While my slides for tomorrow’s lectures are printing, I thought I would update you all (and my future self … while I write, I typically tend to think of “future Alex” reading “present Alex’s” musings) with my current musical enjoyments.
Dashboard Confessional
They’re coming to St. Thomas, and we are treated to an exclusive (St. Thomas students only), free (FREE!) concert. Intimate venue, big band, all going down about two hundred yards from where I’m typing this. The excitement builds.
John Mayer’s ‘Continuum’
Aptly titled, with simple clean slightly retro cover art indicative of the musical stylings within. Try “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.” You’ll note that the best artists in history, The Beatles for one (and no, I can’t think of any other examples), move through musical phases - I think the talented if sometimes “over-popped” John Mayer is continuing on his musical journey, and delighting ears all around. Definite jazz and blues influences make this album more timeless than many.
Keane
Their recent release, “Under the Iron Sea” still needs a better listen by me. Regardless, their song “The Frog Prince” is upliftingly wonderful and a joy to sing along with. Try it, I dare you.
The Weepies
One of my top five new albums of this year. Brilliant. Breathtakingly brilliant. The mesh of lyrical flow and musical line is superb, the voices unique, the production appropriate to the “post folk” (made up word, mine) genre. They sing songs I love. Looking to catch them at the Fine Line in mid October. Very exciting. Try their “The World Spins Madly On” and “Painting by Chagall.” Heart stoppingly great.
Well, that was awesome - Ben Folds cover The Postal Service song “Such Great Heights.” This is nothing short of tremendous. Nils, I expect commentary from you about said video.
What is it about people that makes us always want the season we are coming up on? The long days of summer with their warm dewy mornings and long nights of sunlight were amazing; somehow, though, during the past three days of clouds and rain I’m not hoping for an indian summer, but I’ve come to look forward to the color changes of autumn, the crisp night air, and the sweet smell of a wood burning fire in a cozy house somewhere near.
I don’t think I could live where there weren’t seasons as distinct as in Minnesota. Hawaii: sunny and 80 degrees year-round is great for a visitor … but a complete absence of the rhythm and variety of seasons would drive me batty. Perhaps I’m not old enough to abhor clearing snow after every snow storm. There’s something comforting in the fact that, whatever is happening in your life, the world continues to move about the sun, and the seasons rotate through their usual cycle. It’s a cycle I couldn’t live without.
I was telling Mykala that I have an association of music with seasons. Fall, as people return to school and the weather cools, somehow has become linked to syrupy pop music. I don’t know why - it’s a combination that, to me, works. Winter weekend mornings, with a hot beverage and a cold draft from the windows are perfectly complimented by classical music - again, I do not know why this is the case. My memories are tied up in seasons. In high school there was football in the autumn and bitterly cold mornings waiting for Matt’s car to warm up in the winter. The first 70 degree day in the spring always brought on a feverish desire to be “free” from school.
Perhaps these changing seasons are why I enjoy photography - I like the feeling of being able to pluck a snapshot from the endless parade of life before me and bring it home to stay. Perhaps I just need something more meaningful to write about. Just thoughts for the evening. Good night.
Blunt views from ex-college president William M. Chace - This is, hands down, the best, most blunt, most perceptive look at the increasing cost of college, the university-student relationship, and the changing landscape of collegiate life that I have ever read. And it’s only about 18 paragraphs long.
Carting around a 20 inch Notebook - My screen here at tumbledry headquarters is 18 inches … here, Laptop Magazine tests the social impact of carting around (and using) this Dell twenty inch (20 inch!) notebook. The subway picture is especially funny.
Small Clothespin People - This is nothing short of brilliant - make adorably amazing clothespin people, take pictures of them, and then offer them for sale on the global marketplace of the internet. Part of a larger project called … “The Small Object.”
If you are having problems with iTunes 7 - This provides information for a fix to the garbled or distorted sounds that iTunes 7 will sometimes make when you change the volume (Windows XP version). This actually didn’t work to fix my iTunes 7 volume problem, so I reverted to iTunes 6 and will wait for a later release of iTunes 7.
