Sunday Morning Playlist

Lovely and mellow. Feel the breezes, listen to the birds, hang out, chill. Works well on "Shuffle" setting.

• Journey to a Rainbow, Chuck Mangione, The Best of Chuck Mangione, Jazz
• Break of Dawn, Karsh Kale, Liberation, Electronic
• Watermark, Enya, Only Time: The Collection, New Age
• Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars), Stan Getz/Laurindo Almeida, Bossa Nova for Lovers, Latin
• Morning, CBS Masterworks Dinner Classics, Breakfast In Bed, Classical
• Wave, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Bossa Nova for Lovers, Latin
• Love Theme (From Bladerunner), Vangelis, Themes, Electronic
• Vivo Sonhando (Dreamer), Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto, Bossa Nova for Lovers, Latin
• Daybreak, CBS Masterworks Dinner Classics, Breakfast In Bed, Classical
• I Feel Free, Cream, Fresh Cream, Rock
• O Grande Amor, Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto, Bossa Nova for Lovers, Latin
• Aqua, Moncef Genoud, Aqua, Jazz
• Beau soir, Frederic Chiu & Joshua Bell, Voice of the Violin (Bonus Version), Classical
• Elegie, Secret Garden, Once In a Red Moon, New Age
• Monk Meets Poulenc (medley), Paul Cantelon, Falling Water, New Age
• Rose, Jan Garbarek, Manu Katchu, Marcin Wasilewski, Slavomir Kurkiewicz & Tomasz Stanko, Neighbourhood, Jazz
• Cherry County, Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon, Sixty Six Steps, Rock
• Retrograde, Leo Kottke, One Guitar, No Vocals, Folk

I like how all the genres mix together so well. It doesn't really matter in what order you play them.

(Repost from 2011)

Anti-Static (playlist)

Because of winter and dry hair and that other kind of static. Momentarily addicted to space music with ethereal overtones also sometimes called "Ambient." Good for writing.

24 songs, 3 hours 

Song, Album, Artist, Time (minutes)

1 Om, Signatures On Water, Maneesh De Moor, 9:51

2 Iceblink, Le café abstrait by Raphael Marionneau, Vol. 10 (Deluxe Edition), Pass Into Silence, 5:08

3 Birds Fly By Flapping Their Wings, Dropsonde, Biosphere, 6:35

4 Black Sands, Black Sands, Bonobo, 6:49

5 Colour My Dream, Colour My Dream, Tony Gerber, 9:22

6 Dream_Blue, Colour My Dream, Tony Gerber, 16:52

7 Dream_Aquamarine, Colour My Dream, Tony Gerber, 11:10

8 Dream_Ochre, Colour My Dream, Tony Gerber, 6:10

9 Dream_Gold, Colour My Dream, Tony Gerber, 7:24

10 Road To My Dream, Colour My Dream, Tony Gerber, 7:27

11 Dream_Leaf Green, Colour My Dream, Tony Gerber, 2:32

12 Instinct, Liberation, Karsh Kale, 5:43

13 Break of Dawn, Liberation, Karsh Kale, 7:26

14 Love Theme (From Bladerunner), Themes, Vangelis, 5:01

15 Try Quiet, AirDaeh, D.E.D., 24:35

16 Feather Hammer, AirDaeh, D.E.D., 17:20

17 Journey to a Rainbow, The Best of Chuck Mangione (Remastered), Chuck Mangione, 7:01

18 Calm, Continuo, Avishai Cohen, 3:16

19 Quiet Rising, I Can See Your House From Here, John Scofield & Pat Metheny, 5:29

20 Lullaby, Neighbourhood, Jan Garbarek, Manu Katché, Marcin Wasilewski, Slavomir Kurkiewicz & Tomasz Stanko, 6:09

21 The Big Empty, Empty Sky, Deuter, 4:06

22 Waltz For A Blissful Goddess, Mirror of the Sun, Sambodhi Prem, 4:52

23 Aldebaran, Only Time: The Collection, Enya, 3:07

24 Watermark, Only Time: The Collection, Enya, 2:27

Playlist of the Day: Sugar, Sugar

Unrelated to anything at all is today's playlist based on Sugar, Sugar generated by iTunes Genius with my outtakes. (Some of the songs Genius suggested weren't happy enough.)

CD Cover, also generated by iTunes

Song Title, Artist, Album, Genre

Sugar, Sugar, The Archies, Sugar, Sugar, Pop
It's Getting Better, Cass Elliot, Dream a Little Dream: The Cass Elliott Collection, Rock
Good Morning Starshine, Oliver, Days of Flower Power, Rock
Go Where You Wanna Go, The Mamas & The Papas, The Mamas & The Papas Greatest Hits, Rock
I'll Be Your Mirror, The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground & Nico, Rock
If I Can't Have You, Yvonne Elliman, The Best of Yvonne Elliman, Rock
Free Man In Paris, Joni Mitchell, Joni Mitchell, Hits, Pop
Send In the Clowns, Judy Collins, 24 Classic Songs, Singer/Songwriter
Alive and Kicking, Simple Minds, Once Upon a Time, Rock
The Rain, the Park and Other Things, The Cowsills, The Best of the Cowsills, Pop
Everything Is Everything, Phoenix, Alphabetical, Electronic
Something About You, Level 42, World Machine, Rock
All Because of You, U2, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, Rock
Colours, Donovan, Fairy Tale, Folk
Help Me, Joni Mitchell, Joni Mitchell, Hits, Pop
Just Like Heaven, Katie Melua, Piece By Piece, Pop
Harvest Moon, Neil Young, Neil Young: Greatest Hits, Rock
40 Day Dream, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Up from Below, Alternative

I make these lists periodically, or ask Genius to make them, to see if there's any logic behind them. They are never all the same genre. Most of them don't have beats per minute information. Often they come front the same era, like the sixties. Aside from that, some of them are quite random. I don't know how Genius works. Does anyone? Humans make better lists. Or, at least, I make better lists. Genius is faster, though.

0125 - Words and ...

Five out of the last, oh, ten years I have written something on January 25th. Meaning, I have done the Morning Pages. Tough decision today about what to post since it's all crap. Here are my choices.

• ... in the sun of the bathroom i see the dryness of my cheek which has never been so dry. ever. it's beginning to line from dryness ... (2003)
• being able to make friends and be a friend is the best skill you can teach a person. (2005)
• my head is empty. that's all there is there is there is. and the desktop is lime green with yellow highlights. (2006)
• maybe we are all each other's angels. (2009)
• it's gray but lovely out there. looking forward to watching the day go by. (2010)

No art, but there is strange music from 2009. I was going to post it but it's 5 MB and although that's small by today's standards, it's still a big file. Maybe next time.

And here's a scratch board I made in high school. Homage to the Rolling Stones – perhaps.

Blow Away Danelion (1968?)

my favorite tunes

Bigger type means I have more of their stuff.

The Miracle That is iTunes Visualizer

There isn't enough attention and praise for that magnificent freebie that comes with iTunes: The Visualizer*. While the music plays, Visualizer generates colorful patterns on the fly. All of the patterns evolve dynamically and are directly linked to the beat and melody of the music played. They turn in 3-D space, burst apart like fireworks and morph freely. These screen shots are just wretched facsimiles.

I show here the "new" visualizer. There is also the Classic visualizer, which you can choose, if you prefer. You can also choose to restrict the spontaneous art to one of three themes: Lathe, Jelly or Stix. My mind boggles.

Once a couple of guys stood in front of my monitor trying to identify the "repeating" patterns but they finally had to admit, after 30 minutes of viewing, that the patterns were, in fact, generated on the fly in response to the music.

These colorful patterned designs look to me like breakthrough fractal algorithms. I suppose I could do some research and figure out just exactly how this spontaneous art is generated, but I prefer to marvel at the magic.

Current Fads
Listening. recent acquisitions and classical genre (iTunes playlists); high pitched ringing in ears
Watching. Donkey Skin (1970?) and HD Digital Free Over-The-Air TV (they gotta come up with a better name for that)
Activity. looking for work
Gadget. Elegato Eye TV
News Source. Google News
Reading. The Druids - Peter Berresford Ellis; Ill Met by Moonlight - Sarah A. Hoyt; Heart Steps - Julia Cameron

*And, of course, iTunes is free, which makes this all even more amazing. How can anyone wonder why I'm an Apple fan?

Digital TV Ensares Me

After having my Elagato EyeTV 250 for over a year, I finally installed yesterday. The first show I watched with drug-like fascination was "60 Minutes." There was segment on Sully that was very gripping. More gripping were all the details on my monitor, like being able to count Sullys freckles and see exactly how many split ends the flight attendants had. I followed this up with The Grammy Awards. It was sort of like watching a train wreck. I kept wanting to get back to life as usual but just couldn't stop. The whole potato chip thing, ya' know ... you can't eat just one.

Great things about digital TV:
1. I can get it on my analog rabbit ears.
2. The reception has it all over analog.
3. Excellent detailed picture. (I can almost tell what brand of mascara the newscaster is wearing from the way it clumps and the color.)

Thanks to Elgato I can record and pause "live" TV. I'm not sure how live TV is anymore. I noticed that there were times during the Grammy Awards when Paul McCartney and Coldplay were seated in the first row across from each other, and other times when the first two rows looked like a game show audience.

But Elagato Eye TV 250 is totally great. The software install is a two step process: copy and double click. Yes. Really. The remote control, on the other hand, needs a freakin' manual. I still don't know how to use it. Thank goodness the software is simple to use and the virtual "remote" self-explanatory.
I think these screen shots are compressed. I know the live picture is much better than these snaps. Gotta check the settings.

What ho! The Clientele and Freak Folk

Yes! I have found my musical niche: Freak Folk. Thank you iTunes Essentials. There's a woman named Joanna Newson whose singing reminds me of Regina Spektor. Actually, this all was brought about by the free tune of the week Dry Grass & Shadows sung by Alela Diane (who's on the Essentials list). From there it was a just a click to a track from Clientele who don't have a band page on iTunes (and should). However, they do have a great web site where, among other things, you can watch their videos.
Bookshop Casanova


And another thing: these freak folk people mostly have freak names. What, for example, kind of name is Alasdair? Or Alela? Actually, it all adds to the music which describes the rare atmosphere of views of a distant fantasy horizon (as in scifi-fantasy). Kind of a fly through of a strange but wonderful Bryce landscape ala The Neverending Story. I feel like I'm back in the sixties listening to Jan and Dean or Bob Lind. It's so trippy. So ... Woo Hoo! New music to explore!

notes
(Is it just me or are there a lot of parentheticals in this post?)
Unfamiliar with The Neverending Story? Read this.
Free Single of the Week: Alela Diane, Dry Grass & Shadows

I Was Not There

I was nowhere near the earthquake that is called "Thriller." I was in Saudi Arabia and then Lebanon. When I got back to the states my brother had to describe break dancing to me. I still have trouble understanding the excitement. It's just an album.

Channeling the Big Bands

Here's A Taste of Nate doing a low key cool impression of Louis Armstrong although the band prefers Duke Ellington and I can see that, too. Go back to the lush 40s and hear what it was all about with the 40s Oldies Channel on AOL Radio. Why be chronologically challenged?

Time Waits For Everyone - An Opinion

As I listened to Viggo Mortensen's piano poems, these words came to mind: tentative, exploratory, meditative, dissonant. Like good poems they blend into the time continuum. This music is a comforting backdrop for quiet activities like writing, meditating, laying on your back gazing at the stars, and watching the sun filter through the trees. I am vaguely reminded of Poulenc. There are rhythms that remind me of of Ravel. There is also a thinness (or transparency) in the style of Leon Russell.

These pieces are a quilt of quiet musings. For some reason I got the picture of a lover waiting for his love to wake as he patiently sits in the next room picking out the notes of his affection. I also thought of rain drops sliding down glass or dripping off trees (for example). If you like ambient music, you will like this CD.

i know you're out there somewhere

the secret of your beauty
and the mystery of your soul
i've been searching for in everyone i meet
and the times i've been mistaken
it's impossible to say
and the grass is growing underneath our feet

— The Moody Blues

Where in the world is Bob Dylan?

Proving yet again that I am indeed a drifting outsider, I announce my discovery of Bob on AOL Radio*. I didn't discover AOL Radio very long ago either. But it's really great: XM for free! The quality is excellent. It's like the performers are right here in the room with me. Well, as close as my speakers can get them. Did I mention I hooked up my computer to play through my 1995 stereo? (purchased over six weeks on layaway from Circuit City)

Anyway, back to Bob. He has this weekly show that airs beginning at 6 a.m. ET (this morning - I don't have a schedule, don't hold me to it). The show is "Theme Time Radio Hour." Bob as a dee jay. Wow. Not a thing that crossed my mind in 1969. Or 2007 for that matter. But it's cool. Bob read the Ages of Man from William Shakespeare and then said "Willy the Shake said it all. The rest of the show is just footnotes." Then he proceeded to play songs related to the ages of man from all sorts of genres together with his personal and historical notes. I wish I could offer up some details as illustrations but it's a great show. Believe me. It's nearly over (now playing Neil Young singing "Old Man") and I need to get going so I can get to the jobsite on time for a change. ... after I spread a little weed and feed over the yard.

Here's a juicy fact from Bob: the most common birthday is October 5 because of New Year's Eve. So watch out this New Year's Eve (those of you with the potential).

------------
* If you scroll down the page you can download an application for your computer which is what I use. It's excellent. Or you can listen online. I haven't tried that. It might be good, too. Oh. And you need an AOL account. Mine is free. I think you can just use one of those free email accounts. Or is AOL totally free now? I don't know. Anyway. Check it out. Definitely worth it.

song of the day

I have discovered Beck. Reminds me of my childhood. Well, of high school anyway. Lovely to be young again.

Timebomb


Current Fads
Listening. Timebomb, Beck and Walls and Bridges, John Lennon; locusts
Watching. Miss Potter (2006)
Activity. home improvement
Gadget. Palm Zire 31
News Source. the default news feeds in Safari
Reading. School Days - Robert B. Parker; Tarot Games - Cait Johnson & Maura D. Shaw; Richmond Times Dispatch - online; GD USA; Fortune (Yes, I really am reading them all right now—I'm a reading addict. What can I say?)

beauty or something like it

I'm listening/watching Leonard Bernstein deliver a lecture about "The Poetry of the Earth" in 1992. I picked it up at the library (VHS tape!) to learn something about poetry. And I have. I've also learned something about music and trends across artistic endeavors.

Bernstein breaks down and analyzes the combinations of phrases that make up a composition. Finally, after about 45 minutes, he talked about poetry in relation to music which actually was quite enlightening but also raised my hackles against formula. By breaking down how music and poetry are put together, he constructs a formula for what is appealing or beautiful.

It's okay that formulas are found and used. It's not okay when the formulas become standards—when only creative works that fit the formula are right, okay, acceptable or beautiful. It's interesting to discover how my experience of beauty breaks down and knowing that might even help me find other beautiful things to enjoy. That knowledge also tends to make a box that I then, somehow, feel compelled to live in.

I now recognize that sometimes I search for understanding so that I can have a short cut to creativity. I take the short cut at the risk of losing my own sense of beauty and limiting my creative flow. There is no easy way to manifest art. There's no one right way. Creating is an experience. Experiencing beauty is a subjective act—not something someone can tell you how to do. Nor can someone else tell you what is beautiful.

Beauty, like Truth, may not exist or, if it does, has a purpose that has nothing to do with yardsticks.

My iTunes Purchases

Wow! This is a great widget! Forgot to mention you can choose from three sizes and five color schemes. Love this one. I hope you will, too!

If I had to define my taste, I'd say "eclectic." And you?

My iTunes

Here's a nifty widget from Apple that shows you my iTunes favorites. It seems to be a list of the music I play or have played at least once using iTunes on my machine. Some of the names in small type don't look familiar to me, but I have a lot of tunes. The big, bold names are really the ones I play most often so if you want to know what I like, check those names. I thought I played U2 more often than the size of its name shows, but I realize now that I play them a lot in the car, and that's not reflected in this widget.

Downside? I had to partially break my privacy with the iTunes Store to do this. I had to agree to let Apple access my account but just for this widget. I don't know. I feel a bit squidgey about that but, obviously, not too much to not do it. Anyway, this is a trial. If it works then I'll be making this a regular feature. Let me me know if it makes my page way too long to load.

I'll be testing it myself this weekend when I shut down my machine. We'll see how it works then.

Nice blogger swag, btw.

John Lennon on iTunes!!

Yippee! Plus exclusive videos! I'm checking it all out as soon as I get back from the job.

George is the only hold out now. I guess some grudges die really, really, really hard.

Current Fads
Listening. my alternative library and Memory Almost Full -Paul McCartney; weird shrieking dog noises
Watching. Art Heist (2004)
Activity. changing my diet
Gadget. none!
News Source. the news feeds in Safari
Reading. The Dark Endless Tea Time of the Soul - Douglass Adams; The Schwarzbein Principle - Diana Schwarzbein and Nancy Deville; Feeling and Form - Susanne K. Langer; GD USA; MacWorld; Media Week (Yes, I really am reading them all right now—I'm a reading addict. What can I say?)

Memory Almost Full

This morning in a TV Interview (an ABC exclusive), Paul was asked about the title of the album being an anagram of "For My Soul Mate LLM." He replied, "Yes. It is." Long pause. "But not one I intended." So there. He's a real practitioner of things meaning whatever you think they mean. As you might already know, he got the title from his cell phone (his message box was almost full).

I've been enjoying the album, DVD and "making of" since yesterday. It's great! There is more unique stuff on the album site (link above). However, the digital insert is a bit of a rip off as it needs to be folded and I am not about to sweat over printing double-sided, cutting and folding. They should have just put the animation into the digital disk instead of the PDF and then put in one page that is a facsimile of the folded cover so you could print and cut that out if you burn an "official" disk. Also missing from the site are a screensaver and a desktop. The screensaver is too much for me but I did make a desktop. Here's a copy for you! It's widescreen so you traditionals will have to adjust. Just click on the image to download.

Naturally I was going to do a real review but instead I'll list my favorite songs: Dance Tonight (should have named it The Mandolin Song), Ever Preset Past, You Tell Me, Vintage Clothes, That Was Me, House of Wax. I don't like Gratitude. It's corny and thin. And I don't like See Your Sunshine. It doesn't sound true somehow.

Don't get me wrong, this album is a real tour de force of McCartney's talent. He can write a song about anything. This album is well worth owning.

Added 6/8: Having written all that, I must add that the two tracks I like the best are from the 2 CD version: In Private and 222. Both are free flowing and fresh. In Private is a collection of syncopated loops synthesized into a sort of strolling flow. There's something Palestrina about it as if Palestrina would make something almost like this if he were composing today. 222 is a sort of continuation of In Private except that now there's a destination for the strolling and it's more like jazz than motets. Reminds me of Soft Machine. In between (trackwise) is Why So Blue which some fans think makes the three tracks a medley. It makes the three tracks a modern rock/pop symphony, if that's what it is. But Why So Blue doesn't seem to fit. It's almost like a pause or interruption. But then I haven't studied classical composition so that may be right on. Anyway, get the 2 CD version. It's worth it.

Paul!

I just pre-ordered Paul's new album through iTunes and I'm 14 all over again! And he also makes great music. I still remember holding my first 45 with "She Loves You" on it. I'd still have it, too, if someone hadn't lifted it (and the whole book where I kept my 45s). Unlike others, I didn't have a favorite Beatle. I loved them all. And I was right. They are all great.

Song of the Day: Ever Present Past



Two down, two to go.