What Keeps Mankind Alive
Just as I may have let one ugly customer convince myself that I'm a terrible employee, let alone a perfectly horrible person all the way down to the core of my filthy soul, I have one sweet gentleman customer whom I work with semi-regularly offer to bring me a free CD burn of an out-of-print Randy Meisner CD that he just acquired, only because he remembered our last conversation several months ago about how I had been looking for that CD myself because it was one of my father's favorite albums when I was growing up. I can't tell you how much I wanted to hug that man that very second. Or heck, just sweep him up into my arms and spin him around. As depressed as I've been over my actions this week, he reminds me that maybe I'm not such an awful person after all. I don't think he even realizes how much he made my whole week with just that one small, thoughtful gesture.
Oh, I did get a few new CDs during my birthday week. Two used, and one I ordered from Amazon...
The three-CD set of Tom Waits' Orphans, Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards which also includes a little booklet of liner notes and nice B&W photos of Tom et al. A good chunk of it is new material, with covers of songs by Brecht/Weill, Ramones, and it even has his version of Disney's "Heigh Ho" that was released on the Stay Awake compilation I had a bazillion years ago. Pretty much Waits doing what Waits does. Which is sound like Louis Armstrong on a bender. But it fits my mood appropriately this week.
The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw by Pelican, instrumental proggy art-metal with a dash of acoustic guitar for a just little what-tha-fuck. More a mood piece than anything, but I like what moods in invokes. I've been kind of going in this direction metal-wise for awhile now. Well, more like alternating really. I still can't manage to pry my beloved Slayer CD out of my car stereo nearly a year after I bought it. You can't take that away from me, boy-o.
And finally as a birthday gift to myself, and a recommendation from a new friend of mine, Ethiopiques, Vol. 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969-1974, a collection of instrumental soul-jazz tracks from the early 70's with a touch of Ethiopian rock, composed and arranged by musician Mulatu Astatqe. Funny how my friend suggested I get this having not even known I had been sort of dabbling a bit into early rock and soul music from several African nations like Senegal, Congo and Ethiopia. Pretty vital stuff. My dear fellow, you can drop me more recs like this one any day.
Actually I'm dying for recommendations from anyone right now. Movies, music, literature, etc. I've hit another proverbial brick wall creatively, and I need my juices stirred, so to speak. Lay 'em on me, babies. Greg? Chris? I know you boys always come through for me.
Oh, I did get a few new CDs during my birthday week. Two used, and one I ordered from Amazon...
The three-CD set of Tom Waits' Orphans, Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards which also includes a little booklet of liner notes and nice B&W photos of Tom et al. A good chunk of it is new material, with covers of songs by Brecht/Weill, Ramones, and it even has his version of Disney's "Heigh Ho" that was released on the Stay Awake compilation I had a bazillion years ago. Pretty much Waits doing what Waits does. Which is sound like Louis Armstrong on a bender. But it fits my mood appropriately this week.
The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw by Pelican, instrumental proggy art-metal with a dash of acoustic guitar for a just little what-tha-fuck. More a mood piece than anything, but I like what moods in invokes. I've been kind of going in this direction metal-wise for awhile now. Well, more like alternating really. I still can't manage to pry my beloved Slayer CD out of my car stereo nearly a year after I bought it. You can't take that away from me, boy-o.
And finally as a birthday gift to myself, and a recommendation from a new friend of mine, Ethiopiques, Vol. 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969-1974, a collection of instrumental soul-jazz tracks from the early 70's with a touch of Ethiopian rock, composed and arranged by musician Mulatu Astatqe. Funny how my friend suggested I get this having not even known I had been sort of dabbling a bit into early rock and soul music from several African nations like Senegal, Congo and Ethiopia. Pretty vital stuff. My dear fellow, you can drop me more recs like this one any day.
Actually I'm dying for recommendations from anyone right now. Movies, music, literature, etc. I've hit another proverbial brick wall creatively, and I need my juices stirred, so to speak. Lay 'em on me, babies. Greg? Chris? I know you boys always come through for me.
posted by Melissa at 11:20 PM
5 Comments:
Hmm. Let me think.
Not much I can suggest that you don't already know about, I suppose. The new Fountains of Wayne CD comes out next month; that should be good for a smile or two.
Maybe you should explore the world of theatre music for a bit, if you haven't already? I know there's a lot of crap out there, but there's a lot of classics you may not have fully looked into: Fiddler On The Roof, The Pajama Game, Into The Woods, Sweeney Todd, My Fair Lady, Evita, Guys and Dolls and so on.
My brother and his wife really did this new Portland band that's breaking nationally called Stars Of Track and Field. (Clips are available on YouTube, of course.) Can't say they particularly fry my burger yet, but they seem like spunkily creative lads with potential.
"really dig" Stars of Track and Field, I meant. I doubt they actually did them, but you never know with this decadent rock and roll crowd.
Oh, and the High Hat crowd can't get enough of Thomas Pynchon's new book Against The Day.
I got through The Crying of Lot 49 (barely) and did quite like it -- although don't ask me to summarize the plot -- because I'm a wacked-out hippie surrealist like Pynchon. But Gravity's Rainbow I had to throw in the towel (for now anyway) at just over 100 pages, and I suspect this new one might be the same way, because I don't have a lot of time and quiet space to keep my eye on all the different wild directions he goes in.
But his work is entertaining and his vision is compelling, if you can do keep your eye on the bouncing balls.
So the HH guys liked the new Pynchon, eh? I admit I've been hesitant, and not because I doubt it's not terrific, but I also couldn't quite finish Gravity's Rainbow either, even though I found it interesting at the time. I think I just need to pick it up again when I'm in that right frame of mind to tackle it. But I may take a stab at Against The Day. I've been going through a fickle phase with books lately where I can't find the attention span for anything, even stuff I really enjoy, if that makes any sense.
I'll check out the new trakcs by FOW and Stars Of Track And Field. I've seen their CDs at work but I've never had the chance to check them out.
Wow, theater music! Strangely enough, I grew up listening to a lot of theater music as a child, since my parents had the albums from the Broadway shows that were hug back in the 70's. The ones I know entirely by heart are Camelot, Caberet, West Side Story, South Pacific, and Fiddler On The Roof although I may be forgetting one or two. I'm completely lost concerning modern day theater music. I've never heard all of Into The Woods or Sweeny Todd, even though I am a much bigger Sondheim fan than Webber.
By the way, how have you been, Greg? I always love hearing from you, and reading your blog.
Not bad, I am. Overworked and underpaid, but same as it ever was.
We're rather immersed in the theatah right now, which is one reason I have it so much on the brain. My daughter's doing "Fiddler" at one area high school; will do Our Miss Brooks at her own high school late this month, and will be in Seussical (again) this summer, in a community theater production directed by her mom. (They read at an area library for kids yesterday, as Gertrude McFuzz and The Cat In The Hat.)
Also, we saw yet another high school performance tonight, of Rupert Holmes' musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood (based on the unfinished Dickens novel), because I received tickets from the drama director after doing a mini-story on the show in The Oregonian. Good show.
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