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a promotional endeavor
Apr. 5th, 2010 10:49 pmZAMBRA at Holy Cross Church, Santa Cruz, CA
December 18, 2009
(and yes, the soloist is my lovely wife![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
songspinner9...)
December 18, 2009
(and yes, the soloist is my lovely wife
songspinner9...)
on an actual update note
Sep. 7th, 2008 10:47 pmso for the second year in a row, I'm participating in Mary McLaughlin's Cór Ainglí, singing Christmas songs (some familiar, others rather less so) in Irish Gaelic. I had great fun doing choral singing again last year, and have been looking forward to this.
( what could possibly be making me anxious about this? )
( what could possibly be making me anxious about this? )
i and i is very sad
May. 26th, 2006 06:27 pmso Desmond Dekker, the original reggae legend of the '60s, apparently died of a heart attack yesterday.
why, you may ask, do i care?
i remember hearing "Israelites" and "King of Ska" fairly frequently on the radio as a child. (Back before pre-packaged playlists, when all sorts of oddities shared space on the airwaves.) i liked it a lot.
didn't get exposed to Bob Marley until i was in my teens. probably was predisposed to liking Marley from early exposure to Dekker.
i suspect, without the way being paved by Desmond Dekker and Jimmy Cliff (who got his start as one of the Aces), that Bob Marley would have had a much tougher time getting a foothold in the States.
anywho... somber thoughts at the end of a tiring week.
why, you may ask, do i care?
i remember hearing "Israelites" and "King of Ska" fairly frequently on the radio as a child. (Back before pre-packaged playlists, when all sorts of oddities shared space on the airwaves.) i liked it a lot.
didn't get exposed to Bob Marley until i was in my teens. probably was predisposed to liking Marley from early exposure to Dekker.
i suspect, without the way being paved by Desmond Dekker and Jimmy Cliff (who got his start as one of the Aces), that Bob Marley would have had a much tougher time getting a foothold in the States.
anywho... somber thoughts at the end of a tiring week.
iTunes freebie of the week
Mar. 22nd, 2006 04:35 pmyou know how the iTunes Music Store has the free song of the week?
talk about giving potential customers free samples to get them hooked! ("He gives the kids free samples/Because he knows full well/That today's young, innocent faces/Will be tomorrow's... clientele.")
I'm listening to this week's freebie - it's bouncy Britpop that would not be out of place in the late '60s. Or the early '80s. I like it. Damn them! ;)
talk about giving potential customers free samples to get them hooked! ("He gives the kids free samples/Because he knows full well/That today's young, innocent faces/Will be tomorrow's... clientele.")
I'm listening to this week's freebie - it's bouncy Britpop that would not be out of place in the late '60s. Or the early '80s. I like it. Damn them! ;)
the sound of music rehearsals
Mar. 4th, 2006 08:11 amAnother day of music classes. Hope I'm not getting typecast. :)
This was Basic Guitar and Women's Chorus at Soquel High School. For the guitar players, I basically let them do individual and group practice - I don't know how to teach guitar! Some of the kids also took a stab at the piano - umpteen variations on "Heart and Soul", gah!
The chorus class was more fun - there were a couple of girls in there who had notes on what had gone wrong in their last rehearsal, and they really wanted to hit the problem songs again (apparently they have their spring concert in 2 weeks). So that class had a proper run-through. Then we watched a movie for the second half of the (two-hour) class.
Speaking of which... whose brilliant idea was it to subject high school students to two-hour class periods, and make them go to school from 7:40 to 3:00? It's just NUTTY.
This was Basic Guitar and Women's Chorus at Soquel High School. For the guitar players, I basically let them do individual and group practice - I don't know how to teach guitar! Some of the kids also took a stab at the piano - umpteen variations on "Heart and Soul", gah!
The chorus class was more fun - there were a couple of girls in there who had notes on what had gone wrong in their last rehearsal, and they really wanted to hit the problem songs again (apparently they have their spring concert in 2 weeks). So that class had a proper run-through. Then we watched a movie for the second half of the (two-hour) class.
Speaking of which... whose brilliant idea was it to subject high school students to two-hour class periods, and make them go to school from 7:40 to 3:00? It's just NUTTY.
TV commentary
Jan. 8th, 2006 09:23 pmSo tonight was the much-promoted episode of CBS's Cold Case in which all the songs used to set the mood of the flashbacks were by Bruce Springsteen. (Bet it was fairly cheap, too - Springsteen used to be on CBS Records back in the day.) Being somewhat of a fan of Springsteen pre-1988, I was actually looking forward to this one.
But darn it, they lost me from the opening.
Date given is 1980. Four high school kids in a '69 Chevelle SS convertible, speeding down the highway, backseaters swilling beer, all singing along to No Surrender.
Problem is, No Surrender is from Born in the U.S.A. Which didn't come out until 1984.
It was like that the whole way through. They used music from four albums - The River (1980), Nebraska (1982), Born in the U.S.A. and Tunnel of Love (1987). All out of order, though - they used the music from the later albums in flashbacks that were supposed to be taking place in '80 and '81, and then in the scenes in '86 and '88 they used stuff from The River and Nebraska. And the last one... well, the song they picked from The River was so obvious I was thinking "Oh good grief, I hope they don't use that, it's just so obvious..." But they did.
Not one of their better efforts on the music front. I've noticed things like this in previous episodes set in the '80s. Maybe because that's when I was a teenager and listening to American Top 40 every weekend, and Top 40 radio every night as I did my homework. I still have a bunch of rough tapes from the radio that I made during the years 1982 (when I got my first Walkman) to 1986 (when I stopped listening to Top 40 and started listening to hard rock). It was influential... and that's pretty much the same music I still listen to most of the time.
But darn it, they lost me from the opening.
Date given is 1980. Four high school kids in a '69 Chevelle SS convertible, speeding down the highway, backseaters swilling beer, all singing along to No Surrender.
Problem is, No Surrender is from Born in the U.S.A. Which didn't come out until 1984.
It was like that the whole way through. They used music from four albums - The River (1980), Nebraska (1982), Born in the U.S.A. and Tunnel of Love (1987). All out of order, though - they used the music from the later albums in flashbacks that were supposed to be taking place in '80 and '81, and then in the scenes in '86 and '88 they used stuff from The River and Nebraska. And the last one... well, the song they picked from The River was so obvious I was thinking "Oh good grief, I hope they don't use that, it's just so obvious..." But they did.
Not one of their better efforts on the music front. I've noticed things like this in previous episodes set in the '80s. Maybe because that's when I was a teenager and listening to American Top 40 every weekend, and Top 40 radio every night as I did my homework. I still have a bunch of rough tapes from the radio that I made during the years 1982 (when I got my first Walkman) to 1986 (when I stopped listening to Top 40 and started listening to hard rock). It was influential... and that's pretty much the same music I still listen to most of the time.
