COOL STUFF
Papa left for Sydney last night. It's been a while since he's been in one of these little trips and well, I guess I really should be used to this by now but there's just no doing that. It's always hard worrying about a loved one's safety and we do live in precarious times. Missing him is doubly hard, of course, the trips being brief notwithstanding. And it gets a trifle futile keeping things all churned up when at the end of the day, you find that the only company you keep is just yourself.
Globalization is at the root of all these. It's hell bent to pepper my life with moments of solitude. Haha! Talk about delusions of reference.
Anyway...
Papa left me some pretty cool stuff before he left. There's Songs from the Street, that's 35 years of music from Sesame Street. The album includes 63 selections with performances by guests such as Billy Joel, Aaron Neville, Hootie and the Blowfish, and B.B. King, to name a few. I've been listening to it all night last night.
Well, Sesame Street is Sesame Street. I think most of us would have grown up with it. Hearing those songs again is like touching base with an old friend, the more innocent us, when times were happy and life was kind. Those days when the biggest problem we had was getting from here to there without stumbling on our own feet (although I wouldn't say that doesn't happen to me still) and the gravest gripes we ever had with the world was having to sleep in the afternoons when all we wanted to do was watch TV.
I've often wondered why I couldn't enjoy anything Barney. I've listened to some cds and watched some shows, but somehow, it doesn't cut it for me. I used to think, that's it. I've lost the child in me. But when I listened to these songs again from Sesame Street, the child came back. It remembered how to be. All it needed, after all, was the right playground.
Papa also got us a copy of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 'Live in Barcelona' concert. It's got some of my favorite cuts like Darkness on the Edge of Town, Worlds Apart, Badlands, Dancing in the Dark, Born to Run, Born in the USA, Land of Hope and Dreams and Thunder Road. For the first time too, I heard his tribute song for 9/11 which he calls My City of Ruins and I really like it too. I am so not kidding when I say that I got goose bumps just watching him perform, and I wasn't even watching a live concert... it was a dvd, for Pete's sake.
And the drums... whoo-ah! Max Weinberg is THE MAN! See, when it comes to vocal accompaniment, I like the guitar and the piano. When it comes to instrumentals, I like the sax. But when it comes to beat, it's got to be the drums. Not percussion... na-ah! Has to be the real thing... and drums it is.
It was a wonderful, wonderful concert and I wish I was there. It's also nice that Springsteen and wife, Patti Scialfa didn't get all mushy on the stage just to get more hoots from the audience (not that they needed any more). I hate it when performers do that. It's all about the songs babe. It's got to be all about the songs.
Oh what I wouldn't give to watch Springsteen live!
There's also West African Angelique Kidjo's album Oyaya, which contains cuts that are a 'cross-pollination of calypso, merengue, samba and African pop.' Although I don't understand anything on the lyrics, the melodies instantly sat well with me which is fine cause that's exactly how I relate to songs... the melody or the beat first, and then the lyrics.
It's pretty much how I got to like the songs of Rufus Wainwright. I didn't know of his existence until I chanced upon him searching for a song at KaZaA. At first, it was the beat that got me. And then I started to like how his melodies bordered on the eccentric, which made them interesting to me, until I came to think of them as quite dramatic, really. So now I'm hooked. The lyrics? Half the time I didn't know what he was talking about until I decided to look them up. What with titles like Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk, The Greek Song and Complainte de la Butte among others. One thing though, you got to hear his rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It's simply captivating.
And last but certainly not the least, there's a copy of the original, 1973 film version of Jesus Christ Superstar. I, too, grew up with this, in pretty much the same way as Sesame Street. Or more accurately, this film was to me in adolescence what Sesame Street was to me in childhood... yeah, I think that's more like it. There's probably not much left to say about the film. I mean, I wouldn't know a man who hasn't seen it from a hole in the ground.. hehe.
One thing about the cast, though... I really like the voice of Carl Anderson, who played Judas Iscariot, better than I do Ted Neeley, who played Jesus Christ. Too bad they couldn't cast a black man for the role. And then, Mary Magdalene looked very Asian, don't you think? Hmmm... Asian = exotic?
Alright already! I'm stopping right here. Don't really want to get into that stuff.
Happy weekend people! And enjoy some music while you're at it. It's on me.
Papa left for Sydney last night. It's been a while since he's been in one of these little trips and well, I guess I really should be used to this by now but there's just no doing that. It's always hard worrying about a loved one's safety and we do live in precarious times. Missing him is doubly hard, of course, the trips being brief notwithstanding. And it gets a trifle futile keeping things all churned up when at the end of the day, you find that the only company you keep is just yourself.
Globalization is at the root of all these. It's hell bent to pepper my life with moments of solitude. Haha! Talk about delusions of reference.
Anyway...
Papa left me some pretty cool stuff before he left. There's Songs from the Street, that's 35 years of music from Sesame Street. The album includes 63 selections with performances by guests such as Billy Joel, Aaron Neville, Hootie and the Blowfish, and B.B. King, to name a few. I've been listening to it all night last night.
Well, Sesame Street is Sesame Street. I think most of us would have grown up with it. Hearing those songs again is like touching base with an old friend, the more innocent us, when times were happy and life was kind. Those days when the biggest problem we had was getting from here to there without stumbling on our own feet (although I wouldn't say that doesn't happen to me still) and the gravest gripes we ever had with the world was having to sleep in the afternoons when all we wanted to do was watch TV.
I've often wondered why I couldn't enjoy anything Barney. I've listened to some cds and watched some shows, but somehow, it doesn't cut it for me. I used to think, that's it. I've lost the child in me. But when I listened to these songs again from Sesame Street, the child came back. It remembered how to be. All it needed, after all, was the right playground.
Papa also got us a copy of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 'Live in Barcelona' concert. It's got some of my favorite cuts like Darkness on the Edge of Town, Worlds Apart, Badlands, Dancing in the Dark, Born to Run, Born in the USA, Land of Hope and Dreams and Thunder Road. For the first time too, I heard his tribute song for 9/11 which he calls My City of Ruins and I really like it too. I am so not kidding when I say that I got goose bumps just watching him perform, and I wasn't even watching a live concert... it was a dvd, for Pete's sake.
And the drums... whoo-ah! Max Weinberg is THE MAN! See, when it comes to vocal accompaniment, I like the guitar and the piano. When it comes to instrumentals, I like the sax. But when it comes to beat, it's got to be the drums. Not percussion... na-ah! Has to be the real thing... and drums it is.
It was a wonderful, wonderful concert and I wish I was there. It's also nice that Springsteen and wife, Patti Scialfa didn't get all mushy on the stage just to get more hoots from the audience (not that they needed any more). I hate it when performers do that. It's all about the songs babe. It's got to be all about the songs.
Oh what I wouldn't give to watch Springsteen live!
There's also West African Angelique Kidjo's album Oyaya, which contains cuts that are a 'cross-pollination of calypso, merengue, samba and African pop.' Although I don't understand anything on the lyrics, the melodies instantly sat well with me which is fine cause that's exactly how I relate to songs... the melody or the beat first, and then the lyrics.
It's pretty much how I got to like the songs of Rufus Wainwright. I didn't know of his existence until I chanced upon him searching for a song at KaZaA. At first, it was the beat that got me. And then I started to like how his melodies bordered on the eccentric, which made them interesting to me, until I came to think of them as quite dramatic, really. So now I'm hooked. The lyrics? Half the time I didn't know what he was talking about until I decided to look them up. What with titles like Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk, The Greek Song and Complainte de la Butte among others. One thing though, you got to hear his rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It's simply captivating.
And last but certainly not the least, there's a copy of the original, 1973 film version of Jesus Christ Superstar. I, too, grew up with this, in pretty much the same way as Sesame Street. Or more accurately, this film was to me in adolescence what Sesame Street was to me in childhood... yeah, I think that's more like it. There's probably not much left to say about the film. I mean, I wouldn't know a man who hasn't seen it from a hole in the ground.. hehe.
One thing about the cast, though... I really like the voice of Carl Anderson, who played Judas Iscariot, better than I do Ted Neeley, who played Jesus Christ. Too bad they couldn't cast a black man for the role. And then, Mary Magdalene looked very Asian, don't you think? Hmmm... Asian = exotic?
Alright already! I'm stopping right here. Don't really want to get into that stuff.
Happy weekend people! And enjoy some music while you're at it. It's on me.
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