STICKY POST
Tuesday, 20. June 2006, 01:54:38
Music
To play the music, click on George or Glenn's picture.
(Please be patient. It will take a minute to connect with your media player.)
George Friedrich Handel
Suite in d-minor HWV 447
Courante
Artist: Keith Jarrett
Format (MP3) / Timing (02:31)
Light and dark combined.
J.S. Bach
Partita in G Major BWV 829
Praeambulum
Artist: Glenn Gould
Format (MP3) / Timing (01:47)
Now playing in a galaxy near you...Didn't know where to put this map, so I'm putting it here.
Thursday, 2. October 2008, 13:15:57
Culture, Movies, Music
The rather intimidating Catherine Weaver
of The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
I was watching an episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles the week
before last, the season premier of the show, when I came across a face
that seemed very familiar. I had never watched the show before that, or
looked into it on its web site or whatever, and knew pretty much nothing
about it other than the obvious fact that it was a Terminator spinoff.
The actress who had caught my attention plays the character of Catherine
Weaver on the show. She has red hair, is definitely a fox, and has this cold
and vaguely threatening air about her. In fact I find her more intimidating
than any of the evil androids on the show. Between an evil android who
can crush your skull in two seconds or a redhead giving you "that look,"
I would prefer the evil android. In any case, to present that type of
character well takes some pretty good acting ability as well. And as I
mentioned, she looked very familiar. There was just something about that
face.
So I found the show's web site and looked her up. Turns out the actress
is Shirley Manson, singer for the rock group Garbage. And in fact I had
just seen her and that group in 2007 on a segment of Soundstage.
They say that the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill.
And in fact it seems that many musicians want to try the movie thing,
and many actors or actresses are drawn to the music thing. Which isn't
all that surprising. Most actors and actresses grew up listening to music
and, like most of us, wished they were a rock and roll star or whatever.
Just as a lot of musicians grew up watching movies and television shows,
and I'm sure thought about what it might be like to be in front of the
camera.
The list of these crossover gigs would be a long one. You have people
like David Bowie and Mick Jagger being featured in the occasional movie.
Some musicians, like Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley, became serious
actors in their own right. Johnny Depp started out as a musician also,
though he didn't have all that much of a track record as one before he
got into television and film.
And then you have the actors and actresses who have gotten into music,
or at least who have tried to. This would be another fairly long list. The
one that pops into my head first, probably because I was just looking up
some information on him a couple of weeks ago, was actor Telly Savalas.
Savalas took his famous Super-Greek persona that was developed on the
Kojack series and managed to work it into a rather successful music career
that included a couple of albums and a few songs that made the charts.
Occasionally, you have someone who inhabits both worlds simultaneously
pretty much from the start. The one I think of most in terms of this was
Judy Garland. Bing Crosby also comes to mind. It's fairly difficult to really
separate Crosby's musical career from his film career. And of course there
were others.
Since the early 80s and the rise of MTV, the music world has become
tremendously video oriented. In fact it's almost impossible for a new
artist to break in these days without doing a music video. So today,
the two worlds are linked even closer.
Well, it's certainly great seeing Shirley again on the show. Though that
doesn't mean that I wouldn't like to see Garbage come out of their "hiatus"
and do a new album.
And incidentally, I thought that there was some very interesting trivia
about Shirley listed on the Internet Movie Database. You might check it
out.
Shirley Manson in her Garbage days.
Tuesday, 16. September 2008, 07:06:41
Music
Sunday, 14. September 2008, 01:22:19
Music
(Just clic on the pic to watch the video on youTube.)
My mom was always a big Glen Campbell fan. When I was a kid she had
one of his albums -- I think it was the only album she owned -- and she
would listen to it occasionally on the phonograph. She listened to the
radio a lot, and when one of Glen's songs came on she would go up and
turn the radio up just a bit. She didn't like loud music. But for Glen,
she would turn the volume dial at least a bit higher.
She got to go see him in the early 70s at the Butler Bowl in Indianapolis.
Strangely, she went with my dad (her ex-husband) and my dad's girlfriend
Esther. New girlfriend or not, she was going to see Glen Campbell, and the
new girlfriend could just go to hell.
Gee, I wonder where I get my attitudes from.
Anyway, here's Glen singing "Galveston." Not exactly a light song. Most
AM songs don't include a line like "I'm so afraid of dying."
Tuesday, 9. September 2008, 06:26:16
Music, Science
The particle accelerator at CERN.
On Wednesday, they will fire up the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN
complex on the French-Swiss border. One of the main purposes of the
accelerator is to examine how matter might have emerged in the milliseconds
after the Big Bang.
Some people have said that the accelerator would create black holes that
would destroy the Earth.
But more importantly, some people at CERN have put together a cool rap
video about the collider. It's been a long time since I posted a science
song here. So I am more than glad to post this fine, educational video.
It's a little more technical than most rap videos. And my guess is that
it's probably the only rap song you will find which contains the words
"large hadron."
Although I think there might be a good number of rap songs which contain
a closely related spelling of that.
And, if the video is a bit technical for you, you might try this explanation.
Sunday, 7. September 2008, 19:41:47
Music
(Click on the album cover to play the song.
It will take a minute to upload to your media player.)
Artist: Regina Spector
Album: Begin to Hope
Song: "Sampson"
Format: (MP3) / Timing: (3:11)
I can only keep this up for a
brief while due to memory issues.
"SAMPSON"
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first beneath
The sheets of paper lies my truth
I have to go, I have to go
Your hair was long when we first met
Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
He ate a slice of Wonder bread and
Went right back to bed
And history books forgot about us
And the Bible didn't mention us
And the Bible didn't mention us
Not even once
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first beneath
The stars came falling on our hats
But they're just old light, they're just old light
Your hair was long when we first met
Samson came to my bed
Told me that my hair was red
Told me I was beautiful and
Came into my bed
Oh I cut his hair myself one night
A pair of dull scissors in the yellow light
And he told me that I'd done alright
And kissed me till the morning light, the morning light
And he kissed me till the morning light
Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
Ate a slice of Wonder bread and
Went right back to bed
Oh we couldn't bring the columns down
Yeah we couldn't destroy a single one
And history books forgot about us
And the Bible didn't mention us
Not even once
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first
Wednesday, 3. September 2008, 18:47:05
Music
(Just click on the pic to play the video on youTube.)
About two and a half years ago I found a song
on the internet called "The Funeral" by Band
of Horses. It was on one of those legal freebie
MP3 sites. I ended up putting the song on a
compilation CD I burned of more stuff like that.
For a good while Band of Horses weren't much
known outside of the Pacific Northwest, and
even here it wasn't like they were known
well. But over the past couple of years
I've been happy to find them moving up a bit
in the world. They are now fairly well known
and their songs have been featured on both
commercials and television series such as
Criminal Minds.
"The Funeral" reminds me so much of Jethro
Tull. As for the video, it just amazes me.
Underexposed and with a film stock look to
it, it tells a story while avoiding the
traditional shots of the band and band
members. It's just a little noir gem.
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