Here we are on the last days of 2018. Tenth weekend list and probably the last post of the year. It's been a fast year or maybe that's what I started to feel after a certain age...But who cares when those years are lived in health with family, friends, good music and good food over a couple of fine drinks.
As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said;
“Music is the universal language of mankind”.
And now this week's list...
The Divine Comedy - "Gin Soaked Boy"
Odetta - "Paths of Victory"
Weather Report - "Gibraltar"
The Good, The Bad and the Queen - "The Poison Tree"
Crumb - "Locket"
Hope you have a great weekend and a very Happy New Year to you all.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
Here I am with another post for the weekend songs. I guess it is tough to resist the Holiday Season as we start to feel it more and more all around. So I will only post one song (a bit controversial though) and the rest will be a mix of genres and tastes.
As Leonard Bernstein said;
“Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable”.
Here is this week's list...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono & the Plastic Ono Band ft. Harlem Community Choir - "Happy Xmas"
Greta Van Fleet - "Lover Leaver"
Tom McRae - "End of the World News (Dose Me Up)"
Bessie Jones & Hobart Smith - "That Suits Me"
Answer Code Request - "Audax"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
During the week, we were making fun of the German word "Ohrwurm" with a friend who had attended the German School (I did not...) here and with another music loving friend that lives in the German speaking region of Switzerland.
Minutes later, we realized that it was the same "Earworm" that we frequently use in English for a song or part of a song that constantly repeats in our minds when in most cases we cannot remember the name of the song...
I immediately googled the word in order to find out some info about the word's origin or how it happened to be used in that meaning. Of course before finding anything concrete about the "earworm" I was looking for, I came across a youtube playlist by Vox called the "Earworm".
Basically it is a playlist that consists of 13 videos produced by Emmy-nominated producer Estelle Caswell. The videos take us on a musical journey to discover the stories and sounds behind great songs.
The videos are not long, around 10 minutes or so, and they really help to explain certain peculiarities of music in general via giving examples from songs that we all know.
Here is a couple of these cool videos I enjoyed most but I am sure that it is going to be a great experience to watch the whole playlist.
Earworm Episode 2
Earworm Episode 9
Earworm Episode 11
I am still trying to find something on the word "earworm" and till then I guess these videos will keep you busy...
Hello dear readers and followers, another week closer to the end of the year. I was planning to choose some songs about the holiday season but that's kinda cheesy right?
So let's stick to our initial idea of picking songs that I musically like and wish to share with you regardless of genre and era.
As Heinrich Heine said;
“Where words leave off, music begins”.
Here is this week's list...
Gus Gus - "Over"
Yazoo - "Nobody's Diary"
Leonard Cohen - "Boogie Street"
Archie Shepp & Dollar Brand - "Moniebah"
Tenderlonious - "Yussef's Groove"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
Already the last month of the year and our 7th weekend list.
Winter is here with all its dreariness but gotta keep the spirit high for the festive season and try to embrace a happy 2019 filled with music.
As Guy de Maupassant said;
“A strange art – music – the most poetic and precise of all the arts, vague as a dream and precise as algebra”.
So here is this week's list...
Massive Attack feat. Young Fathers - "Voodoo in My Blood"
This year has been a great year for films about music. We saw big productions such as "A Star is Born" or "Bohemian Rhapsody" and relatively smaller ones like "Hearts Beat Loud" and now the "Green Book".
It is a movie about the great pianist Don Shirley and his tour to the southern states of the USA that lasted during the last 2 months of 1962.
The movie is directed by Peter Farrelly, who is the elder brother of the Farrelly Brothers, known with their hit movies "Dumb and Dumber" and "There's Something About Mary". Mahershala Ali plays Don Shirley and Viggo Mortensen plays the role of Tony Vallelonga as his tour helper/driver as well as his bodyguard.
So the movie is based on actual events and the story of the film has been written by Tony's son.
Both leading artists really play their roles very well and they surely give the viewers a movie fun to watch. The script and the events depicted in the movie are sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic but often times tragic, especially when the viewers witness the extent of preposterous racism in the south states.
It is a sort of a road movie where they travel to beautiful pastoral places in the south but the real contrast is how Don Shirley is welcomed in those beautiful towns.
Maybe one failing I sensed during the film was that the real actual harshness I believe to be experienced by African Americans was much more intense that is shown in the movie. I don't know what message the director wished to give but seems a bit soft message to me. And yet again, that's just my feeling...
Anyhow overall quite a good movie, well written and well played. If you want to catch a good movie these days, might be one of the best alternatives.
Here is the great Don Shirley himself playing the "Man I Love"...
