From the monthly archives:
I used to hitchhike a lot in college. I’d put on jeans, white tennis shoes, a brownish Harris tweed jacket, Oxford shirt, and a tie loose around my neck. I never got molested by any roving cruising homos, or psychopaths. Well, that’s not entirely true.
Once I was hitchhiking from Madison Wisconsin to Omaha Nebraska. Once [...]
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The 1960s band, The Small Faces have been subsequently classified as a “psychedelic band.” For this song, the psychedelic part is the cool sound known as flanging. A flange the plastic or metal container used to hold magnetic recording tape, used in recording music. You get the flanging or phasing sound by lining up two [...]
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Early July seems to be party time for many of our friends. We had to turn down attending the Roving Church of Fun’s Harry Potter day in order to see R&P whom we had not seen in a long time. P, an internationally known interior designer, had just finished a big job and was given [...]
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My ex used to sing this all the time, with a silly look on his face, and very out of tune. Wow, to think I remember when this song came out. Was there ever a sequel to this? For you music theory students, how many chords in this song?
[answer: 3]
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An incredible find! From gypsy musician to legend, Django Reinhardt and planetary violinist, Stephane Grappelli and their band, “Quintette du Hot Club de France” deliver a riveting performance of “J’Attendrai.” Note that Django plays with only two fingers. He was in a fire as a young man and received 1st and 2nd degree burns [...]
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This is the music video of the title song for the French animated feature “Les triplettes de Belleville” written by M (Mathieu Chedid). If you don’t know this song, I’ll warn you: it’s very catchy. I can’t sit still listening to this song — my body HAS to move. And that sexy three part vocal [...]
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For those of you brave enough to learn about how your brain distorts and deceives reality (that’s right: YOUR reality) I can’t recommend highly enough Cordelia Fine’s “a mind of its own” [Norton]. I am actually the Wizard of Oz, or I think I am, and behind the scenes is this busy little man huffing [...]
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This video is undated but I’d guess it to be around 1968. Young Jobim and Late Sinatra on a classic song by Antonio Carlos Jobim.
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“Salty Dog” has one of the most sophisticated and powerful chord progressions in rock n roll history. The progression has very little to do with rock, blues, country, gospel, or soul, but seems more neo-Baroque than anything. The shape carved in my mind by the melody climbs ever upward. The sound of the voice is [...]
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Finally, an antidote to Hallmark Cards sentimentality: ReelGreetings.com. Pop in an take a look at a whole variety of hilarious video postcards from different points of view. Take Grumpy Grandpa here, gee this dude looks familiar. I could swear this is John Hall, but, well, you never know. The website tells us: “Grumpy Grandpa has [...]
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