Music
-
Taken By Trees
Last night, I was sitting, trying to finish up my work for the evening, waiting for my stupid Outlook to open so I could send an email, and Ted had gone for a walk with his iPhone and the dog…I looked over at the Party Shuffle he had on his iMac, and one of the songs was Julia, by Taken by Trees. Hmm, I thought, I wonder how long it’s going to take my stupid Outlook to open? I wonder if that’s a cover of the old Beatles tune? So I clicked it, and lo and behold, it was NOT. So, then I thought, I should check out this Taken…
-
My Name Is Red
My Name is Red is a somewhat convoluted murder mystery that takes place in late 16th century Istanbul. The main characters of the story are miniaturists, artists who draw and color the illustrations for books prior to the printing press, when books might be taken apart and rebound in a different sequence, depending upon who is paying for the story that is being told. The Sultan has commissioned a a new book, and he wants part of it to be painted in the new European style, showing things as they appear to people, rather than in the Ottoman tradition of showing the world through the eyes of Allah. For instance,…
-
Groove is in the Heart…
OK, we’re on vacation, it’s the 30th anniversary of the Summer of Love, and we’re in San Francisco. I put this post together before leaving, but I’m hoping that vacation feels pretty much like it always feels, and San Francisco feels pretty much like it always feels, which is groovy. So, to go along with that, here’s a video I remember watching way back when I was in SF, when MTV still played videos. LOVE IT! Isn’t the faux french at the beginning…deee-licious? [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKTCW4oxS6I[/youtube]
-
Mawige*…
A random train of thought that started out with me thinking about my new glasses went on to my contact lenses, and somehow derailed into coworkers from 15 years ago, and then took a surprising turn and ended up with me thinking about divorce. Specifically, I was thinking about this coworker of mine way back in the early 90s, an older guy who was on his 4th or 5th marriage. He met this woman, fell in love with her, and they zoomed up to Tahoe to get married, post haste. Those of us who were a bit younger thought that was kind of strange…what’s the big rush? His reasoning, though,…
-
Admiration
Artwork by blueskysunburn I just started a summer read type book, The Sunday Wife, by Cassandra King. It’s the story of the wife of an up & coming preacher in small town Florida, who is strongly influenced by her friendship with one of the more powerful women in town, Augusta. Early on in the book, Augusta is reading from a book that the preacher husband has written. There’s a section of advice to women on how to keep their husbands happy. He longs for your praise and admiration more than anything. Brag on his accomplishments, tell him how much you admire him, and watch how he responds. Give him your…
-
Impressions from the Police Concert
(Photo courtesy of kk+, found on flickr) Yay! They opened with an AWESOME rendition of Message in a Bottle. That ROCKED. How is it that Sting still looks pretty good these days? Andy’s looking kind of old, but Sting really doesn’t, and he’s 55years old! Could it be that tantric sex thing? Or the yoga? Hmmm. Andy kind of acts like he would rather be playing a bit harder, what with all of the fancy fast fingerwork. Ted tells me when the Police were first forming, they were told that they played too well, and if they wanted to be accepted as ‘punk’ they needed to grind it out a…
-
Song of the Day – Summer of Love
The SF Chronicle is currently running a series on the Summer of Love, aka, 1967. This is the 40th anniversary of that crazy summer, just one in the hippy era at Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. When I see those words, Summer of Love, part of my mind thinks of the actual cultural reference, but then I start thinking about when I first moved to San Francisco, back in 1987. It was the 20th anniversary of the Summer of Love, and San Francisco, quite the provincial little city, always in love with itself, was all atwitter, just as it is now. I moved to a flat just a few blocks…
-
For Michelle…
Michelle, over at Scribbit, did a pretty cool Thursday 13 today. She listed what she believes are the 13 best remakes of all time. Her criteria were that they had to be at least as good, if not better than, the original. She had some pretty groovy songs included , like “American Woman”, the Lenny Kravitz version, and one of my all time favorites, the Depeche Mode version of “Route 66”. In the comments, I mentioned that one of the most interesting remakes I’ve heard is the Scissor Sisters version of “Comfortably Numb”. She mentioned that she wasn’t able to listen to enough of the song on the free iTunes…
-
Musical Therapy
I saw this at Black Belt Mama’s blog, and it looked like a twist on a familiar theme. I’m in. Of all the bands and artists in your collection, of which one do you own the most albums? I haven’t done any counting, but I’m going to guess the Beatles. Since I’m married, and we live in a common law state, 1/2 of Py’s RUSH albums belong to me…but still, they’re his. What was the last song you listened to? Some little ditty Ted made up about dinner last night… What are your favorite instruments? I love the guitar and the oboe. Really, I’m too lame to know what they…
-
Favorite Songs Meme
I got this one from Ginger over at Stuck on Survive. I don’t have any great ideas today…lots of work to do, and Maya’s birthday is tomorrow, so stuff to do there as well. 🙂 So, when in doubt, Meme, right? Here goes. The thing is, I’ve done a few music memes before, so some of these aren’t new. And for some, I’ve changed my mind, and probably will again before you even read this. Oh, and I’m not claiming these are the best or the coolest choices…just songs I really like. Anyway, here goes. Favorite Songs Meme Favorite Song From Childhood: Cecilia, by Simon and Garfunkle. I thought the…
-
Weekend Wrap Up
Our weekend started off with a steak craving, thanks to Gina’s Friday Poll. Ted isn’t much of a beef eater, his red meat of choice is lamb. However, he’ll make the occasional exception for either an avocado burger at Manny’s if we happen to be in Stockton, or a good Rib Eye steak. On Friday, we decided to go out for a nice Rib Eye, and we hoped to pay a lot less than $200 for the three of us, which left out these pricey favorites. We ended up at Hungry Hunter, but were dismayed to see that the only Rib Eye on the menu was quite complex, with peppercorns…
-
Happy 60th Birthday, David!
There may be a few of you out there who don’t know, David Bowie was my first husband. This is before he dumped me for Iman, and before I dumped him for Ted, and before I realized just how OLD he is, just a few years younger than my parents. So David, in case you’re considering dumping that supermodel, it’s OVER for us. We can never be together again. I’m with Ted now, and there’s just no going back. I know, trying to squash our love is like “putting out a fire with gasoline”, but really…I’m sorry to break your heart like that, but sometimes, it’s best to be blunt,…
-
Of Curry and Singing…
Growing up, we at one point lived in a house in ‘downtown Fairbanks’, Alaska. I put that in quotes, because it was such a small town, I don’t know if it would be legal to call it a downtown. Anyway, we had several roommates during our time in that house, one of whom was a chef named Jerry. One of Jerry’s specialties was a chicken curry, which became a Christmas dinner tradition in our household for many years. My mom loved making the curry, and our good friend Linda and she would put it together every year. I think it was more of a Jamacian curry than an Indian one,…
-
Funk…The Good Kind…
Back in October, while listening (once again) to my beloved iPod, I learned of a group called Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. They were featured on To the Best of Our Knowledge, and they sounded pretty interesting. From the TTBOOK website: Sharon Jones is a black woman in her late 40s who fronts a band called the Dap-Kings. She tells Steve Paulson they make a kind of music that sounds like 60s Funk and even still record onto vinyl to get the sound they want. And of course, we hear lots of their music. I liked what Sharon had to say, about Funk, about vinyl, and I liked the sound…
-
Favorite Holiday Songs
I like Christmas music ok, but not when it’s played all day, every day, on the radio. Ugh. And I like a Hanukkah song or two, which is why I titled this, Favorite Holiday Songs, and not Favorite Christmas songs, though, really, they’re mostly Christmas songs. Sorry. And, even though I was raised atheist, and don’t really go in for Christmas being that much about Jesus, kinda think it’s more about pagans and the winter solstice, and it was coopted by the Catholic Church early on while trying to convert said pagans, blah blah blah, etc. etc., there is truly something so wonderful and hopeful about the more religious songs,…