music

Very interesting article about Cher and Gregg Allman, read the article here. For some reason I was oblivious that they were ever married, I mean, Cher and an Allman? It's interesting to me the shuffle game that musicians play with their spouses and love interests. Sometimes you end up with the most unexpected combinations.

Sometimes they work, sometimes they fail miserably.

They married 3 days after her divorce to Sonny Bono was finalized. Cher filed for divorce from Allman 9-10 days after they wed, but stayed married for 4 years. Need I say more?

article from The Selvedge Yard via Miss Moss

alexander

bunny of the week 52

Band of Joy Rabbits (and one frog) courtesy of CJ's new Band of Joy album cover art

Is it possible that Robert Plant will always be attractive?

big jet plane

Came across this on Black*Eiffel. New good song contender...

Angus & Julia Stone - Big Jet Plane from TSL on Vimeo.

Home

wilco

lisa

Lisa Hannigan - Lille from ATO Records on Vimeo.

coconut

Any Fun - Coconut Records

Jason Schwartzman's band, Coconut Records

grieg

rock 'n' roll

We decided to see a movie last night and as soon as I saw that this was in theatres I wanted to see it.  The Boat That Rocked is based on a true story from the 60s, when the British government controlled everything that played on the BBC radio.  These stations played a pitiful 45 minutes a day of new pop/rock that the 60s are now known for. 

To counteract this, pirate radio stations popped up, based on boats anchored in the North Sea, and began to broadcast to the pop/rock-hungry masses. A war (complete with a great soundtrack of music from '67-'69) ensues between the brash, eccentric crew of rock and roll DJs and the straight-edged, type-A British government officials.

Here's guessing who wins... ;)

* soundtrack includes: The Kinks, The Turtles, Martha Reeves, Beach Boys, The Who, Otis Redding, The Troggs, Boxtops, Tremeloes, Cream, Hendrix, Procol Harem, Supremes, Cat Stevens, Moody Blues, Dusty, Lorraine Ellison, The Isley Brothers, and much more

tuesday inspiration: johnny and june

all I can say: one of my most favourite couples

the real Johnny Cash and June Carter

Walk the Line Johnny Cash and June Carter

June said she knew me- knew the kernel of me, deep inside, beneath the drugs and deceit and despair and anger and selfishness, and knew my loneliness.  She said she could help me.  She said we were soul mates, she and I, and that she would fight for me with all her might however she could.  She did that by being my companion, friend, and lover, and by praying for me (June is a prayer warrior like none I've known), but also by waging total war on my drug habit.  If she found my pills, she flushed them down the toilet.  And find them she did; she searched for them, relentlessly.  If I didn't like that and said so, I had a fight on my hands.  If I disappeared on her, she's get Marshall or Fluke or someone else in the crew to go find me in the wee hours of the morning and coax me back to bed.  If I'd been up for days until I'd finally had the sense to take a handful of sleeping pills and crash- there was always an instinct telling me when to do that, pointing to the line between "almost" and "fatal"- I'd wake up from a sleep like death to find that my drugs, all my drugs, no matter how ingeniously I'd hidden them, were gone.

She gave up only once, in the mid-'60s in the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto.  By that time I was totally reduced- I hate the tern "wasted"- and it's incomprehensible to me how I kept walking around, how my brain continued to function.  I was nothing but leather and bone; there was nothing in my blood but amphetamines; there was nothing in my heart but loneliness; there was nothing between me and my God but distance.

I don't know what exactly brought her to the point of leaving me.  I'd been up for three or four days and I'd been giving her a really hard time, but that wasn't unusual.  I guess there'd just been too much of it for her.  She'd set out to save me and she thought she'd failed.  We had adjoining rooms; she came into mine and said, "I'm going.  I can't handle this anymore.  I'm going to tell Saul that I can't work with you anymore.  It's over."

I knew immediately that she wasn't kidding.  I really didn't want her to go, so I went straight out of my room and into hers, gathered up her suitcase and all her clothes- everything, her shoes included (she was barefoot)- and took them back into my room.  Then I pushed her out and locked my door.  That should do it, I thought.  All she had on was a towel.

I could hear her crying in her room for a long time, but eventually she came knocking on my door.  She promised not to leave if I gave her back her clothes, and I believed her, so I did.  And through all the trials to come, before and after she became my wife, she never tried to leave again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wish the whole world could know how great she is.  She's smart and she's brilliant.  She's got a great personality.  She's easy to live with, because she makes it a point to be so.  She's loving.  She's sharing.  The main thing, though, is that she loves me and I know it.  I used to take advantage of that- because I knew she loved me, I could get away with more- but again, that's not a healthy idea, and it demonstrates one of the reasons why she needs to love me so much.  I don't do it so much these days.  Perhaps she prayed me out of it.

June is formidable; she's my solid rock.  She's my spark plug.  When there are people to talk to and my shyness is welling up inside me, she holds my hand, fronts for me, and makes it possible, though not easy, for me to act with enough grace to avoid hurting people's feelings.  As I've said before, I'm just fine on stage in front of ten thousand people I don't know, but I'm all awkwardness backstage with ten.  June always sees that I've got the right thing to eat, if I'll agree to eat it.  She likes the same kind of movies I do, and the same kind of TV shows.

She's got charm, she's got brains, she's got style, she's got class.  She's got silver, she's got gold, she's got jewelry, she's got furniture, she's got china... she's got a black belt in shopping.

She's the easiest woman in the world for me to live with.  I guess because I know her so well and she knows me so well, and we get along handsomely.  If it looks like there's going to be some tension between us, we talk it out and work it out, or I take a walk and she takes a drive until it's over.  Grandfather Rivers taught me that- 'Your Grandma and I never fought, but I took a lot of walks,' he said, and that's what I do.  By the time I'm back from a walk I'll be looking at the problem differently, and so will June.  Whatever I do, I try not to blow up the way I used to, just explode and say angry and horrible things.  Then the pain is there, the damage is done, and there's no taking it back, no matter how many amends I make.  These days I don't even have to walk away very often.  June and I are usually on a pretty even keel in our home life, our social life, and our work.

She's a vital performer, and it's vital for me to have her on my concerts.  This thing between us has been happening since 1961, and I just don't want to travel if she can't come with me.  She almost always does.  She's my life companion, and she's a sweet companion.  She's very loving, especially with me, and very kind- there are people who can be loving, but not kind, but she's loving and kind.  She does everything she can to help me along with my day.  She's a good woman.  She's got standards.  She's got traditions.  She's got dignity.  She's got china...

When we come in from a tour, we both need time and space apart, so I'll pack up my little suitcase and head out here to the farm, and she'll pack her suitcase and head for New York City.  It's necessary, I think, for marriage partners to have some free time apart from each other.  I've found it to be true in my own marriage, and it's straight from Scripture; Paul exhorted us to spend time apart so that our coming together is stronger.  June and I don't let it go many days, though.  Usually we're ready to be back together after just two or three.

She likes to go to New York and shop.  She loves wheeling and dealing and haggling with her favorite jewelers in the diamond district and coming home with all these bargains, all this money saved- she saves me so much money, sometimes, that I just don't know where to spend it.

I don't mind, really I don't.  She's earned her black belt.  It's her right and her prerogative.  She puts as much time into the family business as I do, and I'm only too happy to share the whole thing with her.

She and I have become so very close , so intimate.  I think it might be because of all her prayer.  I never see her praying, though, or at least not when it's obvious.  Sometimes I'll catch sight of her on a plane, say, moving her lips with her eyes closed, and I think that's what she's probably doing.

So yes, we're so close.  Whenever I face a professional decision I always put it to her and get her opinion, because I know she'll be both objective and honest with me, and she's always the first to know about everything in my life.  She's never judgmental.  She lets me keep my small measure of dignity and prestige in both our relationship with each other and our relationship with the world.  She's become everything that a wife should be, in my mind.  We sleep together, we play together, we travel together, we work together, and we've both found our particular place where we totally belong, in every avenue of endeavor.

~ excerpts from Cash, the autobiography

i understood

You were beyond comprehension tonight
But I understood
I understood
If only I could hold time
Hold time
Hold time

Words have failed me tonight, failed me tonight
But you knew what I meant
You knew what I meant
Yeah, you heard what I said the whole time
The whole time
The whole time

And I wrote this song about it
Cuz I didn't care about any worthless photographs
Yeah, I wrote this song just to remember

The endless, endless summer in your laugh

Endless summer in your laugh

happiness

I love this music video. It makes me, for lack of another word, happy.

itunes play count

I find it interesting to go on to my iTunes music and see what are the top played songs and the recently played songs.  I suppose it may give some insights into my personality...

Here are my top 15 played songs:

1)  No Bad News- Patty Griffin, Children Running Through (23)

2) Sleeping Lessons- The Shins, Wincing the Night Away (22)

3) Sugar Baby Love- The Rubettes (18)

4) The Melody of a Fallen Tree- Windsor for the Derby (18)

5) I Think I See the Light- Cat Stevens, Harold and Maude Soundtrack (17)

6) I'm the Man Who Loves You- Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (16)

7) Little Green Bag- George Baker, Reservoir Dogs Soundtrack (15)

8) Stars and Sons- Broken Social Scene, You Forgot It In People (13)

9) I Feel It All- Feist, The Reminder (13)

10) Naked As We Came- Iron & Wine, Our Endless Numbered Days (13)

11) Queen Bitch- David Bowie, Hunky Dory (13)

12) Heavenly Day- Patty Griffin, Children Running Through (13)

13) The 59th Bridge St Song- Simon and Garfunkel, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (13)

14)  You Are My Face- Wilco, Sky Blue Sky (13)

15)  The General Specific- Band of Horses, Cease to Begin (12)

* I do have to keep in mind that iTunes only changes these counts when I play the songs all the way through and don't skip to the next one, which I have to admit rarely happens

discoveries

After seeing Kung Fu Panda the other day we wandered in the drizzle down the Thames, though the little park that is to the right of Embankment station.

One discovery here was a statue to W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan. Gilbert & Sullivan is the Victorian era partnership of librettist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900). Together, they wrote fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896. When I was younger (and living at home) I would go with my parents to see the Chester County Gilbert & Sullivan Society every year.

The statue in this park has written on it:

Is life a boon?
      If so, it must befal
that death, whene'er he call
      must call too soon.
                           W.S. Gilbert

they don't make it like this anymore

When I was in the shop the other week I rediscovered this music, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, Allegro Moderato. I love the unexpected paths that Tchaikovsky takes, and my favourite transition begins around the 5:50 mark. You will hear the frenetic buildup, then its peak and release of musical energy.

He began piano lessons at age 5 and could read music as well as his teachers within three years, but then his parents turned away from his music education and he only picked up the piano again when his mother died from cholera when he was 14. Music was not a priority at his school, but he went to the opera and theatre regularly. After graduation he began a there-year-long civil service career, as his instructors said that nothing suggested Tchaikovsky could be a potential composer or even musician.

Then, in 1861, he attended classes in music theory taught by Nikolai Zaremba through the Russian Musical Society. The following year he followed Zaremba to the new St Petersburg Conservatory. From 1862 to 1865, he studied harmony, counterpoint and fugue with Zaremba. Anton Rubinstein, director and founder of the Conservatory, taught him instrumentation and composition. Rubinstein was impressed by Tchaikovsky's talent.

Tchaikovsky demonstrated the Romantic ideals of color, emotional expressiveness, and dramatic intensity. Tchaikovsky was also typically Romantic in his choice of subject matter in his operas and symphonic poems. He leaned toward doomed lovers and heroines — Romeo and Juliet, Francesca and Paolo (Francesca da Rimini), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), even the title character from his abandoned opera Undina. Sometimes, as in his final opera, Iolanta, and in his final tone poem, The Voyevode, the love music could outshine the rest of the composition, especially if the music or story was otherwise sub-standard.

Many people today feel that Tchaikovsky's homosexuality, which had to be kept a secret form Russian society, enhanced his overall works. This intensity of personal emotion flowing through Tchaikovsky's works was entirely new to Russian music, and remains beautiful and moving into the present in a way in which few composers can achieve.

tuesday inspiration: zooey deschanel

I just like her quirky sense of style and self. I will overlook her role in the new m.night.shyamalan movie and concentrate on her part in Hitchhikers...



... and also her collaboration with M. Ward. music to my ears.

pay for concerts? bah

so yet again (in the space of 3 weeks) I managed to get some more free concert tickets. I'm starting to think that I have some special music powers when it comes to this...

however, this story is a bit more lengthy. I will do my best.

one of Chloe's friends, who works at Universal Records, called her on Thursday and said that if you were a person in the know, O2 was giving out free tickets to the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, but only to O2 customers. To gain free entry you had to go to an O2 shop and find a random looking guy outside who was giving out the tickets and persuade him that you were a long-time O2 customer who was very worthy of free concert tickets. Chloe went and got two for her and her friend, and then I went and got two more and took a friend from down the road.

We got to the festival around 6pm, but since we were really going to see Hot Chip, that was fine for us since they were just going on. We danced, drank, smuggled in cigarettes and had a merry time (especially once the rain stopped). Later on the same main stage Mark Ronson and Jay-Z played. Ronson was ok, but his show was more about what big names made 'surprise appearances' (like Lily Allen). Whereas, Jay-Z's show was amazing, the crowd loved him and sang along to everything, and was actually a lot more tame than the Radiohead crowd, which I thought was interesting.





Overall, free music and fun times is pretty great!

happy 4th (yesterday)

Happy belated 4th of July!

I just went to the iTunes Store to see what the top downloaded songs were and it seems that people were busy compiling patriotic American playlists recently ;)

street style: glastonbury

large music concerts like glastonbury always amaze me. I've never been (mainly because the line-ups aren't always good and the prices are high), but I love to see what people wear to these festivals. What I love most about glastonbury is that is always rains and gets very muddy, so rubber boots become a necessary accessory, and you can see them appear in different forms in all the photos below :)


Stevie (Vintage dress, Topshop sweater, Highland boots, Louis Vuitton bag)


Chloe (Zara jacket, Uniqlo dress, vintage scarf and shorts, Dunlop boots, Linda Farrow Luxe sunglasses)


DJ Annie Mac (Barbour jacket, Insight tee, Levi's jeans, Tretorn boots)


Kelly Osbourne (Luella coat, Topshop dress, Gio Goi glasses)


Joe Lean from Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong (Vintage hat and jacket, Filippa K shirt, April 77 trousers, Paul Smith boots)

source: style.com