• Music - Politics, Schmolitics

    Making Light: Nobody living can ever stop me

    (Video removed by YouTube because HBO contacted them and claimed it was “infringing.” Stay classy, HBO.) Saw this on our way back in the car, reading away on my iPhone: Making Light: Nobody living can ever stop me Okay, I admit it, my heart skipped a beat when I realized that Pete Seeger was really going to sing the whole song, including the “controversial” verse: There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me; The sign was painted, it said private property; But on the back side it didn’t say nothing; That side was made for you…

  • Music

    Reviewing Earth To The Dandy Warhols … Shoulda Tried Before I Buyed

    The Dandy Warhols – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Dandy Warhols are a US rock band formed in Portland, Oregon, by Courtney Taylor-Taylor (vocals, guitar), Zia McCabe (keyboard), Peter Holmström (guitar), and Eric Hedford (drums), who left in 1998 to be replaced by Taylor-Taylor’s cousin Brent De Boer. The band’s name is a pun on the name of American pop artist Andy Warhol. The Dandy Warhols are strongly influenced by The Velvet Underground, Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, The Shadows, and The Rolling Stones as well as including implicit musical references to My Bloody Valentine in some songs.…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Home Improvement - Music - Parish: Holy Moly (ECUSA) - SABRE2th Tigress: Book 'em, Dano. - Today - Twitter

    Big Red Snow Beast

    Last night’s snow (or as I originally typo-ed, slow), dumped only about 4 inches on suburban streets in the area, but the traffic was horrendous and there were enough minor accidents to put corks in all the bottlenecks. And due to the way the east-west arterials around here are blocked by large tracts of parkland or shopping malls, there’s only a few ways to get between work and home. If there’s bad weather, or traffic, everything gets choked off at one of two places. I started out pissed, as I had a late “hit” call where someone needed an exchange…

  • Music

    Pierre Bensusan: Altiplanos

    I heard a bit of this while driving home after a long, frustratingly typical Monday at work. Pierre Bensusan was being interviewed on NPR and was discussing how this song, “Altiplanos” is dedicated to Ingrid Betancourt, a Columbian political reformist who was running for president of Columbia when she was kidnapped by FARC, the left-wing revolutionary movement. Bensusan is trying to keep Ingrid Betancourt on the conscience of the world, and hopes that one she will be sitting in a concert hall listening as he plays the song dedicated to her. It’s beautiful music and very moving, and although I…

  • Clan: McTiVo - Music

    American Idyll

    Some people are really into American Idol, but I am not. I went through the lunch room the other day while a couple of Idol contestants were murdering U2’s classic “One” in some kind of live outdoor news-show venue. It sounded so awful… I wondered “what the hell is the fascination this country has with listening to people sing badly?” Both singers were completely off-key, both fighting to out-bellow each other, and working their hair and outfits even harder than their (blown-out) voices. It was not so much a duet as a duel. Thank God for iPod. I went back…

  • Episcopal - Moblog - Music - Radio - Today - Uncategorical Weirdness

    Fr.Paul sings Plastic Jesus

    Father Paul pulled out a very beautiful old Pete Seeger Custom banjo and sang a few lines of “Plastic Jesus” today in church; he’d have had a sing-along going if he’d thought to print out the lyrics, and as it was a lot of people at the early service knew the song and helped him remember the middle section. I told him about a terrific interview my husband David and I heard on Bob Edwards Weekend, which airs on Sundays on WBEZ. I’m tracking down all the related links I can for it to send to Fr. Paul by email.…

  • Music - The Never-Ending Bloga

    The McDades at the Abbey Pub: 22APR08

    Wow. I still can’t believe that I had a chance to see the McDades at the Abbey Pub, a well known Chicago institution. And that my husband David and I got to see them gratis, a fact that makes me absurdly grateful and humble. Hell, this blogging gig is pretty cool if people contact you out of the blue and give you free stuff and invite you to all the best parties. Okay, enough about that, I’m a mere amoeba on the Great Evolutionary Chain of Blogging Being. The thing I REALLY can’t believe that there were only about 10…

  • Episcopal - Flickr - Moblog - Music - Parish: Holy Moly (ECUSA)

    The Gifts of a Unicorn, and Life

    Choirmistress Mary does a lot for us, and frequently pays out of pocket for new music and things she thinks we need in order to look and sound like a seasoned choir, and not a ragtag group that formed a little over a year ago. So one of our members found a Christmas ornament that mirrored a unicorn print that Mary has in her home and we presented it to her last night. We also had a wonderful surprise from another choir member who’s been battling brain cancer; she got amazing news from her oncologist. Let’s not say “miracle” yet,…