"onomatopoeia, every time I see ya"

"Onomatopoeia" by Todd Rundgren 1978.

Onomatopoeia every time I see ya
My senses tell me hubba
And I just can't disagree
I get a feeling in my heart that I can't describe
It's sort of lub, dub, lub, dub
A sound in my head that I can't describe
It's sort of zoom, zip, hiccup, drip
Ding, dong, crunch, crack, bark, meow, whinnie, quack

Onomatopoeia in proximity ya
Rearrange my brain in a strange cacophony
I get a feeling somewhere that I can't describe
It's sort of uh, uh, uh, uh
A sound in my head that I can't describe
It's sort of whack, whir, wheeze, whine
Sputter, splat, squirt, scrape
Clink, clank, clunk, clatter
Crash, bang, beep, buzz
Ring, rip, roar, retch
Twang, toot, tinkle, thud
Pop, plop, plunk, pow
Snort, snuk, sniff, smack
Screech, splash, squish, squeek
Jingle, rattle, squeel, boing
Honk, hoot, hack, belch

Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros

Flight of the Conchords

Crows! in south minneapolis

We see something like this on our way home many days. One of my favorite things about the winter in Minneapolis.

What I learned from listening to the radio

"Don't Play That Song For Me," Aretha Franklin
I know that he lied, yes he did. Hey baby, you lied!


"Gonna put it in the want ads!" Lipstick on your collar, perfume on it, too. Tells me you been lying', Tell you what I"m gonna do..."



"Mr. Big Stuff" Who do you think you are? You never gonna get my love.


"It's a Thin Line Between Love and Hate." Chandra sang this song every day on the bus to high school until I had it memorized:
"Sweetest woman in the world can be the meanest woman in the world...if you make her that way." Annie Lennox did a great cover of this long in 1995 on Medusa.


"Respect Yourself," The Staples Singers
"You cuss around women folk, you don't even know their name,
Then you dumb enough to think that make you a big old man"

Lucinda Williams, Doug Pettibone on the guitar;

You took my joy, I want it back.

Judy and Liza

Women who sing

Today's program of A Prairie Home Companion has three women singing, each of them wonderful in her own way.

The first is Shara Worden, aka My Brightest Diamond,  a singer I adore. Her voice is a supple instrument, with an otherwordly fierceness at times. I love her collaboration with The Decemberists on their album The Hazards of Love.  I will not be able to see her show tonight at the Cedar, because I'm going to a dance concert, but I'm so glad to have heard her this morning.

She performs "There A Rat" and "high low middle." You can listen to her performances on this weekend's  show here.
The video for high low middle features her neighbors from Detroit:

My Brightest Diamond - ALL THINGS WILL UNWIND: High Low Middle from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.


Ann Reed was on the same episode. Like Shara Worden, she has a unique voice, a strong heart, a shining presence.  I LOVE her. She sang a song from her latest album,  "Where The Earth Is Round," and I fell in love all over again with the lovely timbre of her alto.

We also love her songs about the MN State Fair, of which this is one. She may not want to perform this song over and over, but I used to sing it to my daughter when she was a little one:

I learned from the description of this video that she wrote the song during an MPR show!

"Ann wrote "The Fair" in 1991, on MPR's the Morning Show, a live broadcast from the Minnesota State Fair. At 6:15 am, Ann began to take suggestions for the song from listeners, checking back every 20 minutes to sing what she had written thus far and to take more suggestions until, at 8:50, she performed the completed song."

I don't wanna be your cheerleader no more

Seeing St Vincent tear it up at the Walker was one of the musical highlights of last year. What an amazing guitar player! What strange, compelling lyrics! How beautiful she is! This new video goes to one of our latest favorite songs off her new album.

"Cheerleader"
I've had good times
With some bad guys
I've told whole lies
With a half smile
Held your bare bones
With my clothes on
I've thrown rocks
That hit both my arms
I don't know what good it serves
Pouring my purse in the dirt
But I-I-I-I-I don't wanna be your cheerleader no more
But I-I-I-I-I don't wanna be your cheerleader no more

I've played dumb
When I knew better
Tried so hard
Just to be clever
I know honest thieves
I call family
I've seen America
With no clothes on
But I-I-I-I-I don't wanna be a cheerleader no more
But I-I-I-I-I don't wanna be a cheerleader no more
I don't know what I deserve
But for you I could work
Cause I don't wanna be a cheerleader no more
I don't wanna be a cheerleader no more
I don't wanna be a cheerleader no more
I don't wanna be a dirt eater no more
I don't wanna be a dirt eater no more
I don't wanna be a cheerleader no more

I aspire to Advanced Style

I can't wait for this film to come out! (via TheStyleRookie). With age comes freedom. Just ask any of the women featured on the blog Advanced Style.

Growing up with Soul Train and Don Cornelius's voice: "Love, Peace and Soul!"

 Don Cornelius took his own life today. We don't yet know why. Was he ill? depressed? he had been arrested a few years ago and accused of domestic assault. He got a divorce. Was he a bad man, or was he entering confused and ill? did he no longer want to live in his body? had he suffered from depression during his life? was he an alcoholic?  I really don't know anything more about what his life was like off the show, or why he would kill himself.  But for many people of my generation (a junior baby boomer),  his voice and the Soul Train show were a significant part of our world. 

When Soul Train began to broadcast, back in 1970, it figured in my Saturday routine, along with cartoons. I was 11-12, but when we had just moved back to the United States from Japan in 1968,  we three kids could finally watch TV in English, and we LOVED those Saturday morning cartoons. I didn't watch Soul Train every single Saturday, but I looked forward to it, and I adored the dancing. Don Cornelius's voice, his snappy outfits, and the music he brought us --because it was HIS show--- were a presence in my life,  along with his shout-out at the end, "Love! Peace! and Soul!" Nobody else in my family really cared about the show, and I didn't have friends to watch it with, but it gave me a lot of joy.

In high school in the early seventies, at our dances or parties, there was always a Soul Train moment, when we'd dance down the line. Looking at this Stevie Wonder video, this WAS how we danced then, and how I still dance now. Soul Train was where we saw the latest dance moves, and the latest urban fashions. Jeans and sneakers were not yet a uniform for kids, let alone for people of all ages. We dressed up every day. We wore outfits. (Actually, we wore pretty ridiculous outfits, but that's another post.)



Don Cornelius had the most amazing voice. He always treated the musicians with respect. Toward the 9' mark in this video, Stevie sings a little impromptu song he made up for the event. So sweet! "Soul Train, with Don Cornelius/Where all the brothers and sisters get together."I'm so fortunate to have seen Stevie Wonder perform in concert when he was still this young, and  I wouldn't have known about him just from my radio. Look at how thin everyone looks here, in 1971!


Some of the music was lip-synced, sure, but so much of it was played live as well. Sly and the Family Stone perform "Thank You" live:


What a kick-ass, funky performance of this song!

Antonio Damasio

Antonio Damasio is one of my intellectual heroes.

In another life, I would have pursued studies of physiology and neurology; in this life, I just fumble to grasp the concepts he explains here, in this TED talk about the elegant complexities of "self."