Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Memento Mori


Song: “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun” 

Related Poem Content Details

(from Cymbeline)
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, 
Nor the furious winter’s rages; 
Thou thy worldly task hast done, 
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages: 
Golden lads and girls all must, 
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. 

Fear no more the frown o’ the great; 
Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke; 
Care no more to clothe and eat; 
To thee the reed is as the oak: 
The scepter, learning, physic, must 
All follow this, and come to dust. 

Fear no more the lightning flash, 
Nor the all-dreaded thunder stone; 
Fear not slander, censure rash; 
Thou hast finished joy and moan: 
All lovers young, all lovers must 
Consign to thee, and come to dust. 

No exorciser harm thee! 
Nor no witchcraft charm thee! 
Ghost unlaid forbear thee! 
Nothing ill come near thee! 
Quiet consummation have; 
And renownèd be thy grave!

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

I hope they vote as hard as they rap. I hope everybody votes.

I have a great relationship with the blacks. I've always had a great relationship with the blacks.
Robinson, Eugene (18 April 2011), "Donald Trump as GOP hopeful: Take him seriously", The Washington Post, retrieved on 2011-05-07
I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters. - Donald Trump
Laziness is a trait in the blacks. ... Black guys counting my money! I hate it. - Donald Trump
"Fuck Trump." Thank you, dat Terance and your friends. I second that emotion. And I am a 73 year old Pink Lady.





Wednesday, March 16, 2016

BOLERO - Musical Interlude for Attitude Adjustment

Published on Jan 10, 2014 
Le Boléro de Ravel interprété par des musiciens de l'Orchestre national d'Île-de-France et des étudiants du conservatoire à rayonnement départemental d'Aulnay-sous-Bois lors d'un Flashmob à la gare Saint-Lazare en novembre 2013. Direction Christophe Mangou.

Why do we hurt each other when we could do this instead?





Friday, February 19, 2016

God bless Australia and Tim Minchin. I know S/He does.

Favianna Rodriguez
You may know Tim Minchin's hilarious The Pope Song. Well, he has done it again.

One day the Roman Catholic Church may repent and reform and tell the truth about all the kiddyfucking. When they do, it will be in part because of the intelligent ridicule of Tim Minchin and the courage of the child sexual abuse survivors.
Comedian Tim Minchin has taken aim at Cardinal George Pell in a provocative song in which he calls Australia's highest-ranking cleric in the Catholic Church scum, a coward and a pompous buffoon.
The musical attack aired on Network Ten's The Project on Tuesday night and immediately attracted a swell of support from viewers and social media users, despite outrage from The Project co-host Steve Price. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/come-home-tim-minchins-lament-to-cardinal-pell-packs-a-punch-and-a-few-abuses-20160216-gmvvy9.html#ixzz40cT3ENxA  Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

If you go to the Sydney Herald and read the whole article, you will find a place to send a contribution so that the Survivors can go to Rome and spit in Cardinal Pell's face, unfortunately only figuratively speaking.


Chief KiddyFucker Cardinal George Pell can "Sue me. Sue me. What can you do me? I hate you." Does not matter if you kiddyfucked, George Pell. You covered for the kiddyfucking priests. Jesus is waiting for your chubby ass, Georgie. "And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea." - Jesus Christ.


Thursday, December 31, 2015

Happy New Year!


Che bella cosa na jurnata 'e sole,
n'aria serena doppo na tempesta!
Pe' ll'aria fresca pare già na festa...
Che bella cosa na jurnata 'e sole.
What a beautiful thing is a sunny day!
The air is serene after a storm,
The air is so fresh that it already feels like a celebration.\
What a beautiful thing is a sunny day!


Wednesday, December 9, 2015

I was born today in December on the 9th in 1943.

I am going to have steamed Alaskan Crab with Drawn Butter for birthday supper. I am eating an almond croissant. Nothing hurts me at the moment although I seem rather dim. God bless us every one.


Tuesday, November 17, 2015

My Garden Bit Me

I fell down hard on my hip which was a good thing because there was a biggish branch that was put there to stick me in stomach. I wiggled on by.

X-rays tomorrow. I am fine. Black and blue is all. I will back. You all just be decent while I am gone or not. I am too woozy to type.






Sunday, November 8, 2015

Musical Interlude for Attitude Adjustment - Philadelphia Opera Company

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats. - Albert Schweitzer
I shop at Reading Terminal Market weekly for fresh ground coffee and real bread. Iovine's for fresh produce. The Amish butcher for breakfast sausage and honey. Then I eat lunch at Pearl's Oyster Bar. Music and good food is Paradise.

I love the City of Brotherly Love. You never know when a random act of culture by the Philadelphia Opera Company may appear. 



Thursday, October 29, 2015

Vanuatu is in the news again... - Bede's Beat

There was a major earthquake 35km NE of Port-Olry on 20 October. Fortunately no casualties and minimal damage was reported.

Flag of Vanatu
But the news that is really grabbing Australasia and Oceania's attention is that -- after being convicted by the Vanuatu Republic's Supreme Court on corruption charges along with 13 other legislators on October 9 -- Vanuatu's Parliamentary Speaker Marcellino Pipite immediately invoked one of his powers as "acting president", since President Baldwin Lonsdale happened to be abroad on the 9th, to pardon himself and the other 13 MPs. Immediately upon his return, President Lonsdale overturned the pardons. On October 21st, the Supreme Court ruled the pardons unconstitutional.

Coat of Arms of Vanuatu 
We hear of or read about places such as Vanuatu, but what about the people who actually live there?

Vanuatu is home to the "Jeux d'eau" or "Water Games" -- the highlight of which are Water Percussion competitions and demonstrations.
The following clip contains footage from the Jeux d'eau 2007, shot by videographers from the Museum of Music in Paris.



The following clip contains a demonstration of water percussion filmed at Banks Island, Vanuatu.

It is raw footage filmed by AJ Hickling as part of a self-funded hour-and-a-half film exploring Vanuatuan culture through percussion and rhythms, "Evolving Rhythms - Island Adventures"


The film contains some amazing performances, but the filmmaker's attention span is less than I prefer when i drum with someone, as much of the music is presented in tantalizingly (and maddeningly) short clips of local performers, whose performances are often used as samples rather than featured in full and explained and explored... Perhaps AJ should have done more listening and less smoking during his trip...

Here is an example of a Vanuatuan "stomp dance", filmed at a Chiefmaking ceremony in Bethel Village, Vanuatu. The percussion is provided by slit drums.


The final clip is footage of a ceremonial dance, of a type known as a "kastom dance", performed by the Smol Nambas people of Vanuatu. It was recorded on Maskelynes, one of the very small Vanuatuan islands, located off the coast of the larger island of Peskarus. The percussion instrument being played is a slit gong drum. The dance they are performing is called the "raft dance" and tells of how the Smol Nambas came to live on Maskelynes. 


The videographer notes that -- while the ceremonies captured in this video are very sacred and performed at very specific times -- "The men were keen for me to film them and put the footage on the internet for the world to see but I was forbidden to show footage to any villager."

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Ode to Joy by Hong Kong Festival Orchestra - Attitude Adjustment

Beethoven's Ode to Joy always makes me cry. Beauty and greatness can do that to this person everytime. I just stand there like a fool sobbing with joy. I need adjustment like this often. 

Caricatures of Ludwig van Beethoven (1815).

These sketches show Beethoven walking the streets of Vienna in deep thought and with not a great deal of attention to his appearance. The signatures of Beethoven and of the artist - Johann Peter Theodor Lyser (1803-70) - are included on this artwork. See more portraits of Beethoven at Music Ease.

Over the years, Beethoven's Ode to Joy has remained a protest anthem and a celebration of music. From demonstrators in Chile singing during demonstration against the Pinochet dictatorship, Chinese student at Tienanmen Square broadcast, The Concert Conducted by Leonard Bernstein After the Fall of the Berlin Wall and Daiku concerts in Japan every December and one after the 2011 tsunami. - Wikipedia

See one of the other three flashmob performances of Ode to Joy at Sabodell, Spain here, Perhaps the Music People will come out of the Cellar Conservatory and tell us more about this music than I know. I do know the poem is meant to be the music for Friedrich Schiller's poem Ode to Joy.  


Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Ari Up the Essence of Punk - Bede's Beat

Five years ago, on October 20, 2010, Ariane Daniela Forster -- better known as "Ari Up" -- died of cancer in Los Angeles. She was only 48 years old.

Ari was the very essence of punk. After divorcing her German father, Ari's mother, Nora Forster, moved with Ariane to London and married John Lydon -- who was then in his "Johnny Rotten" incarnation -- making him Ari's step-father. Their household became a focus of intense musical and artistic activities of all sorts during the intensively creative period that followed The Ramones' first tour of the UK in 1976. That tour produced what is now referred to as "first generation punk", as well as "second generation punk", a term which covers bands such as The Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Ruts and The Slits, who were inspired by bands such as The Damned (the first band to record a "punk" single, "New Rose") and The Sex Pistols, which formed in reaction to The Ramones' 1976 tour, to DIY ("Spiral Scratch", the first Buzzcocks EP, was self-produced and self-distributed, which sparked an explosion in DIY labels and projects).

Despite her youth, Ari was an enthusiastic participant in all of this activity, co-founding the seminal punk band "The Slits" at the age of 14, after being taught to play the guitar by Joe Strummer and immediately beginning to compose music to accompany her poetry. Although The Slits are known as the first all-female punk band -- an all-female five-piece founded when Ari met former members of Flowers of Romance and The Castrators at her mum's place -- over the course of their career as a band, their line-up did include some men, including Budgie, who later became famous as the drummer for Siouxsie & The Banshees, and his and his wife Siouxsie's side-project, The Creatures.




As you can hear in "Typical Girls", Ari brought a dub influence to The Slits -- even persuading her band mates to have legendary reggae producer and bassist Denis Bovell produce their first album, "Cut", 1n 1979 (with a teenaged Neneh Cherry on loan from Rip Rig + Panic contributing backing vocals) -- which made them the perfect touring companions for The Clash in the late 1970s. Ari's flamboyance as a performer is well captured in Wolfgang Buld's 1980 documentary "Women In Rock", only a very short clip of which is available online.


Ari's irresistible energy -- and that of the early punk scene -- is featured in a 5-minute segment from another documentary, "Raw Energy", shot in 1978 and released in 1979 -- which alternates between live performances and interviews.


The Slits also made an unforgettable appearance in the 1978 "The Punk Rock Movie", trashing a bloke's car. The live portion of the footage of The Slits in performance included in the movie was shot in 1977 by Don Letts, most famous as a movie-maker and photographer who documented the birth and death of the original punk movement, who was also a member of Mick Jones' post-Clash project Big Audio Dynamite.


One of my favorite post-Slits side-projects of Ari's were her recordings and appearances with Adrian Sherwood's New Age Steppers -- who have been described as a "post-punk reggae supergroup" -- and which was/is comprised of many of the British-born "usual suspects" from the On-U stable of artists and produced by Adrian Sherwood. Here she is performing a reggae standard "My Guiding Star" with The New Age steppers.


Ari's best-selling hit as a solo artist was her infectious "Mi Done" from her 2005 album "Dread More Dan Dead."


Here is a more mellow dubwise version of "Me Done" with the lyrics delivered at a slower pace, recorded live by Ari Up & her band True Warriors live on the radio station that has done more to broaden my musical horizons than anything else in my life, WFMU, the world's oldest free-form radio station.


The Slits reformed in 2006, although Ari was only one of 2 original members to participate in the reassembly. For their initial EP, they recruited Paul Cook, who drummed for The Sex Pistols, and Marco Pirroni, who is best known for being Adam & The Ants lead guitarist and co-writer of most of Adam Ant's 1980s-era hits. As Narnack Records documented at her last label's website, the last project she worked on -- a video for The Slits' song "Lazy Slam" -- was released posthumously at Ari's request.



Friday, October 9, 2015

Rock'n'fucking'roll's Greatest Rhythm Guitarist - Bede's Beat

John William Cummings, better known as "Johnny Ramone," was born on October 8, 1948. The original members of The Ramones each took the surname Ramone to display their solidarity, unity and equality. The name was suggested by Dee Dee, who had heard that it was the surname that Paul McCartney used when he checked into hotels.


In a Guitar Player interview, collected in The Guitar Player Book, Johnny stated: "I guess that before me, people played downstrokes for brief periods in a song, rather than the whole song through. It was just a timing mechanism for me."

On the topic of The Ramones' songbook, Johnny often said that every Ramones song has everything a "regular" pop song has, only it's played really fast without any solos, so they simply end up being short.

On September 15, 2004, Johnny died of prostate cancer. He is buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Joey Ramone, who developed lymphoma, predeceased Johnny in 2001, Dee Dee Ramone died of a heroin OD in 2002. DeeDee's gravestone isn't far from Johnny's. The last of the original Ramones, Tommy, died, also of cancer, in 2014.

The best way to appreciate Jonny's artistry is to listen to the Ramones live. The "solos" that appear on Ramones records were actually overdubbed by either Ed Stasium, Walter Lure or Tommy Ramone. This is the oldest known footage of The Ramones performing at CBGBs on September 15, 1974:


Here is what was once extremely rare footage of The Ramones practicing a set, filmed at "the Fifth Ramone", Autoro Vega's NYC studio on February 3rd, 1975.


The most famous of The Ramones' live recordings is "It's Alive!" -- a full concert recorded on New Year's Eve 1977 at the Rainbow Theatre in London. The Ramones recorded four full concerts during their 1977 tour of the UK. The band's priority was to provide their fans with an accurate portrayal of their concerts, at which they played every song they'd recorded very very fast. To achieve this, they wanted to use a single, complete concert. Sire Records wanted to hedge its bets and cull the best performances from each concert and edit them together to form a "complete show". After 10 rows of seats were thrown at the stage after The Ramones left the stage for the last time at their New Year's Eve performance, and the London and UK musical press proclaimed it one of the best performances ever held at The Rainbow, Sire decided to use the entire New Year's Eve concert for a double-LP release. A little less than half-an-hour's worth of the New Years' Eve performance which was released on LP was also filmed;


October 8 is also the birthday of Tucker, who has done so very very much to keep we wanderers in the wilderness intact and in contact -- you may have noticed a few of us squatting all over Plum Street. Happy Birthday, Tucker!

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

BEDE ! WHERE ARE YOU ?

I cannot find the extra columns you made for me. I am still searching. We need a new Bede's Beat. And I worry about your raggedy ass. I worry a lot because I heart you.
"Yeah now, if I have to swim a river, you know I will.
And if I have to climb a mountain, you know I will.
And if he's hiding up on a blueberry hill,
You know I'm gonna find that child you know I will.'
Tune in! Turn on! Please do not Drop Out! Hat tip to Timothy Leary.







Sunday, October 4, 2015

Strange Fruit Redux

 Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey
October 2 at 11:05am ·

As I scroll through the news this morning I am saddened to read the details of the horrible tragedy in Oregon. My heart goes out to the citizens of Roseburg -- especially the families and loved ones of those murdered.
The recent spike in mass shootings across the nation is truly troubling. Whether the perpetrators are motivated by aggressive secularism, jihadist extremism or racial supremacy, their targets remain the same: Christians and defenders of the West.
While this is not the time for widespread panic, it is a time to prepare. I would encourage my fellow Christians who are serious about their faith to think about getting a handgun carry permit. I have always believed that it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.
Our enemies are armed. We must do likewise.
https://www.tn.gov/safety/article/handgunmain
This guy is straight out calling for religious war. Of course, his moldy old balls will be safe in such a war. He so white and Christian, he shine.

The last time Christians did this in the South the Ku Klux Klan was founded and the death toll was so large, they wrote a song about it.

Folks Christians want to kill now are expanded: gays, women who have abortions, Muslims and Secularists, whatever that means. Some of the Christan Irregulars are already burning and shooting and marching on Washington with guns. Two Planned Parenthood arsons in the last month. How long before we see dead Doctors and the funny fruit again? Australia was right to expel Troy Newman. Hate speech and rabble rousing kill people.




Sunday, September 13, 2015

Bede's Beat - Gloomy Sunday

Szomorú vasárnap was composed by Rezső Seress in 1933.

While the title of Seress' composition was translated into English as Gloomy Sunday, it was popularly known in both the U.S. and the U.K. as "the Hungarian suicide song" due to innumerable press accounts of people who cited the song in their suicide notes. 

The song was even locally banned by several radio stations in the interest of "public morals." Seress himself committed suicide in 1968,

Marozsán Erika: Szomorú vasárnap (Gloomy Sunday)


The first person to sing Gloomy Sunday in English was Paul Robeson in 1936,


Robeson's English-language version was quickly followed by many others, perhaps most famously, that recorded by Lady Day:in 1941:



Gloomy Sunday has been recorded in may different styles and remains part of the soundtrack -- and an essential entry in the songbook-- of the 1930s and 1940s, and is still performed to this day.
Charlie Adams: Gloomy Sunday

Björk: Gloomy Sunday


Friday, September 4, 2015

Happy Belated Birthday, Charlie Parker - Bede's Beat


Editor's Note: Bede was lost and now he's found. Huzzah!

It's a musical cliche to say that Charlie Parker changed the way we listen to music forever. It is also true.

In honor of his birthday, August 29, Bede's Beat presents a comparative listening set comprised of three of Parker's recordings of the same song -- Ray Noble's Cherokee -- which vividly illustrates the impact which Parker had upon the way we hear music and understand rhythm and harmonics today.

from 1941 with The Jay McShann Orchestra, the big band that first brought Parker to national attention:


from 1943, an home-recorded take on Cherokee -- This is bop at its birth:


from the famous Massey Hall Concert in Toronto in 1953, along with Dizzy Gillispie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach:


As a final point of comparison, here is the original recording of Cherokee by the composer's own band, The Ray Noble Orchestra, from 1938


Monday, April 27, 2015

Democrat Dom Costa wants to make yelling at the police a crime. Dumbass.

Wherein I sing Dom Costa a SONG.

PA Lawmaker Wants to Make it a Crime to Taunt Police Officers Because Feelings May Get Hurt

"Also taking part in today’s meathead intellectualism de jour, was former Pittsburgh Police Officer and current House member Dom Costa, who proposed that taunting cops should be a crime because feelings may be hurt and egos may be bruised. At the press conference, Costa said:
This nonsense that is going today on where police officers are being taunted by people and being provoked, lets face it we’re all human beings, and eventually that emotion will break. And that’s what they’re trying to do. So, what I’ve talked to some of my colleagues and the senator [Senator Rafferty] is that we have a bill about taunting a police dog. It’s illegal. There should be out that you can’t taunt a police officer because you’re going to get those emotions up. I myself and Representative Vereb are looking at that bill to put it forward in the House, and I am sure the Senate will follow. Or at least support that bill. - Rep. Dom Costa"
Read more about it at Raging Chicken Press - a first class Pennsylvania politics blog. 
Oink oink at you from Philly, Dom Baby. 

You know, where the cops were investigated by the FBI for not pursuing rapists.

Where the cops grab your tit while invading your home on a bogus drug bust and tell you "Too bad Lady, nobody is going to believe you." 

Where the police assaulted Rev. Clarice Harris for asking for a badge number while they were beating someone.

The Pennsylvania State Police are no better. Some of their handiwork ------------>.

Dom Costa is an Oinker. Come onna my house, Costa. Soooo Eeeee Pig Pig Pig.

Now come and get this Old Lady. Arrest me. I hope you put aside the money it is going to cost the State of PA when the ACLU comes for your ass. I am a cute Old Lady. We will make you famous.

Dumbass. I could care less you are a Democrat. I am a nonpartisan scoffer. You are a dumbass. Dumb is you, Dom.



Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Warm and Tender Love

The great Percy Sledge has died. Rest in Love and Music.