Archives for February 2010

From the YouTube Music Video Archives: Chou à la Crème by Hiromi Uehara

“Chou à la Crème” means “cream puff” in French; I’m not sure how to spell that in Japanese. If you like this, you might also enjoy Bern Baby Bern. I liked her right away because it’s obvious she’s having such a great time performing – an amazing virtuoso who plays most everything at Warp 10. Spiral and Open Door are nice exceptions that remind me a little of those epic compositions by Keith Jarret. And here she is interviewing bassist Ron Carter.

Lent, Day 12

Welcoming party for newlyweds Mary and Fred.

Failure.

I think that I shall never be
Able to photograph this tree
At least, not properly
But golly gee
It pleases me.

Lent, Day 11

While we’re looking back at Friday, here’s another entry for the Tom Waits Lenten Songbook.

Well the rampaging sons of the widow James
Jack the cutter and the pock marked kid
Had to stand naked at the bottom of the cross
And tell the good lord what they did
Tell the good lord what they did
– “Get Behind the Mule”

Lent, Day 11

A look back at Lent, Day 10, around 1:30 p.m. Clam sandwich. You see how I suffer.

Lent, Day 10

Jesus says, “Mother I couldn’t stay another day longer”
Flies right by me and leaves a kiss upon her face
While the angels are singin’ his praises in a blaze of glory
Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place

– Patty Griffin, “Mary”

A public service announcement from Harrison Ford

POW Bunnies

Every day, they let us out of the cage and give us time on the ground. But there are still bars. Mary always starts trying to dig out from under – you can see where she’s working in back there – but it’s no use. They just keep moving the pen.

Lent, Day 9

Well I’ve been faithful
And I’ve been so good
Except for drinking
But he knew that I would.
– Tom Waits, “Jesus Gonna Be Here”

New Feature: POW Bunnies

The chickens get free run of the grounds because they lay eggs. But they’re either too dumb to leave, or they actually like it here.

Second Son Made Pancakes

I Feel Crack

The Fifty-Storey Mountain

https://korrektivpress.com/2010/02/2082/

Cinder-who?

Lent, Day 6

Just when I thought I was done quoting lyrics to pop songs (and from Sting!)…

“Men go crazy in congregations, they only get better one by one.”

That said, I do of late have a tendency to look around the inside of a church during Mass and think, “If this congregation could be roused to act…”

Pottersville and its discontents

https://korrektivpress.com/2010/02/2081/

Lent, Day 5

“Moral posturing is part and parcel of temptation…It pretends to show us a better way, where we finally abandon our illusions and throw ourselves into the work of actually making the world a better place. It claims, moreover, to speak for true realism: What’s real is what is right there in front of us – power and bread. By comparison, the things of God fade into unreality, into a secondary world that no one really needs. God is the issue: Is he real, reality itself, or isn’t he? Is he good, or do we have to invent the good ourselves? The God question is the fundamental question, and it sets us down right at the crossroads of human existence.”

– Pope Benedict XVI, from today’s reading in Magnificat

From the YouTube Music Video Archives: Lost Cause by Beck

More Beck this week – in my opinion, the best version of his best song. He follows it up with Lonesome Tears, also very fine. I’d like to note that Beck has a very simple and straightforward delivery when it comes to singing – unlike, say, Dylan, or Sinatra. Actually, his style is fairly low-key on whatever instrument he chooses to play – listen closely to the diminished scale or whatever it is after the first chorus. But, man, he really casts a spell with that voice.

Your sorry eyes cut through bone / Make it hard to leave you alone / Leave you here wearing your wounds / Waving your guns at somebody new / Baby, you’re a lost / Baby, you’re a lost / Baby, you’re a lost cause / There’s too many people you used to know / They see you coming / They see you go / They know your secrets / And you know theirs / This town is crazy / Nobody cares / There’s a place where you are going / You ain’t never been before / No one laughing at your back now / No one’s standing at your door / That’s what you thought love was for / I’m tired of fighting / I’m tired of fighting / Fighting for a lost cause