Well, as for the Who's performance at half time: Not great, not terrible as Pete can still shred. I miss Keith and John–no sense that the Who were once the most dangerous band around.
The Medley:
Pinball Wizard
Baba O'Riley
Who Are You
See Me, Feel Me
Wont Get Fooled Again
My Generation played earlier as a commercial–in a remixed version by Will.I.Am from Black Eyed Peas–available for download to benefit Haiti relief. One awfully grating note in that rendition–the line by Will.I.Am voiced over the Who states "Hope I get old instead of dying." WRONG WRONG WRONG
NOTHING FROM QUADROPHENIA OR LIVE AT LEEDS. WRONG WRONG WRONG
Best Super Bowl half time shows still belong to U2, Prince and Bruce (in that order.)
When Joan of Arc is on your side . . . how can you lose? Go Saints!
Let me start this by saying that the current Syracuse basketball squad is among my most favorite squads–and I’ve been a fan since my dad took me to a game at Manley Field House as a gift on my seventh birthday–the old Manley, the one with the raised wood court laid down on top of the dirt floor.
But I’ll always be a sucker for the Louie (Orr) and (Roosevelt) Bouie show. Everything we take for granted now was either just beginning or just on the horizon–Boeheim’s head coaching career started with the 100 wins over 4 seasons of L & B. Manley Field House and its 50+ home court winning streak may have been “officially closed” by John Thompson and the hated Hoyas, but the Carrier Dome and the classic Big East rivalries with G’town, St. John’s and Villanova were all on deck.
I do miss the intensity of the old Manley Field House games–the Kennel Club of swearing, milk bone throwing students, the intimidating line up cheer–the fact that all 9,000 or so fans were there for basketball–not like too many folks today in the Dome who are there as a social event. It was one of the classic pits of all time–so much of a home court advantage that some schools refused to play there–I’m lookin’ at you Holy Cross. The Dome may be called the Loud House, but Manley was the insane asylum. Syracuse grew from an eastern regional team into a national power–and the glory days started with Louie and Bouie.
Enough reminiscing. This year’s team is awesome and da ‘Cuse is in the house! Let’s Go Orange!!!
P.S. my votes for the next big heads: Louie & Bouie, Pearl Washington and the Dome Ranger!
Check it out: The Pope urging priests to blog!
Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word . . . May the Lord make all of you enthusiastic heralds of the Gospel in the new “agorà” which the current media are opening up.
Of course, this immediately brings to mind Tom Lehrer’s “Vatican Rag”–an exhortation to earlier Catholics dealing with Vatican 2 and popular song formats in Mass to “really sell the product!”
Carrie Brownstein writes the Monitor Mix blog on NPR and her most recent post is on a subject near to my heart–when you’re a music nerd, you assume everyone is a music nerd.
Of course, everyone knows that Carrie was a driving force behind the band Sleater-Kinney, right? If not, go pick up their album The Woods so we can discuss how they fused punk and classic rock and then quit at the height of their powers. We’ll wait . . .
OK, now that everyone is back, I will admit that her blog is one of my favorites and always seems to illuminate things that matter to music geeks (or as my college roommates used to refer to our collective–the Music Police.)
Her discussion on how she assumed EVERYONE knew “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by the Stooges and would pee in their pants at her over-the-top karaoke performance of same is laugh out loud funny–yet also perfectly understandable. My most recent experience of this phenomenon happened a couple of years ago at the holiday party thrown by my wife’s employer.
It was the year of Outkast’s “Hey Ya”, so I figured I’d get a chance to dance to a song I actually liked. My wife liked the idea ’cause she likes to dance and I rarely do so. Not so fast. The DJ said he wasn’t planning on playing the song, but did so because of our constant whining and my assurances that it’s the most popular song in the country–everyone will love it!
Suffice it to say that the moment he slapped on the country’s most popular jam, the dance floor emptied to me, my wife and one other couple. And it wasn’t just a fluke. Immediately after we finished “shakin’ it like a Polaroid picture.” the DJ slapped on the Electric Slide and re-filled the dance floor.
Update: this blog post got linked to by the newpaper’s Sunday Postscript: both on page A2 of the printed Sunday January 31st Post-Standard and here at their website. Thanks to Brian Cubbison at the Post.
An interesting little conversation on organizing has developed over on CNY’s hub of blogging: NYCO’s Blog CNY.
My comments may seem a bit more philosophical than normal, viewing organizing through the prism of the prospects of long term change. This is probably due to the recent passing of two SUN members, folks that I have had the privilege to work with over many years.
Marie was a founding member of SUN, back in the late 1970’s. Her family has become a 2 generation activist family–Marie’s daughter Cynthia has become a very active member of the Southside group I work with and has served on our organization’s Board of Directors.
Johnnie Mae was one of the first SUN folks I met when I started organizing in 1994. My first big campaign was dealing with drug dealing on Cannon Street–and Johnnie was a proud and active resident of this area. Johnnie also provided the quote we use on our organization’s brochure to describe our activities:
“We have to fight for our own rights, no one else will do it for us.”
I’ve been reading a very interesting blog that I’ve recently added to my blogroll: Auto Tunes. Two friends collaborate on posts about the music they each hear while driving in their cars. The writing is sharp and their musical tastes are quite varied. I thought to myself recently that I could never write such a blog–my commute after all is about 7 minutes.
So I created a playlist on my iTunes and burned it to a disc for MY style of commute. I call the disc “The Two Minute Drill.” It consists of the best songs from my iTunes that run between 1:00 and 2:00 minutes. I crammed 42 songs on the disc and can listen to a bunch on the way to work (even more if I hang in the parking lot for awhile, too!
After looking at the demographics of the playlist, I’ve reached some conclusions on songs running a buck and some change:
1) Of the heavily represented genres in my music collection, blues, country and punk crop up the most. Rancid, Hank Williams and Elizabeth Cotten have more short songs than any other groups.
2) Songs this short are often very funny. Little Feat “Don’t Bogart That Joint”, The Presidents of the United States of America “We’re Not Going To Make It” (“we don’t have the talent/ we don’t have the time/ we don’t have the patience/ and we don’t know how to rhyme”) “Walter’s Theme” from R.E.M. (an ode to their favorite greasy spoon) and “Ingrid Bergman” with music by Billy Bragg and incredibly raunchy lyrics by Woodie Guthrie are some favorites.
3) Back in the day, songs like this were big hits. “He’s So Fine” by the Chiffons and “The Letter” by the Box Tops were #1 hits. “Walkin’ To New Orleans” by Fats Domino made it to #6.
4) I love The Clash, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan and Warren Zevon– I own a large portion of their recorded output. My favorite song from each of these artists is also a song less than 2 minutes (check out the YouTube clips):
The Clash “White Riot”
Elvis Costello “Mystery Dance”
Bob Dylan “Gospel Plow”
No YouTube clip for the obscure Warren Zevon song “Bill Lee” (off the album Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School.) So here are the lyrics. I sing them a capella in the shower:
Bill Lee by Warren Zevon
You’re supposed to sit on your ass and nod at stupid things
Man, that’s hard to do
And if you don’t, they’ll screw you
And if you do, they’ll screw you, tooWhen I’m standing in the middle of the diamond all alone
I always play to win
When it comes to skin and boneAnd sometimes I say things I shouldn’t
Like….
And sometimes I say things I shouldn’t
Like….
