Musings in Search of a Muse

Every week I come across songs that make me wish that I either had money (c’mon, Powerball Lotto!) or that Pepsi and Apple were still giving away free tracks for itunes. Here’s the final list of what I won. That’s a lot of Mountain Dew under the bridge, so to speak. Rock, Blues, R&B, Pop, Jazz, Classical. It’s all here.

Okay, maybe not all of it. But it’s a nice diverse lot I consider my B-sides collection. Remember B-sides? Those were the songs put on the back of a 45RPM single to fill up space, likely to be ignored because the A-side was intended to be the hit release. Often B-sides became hits, but not often enough. In this day of digital releases there is no such thing any longer as corporations now have near complete control of what they want us to hear. Seldom are the happy accidents and delightful discoveries made when playing the wrong side of the disk.

Now we have to content ourselves with what a few mega-companies program on radio stations nationwide, what is played in clubs, and what is released on CDs. That’s one of the things I like about iTunes. At least one can poke around and find a nugget now and then.

A Day in the Life - Jeff Beck
Exhibit 13 - Mandelbrot, No. 4 (Hidden Track) - Blue Man Group
The Pusher - Steppenwolf
Don't Know Why - Norah Jones
That Old Black Magic - Louis Prima & Keely Smith
Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker) - Parliament
Maybe I'm Amazed - Joe Cocker
Breathe On Me - Jennifer Knapp
You Are So Beautiful - Joe Cocker
Great White Buffalo (Live) - Ted Nugent
Hey Bartender (Live) - The Blues Brothers
Time Is Tight - Booker T. & The M.G.'s
Hibernation (Live) - Ted Nugent
The Planet Plan - United Future Organization
They Can't Take That Away from Me - Lisa Stansfield
Also Sprach Zarathustra - Deodato
Race with Devil On Spanish Highway - Al Di Meola
Steve McQueen - Sheryl Crow
Maria Maria (Radio Mix) - Santana & The Product G&B
Fever - Peggy Lee
Black Betty - Ram Jam
Get It On - Kingdom Come
Palumbo - Watch TV
S.W.A.T. Theme - Spot 79
Stranglehold - Ted Nugent
Birdland - Weather Report
Drum Song - Earth, Wind & Fire
We Shall Overcome - The O.C. Supertones
Rainbow In the Dark - Dio
Dance to the Music - Sly & The Family Stone
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) - Sly & The Family Stone
Boogie On - Ten Years After
Under Your Spell - Amber Benson & Orchestra
Rock Me - Muddy Waters
E5150 - Black Sabbath
Everyday People - Nicole C. Mullen
Love Song - Tesla
Five String Blues - Roy Buchanan
All Right Now - Free
Dual Soliloquy - Roy Buchanan
Roy's Bluz - Roy Buchanan
Psyché Rock (Fatboy Slim Malpaso Mix) - Fatboy Slim, Norman Cook & Pierre Henry

Maybe I do drive too fast to worry about cholesterol. Just today I got a ticket for driving 50 m.p.h. in a 35 m.p.h. zone. The fine was $30.00, but costs, fees, and other charges brought it up to $105.00. If I hadn't had my seatbelt on the cost would have doubled.

CNN.com reports that "A high school student was suspended for 10 days for refusing to end a cell phone call with his mother, a soldier serving in Iraq, school officials said." Another report indicated that the suspension was reduced after public outcry.

Situations like this are why schools need to establish a student judiciary. Clearly this was not a major, safety-impairing situation, though it was a violation of a known school rule. Empowering students guided by responsible and flexible adults to make decisions about events like this would be a fabulous learning opportunity and reduce the number of "problems" that are handled by administrators.

Got a mobile phone? Then sign-up for Amber Alerts to be sent directly to your phone at no charge.

What? You don't know what an Amber Alert is? "The AMBER Plan was created in 1996 as a powerful legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, a bright little girl who was kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. The tragedy shocked and outraged the entire community. Residents contacted radio stations in the Dallas area and suggested they broadcast special 'alerts' over the airwaves so that they could help prevent such incidents in the future" (more history can be found at CodeAmber.org).

The best part of the movie National Treasure (2004) is when Ben Gates (well played by Nicholas Cage) quotes the Declaration of Independence thusly

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

and summarizes "if there is something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action." To date I have never heard such an eloquent distillation of the ideals of Cincinnatus and the code by which our forefathers lived as they founded our nation.

From the cartoons I've posted in this blog one might gather that I prefer wry, off-beat humor. And they'd be right. I greatly miss The Far Side by Gary Larson, but Dave Coverly's Speed Bump makes an excellent follow-up with it's own quirky style. Like Larson's work, it uses one panel and a simple idea that turns reality a bit askew of normal or make the reader wonder what reality is in the first place.

Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes often did the same thing with a consistent cast of characters in a usually multi-panel treat that also found humor in human nature and the family. A few of the collections published over the years can be found in several rooms of my house.

Somehow she looks rather proud.

One of the great voices of all time has to be Edward Everett Horton. Characterized by an avuncular, distinct tone, Horton sounds like everyone's respected and beloved uncle. He looks like one, too.


From an old playbill

Folk of my generation probably best know him as the narrator for "Fractured Fairy Tales" on The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle show (and it's various incarnations), but has also appeared in nearly 150 films, including some of my favorites like Top Hat (1935), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), and more. While never a leading man in any of these productions, he could easily do more than make a living if he were alive today.

(Subject)I'm cat-free. My Mom didn't send her cat back with me on my recent trip.

While I was away in Maine for a few days the clever folk at Blogger came up with a new feature -- Blogger Mobile. That last post was sent from my wireless phone. Okay, maybe it isn't that cool. I've done it before but I haven't used it in quite some time. I just tried the old way and it doesn't work anymore. Okay, the new method looks funny and actually managed to post itself with a time several minutes after this one despite writing it first, but I'm still fiddling.

But maybe I can pop in a few years from now?

"Attention, time travelers: Amal Dorai hopes you enjoyed the party he's throwing this weekend. Dorai, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is hosting a Time Traveler Convention on campus this Saturday. Make plans now, because it's the last such party" (AP News).

Get more information at the official Website, but read the whole story. It's a hoot.

Once again I'm captivated by a stunning portrait. I can't recall where I found this on the Web, but I was comparing browsers and search engines and this flashed by. I don't know who Nicole Lenz is, but she easily exudes innocence and seductiveness at one and the same time. And then there are the freckles.

Is there anything more perfect on Earth than the human face? Just the other night I was admiring the expressions on the face of a baby. It had been about two weeks since I had last seen her and the changes were dramatic. Babies aren't yet constrained by conventions of expression so that everything is new, fresh, and full of possibilities. Portraits of adults that capture this are as exquisite as they are rare. This picture of Miss Lenz is just such a treasure.

The United States of America was founded by and continues to be governed by men and women of God. There can be no separation of Church and State when the very principles of the latter are rooted in the former and so long as we stick to the intent of the Constitution's instruction that the government shall not establish a religion. To wit, consider the following:

In a letter to his wife, Abigail, then-president John Adams wrote about the still unfinished Executive Mansion and added "I pray to heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house, and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof" (November 1800). Conservatives today are often identified with such sentiments and, indeed, some point to a strong showing by conservative Christians in the last two elections to put George W. Bush, a man in the same religious and political mold as Adams, into office.

But then many who have served in our nation's office have been of strong faith even if this trait was not widely known. For example, one seldom considers this aspect of Franklin D. Roosevelt. By turns he was the polar opposite of Adams -- politically liberal, unfaithful to his wife, and of poor health yet deemed to be vigorous. Then by turns they were rather alike -- war-time presidencies, widely considered to be intellectually top-notch, and both attempted to politically imbalance the judiciary.

Where they are most similar takes us back to the prayer Adams wrote about 100 years before Roosevelt. The latter was so impressed with it that he had the words inscribed above the fireplace in the State Dining Room.

If you forget your foundations you forget who you are. You cease to be the progeny of those that came before and become something entirely different. Does this mean that atheists and agnostics are not Americans? No, because our nation was built on the Judeo-Christian ethic of tolerance and love. If only those who did not know God would tolerate those of us that do, then America would be a better place.

Recommended for me by iTunes ...


... because of this?


Yup ... iTunes tracks what people buy. That's no surprise. They even state it their terms and conditions. But sometimes I get some strange recommendations. Not often, just sometimes. Apparently folks who bought tracks from Simple Plan had also bought tracks like what I had in my cart - the ones in the pic above plus "World Inside My Head" by Sister Hazel and "Blues Deluxe / B.B.A. Boogie" by Jeff Beck were also in the cart at the time.

So I listened to the samples and admitted to myself that the music was rather good. Then I listened to the lyrics a bit and decided I needed to see all the lyrics before committing.

Let me digress a bit. Any reader of this blog (are there any readers of this blog?) know that I'm a Christian who dislikes casual use of 'bad' or controversial language, but doesn't shy away from the appropriate use of any words or speech. Otherwise I wouldn't have songs by Everlast, The Who, ZZ Top, Fat Boy Slim, Eminem, and others in my library. And I seldom listen to lyrics unless they are intelligent (again, let me cite Everlast, Eminem, et al), worth singing along with (Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Superchick, etc.), or of special significance (most every praise & worship song I have). With over 300,000 words in the English language, I appreciate hearing more than the seemingly most popular seven. And I like lyrics that, regardless of how dark the topic, present a lesson or a sense of meaning.

So I visited a Website or two and found myself a bit more than taken aback. That surprised me, because working with teenagers -- and having been one myself for seven years -- I am pretty familiar with the angst of the age. But all the Papa Roach, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam in the world couldn't have prepared me for the anger, despair, loneliness, and depression in Simple Plan's lyrics.

Take "Me Against the World" for example.

Or the chorus from "I'm Just a Kid."



One more example comes from "Untitled."


More pointed feelings are in "God Must Hate Me" -- an eye-catching title if I ever saw one.


Wow. A stuck-for-better-words wow. I'm having trouble being articulate here. Yes, young people feel this way. They'd probably be surprised to know that their elders often feel this way, too. But I've never heard these emotions expressed this way. No poetry (I guess the early days of grunge are over), just raw presence. I will definitely have to talk with my students about this.

Is this a growing trend in current music? What sort of influence do songs like these have? Are these listened to for a potential catharsis? What good comes out of these?

The last question makes me think of the Everlast tunes I recently downloaded: "What It's Like" and "Ends." In a rather gritty fashion and with no meekness in the choice of vocabulary, each illustrates how choices we make affect our lives. First, this excerpt from "What It's Like."


The song "Ends," particularly the chorus (listed first, below) is another great example.


These songs tell us about life, give us the clear choices, and provide a moral. The language and subject may be objectionable to some -- and rightly so for many reasons -- but this does not diminish their impact and value. I'm not sure Simple Plan's lyrics merit the same distinction.