My eternal war with the darkness of depression kicks off a new initiative today. To commemorate, here’s Leslie Feist with her own single-handed festival of lights…
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As a bonus, here’s an awesome acoustic take on the song which Feist performed on The Colbert Report. (Plus you get the surreal pleasure of glimpsing Colbert in the blue shiny outfit Feist wore in the “1-2-3-4” video).
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Genius.
Pretty much where my head, heart, and soul are today…
In the midst of all my struggles, one thing always brings me joy, even in my darkest times: the existence of my son.
In this week of giving thanks, I present this lovely lullaby, for Nathaniel.
The street band Natchez On Fire, captured on video in New Orleans by Cory Doctorow.
Awesome stuff. And once again, I ask the universe, what is it with hot chicks and fiddles?
The lovely Lucy Kaplansky covering one of my favorite Steve Earle songs, because I’ve been floating a bit in memories of people I kissed long ago, not nearly enough…
I’m in the midst of trying to pull my head out of my ass and finally finish my current writing project (it’s been a rough fucking year, more on that soon), and it seems a proper time for it, as National Novel Writing Month has now begun.
My participation will be more concurrent than participatory, but I’m with all you NaNo hacks in spirit all the same.
Vodpod videos no longer available.Nora Keyes, gettin’ her serious creep on.
Happy Halloween!
I don’t know this band, but really dig their song, and the fact that they’re playing it with various apps on their iPhones rather than actual instruments is tres cool. Not to mention great viral marketing.
Maybe it’s time to head for the MARTA train and read my book out loud from my iPhone…
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An addendum to this morning’s Springsteen post…and an awesome song.
Watching this all the way through makes me dream funny.
I think this chick is my totem spirit.
Or it should be, anyway.
If you’re not familiar with Michelle Malone, she’s sixteen tons of rock and blues melted down to a scalding boil and poured into a whiskey bottle. She’s a world-class talent I’ve been listening to since the mid-1980s, and a nice lady to boot.
Today’s her birthday. To celebrate, everybody should buy her new album, Debris. It’s an amazing work. Here’s a taste:
And if you likey the blues, you really need to watch this one:
Happy birthday, Michelle!
Here are a couple of videos from Springsteen’s 1988 Tunnel of Love tour, which was the first time I saw him. Tunnel of Love is notable for being his last studio album with the E Street Band (until 2002’s The Rising, a 16 year gap), and it was during this tour that Bruce (who was married to Julianne Phillips) fell for his backup singer, Patti Scialfa.
In the first video, Bruce and Patti look like they’re on the verge of tearing each other’s clothes off on the spot, and in the second, Bruce explores a theme that clearly was very much on his mind at the time: wanting something you’re not supposed to have.
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While we’re on the topic of Patti Scialfa, here’s a treat for those unfamiliar with her solo work:
Sunday night, my ex, mother of my child, treated me to Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band at Phillips Arena. Pretty damn cool considering we’re still in the middle of a custody fight, but we still get along very well, overall…even though we’re still in the middle of a custody fight.
We were standing on the floor, about sixty feet in front of Bruce, and the show was phenomenal. I’ve seen him four times with the E Streeters, once with the Seeger Sessions Band a couple years ago (we actually drove up to Jersey for that one), and once solo acoustic on the Ghost of Tom Joad tour, and there is simply no one who puts on a better show.
Aside from being a volcano of energy and charisma, Bruce gives you a hell of a lot of rock and roll for your money. Back in the day, he would sometimes play over four hours a night (as he did the first time I saw him, on the Tunnel of Love tour), and Sunday he played for right around three hours. That’s with no intermission, too. The man clearly loves his job, and every minute is turbo-charged.
Also, no Springsteen show is ever the same. He changes the set list every night, and you never know what he’s going to play next. This tour, he’s taken this a step further: at one point in the show, he paced around the stage, reaching into the crowd and taking the signs people had made requesting songs, and he played those requests. Not only is the set-list ever-changing, it’s now dynamic. Even Bruce and the band don’t know everything they’re going to play in a show. Continue reading
Under An Outlaw Moon 