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.

Water Water Everywhere, but not a drop to drink...

I've been following the oil spill thing for the last couple of months, or whenever it blew sky high... just a few things then:

I found this illustration of the scope of the spill; if you add your city and state it places the area of the spill over the area in which you live. Above you can see it over Spokane, WA. It is pretty revealing, since it is sometimes difficult to gage distance in pictures of the Gulf. I first saw this weeks ago, and, of course, whenever I pull it up again to show someone, the area has increased. Check it out:
 If It Was My Home

Also here are a few pictures taken along off the coast of Louisiana and then a slideshow of various telling pictures since the explosion:
Wildlife Caught in Spill
Slideshow of Spill and subsequent clean up attempts etc.

Then, in the NYTimes there are a few good articles about the impact on wildlife and the efforts to fix the spill. If you haven't read about it and don't understand why they can't just "plug the spill", they do a pretty clear job of explaining it here, with diagrams etc. Also, in the wildlife tab, it explains why the spill is so harmful to many different types of wildlife.  For example, even dolphins are effected, because they tend to be sociable and follow the boats, getting dangerously close to the spill.

Now a solution? I read this article in the FiTimes which I thought was pretty interesting:  To Save the Gulf, Free the Mississippi.  (btw if it denies access through that link, just google the title and it should come up...)

Finally, here is a video from Nottingham Uni's Periodic Table Vids which talks about the chemistry behind the oil spill and a little bit about why it is so hard to clean up and so dangerous for wildlife, especially birds. It's rather short, but does a great job of explaining:

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:

Art Linkletter, RIP

Art Linkletter died today at 97.  If you haven't read "Kids Say the Darndest Things", you should get on it! It is absolutely hilarious :) Here is a little video from his show:

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.

Templates Yay!

 Finally! Some template functionality! Google announced that they are going to open up the Blogger Template. I've been goofing around with new templates for a while, but have been too lazy to go through it myself, without Photoshop etc. Imagine that, me, lazy! ha!... But I don't know about the rest of you, but sometimes the narrowness of the blogger template (in both width and creativity) bugs me. Is that my American Individuality getting the best of me? Maybe, but that's ok :) Check it out!

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:

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 :)

Research Yay.

I am absolutely exhausted, so I thought I'd take a break from this paper to write a bit, randomly of course :) I've been writing a paper since 6:30 this morning, breaking only at 5 to go take a History final. Now I'm back again to try and finish this "loose baggy monster". It's not that long, only ten pages, but the research was kind of intense and all over the place. Basically I'm positing that Melville's Moby Dick can be considered a continuation of the Romantic Movement. That is, the British Romantic Movement, none of this American Romance novel -- although that would have been interesting since I happen to love Hawthorne, but I feel more at ease speaking about the Romantic Poets and quoting them than I do Hawthorne and other Americans. I am including Emerson in the group though, because his "Nature" and "Self Reliance" fit well. Unfortunately I had to exclude Johnny Keats, which is sad because he's my favorite. But really, I can't go writing a book here! It has the works, from commentary on the inefficiency of language to the Byronic hero, so if I can just get it all on paper in some coherent manner, I may just get a respectable paper out of it. Anyhow, it is going rather swimmingly besides me having trouble focussing. Obviously.
My original research project was about how technology drives the American novel/ life/ ideal/ something... not a very well thought out thesis apparently. It makes sense in my head though. I was going to use the daguerrotype in The House of the Seven Gables and fingerprinting in Pudd'n head Wilson and then something in Moby Dick but I couldn't find ANY sources or work on that subject. Seems ridiculous to me! It seems kind of an obvious connection... I did look up some stuff about the automobile and American Literature, but most of the works referenced were post 1940's. So yeah I scratched that yesterday, which left me one day for the new thesis. Yay.
Well, blah blah blah :) Back to tedium :D

And now, for your general amusement :

TEDTalks... Yes another one :)

And, since I've been adding Education blogs to my blog list lately, i thought this was rather timely :) Its a talk give by Sir Ken Robinson about education and about how schools kill creativity. Rather entertaining, and very insightful.

Sustainability

Fascinating stuff yet oh so logical.

Apples to Apples

I thought this was well done, and slightly fascinating. I love simplicity :) Also, having lived on an Apple Orchard, this lil vid holds a special place in my heart. Enjoy :)



The Seed from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Rives on TED

TED.. Watch it. Learn it. Live it.