Photographs from a Bloy in Wisconsin
I’ve been fortunate to see some great concerts this summer. Last night I caught the dual headlining show featuring The National and The War On Drugs, which was held at Breese Stevens Field. I’ve been very fond of these two groups for quite a while now, and seeing them both live for the first time did not disappoint.
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Saturday night I went to see Waxahatchee perform at the Sylvee in Madison. It was the best concert I’ve been to in a long while.
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For just over two years now, I’ve been drumming and playing percussion again. Previously, I hadn’t done that since my early college days. I’ve been enjoying it so much that about a month ago, I decided to upgrade my main instrument. It’s such a beautiful drum!
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Some of you know that I’ve been a part of the Madison Area Drum Circle Group since last spring. It’s been wonderful playing percussion again, and being a part of this welcoming, diverse, and energizing group. Toward the end of yesterday’s session, the sky complimented our music with some amazing colors and light.
One of my favorite Christmas songs. I love the melancholy mood of it. Merry Christmas everyone!
Christmas time is here.
Happiness and cheer.
Fun for all that children call,
Their favorite time of the year.Snowflakes in the air.
Carols everywhere.
Olden times and ancient rhymes,
Of love and dreams to share.Sleigh bells in the air.
Beauty everywhere.
Yuletide by the fireside,
And joyful memories there.Christmas time is here.
We’ll be drawing near.
Oh, that we could always see,
Such spirit through the year…
When I think of the life Michael Jackson, it’s hard not to consider him a tragic figure. With the announcement of his death today (at the young age of 50), even more so. But when I consider Michael Jackson, what comes to mind are not the struggles he had in life, not his eccentricities, but some of the excellent music he made. In particular, some killer songs on his albums Off The Wall and Thriller.
I’ve always loved the simplicity and intrigue of “Billy Jean”, my favorite song of his. Thank you Michael, and may you rest in peace.
Rolling Stone was the first adult magazine I subscribed to. I’ve been getting it delivered to my home for over twenty years now. But I let my subscription expire this month, and I’m a little nostalgic about it.
Its musical focus was what first got me reading Rolling Stone — especially the music reviews. Over the years though, they’ve added more features on pop-culture things like fashion, television, and video games. Lately a good deal of their random notes section looks like it came from a sleazy tabloid. Often the music news in the bi-weekly magazine was not news to me. I had already heard about it online. I became less and less interested, and issues would pile up, unread. Over the past few years I wondered why I was paying for a subscription, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to stop.
Did you see the lunar eclipse last night? I stepped out of my place about every 15 minutes or so to watch the show. When I was out there I wondered how many other people throughout the ages watched the moon darken with awe, as I was doing. Watching the Earth’s shadow slowly make its way across the lunar surface, I could understand how ancient peoples might start freaking out during such an event. I was also reminded of “Sister Moon,” the title song from Sting’s excellent album, …Nothing Like The Sun (who actually lifted that line from Shakespeare’s My Mistress’ Eyes sonnet).
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the Sun.
My hunger for her explains everything I’ve done.
To howl at the moon the whole night through,
And they really don’t care if I do.
I’d go out of my mind, but for you.
I didn’t have enough ambition to mess around with my camera and tripod during last night’s -5 F temperatures, but you can see images of the eclipse from SpaceWeather.com.
Very sad news in the music world today. South African reggae musician Lucky Dube was shot dead in an attempted carjacking.
Lucky Dube’s music was just a joy to listen to. His beautiful tenor voice singing along with those reggae rhythms was something special. True to reggae traditions, his songs often had a strong social message, singing against things like apartheid, social injustice, violence and crime, and the epidemic of AIDS. The folks who run Lucky Dube’s website wrote “the death of Lucky Dube leaves a great void in the music industry, as 25 years of music suddenly ends in tragedy.”
I’ve been wanting to replace my old MP3 player for a while now. It’s a few years old, so the features and storage capacity are lacking compared to players on the market now. I decided to give in to my technolust and started shopping around.
Part of me was reluctant to go with an Apple iPod. My old player was from Sansa, and concerns about Apple’s proprietary software bothered me a bit. After reading some online reviews, I decided to try one of the new Sansa models. I was not impressed. The controls seemed clumsy and hard to get used to. I experimented with loading music from my computer onto the player, and that was a clumsy experience as well. So, I returned the Sansa player, and picked up a 4 GB Apple iPod Nano. Wow! What a nice device. Yes that’s right, I am now one of the Pod People.