I'm tired & irritable & don't want to play anymore. 3 days ago
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“I haven't got the slightest idea how to change people, but still I keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.” - David Sedaris
I love Autumn; the crisp air, the beautiful colors of nature, the chance to break out the sweatshirts & jackets, the realization that the holiday season is quickly approaching…
Wait a minute. The holiday season is quickly approaching?
Paraskevidekatriaphobia: from the Greek words Paraskeví (Friday), dekatreís (thirteen), and phobia (fear) – in other words, it’s the fear of Friday the 13th!
A persistent superstition based on the belief that Friday is an unlucky day combined with the belief that 13 is an unlucky number. It’s kind of like a double kick in the “you-know-whats”.
The sky was blue & cloudless on Sunday afternoon, but I was able to snap this picture of a little bird in the tree by our garage. I think it’s a starling, but I’m not sure.
Roadrunner – Bo Diddley (One of my favorite versions of this song was made for the Backbeat soundtrack, which was actually a cover of a cover… Dave Grohl, Dave Pirner, Thurston Moore, Mike Mills, Greg Dulli and Don Fleming as the very young Beatles covering Bo Diddley – sounds weird, but it’s awesome.)
The skies were almost orange that morning – but I LOVE those clouds. I tried to take some pictures of a full moon, which seemed more appropriate for this weekend, but they just didn’t turn out. Going to have to play with the settings & figure out how to get a good one.
And how about the Friday Five portion of this post? It’s not as fun as last year’s - but it’s still pretty good!
“Amazing tradition. They throw a great party for you on the one day they know you can’t come.” — Jeff Goldblum (as Michael Gold in The Big Chill)
Eight college friends search for lost ideals following the death of their mate Alex in Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill, and brilliantly setting the stage is Kasdan’s iconic opening scene, where JoBeth Williams (as Karen Bowens) starts playing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Stones on a booming church organ. Each of the characters knowingly smiles at the first chords of the song. And a minute later, Mick Jagger’s rendition joins the soundtrack. In an instant, you’re thinking about love and life, memories and friendships, as well as your own death. So, thinking about the group of people that will likely come together over you one day, what songs sum up your life and would bring smiles to those left behind?
List 5 songs you would add to the playlist for your funeral.
Okay, so it’s kind of a dark, depressing subject. But it is Halloween week after all. So here is my list:
I thought this morning I would combine SkyWatch Friday with Friday Five, which I haven’t done in a while. The songs in this case are inspired by the picture; a gorgeous sunrise that I was watching in my rear-view mirror on my way to work Tuesday morning.
I’m bored. I shouldn’t be bored but I am. I guess knowing that you’re leaving on vacation in about 26 hours makes the days seem that much longer. Regardless, I’m bored.
Let’s do a random iPod Shuffle, shall we?
I Forgot to Remember to Forget – Elvis Presley
Sacred Vision – Iron & Wine
Think About It – Flight of the Conchords
Broke – Todd Snider
All That You Have Is Your Soul – Emmylou Harris
Insider – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
The First Cut is the Deepest – Cat Stevens
Brand New Cadillac – The Clash
Fingertips (Reprise) – They Might Be Giants
Bisbee Blue – Calexico
Moon Song (bonus track) – Norah Jones
In Your Eyes – Sarah Kelly
Miracle Man – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Birds & Ships – Billy Bragg & Wilco
Walking the Dog – Rufus Thomas
Hmmm – began & ended with Memphis legends. Interesting.
Music critic and CBS Sunday Morning contributor Bill Flanagan stated last Sunday that Michael Jackson was the third and final “Big Bang” in popular music.
“The first explosion was Elvis. That was about sexual liberation and racial integration, and that blast lasted about ten years.
The second explosion was the Beatles – and everything they issued in. Suddenly pop music was about long hair and experimental sounds, progressive politics and outlaw rhetoric. Rock was about a counter-culture. That blast reverberated for 20 years, right through Springsteen, Prince and U2.
The third explosion was “Thriller,” Michael Jackson’s 1982 album – the best selling record of all time, and an album that invented the pop world we are still living in 25 years later.”
While I will agree that Thriller was one of the major turning points in popular music, I can’t concede that it was bigger or more important than Elvis or the Beatles.
First of all, the effects of the first two are still influencing popular music and culture as we speak. In fact without either one of them, the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson would never have existed. So to say that Elvis’ explosion only lasted ten years or that the Beatles’ only twenty is to greatly under value exactly what they did.
Second, neither Elvis nor the Beatles imagined the success and influence they sparked. They basically came out of nowhere and unwittingly changed the course of music and popular culture forever. MJ’s rise was measured and planned. There’s no denying that the man had more than his share of talent and charisma. But he only really did exactly what he was groomed to do. Thriller was his sixth studio album and had been in the spotlight for ten years before his explosion. So it was less meteor and more slow-burning forest fire in my opinion, not realizing that it was as big as it was until suddenly it was impossible to escape. (Did you try to watch MTV the day the Thriller video was released? It was impossible!)
I know that both the Beatles and Elvis had their share of scandal and tabloid-worthy personal storylines, but no one has ever been more of a freak show by design than Michael Jackson. As far as I’m concerned, the whole thing was part of his master plan; to stay in the spotlight as long as possible regardless of the headline. He made a conscious effort to seem bigger, more mysterious, and enigmatic than he ever actually was. And it worked. Packaged and marketed perfectly for that specific time in history.
But bigger or more influential than Elvis & the Beatles? I don’t think so.
Albums labeled “comedy” don’t usually appeal to me with very few exceptions. The ones that do are the ones that seem as though the artist is just too serious about their craft to be comedy, and as a result are hilariously funny. The two that come to mind first are the A Mighty Windsoundtrack and Flight of the Conchords.
On its initial listen, you might think that Jonathan Coulton’s work falls into that same category, but it really doesn’t. Sure, some of his songs are funny; like Mr. Fancy Pants, Tom Cruise Crazy, or his cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Baby Got Back. But the ones that succeed even more are the ones that are multi-layered with tragedy and sadness.
From his internet sensation Code Monkey, a semi-autobiographical tale about a software writer who hates his job, to I Crush Everything, a song about an introspective, self-loathing giant squid’s sadness because he ends up killing everything that he loves, to Skullcrusher Mountinan, a love song about a conflicted evil genius, JoCo’s catalog is filled with songs of pain and loneliness that are somehow still very funny.
BEST. CONCERT. EVER. Is Jonathan Coulton’s first commercially distributed album. The rest of his catalog falls under what’s called “Creative Commons” licensing and was distributed primarily through the internet. It’s also his first live album which brings a whole different vibe and intimacy to many of the songs.
I was probably initially drawn to JoCo because of his tendency towards themes of geek culture, science fiction, and semi-educational topics like science and history. It probably also didn’t hurt that he is friends with Daily Show correspondent and the star of the “I’m A Mac” commercials, John Hodgman, who I also find ridiculously funny.
Here’s one in the form of a business memo from a former colleague who happens to now be a zombie, gently prodding his coworker to let him eat his brains, called re: Your Brains
Albums labeled “comedy” don’t usually appeal to me with very few exceptions. The ones that do are the ones that seem as though the artist is just too serious about their craft to be comedy, and as a result are hilariously funny. The two that come to mind first are the 