For a good portion of my childhood I had a stay-at-home mom. Between careers in marketing, education and public relations, my mom stayed home to take care of my brother and me. I look back fondly to those days, bringing friends home knowing our house would always be “together” and the aroma of freshly baked brownies waiting to greet us as we entered.
- A Young Justin on the Stairs
Another memory that sticks out is the music my mother played as she worked around the house. This requirement of aural stimulation must be genetic because to this day I have trouble getting much of anything done without music or a podcast in the background.
In fact, as I write this I am listening to Jay-Z and Kanye West’s collaborative album, Watch the Throne.
For my mother the music was Earth Wind and Fire, Al Jarreau, Aaron Neville, Sade and Bette Midler. Of all those artists, it was the Divine Miss M that impacted me the most. You would think the love I had for her and Barbara Streisand would have tipped people off but I guess everyone somehow overlooked that… Continue reading