Jo Seung Woo

I'm only watching one Korean drama right now: Sisyphus: The Myth. It's a time-travel drama, with the usual plot incoherencies of the genre, but lots of great action set-pieces in which Park Shin-Hye kicks butt while the delightful Jo Seung Woo mcguyvers things. He's had success in film and tv, but is insanely popular in Korea as a musical theater star, in shows like Jekyll and Hyde, Hedwig and the Angry Itch.  This song from the movie The Throne (Sado) "Flower Bloom and Fall" is more to my taste than some of the songs floating around YouTube:

Lido Pimienta

 Just watched Lido Pimienta perform on the Grammys, where her album "Miss Colombia" was nominated (Fito Paez won).  I know her song "Nada" from NPR's alt.latino podcast. Here she is doing a Tiny Desk Concert:

Janelle Monae at the White House: "Tightrope"

At the White House, my idol.

Nicholas David (Mrozinski)

Minnesota native son (Saint Paul! Eagan!) has made it to the final three on The Voice. Like the other two finalists, he has been gigging around, recording his own music, playing in bands.  They aren't amateurs.
 If you want to hear a genuine Minnesota accent, listen to his dad in this little bio clip. Pure.


 You can find his original music at his website,

He's pretty scruffy in his audition with "Stand By Me," but Cee Lo picks him for his team. Wise choice, Cee Lo, because he has become a fan favorite.

Jennifer Hudson ("Holy Buckets!") worked with him on this Bill Withers song, "Lean on Me" (one of my favorite songs ever).

He gave his own flavor to this up-tempo Barry White song.

 "The Power of Love" gets the soul treatment.

The other two finalists are good.  I don't much care for Cassadee, but the rocker dude Terry McDermott has a great voice, of the power tenor rocker type, and sings with conviction. He has covered songs by The Who, Journey, Boston, and even the Kansas classic, "Carry On, My Wayward Son." (aka "The Supernatural song") Does that mean that the Supernatural fandom will vote for him en masse?  If so, watch out.

Midweek round-up: political metaphors, animal antidotes, Velvet Underground

Everyone and their brother has embedded this; let me jump on the bandwagon: Montgomery Burns gives  his explanation of the "fiscal cliff."

Are you as tired as I am of the misleading metaphor "fiscal cliff"? George Lakoff, UC Berkeley professor of Linguistics and author of many books about metaphor and the embodied mind, tells us how it works, and why it is so hard to get rid of it.

When I am feeling particularly stressed out, I have found that visiting the site ZooBorns always makes me feel better. The videos of this lion mother with her four cubs have been especially lovely.

Wow, Science Friday, the NPR show that I love, has a Spanish-language blog!

Velvet Underground, live in 1969.
Set List:
1. Heroin (0:00)
2. Move Right In (8:26)
3. I’m Set Free (13:12)
4. Run Run Run (17:49)
5. I’m Waiting For The Man (25:39)
6. What Goes On (34:35)
7. I Can’t Stand It (39:05)
8. Candy Says (45:23)
9. Beginning To See The Light (50:10)
10. White Light/White Heat (56:00)
11. Pale Blue Eyes (61:42)
12. Sister Ray (68:10)

Old school "Reading Rainbow"

Today I learned that this is Chaka Khan singing the theme song to Reading Rainbow. No wonder.

Pixies, "Where is My Mind" and second chances in life

 I'm so glad I go to see the Pixies on their most recent tour, when they played the album "Doolittle." They were hugely influential, if not as commercially successful as some other bands, but broke up for a while.  I missed knowing about them their first time around, in the late eighties: too busy finishing my PhD and trying to get a job. So, thanks to Rick, who snagged tickets and took me along. Their show was insanely great.

Their generous web site has boatloads of material you can download for free: live concerts, great stuff.

Live, 1988 "Where is My Mind"


loudQUIETloud is a documentary about the band's reunion in 2004. I found it totally engrossing, because it is a portrait of a second act in life, for people who have been through recovery, started new lives, had children, and who still can create that magic when they go out on stage together, even if they are not best friends when they are off stage.


This British Channel 4 documentary "Gouge" interviews many musicians about how hearing Pixies in the late '80s influenced them. Is not David Bowie mesmerizing? He's so intelligent, and so beautiful.


 Not enough Kim Deal, though. Gotta fix that:

Warning Sign

I woke up sad this morning. The news is grim. Guns and war and greed and fear. In my own little corner of the world, I'm safe and showered with blessings, but paranoia seeps in.

Warning sign, warning sign,
I hear it but I pay no mind.
Hear my voice, hear my voice,
It's saying something and its not very nice.
Pay attention! Pay attention, I'm talking to you and I hope you're concentrating.
I've got money now, I've got money now,
C'mon baby, c'mon baby.

Warning sign of things to come (take it over, take it over)
It happened before, it will happen again.
Hear my voice, move my hair.
I move it around a lot, but I don't care. (what I remember)

Warning sign, warning sign,
Look at my hair, I like the design.
It's the truth, it's the truth.
Your glassy eyes and your open mouth
Take it easy, take it easy,
It's a natural thing and you have to relax,
I've got money now, I've got money now.
C'mon baby, C'mon baby.

Warning sign, of things to come (turn me over, turn me over)
Love is here but I guess it's gone now (hurry up babe,
hurry up babe),
Hear my voice, move my hair.
I move it around a lot, but I don't care what I remember.

Do you remember
What it is that you remember
Baby remember
Baby remember.

Rob Brezsny has a bit from his book Pronoaia next to my horoscope:

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When the spell is broken, you will be able to tap into resources you've been cut off from. When the spell is broken, you will finally notice the big, beautiful secrets that have been lying in plain sight. What is that spell? Can you break it yourself?

What is that spell? I blame, I blame the patriarchy.

"Dirt Day" Laurie Anderson at the Walker

I saw Laurie Anderson perform "Dirt Day" at the Walker last night. I ended up with an extra ticket at the last minute, so I left it at the box office; they said a woman was on the waiting list. After I had been in my seat for a while, she arrived, offering to pay me. I said that since it was going to be my birthday, the ticket was a gift. We talked and discovered some things in common, so after the show, exchanged emails.
The piece was nothing like the "hits" I know, but combined many of the elements of her previous work. It was infused with great melancholy, as well as humor.

And, for old time's sake, here's the first thing I ever heard her do:

Happy Birthday, Wanda Jackson!

Today is the day to channel your inner Wanda Jackson: badass at any age! Early star of rock and roll, Queen of Rockabilly, successful in country music, inspiration to new generation of musicians.
Here she is in 1956, singing"Hard-headed woman" with a great fringed dress!


Here she performing "Thunder on the Mountain" from the album The Party Ain't Over, produced by Jack White. 

Thrift Shop-Macklemore and Ryan Lewis feat. Wanz

K-pop idol G-Dragon

Get your cray on

Great little introduction to K-Pop over on Boing Boing for those of us who have found Gangnam Style stuck in our heads for the last month. The dark underbelly of these pop star factories is a talent recruitment system that sounds terribly exploitative.

St Vincent show

We saw St Vincent (Annie Clark) at the Walker's McGuire Theater, the first stop on her tour for her third album Strange Mercy.

Which one do I love more, JGL doing Axl Rose? or Jimmy Fallon doing Bowie?

Coincidence: Jimmy Fallon does a masterful Bowie impression singing "Pumped up Kicks," while Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues to be utterly adorable.

"Didn't it rain?"

Sister Rosetta Tharpe sings "Didn't it Rain." I'm thinking today of all the folks who have lived through hurricanes and floods and high water.

Spellbound

Guitar player John McGeoch, Siouxsie and the Banshees, with "Spellbound,"live.

Talent, kid has it.

"Kid in the guitar store" (Brandon McFarlane, from Perth, Scotland) a raw talent, oh my freakin' god.


inspired by the immortal Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers sing "Just Another Day"

Secular music called Sam, and his big hit "You Send Me"


And bringing it back around: "A Long Time Coming"

We lost Poly, too

Marianne Elliot Said was better known as Poly Styrene of the band X-Ray Specs. She was an inspiration for young women like me when the first punk movement emerged; we were  looking for those brave voices of self-confident women who spoke to us amidst the general anger and rebellion. She went on to be an artist, a mother, and an advocate,  had just released a new album, Generation Indigo, this March. Gone too young, of cancer.
 
"Germ Free Adolescent"

"Identity"

"I'm a cliche"
In this interview, she talks about the tracks on her new album.

Por/para

"Amor por ti" sung by Los ángeles negros was a big hit when I first went to Mexico when I was fifteen. It's how I remember that "amor" takes "por" instead of "para."

Fleetwood Mac

I took a nostalgic tour through Fleetwood Mac's earlier incarnations. I don't have my records any more, so thank goodness for YouTube.

From Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, the song"Albatross," with both Peter Green and Danny Kirwan playing guitars:

Did you know that British guitarist Peter Green wrote the song "Black Magic Woman"--that the Santana version is a cover? Here is Green playing "Supernatural" with his previous band John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.

Green left Fleetwood Mac, under the influence of LSD and also in the throes of what would later be diagnosed as schizophrenia. Although he lived through some very rough times, friends have helped him come back to playing music. Unfortunately, the same has not been true of bandmate Danny Kirwan, whose time with the band I remember fondly. I love the album "Bare Trees," and the voice of Christine McVie will always mean Fleetwood Mac to me. I didn't hate the Nicks/Buckingham incarnation, but the band was never as interesting to me after they joined.

Edited to add: Leee! turned me on to this amazing live performance of "Rhiannon" by the band with Stevie Nicks in which every single member of the band is right in time. Wow, thanks!