The paint will brighten the room"

4. Lighten up - become lighter; "The room lightened up"

(A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word (part of speech) that in syntax conveys an action (bring, read, walk, run, learn), an occurrence (happen, become), or a state of being (be, exist, stand). In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive.)

Jerry Jeff Walker

Mr. Bojangles did lighten the mood

"Mr. Bojangles" is the title of a song originally written and recorded by American country music artist Jerry Jeff Walker (born Ronald Clyde Crosby on March 16, 1942 in Oneonta, New York.) for his 1968 album of the same title. Since then, it has been recorded by many other artists, including American country music band The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, whose version (recorded for the 1970 album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy) was issued as a single and rose to number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart in 1971. Live versions of the song appeared on Walker's 1977 album, A Man Must Carry On and his 1980 album The Best of Jerry Jeff Walker.

The song was inspired by an encounter with a street performer in the New Orleans first precinct jail. Although this man could tap dance, the inspiration for the song was not the famous stage and movie dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, nor the New Orleans blues musician Babe Stovall.

According to Walker, a murder on the July 4th weekend of 1965 precipitated the arrest of all the street people in the area. In the crowded cell, a dishevelled, old, homeless man got talking to Walker, who had been arrested earlier in the day. The man told various stories of his life, but the tone darkened after 'Mr Bojangles' recalled his dog that had been run over. Someone then asked for something to lighten the mood and the man obliged with a tap dance."

Recorded versions

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Walker's song has been recorded by many popular artists, including Garth Brooks, Kristofer Åström, Chet Atkins, Hugues Aufray (French version, 1984), Harry Belafonte, Bermuda Triangle Band, David Bromberg, Dennis Brown, The Byrds, JJ Cale, David Campbell, Bobby Cole, Edwyn Collins, Jim Croce, Jamie Cullum, King Curtis, Sammy Davis Jr., John Denver, Neil Diamond, Cornell Dupree, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Tom T. Hall, John Holt, Whitney Houston, Queen Ifrica, Billy Joel, Dave Jarvis, Nina Simone, Elton John, Frankie Laine, Lulu, Rod McKuen, Don McLean, MC Neat, Harry Nilsson, Esther Phillips, Ray Quinn, Mike Schank, Frank Sinatra, Todd Snider, Cat Stevens, Jim Stafford, Radka Toneff, Jamie Walker, Robbie Williams, Buck Fisher, Bebe Neuwirth, Nina Simone and Dolly Parton.

Nina Simone

A dance choreographed by Bob Fosse to the song appeared in the 1999 West End & Broadway theater show Fosse, having previously been featured in Fosse's 1978 show Dancin'.

Furthermore, composer Philip Glass makes reference to "Mr. Bojangles" in his minimalist opera Einstein on the Beach.

Jim Carrey also performed this song in his earlier stand up routines and in his first movie Copper Mountain.

Sammy Davis, Jr performed the song on television.

Mr. Bojangles Lyrics

I knew a man Bojangles and he'd dance for you

In worn out shoes

With silver hair, a ragged shirt, and baggy pants

The old soft shoe

He jumped so high, jumped so high

Then he lightly touched down

I met him in a cell in New Orleans I was

down and out

He looked to me to be the eyes of age

as he spoke right out

He talked of life, talked of life, he laughed

clicked his heels and stepped

He said his name "Bojangles" and he danced a lick

across the cell

He grabbed his pants and spread his stance,

Oh he jumped so high and then he clicked his heels

He let go a laugh, let go a laugh

and shook back his clothes all around

Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles

 Mr. Bojangles, dance

He danced for those at minstrel shows and county fairs

throughout the south

He spoke through tears of 15 years how his dog and him

traveled about

The dog up and died, he up and died

And after 20 years he still grieves

He said I dance now at every chance in honky tonks

for drinks and tips

But most the time I spend behind these county bars

'cause I drinks a bit

He shook his head, and as he shook his head

I heard someone ask him please

Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles

 Mr. Bojangles, dance..

Italian Party in Sweetgrass

Gany made the picture of the winners. On the cover notice was written:

Sunday the disco was moved to Italy, where the visitors - Mona Lisa included - celebrated this beautiful country by dancing, eating pizzas, drinking wine and enjoying each other.

DJ Rik spinned fabulous tunes! Six people won the contest:

Aitalas, Mona Christo, Curtis, Jace, Luca and Pietro, congrats boys!

We collected pictures in our album, which you can find at:

http://sweetgrassparties.weebly.com

Press Play in the left top to start the show.

Next Sunday we have a Skirt Party with DJ JRose!

 I had a nice chat with Alina. She did send me this picture of Mona Lisa

 My thanks go to eros Boa who made La Gioconda, a complete Mona Lisa outfit. 

In the Gutter Party @ T.R.A.C.S

Our Saturday party almost went down the gutter when our DJ did not show. Thankfully DJ Beef could help out. Also I had some trouble with the DJ board so I have to check that thing this week, but finally all went fine. Our guest showed there creativity, as always, with the theme. Here are the pictures I made.

Coco and Przemko are often the first guests and always stay till the end of the party.

Beef and Lexzia

Martin,  Sabrina and Alvei

Funny dancing rats

It seems I forgot to detach my sneakers

Norbie and Gany

Norbie and Fio

Fio

Simplicior

Rod and Eleutherios

No this is not a drunk guest but a nice made 3d figure

In the Gutter Party at T.R.A.C.S

Saturday May 18, Noon SLT (9pm CET)

L$1500 to win for the best in theme

T.R.A.C.S at Timothy Plaza at River Island

http://slurl.com/secondlife/River%20Island/221/249/22

IN THE GUTTER part III

Gutter figurative  (metaphoric, not literal)
Eddi was one step ahead of me with his comment on the last post:

You can also talk as if "your mouth is in the gutter" using bad profanity.

I grew in New York City where the word is pronounced gut-tah (no hard r at end) and I remember my mother yelling at me out the window to "stop playing in the gut-tah" since it was the dirtiest part of the street to play in. She wanted me to play on the sidewalk.

Eddi Hasskell

In the gutter

Figurative [of a person] in a low state; poor and homeless. (*Typically: be ~; fall [into] ~; put some-one [into] ~.) You had better straighten out your life, or you'll end in the gutter.

His bad habits put him into the gutter.

In the gutter

Appropriate to or from a squalid, degraded condition. For example, The language in that book belongs in the gutter . An antonym, out of the gutter,  means "away from vulgarity or sordidness," as in That joke was quite innocent; get your mind out of the gutter. This idiom uses gutter in the sense of "a conduit for filthy waste." [Mid-1800s]

Have one's mind in the gutter and have got one's mind in the gutter

Figurative. tending to think of or say things that are obscene. Tiffany has her mind in the gutter. That's why she laughs at all that dirty stuff. Why do you tell so many dirty jokes?

Do you always have your mind in the gutter?

Bob: "Hey kid, let me tell you what a blow job is."

Kid's Mom: "Hey! Is your mind in the gutter perv?!"

Gut's in the gutter

When a person's initial reaction to any given situation or question is either immoral, sexual, impure, or all of the above.

Everytime he's asked a question, his response is so vulgar--must be that his gut's in the gutter!

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. – Oscar Wilde

Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman is a four-act comedy by Oscar Wilde, first produced 22 February 1892 at the St James's Theatre in London. The play was first published in 1893. Like many of Wilde's comedies, it bitingly satirizes the morals of Victorian society, particularly marriage.

The story concerns Lady Windermere, who discovers that her husband may be having an affair with another woman. She confronts her husband but he instead invites the other woman, Mrs Erlynne, to his wife's birthday ball. Angered by her husband's unfaithfulness, Lady Windermere leaves her husband for another lover. After discovering what has transpired, Mrs Erlynne follows Lady Windermere and attempts to persuade her to return to her husband and in the course of this, Mrs Erlynne is discovered in a compromising position. She sacrifices herself and her reputation in order to save Lady Windermere's marriage as Mrs Erlynne is Lady Windermere’s mother, who abandoned her family twenty years before the time the play is set. Mrs. Erlynne was originated by Marion Terry, and Lady Windermere by Winifred Emery. The best-known line of the play sums up the central theme:

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. —Lord Darlington

Third act

DUMBY. [With a sigh.] Good heavens! how marriage ruins a man! It's as demoralising as cigarettes, and far more expensive.

CECIL GRAHAM. You'll play, of course, Tuppy?

LORD AUGUSTUS. [Pouring himself out a brandy and soda at table.] Can't, dear boy. Promised Mrs. Erlynne never to play or drink again.

CECIL GRAHAM. Now, my dear Tuppy, don't be led astray into the paths of virtue. Reformed, you would be perfectly tedious. That is the worst of women. They always want one to be good. And if we are good, when they meet us, they don't love us at all. They like to find us quite irretrievably bad, and to leave us quite unattractively good.

LORD DARLINGTON. [Rising from R. table, where he has been writing letters.] They always do find us bad!

DUMBY. I don't think we are bad. I think we are all good, except Tuppy.

LORD DARLINGTON. No, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. [Sits down at C. table.]

DUMBY. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars? Upon my word, you are very romantic to-night, Darlington.

What does that mean?

Historically, the reference to being in the gutter usually refers to a drunk who is so drunk and unable to control their body that they literally, as well as figuratively, fall down, roll around, and end up in the lowest place available, the gutter. Being in the gutter was an expression of utter despair and hopelessness, of having gone down as low as one could possibly go.

In this case, the quote implies that we are all struggling in our own gutter of sorts, a place where we have nought but despair and hopelessness. The quote, however, differentiates between those who just lay there and bemoan their fate, and those who look up at the stars.

The quote implies that this second group is different, and not just lying there cursing fate. The implication of ‘looking at the stars’ is that they have goals, that the gutter is not their home, and that they have some hope of moving beyond their present circumstances.

From: Twitter, @aQuoteToday

IN THE GUTTER part II

Gutter 

Gutter may refer to:

• Rain gutter, a narrow trough or duct which collects rainwater from the roof of a building and diverts it away from the structure, typically into a drain.
• Street gutter, a depression which runs alongside a city street, usually at the curb and diverts rain and street-cleaning water away from the street and into a storm drain. 

Street gutter

A street gutter is a depression running parallel to a road designed to collect rainwater flowing along the street and divert it into a storm drain. A gutter alleviates water buildup on a street, allowing pedestrians to pass without walking through puddles and reducing the risk of hydroplaning by road vehicles. When a curbstone is present, a gutter may be formed by the convergence of the road surface and the vertical face of the sidewalk; otherwise, a dedicated gutter surface made of concrete may be present.

Depending on local regulations, a gutter usually discharges in a storm drain whose final discharge falls into a detention pond (in order to remove some pollutants by sedimentation) or into a body of water.

Gutters were a frequent talking point of English playwright Oscar Wilde, who said that all of humanity lived in gutters and attributed the worth of an individual to whether they were lying face down or face up in said gutter.

Not all streets have gutters, and they are most often found in areas of a city which have high pedestrian traffic. In past centuries when urban streets did not have sanitary sewers, gutters were made deep enough to serve.

Rain gutter

A rain gutter is a narrow channel, or trough, forming 
the component of a roof system which collects and diverts rainwater shed by the roof. It is also known as an eavestrough (especially in Canada), eaves channel guttering or simply as a gutter.

The main purpose of a rain gutter is to protect a building's foundation by channeling water away from its base. The gutter also helps to reduce erosion, prevents leaks in basements and crawlspaces, protects painted or stained surfaces by reducing exposure to water, and provides a means to collect rainwater for later use.

Rain gutters can be made from a variety of materials such as cast iron, lead, zinc, galvanised steel, painted steel, copper, painted aluminium, PVC (and other plastics), concrete, stone, and wood. More information on copper rain gutters is available.

Water collected by a rain gutter is fed, usually via a downspout (traditionally called a leader or conductor, from the roof edge to the base of the building where it is either discharged or collected. Water from rain gutters may be collected in a rain barrel or a cistern.

A rain gutter may be a:

• Roof integral trough along the lower edge of the roof slope which is fashioned from the roof covering and flashing materials.
• Discrete trough of metal, or other material that is suspended beyond the roof edge and below the projected slope of the roof.
• Wall integral structure beneath the roof edge, traditionally constructed of masonry, fashioned as the crowning element of a wall.

IN THE GUTTER part I

Gutter (song)

Gutter is a song by Danish singer Medina from her international debut studio album Welcome to Medina. It was released as the forth single from the album on March 4, 2011. The electropop song was written by Medina, Providers and Viktoria Siff Emilie Hansen and it was produced by Providers. "Gutter" peaked at number eight in Denmark.

Medina

Medina Danielle Oona Valbak (born Andrea Fuentealba Valbak to a Chilean father and Danish mother on 3 November 1982), known by the mononym Medina is a Danish pop, dance and R&B singer and songwriter.

She released her first singles in Denmark titled "Flå" (Danish for "Rip") and "Et øjeblik" ("One moment") in 2007, followed by her debut album, Tæt på (Up close).

She rose to national fame in 2008 with the release of "Kun for mig" (which was later released as the English "You and I"), the lead single off her second album, Velkommen til Medina (Welcome to Medina). The single spent six weeks at No.1 on the Danish Singles Chart, eventually reaching the triple-platinum status. The second single off the same album, "Velkommen til Medina" also peaked at No.1 in Denmark which spent five weeks at the top of the singles chart and reached a platinum status there. Even Medina's third and fourth single, "Ensom" ("Lonely") and "Vi to" ("The two of us") peaked at No.2 in Denmark and they both managed to earn her a platinum-award at home.

In September 2009, Medina released an English-language version of "Kun for mig", titled You and I, in the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This version reached No.39 on the UK Singles Chart and entered the top-10 on the German Singles Chart.

In July 2010, Medina's international debut album, Welcome to Medina was released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland which reached No.9, No.45 and No.24 respectively. Apart from seven new songs, the album also includes English-language versions of the four singles off its Danish counterpart, including "Lonely" (English version of "Ensom), which has been released as the second single off the album.

Awards won by Medina include Best Danish Act at the 2009 and 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards. In 2010 Medina won six awards at the Danish Music Awards, she was awarded Danish Female Artist of the Year, Danish Album of the Year (Velkommen til Medina), New Danish Name of the Year, Danish Hit of the Year (Vi to), Danish Songwriter of the Year (together with Providers and Danish Producer of the Year (Providers for Medina).

In June 2010, a group of Islamist youths with immigrant background pelted Medina with eggs during a concert in Ishøj near Copenhagen. They were offended by the association with which the name "Medina" was connected as it is one of the most sacred and hallowed Muslim cities: "Sexy dancing and revealing clothing"

Gutter Lyrics

I used to be a beggar

 A beggar for your love

 Then you used and abandont me

 This time I had enough

Remember when you showed up at my place

 The way you just pushed me to the floor

 Remember when you spat in my face

 And later came knocking on my door

You left me in the gutter, gutter, gutter

 You left me in the gutter, gutter,

You left me in the gutter, gutter, gutter

 Left me in the gutter

You've become a beggar

 But I'm not gonna let you in

 Won't make you even think I will

 Consider this again

Remember how you told me you hate

 The way that I am, the way I speak

 Remember that I'm the one you're afraid

 For everything that makes you weak

You left me in the gutter, gutter, gutter

 You left me in the gutter, gutter,

You left me in the gutter, gutter,

You left me in the gutter, gutter, gutter

If you are falling

I'm not gon' catch you

 When you come crying

 I'm not gon' dry your tears

 If you were dying

I wouldn't safe you

I'll leave you in the gutter, gutter, gutter

 I'll leave you in the gutter, gutter

 I'll leave you in the gutter, gutter, gutter

 I'll leave you in the gutter, gutter, gutter

I will leave you in the gutter

 I will leave you in the gutter

 Like you left me

 I will leave you in the gutter

 I will leave you in the gutter

 Like you left me