( 3:16 PM )
Breaking The Law
Um - I don't know if anyone noticed because of the way the story has been treated by the media, but just so we're all clear on what happened - THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DELIBERATELY BROKE TWO FEDERAL LAWS. I'm at work (and my computer at home is broken), but when he admitted that he directed the NSA to spy on Americans in the US, he committed a federal crime. I would have flunked my OU journalism classes if I'd led a story with that information any other way than including the words President and crime in the lead and in the headline. Amazing. And there are still dorks out there who argue about the media being too liberal. If only.
Breakin' the law, breakin' the law.
--Judas Priest
More later....(or when I get a working computer)....
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( 1:05 AM )
Big Sky Country
Man what a crappy year for life. Last week, my family laid my great aunt Marion "Teddy" Powell to rest. I won't go into too much family history here, but both of my grandmothers died while my parents were still children. Teddy was my mother's mother's sister and pretty much my defacto grandmother and frankly my favorite relative. I always looked forward to visiting her because we'd talk politics and though you couldn't call her a crazy leftie like me, she definitely hewed to the left side of the road with a smart, common sense approach to whatever needed to be done for the people. She was definitely a no nonsense person and I will greatly miss her. She was the last of the Wardlaw (nee Wedlow) clan and I'm deeply saddened by her passing.
Guitar soother Chris Whitley passed from cancer recently as well. I wrote a somewhat strange review of his debut album here, (why did I involve Ralph Nader???) and remained a fan of his throughout the rest of his career. There are very few musicians who you could call transcendent, but Whitley was certainly one of them. While it's too bad he never sold a boatload of records, he was a daring captain on the musical seas - never playing it safe, and always pushing forward and searching for that golden song. I worked for a couple of his record companies and got to know him personally and always enjoyed his company and found him to be your standard "artiste" type - quiet, thinking, moody, wondering, stoned and trying to find the temperature of the room. My friend Dawn Carroll reminded me of when we saw him play live in LA the day the riots started. And I even helped coordinate a live in-store performance for him at J&R Music. But my favorite Whitley moment was when I saw him play with Soul Coughing's rhythm section at the Bowery Ballroom. The group reworked Chris' songs into funky, uptempo, grooving jams and the songs were brand new again. That's no easy achievement and I'm lucky to be familiar with him. No worries about Whitley though - I'm sure Hendrix will be the first to hand him his guitar and invite him into heaven's huge jam session.
When this is over, over and through
And all them changes have come and passed
I want to meet you in the big sky country
Just want to prove mama, love can last
--Chris Whitley
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( 8:52 PM )
I Don't Know Why
So former 2Walls impressario Mike Walls told me I should post this on my blog. I sent it to him when I was pretty drunk on red wine and vodka, and trying to quickly finish a piece about my iPod for inclusion on the iPod reviews we're going to run shortly. However, it wasn't really in tune with what we were writing (ie it was completely wrong), so it's not useful for that.
But as you may have noticed, I'm in love the my iPod, so why not share another iPod "story" with you. I know that sharing drunk ramblings generally isn't a good idea, but I've never been the type of person that did what he should, so why start now.
Away we go...
Ok – so I got an iPod last Christmas and it’s pretty much been the best thing that happened to me in 2005. Sadly, seriously. I mean, walking to work has been a distinct pleasure. Hearing new guitar parts in old Stones songs that I thought I knew every note to has made me deeply appreciate the long retired brain cells of Mr. Keith Richards. I mean “I Don’t Know Why” has become one of my top 5 Rolling Stones songs of all time and it’s simply because the iPod brought me and the song a little closer together through my headphones.
Like Mike Walls, most of the 6100 songs on my iPod are older songs. About 3% of the songs on Poddy are in the “new to me” playlist category (which basically consists of new tunes from 2004 and ’05), but the other 97% of iPod listening is like slipping into an old, comfy, ex-girlfriend that you’re no longer trying to impress. If only the right and left "ones" had a little extra bass….
Anyway – we’re supposed to write something about iPod playlists and I’m so all over the road I don’t know where to start. I mean I’ve got 3 playlists that I made for my friend Raina (none of which she’s ever heard) that consists of songs about New York, LA and love/like. Then there are the 2 Prince playlists that I made for Sharon “Bodie” B that contain clean, poppy Prince songs for her young daughter Grace, and dirty, sexual songs for her and her hubby Greg. Then there are the 2 playlists of hip-hop songs for Orcutt that somehow never made it to him in physical form (just in an empty, labeled CD case). And there’s also the “Yummy In My Tummy” mix I made for my cousins that has silly stuff like “Yummy Yummy Yummy I Got Love In My Tummy,” “Yoda” and “My Dingaling” on it.
But just last week I started a list of what I thought were my absolute favorites, but somehow in the process of building it it became something else and I’m not sure what I’ve got on my hands. For instance, it started out with my absolute favorite bands - the Rolling Stones, Public Enemy, Nirvana, Aerosmith, Prince, Led Zeppelin and the Replacements. And for some strange, unknown reason, that wasn’t good enough. So I started adding the Pixies, Johnny Cash, Van Halen, the Beatles, the Who and U2 to the list thinking that it would be all of the music that influenced me when I was a kid. But if it was going to be an honest list of musical influences it would absolutely require adding Elton John and solo Paul McCartney & Wings because those were the first 7” singles I bought. Then the fucking politically correct liberal in me jumped in and said women and blacks needed a little more representation and in popped Chrissie Hynde & the Pretenders, Heart, Ray Charles, Run-DMC, Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire. Suddenly my impenetrably perfect playlist turned into a mumbo jumbo of great artists that might’ve had an influence on me, but more likely would’ve made me feel cool if the music police stopped me and searched the ‘pod.
On the other hand, once I decided that the point was influences, I had to add the Kinks and Kiss which were undoubtedly HUGE influences on the young, impressionable, guitar-player that Mike Webb was. And once I started randomly listening to the playlist, I realized that my 6100 song random playlist was better because it was nice to get a surprise shot of Duke Ellington, Brendan Benson, Frank Sinatra, Strokes, Yardbirds, Portishead, DJ Shadow, etc. So realizing that that list no longer had a coherent theme, I realized that random play was still the best bet the iPod offered.
I mean I’ve always said the perfect radio station would always surprise me with the next song, and nothing does that better than a random sampling of songs that I could go 2 weeks of listening to before I heard a repeat. Somehow I’ve broken down the songs into 18 different genres, that barely fit into my 2000 different moods, but somehow it always hits the right note sooner or later.
So for all of you trying to build the perfect playlist I offer this sound advice. If it ain’t worth listening to, it ain’t worth having on your iPod in the first place. Because the whole point is it’s a music universe you control and if you delight in hearing 100, 1000 or 10,000 different songs, you are the DJ and you are what you play.
I don't know why I love you babe
I don't know why I love you
I don't know why I love you, baby
But I love you darlin yes I do
You always treat me like a fool
You kick me when i'm down that's you're rule
I don't know why I love you baby
But I love you
--Rolling Stones (written by Wonder/Hunter/Pizer/Hardaway - who knew the Stones covered Stevie - wow)
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