Stop! Hammer time!

The video is a PR stunt for this:

there are a few songs that actually give me "the chills" when I hear them

This is one. I'm not a Catholic, but I absolutely love hearing it, especially at this time of the year.




If you're not much of an opera fan, perhaps you'll like this version...

"Now the rabbi's walking right behind me..."

Back in the day, I had a serious love for the music of Tears for Fears. But I don't remember this version of one of their biggest hits...

"I went in there one day, and in the drawing room I found Emily reclining in the arms of a man."

Emily Dickinson had a secret lover!

It's now widely assumed that that man was Judge Otis Lord, a widower of her father's generation who proposed marriage to Dickinson late in his life and hers (she died in 1886 at the age of 56) only to be affectionately rebuffed. "Don't you know," she wrote coyly but decisively, "that you are happiest while I withhold and not confer?" Yet the notion of Emily Dickinson making out in her living room is so foreign to our conception of her that her autumnal tryst with Judge Lord has never become part of the popular lore about her.

Will you read her poetry in the same way again? Is it better to think of her as an old spinster longing for the beauty of romantic companionship but never finding it? Is it disappointing to think that she wasn't so different from all us romantic fools?

I bet that if Emily Dickinson had been a fan of '80's pop songs, this one would have been near the top of her favorites list:

Apparently, thousands of women are experiencing hysteria because Sarah Palin could be the next Veep

Senator McCain's selection of Governor Palin of Alaska as his running mate, which was hailed in some quarters and met with skepticism in others, is sparking intense reactions from some New Yorkers, who report being driven to fits of rage and even all-consuming panic.

All of my women friends, a week ago Monday, were on the verge of throwing themselves out windows," an author and political activist, Nancy Kricorian of Manhattan, said yesterday. "People were flipping out. ... Every woman I know was in high hysteria over this. Everyone was just beside themselves with terror that this woman could be our president — our potential next president."

Thanks, Josh Gerstein, for bring to mind an old psychological term. You know what I immediately think of when I hear the word hysteria?

This:

I think the worship team at my in-law's church will be doing this on Sunday

(H/T: Frank Turk)

"Want to buy some illusions? Slightly used, second-hand..."

They were lovely illusions,
Reaching high, built on sand.
They had a touch of paradise,
A spell you can't explain...

I think both conventions should have featured Marlene Dietrich singing this song. Pity she's no longer available.

I'm talking to the man in the mirror, and he's turning 50

Can you believe it? Michael Jackson is 50 years old! Well, most of him is. I don't think his nose is a teenager yet. Anyway, here are some photos to look at. Don't stop 'til you get enough.

What was the #1 song the day you were born?

Taking a cue from a well-known blogger, I'm checking out the #1 song the day I was born. Actually, there are two songs (I'm guessing an A/B sided record?) that were #1 that day, both by Carole King - "It's Too Late"/"I Feel the Earth Move." These songs seem diametrically opposed - one about the physical joys that can come with a relationship, the other about the ending of a (the same?) relationship - so it's humorous that they'd be on the same record. I seriously doubt this song was playing in my house at the time - my siblings were all young, and my parents didn't listen to Carole King.

Go here to check out your birthsong.

Dan Fogelberg, 1951-2007

Dan Fogelberg lost his battle to prostate cancer. I can't truly say that I've been a fan of his music, but I liked "Along the Road" so much that I chose it when I was asked to sing for an honors ceremony at my grad school.

Sinatra's Second Act

Benjamin Schwarz examines Frank Sinatra's life post-1953:

Although that point can be debated, the 1950s—more precisely, the period from 1953 to the mid-1960s—was clearly the era of Sinatra’s supreme artistic achievement and deepest cultural sway. It amounted to the most spectacular second act in American cultural history. In the early 1940s, following his break with the Tommy Dorsey band, Sinatra had emerged, thanks largely to swooning bobby-soxers, as pop music’s biggest star and a hugely popular Hollywood actor. By the end of the decade, he was all but washed up, having lost his audience owing to shifting musical tastes and to disenchantment over his reported ties to the Mob, and over his divorce, which followed a widely publicized affair with Ava Gardner, whom he married in 1951. He soon lost his voice (he would never fully recover his consistently accurate intonation and precise pitch), his movie contract with MGM, his record contract with Columbia, and Gardner—their passionate, mutually orrosive entanglement plainly and permanently warped him. But in 1953, his harrowing, Oscar-winning performance as the feisty, doomed Maggio in From Here to Eternity made him a star again.

If your life had a Second Act, what would you imagine it to be? Have you already had one? I'm certainly imagining one for my life, but I'll only allow what that is to reveal itself with time.

As you walk on by, will you call my name?

There are very few vocalists in the music scene that I can listen to and think, Man, I wish I sounded like him. This song, however, causes me to think that every single time I hear it.

Do you hear what I hear?

It's that time of year again. No, the holidays aren't here just yet, although the stores and malls would like you to think they are. It's the time for Christmas albums to be released. Christianity Today has a roundup for the 2007 CD's. I'll definitely pick up Josh Groban.

Lollipops

Craig Robinson has been creating illustrations of bands for years. Can you name the band? See if you can.


(HT: Neatorama)

when your drummer is an animal, you can't go wrong

Here's a list of the ten best bands that never existed. I've always been a fan of the #1 band.

Sinead O'Connor's "Christianity"

I read with great interest a recent interview conducted by Christianity Today with musician Sinead O'Connor. I think she has a mesmerizing voice, and her rendition of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U is one of the most haunting songs I've heard. Her infamy certainly increased following a performance on Saturday Night Live, when she tore in half a picture of Pope John Paul II while urging the audience to "fight the real enemy." She has seemed to mellow in the years since then. Even though her CD's haven't burned up the charts since I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, she continues to be prolific.

O'Connor is promoting her new album, Theology, which is reportedly inspired by the Old Testament. As if this wasn't strange enough, the album is supposedly being promoted to Christians. (Gareth Higgins, writing for Beliefnet, proves himself to be a fan.) Read this interview, and see if there is anything remotely Christian about O'Connor's spiritual beliefs.

What does Jesus mean to you?

O'Connor: I've had a lot of faith in Jesus ever since I was a little kid. I always joke with my friends that I have a cab company called "Jesus Cabs." And I tell my friends, "If you ask Jesus for anything, it will happen. But you have to believe that it's going to happen."

What about now? Where do you stand in your faith in Jesus?

O'Connor: I think everybody has an individual relationship with Jesus. I kinda really do believe in this Trinity thing, that God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all one thing. I understand Jesus as being an interceder, someone you ask when you really need a big favor from God. I also feel that Jesus is inside everybody. It's almost like an energy or a thing that lives inside of us.

"When you're alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go..."

Whenever I hear this song now, I feel a bit creepy inside.

If you watch ABC on Wednesdays at 10:00 EST, you know why.

Somewhat related: If you want to know how to get somewhere, Google Maps is worth checking out. These directions from New York to London are especially good, as Tricia points on.

Joshua Bell, D.C. street performer

An absolutely amazing experiment. Watch the videos, too.

If Misha Dichter was playing a piano, would they have stopped to listen?

In my first collegiate year, I had the opportunity to see Bell in concert. This was in early 1990, when he was building the acclaim that he now richly deserves. He gave a performance in front of about 200 people in a small concert hall on the Wright State University campus. I believe I paid about $10 to see him. Listening to - and watching - Bell was extraordinary. He plays much bigger venues now, and for a lot more money.

And, yes, I've also seen Dichter in concert - the same year that I saw Bell. Bell's performance moved me more.

(H/T: ALOTT5MA)

Update: Thanks to my anonymous commentor, I was able to read an actual street performer's thoughts on this experiment. Why did Bell fail to attract an audience? He's not a good busker.

"Good Evening Friend Brownie"

Listen to the music. Not very complicated, but nice.

49th Annual Grammys

Was this the Grammys or the Country Music Awards? The Dixie Chicks were the big winners tonight, taking home the trophies for several categories (Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Country Album). Suprisingly, the Chicks said nothing political - at least, nothing that I heard.

Carrie Underwood became the first American Idol alum to win Best New Artist; I thought James Blunt had that award wrapped up, but the voters thought otherwise.

Here's the complete list of winners.

I was pleased to see Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere win the award for Urban/Alternative Music (for the ubiquitous Crazy). I bought their CD solely on the basis that it topped Entertainment Weekly's 2006 list of music, and I wasn't disappointed!

I strongly dislike bluegrass music, but it was nice to see fellow believer Ricky Skaggs win for Instrumentals.

Former president Jimmy Carter continues the line of political leaders gaining Grammys - he won Spoken Word Album for Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis. Past winners in this category include Senator Barack Obama, former president Bill Clinton, and Senator Hillary Clinton. I guess this means that if you have been or want to be a president, and you record a spoken word album, the Grammy is yours!