The Flatland Chronicles

Random Link O' the Day: FilterMusic.com (Internet Radio)

I know there are a lot of music resources out there, but this site's really good....See it now.   I like listening to jazz as background when I work and this is a great selection....

The Animaniacs Perform "The HMS Yakko"

The Animaniacs perform some of Gilbert & Sullivan's Greatest Hits; a new generation learns an updated version of "I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" (which Aaron Sorkin subsequenty attempted with considerably less success)...I am as certain as I can be after a gap of many years that the wee, belligerent pirate is directly based on one of the illustration's to one of Gilbert's poems.  "Though I be a pirate swine, still I have to draw the line/And I will not push you overboard!"  Can I hear you say, "Arrr!!"?

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Sings Mozart

In my younger days, I studied music and specifically capital-V Voice.  Yes, my friends, at the age of 15, while other girls dreamed of being rock stars (not too many credible women back in those days except Janis, who was already long gone), I wanted to be Beverly Sills.  Alas, I lacked only the voice and the ear.  I wasn't even, I'm afraid, a particularly gifted amateur.  Even so, it was a very good thing for me since I learned what kids today seem not to be taught:  aspiration and enthusiasm and even discipline are no substitute for talent.  Over and over I saw others more gifted than I win the competitions, the important roles in performances, and the big solos.  I can't think of any better training for life than successive demanding and disappointing auditions with judges generally more tactful but no less ruthless than, say, the infamous Simon Cowell (who---I confess---I've seen in action only once, and by accident). 

I got a lot out of it.  Through my adolescent ventures into territory where I simply didn't have the talent to stake a claim, I learned the  joysof participating in the production of a great work of art and also the relief of letting go of the desire to be center stage. 

"Yellow Ledbetter" by Pearl Jam: Another One of Those Songs

I love Pearl Jam.  But it is a weird love that involves a complete inability to listen to most of their music without weeping, so I don't listen to them unless I'm prepared and fortified or else am free to cry.  I love Pearl Jam.  But it is a weird love that involves a complete inability to listen to most of their music without weeping, so I don't listen to them unless I'm prepared and fortified or else am free to cry.  And if you knew me, this would surprise you.  I'm not the sentimental type except secretly, in the same way as everyone else who takes a detached, ironic view of life. 

It's partly because Eddie Vedder has that sort of voice and the songs are those sorts of songs.  The lyrics to the songs Eddie Vedder writes are deep or at least give that impression (like poetry by Dylan Thomas, say). There's also that aspect of Vedder's singing that involves sometimes seriously mangling the lyrics, no doubt intentionally---which would matter more if I understood the lyrics.  There again, maybe I don't want to understand them.  Their meaning for me is---and remains---private.

Sometimes It's Better Not to See the Video

This is, like, my favorite song in life about lost love.   It cuts deep.

But the video (which I didn't see till long after the song had worked its way permanently into my DNA) is about a sad little origami cow.  It's such a sad little cow.  And I always am nearly in tears when I watch it (though for completely different reasons) right up to the moment when it starts singing along with the words.  I present to you  "Pink Bullets" by The Shins!

Pop Culture Revelations: "Son of a Gun"

Ever since I heard this song---after many, many years---on "British Spongebob" (right; just see the post...), I can't get it out of my head.  You know how some songs evoke all sorts of ideas and images that you can't explain and that seem to belong to someone else (or some other lifetime)?  This is one of those for me.  And it isn't the words, but the tune.

I wish I could snag whatever image tries to drift up to the surface when I hear it, but so far, no luck.  Pop culture revelations indeed....

Blogcombing: Homage to "Altjiranga Mitjina---The Timeless Dimension of Dreams"

I love this site, so naturally I blog-rolled it.  Also naturally, I spelled it wrong....which kind of defeats the purpose.  I don't know why I have this blind spot about the name (which I love the look of, I just don't know how to pronounce it. 

The writing is superb----and it's my favorite site anywhere for music and videos.   I encountered it when we were doing a "Thursday 13" at Buck Naked Politics  (it's about time for a new one of those) and we exchanged links at that time. 

It's like....I don't know what it's like, exactly.  Invaluable miscellany?  Nuggets of incalculable value panned from the pop culture?   It's my go-to place for new experiences.   I am grappling to explain, so you'll have to look yourself.  I have found so much excellent music there since I first saw this list and fell in love with Maggie Brown's "40 dollars and Lily Holbrook's "Mama, I'm Coming Home." 

 

The Animaniacs: No L, No Well, No Whale, Oh Well!

My favorite animated characters EVER (courtesy of  Steven Spielberg) sing one for the holidays:.

Random Link O' the Day: Chipmunk Nation (Alvin & the Chipmunks, 21st Century Style: It's On It's On It's On)

These guys were my favorite singers way back in the early Sixties.  Remember their cover of "A Bicycle Built for Two"?  Or this really annoying Christmas song?:

Yo! Here they are, straight from Chipmunk Nation, singing: "I got my drink and my 2 Step."  Is it wrong that I love this?  Dave must not know about this in his nursing home or wherever he is....

But wait!  There's more:

Gangsta Teletubbies