Johnny Flynn - The Ghost of O'Donahue

Music: Alexi Murdoch

Song and Dance

So You Think You Can Dance is a great show. For one, it has some phenomenal dancing and routines.  Second, it often has some great music as well. This season I've already heard several musicians featured that I love! Just a few being St. Vincent (accompanied by a fantastic routine by Travis Wall -- can't find a video though. Sad!), Florence + the Machine and Ray LaMontagne.  This week I was blown away by a  contemporary routine and the song that accompanied it. I've posted the clip below.  The musician is Christina Perri, you'll find the link goes to her youtube channel. Wow. She sounds a little bit like Erin McCarley, but with a more of a raw sound to her voice. Can't wait to buy her album! I'm tempted to post the routine done to Cosmic Love by Florence + the Machine, but I will refrain for now :)... Enjoy!:



Also, here is a link to the full song: Jar of Hearts - Christina Perri, and the lyrics:


No I can't take one more step towards you
Cause all that's waiting is regret
And don't you know I'm not your ghost anymore
You lost the love I loved the most
I learned to live half alive
And now you want me one more time

And who do you think you are
Running around leaving scars
Collecting your jar of hearts
And tearing love apart
You're gonna catch a cold
From the ice inside your soul
So don't come back for me
Who do you think you are

I hear you're asking all around
If I am anywhere to be found
But I have grown too strong
To ever fall back in your arms
I learned to live half alive
And now you want me one more time

And who do you think you are...

And it took so long just to feel alright
Remember how to put back the light in my eyes
I wish I would have missed the first time that we kissed
Cause you broke all your promises
And now you're back
You don't get to get me back

And who do you think you are...
Don't come back for me
Don't come back at all

Who do you think you are

Music: The Moondoggies

Well, just discovered this band the other day from a free album I picked up from Amazon. I've posted their song "The Undertaker" below for your general entertainment :) Give it a listen! All I know is that they are from Seattle, of course. I would fill you in on more info except that they don't have a Wikipedia page. Anyone who is anyone has a Wikipedia entry. Right? Oh, wait... Well anyhow, the lead guy Kevin Murphy has a beautiful auburn beard, and really, that's all I need to know. I'm just sayin...

Anyhow, who doesn't love free stuff? Especially music :)

Speaking of getting free albums from Amazon, I also downloaded I Love the 80's (the 1880's, that is), which is totally fantastic.  Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak... etc. I love the album cover the most though. Ha!... also I just realized that my listing of some of the composers was pointless because it lists them right on the album cover. Oh well, we will just pretend that I'm efficient. Ok? ok!

Well, here you go:
"The Undertaker" - Kevin Murphy of The Moondoggies live at KEXP in Seattle.

Neil Young: Philadelphia

Ah well, missed Monday by an hour or so :) One does what one can. Here is a Neil Young song from the movie Philadelphia.

Music: Alpha Rev

Been listening to this song lately... that's all. Enjoy :)

Memorial Day

"We use the phrase 'gave their lives,' but they didn't give their lives...they were taken from them. I wish we could dedicate Memorial Day, not to the memory of those who have died at war, but to the idea of saving the
lives of the young people who are going to die in the future if we don’t find some new way-some new religion maybe-that takes war out of our lives. That would be a Memorial Day worth celebrating." - Andy Rooney
Read more here


And then a song from Libera, We Are The Lost:

Day is Done

Music: The Blues

Hi there :) Yes, it's Monday. Yay Monday! or something. Anyway, here is a song from Switchfoot -- perhaps my favorite off the album Nothing Is Sound.  Well that or "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine"... or "Stars"... ok I like the whole album, nevermind! Anyhow, I'll post the lyrics below for your general perusal. 
About this song Jon Foreman said :  "Drew's feedback on this track was so great. he had two combos cranked with different pedals chained to each. Noise never sounded so beautiful! But the true hero for me on this tune was Tim. Don't tell him I said this but he's a freaking genius when it comes to parts like this. I walked back into the control room and there was Paul Mc- I mean Tim- making things happen. I tend to write some of my favorite songs on significant days in my life- birthdays and such. Anyhow, here's a tune that was written on new years day 2004. I pulled an acoustic demo of the song together and threw it on the pile of songs we had for the record. We loved the way the vocal sounded on the demo- raw and honest so we kept it. To sing a song about the new year in march just wouldn't sound quite right, so the vocal on the record is the first time I ever sang the song: 1/1/04. This one means a lot to me, like our modern day Psalm of sorts. This would be the next step from the beautiful letdown lyrically and musically- a long meandering song about how the end of the world might actually be a beautiful day. It will be a day like this one when the world caves in..."


Is this the New Year or just another night?
Is this the new fear or just another fright?
Is this the new tear or just another desperation?

Is this the finger or just another fist?
Is this the kingdom or just a hit n' miss?
A misdirection, most in all this desperation

Is this what they call freedom?
Is this what you call pain?
Is this what they call discontented fame?

It'll be a day like this one
When the world caves in

I'm singing this one like a broken piece of glass
From broken arms and broken noses in the back
Is this the New Year or just another desperation?

You push until you're shoving
You bend until you break
Do you stand on the broken fields where your fathers lay?

It'll be a day like this one
When the world caves in

There's nothing here worth saving,
Is no one here at all?
Is there any net left that could break our fall?

It'll be a day like this one
When the sky falls down and the hungry and poor and deserted are found
Are you discontented? Have you been pushing hard?
Have you been throwing down this broken house of cards?

It'll be a day like this one
When the world caves in

Is there nothing left now?
Nothing left to sing
Are there any left who hasn't kiss the enemy?
Is this the New Year or just another desperation?

Does justice never find you? Do the wicked never lose?
Is there any honest song to sing besides these blues?

And nothing is okay
Till the world caves in

Until the world caves in 
_______________________________


Finally, one last thing: I could use some good news, we all could use some good news, does anyone have some good news? 
Post it in the comment section!

Music: Soria Moria

Ok so, today is Monday, and Mondays are now my music day; 1. Because I need to post more often, and somewhat regularly and 2. More importantly, because I love music! I was going to call it New Music Monday, but I'm an old school sort of gal at times. So beware, this could be anything from Gregorian, to Beethoven, to the Beatles, to George Strait. Yes, I realize that makes me weirdly eclectic. Anyhow, now that I have established music on Mondays, be quite aware that I will probably not follow task ha! Also, I'm glad that I already had this song picked out because this morning I had (and still have) Eric Carmen's "Hungry Eyes" stuck in my head, and I wouldn't want to do that to you. I will thank William for this calamity, although his post had to do with another song completely; but you can't be born in the 80's and not think of the Dirty Dancing song when someone says "Hungry Eyes". You just can't.


Well, today is a song by Sissel Kyrkjebø, a Norwegian singer.  I first heard this song, and was struck by it, several years ago, when a roommate introduced me to her music.  Sissel has a really amazingly beautiful voice, pure and unaffected, especially in her early albums. This title song is from one of her earlier albums (1989 I believe), Soria Moria. Soria Moria is a common Norwegian fairy tale about an askeladden who searches out Soria Moria and becomes a great lord. A short version of the story is available here. I was always struck by this song because of its haunting melody and its beautiful story.  I would say that you don't even have to know Norwegian to understand the movement of the legend of Soria Moria. As it is, I only know one word of Norwegian.  Btdub, I find the English write-over in this video pretty annoying, but what can you do?



Anyhow, enjoy! I have to go write a paper on St. Augustine and his theory of peace. What joy fills my heart at the very thought. Or something.

Oh for a beaker full of the warm South!

Well, I happen to love poor Johnny Keats. I admit it. I embrace it. I breath it.  However, as I was much disappointed with the movie Bright Star, I won't speak of it here, just yet -- I'm leaning towards giving it another chance before forming a final opinion of the thing. Though, I will say that one good thing has come out of it: Ben Wishaw's reading of Ode to a Nightingale.  Give it a listen, I hardly think you'll be disappointed:

The Orchard

My favorite Clancy Brothers song -- for obvious reasons to some...



When I was nine, in harvest time, I crossed the orchard wall
The moon was bright, the apples ripe upon the garden did fall
We filled our sacks, we made our way back, more adventures for to find.

I crossed the orchard wall again when I was just thirteen
It was, I think, to be my first drink of cider and poitín
I remember well, it tasted like hell; I hoped the pain would end soon,
In an orchard green neath the Comeraghs in that sweet Dungarvan green.

When I was twenty-one years old I married my Annie there
The apple blossoms in the trees were better in her hair
And when the day was over there was a drunk for every tree
In an orchard neath the Comeragh by those sweet Dungarvan seas.

Now I'm forty-five, I am much alive and children I have four,
Three girls and one fine strapping son and I have hopes for more.
I'll teach them of what lies ahead, I have plenty to tell still
In an orchard neath the Comeragh in that sweet Dungarvan breeze.

Now I'm ninety-one, my days are near done, my Annie is long since gone.
Our days they were good as well they should, but it's time that I passed on,
And when I die, I want to lie in the air, land and foam
In an orchard neath the Comeragh by my sweet Dungarvan home.

Walter Cronkite

I was sad to hear that Walter Cronkite had died. It didn't really come as a surprise as he was rather advanced in years and had become clear that his last days were at hand, however, the death of such American icons is always something to reflect on. It seems that there have been many deaths lately, not that I suppose there has been a spike in death, that, at least, seems always a sort of constant. Of course, Walter Cronkite was not of my generation, but I remember hearing of him from my parents and grandmother. "Most trusted man in America..." That is something special, and I wonder if anyone could live up to that sort of praise in today's twisted and shallow new reporting. I stopped watching the news years ago, literally, in a very deliberate way, because it is everything but accurate. I realize any time something is told or reported it can get lost in translation, spun from different view points, and exaggerated/downplayed, however, I find the deliberate dumbing down and obvious buffoonery of the American people to be sickening and more depressing than anything they could ever show in the news cast. Take this recent obsession with Michael Jackson, when the same week something like the number of Swine Flu cases in the UK was doubling each week, with an outlook for almost the entire population being infected by the end of the summer. You know, you expect stupid news sites, like Yahoo, MSN etc... the ones that just have anything and everything, to be obsessed with Jackson -- its all very mainstream, popular, hit generating -- but CNN, the BBC, the Times, even (but not as much) NPR and other more "serious" newsies were exactly the same. Well, it is bound to happen, I suppose. Perhaps it is too much to ask of people to pay attention to whats going on and to want more than networks telling them whatever they wish to spin. Anywho! Back to Cronkite: I like this article that was in the Times, which has quotes from readers concerning the death of Cronkite.

On a happier note, and completely unrelated, except by era, I have been entirely obsessed with Herman's Hermits lately :) So, for your general amusement, here are some Herman's Hermits vids :) Peter Noone makes me smile, but you can call him Herman if you like :)

Silhouettes:





Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter:

Cloudy ~ Paul Simon

The sky is gray and white and cloudy,
Sometimes I think it's hanging down on me.
And it's a hitchhike a hundred miles.
I'm a rag-a-muffin child.
Pointed finger-painted smile.
I left my shadow waiting down the road for me a while.

Cloudy
My thoughts are scattered and they're cloudy,
They have no borders, no boundaries.
They echo and they swell
From Tolstoy to Tinker Bell.
Down from Berkeley to Carmel.
Got some pictures in my pocket and a lot of time to kill.

Hey sunshine
I haven't seen you in a long time.
Why don't you show your face and bend my mind?
These clouds stick to the sky
Like floating questions, why?
And they linger there to die.
They don't know where they are going, and, my friend, neither do I.

Cloudy,
Cloudy.

Car Talk

Sorry, don't now what my obsession is with XKCD lately. They make me laugh, and so does Car Talk, so there you go :) I love NPR, yes that makes me a nerd, or an old person or whatever, but hey, I happen to like to know what's going on in the world at least a little bit... We live in a world and a society, it's not just all about your little individual world. Anyways :)

Here is a random vid for today. A little Flute, a little beatbox... Enjoy :)

For the Rainy Days...

Because sometimes you just need a little Miles and Coltrane....

How can i keep from singing?

" My life goes on, in endless song, above earths lamentations, I hear the real, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation. Through all the tumult and the strife I hear its music ringing. It sounds an echo in my soul; how can I keep from singing?" Some people inspire us through action, some through words and thought, others through music, and still others through art; each of these are noble in themselves, but the person to whom I would like to pay tribute has influenced me through all these mediums. Daily through her actions, her encouragement, her perseverance and her constant cheerfulness she taught me and other students what it means to live a life worth living. She showed us what it really means to live our Faith and to live it well.
In the boarding school to which I went we called the nuns mother. Seems a bit weird at first, but truly you realize that really they are your mothers, for they give to us the life of the intellect just as our biological mothers give to us the life of the body, and a boarding school is just like a family. Mother Gabriel of the Sacred Heart was the Prioress of our school for nine years, as well as its founder. Out of the depths of the Idaho forests she made it possible for a magnificent school and chapel to be raised from the granite mountainside. In 1990 she came to this country with six other nuns and started our school in a small green house with just five boarding students and a few day students. Now, some fifteen years later there are five buildings with row upon row of desks in beautiful classrooms and bedrooms aplenty. They are now bursting at the seams with over 30 boarding students and 200 day students. And what else has she to her name? A girls choir, which has produced two CDs of polyphony, one sacred the other Christmas, and which some say is the most beautiful they have ever heard. But besides this choir being so beautiful, she really gave us something by teaching us music. She gave us love, and desire, she gave us the will to give ourselves completely to something. She taught us unity and discipline, and helped us to understand that " Sacred music is a double prayer," and that " Next to silence, music comes closest to expressing the inexpressible."
All this and more she has given us, and all the while very sick with a heart condition, yet never did I see her complain or be unjustly angry, or just plain grumpy. Always a smile, always a twinkle in her eyes. How, then, can I keep from singing, when, like a mother, through song and her example she has given me the wings to rise above the lamentations of this world?

12-06-06