A friend of mine told me about Mavis Staples and now I'm a big fan. Nice touch that the song is by Stephen Foster...

I showed the list to my son and his wife, both afcionados of music and they loved it. My son is putting together the playlist for my party...good times!

Me knows cause when I’m happy, I dance.

Shake it up.

Chunky by Bruno Mars.

What are you celebrating?

I love k.d. lang singing "Hallelujah" but it isn't upbeat to me. I get sad when I hear it. However, I'd love if my kids played that at my funeral when I die.

I don't get its use at funerals, though. It's about a broken love affair.

Leonard Cohen had also just died. So many people were in agony at that time.

However, Lang's version is to me triumphant. It speaks to me of how you go through a lot but you get through it and you can sing hallelujah.

I am celebrating the private publishing of my book of essays on art, which was supposed to be done a while ago but for various reasons wasn't. It will be a reality soon and my son is doing my playlist for my book signing. We have just one final step...

You should celebrate that.

As I said, I like the song. I can see how it could be triumphant also. Music means so much to me, and I love how a song can mean different things to different people. I've often said that if I got marooned on a desert island all I would need was music, books and some sort of food of course.

It can't be a celebration without that one!

and just about anything by Tuba Skinny.

This is a happy song, too.

"Every Day I Write the Book"