Inspired by a wonderfully thorough MetaFilter post, I'll highlight a song some fans call the most beautiful song in the world...
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Monday, August 2
Music Monday - "From the corner of my eye/A hint of blue in the black sky/A ray of hope, a beam of light/An end to thirty years of night"
by
Jason
on Mon 02 Aug 2010 10:00 PM CST
[Oops, forgot I pre-loaded this Music Monday post after coming across the song in a MetaFilter thread last week. So, combined with the post below, you get a 2-for-1 on the Music Monday posts this week!]
Inspired by a wonderfully thorough MetaFilter post, I'll highlight a song some fans call the most beautiful song in the world...
Music Monday - "When your infant starts to nurse/Oxytocin's released from the brain with a burst" (Happy World Breastfeeding Week!)
by
Jason
on Mon 02 Aug 2010 08:14 PM CST
It's World Breastfeeding Week so here's a song, written by a nursing student, about the subject.
I don't usually do a long narrative for my Music Monday posts but I'm got to say that I'm so amazingly proud of Shea for the dedication she put into breastfeeding Pace for over two and a half years - never spending more than 24 hours away from him in all that time (actually, she might not have done so to this day!) Breastfeeding (and especially extended breastfeeding) is one of those things in life that you feel like you can't talk up because it's (sadly) such a minority position. Shea once mentioned to a friend that part of the reason we haven't had a second child yet is that it's so draining to do extended breastfeeding and she feels like she's just finished doing it for our first child even though he was now three. "Well, you don't *have* to do it that long" the friend responded. Now this friend wasn't one of those new mothers who leaves their freshly hatched baby with the grandparents when the baby's three (weeks, not years!  ) to go on a jaunt to Vegas. In fact, she's fairly "crunchy" (eg.
hippy-esque) in most ways. But still that suspicion of extended
breastfeeding comes through when you hear comments like that - even from
people who you'd expect to be a bit more open-minded.Another friend who's otherwise extremely intelligent brought out the "I was formula fed and I turned out okay" argument. True, this person is smart but apparently not smart enough to recognize that a sample size of one is statistically invalid!  Anyhow, I didn't mean this to be a rant (and I'm very aware that's how many "lactivists" are thought of within larger society. Or should I say, that's how they're portrayed. There are some very powerful corporations and special interests who stand to benefit greatly by marginalizing breastfeeding and making it shameful.) But one of the ways that Shea's influenced me is by making me an even bigger believer in breastfeeding than I hope I would have otherwise become. (It's not something I probably thought a lot about before getting married and having kids. But I'm pretty sure I would've been a breastfeeding believer on some level - if for no other reason than the common sense science of it. Hmm, something the human body has evolved over thousands of years as the perfect food to give a newborn every advantage or...a powder made in a factory?) We happened to just watch *Grown-Ups* the other night (thanks to the staffer at "Live with Regis & Kelly" who put it out as a torrent!  ) and one of the running jokes was that one character's wife is still breastfeeding their child at four years old. "Oh well, at least extended breastfeeding is getting some publicity?" I said to Shea.On the other end of the pop culture spectrum from Adam Sandler fart and poop movies is the supermodel Gisele who is a proud breastfeeding advocate, saying it helped her regain her figure after giving birth and if she could, she would make it law that new mothers have to breastfeed for a minimum of six months. (Yes, I know all the arguments about "My milk didn't come in - I had to bottle feed" or "My baby just refused to latch so I had to bottle feed" but that's a whole other post for some other time.) So anyhow, given a choice between a supermodel and Sandler, I know who I'd pick! Monday, July 26
Music Monday - "Looked up to the Lord above and said 'Hey man, thanks!'"
by
Jason
on Mon 26 Jul 2010 06:07 PM CST
I remember watching this performance live when it was first broadcast - I think on MuchMusic back in the day.
At the time the song "Nautical Disaster" hadn't yet been released and was only a rant in the middle of "New Orleans Is Sinking". I didn't realise this and thought Gord Downie was being his usual quirky self introducing the song "New Orleans Is Sinking" as "Nautical Disaster" - which was/is actually quite fitting. Monday, July 19
Music Monday - "We could live/For a thousand years/But if I hurt you/I'd make wine from your tears"
by
Jason
on Mon 19 Jul 2010 12:00 AM CST
Beck apparently gets together with a group of musicians regularly. They record a cover of an entire album in a single day then release the results. Here's their haunting take on a well-known song from INXS' "Kick" album (and yes, I'll admit it - one of my favourite songs from high school):
(via NPR's "Top 5 Cover Songs of 2010 (so far)" article) Record Club: INXS "Never Tear Us Apart" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo. Monday, July 12
Music Monday - "But hell, I'm just a blind man on the plains/I drink my water when it rains/And live by chance among the lightning strikes"
by
Jason
on Mon 12 Jul 2010 10:00 PM CST
I'm about as far from a Pitchfork following, Fleet Iver Weekend-listening hipster as you'll find.
But I do have friends who fit that category and a recent visit to Vancouver where I got to catch up with one of those friends also introduced me to a new singer-songwriter who I think is probably very much in that mode of music listening. (Oh-oh, I see that his first album was #47 in Pitchfork's list of 2008's Best Albums of the Year list. That makes Kristian Matsson *way* past his stale-by date for the scenesters!  ) Monday, July 5
Music Monday - "Outside my window/I listen to the rain/And the sounds of the passin' cars/And the waves on English Bay"
by
Jason
on Mon 05 Jul 2010 06:09 PM CST
We're back from our trip (actually, have been back since last Thursday night but I was enjoying my blog holiday too much to start posting right away.) But today was back to work and so I'll get back to working on my blog as well.
I'm not sure if the blog holiday will influence how I go forward with this site. Part of me thinks it'd be nice to post a little less often but I also realise that if I stop aiming to do daily posts, it's really easy to slip to "okay, as long as I post weekly" then "okay, as long as I post monthly" and so on until the blog withers and dies. But we'll see. Anyhow, a Music Monday post is a nice way to gently ease back into things... Does anybody else have a song that becomes their "theme" when they're doing something - whether it's a vacation, a conference or even sometimes just something simple like a walk to the corner store or whatever. For example, at the recent CLA conference in Edmonton, I kept having Moxie Fruvous' song, "River Valley" run through my head. Nothing mystical there - just a natural connection since the conference was held in the Shaw Convention Centre which overlooks Edmonton's River Valley. Same with this trip. This song kept running through my head - especially during the week we spent in Vancouver (I like that this video is a bit like a home movie travelogue instead of the Blue Rodeo concert video you might expect. In fact, this video could come from our own digital camera videos - though it doesn't). More thoughts on our trip tomorrow... Monday, June 14
Music Monday - "The Golden Rim Motor Inn/Soft water and a colour TV/Can't afford the luxury"
by
Jason
on Mon 14 Jun 2010 12:00 AM CST
You probably shouldn't base your motel selections on twenty year old Tragically Hip songs but when they end up having views like this...
  I asked at the check-in if they had many people mention the Tragically Hip song when they checked in (too embarrassed to admit that's exactly why I chose this motel) and the clerk said, "Not as much as there used to be when the song first came out but it still happens occasionally." He went on to say he was on desk when the Hip checked in. Their tour bus had broken down in the mountains and he didn't like the looks of them - a typical long-haired rock band, he thought they'd trash the place! He then asked if they were still making music. Man, if Canada's biggest band made your motel famous, you'd think you might follow their career a bit. I mean, your motel does have free wireless!  Monday, June 7
Music Monday - "When nobody else would stay/I would/When nobody else would pray/I would"
by
Jason
on Mon 07 Jun 2010 08:58 PM CST
[Edit: Seeing some reports that the taping is on June 14 and the show will be broadcast on June 18. I always thought Letterman taped around suppertime for broadcast the same day so jokes, etc. were timely but just to be safe, you may watch to watch both nights.]
Fred Eaglesmith is about to be an overnight sensation after thirty plus years of hard work and living on the road. He's already had his songs covered by Toby Keith and now has one on the latest Alan Jackson album (a song which also became the title of the album and the related tour!) and next week, on June 14, Fred'll be on The Late Show With David Letterman promoting his new album. "Pretty fricken' cool" as the man himself would say! Monday, May 31
Music Monday - "There she goes again/Mixing melody with a memory/She's got a song for everything/Everywhere she's been, everyone she's pleased"
by
Jason
on Mon 31 May 2010 06:57 PM CST
iTunes Canada has a free single of the week and this week happens to be local Regina indy buzz band, Library Voices, who are sort of a western Canadian version of Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene or dare I say it, Polyphonic Spree - any of those recent bands ("collectives" would probably be a better word) that has a dozen or so members.
(Anybody have any theories on where this trend comes from? When I was a kid, a rock band was lead and rhythm guitar, bass and drums, dammit! Oh, I see the band answers these questions themselves in a recent piece - they're not like those other bands except "there's a lot of us on stage" and they like the multi-member approach because it's more fun to stretch beyond the traditional rock line-up.) This band come by their name honestly as someone told me that at least one of their members is the child of former RPL director, Sandy Cameron. And with all the good fortune and buzz from The New Yorker and Spin, they may still be the unluckiest band in Canada having had all their equipment stolen about a year ago and then recently losing it all again in a flood! So after you download the free single (get it quick - today might be the last day!) go ahead and buy some of their other music as well! (Warning - this chorus will be in your head for awhile...) Monday, May 24
Music Monday - "When the good times never stay/And the cheap thrills/Always seem to fade away"
by
Jason
on Mon 24 May 2010 09:32 PM CST
A great part of 90's college rock (and gotta love the Dennis Miller intro too!)...
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