It's Not About Me

Sweet Lyrics #6

Poor Adam, alone in Eden,
Kicking off his shoes,
Tired of running around all morning,
Doing his animal interviews.

He woke, with a hand on his brow,
Asking, "Who are you?"
They spent the rest of their lives together,
Making their debuts, 
Dressed in leaves, wearing blues.

        - Arlo Guthrie, "Wedding Song", from "Outlasting The Blues" 

Sweet Lyrics #5

"I have come to listen for the sound 
Of the trucks as they move down 
Out on 95,
And pretend that it's the ocean, 
Coming down to wash me clean, to wash me clean, 
Baby do you know what I mean? 

I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham. 
I would hold my life in his saving grace. 
I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham 
If I thought I could see, I could see your face." 

                                  - Emmylou Harris, "Boulder To Birmingham"

Sweet Lyrics #4

"If you're lying on the beach 
With the transistor going,
Kick off the sandflies,
Honey, the love's still flowin'. 
If your head says forget it,
But your heart's still smoking, 
Call me at the station 
The lines are open."
                                                  - Joni Mitchell, "You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio"    

Spring Cleaning

Not spring yet, but no snow to play in here, so I freshened up the book and music lists. Look left!

Best o' Twenty-Eleven

Ah, the "best of lists", for a blogger it's like popping ducks on a pond...  As usual, some of this stuff has been around for years, but it's new to me!

BEST NEW MUSIC:

Our new house band - Elephant Revival. Have been enjoying this Nederland, Colorado based group most of the year. Their genre? Try on "psychedelic country" or "transcendental folk" for a starter. I'm thinking maybe "grassgrass". We enjoyed them live just last night along with lots of old and young space-dancing hippies as we groooved to a 3-hour, end-of-the-year concert. You can get a little flavor on this YouTube, "Remembering A Beginning".

 

 

Continuing the alt/grass theme, I've also fallen for the Swedish group, Väsen. Got to see them this past spring touring with Mike Marshall & Darol Anger. This band features national champion fiddle and guitar players plus Olov Johansson on the nyckelharpa which looks like a cross between a fiddle, lap dulcimer and accordion. You'll pick up a decidedly Swedish flavor on this piece, Eklunda Polska #3.

  

 

FAVORITE QUOTES:

"History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes."   - Mark Tain

"Everywhere the human race goes, it drags a bell curve around with it."   - Doug Wilson

"Ignore the environment. It will go away."   - bumpersticker

"If God does nothing random, there must always be something to learn."   - John Calvin

"They lived outside. They lived with horses and cattle and dust and snow and moved all around a country they somehow could not learn to love because another geography was already inside them."  - Mark Jenkins, "Off The Map"

"If you're tired of parties, you go to the wrong church."   - Matt Barley

"When suffering restores us, burns away the empty shallowness,
And softening the heart, to be broken break and poured out wine...
When it rains it pours, turns life into a chalice,
There to nourish every soul, one at a time."

                                           - Phil Keaggy,  "Chalice" 

 

FAVORITE READS:

 

Patrick O'Brian continues to weave a spectacular tale. How can one man know so much sea faring history? How can one man write so many incredible sentences?

 

 

 

An absorbing adventure of a trek across Siberia by bicycle. I learned a new Russian word: "balota" болото (for "swamp"). I also got a peek inside of late 20th century Russia. Not many smiles there.

 

 

 

 

What a perfect storm of men and women that came together in late 18th-century America. Oh that a few stray bands of such weather would blow over us today.

 

 

 

 

RC Sproul walks you through the book of "Romans". A book that has literally changed the world (and more than once).

 

 

 

 

 

SCREEN FAVORITES: I did find Sherlock and Capt. Jack Sparrow to be entertaining. ("You walk like a girl." "You should know!") But really not much to be excited about on the big screen. There were however some jewels you can find in DVD sets such as "John Adams" for starters. Even better is the HBO adaptation of "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" and the BBC's "Foyle's War". 

                                     

Sweet Lyrics #3

"I'm so unsure of myself, I doubt my very heartbeat. I'm like an immigrant, knocking on a stranger's door."  - Duke Special, "Mockingbird Wish Me Luck"

Sweet Lyrics #2

"Ah, but I was so much older than, I'm younger than that now."                                                                              - Bob Dylan, "My Back Pages"

Sweet Lyrics (#1)

I love the well-turned phrase. I love the wisdom of pithy quotes. I love music. Think I'm gonna start a long series of particularly fine lyrics. If you have some favorites, email me. You'll find the link down on your right. Here's an oldie that's been rattling around my brain recently:

"I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth."

- The Who, from "Substitute"

Miss Sarajevo

I decided early on not to post any significant review of U2 - 360/Denver. I've yet to see any article, even those of trained writers, that does justice to the experience. However the pearl of the evening was hearing "Miss Sarajevo" for the first time. At first blush, given its Turn/Turn/Turn/Ecclesiastes flavor, I thought it was a new song that might show up on the promised "Songs Of Ascent" album. Post-concert a friend quickly corrected and directed me to its 1995 performance with "Passengers" (ie. U2 + Brian Eno + Luciano Pavarotti) as well as a live recording on U218 Singles. Then turns out I already had it, hidden in a closet on the U2 DVD, "Best of 1990 - 2000". It was a disc I had never fully watched given how lame some of the earlier videos on the DVD were. There, like a diamond in a coal bin, was this magical and poignant video. If you are as struck as I was by the lush tune, the innocent beauty of the 17-year old pageant queen juxtaposed with the haunting presence of suggested and real violence, be sure to click on the link above and learn the story.

 

 

What They're Excited About In Salt Lake Tonight

Bono & The Edge - Denver, Colorado   5.21.2011