Blinken drops by Beijing record store whose owner plays him vinyl by classic Chinese rocker Dou Wei. Blinken buys it — and Taylor Swift’s “Midnights,” which he describes as a successful American export pic.twitter.com/DwgxFp9S0C
— Shaun Tandon (@shauntandon) April 26, 2024
I’m enjoying my way, song by song, through Taylor Swift’s latest. She (still) reminds me of Mary Chapin Carpenter. I need to pick up a couple of MCC’s later albums, and figure out which of Swift’s albums I need to buy so I’ll alwyas have my favorite songs on hand (being of a generation, and a mindset, where I don’t feel I own a thing unless I can put my hands on it… )
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HumboldtBlue
That Daddy song is a superb lyrical journey coupled with a dirge of melody, it’s relentlessly tedious.
Therefore, here’s some P.D.Q Bach
MagdaInBlack
Good Morning. Shift change at BJ.
We’ve just had a small thunderstorm roll thru the Chi nw suburbs, and now the robins are singing. They’re my music so far this morning.
NotMax
Just for funsies. Hava Nasteela.
OzarkHillbilly
I’ve been awake since 11:32 last night. Finally gave up trying to sleep at 3:30. I see a nap in my near future.
lowtechcyclist
@HumboldtBlue:
I think the melody’s pretty good, certainly good enough to pull me in and get me listening to the lyrics, which, as you say, are awesome.
Spanky
@MagdaInBlack: I woke before the birds did, and the first to open its mouth was something high pitched, maybe a cedar waxwing. The Robins and Carolina Wrens are going at it now.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Naps are nature’s dragées on the cake of life.
;)
lowtechcyclist
Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince – wow.
I think I’m becoming a Swiftie.
I’m still reeling from the first time I heard “All Too Well.”
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
Turning Swiftanese?
;)
eclare
@lowtechcyclist:
Same. I tell myself it’s OK to like something because it’s good.
HeartlandLiberal
I truly love Mary Chapin Carpenter. One my favorite songs is “This Shirt.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbL1LptZ8Vc
She also contributed a gorgeous song to the movie “Fly Away Home” Ten Thousand Miles, which is achingly beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwjIFk2vlrc
Ramalama
Joan Baez’s cover of Stones in the Road was the gateway to me liking Mary Chapin Carpenter. Previously I thought “meh” whenever I heard MCC. Now I can’t get enough of her singing her own song …Stones in the Road. And her other songs.
watch it happening as MCC possibly serving as the gateway to TS.
I am ok with this.
P.S. Joan’s movie was terrific: I Am A Noise.
Jeffro
Mrs. Fro and I watched the first half of Taylor Swift’s concert movie last night. It was really good! I’m not that familiar with most of her stuff, so for me it was educational. Mrs. Fro’s a fan, so she kept saying, “Let’s watch one more song…ok, one more song…ok. just one more…” =)
I’ve been a fan of MCC’s for a long time (but haven’t listened in a while) so now I know what to put on Spotify for the day. Thanks AL!
Wvng
I had never considered that Taylor might be a next generation MCC, one of my favorite singer songwriters. Thanks for the connection. “Halley Came to Jackson” is simply glorious. https://youtu.be/6xsYWlSImrc?si=RTpyX8rSjCzpwG-R
Jeffro
@HeartlandLiberal: “This Shirt” is amazing.
Love “I Take My Chances”, too. =)
lowtechcyclist
@NotMax: I really think so.
artem1s
I’ve been listening to Waxahatchee’s new album pretty much nonstop all this week.
https://youtu.be/Q9rCeHIeA_8
thruppence
I got to go to the Symphony last night, Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with Natasha Paremski soloist. I’d never heard of her, but I thought she was excellent. Now I have to be at work at 6 am.
Blech.
Baud
Via reddit
Another Scott
@thruppence: We saw Teenage Fanclub at the 930 Club in DC yesterday evening. It was an early show, 7:30 – 9:00, because they had to clear out for a later dance show / rave / whatever for the youngsters.
It was a good show. And being able to get home before 10 pm was great. J’s twin sister in Austin was able to listen to a recent show in Paris so it was almost like being there with us.
MCC is great and TS too. Wonderful to see a woman ruling the pop music world for a while. Here’s hoping it continues.
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Hmmmmm… I like her more and more every day. While her music doesn’t do much for me, she sure does piss off all the right people.
Nukular Biskits
The best Mary Chapin Carpenter song, IMHO, was Down At The Twist And Shout.
As for Taylor Swift, I can’t name many of her songs, so I definitely would not call myself a Swiftie, but do kinda see the resemblance (music-wise).
Nukular Biskits
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think there’s a law, somewhere on the intertubes, about conservatives doing stupid shit for the sole purpose of “OWNIN’ TEH STEWPIT LIBTARDS, HYUCK!HYUCK!HYUCK!” (no, not Cleek’s Law, but it would be a corollary).
Maybe we should have one called “Taylor’s Law”.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Pissing off the right people is the only sure way to judge character these days
Nukular Biskits
@OzarkHillbilly:
HA! I AIN’T SLEPT IN 20 YEARS! 😉
NotMax
@Baud
Would propose amending that to pissing off the people on the right.
;)
Geo Wilcox
@Baud: She could put out the most holy of albums with nothing but gospel songs and they’d be pissed off at her. It isn’t her music that gets them, It’s the fact that she is a single woman who is more powerful and popular than their brand of shit religion will ever be.
Nukular Biskits
Trying to recover from yesterday’s activities before setting out to do more today.
Yesterday was building a 3’x20′ flower bed next to the master bedroom window, which meant removing sod and laying down border blocks.
Today’s activities will involve the other flower bed 3’x13′ on the other side of the house.
Assuming I survive, I’ll be handmixing the soil (courtesy of 50 bags of stuff from local big box hardware store I loaded myself) with what’s left in the beds so maybe tomorrow (?) I can plant.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Oh, that’s hilarious!! They’re upset that she’s making fun of Christians, oh dearie, the poor things.
First of all, plenty of them deserve to be made fun of. And second, if your heart if filled with the love of the Lord of the whole fucking Universe, then shit like that should just wash off you.
And if they’re upset that she’s “mocking God,” well, God’s a big boy and can take a joke or two. Unlike them, apparently. :-)
ETA:
You don’t say! Maybe their concern should be about the fact that a lot of people who call themselves Christians come across as hateful and judgmental. (Possibly because they are? Just a WAG.)
If you’re filled with the Spirit, maybe it shouldn’t bother you so much that someone’s making fun of you. Really.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Anything that doesn’t explicitly proclaims their* views as being the only correct ones “mocks God”.
*”their” being those self-identified Christians, mostly white conservative evangelicals, who would be better described as “Christianists”.
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
Man, I’m getting tired just thinking about doing stuff like that!
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Obviously, God created us to be his emotional support animal.
Nukular Biskits
@lowtechcyclist:
I assume you mean the “mocks God” thing.
It seriously begs the question, “Is there ANYTHING these idiots thinks DOESN’T ‘mock God'”?
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Anything blasphemous Donald Trump does.
See Trump Bible, for example.
Mousebumples
We watched Miss Americana (Swift doc) on Netflix last night. I thought it was interesting. Definitely highlights misgony is the US/world, music industry, and politics. And her evolution from, “I shouldn’t tell people how to vote” to “OMFG, Trump is terrible!”
I’m guessing a lot of us can relate.
Also talk about mental health, self confidence, etc. It’s from 2020,but I’d recommend it.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Reminds me of that Carlin skit about God and religion:
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
Well, in that comment, I was talking about your work on those flower beds. Better you than me!
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
“Why does God need a starship?”
Nukular Biskits
From Baud’s
YA THINK?!?!?!?!?!?
I need to be careful here. I don’t lump those who honestly try every single day humbly try to live out their beliefs, doing good, and generally being decent human beings … with those who loudly & repeatedly proclaim their “sincerely-held religious convictions” somehow give them the right impose those “convictions” upon the rest of us. IOW, Christianists.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
LOL! I see you are a man of culture!
OzarkHillbilly
They do hate competition. Only they get to mock their God! (from the pulpit every sunday)
Nukular Biskits
@lowtechcyclist:
Believe me, it’s getting harder as I get older.
Last night was a 3-ibuprofen night. Tonight will probably be 4.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Never go full eversor.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
DAMMIT BAUD! DON’T SUMMON HIM!
NotMax
@Baud
Ugh. Irredeemably inferior movie with a single good line.
;)
lowtechcyclist
@Mousebumples:
Yeah, she was supposed to be their pretty country-music princess, staying in the lane that country music princesses are supposed to stay in. And then she just blew way past all that.
Kinda reminds me of when Dylan went electric and pissed off all the folkies.
Mousebumples
@lowtechcyclist: haha, yup.
When my rights are at stake, I’m very much Fuck Your Feelings.
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
Still exist people pissed that the Dodgers fled Brooklyn.
;)
Geminid
@Nukular Biskits: Are you planting seeds? If so, I can recommend Calendula.
Sid
Lucinda Williams wrote Passionate Kisses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rj3Z1KPE6E.
Gurf Morlix- the guy playing guitar in the video- has an impressive catalog as well.
OzarkHillbilly
Not to worry. That only happens if you say his name 3 times in a single comment.
NotMax
@Geminid
The least known of Roman emperors.
//
Nukular Biskits
@Geminid:
This being on the shadier side of the house (tends to stay damper, due to less sunlight, which is why the grass wouldn’t grow there), was thinking about planting hydrangea or other flowering perennials that prefer those conditions.
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
I don’t know about God, but the lyrics quoted in the article absolutely do mock and revile evangelical Christians and any religion that subjects their children to repression and conformity. Good for her. If the shoe fits, evangelicals, wear it.
Also she swears and suggests sexual freedom, gasp!
@Geo Wilcox:
She really is mocking them this time, though. She makes it completely clear they are bad people and bad parents.
@Baud:
Minimal credit where minimal credit is due, they advertised another article about Trump’s Bible being blasphemy.
Kay
So funny:
No one got hurt.
Nukular Biskits
@Frankensteinbeck:
Took me forever to find this, but #51 is one of my guiding rules (sorry, couldn’t find this standing alone):
A Chaotic Combination of Mixed-Up Memes
NotMax
@Frankensteinbeck
Not that he was necessarily anything to celebrate but King James could score beaucoup brownie points by materializing to haunt Dolt 45 24/7.
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
Hey, #3 is mocking God! Maybe we should send it to all the fundies we know
ETA: Ditto #9!
Nukular Biskits
@lowtechcyclist:
LOL! So intent on finding the meme @ 51, I missed those!
Anne Laurie
@Baud: From the lyrics to ‘But Daddy..’, (at the top):
Nukular Biskits
@lowtechcyclist:
#45 for the win!
Geminid
@Nukular Biskits: Hydrangeas sure are sturdy plants, and they grow well in semi-shade. Calendula are good for pots though if there are other sunny spots.
But good luck! Planting’s fun if you don’t have to do too much at once.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Since we’re on great songwriters Lyle Lovett’s latest 12th of June is really good. His excellent large band is in top form. The opener is a jazz instrumental that sounds like a lost bebop era classic. They may be the best jazz combo going in addition to being great at playing just about anything else.
pieceofpeace
@Sid: Lucinda is one of my (many) favorites…
Awakening and watching this BJ topic shows how calming or energizing, and always satisfying music is for beginning any and every day.
Perhaps a weekly or daily column dedicated to providing a place for music-related tapings, referrals, thoughts, etc.??
Something we definitely would find useful as he lunge toward November 2024.
206inKY
If this is the sure of Taylor you like, watch the lyric video for Marjorie and prepare to sob: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hP6QpMeSG6s
sab
@MagdaInBlack: I used to love robins, until I realized that they are the jerks singing at tne crack of dawn every morning that wake me up.
MagdaInBlack
@sab: Well, there is that 🤗
sab
@MagdaInBlack: Bird brains.
jayne
This is the album that TSwift’s publicity machine have been advertising to the rabid side of the fanbase for months as being the one that would justify the violent hatred they’ve been heaping on Boring Blond Ex for the past few years only for it to be more focused on Kinda Racist Ex that she might have cheated on BBX with? Glad you’re enjoying it!
Tehanu
I don’t listen to music any more because my hearing loss has reached the point where, even if it’s loud enough, music is just distorted. However, I’ve been a fan of Taylor Swift since I saw both her and John Cleese on Graham Norton’s show, must be at least 12 or 13 years ago — she was still in her mid-teens, I think. At the start, neither of them had the slightest idea who the other one was, except that she had seen him in the Harry Potter movies. By the end of the show, it was obvious that he was bowled over by her intelligence and maturity — and so was I.
lowtechcyclist
@206inKY:
Just finished watching that video, hearing that song for the first time. Sure is blurry in here all of a sudden.
Thanks for sharing.
lowtechcyclist
@Tehanu: She’s 34 now, just for reference.
Another Scott
@Tehanu: Made me look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IJFuk-IGbs
She comes out around 2:40.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Anne Laurie
@206inKY: Yeah, I think ‘Marjorie’ is the song that confirmed for me how much Swift is her generation’s Mary Chapin Carpenter!
lowtechcyclist
@Anne Laurie:
I’m really starting to think she’s this generation’s Dylan.