Tag: music

April rambling: Carol Burnett turns 90

Finnish happiness

The Doomsday Clock at 90 Seconds to Midnight

Why fascism? Why now?

“U.S.A. Number One!” in Mass Shooting Murders

The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a Florida-based “think tank,” is a driving force behind the campaign to roll back child labor protections in state legislatures.

Banned in the USA: State Laws Supercharge Book Suppression in Schools and Book bans in US public schools increase by 28% in six months, Pen report finds

Oklahoma’s Top Prosecutor Doesn’t Want to Execute a Likely Innocent Man, but a court is forcing him to do it anyway.

‘Kids Can’t Read,’ and the Education Establishment Faces a Revolt

“School choice” is the latest front in Christian nationalists’ battle to undermine the separation of church and state.

Impact of Weather Emergencies on Child Development

Missing Medicaid Data on Race/Ethnicity May Bias Health Research

Farmworkers: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The Discord Leaker Was a Narcissist, Not an Ideologue. Comparisons between Jack Teixeira and self-declared whistleblowers are misplaced.

Retirement and Its Impact on Labor Supply

Reflections on driving across America

India’s population will pass China’s soon if it hasn’t already

What’s the Finnish secret to happiness?

The DeSantis Endorsement-ghazi Blame Game

Blame Rupert Murdock and Fox for Iraq, Brexit, Trump, and The Big Lie

Tucker Carlson is Out at Fox News; Don Lemon Terminated by CNN

Jordan Klepper and the most memorable moment from his “Man on the Street” interviews of MAGA types

djt Quit SAG-AFTRA Two Years Ago — But Still Collects 6-Figure Pension

How Technology Is Making it Possible to Build the Largest Dataset in History About the United States and the People Who Live There

Not to mention…

How to Research Charities 101

An April anniversary

Small Change: Let’s Put Pennies and Nickels to Rest

Sugar Pill Nation: Even when we know they’re “fake,” placebos can tame our emotional distress.

How to Get Energy Without Caffeine

Harry Belafonte, Singer, Actor, Producer, and Activist, Dies at 96. I wrote about him just before he turned 90 and linked it to what I wrote when he turned 85. 

Edward Koren, the cartoonist who drew his shaggier alter-ego, dies at 87. His cartoons were an unmistakable fixture in the New Yorker and other magazines for more than 60 years

Len Goodman, Former Dancing With the Stars Judge, Dies at 78. I used to watch DWTS with my wife begrudgingly.

Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna, Dies at 89. Goodbye, Possums.

“My Imperative Was To Get My Family Through This”: Catching up with Stephen R. Bissette

The Comics Journal interview of Chuck Rozanski/Bettie Pages, President – Mile High Comics, Inc.

James Gunn’s Guardians: How Chris Pratt and His Marvel Castmates Rescued Their Director’s Career

Mary Calvi on young Theodore Roosevelt’s love

Carol Burnett at 90, Like Her Comedy, Is Still Timeless

Nielsen Regains Accreditation for National TV Ratings. I didn’t know they had lost it.

Netflix to Shutter Legacy DVD Business

Abbott Elementary’s Long-suffering Servants

Oscars: Film Academy and ABC Announce Date for 2024 Ceremony, related events

The Honest Government Ads– as profane as they are informative

Now I Know: Why “It’s Time to Change Your Password” May Be a Bad Idea and All Your BS is… Vegan and Why Soda Cans in Hawaii Look So Weird and The Birds Who Fly First Class and This Restaurant Doesn’t Exist

MUSIC

Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff, played by Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello) and his sister Isati (piano)

A tribute to composer Henry Mancini. Former colleagues, including John Williams and Quincy Jones, recreate the Peter Gunn theme.

Isle of the Dead by Rachmaninoff

Coverville 1437: The 60th Anniversary of Please Please Me and 1438: Cover Stories for Pharrell Williams, The Eels and Vangelis and 1439: Midnight Oil Cover Story and 40th Anniversary of Bowie’s Let’s Dance, and 1440: Fun on Two Wheels

Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony

Poet and Peasant by Franz von Suppe!

Rachamaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor.

Bridge Over Troubled Water -Julien Neel

Opus 9, No. 2 in E-flat Major by Chopin, played by Sergei Rachmaninoff

The Ed Sullivan Show…March 30, 1969: the cast of Hair performs “The Age of Aquarius” and “Let the Sunshine In.”

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Six Romances, op. 38 by Sergei Rachmaninoff

In my mind, music linked together

Town Without Pity

Quite often, not to your surprise, music gets linked together in my mind.

American classical composer Aaron Copeland finished Appalachian Spring in 1944, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. The ballet was written for dancer Martha Graham.

Copland uses Simple Gifts, a “Shaker song written and composed in 1848, generally attributed to Elder Joseph Brackett from Alfred Shaker Village.”
Here is the song Simple Gifts, performed by Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss.
The Aaron Copland version of the Simple Gifts section is isolated here. The part starting at 2:24 was used as the theme for CBS Reports, which may be the first place I heard it.

Simple Gifts was also the template for Lord of the Dance, a hymn written by English songwriter Sydney Carter in 1963. It has been included in at least one hymnal I’ve sung from in the last quarter century.
Come to where the flavor is
As a kid, I thought the theme that accompanied the Marlboro cigarette commercials was magnificent.  I later discovered the tune from the movie The Magnificant Seven by Elmer Bernstein, which I have never seen.

Town Without Pity is a song performed by Gene Pitney and written by composer Dimitri Tiomkin and lyricist Ned Washington. I didn’t learn much about Pitney until after his commercial peak from 1961 to 1964.  The a cappella group, The Nylons, does an excellent cover version. The intro sounds to my ear very much like the theme to the television program Perry Mason, which I think is one of the finest pieces of pure music in that genre, especially the closing.

Of course, the William Tell Overture from Gioachino Rossini’s last opera is quite familiar. The third movement is often used in many animated features to represent a new day. Then the fourth movement was used as the theme for the television program The Lone Ranger. That final movement speeded up appears in the movie A Clockwork Orange.
Earth Day
Since it’s Earth Day, I thought of picking some appropriate songs for the occasion. Instead, there are links here and here and here. Inevitably, there is some overlap, but other tracks are unique to a list.

Wordle songs

Usual is not unusual

Wordle songsSometimes I consider a word because of a song when I do Wordle. So I call them Wordle songs.  Not all of them work. The ones below with the > means the first word is what I thought of, but the word to the right is the answer.

POLKA (3):- My Melody Of Love – Bobby Vinton. My hometown of Binghamton, NY, has a large eastern European population.

WORSE (2):  The Trouble With Normal  – Bruce Cockburn. “The trouble with normal is it always gets worse.”

SYRUP (3): Dang Me – Roger Miller. “Sugar’s sweet, and so is maple syruple.” (Rhymes with purple.)

ARROW > ARBOR (4) – Poison Arrow – ABC

STAGE (3): Are You Lonesome Tonight – Elvis Presley. “You know someone said that the world’s a stage, and each of us must play a part.” Someone?

SLOOP> SCOLD (5): Sloop Kohn B – Beach Boys

APPLE (3): Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree – the Andrews Sisters

NINTH (4): If Six Was Nine – Jimi Hendrix (this was on Feb 6, 2023)

STEAM> SWEAT: Steam– Peter Gabriel

SWEAT (4): Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) – C&C Music Factory

MAGIC (3): It’s Magic – Pilot. By the way, I’m sad that I hear the damn Ozempic ad song every time the tune runs in my head.

Hinting without hinting

USUAL (3): It’s Not Unusual -Tom Jones. My wife, who was doing the Wordle after I had, was having difficulty. So she asked, “Is it a usual word?” I replied, “It’s not unusual,” which was fun for me.

ENVOY > ENJOY: The Envoy –  Warren Zevon

DANCE (5): Do You Wanna Dance – Bobby Freeman

SWING > FISHY (5) – Swing To The Right – Utopia

WORRY (4): Three Little Birds – Bob Marley. “Don’t worry about a thing, ‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right.”

CONDO (5): Buy Me A Condo – Weird Al Yankovic

HAPPY (6): Happy – Rolling Stones

DRIVE (3): Drive – The Cars and Drive – REM

SPELL (3): I Put A Spell On You – Creedence Clearwater Revival, which I heard before the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins version

DREAM (4) – Dream A Little Dream Of Me – Mass Cass, although it appeared on a Mamas and Papas album

CARRY (4): Carry On – Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

GROVE (4) – China Grove  – Doobie Brothers

DANDY (6)  Dandy -Herman’s Hermits. I know it’s a Kinks song, but I heard this first.

BTW, I’ve now played 407 games. I’ve won 405 and lost 2, which shows up as 100%. I’ve got zero ones, 4 twos, 110 threes, 111 fours, 96 fives, and 84 sixes.

There is a dark tune called Wordle by Ahniwa Ferrari. Tom Rosenthal did  Drift Along Small World, a song with only five-letter words. Undoubtedly there are others.

April rambling: No irony

Clarence Thomas

The Party of “Family Values” Sees No Irony in Axing Child Labor Protections

In an extraordinary act of political retaliation, Tennessee Republicans expelled two Democratic lawmakers,  Reps. Pearson and Jones, from the state Legislature for “breaching decorum” in their role in a protest that called for more gun control after a school shooting in Nashville.  This move has occurred twice in the state since the aftermath of the Civil War. Rep. Johnson maintained her seat. Outrageous, even though they were both reinstated,

Related: Education Week’s 2023 School Shooting Tracker. One Nation, under gun violence: America tops 100 mass shootings in 2023. Also, radicalizing against guns

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has reportedly spent decades accepting exorbitant gifts, luxury vacations, and yacht rides from a major GOP power player—none disclosed to the American public. It may be legal, though unethical,  bribery. Ought he be impeached?

The djt indictment, annotated

Candace Owens—Friend of Kanye, Power Troll, Parler “Trad Wife” – Owens was the source of a bizarre family debate.

Debunking the myths and dangers of qualified immunity

From 1440: The Maryland attorney general has accused officials of covering up and failing to act in the sexual abuse of at least 600 children in the Archdiocese of Baltimore since the 1940s. The 463-page report named 156 former clergy, deacons, teachers, and other employees and revealed some children were subject to abuse by multiple abusers. Church officials were also accused of silencing victims and dismissing or ignoring abuse claims.

‘Poverty, By America’ shows how the rest of us benefit by keeping others poor

High Unemployment Continues for Young Minority Men 

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Solitary Confinement and  TANF and Timeshares

A Government Witch Hunt — Masood Haque’s Film Witness. This was a terrible miscarriage of justice in Albany, NY.

‘Hopeless’: Parole denial for 71-year-old Alabama woman with terminal illness highlights ‘tremendous injustice’

More links
He Wanted to Unclog Cities. Now He’s ‘Public Enemy No. 1.’ Researchers like Carlos Moreno, the professor behind a popular urban planning concept, struggle with conspiracy theories and death threats.

Russian defector sheds light on Putin paranoia and his secret train network

If Family or Friend is Arrested

How Generative AI Will Transform the Worlds of TV, Film, Music, and Gaming versus Hollywood’s AI Anxiety Is Showing

A Scammer Who Tricks Instagram Into Banning Influencers Has Never Been Identified. We May Have Found Him.

Hollywood Reporter Critics Pick the 50 Best Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

DNA Stories | Storytelling Tips and Examples. DNA Day is April 25

Seymour Stein, Sire Records Co-Founder Who Signed Madonna, The Ramones and More, Dies at 80

Mark Russell, Piano-Playing Political Satirist, Dies at 90

Louisiana Army base to be renamed for Albany’s Henry Johnson. Currently known as Fort Polk, the base in June will bear the name of the World War I Medal of Honor winner

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Best Fiction Sports Movies Ever Made, Part 1 and  Part 2

“You Must Have Learned Something in 20 Years”: reflections on two decades of blogging by Doug Muder

Kelly’s Tabular Resolution

Speedway math strikes again

Now I Know: The $1 Hotel Where Privacy Isn’t Included and The “I Don’t Care” Collect Call Scam and The Man Who Didn’t Work For a Living and When Make Up Boxed Out Makeup

MUSIC

Grumpy Trumpy Felon from Jamaica in Queens!- Randy Rainbow

Gordon Lustig‘s Randy Rainbow (You’re Annoying to Me) A PARODY PARODY! and Help Me, Randy (Rainbow)

Prelude in C-sharp minor and The Crag by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place) – The Choir & The Chorus

The Place Where Dreams Come True/End Titles from Field of Dreams by James Horner

A World Without Love – Peter Asher ft. Lyle Lovett, 3-14-23 City Winery, NYC

Put on a Happy Face  – Dick Van Dyke, from the then-running Broadway show, Bye Bye Birdie

Bits from You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown and Guys and Dolls and Jersey Boys and Grease, and Little Shop Of Horrors, all in Japanese

Find Your People – Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors

Overture to The Mandarin’s Son by Cesar Cui

Coverville 1436: Cover Stories for Poison and Sugar Ray and 1437: The 60th Anniversary of Please Please Me, and 1438: Cover Stories for Pharrell Williams, The Eels, and Vangelis

Tell Me Why -MonaLisa Twins

Oh, Noah– The Jubalaires

Hi Lilli, Hi Lo – Jimmy Durante

Worthy is the Lamb

Hallelujah!

In 2020, our church choir planned to sing the last piece from the Handel Messiah, Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain, with the Amen on Easter Sunday. The text is from Revelation 5:12-13. While I had heard it many times and loved it, I had never sung the piece.

Then COVID happened. What a killjoy. It literally killed my joy of singing. 

In 2023, our church choir will sing Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain with several instrumentalists on Easter Sunday. The trickiest part for me is the melisma in the Amen, especially starting at measure 110 when the four parts interweave. What has been helpful is a video at Chord Perfect. I’ve been studying the bass part, but here are the soprano, alto, and tenor. CyberBass is a similar service. 

Then at the end of the service, as we did every year I’ve been a member, except for 2020 and 2021, the choir will finish with the Hallelujah chorus. And once again, members of the congregation who know the piece will come forward and join in. It is a joyous celebration. 

Speaking of which…

Every week at 8 pm ET, someone in the choir looks at the community level in Albany County. In 2022, to the best of my recollection, it was green (low) for only one week, just before Easter.

In 2023, it’s been green (low) for THREE weeks, which may be meaningless for all unconcerned about the virus.  For those of us who still care, it’s excellent news. I should note that one choir tested positive for COVID this week, so I took my first test this week in a few months. It’s negative, just the seasonal allergies.

By the way, Rensselaer County (Troy) has been in lockstep with Albany County, COVID-wise, since I began tracking the results weekly in late 2021.

So it will be a very happy Easter for this group of singers and the community.

Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain – VOCES8 & Academy of Ancient Music

Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain -| The Tabernacle Choir

(Grammarly wants me to change it to The Slain Lamb)

Hallelujah – with vocal score

Hallelujah – Choir of King’s College, Cambridge 

And what the heck

Hallelujah – A Soulful Celebration

Ramblin' with Roger
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