A Sweet Unrest

Hello Again

 

One or both of my children have been sick for the past five weeks.  Is that even allowed?  Thankfully it was never anything serious but it did keep me away from lots of things I like to do.

I don't know how long it will last but today, right now anyway, everyone is healthy and happy and the sun is shining and I feel like something dancey.

The Isley Brothers - Go All The Way

*     *     *     *

The Contrast Podcast Festive Fifty shortlist is ready, and votes are due by Monday, November 23rd.  All the details- plus a very handy player with most of the songs- right here.   

But When My Stomach's Right I'll Be Back Tonight

 

On episode 187 of the Contrast Podcast we continue our tour of the human body with a stop at the stomach and guts.  I chose an old tune by Tony! Toni! Tone'! and DJ Quik.  It was one of TTT's last singles, and of course Raphael Saadiq has gone onto an acclaimed solo career but I still like him best when he works with someone more hip hop influenced than he tends to be on his own.  

I remember seeing the video for this late one night and wondering sleepily if that was really Ali Shaheed Muhammed from A Tribe Called Quest there on the couch with Dawn Robinson from En Vogue and Mr Saadiq.  Turns out it was.  The lyrics are goofy but for a smooth groove this really got under my skin.

Lucy Pearl - Dance Tonight

In other Contrast Podcast related news, wonderful Tim is getting ready for the Festive Fifty and the more people who vote and take part, the better it is.  Here are the instructions from the great man himself:

1.       Choose up to 50 (yes fifty) songs that were released in 2009 that you like. If you can only think of 10 .. don’t worry .. I’d still like to know what they are.

2.       Send the list to me at contrast.podcast@gmail.com starting with your favourite track at number 1.

3.       Do this by Sunday 15^th November at the latest .. and try to get other people to vote too .. please!!

4.       I will compile a short list of the top 100 songs which we will vote on to be in the top 50 and then start inviting people to record introductions.

5.       Any questions? .... good ... get thinking!!!

Nothing Escapes The Rolling Sea

 

I know I said I couldn't read but I did read The Tempest.  And I watched a performance of it- this- and it was absolutely lovely to hear the language spoken aloud, and wonderful to see the masque.  And somehow Caliban seemed even more heartbreaking than when I'd read it.  And then I mined the marvels of iTunes University and found a lecture that was a bit rambly but still helpful to make the experience complete.

Except it didn't ever really feel complete because of course I had to do it all in mostly ten or fifteen minute increments stretched out over weeks but that's just the way it is and it feels very much like if I'm going to have any kind of inner life right now it's going to have to be snatched and stolen.  And I think it's going to be that way for quite some time.  If I wait for that great big fantasy block of free time to materialize, another ten years will go by without my getting around to any of the things I've always longed to read.

And it did feel good to be reading something challenging again.  I think I'd like to try one of the tragedies next- Macbeth, Hamlet, Lear, Othelo... any suggestions?

The song doesn't actually have anything to do with any of it really but it's the opening track of one of my favorite albums of the year.  In this one I particularly like the end and the way it builds and builds upon itself (like waves?  I ask you.) and somehow soars even as it fades.

Vetiver - Rolling Sea

The photos are from a lovely little nook in Golden Gate Park.

 

It's A City That Was Built By Fire Trucks

Tomorrow is the twenty year anniversary of the biggest tumbler I've ever experienced.  I was working my way through college and living with my brother in a grim apartment in a very uninspiring part of town, and our sitting room was divided in half with crepe paper streamers because he was an A's fan and I am a Giants girl and like everyone else, we were getting ready to watch the game when it started.  And even the most blase' of us California natives  knew there was something different about this one, something off, because about the time a normal earthquake would've stopped, this one gave a great lurching jolt and kept going.

And still, it lasted only seconds.  When it was over most of our dishes were on the floor, shattered, and we had no electricity so we hunted for batteries and the old radio.  And then we went outside to compare notes with the neighbors and their old radios.  At first the news reports consisted mostly of people calling in from all over the area, describing what had happened to them.  It seemed like a long time before there was any coherent overview.  But we were lucky because we and everyone we knew wound up being okay.

Even so, I'm feeling extra misty-eyed about my little corner of the world these days.  Until very recently, this was without a doubt my favorite song about San Francisco.  Obvious and traditional but no less lovely for that, this will make me cry even if I am standing right in my own kitchen when it comes on.

Tony Bennett - I Left My Heart In San Francisco

But then there's this.  I think it captures the city so well, both its insanely romantic beauty and its sad shadowy pockets.  I especially love these lines-

a beauty our hearts all recognize 

and never get their fill
where everyone is humming a love supreme
and watching it pour softly down the hill

American Music Club - All The Lost Souls Welcome You To San Francisco

And then one more, not about San Francisco but a non-album track from one of my favorite San Francisco bands.

Jellyfish - Baby's Coming Back (live acoustic)

May It Fall Easy On You

Back at the beginning of summer when I was unsure of how I might keep my three year old occupied while he was on break from nursery school, I bought lots of little seed packets and some dirt and turned him loose.  Planting all those seeds, watering and checking for growth and blooms each morning gave us some excitement even though we kept close to home most days, because that's just easiest when there's a new baby in the picture.  Now he's back at school and we're all damp morning fog and golden afternoon sun and chilly winds.  And I'm surrounded by flowers.

And of course he writes the most beautiful love songs, but I also think Roddy Frame writes exceedingly well about the passage of time, about memory, and about the strange disconnect between the person we are now and the ones we used to be- all the kinds of things I start thinking about this time of year, in the cool quiet of early autumn before the holiday bustle carries us away into winter.

Roddy Frame - Autumn Flower

*     *     *

One of the people I used to be was a working librarian, so I can't resist pointing out that it's Banned Books Week.  Why not celebrate your freedom by reading something 'naughty'?

Don't Hide Behind Your Hair

Just popping in for a second because for this week's Contrast Podcast theme of Hair my inner child insisted we play some Stevie Nicks and even though I told the story and played the song there, you really need to see the tambourine, the high kicks and the jig to get the full effect.

I was still listening to this up until the very second I first heard The Style Council, and then life changed forever.

Just A Few Songs

So.  Babies.  Not so much with the sleeping, are they?  Not at night anyway.  I'm so very very tired.  I can't concentrate- can't read, can't remember anything- and I feel sorry for anyone forced to endure a conversation with me because there is no one manning the flight deck.  

And it's worrying in a way because if I can't read and write and think and talk then I don't know who I am anymore. 

But I am still just barely capable of pressing play on the little machine with all the music inside.  So here are a few of the songs I've been zoning out to this summer.

Lanterns on the Lake - A KIngdom

I first heard them over at Agnes' place and I played my absolute favorite song from this EP on the Contrast Podcast a few weeks ago and it is very much worth a listen- such beautiful lyrics.  But this one is so nice too.  A kingdom for one last dance to my favourite song, doesn't that sound about right?

Stars - My Favourite Book

Rachel reminded me of this album when she wrote about another song from it a while back and I took to playing it in the car whenever I got the chance to drive by myself sans Elmo, which isn't that often and never for very long so then I just started repeating this song because it's like a four minute fairy tale, an instant hit of lush lovely happiness and more than once I've driven a little bit out of my way simply for the pleasure of hearing her croon, at top volume, our little place, our little place one last time.

Mos Def - Casa Bey

The link takes you elsewhere because they are giving the song away but have requested no reposts.  This is Mos rapping over Banda Black Rio's Casa Forte, which I saw described someplace else as 'samba soul' and the whole thing lifts off to some crazy funky party planet when the horns come in at 0:45.  

Eddi Reader - New York City

This song (written by John Douglas of the Trashcan Sinatras) is so beautiful but more than any one thing it's her voice I love.  Her voice is, erm... well, it's perfect isn't it?  But not in a cold, distant, on-a-pedestal kind of way.  There is something so incredibly warm and understanding in her voice and I feel like she sees so clearly all our human needs and failings and faults and embraces us anyway.  And that's grace isn't it?  Not the lonely divine kind but the special, if often fleeting, purely human kind. 

*     *     *

Even if it stays quiet here for a while longer, I'm lurking over at all your places.

Silly

This bit of flarf (who knew?) by Jordan Davis made me laugh:

POEM FOR A SIXTH WEDDING

You know better than I do

What you're doing

More here, but I don't quite know what to make of it.

Cymbeline

I don't actually consider myself to be a complete idiot.  But I checked this out of the library after that books meme made me think I might like to read some Shakespeare.  I didn't quite trust myself to understand it all on my own.  I started with Cymbeline because I remembered really liking some lines from it when I read them in a novel a long time ago.  We're talking high school, so I did not remember which lines or which novel and that added an air of adventure to the whole caper. 

It turns out Cymbeline is not one of Shakespeare's most respected works.  Even the Idiot's Guide is unimpressed.  But I liked it, I wanted to see how all the plot twists were going to unravel and I was happy with the way they did.  I liked a lot of the language and the poetry.  I immediately recognized the lines I'd read all those years ago as soon as I came upon them and I liked that feeling- the sudden ease of familiarity amid all that slightly strange language I was working so hard to understand.  

Fear no more the heat o' th' sun,

Nor the furious winter's rages,

Thou worldly task hath done,

Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages,

Golden lads and girls all must,

As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Bjork - You Only Live Twice

Gone Fishin'

I don't know if a true blue lefty like me can ever feel anything other than deeply conflicted on the 4th of July.  It's all a big mess, isn't it?  Still, a 4th under President Obama is infinitely preferable to the last eight, and that's what I'll think about when I watch the fireworks light up the nighttime sky on Saturday.

But it's Friday and this seems like the perfect hot lazy holiday tune.  I love the breezy banter between these two:

Louis Armstrong & Bing Crosby - Gone Fishin'

In other news, the 2nd part of the Contrast Podcast CD swap is available and would obviously be worth listening to, dictionary at the ready, if only to see what Eiron had got up to.  But I've already played it once through and the whole thing is brilliant and fun fun fun.