Ramblin' with Roger

Apple Music 100 Best Albums

Express Yourself

I checked out the Apple Music 100 Best Albums list. Often, I’m fascinated by various musical rosters, but not as a gauge of their “rightness.”It’s rather interesting in terms of how I align with the gestalt of the times, or more likely, fail to. Let others kvetch how Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall belonged on the list rather than some 21st-century album I don’t recall.

31 albums were released since 2000, sending some folks into a tizzy. Whatever. I own but two of them, #8, Back To Black by Amy Winehouse (2006) and #15, 21 by Adele (2011). A handful of the others, including Arctic Monkeys and, of course, Taylor Swift, are familiar.

Of the 23 albums from the 1990s, I own five. There’s #1, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Lauryn Hill (1998); #9, Nevermind by Nirvana (1991); #12, OK Computer by Radiohead (1997); #31, Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette (1995); and #58, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory by Oasis (1995).

The 1970s are represented by 18 albums, 17 of which I own. Only #71, Trans-Europe Express by Kraftwerk is not in my collection.

I don’t have three of the ten albums from the 1960s. Not in the collection: #54, A Love Supreme by John Coltrane (1965); #60, the eponymous The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967); and #88, I Put A Spell On You by Nina Simone (1965), though I have at least four of her albums.

I own all one of the albums from the 1950s, #25, Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis.

1980s

This leaves the 1980s, which is closest to 50/50. And I figure I’ll pick a song from each one.

#2, Thriller by Michael Jackson (1982), YES. I believe it was constitutionally mandated that we own this album in the day. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’

#4, Purple Rain by Prince (1984), YES, and I saw the movie at the time. I Would Die 4 U

#34 It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy (1989), YES. Bring The Noise

#42 Control by Janet Jackson (1986), YES, and I saw Janet live in 2018 at SPAC. What Have You Done For Me Lately

#43 Remain In Light by Talking Heads (1980), YES, and I saw the group live in 1983 at SPAC. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)

#48, Paul’s Boutique by the Beastie Boys (1989), NO. Shadrach

#49, The Joshua Tree by U2 (1987), YES. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

#50, Hounds of Love – Kate Bush (1985), NO. Or I don’t think so. When some of my friends were getting rid of their vinyl, they’d give some of it to me, and I have a vague recollection of this entering my collection. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) which went #3 pop on the 2022 Billboard chart.

And more

#51, Sign o’ the Times by Prince (1987), YES. Starfish and Coffee, which I watched Prince sing on The Muppet Show.

#52, Appetite for Destruction by Guns ‘N’ Roses (1987), NO. Sweet Child O’ Mine

#56, Disintegration by The Cure (1989), NO. Pictures Of You

#65, 3 Feet High and Rising by De La Soul (1989), NO. Me Myself and I

#66, The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths (1986). NO. I Know It’s Over

#69, Master Of Puppets, Metallica (1986), NO. Master Of Puppets

#70, Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A. (1988), NO. Express Yourself, which borrows heavily from Express Yourself by Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd. Street Rhythm Band (1970)

#77, Like A Prayer by Madonna (1989), YES. Express Yourself

#90, Back In Black (1980), YES. Back In Black

So that’s 9 (or 10) out of 17 in the 1980s, and 41 (or 42) out of the 100. BTW, I own some other Kate Bush, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Cure, and De La Soul albums, as well as two by Morrissey of The Smiths.

ASO American Music Festival 2024

Polish bisexual painter

Albany Symphony Orchestra Music Director David Alan Miller leads the Dogs of Desire during the Albany Symphony’s 2023 American Music Festival. Photo by Gary Gold. https://symphony.org/albany-symphonys-dogs-of-desire-new-music-ensemble-turns-30/

The Albany Symphony Orchestra has held the American Music Festival for several years. But my wife and I had never attended it before this year when my wife decided we should go. Then she couldn’t attend the first concert because she had a work conflict.

On Friday, June 7, my old work friend Mary and I went to EMPAC, the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. It is a “multi-venue arts center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, which opened on October 3, 2008. “

The orchestra playing tonight was Dogs Of Desire. “Dedicated to exploring and celebrating the intersection between the raucous terrain of American popular culture, traditional Western instrumental music, and music traditions from around the world, the ASO’s 18-member new music ensemble… has commissioned and performed more than 200 new works by America’s most exciting emerging composers.”

This was true of this program. Refuge by Juhi Bansal, Crossway by Nicky Sohn, Memorial by Francisco del Pino, Underneath the Structure by JURAKHAN, and All On A Summer’s Day by Dai Wei were all world premieres. All except Bansal, who had been injured, were present.

The voice as an instrument

Performing in all of the songs were soprano Britt Hewitt and mezzo-soprano Devony Smoth. But mostly, their vocals were incorporated into the texture of the compositions. On Dei Wei’s composition, she joined Hewitt and Smith.

I enjoyed elements of all pieces, though I enjoyed the first and the last the most.

Interspersed between the new pieces were arrangements of hits by NY-born songwriters, including Just the Two of Us, a Dixieland-infused version of If I Had a Hammer, and more, arranged by long-time ASO collaborator Jack Frerer.

Because we were tired, we passed on the “late night lounge,” featuring the sultry Brazilian rhythms of the father/daughter duo of Sergio and Clarice Assad.

The next morning, my wife and I didn’t attend the 10:30 a.m. emerging composers hearing their compositions played for the first time.

Show tunes

My wife’s first music opportunity to attend was Great American Song! at 3 pm. It was at Bush Memorial Hall, but the GPS was sending us to the office address across the street. Fortunately, a security guard called to us and several others. Then a young woman asked if we were there for the music.

As it turned out, the woman was the singer Lauren Blackman. She started with The Sound of Music, and I feared it’d be too much the Great American Songbook. But her next song was a Rosemary Clooney song I didn’t know. She told stories about snowmobiling in Iceland with her competitive father. When she was a stand-in for the ill Sutton Foster on The Music Man, she filled in as Marian the librarian, and got to kiss Hugh Jackman.

A second singer was Nicholas Ward, who sang on his own and in a couple of duets. He had a deep voice, the type that could do justice to Ol’ Man River.

Art deco

Blackman and Ward met in a production of a Broadway musical called Lempicka, which had previously played in Williamstown, MA, where it went through several revisions, and La Jolla, CA.

The Broadway previews began with 27 previews starting on March 19. It officially opened on April 14 but closed on May 19 after 41 performances. I guess that a story about Tamara de Lempicka, a Polish bisexual painter of Art Deco portraits, didn’t sell well enough.

More likely, nine shows opened in April 2024, right before the Tony deadline, cut off the oxygen. Shows with more familiar elements, such as Hell’s Kitchen, featuring the music of Alicia Keys, and Suffs, with Hillary Rodham Clinton and Malala Yousafzai as producers, were released the same week.

Nevertheless, Lempicka was nominated for three Tonys: Best Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role In A Musical –Eden Espinosa; Best Performance By An Actress In A Featured Role In A Musical – Amber Iman; and Best Scenic Design Of A Musical – Scenic Design by Riccardo Hernández and Projection Design by Peter Nigrini. The Tonys will be on Sunday, June 16.

Blackman and Ward sang a couple of songs from Lempicka, which I enjoyed. The Original Cast album is being released on June 12, which I might purchase.

After the show, my wife and I went to a Korean restaurant with a woman whom we had just met named Zelda.

Bellflower

perspective

I think about perspective a lot, and Bellflower is a good example. It was at my daughter’s college just after her birthday, when two of her friends and her parents visited her on campus.

There was a craft show near the library. More accurately, it was a collective of artistic and literary items. One person packaged mystery packages of books; I said I had enough unread tomes.

Then I came to this item. The creator said it was a flower. But it was upside down and looked like a bell with a handle.

I had promised myself not to buy things I didn’t need. The countervailing sentiment was that I wanted to support young creatives. After perusing all the tables, I returned to the Bellflower table, only to discover that the one I wanted had sold. There were similar items, but I really wanted that particular color combination.

Oh well.

Wait, they could custom-make another one in a few weeks. Well, all right then. When we picked up the daughter from college at the end of the semester, the last stop was to pick up Bellflower.

The first container is my political button buttons jar because naturally, I have one. Or more than one. Okay, maybe it looks like a flower.

But on my hemisphere change bank, it’s a bell for sure.

I think it’s incredibly difficult to see things in different ways when another point of view makes no sense whatsoever. Yet one tries, even when it involves standing on one’s head.

All are welcome in this place!

Zeitouna

Smack dab in the middle of the weekly bulletin for my church for June 2, More Light Sunday is the message, “All are welcome in this place! New faces and voices are always welcome and add to the spirit of our worship, education, mission, and fellowship.”

I found two news stories in the past six weeks reflecting that element of shalom.

ITEM: Sacramento State’s unique approach helps bring a peaceful end to campus protest

“‘President Luke Wood oversaw a peaceful end to a campus protest over the Israel-Hamas war, one of the many that have taken place at universities nationwide in recent weeks…

“‘I did 92 listening sessions, 75 minutes each, with over 1,500 of our students, faculty, staff,’ Wood said…

“‘I got to first tell you how I feel as a person, as an individual, and really as a Black man, I get a heightened level of anxiety,’ Wood said. ‘When people are in fear, they respond in a protected mechanism, which doesn’t always lead to the best outcomes.'”

The campus encampments broke up in a couple of weeks, without violence or calling in the police.

Zeitouna

ITEM: A group of Jewish and Palestinian women uses dialogue to build bridges between cultures

“They call themselves Zeitouna — a group of six Jewish and six Palestinian women in Michigan that have been meeting twice a month for more than two* years. The name is the Arabic word for olive tree, and their motto is ‘refusing to be enemies.'”

*Based on the Zeitouna website and the CBS broadcast story, this should be TWENTY years, going back to right after 9/11.

“The safety of the group and their environment has allowed the women to remain committed to each other in the face of Oct. 7 and the war that followed.”

“‘You absorbed my pain, as I absorbed your pain. It’s important to just have a space, a place where everybody is there with open arms,'” Wadad Abed, one of the group’s members, said during a meeting.

“Diane Blumson, another Zeitouna member, told CBS News, ‘There’s room in a humanitarian way to recognize the trauma of the other. And people have lost that ability right now.'”

Members of Zeitouna were invited to the Arab-Jewish group at a nearby university to share their methodology.

Scripture

The Scripture reading for June 2 was Mark 3: 20-35. The last five versions of the NIV selection:

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

To me, this is saying that community is where you find it, whether it be a college president swimming against the tide, a group of women from different faith traditions swimming against the tide, or churches responding with open doors.

A “conservative Christian” group called My Faith Votes notes in a recent email, “America is changing fast. We are more divided and intellectually lost than ever before. That’s why it is more crucial than ever for Christians to have a firm foundation and to align their views with the truth of God’s Word.

“Not to mention, when Christians think biblically, they vote biblically — something of grave importance this presidential election year.”

I absolutely agree with this sentiment, although I know that we would not agree with what “the truth of God’s Word” is. My God is a big-tent God.

Not incidentally, my church had a float of sorts in the Pride Parade yesterday. My daughter and I participated. The big mistake I made was falling to wear my knee brace.

Sunday Stealing: afraid of the dark?

cartoons

Here’s another edition of Sunday Stealing.

1. Are you afraid of the dark?

The dark increasingly disorients me. If I had been driving, I’d probably would have had to give it up.

My wife and I stayed in a timeshare in May. Even though I knew the layout of the room, going to the bathroom in the middle of the night was a bit terrifying. I retreated to my side of the bed and got my phone. I didn’t even need the flashlight, just the light from the screen. Before I left the loo, I left the light on and then closed the door. That minimal illumination did not disturb my wife, who is sensitive to being awakened by light when she sleeps.

To that end, I’m Afraid To Come Home in the Dark (1904) by Arthur Collins.

2. Can you curl your tongue?

Yes, in both directions.

3. Can you wiggle your ears?

No, but I’m not distressed by it.

4. Did you ever participate in a talent show?

I wrote about this about eight months ago. When I was in high school, there was a Red Cross training event in Manlius, NY, near Syracuse. At the end of the week, there was a talent show, and somehow, a couple of guys, one a blues guitarist, asked me to play with them. I stood on stage, people expecting me to sing. Instead, I played the comb. The whole thing was about 3 minutes. I got a standing ovation.

Is JEOPARDY a talent show?

5. Do you have any piercings or tattoos?

No. And while I’m more okay with them on other people, I’m unlikely to ever get one unless I reach 100.

Computer loyalty

6. Do you prefer Mac or PC?

It’s not a matter of preference. All of my computers at work were PCs, so that’s what I got at home. Indeed, I never had an Apple phone until 2018 after I lost my previous one. I’ve since replaced that one before I went to France in 2023. BTW, I believe there’s merit to the DOJ’s legal proceedings against Apple.

7. Do you still have your wisdom teeth?

No, I had mine taken out in my early twenties. Not incidentally, my daughter will likely need to get hers taken out this summer. As she has no dental insurance, it will be a costly procedure.

8. Do you watch cartoons?

I often see the Best Animated Shorts that were nominated for Oscars. I’ve seen the films Chicken Run; Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 1 and 2; Coco; Fantastic Mr. Fox; Finding Nemo; Finding Dory; Frozen; Howl’s Moving Castle; The Incredibles; Inside Out; Iron Giant; Isle Of Dogs; Moana; Monsters Inc.; Persepolis; Puss In Boots: The Last Wish; Ratatouille; Shrek 1 and 2; Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; Spirited Away; Toy Story 1-4 Up; WALL-E; Wolfwalker; and Zootopia. And those are just the ones I can remember from the last 30 years or so.

Hospitalization

9. Have you ever been hospitalized?

An uncontrollable bloody nose when I was five and a half; the car accident in June 1972 for a day and a half; and sometime in the last 15 years when I thought I was experiencing heart irregularity, but I was okay.

10. Have you had braces?

No.

11. Were you ever a Girl or Boy Scout? (Or a brownie)

No. I was a Cub Scout for about a year. I was terrible at it. But I was very fond of our den mother, Mrs. Lia, and when her son Ray, who was in my den, got married in mid-October 1976, I was pleased to escort her to her seat.

12. What is one food you refuse to eat?

I would not say “refused” as much as I’d rather not eat anchovies.

13. What’s the most expensive item of clothing that you own?

Probably a suit.

14. What’s your favorite foreign food?

Recently, there was a story on CBS News about a South Asian restaurant that prided itself in NOT serving chicken tikka masala, which I thought was cool. Still, I’ll pick that.

15. Who’s your favorite fictional character?

Quite possibly, Peter Parker.