mishalak | Reading

Music Meme, Day 11

A song that reminds you of summertime:

The moment I read this, a completely inappropriate song - Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime" - was right there in the front of my mind. I know why; I heard it during the summer between Grade 9 and Grade 10, when friction between my Granddad and me made my Mum and Nana decide to send me to stay with my Great Aunt Bobbie at her summer cottage in Shediac, New Brunswick.

There were a fair number of teens spending their summer at Shediac, and so I got a chance to do a lot of things which, while not completely inappropriate, did involve youthful parties with beer and dope. I managed to stay out of the kind of trouble that would have forced Bobbie to report on things back home. And "In the Summertime" was the song I remember most fondly, despite it being problematic these days.

Of course I got older, and learned other summer songs, not least of which were the many versions of Gershwin's Summertime - too many from which for me to choose for this meme.

There was one more summertime song that I fell in love with, and which I associate with my love of Bob and of my adopted city. (Those of you who know Bob may spot at least one of the reasons.) So I give you Summer In The City.

Watch on YouTube

Here are the previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Mungo Jerry "In the Summertime"

kaffy_r

Music Meme, Day 10

A song from your childhood:

This one was easy for me. This is a song that my Nana used to sing to us when we were children. I used to love hearing her sing it; she had a lovely voice. None of the versions I found have precisely the same notes in the first line that Nana used to sing, but that's probably a good thing. If I heard it sung the way she sang it, I'd probably be a weepy mess.

Here you go.

Watch on YouTube

The previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9

Current Mood: enthralled
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: The Rose, "Ticket to the Sky"

kaffy_r

Music Meme, Day 9

A song with three words:

It's been rather too long a day, at least in terms of my having to put my brain to use, but I'm almost through it now. And before I totter off to bed, I thought I'd return to the music meme. Today's entry required me to put my head together with Bob. We ultimately agreed on the choice I made.

Please note that the English translation of the name of this piece has the requisite three words - Lord have mercy. I am no longer a believer, or at least only an intermittent believer in something that probably isn't Christianity; however, I did choose this based on memories from when I was a believer. I'm not familiar with the music, certainly not enough to choose a good, bad, or indifferent version. I went through a number of choices on YouTube, but ultimately decided to keep it simple and go with a brief chant. For more information on why looking into the music of my birth faith can be fascinating, I direct your attention to Madame Wiki.

Watch on YouTube

Here are the previous days' entries: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8

Goodnight, all.

Current Mood: sore
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Something nonreligious

kaffy_r

The Cruel Stupidity of War ...

... and our proper hatred of it, does not allow us to dismiss those who were sent to fight, who died on the battlefields of the air, ocean, and blood-soaked dirt, who died years later still chained by PTSD and the memories of those things they saw happen in front of them, of friends they saw die in front of them, of the non-combatants they saw die in front of them, about whose deaths they had nightmares year after year.

It took me until the end of the day to write anything at all. And this is the best I can come up with.

War is stupid and cruel and, with only a very, very few exceptions, largely useless.

But we need to remember them. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, when the wind blows the poppies back and forth in their fields, when we see name after name of the killing fields all across our blessed and cursed world.

We must. Not just on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month; every damned day.

Current Mood: pensive
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids, "Hollow"

kaffy_r

Music Meme, Day 8

(I imagine I'll start posting about life, the universe and everything eventually, but to date, I've been enjoying the music meme. It's mostly for me, obviously, and I don't expect too many comments, but I kind of hope a few of y'all dip into some of the music I'm sharing. Don't worry, though; that's not a requirement. Heh.)

An underrated song

I think I'm stretching this question almost to the breaking point, when I share two versions of Canadian singer Amanda Marshall's song "Birmingham," but I'm fairly sure Marshall - who is a force of nature, something I learned decades after discovering her music whilst on a trip back to Nova Scotia with Bob and Andy - isn't very well known down here. "Birmingham" was the only song of hers that charted in the U.S., something she doesn't appear to have worried about too much.

She didn't write the song, although she's gone on to write and co-write a lot of other tunes, but I loved how she interpreted it. She ended up taking a hiatus for a number of years while she fought a legal battle against her label but she was back with a vengeance in 2023.

So yes, this is a criminally underappreciated tune down here, but not up in My Home and Native Land. So have two versions; the one she released in the 90s, and one she played in 2023 (with a slight addition ahead of time of one of the songs she co-wrote, largely about her own situation as a bi-racial Canadian; then she goes into Birmingham and tears up the place.

Here's the original:

Watch on YouTube

And here, my friends, is Amanda Marshall as she is now. I wish I had a quarter of her energy.

Watch on YouTube

Here are the previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Amanda Marshall "Birmingham"

kaffy_r

Music Meme, Day 7

A song title that is in all caps:

This one was very easy for me, since I've been obsessed with ROAR, a song written by and performed by Mingi, one of the members of Ateez; it's on their latest album release and it's truly different from the other songs on the release. Mingi's stage present is amazing - especially when you consider that, despite his onstage persona, he's afraid to have his ears pierced and he doesn't drink. I think he jokes about being a princess, or perhaps it's his comrades who tease him with that title; he's apparently a sweet marshmallow in real life. I saw a meme showing him being described as "A princess the size of a small building." (He's the second tallest member of Ateez, and he's bigger than his best friend, Yunho, who is the tallest, but is a drink of water comparatively.)

Can you tell I'm a little obsessed with him and his song? No? Yes?

Heh.

Anyhow, here are two versions of the song; the official MV, and a live performance video, showing his explosive power and the interplay with his dancers.

Watch on YouTube

Here are the previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6

Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Mingi, "ROAR"

kaffy_r

Music Meme, Day 6

A song title that is all in lower case:

I was sure this one was going to be difficult, but it turned out to be easier than I thought. This is a song by RM, the leader of the juggernaut KPop group BTS. It was on his "Mono" album from about seven years ago. It's largely low-fi, and I love listening to it when I want to slow my mind down; when I just want to breathe. I had forgotten that the title of this song, "forever rain," was in lower case. I hope you like it - the music video art suits it. I notice that this is the second time I've picked a song from "Mono" for this list.

Watch on YouTube

Here are my five previous answers.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids "Stars and Rainbows"

dougs

We are supposed to speak good of the dead.

Are you familiar with Raspberry Ripple ice cream? It's a pale, bland, almost unflavoured frozen dairy dessert, cut through with narrow seams of deep red which savage the blandness.

( We are supposed to speak good of the dead. )

kaffy_r

Music Meme, Day 5

A song that proves that you have good taste:

Well, good taste is so subjective, isn't it?

I'm a jazz lover, and I'm a lover of Chicago jazz, and one of my favorite artists is Patricia Barber, a pianist, singer, and writer. Her own melodies are filled with percussive and angular turns, while her lyrics are crystalline observations about the world, humanity, and herself. She also interprets other peoples' music in a way that speaks to me. In the 90s, I read reviews by music critics disparaging her for being technically proficient and cold. She is more than technically proficient and she sure as hell isn't cold. She's heat, hidden under a facade of modern cool - which, not coincidentally, is the title of the first of the two songs I want to share with you. It's hers, and I adore sheer brilliance that I see in her words. The second song is her interpretation of John Lennon's "Norwegian Wood." Both of these pieces feature various iterations of the killer quartet that works with her.

So ... whether either of these prove that I have good taste or not, I hope you enjoy them.

And to be completist, here are links to previous answers:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Patricia Barber, "Norwegian Wood"

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

Reading Up

Dept. of Memes

Dept. of Memes

Dept. of Memes

Dept. of Remembrance

Dept. of Memes

Dept. of Memes

Dept. of Memes

We are supposed to speak good of the dead.

Dept. of Memes

Profile

June 2020

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags