short, frequent posts, presented chronologically
news: photography: music: things
Nina Simone, always a good choice. I’m not sure how, but last night was the first time I really listened to this song, and it’s fantastic. The line where she sings (wails, belts, punches) out ‘Tell’ me that I’m old now / Since I lose my man / Since I lose my man’ is just shudderingly wonderful.
Artist: Nina Simone
Song: My Man’s Gone Now
I’m not always a Billy Bragg fan. I like a lot of his music in moments, but I really have to be in the mood. However I am a big fan of his recreations of Woody Guthrie work, and this is another welcome addition to that catalogue.
Artist: Billy Bragg
Song: I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore
Album/venue: Bing Lounge (which seems odd given the Microsoft tie-in, but maybe that’s just me)
(Source: youtube.com)
Every time I hear this song, when the horns kick in I think ‘drunken horns’. It’s the only way I can think to describe them.
Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Song: You Are the Blood
Album: Dark Was The Night
(Source: youtube.com)
Because every time I hear this song I am taken back to Montville, CT, as a kid riding around in my dad’s car.
And because I always thought the line ‘hot in pursuit’ was ‘hot paper suit’.
Artist: Traveling Wilburys
Song: Tweeter And The Monkey Man
Album: Volume 1
(Source: youtube.com)
Another Will Oldham offering. The title of this one is also an apt descriptor for my sleep of late, so there’s that too.
Artist: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Song: Cursed Sleep
(Source: youtube.com)
I’ve been going through a The National/Smog/Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy kick lately. I first came to this song via Johnny Cash’s cover but - out of sorts for most of Cash’s covers - I’m leaning towards the original artist, and his unique ‘revisit’. The video is hilariously great, but it also shows both sides of the coin. If you strip away the music and the amusing dance manoeuvres, the lyrics are very much two sides of one sentiment. When Will Oldham plays this stripped down, it’s more akin to the Cash cover. Soulful and sorrowful.
Artist: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Song: I See A Darkness
A Timely Anniversary: On This Day In 1971, The New York Times Begins Publishing The “Pentagon Papers”
It had never happened before in the long history of the Republic. The Nixon Administration moved last week to stop of America’s most influential newspapers from publishing excerpts from a top-secret history of U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam. The parts of the study that saw print suggested that Lyndon Johnson and his war counselors had covertly planned to escalate the war long in advance and had deceived both Congress and the public about their intentions.
Newsweek June 28, 1971
Perfect if you have a spare $500 (adding up all the prices in the linked article from Wired). If not, there are plenty of other ways to make good coffee.
- Step one: buy good coffee. Make sure it is ground at some point.
- Step two: add hot water.
- Step three: channel long-lost reservoir of patience for a few minutes.
- Step four: remove/filter/vow to deftly avoid floating coffee grounds.
Sip. Repeat.
