Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Consistently wrong since 2002

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Second rate reporter says what?

T R E 4 5 O N

It’s the corruption, stupid.

The willow is too close to the house.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

I really should read my own blog.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

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Reader Interactions

215Comments

  6. 6.

    Cacti

    I Got a Name, by Jim Croce.

    Was thinking about my Grandma who passed away a few weeks ago. :-(

  19. 19.

    MomSense

    Jumpin Jack Flash it’s a gas gas gas!

    I’m not listening to it but it is stuck in my head and I can’t stop singing it.

  26. 26.

    srv

    Static. 1% Problems.

    Haven’t had a desktop stereo system since I moved to a standing desk, so was going to go all high-end headphones, but a pal found out and sent me a pair of high-end desktop (actually closer to bookshelf) speakers he’s had packed up as he got married and is moving every year or so. So I test them with my living room setup, and they’re awesome. Alas, people who loan me expensive shit expect me to use it. So now I need another amp for a set of speakers that want 50-75 watts just to idle.

    So I have no music.

  29. 29.

    Paul in KY

    @MomSense: To me, one of the top 10 songs they ever did. Rolling Stones will be a headliner at Glastonbury this year (along with Artic Monkeys & Mumford & Sons).

    Artic Monkeys will also be at Bonnaroo & I am stoked about seeing them.

  33. 33.

    PurpleGirl

    Last CD — Mozart: Serenade in C Minor, K. 388 and Serenade in E-flat Major, K. 375

    Previous CD — Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (and 3 other pieces).

  35. 35.

    WereBear

    “There’s a Moon in the Sky” by the B-52s. Prior to that, heavily Devo.

    Since it’s an Open Thread, my Help Me Help the Kitties Fundraiser has begun.

    To be clear, it’s to help keep my cat advice site running… I’m as astonished as anyone how much it costs when one is middling-popular. One of these days I’ll finish my cat book and/or sell a million cat toys, but until then… I’m dependent on the kindness of those who are not strangers :)

  36. 36.

    ultraviolet thunder

    @Emma:

    Barenboim’s masterclass on Beethoven’s piano sonatas. Amazing.

    I have a bunch of those recordings and I’m looking for all of them on vinyl. They’re outstanding.

    I’m 6 time zones from home, have a wretched cold and the primitive hotel internet connection keeps dropping. First world problems, I know, but that doesn’t make me feel any less miserable.

  37. 37.

    celiadexter

    En El Pasado Quedara by Melaza. (Probably the best band you never heard of — NYC salsa.)

  40. 40.

    jacy

    Oh! by Eric Hutchinson.

    Although the small child is home sick today, so Looney Tunes (Foghorn Leghorn) is playing in the background…..

  42. 42.

    ultraviolet thunder

    The colleague I’m traveling with has the worst taste in music of any person I have ever met. I’ve known him for 18 months of his imposing his tunes on every social situation and he’s YET to play a SINGLE song I’d want to hear again.
    7:30 this morning driving to the office, me feeling like walking death, and he’s blasting Slipknot, The Eagles and Phil Collins. “Frank, please turn that down”. “Thank you”

  43. 43.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    Backpfeifengesicht’s “Études Transcendante for Triangle.” IOW; I don’t even give much of a fuck what I’m listening to so why should anyone else?

  44. 44.

    Another Holocene Human

    New Topic: Pigs

    I’m not saying the Met Police aren’t as corrupt at the NYPD in their own way, but… gee, maybe it’s the bias of whoever is editing the NYPD wikipedia article but jesus christ, NYPD needs to do better.

    “Discretionary” promotions? Having “acting” detectives who don’t get paid for it? “Detectives” who drive the mayor around? “Discretionary” appointments into command ranks? (Met Police at least makes you pass a written test on the statutes you’re sworn to uphold.) And how many frigging command ranks are there? Probably dates to an era where the commanders were Protestant and all the people who put their ass on the line were Irish Catholic, which meant low status for detectives. Oh, and to become a detective you have to go through narcotics, first. Yeah, that would really give me confidence as a member of the public… I saw SERPICO, and think that guy is credible. Sure, go through 1-2yrs of TRAINING DAY in Narcotics in NYC then and only then do we let you loose to protect the public. Uh-huh. Narcs are like pigs to the power of pigs.

    Just looking at the rank structure it’s obvious why:

    the police union is disgruntled
    the rank and file feel like the commanders are why they have a bad reputation
    why the cops have a bad reputation
    why corruption never dies in the NYPD

    Why doesn’t New York take a look at other police forces in the English-speaking world and try to restructure? Every time this issue is discussed the focus is at the very bottom and very top. Change the commissioner! Recruit more minorities! You do those things but if the department’s not functioning on the inside, if the only damn thing you’ve done to fix that is to make beat cops the slave of a politically driven computer program that punishes them for NOT breaking the law and then you put lipstick on the pig with a fixed, ineffective internal affairs department…

    Why do they even need that many layers of management? I mean seriously. It’s amazing they’re as effective as they are. Shit. Makes you want to stay away from NYC.

    Rationally, I know the crime rate is much higher in Flori-duh than NYC, but at least here you don’t have to be a narc to be a regular cop and in fact the narcs and the other cops don’t really have much to do with each other, and there’s much less management, so even though they’re terrible, they just don’t have enough combined man hours to mess everything up. Of course, our dept is starved for resources, doesn’t even have enough officers, so the criminals always get away, especially if you can speed to Georgia quick enough and not get pulled over by FHP. I guess it’s not really comical, actually it’s terrible, but, you know, the City Manager has priorities–golf course before property crime division.

  47. 47.

    shelly

    The opening music to Bobby Flay’s ‘Throwdown.” This episode, ‘Grilled Cheese.”

  51. 51.

    Librarian

    I don’t listen to NPR, I’ve just never got into the habit. By what I’ve been hearing, I haven’t been missing much.

  52. 52.

    ultraviolet thunder

    The last music I played for myself was Van Cliburn’s stupendous Beethoven ‘Emperor’ concerto. Doesn’t matter how many times I hear that I just about fall in a swoon.

  55. 55.

    Mr_Gravity

    @mack: Where can I get some of that? Currently I have the late Robert Palmer – “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley”.

  57. 57.

    Paul in KY

    @ranchandsyrup: Love that song too. Saw them last year at The Hangout. Just a great band to see live. You can tell they are having the time of their life up there. They will be at Bonnaroo this year.

  58. 58.

    gogol's wife

    “Pat Buchanan and Alan Dershowitz, Live, Now” — no wait, that’s a NewsMax headline.

  67. 67.

    mtraven

    I Held Her in my Arms by The Violent Femmes.

    My 14-year-old son was recently freaked out by the fact that I like the same music he does…

  72. 72.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Cervantes: I’ve never read the novel — nor seen the film, for that matter — but I love the music. Got into it originally, as I suppose everyone does, through the famous Romance, but the whole Gadfly score is wonderful.

  74. 74.

    Randy P

    Kind of an odd answer. For complicated reasons, we were discussing “Brigadoon” on Sunday and my wife admitted never having seen it in any form. So we rented the Gene Kelly movie from iTunes. Not one of my favorite musicals, but I never tire of watching that guy move. I had no idea “It’s Almost Like Being in Love” was from this show, I assumed it was some free-floating Cole Porter tune or something.

    “I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean” has been my earworm ever since Sunday night.

  78. 78.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Randy P: they give it short shrift in the movie — probably a little too racy for the early ’50s — but try to get hold of the original cast album of Brigadoon and pay close attention to “My Mother’s Wedding Day.” It’s a lot of fun.

    And “Come to Me, Bend to Me” may just be one of the most winsome love songs ever.

  82. 82.

    Amir Khalid

    2Cellos’ sublime cover of With or Without You. Followed by three versions of I Dreamed A Dream — Ruthie Henshall, Lea Salonga, Anne Hathaway, all of them legends in the role of Fantine. All on YouTube.

    Then this buffoon, also on YouTube (the clip is from Indonesian TV). The most painful part of the video for me is seeing Barack Obama watch that clown and his act.

  84. 84.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Not me. I enjoy Mozart, Peggy Lee, Bobby Troupe, Led Zeppelin, Soul Coughing, Leon Russell, Johnny Cash, The Dillards, Bach, Cheb Khaled, Tabla Beat Science, etc. I’ve loaded all of my devices with the stuff I like so other than those times when one piece or another evokes one piece or another I just don’t pay strict attention.

  88. 88.

    dmsilev

    Handel’s Water Music; relaxing music while I worked on something tedious and a bit mind-numbing.

  89. 89.

    Sibelius

    Streaming KDFC Classical San Francisco,

    Currently playing: Appalachian Spring, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

  90. 90.

    jacy

    @mtraven:

    My daughter went through a phase when she was 16ish where if she found I liked a song she liked, she’d immediately delete it from her iPod. She’s gotten over it now that she’s in college.

  92. 92.

    Paul in KY

    @ranchandsyrup: Yes I am. Going to The Hangout (Gulf Shores AL in May), Bonnaroo (Manchester TN in June), ROMP (end of June in Owensboro KY), Bunbury (Cinn OH in early July) & Forecastle (Louisville, KY in mid Jul).

    Your daughter might like group called The Mowglis, sorta like Grouplove. Another 2 she would enjoy (probably) are Portugal the Man & Of Monsters & Men. Have seen all 3 of those acts & they are all great shows live.

  94. 94.

    dr. luba

    It was Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, but now I’ve got DakhaBrakha (ДахаБраха) playing on the old, mostly analog music system.

    DakahBrakha are a Ukrainian “Ethnochaos” group. Saw them live at the Detroit Institute of Arts last fall–they played in the Rivera court. Amazing performance. Met them and translated for them after the show. I’d been a casual fan of theirs for years, but now I am a passionate admirer.

  95. 95.

    Paul in KY

    @ranchandsyrup: Glad you are going to Coachella. Would love to go someday, but Cali is a fur drive from KY & I’m not much of a flier, so I’d have to drive it.

  97. 97.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Paul in KY:

    One of the neat things about the age we live in is the amount of music available on YouTube. You can preview Cheb Khaled, or Tabla Beat Science, or Bella Fleck and the Flecktones by way of deciding whether you like their stuff enough to plunk for it.

  98. 98.

    NotMax

    Hm.

    (processing … processing …)

    Gottschalk: A Night in the Tropics (Symphony No. 1)

    Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kijé Suite

    Ippolitov-Ivanov.: Caucasian Sketches (No. 1 & No. 2)

    It’s A Beautiful Day: It’s A Beautiful Day (album)

  99. 99.

    kbuttle

    It’s the End of the World (As We Know It), REM. Beds are Burning, Midnight Oil just concluded. God bless Spotify.

  100. 100.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Seems like a perfectly respectable line-up of favs.

    I don’t talk about my music likes because I can never tell you the name/composer. Sometimes I can tell who’s performing. I used to remember by it being so far into a tape but I’d always have the title and composer wrong, except on Beatles albums. At least CDs let me exactly identify which movement I liked … and CD liners let me know how wrong I was about the lyrics. Lol.

  101. 101.

    Another Holocene Human

    @dmsilev: True that. I also like Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations for that. Especially if I’m feeling nervous/anxious.

  103. 103.

    Another Holocene Human

    @NotMax: What’s the appeal of Lieutenant Kije? I have nothing against Prokofiev, but this piece is so widely beloved and I don’t … get it, I guess.

  104. 104.

    Rich (In Name Only) in Reno

    “Devil’s Anvil: Hard Rock From The Middle East.” It’s a CD reissue of a 1967 LP. The late Felix Papalardi discovered them in in Greenwich Village in 1967. Per the liner notes, the album had the misfortune to debut on the very day the Arab-Israeli War broke out, and so sank like a stone. I first heard them on Larry Miller’s overnight program on KMPX FM in San Francisco.

  105. 105.

    canuckistani

    God by John Lennon. I’m mostly a punk/new wave kind of guy, but this one speaks to me.

  106. 106.

    opium4themasses

    I was listening to Call Me A Hole. The mash up of Call Me Maybe and Head Like A Hole.

    I was on a weird mash up mix bender. Before that it was Thomas the Tank Engine’s theme song and various rappers.

  108. 108.

    Anoniminous

    Last audio track was a digital recording of 1/f noise for work purposes.

    The last music recording was “Tabula Rasa” by Arvo Part.

  110. 110.

    Stuart Katz

    Last thing I listened to was in the car on the way to work, the most recent album by Future of the Left, I forget which track.

  111. 111.

    JoyceH

    I just recently discovered I-Tunes Radio for my iphone. FREE music in a little hand-held device! Feels like when I got my first transistor radio. Especially since my usual station of choice is ’60s British Invasion.

    “Oi’m Ennery The Eighth Oi am…”

  112. 112.

    Emma

    @ultraviolet thunder: I am currently taking an online class through Coursera.org with Jonathan Biss. Well, he did the videos but has his student assistants help in the discussions, etc. No matter. He’s a wonderful teacher, most importantly because he places Beethoven in his historical as well as his musical context. I am having a ball. It’s funny to see Biss being taught by Barenboim.

  114. 114.

    Anoniminous

    @Another Holocene Human:

    For some – most? – classical music fans it is a fun bit of fluff. For people forced to go to a concert by their classical music loving spouse it’s readily accessible.

    Same with Suppe’s “Poets and Peasants Overture.”

  116. 116.

    Paul in KY

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: So right, Higgs! Utube is great for that. Recently saw Bela Fleck & his wife give a concert in Frankfort, KY. Just the 2 of them. They both play banjos & she sings. She is fluent in mandarin & sang 2 or 3 songs in that language. Very haunting music.

  123. 123.

    NotMax

    @Another Holocene Human

    Dunno. I find it effective as background music to which I don’t have to devote much attention.

    Although a lot depends on the orchestra.conductor. Some slow it to such a solemn, almost dirge-like tempo that it just drags. Bouncier works better (for me) with Kije.

  126. 126.

    drkrick

    If You’re Going to the City – Mose Allison

    just switched to

    Clap & Vomit – Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention

    Yeah, iTunes in shuffle mode.

  127. 127.

    Paul in KY

    @raven: Raven, I went to 6 music festivals last year & The Hangout was overall the best one I attended. Bonnaroo might have been, but I got some stuff ripped off & our campground smelled of crap for last 2 days & it rained hard on us the last day.

  128. 128.

    Another Holocene Human

    @NotMax: I feel like bouncier works more for Prokofiev.

    What I do find interesting is the big tempo debate over Beethoven symphonies. Gunther Schuller was on the radio ranting about it years ago and he seemed very persuasive.

  133. 133.

    JasonF

    RIght now I’m sitting in silence, but about 15 minutes ago, I listened to Lungs by Townes van Zandt.

  137. 137.

    Paul in KY

    @WereBear: My top 5 Aussie acts:

    1) AC/DC
    2) INXS
    3) Midnight Oil
    4) Olivia Newton John
    5) The Seekers (showing how old I am)

  138. 138.

    PaulW

    Quick! Ta-Nehisi has an open thread discussion right now! It’s on totalitarianism – as it relates to Soviet Russia mostly, although fascism gets discussed as well – but hopefully he’ll keep this one open for a good while. Just remember to PLAY NICE and NO TROLLING. Anyone yapping about preseason baseball is gonna get hounded by 100 Horders…

  140. 140.

    brendancalling

    “Keep Your Powder Dry” off the new Motorhead album.

    Lemmy is like a god to me.

  141. 141.

    Paul in KY

    @raven: I was too young for those. This is my thing right now. Want to do em before I get too old & they are generally a more economical way to see alot of music, as opposed to going to see the acts individually.

    Plus you meet some really cool people at these things & music is always an icebreaker/conversation starter.

    I have to leave work now, rock on!

  146. 146.

    Haydnseek

    Ludwig Van Beethoven. Symphony No. 7. The 2nd movement will be starting momentarily, so I am out……….

  148. 148.

    ? Martin

    Wow.

    The National Labor Relations Board in Chicago has ruled that football players at Northwestern University are employees and can unionize, the school said Wednesday.

    If this stands, college sports just became a whole different thing. This is massive.

  149. 149.

    Another Holocene Human

    @PaulW: I admire TNC for keeping his comments civil but on the other hand he keeps some real, I mean real freaks on there and I can’t … even ….

  152. 152.

    smintheus

    Rory Gallagher, Cradle Rock (started listening to his Irish Tour ’74 album). Can never get enough of Rory.

  153. 153.

    Mike E

    Pictures at an Exhibition being rehearsed by my local symphony, so my soundtrack is live if a bit halting at times.

  156. 156.

    Amir Khalid

    Has anyone here seen Divergent and/or read the books? I saw the movie this week; not too bad, although the longish boot-camp sequence was somewhat reminiscent of the more tedious parts of Ender’s Game. And its dystopian setting doesn’t seem all that well thought out, either.

  157. 157.

    patrick II

    I have been listening to a young lady named Kawehi I found her yesterday at Esquire at a link from Charlie Pierce. I am an old guy, and I had never heard of “live looping” before. The young lady makes her background music right in front of you, loops multiple layers and then sings, plays her small organ, and also brings in the loops at appropriate times. It is remarkable to me — and I loved her voice too.

  162. 162.

    RSA

    The wife is listening to the title track from Natalie Merchant’s album Motherland. That song has always reminded me of the theme song from the TV show Firefly.

  163. 163.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @Amir Khalid: Read the books. Standard YA utopian romantic triangle a bunch of peeps die trash. Roth is a wannabe Collins who is a wannabe author, so go figure. Lots of people really hated the ending of the series, but I kinda thought that Roth telegraphed the denouement pretty early on.

    It’ll probably make a mint as a four-movie/three book series, and then will fade away more quickly than Twilight’s sparkly vamps.

  166. 166.

    Mnemosyne

    @mtraven:

    My 14-year-old son was recently freaked out by the fact that I like the same music he does…

    I was riding the bus one time and there was a kid about 16 years old wearing a Dead Kennedys t-shirt. I was so tempted to go up to him, pinch his cheek like a grandma, and say, “That’s so cute — I loved the Dead Kennedys when I was your age, too!” But I decided it would be too traumatic.

  168. 168.

    Cervantes

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’ve never read the novel — nor seen the film, for that matter — but I love the music. Got into it originally, as I suppose everyone does, through the famous Romance, but the whole Gadfly score is wonderful.

    Yes, although, as far as I know, the movie soundtrack is still the only way to hear the whole thing (at home, I mean). Or is there a new, complete recording I am not aware of?

    Anyhow, yes, I like it, too.

  169. 169.

    Elizabeth

    “Ke Kaua A Kukauakahi” by Mark Ho’omalu of Lilo and Stitch fame. It’s about the famous Battle of the Owls in Honolulu when they flew in from all the islands to save a man named Kapo’i. Love it and the whole CD!

  171. 171.

    alhutch

    What You Won’t Do For Love – Bobby Caldwell (the Mitsubishi commercial pushed me to buy it!)

  172. 172.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @Mnemosyne: Jeez. I remember when kids in the late 70s thought that the Bee Gees did Sgt Pepper because of that damned movie.

  174. 174.

    jacy

    @Amir Khalid:

    Kid #4 (the 13-year-old) is reading Divergent right now — he’s really liking it, but I glanced through it and the writing is really pedestrian and lackluster and it’s in freaking present tense. I hate reading present tense in novels. So maybe the plot is entertaining, but I’d never get that far without throwing the book out the window….

  179. 179.

    PaulW

    @Another Holocene Human:

    I admire TNC for keeping his comments civil but on the other hand he keeps some real, I mean real freaks on there and I can’t … even ….

    Oh, cmon, 90 percent of us are perfectly normal… uh, moderately normal… ummmmm, okay, SLIGHTLY abnormal, but WE’RE COOL, okay?

  180. 180.

    Amir Khalid

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    I have both seen the movie and read the book. I think I understand why Ender’s Game is so popular among real-life military types in the US: Ender is a fantasy super soldier, with off-the-scale combat skills and tactical sense that the adults around him worship. Indeed, it’s the only reason they give a damn about him at all. And, he starts his own religion as an adult! The idea of turning a ten-year-old kid into such a thing creeps me out, I don’t mind telling you. (These tremendous gifts seem to run in his family: in the book, though not the movie, his older brother and sister, not picked for the military school he gets into, become instead the two most influential political bloggers on Earth. No one knows they’re still just kids.)

    I know the book has a big following in the US, but neither it nor the movie particularly appeals to me.

  182. 182.

    Amir Khalid

    Meanwhile in the Liverpool-Sunderland game tonight, Sunderland FC are giving a master class in how to park the bus at Anfield. Liverpool are probing, probing at their defence, but have yet to get through. Manchester United and Arsenal need to watch and learn.

    ETA: And as soon as I hit “submit”, Liverpool captain Stevie Gerrard scores. 1-nil.

  183. 183.

    Randy P

    @Amir Khalid: I dunno know, I liked the series, like pretty much everything Card has written despite him turning out to be an off-the-scale rightwing loon of the “I don’t recognize my country” type.

    As I recall, he wasn’t exactly “turned into such a thing”. I believe it’s stated there was a breeding program specifically to create these military supergenius kids. Ender’s older brother was supposed to be the culmination of the program but didn’t qualify for reasons I don’t recall. So the parents were given permission to give birth to Ender.

    In the latest couple of books in this universe, Card took the sidekick character of Bean into a very odd and interesting direction. Bean was if anything even smarter than Ender and also a product of genetic manipulation.

    What creeps me out just a little is the religious overtones Card puts into a lot of his stuff, including this series.

  184. 184.

    ranchandsyrup

    @Paul in KY: jelly of yr concert schedule. Have fun man

    I like Portugal, the man out of those 3. Need to do a deeper dive on mowglis.

    Besides coachella (wife’s company is a sponsor so we get some perks) hitting up a foster the people show and a def leppard/Kiss show.

  185. 185.

    Amir Khalid

    @Randy P:
    Ender’s brother didn’t have the right balance in his personality: too dominating, as I recall. Whereas his sister was the opposite, too conciliatory by nature.

  187. 187.

    Steve Putman

    Listening to Weird Al Yankovic on shuffle…right now, “Living in the Fridge”…

  189. 189.

    Viperbuck

    Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.
    And let this trippy electric 12-string riff wiggle around in your ear for a while:

  190. 190.

    NobodySpecial

    Ready For Love – Bad Company. Earworm.

    “Walkin’ down this dusty road….”

  191. 191.

    Southern Beale

    What musical track are listening to right now?

    “Voices In My Head” from the brand-new Chris Standring album, Don’t Talk, Dance! Which is fabulous.

  194. 194.

    Pete Mack

    @The Dangerman: I still like 2cellos Il Libre d’Amore (Book of Love), Smells Like Teen Spirit, and Thunderstruck the best. But they have a lot of brilliant covers–clearly they like heavy metal–and their classical music is top notch too. They put their heart into whatever they play.

  197. 197.

    randomworker

    @NobodySpecial: Wondrin where my life is heading, rollin on to the bitter end…Strange, that I know all the words to that song even after all these years. Damn you.

  198. 198.

    siciliandish

    Watching/listening to Wagner & Me, Stephen Fry’s Documentary about his love for Wagner and confliction that he’s Jewish and Wagner was also Hitler’s fav Composer. It’s Excellent.

  199. 199.

    HeartlandLiberal

    Staying at hospital with wife, who had hip replacement surgery. They provide wireless which is just good enough to watch YouTube videos.

    Last night I watched / listened to this recording of live performance of Mike Oldfield – Tubular bells. One of the best pieces of music of its genre, fusing rock / jazz fusion / world music. Absolutely brilliant. It was the title piece of his famous eponymous album, which I have on vinyl still.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSRJvq4Wd48

  201. 201.

    burnspbesq

    Some really strange early-20th Century piano works by Leon Ornstein, performed by Marc-Andre Hamelin.

    After this, the new Drive-By Truckers record.

    And after that, the last two acts of Der Rosenkavalier. I extracted the audio from the DVD, and now I have to cut it into individual tracks. Renee Fleming, yum yum yum.

  202. 202.

    Bonnie

    Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind and Sundown
    Leonard Cohen: Suzanne, Bird on a Wire, and Hallelujah
    Bob Seger: Against the Wind

    Have them on a playlist together. This mostly tells everyone how old I am.

  203. 203.

    Mnemosyne

    @siciliandish:

    I kind of get where Fry is coming from, but it’s not really Wagner’s fault that he was Hitler’s favorite composer since Wagner died in 1883, six years before Hitler was even born.

  204. 204.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @burnspbesq:

    And after that, the last two acts of Der Rosenkavalier. I extracted the audio from the DVD, and now I have to cut it into individual tracks. Renee Fleming, yum yum yum.

    Is that the performance they did in Live HD a few seasons ago, with Susan Graham as Octavian? That was one fine Rosenkavalier, it was.

  207. 207.

    Cervantes

    @siciliandish:

    Watching/listening to Wagner & Me, Stephen Fry’s Documentary about his love for Wagner and confliction that he’s Jewish and Wagner was also Hitler’s fav Composer. It’s Excellent.

    I’m with Edgar Nye: Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.

  208. 208.

    J R in WV

    Well, back when this thread started I was running a neighborhood errand, and had Outlaw Country channel on Sirius-XM radio, Elizabeth Cook hosting the show. I could probably look up the songs, they were not memorable but were entertaining. One was “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson, with some of his friends, like Merle . . .

  212. 212.

    Paul in KY

    @WereBear: Top 5. I’m not really an ONJ fan myself (although she is a beautiful woman & a fine singer), but I felt I had to include her as she has alot of stats.

    I personally prefer Men at Work & Little River Band & Airbourne & a few others to her.

  213. 213.

    Paul in KY

    @Amir Khalid: Fine book, but sorta unrealistic (even for Sci Fi) with all these kids doing what they do. Definitely written for younger teenagers (IMO).

  214. 214.

    Paul in KY

    @ranchandsyrup: Make sure you are there for Arcade Fire set. I saw them in 2011 at Bonnaroo & they just blew me away. One of the best sets I’ve ever seen by any band. I would also love to see Muse. Def Leppard & Kiss ought to be great fun! Hope you have a wonderful time!

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