Rush was the first band I really got into. It was during the Moving Pictures / Exit…Stage Left era. They were also the first big concert I attended (Power Windows Tour). My tastes changed and I wandered off after Presto, but you never forget your first as the saying goes. Every so often I wander back.
Tonight, after much too long, Rush are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In honor of the occasion, I’m posting this live version of “Tom Sawyer.” It’s one of the songs that made me a fan and still one of their best. This is a sterling performance from the Snakes and Arrows Tour. Enjoy.
I’ve been a lousy blogger lately. So, tonight, an experiment. I’m firing up my upgraded Pandora One account and I will type about one subject per song until either I’m done or the song ends. Here goes….
(“No Cars Go”, Arcade Fire) The winter of 2012/2013 hasn’t been a good one, health wise. Not in the USA and not in my house. I think one or more of us has been sick with something since just before Christmas. At the moment, my wife is most of the way back from a head cold while I’m in the middle of one. My older son is stuffy. My younger one seems alright at the moment. I wonder how much to blame the move to a new town (new population = different assortment of bugs?). But I also think the dry air in our new home might be part of the problem. In our old house, we had a central humidifier hooked up to the forced air heating system. Here we’re on baseboard radiators and it gets pretty arid. I notice it especially when I first get up in the morning.
(“Steady, As She Goes”, The Raconteurs) I completed the first draft of my first novel in mid-January and immediately started working on a batch of new stories. Having spent something like 27 months on the novel (give or take) my storehouse of ideas is absolutely stuffed. I had been stockpiling them in my journals. Now I’m writing the ones that seem like they have real potential…as much as one can ever tell before diving in and trying to actually write them. So far I’ve written a short story, two flash fiction stories, and two microfiction pieces. All have been submitted. Beginning a new short story now.
(“You Only Live Once”, The Strokes) What’s the plan for the novel? Well, I’m firmly committed to letting the first draft sit and cool for a few months. Probably until late spring. No later than early summer. I have other stories I want to write. I also need to clear my head. When I return, I’ll read through it and see what’s there. Hopefully, the story I thought I was writing is buried in there, but visible enough to shape into a second draft. If not? Well, I’ll cross that bridge if I don’t decide to jump off of it. But let’s assume there will be a second draft. I’ll write it and show it to some folks and then we’ll see. In the end, the intent remains to submit it to publishers.
(“Infinity”, The Xx) If you don’t live in New England, you might have heard we had some snow. If you live here, well, you have your own update to publish. Here in my town we received about 24″ of snow last Friday and Saturday, courtesy of Winter Storm Nemo. Not very far at all up the shore they received much more. Over 30″ and a bit inland Hamden won the contest with 40″. Hard to imagine that much from one storm. We had a great time playing in the snow here. The boys created an enormous network of caves, canyons, stairways, and paths in the 8′ tall pile that the plows left bordering the church parking lot out back. We did some sledding at the local hill. It’s small, but the kids had fun. I prefer much more epic runs than are possible here. We did very little in the way of snow sculptures. Some day I’d like to fill the huge lawn out front with snow people, but it will have to wait until some other storm. Especially since what we received last weekend is melting very fast. It has been over 40-degrees every day this week. Beautiful, pleasant days. More spring than winter.
(“Neighborhood #2 [Laika]“, Arcade Fire) Our house is getting more and more musical. My older son plays double bass in the school orchestra and now in the chamber music group as well. My younger son has been taking piano lessons for several weeks now using the piano that came with the parsonage. Probably out of envy as much as anything, I’ve started wanting to play music again. I’ve had two previous failed attempts to become a musician. I played the cello for one year in grade school. I played guitar for several years. In both cases I just did not love practicing enough to stick with it. But now I keep thinking maybe it’s time to go find a used guitar and start again. Or maybe take up percussion. We’d have the start of a band if I take up percussion…. Meanwhile, I actually tuned the baritone ukulele we’ve owned for something like seven years. Maybe I’ll start there.
(“Let’s Go”, Danna/Devotchka) I finally had several pieces of art framed that have been hanging around the house for months or years. One is the fantastic Steven Gilberts print I bought at Anthocon in November. Another is an eerie and strange block print of a skull with mirror eyes and a few other touches by Shoshanna Utchenik, who I had the pleasure of working with at Redmoon Theater in Chicago for several years. The last is a glorious print of Neil Gaiman‘s “The Day the Saucers Came”, illustrated by Jouni Koponen that I purchased from NeverWear. Big visual upgrade for my office.
(“Fire It Up”, Modest Mouse) Spring means lots of things but high on the list in my house is baseball. My older son fell in love with baseball when he was 2 and never looked back. He plays other sports and does lots of other things, but baseball is pretty central to his sense of self so far. Right after the Super Bowl he started asking if we could start playing catch and doing drills. He’s looking ahead to the Little League season and wants his spring training, you see. I begged off for a couple of weeks because, you know, it’s February and it was still pretty cold. Then we had a blizzard. But now the weather has turned mild and so I took my glove down off the shelf for the first time since the World Series ended and out we went. Love the smell of the glove. Love the sound of the ball hitting it. Love the feel of the baseball in my hand and the way it comes off my fingers. Now we just need the rest of the snow to melt so we can practice on grass instead of asphalt.
(“We’re Going To Be Friends”, The White Stripes) Watching lots and lots of Doctor Who over the past several months. I’d never seen the show before four months ago. Alison grew up watching it. I was watching Star Trek. I knew about the show, but was never intrigued enough to track it down. I’m enjoying getting to know it now. We started with the renewed show that begins with the 9th Doctor. We’re finishing Series Four now, which is by far my favorite season so far. We’re also about to say goodbye to David Tennant, who plays the 10th Doctor and I’m not happy about it. Everyone, I’m told, has their Doctor. Tennant is mine. The next guy has a tough act to follow.
(“Stay Crunchy”, Ronald Jenkees) I’ll probably do another post about films I’m looking forward to, but Star Trek Into Darkness is one of them. I like what J.J. Abrams has done…which is part of why I’m a little anxious about him being named the director of the new Star Wars film. I don’t trust Star Wars films anymore after the last three. Nor does the trickle of rumors about the new film make me feel any better. Trotting out Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher is not what I’d like to see. I don’t trust any of those characters and actors to come off as well as Leonard Nimoy’s Spock does in Star Trek.
And I’m done as “There There” by Radiohead pounds its way onstage. G’night. I promise not to be gone so long this time.
I have what I guess I’ll call a casual fan’s enthusiasm for motion picture soundtracks. I own over a dozen and have bits and pieces of many more. I enjoy the catchy, popular songs and themes, but I don’t buy a soundtrack unless, sitting in the theater watching the film, I keep noticing the music because it is so effectively, organically a part of what is happening on screen.
A good soundtrack should be as inseparable from the film as any other major element. Take it away and the life of the film just drains away. Conversely, though, I think a good motion picture soundtrack should be enjoyable as music on its own. It evokes the visual world it was written for, but can exist independently, partly because only some of it was actually used in the film. An example is the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross soundtrack for the Fincher version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The film is about 2hr 40 minutes. The soundtrack is over 10 minutes longer and, I’ve read, whole tracks aren’t even in the film.
It’s just under a month until The Dark Knight Rises concludes Christopher Nolan’s trilogy of Batman films. It’s the move I’m looking forward to the most this summer. (In a particularly good year, from my perspective.) Lots of reasons, but Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack work on the films (collaborating with James Newton Howard on the first two) is definitely one of them. I love the stuff.
The soundtrack isn’t on sale until July 17th, but 30-second samples have been released. Batman-News.com posted them recently and I encourage soundtrack music and/or Batman fans to go check them out. Some familiar stuff mixed with new stuff in unexpected ways, which is as it should be given the project.
Batman-News.com is, as the name implies, a treasure trove of information about all things Batman. You can find all of the trailers and TV spots for The Dark Knight Rises there, as well as links to emerging bits of the viral marketing campaign promoting the film. Lots of fun speculation about what the breadcrumbs mean, or whether they are intended to mislead.
Separate from that, I picked up this image of an unusual billboard for The Dark Knight Rises. Just the logo blasted right through the thing with the date below. Simple and effective at evoking the mood and the scale of what’s coming. Can’t wait, although I’ll have to wait a week because I’ll be off co-leading a camp week when it opens. That’s ok. Should mean a better seat.
Well…while the outcome certainly wasn’t a shock, it was disappointing to this fan how the Patriots wound up losing that one. Here’s my quick hit take on all things Super Bowl XLVI
The Game – It was surprisingly sloppy, actually. Between Brady giving up 2 points on the Patriots’ first possession, the two 12-men on the field penalties, and the illegal huddle called on the Giants, it had more wackiness going on than I remember in any Super Bowl I’ve watched. The tilt between these teams in 2008 was much better quality. But it was fun. It was exciting. It went down literally to the last play ( I wondered if we were setting up for a replay of the last Titans drive in Super Bowl XXXIV, but it never materialized. ). So it was well worth the hours on the couch even though I was disappointed with the outcome.
The Blame Game – Well…the Giants outplayed the Patriots…again. If I get a bit more critical though, the Patriots gave up 9 points at the start of the game on mistakes ( The Brady safety and the overruled take away because they had too many men on the field. ). And the fact is that Brady had a schizophrenic game. He was brilliant on two drives, but started poorly and then had control issues later in the game after Tuck drove Brady’s injured non-throwing shoulder into the ground. Plus, he made that awful pass to Gronkowski that was easily intercepted. There are a lot of people harping on Welker today. Yes, he’s caught passes just like that one a zillion times, but the throw made it harder than it coulda/shoulda been in that situation. I’m more frustrated with the drops that Branch made on that same drive and that Hernandez made in the closing moments. Bottom Line: Make one or two fewer mistakes, and the game probably goes the other way since it was so close, but that’s championship football. Hats off to the Giants for getting it done.
The Halftime Show – I’m not a big Madonna fan but I respect the amazing career and huge cultural impact she’s had. I get a little amused by all the hoopla around Lady Ga Ga because, to me, she’s a descendant of Madonna. Lots of people don’t seem to realize that, but I’m sure that’s just me showing my age. Anywho, I was looking forward to her show. I was disappointed. The visuals were great, but her energy level didn’t match everything going on around her. She looked stiff and slow. ( Might have been the shoes. Might be that she’s 53. ) She was lip-syncing. ( No excuses there. ) And I thought the set list was poorly chosen. Sorry.
The Commercials – My wife sits next to me during the Super Bowl, but she’s reading or knitting or doing something else during the game. She’s there for the halftime show and, mostly, the commercials. We both give thumbs down to this year’s crop. Low on creativity and laughs. High on stupidity and/or offensive content. My favorite was the Bud Light “Here We Go” rescue dog ad. I also liked the Chevy post-apocalypse ad ( of course ). But I’m reaching here. They just weren’t that good. And, good lord, there are some absolutely awful looking movies on the way this summer. You couldn’t pay me to go see “Battleship” or “G.I. Joe – Retaliation.” Well, I guess you could…but you’d have to pay me a chunk.
Happy Winter Solstice, all. Things get lighter from here, which always seems strange to me since we are just starting Winter where I live. I feel that the darkest day should be in the depths of Winter. Late January. Early February. Something like that. But I’m not in charge. I just live here.
Like many others, my church held a special service last night. Ours is called, “The Longest Night Service.” I heard a story this morning on a local NPR station about a similar service at First Congregational Church in Hadley, MA called the “Blue Christmas Service.” Rev. Sarah Buteux described it as, “Christmas in a minor key.” I like that. And the truth is that a lot of people need it, especially here at the darkest point in our journey around the Sun. Our lives are overloaded. We are asked again and again to do more with less time and less money. We’re surrounded by images and sounds that tell us how happy we’re supposed to be. How holly jolly and magical it all is. But a lot of people struggle more than usual during the holiday season.
It’s important to acknowledge that. To make space for people to express it, whether out loud or not, and to support those who do. It’s not about wallowing. It’s about being honest. And being honest about the challenges we face need not detract from the miracle and wonder of Christmas and this season. Because, when stripped down to the realist details, Christmas tells the story of an unassisted birth in a dirty stable at night. And it’s about a child coming to bring hope to a despairing people.
Meanwhile, the Winter Solstice is a pivot point. Yes, it’s dark. Yes, it’s cold. Yes, many of us in the northern hemisphere have months of bleak winter ahead of us. But things will change. Spring will come again. There’s hope.
But when we’re dangling above despair, our grip on that truth is feeble. And the world keeps stomping on our fingers.
Greg Lake of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer wrote a song called “I Believe in Father Christmas” that evokes the tension between the image of Christmas and what we so often experience. But it ends with resolve that we can do better, that Christmas is not an empty promise, but one which has real power. If we work together to live into it and make it real. Below is the beautiful cover version released by U2 in 2008, followed by the lyrics.
“I Believe in Father Christmas”
Greg Lake
They said there’ll be snow at Christmas They said there’ll be peace on Earth But instead, it just kept on raining A veil of tears for the Virgin birth
I remember one Christmas morning A winter’s light and a distant choir And the peal of a bell And that Christmas tree smell And their eyes full of tinsel and fire
They sold me a dream of Christmas They sold me a Silent Night And they told me a fairy story Til I believed in the Israelite
And I believed in Father Christmas And I looked to the sky with excited eyes Then I woke with a yawn In the first light of dawn And I saw him and through his disguise
I wish you a hopeful Christmas I wish you a brave New Year All anguish pain and sadness Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there’d be snow at Christmas They said there’ll be peace on Earth Hallelujah, Noel, be it Heaven or Hell The Christmas we get, we deserve
Snow Patrol is another band that I discovered I like once I dug into their catalog deeper than “Chasing Cars” and “Shut Your Eyes,” although I loved the latter the first time I heard it and still do. I’ve seen them live once, opening for U2 on the 360 Tour. I actually enjoyed their set more than U2′s that night. Snow Patrol’s new album, Fallen Empires, will be released in the UK in a few weeks and to us in North America in January, 2012. (Although, these days, with everything available digitally, I’m not sure how you release anything to only part of the world.) I’ve checked out a few songs via videos posted on the Snow Patrol site and live performances on YouTube and have heard enough to be excited. The best of the bunch to my ears so far is the title track, a darkly pulsing, propulsive song with some drama to it. I like it a lot. Here’s a recent performance on Later…with Jools Holland.
Just back from the first bus stop gathering of the new year. My older son’s now in 4th grade and my younger is in 1st. For the first time in almost a decade, my home has no children in it between the hours of 8am and 3pm every day. Which is both exciting and bittersweet. More on that another time. For now, an ode to the start of the school year and the simple joys of childhood.
I’m enjoying the heck out of Codes and Keys, the new Death Cab for Cutie album. ”You Are a Tourist” is sort of the lead single in this day and age when individual songs get far more attention and wider audiences than albums. I was just thinking this morning how album covers (You know, those big cardboard sleeves that housed LPs? What’s an LP….? Never mind.) used to be an art form unto themselves. Anywho, this is one of the catchiest songs on Codes and Keys, although the melodic hooks just keep coming throughout. The music video is fun, especially if you’ve studied Busby Berkeley at all (Who is Busby Berkeley…?) or know in advance that the video is done live in one take, a fact that is revealed at the end. Check it out:
I’ve posted before about my difficulties with Easter. The same general issues apply to Palm Sunday as well for me because it is another day typically marked by nice, bright colors and nice, celebratory worship and nice, fancy food at fellowship afterwards. But Palm Sunday is actually pretty rich, provocative terrain for Christians. It’s about high expectations that don’t get met in a way that is initially understood or embraced. It’s the glory before the fall. The opening scene of a tragedy ending in triumph.
Here’s a hymn by Thomas H. Troeger that I think captures the spirit and themes of Palm Sunday quite well.
A Cheering, Chanting, Dizzy Crowd
A cheering, chanting dizzy crowd
had stripped the green trees bare,
and ailing Christ as king aloud,
waved branches in the air.
They laid their garments in the road
and spread his path with palms
and vows of lasting love bestowed
with royal hymns and psalms.
When day had dimmed down to deep’ning dark
the crowd began to fade
‘til only trampled leaves and bark
were left from the parade.
Lest we be fooled because our hearts
have surged with passing praise,
remind us, God, as this week starts
where Christ had fixed his gaze.
Instead of palms a winding sheet
will have to be unrolled,
a carpet much more fit to greet
the king a cross will hold.
A tween friend of mine introduced me to Pandora a few years ago and I have been endlessly grateful ever since. On my schedule, and with virtually no commercials, it has introduced me to swaths of music I’d never heard. Or, at best, had heard once or twice on the radio and had no way to track down later. I have it on pretty much constantly while I’m doing anything other than writing or reading on the computer. If I like a song, I note the title and go buy it on iTunes so I can stick it in my evolving playlists.
Sometimes it feels a bit like fishing. There are days when not much comes up that I haven’t already heard and/or own. There are days when it decides to go off on odd tangents that don’t inspire me. I don’t always net much. Tonight, Pandora had a very good night. I didn’t reject a single song, even though about 50% of what came on was new to me. Below are the notes that I made. I’ll probably buy all of them. Just a glimpse of my recent musical tastes.
“So Much Beauty in Dirt” – Modest Mouse
“Perpetuum Mobile” – Penguin Cafe Orchestra (possibly too familiar from a commercial)
“They” - Jem
“When Water Comes to Life” – Cloud Cult
“I Gave You All” – Mumford & Sons
“The Winner Is” – Danna/Devotchka (Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack)
“Past in Present” – Feist
“Lazy Eye” – Silversun Pickups
“You Don’t Know Me” – Ben Folds
“Pioneer to the Falls” – Interpol
and just buy It’s Blitz by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
RT @JeremyCShipp: Could you please retweet? Today all the profits made from ATTIC CLOWNS on Kindle will be given to the Humane Society http… 2 days ago
