Lessons from the Road

We have once again made the trek up to the north shore to visit family and friends in Cleveland for the holidays and, as is always the case, I learned a few things in the car (and before) on the way up (some of which you think I would have learned already).

1. If you get your children a Wii for Christmas, it is best to not stay up the night before until midnight playing Super Mario Brothers instead of getting the packing and prep done for the trip (but it sure was fun).
2. We know far too many of the employees at the Bob Evans in Breezewood.
3. It appears that he who rides in the back--in this case, The Captain--seems to be the best traveler of the bunch.
   
4. I would really like to hang out with They Might Be Giants when they write a song for one of their kid's albums.
5. Even though it seems like a good time to plan some things (like say, life, for instance), we never really manage to do it.
   
6. If it is slanting-southern-sunny day, create some sun-blocking device for the Engineer's window since he sits on the side facing south and he is going to be HOT!
7. Tunnels are endlessly fascinating.
8. Thinking that a long road trip is the perfect time to listen to that stack of discs College Roomy sent earlier this month is based on the faulty premise that you can hear the music well enough to attend to it.
9. The Artist has thought of a lot of alternative (and faster, much faster) means of transportation.
   
10. Arriving just as a nice winter storm starts is perfect timing.

We shall see what the return trip has to offer.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night

Hey all--

Life is too busy and fun for much more than to say Merry Christmas to all and may you have a wonderful holiday and a happy new year. Here is Wynton wishing you the same.

Peace all.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Holiday Music 09 Installment Two: For the Kids

Yes I said I would be posting about holiday music and yes I said I imagined it was going to mostly focus on jazz as that seems to be the mood I am in, but see we had this little snow blizzard thingy that changed things. First it resulted in a lot more time hanging inside with the boys (who basically had their holiday break extended to two full weeks by the snow) and that meant more holiday music oriented toward their tastes. And that means, you get to hear about one of my favorite kid holiday discs.

Now the Veggie Tales cartoons are not for everyone I realize, but I do find the humor to be of that special kind that makes both kids and adults giggle alike and that is true on A Very Veggie Christmas. The basic premise of the disc is that the various characters (yes they are all vegetables) are all gathering at Bob the Tomato's place for a sing off with each character singing a holiday song in a different style (kinda). This is complicated by the fact that (stay with me here) Larry the Cucumber was in charge of food and has ordered it from the Oscar the Polish caterer who runs notoriously late and so the food jokes run throughout the disc until Oscar finally arrives--with various wrapped meats.

I won't go on here--you will get the gist from the music and banter below featuring Pa Grape and Family, the French Peas (my personal favorite--anyone have a good French Christmas music recommendation BTW?), and the whole cast singing along with Oscar. It really is a good one for the kids--trust me that it has been well tested and approved by the boys in this household.

Veggies Talking

Go Tell It On the Mountain

More Veggies Talking

He is Born, The Holy Child

Still More Veggies Talking

The 8 Polish Foods of Christmas

And in case you aren't keeping track, it is almost time for Santa to take off!

All Parts of the Pig Weekend

It has been a while since we bought our house, but the last time we did, all the rage was to have chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven when you entered an open house so you felt welcome and "at home" (and didn't smell the pets that lived there for the last decade). A fine strategy if you are in love with chocolate chip cookies. But if you want to sell me a house, here is the correct recipe:

Heat up a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan, add some thick cut bacon or pancetta, let simmer for a few minutes--then when you see me pulling up to look at your house, throw in some garlic. Result? I walk in and offer to buy your house on the spot, because I want to live in this house with your bacon and garlic.

That, in fact, is one of the smells that you would have experienced in our house this weekend during the great Christmas blizzard of 2009 as we were buried in two feet of snow in 36 hours. But only one, as there was much cooking (and shoveling, and sledding, and other snow activities--not to mention cookie making) at our house. And much involved pork as Neats responded to the oncoming storm by reverting to her German heritage and bought pork in as many forms as she could imagine using during the storm--a ham, bacon, and sausage (two kinds). That resulted in the following:

• Saturday Dinner: Risotto with ham, mushrooms, green beans and cheese (with a base of garlic and onions of course).
• Sunday Breakfast: French toast and sausage.
• Sunday Dinner: Bacon, garlic, tuna and spinach tossed with spaghetti (a killer recipe that is an easy and quick fall back on any well stocked pantry when you are in a pinch).
• Monday (snow day!) Dinner: Slow cooked red sauce with Italian sausage over penne along with a spinach salad with a warm bacon dressing and apples and pine nuts.

Lest you worry that we only eat pork, there were other items in our diet this week . . . like cookies--five kinds in fact, all fresh made for the holidays! And suddenly, I feel the need to sleep.

Name that tune. Not that one. The one this one reminds you of.

Do you ever hear a song and the minute you hear it you think it sounds like some other song you know, but you can't figure what that other song is? You play the former over and over thinking that the other tune is going to pop into your mind, but it just won't? Perhaps you play the former for just a short while and then turn it off so it doesn't distract you from rummaging around in the mental pile of thousands of songs you have heard and stored and clear them away one by one until you extract the one you know is there in the folds of your memory? But more often than not, you can't?

Well, I am here to tell you I have overcome! My memory and recall functions are not completely dulled by age, children and certain distilled liquids.

This week one of the only non-Christmas albums being played is Arcade Fire's Funerals (I have been catching up with them since they made so many decade lists--more later). And one of the many great tunes on the album is call "Haiti." Here you go. I will wait while you listen if you don't already know it.

Haiti Arcade Fire

Done? Nice song, right? But are you sitting there with a funny feeling that you have heard that song kinda, sorta somewhere else? Of course you are. It is not that the opening guitar style and chord progression are exact matches, but there is something that is so familiar that makes you want to start singing something else, right? But what? Don't worry, I am here to spare you the angst and sense of failure and defeat.

For I have listened to this song again and again and each time I could feel it getting closer. Then it would slip away. And then come back, even closer until finally . . . I knew it. The Clash! I could just hear Joe Strummer's voice coming in over that guitar--but what song? Must be on London Calling with that poppy sound. Side one? No. Two? No. C'mon think! Alas I was in the car so I finally gave in to the fact that I was going to have to wait to get home and look at the album and others because clearly I was forgetting a song or had the wrong album, but I was sure it was a Clash tune--aren't you?

But just as I arrived home, so did the answer. It was Joe Strummer--just not The Clash. In fact it is this song.

Johnny Appleseed Joe Stummer and the Mescalaros

OK--it isn't some total rip-off, but you do hear why I was making the connection right? Right? And it is impressive that of all the songs out there, I was able to retrieve this particular one from memory right? And you, too, now feel victorioius don't you? Of course you do.

Okay, now back to the holidays--more Christmas music to come, I promise, as soon as the cookies are done and the piano recitals completed.

Working the Christmas Countdown

Conversation this morning with The Captain upon seeing new presents under the tree:

Captain: Can we open them after breakfast?

Me: Not until Christmas.

Captain: There are only nine days until Christmas?

Me: Um, today is the 15th, so (counting on my fingers) 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25--that is eleven days.

Captain: No. It is nine.

Me: Okay, no fair counting Christmas since it basically starts at the crack of dawn, but since it is the crack of dawn now, today should count, so it is at least 10.

Captain: No. It is nine.

At which point I realize that:

1. I am debating Christmas with a four- (almost five-) year old and, really, do I think I am going to win that one?
2. It doesn't matter to me (other than I am short on days to get everything done that needs to get done by Christmas) . . . but it really does to him.
3. Perhaps he will grow up to be a state budget officer who realizes that you control what counts as the fiscal calendar and if you just adjust the calendar by a day, you can argue that your budget is balanced (at least until next year).

And, so my life continues to be a weird combination of family and work.

Chillin' but Grateful

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. And thank goodness since two nights ago (Friday) our furnace died. We had actually had Furnace Guy here that day and he said the motor was dying (prescient that one), that he would order part and be back Monday. So Saturday morning we sighed and called Furnace Guy, expecting to hear that they would be out, but only in exchange for next year's salary or one of the boys. Nope. Apparently the Lennox heating supply stores are closed on the weekend and no one could get that part. What?

It is like some small crack in capitalism--an error in the program. How could it be that someone had not taken advantage of a perfect opportunity to extract exaggerated profit out of the situation? Wasn't this a perfect example of limited elasticity in the demand/supply equation favoring the supplier?

Whatever, it is all to our advantage from where I sit (in front of the fire). Yes, we are a bit chilly here and there, but we also have so much to be grateful for--here is my list:

• Friends who immediately offered up space heaters and offered (nay, insisted) we sleep at their house.
• An adventuresome crew of a family who didn't bat an eye about how to make it work in the house without the furnace.
• The fact that we worked hard to finish the family room so we have access to the fireplace which has been cranking it out virtually all weekend.
• That we took the time to insulate the basement and family room to the hilt.
• The fact that we still have electricity and the water heater.
• The bacon and rosemary-wrapped pork roast we slow cooked all afternoon using said electricity, both warming the kitchen and our bellies.
• The fact that while chilly, it isn't colder out (low around 30/high around 40).
• The beautiful southerly slant of the sun yesterday.
• The Engineer's total willingness, even this morning in the icy rain, to head out back with me to split and stack wood.
• Games, music and movies.

Ultimately, life is still pretty darn luxurious even without a furnace, but we will also be grateful for getting it back.

Cory Chisel: Suprised, Not Surprised

I know, I know--I should be doing Christmas-y things. But see I have all this music I have been listening to and then College Roomy sent me ten new discs--ten!!! So I am in danger of drowning in new music, which is fine except that what gets lost is any sense of what I wanted to say about different discs/artists, so I have got to get some of it out. So let's talk Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons for a little bit, shall we?

The new album, Death Won't Send a Letter which came out earlier this fall is the band's first major label release which follows the well-received EP release Cabin Ghosts, which we discussed back in The Room. Chisel is new enough on the scene, but I was surprised not to see more reaction, if not attention to this effort--not because it is earth-shattering, but it is a very solid album and Chisel seems like one of those dudes who might just be around a while (although it is hard to see).

However, when I did read through other reviews such as this one over at Consequence of Sound, I wasn't surprised to see discussion of Dylan, Springsteen and Petty--all names that came to mind as I listened to this disc. Not because he is any of one these guys (calm down ya'll), but because the influences seem to resonate through the disc at different moments--and that was, well, a surprise. After Cabin Ghosts, I was expecting a bit more of an acoustic album and here we have more of a rocker album--I'm not talking metallic, but rocking nonetheless (due, in part to some help from various Raconteurs). That isn't to say there aren't some acoustic-oriented or quieter songs--there are. But the album as a whole is really a blues-based rock album with folk and pop tendencies. And Chisel's voice--which really is the highlight--is very well suited.

It isn't beautiful and he isn't showing off some amazing range--but it is sincere and straightforward--gravelly and growly at times, soft and sweet others. I surely said this before but he really reminds me of Marc Cohn vocally. All of which makes me wish that we had caught their show when they were in town this week, but alas, that just was not to be this week.

Okay, so I really have to get back to the holidays, so here are the samples. First up is the video for "Born Again" which opens up the album, followed by two bluesy tunes that appear back to back in the middle of the album--and by the way can I say that I really like discs that have a strong set of songs in the middle of the disc and this one does.

My Heart Would Be There

Curious Thing

And if you are digging it, you should go Buy the Album!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Do you have anyone in your life who around this time of year notes that they had all their holiday planning done in July? And their shopping in August? And probably baked their cookies and sweets ahead and froze them in the sleepy days of September? Yeah, me too. And yes, I scoff at there sad, empty lives that leave them so much time to think about the holidays that far in advance and are unable to enjoy those things which are meant to enjoyed at the appropriate seasonal moments as indicated by the calendar. I mean really shopping for Christmas presents in August--haven't you heard of fresh tomatoes and corn?!

And are you not aware of the rule? You know the one: no singing Christmas songs or engaging in December holiday activities until after Thanksgiving! And really it is totally doable. See, here is all we have left to do:

• Send out Christmas letters and cards with appropriate personal touches added to various letters (or, more likely, we will just stuff them and send them so they go out before January).
• Finish shopping for the boys--luckily the "jolly old elf" takes care of the stockings so we don't need to worry about those (wink, wink).
• Deal with gifts for parents--struggle for idea with one set, and with how a digital frame works for the others (and then fall back on digital frame for both).
• Attend boys' recitals and holiday concerts.
• Go replenish the two pounds of butter we used up on Thanksgiving, get a few pounds of sugar and nuts for cookies--so many cookies--to be made and boxes stuffed and transported and delivered.
• Figure out presents for new nephew Nicolas and his big sister Ella.
• Make sure to find time to hang by fire and finishing reading The Christmas Carol to elder boys and other assorted holiday favorites to all as well as watch all the favorite holiday kid shows.
• Plan out all scrumptious-ness that will be prepared and eaten over days around Christmas.
• Try not to think too much about having to take it all down right after Christmas so we can get in the car and travel and focus on knowing we will be happy to be with our family once we get there.
• Gussy up this blog a bit with some holiday feel and make sure we post a lot on the Brothers K or The Artist will be disappointed that we posted less this year than last--it is all about progress and achievements for that one!

Totally manageable right? And really who wouldn't want to be busy this time of year--what are those other people doing now anyway? Spring cleaning?!

Holiday Music 09 Installment One: Carla Bley

Last year when The Room was still my virtual home, I did a series of posts on Christmas music which I imagined that I would make an annual feature--and indeed we shall--just here in the new space. We are particularly in the mood since we got a little snowy blizzard yesterday that involved snowmen, hot chocolate and of course hanging by the fire (one of the first of the year given the family room project--really, pictures coming). On to the music.

I am feeling that this year's look at holiday music will be pretty heavy on the jazz given what seems to be playing most often around our place. And it is going to start with a disc that came out this year and that I just recently acquired thanks to a rec from AccuJazz--which, by the way, has gobs or holiday jazz streaming if you are looking for such a site. The disc in question is Carla's Christmas Carols featuring Carla Bley (piano) Steve Swail (guitar) and the Partyka Brass Quintet. It is in many ways the perfect mix for me.

First, it is wonderful blend of jazz arrangements with a classical feel. The instrumentation is wonderful since, as someone who played trumpet for a long time, I love brass (but this is not your parents' brass quintet). It is mostly quiet, but with some nice upbeat tunes and moments within songs, but nothing schlocky like so many jazz holiday albums. As All About Jazz points out, Bley picks mainly traditional--that would be traditional, not boring--tunes and deals with them uniquely.

While others look for obscure Christmas tunes to lend themselves identity, Bley's choices are as conventional as they come—"The Christmas Song," "Ring Christmas Bells," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," and "Jingle Bells" are but four of the twelve tunes that are so familiar as to be nearly Jungian. Still, this isCarla Bley, one of the great arrangers of the past half century, and her arrangements manage to tread the fine line between veracity and expansive, personal interpretation. There's no mistaking the "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" melody of "The Christmas Song" but, while avoiding any "jazzin' up Christmas" schtick, Bley makes this an unequivocally jazz album, as flugelhornist Axel Schlosser lays down some bop-inflected lines during his solo.

Indeed. Here are a few samples starting with their beautiful version of "O Tannebaum" which opens the album, and then, one of my favorites, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" (here, Part's I and II):

O Tannebaum

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Part I

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Part II

And if you are a Christmas music fan, a jazz fan and/or a classical brass fan, then, buy this album.

Three to Consider: Dinner Party Music

OK—I have to get some of the music blogging out of the way as it is getting crowded in in my mental music blog closet—and since College Roomy seems worried that I have completely abandoned jazz as of late, we shall start there with a quick look at two newer jazz albums and one other that came out last year. Bottom line here is that these are three well-performed and recorded disc, better than average, but ultimately not the kind of discs I might listen to routinely because they are so incredible. They are more apt to be a discs I could imagine lining up for different stages of a dinner or cocktail party—people swinging and chatting, they might ask who it is, but no one is going to run out and pick them up afterward. But let’s see what you think. Here is a mix of six songs (two from each) that you can listen to while you read on, or make dinner, or whatever.

I Can't Help It (Parlato)

"A" Dance (Figarova)

Uncle James (McBride)

Theme for Kareem (McBride)

Weak (Parlato)

Bedtime Story (Figarova)

First up we have Gretchen Parlato’s newest album, In A Dream (we are skipping including album cover art here for previously stated reasons). For those who don’t know Parlato, she is an up-and coming jazz vocalist who first got real attention when she one the Thelonious Monk Jazz Vocals Competition in 2004. I ran into her this summer when she did a bit on The Checkout. The album was billed as a minimalist showcase for Parlato’s voice with only limited instrumentation on most songs. There is no doubt that she is a talented singer and particularly if you like the Brazilian flavor, bossa nova type sound you will dig the interpretations here. It keeps you feeling like you should be gliding through a hip crowd of sleekly dressed folks, in a mod bar sipping elegant drinks as Parlato gently swings the joint with her slightly funky interpretations (although you might wonder who brought their kid along at a couple of points). Very cool, very competent—just not so amazing I will regularly chose the disc over other vocalists.

Shifting gears, let’s move on to the new Christian

McBride album, Kind of Brown, which has also been getting a lot of attention, because, well, it’s Christian McBride and he has played bass of every sort with just about every jazz musician alive (and passed) even though he hasn’t even hit 40 yet. I had been avoiding it a bit because the band, “Inside Straight,” included vibraphones and I am just not a big fan. But people kept asking if I had heard, people were calling it the best album of the year, best in recent years, etc. and so I checked it out.

Kind of Brown is probably the best of these three albums and it will definitely get a lot of accolades this year. The performances are really, really solid and it is the kind of straight ahead jazz I typically really like. But again, I wasn’t as moved as others. It just didn’t grab me and make me really want to just turn it up and get into the groove of the music—it seemed almost too clean, too well-performed . . . safe. Now that said, I do think this is an album I will come back to and see if it just hit me wrong at the time, but for now it just isn’t coming across as the amazing albums others see it as.

Last up, we have Amina Figarova’s Above the Clouds (with another bad cover). Figarova is a Dutch pianist who fronts a nonet here, playing all original pieces. She has been composing and performing a while, but this is the first offering of hers I have listened to. I should note that the instrumentation includes flute which is right up there with vibes for me, but similarly here as with the vibes on McBride, it is okay.

The tunes are, for the most part, very straight forward jazz pieces with someone laying down the theme, the passing around of that theme to various soloists, and then a return to the full band synthesis of that theme--reminds me a bit of Blue Note albums I like that way. I don’t know a lot about European artists, but the ones I have listened to all have a certain smooth quality to them, very precise and clean but not hard. I don't mean that as a warning that this is tame or smooth jazz as in the kind you hear on radio stations with names like "The Breeze," but rather that they have a certain lyrical quality to them I enjoy. In fact, of these three albums, this is the one that has had the most listening time--although it does get a bet too theme-oriented in the middle if the disc.

Ultimately, they are all worth a listen, and if you like what you heard here, below are links where you can pick them up.

Gretchen Parlato: In A Dream

Christian McBride: Kind of Brown

Amina Figarova: Above the Clouds

Organizational/Musical/Technical Advice Requested

Alright y’all. I need some advice. I could research the inter-webs or perhaps even go to a store and talk to some knowledgeable sales person (assuming I could find one), but really, it is so much easier just to put it all out there for your feedback. Here is the conundrum.

800 plus CDs and a desire for more.

Owning that many isn’t the issue (c'mon, I'm old) nor is my desire to have more (I am also comfortable with denial). Storing them? Now, that is the problem.

Until yesterday they were in two college-aged CD racks, in piles in front of said racks (which were overflowing), in piles on top of random players around the house—in short, it was a mess. Neats, who seemed to think I am concerned about consistency, repeatedly reminded me that when the boys have toys they have not played with in months or even years, I argue they should be passed on and perhaps I might abide by the same rule? Uh-huh. So after much debate, we decided to get these cool CD towers to place on the back wall of our newly refinished family room (pictures soon after one or more detail is taken care of).

Now Neats wasn’t all that keen on having the CD’s exposed as, well, that aren’t all that aesthetic (to her), but she found a way to give it her touch as you can see. The real issue—yes, I am back to the issue—is that this is surely only a temporary fix—eventually those cubbies are going to get filled up, the random knick-knacks will get the boot until we are out of room and then what? More towers? A whole different solution? When will it stop?

So all of this has me thinking about technology—I know, you have been thinking this for a few sentences now. Should I finally make the move to all digital music? Will I notice the subtle degradation of quality by only listening to compressed files? What about the loss of opening the package, checking out the liner notes, etc.? And more to the point, if I do go this route, what is the right piece or pieces of equipment?

What I would like is one nice piece of technology that plays CD’s, but also let’s me rip them into iTunes (or wherever), sync various iPods (or whatever), connects to the Internet, has more memory than God, and is nicely compatible with the new Bose system. OK, I hear someone saying, um, that’s a computer. Well, yeah, but I don’t really need a whole computer for that, just parts of one--and I don't want a computer in the component mix.

I know there are a variety of options out there—Apple TV, smart DVD players, etc.—or I could just buy a mega-external hard drive just for music, sync the iPods, and then play those through the Bose (and play the CD’s, if necessary, in the DVD player), but somehow I am feeling like there might be other/better options out there. Or I could just stick with 1990's old school and keep buying CD's and filling up that wall.

So anyone who knows, has theories, or has developed their own system for managing the music, please do tell.

You May Just Have to Wait for the Music, We'll See

Seems like it is a 50/50 chance that I am going to actually post on any music I have been listening to as we are about to enter into the "I only listen to holiday music (or post about holiday music)" zone--as I have previously admitted. So, let me just put down a post-turkey, pre-Christmas tree raising marker tonight to say that here is what I owe you as far as I know (and will get to come in January if not before).

• commentary on the the new Dave Rawlings Machine album (aka another Dave and Gillian disc)--hint, yummm;
• recent jazz listening (which is all acceptable, but not amazing);
• my next post on my backward walk through the Avett Brothers catalog;
• a post wondering if Jason Moran is the jazz artist of the oughts;
• there is also the new Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons album; and,
• I am beginning to look back through the what I missed this decade list.

And now as the T-Day meal is officially done, I am off to do a little holiday music shopping informed primarily by AccuJazz who has been tweeting good suggestions from their upcoming holiday channel for a couple days now (I grant them a pass on the no Christmas tunes before T-Day rule because, well, because it is a random rule I can declare in place or not whenever I feel like it).

May I be the first to say happy holidays BTW!

The ABC’s of Thankfulness

Picking up on an idea from Lisa B’s post, who picked it up from her daughter, here is my ABC list of things I am thankful for. The Brothers K have been working on their own. You?

A: the Artist, awkwardness that leads to the funny, apples and anchovies

B: boys, boys and boys, the Brothers K, and brothers and blogs in general. . .okay, and Bose 5.1

C: the Captain, cats (that sleep through the night), and “collaborative driving”

D: dark December days lit with holiday lights, the Detroit Tigers who will rise again to win the pennant

E: the Engineer, educators who do the educating (and those who fight for education)

F: fathers, Fall, first snows and followers

G: the garden (most particularly in August when the tomatoes arrive), G-Strings

H: home sweet home where I long to be more than I am

I: initiative; watching the boys at Imagination Stage

J: jazz and the juxtaposition of the jingle and the jangle

K: kitchen knives that have just been sharpened

L: Lake Michigan, okay, all the Great Lakes, oh what the hay, lakes in general

M: mothers (who deserves a letter all to themselves more than mothers?!)

N: nephews and nieces (especially new nephew Nicolas) and, of course, Neats, Neats, Neats!

O: opposites

P: pesto from our garden, reading the politics, Pandora and piano, particularly when played peacefully (boys, are you reading?)

Q: Queen sung by the Muppets, quiet mornings (or the memory thereof)

R: cooking risotto while sippin’ rye and rockin’ some tunes

S: sisters, especially when they are together

T: tools of all sorts

U: unions (may this country return to the realization how important they are)

V: a veritable gallimaufry of music

W: the West, may we someday return

X: x-tra x-citable boys during the holidays

Y: you . . . just cuz you read this far!

Z: zzzzzz’s which I hope to get more of in the future, particularly during the day.

May you all have a peaceful and warm Thanksgiving Day

Two Worlds Collide!

So when I was a younger man (even a boy), I was a wee bit of a Queen fan, er, -atic. Now The Artist, who is nine, is into all things puppets and animation and at the top of that list for some time has been The Muppets (which somehow always seem to appear in our NetFlix queue). So today, the news of this video means my eldest and I are going to have a good time on the YouTube tonight!

Hat tip to Mashable.

With Apologies to HTM

Buying music, furniture, plants, technology in general? Sure. I am perfectly happy to spend time researching it, searching it out, and buying it. Shopping for clothes on the other hand seems to be a bit more of a challenge for me (as those who know me are well aware). But finally, today, I managed to get on-line to do a little clothes shopping (after I bought a few discs of course).

As I started looking around for a sweater or two, I noted to the Artist, who was home for the day with flu, that I wasn't finding a sweater that I wanted in gray. He suggested that perhaps the reason was that gray was a boring color. And at that moment I felt someone in Utah shudder.

Not Judging an Album by Its Cover: Apparently the Only Hope for Many Female Jazz Artists

So College Roomy keeps asking me about what jazz I am listening to (and buying) these days. I pointed out that not all that long ago, I posted in the now retired Room some of the reasons I think I don't buy as much jazz as other music, but that doesn't mean I don't pick up anything new. And really, I am ready to post on a few new albums, but let me get this point out of the way separately so it doesn't distract from the music-oriented post (which will include commentary on these albums with regard to the actual music).

To understand where I am coming from, you have to check out these album covers. The first is Dutch jazz pianist Amina Figarova.

And then we have award-winning vocalist Gretchen Parlato.

My question is simple. Why do talented (and they are) women continue to allow whoever to put out their albums with such awful covers? I don't even just mean it in the sense of the objectification factor (which these do)--these are just bad, really bad, covers (they are going to end up here at some point). They make you think the albums were released 30 or 40 years ago. What is the excuse now--both from the selling the woman standpoint or the smart marketing standpoint? I fear I know. Thoughts?

Because We All Just Want to Get Home

Since I got to spend hours in a traffic jam on I-95 this past Sunday night rather than getting home from a weekend work trip in time to see my boys, it seems the appropriate time to talk a bit about my philosophy of driving--which I develop each morning and evening as I sit in commuter traffic. It starts with the premise that neither the terms offensive and defensive driving make sense to me. One sounds like a strategy for maniac drivers and the other for drivers who fear even being on the road as everyone else is, well, maniacs--neither of which I want on the road. No, the drivers I want on the road are drivers who are committed to working together so that we all reach our destinations as efficiently as possible. Consequently, I propose the following rules for "collaborative driving."

1. If you are on the road, your primary responsibility is to drive. Your mouth is not required for driving--eating, talking, yes, but not driving--unless you are using it to encourage collaboration or enforce these rules.
2. Figuring out where you are going should be accomplished prior to getting on the road--look up the address, check the map, plan the route, etc. before you get into the car--and please put the GPS away, it is making you stupid.
3. Lanes are not created equal, but rather should be used for particular purposes.
   
   a. Appropriate uses for the right lane include driving an acceptable speed (although collaborative driving allows for right lane drivers to go somewhat slower); turning into your destination when you arrive (because you know where it is so you don't have to creep along looking for your destination--see rule 2); and, generally, for those weird live-in-the-moment people (more below).
   
   b. There is really only one appropriate use of the left lane--driving at full speed and full speed only. If you are driving along and look to your right and see you are going the same speed as the car next to you, and there is a car right on your ass, and the driver is using his or her mouth for one of the approved activities, you need to move over (this counts if there is more than two lanes). Really.
   
   c. Middle lanes should look as much like left lanes as possible--never like right lanes.
   
   
4. Despite the fact, or perhaps because of the fact, that we have way too many signs, some are helpful and be attended to. For instance, "No Parking, Stopping, Standing at Any Time" does not mean it is okay to pull over quick while your friend runs in to talk to BFF for just one sec. And "No Left Turn" really means "don't even think about clogging up the left lane with an illegal left turn idiot!" See rules about lane uses.
5. The small lever on the left side of your steering column is known by most drivers as your "signal indicator" or your "blinker." It is a useful tool that lets other drivers know what direction you are planning on turning. Please use it. And no, turning it on as you move into the intersection after you have been sitting at a traffic light for several minutes without it on does not count.
6. If you are retired and fast cars and lots of traffic scare you, then please remember that you are retired and you can run your errands during the day and let those of us who only have a few precious hours at home each day to get there (otherwise, please abide by the rules regarding lane selection).
7. Finally, for those of you who are just enjoying your time in the car because you are a "live-in-the-moment" type of person, congratulations, but do it in the right lane, or better yet a side street. In fact, why not just pull over and enjoy the moment out of the way and let those of us who are living for the destination get there so we can all be happy.

I feel confident that if we would all just abide by these simple rules for working together, we could all have a safer and more enjoyable commute. Now please, get out of my way!

Union Suit Characters: Lo-Fi & Catchy

If you were to search for the band Union Suit Characters on teh Google, you wouldn't find a lot--basically, their page, an Amazon download and the great piece Daytrotter did on them this summer, which is how I ran into them. And it is perhaps that lack of info and hype out there on the nets is perhaps what leads Daytrotter to climb out on this limb:

It's a claim that's preposterous to ever utter as there are so many nooks and crannies to account for, so many different tastes and criteria to consider, but on behalf of the entirety of Daytrotter, I will confidently and without shame or waver make this statement: Joliet, Illinois' Union Suit Characters could very well be the best unsigned band in the whole United States of America.

Well, I don't know--how could anyone? But I will say that Streetcar Legs has been playing in my various decks a lot for the last couple months. What you have here are a couple guys recording a lo-fi record in their own digs--so prepare for starts and stops, tape-hiss and generally the quality of a home production. But that is all for the good.

The songs are nothing complicated. You have piano chords--never melody lines or solos. You got your drums--just doing rhythm and the very occasional fill. Add in an understated bass line and a smattering of guitar here and there you have it. The instrumentation is minimal, but they make some noise with the drum and chord progressions generally being pretty insistent. But on top of that you have catchy melodies that make for short, simple, singable songs.

Let me throw a couple tunes at you that are pretty representative--you get the lo-fi feel, definitely the driving chord structure and the boppy melodic approach all wrapped up neatly. The first is "Fruit form the Park" which I always wish went on for a while longer. The second "Diamond's Teeth" is perhaps the most complete song on the album. There are a couple slower tunes, but these capture the album quite well.

If you are interested in picking it up, you are going to have to do the download thing as this one doesn't seem to be available any "how" else.

Download Streetcar Legs

Fruit from the Park

Diamond's Teeth

Inside vs. Outside

It is no secret that one, I am a bit of a homebody (primarily because I feel like I am away from it so much) and, two, I enjoy projects around the house. There is usually something being done to the house inside and for most of the year some outside work in the form gardening or lawn/tree maintenance is also going on. All well and good except when major indoor project completions conflict with major spring or fall outdoor work and that, dear readers, is what we have been dealing with at this moment.

The family room is coming to fast completion with much furnishing and whatnot going on, but the yard is also desperately calling for attention sensing that we will not have another weekend free to do it until after Turkey Day. So here are a few things that did get done and a few that didn’t in the great effort to balance the inside with the outside.

• We did manage to get the new corner TV stand together, place the new flat-screen on said stand and get the cable guy to hook up the high-def box in the family room. However, we did not find the hour or so needed to stay on the phone to reach a real human being at Verizon so we could upgrade to the full hi-def package—oh, you wanted hi-def on more than five channels?!
• We did manage to pull out the last of the greens—arugula, chard and beet greens—dig up some late planted potatoes for yummy garlic mashers to have those with a tasty pork tenderloin that had marinated all day in a bath of fresh herbs form the garden with those greens wilted with olive oil and kosher salt and local pears and apples diced over it all. However, I didn’t get any time to research better ways to dry the remaining herbs so we don’t lose all that wonderful rosemary, sage, oregano and thyme out there in the pots. Suggestions?
• I did manage to trade emails with College Roomy about the music care package he was putting together for me and I did listen to a few different discs I was considering burning for him while we made the aforementioned dinner, but alas dear friend, I still haven’t burned your discs.
• We did manage to get downtown to a cool opera for children at the National Museum of the American Indian called El conejo y el coyote/The Rabbit and the Coyote but did not find time to sit down with the Artist and work on a blog post over at the family e-home (if only he would stay up later!).
• We did manage to corral the majority of the 5 gazillion leaves in our backyard and the boys managed to trounce them endlessly, although unfortunately about half of those still remain in a loosely constructed pile in the backyard and the front yard is still unkempt.
• We did, however, manage to purchase the new couch (otherwise known as "the pit") for the family room, although we did not take any time to accessorize or take a part the futon we had just put together assuming we would not have a new piece of furniture so fast.

And so now, we must return to the list of all that must get done—or at least looking at, re-prioritizing and fretting over that list since, well, nothing on that list involves the things that actually take up the majority or our lives.

Fickleness Alert

Just dropping in to say that while I decided to try WordPress because I generally like the look of WP blogs and I thought perhaps it might be a good idea to get away from everything in my life being driven/owned/tracked/removed by Google, I may very well be moving this blog back to Blogger. Why? Well let's just say WP seems a bit less than flexible.

For instance, while I like the template I am using, I wanted to jump the font a bit--perhaps because I am getting a bit older or perhaps because the font (particularly in the widgets) is DAMN SMALL! The WP answer?

You can change fonts using HTML but it’s fiddly and maybe not worth the hassle all the time but keep reading. [snip]

To change fonts globally, you would need to purchase the Custom CSS upgrade [15 bucks a year—not much but really?!] and have some knowledge of CSS in order to make the desired changes. If you’re new to CSS, there are some wonderfully helpful people to be found in the CSS Customization forum who may be able to help you out.

We cannot alter a theme to accommodate your choice of font size. Please bear in mind that if we alter a theme for you then that alters the same theme for everyone else. They probably won’t like that happening.

Really?

Pretty sure I could change font size and style easily on individual post or globally in Blogger with out spending any money or having it be "fiddly" or a hassle and I am pretty sure I was able to fiddle with the CSS at will (usually to my demise).

So listen folks--I don't mean to seem like an old, fickle man who keeps changing things at the drop of a font, but I can tell I am on verge and thought that the only responsible thing to do was issue a warning.

Feel free to stop me.

Breaking Down Paste's Top 50 of the Decade

Paste's Top 50 albums of the decade is worth checking out not as some final authoritative list, but as 50 interestng albums to consider--and you can really consider them since they are streaming them on their site. I have doctored the list with a little color to represent albums I already have (not that many actually), albums on the list that I think will probably go on my consider to buy list, ones I suspect might interest me and albums I am quite sure I don't care about. Everything else (a considerable everything else) is just in the I don't know enough about category.

Pastes Top 50 of the Decade

50 Björk - Vespertine (Elektra, 2001)
49 Libertines - Up The Bracket (Rough Trade, 2002)
48 Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose (Interscope, 2004)
47 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (Domino, 2006)
46 Once - Music From The Motion Picture (Columbia, 2007)
45 Radiohead - In Rainbows (self-released, 2007)
44 The Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music (Lost Highway, 2003)
43 Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala (Secretly Canadian, 2007)
42 Jay-Z - The Blueprint (Roc-A-Fella, 2001)
41 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (Capitol, 2007)
40 TV on the Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain (Interscope, 2006)
39 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (Merge, 2007)
38 Gentleman Jesse - Introducing Gentleman Jesse (Douchemaster, 2008)
37 Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days (Sub Pop, 2004)
36 Pedro The Lion - Control (Jade Tree, 2002)
35 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino, 2009)
34 Various artists - O Brother Where Art Thou? (Mercury, 2001)
33 Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head (Capitol, 2002)
32 The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (Warner Bros., 2002)
31 Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism (Barsuk, 2003)
30 Damien Rice - O (Vector, 2003)
29 Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar, 2008)
28 Paul Westerberg - Folker (Vagrant, 2004)
27 Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day (New West, 2003)
26 Over the Rhine - Ohio (2004)
25 Sigur Rós - Med ud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust (XL, 2008)
24 The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (Sub Pop, 2003)
23 Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker (Bloodshot, 2000)
22 The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (Capitol, 2006)
21 Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (XL, 2008)
20 The National - Boxer (Beggars Banquet, 2007)
19 Beck - Sea Change (Interscope, 2002)
18 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (Universal Republic, 2007)
17 Kanye West - The College Dropout (Roc-A-Fella, 2004)
16 Rufus Wainwright - Want One (Dreamworks, 2003)
15 Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses (ATO, 2002)
14 The Strokes - Is This It (RCA, 2001)
13 Josh Ritter - The Animal Years (V2, 2006)
12 Spoon - Kill the Moonlight (Merge, 2002)
11 The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America (Vagrant, 2006)
10 M.I.A. - Arular (Interscope, 2005)
09 The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You (Columbia/American, 2009)
08 OutKast - Stankonia (Arista/LaFace, 2000)
07 Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator) (Acony, 2001)
06 The White Stripes - Elephant (V2, 2003)
05 Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (Saddle Creek, 2005)
04 Radiohead - Kid A (Capitol, 2000)
03 Arcade Fire - Funeral (Merge, 2004)
02 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch, 2002)
01 Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty, 2005)

Do let me know if I should reconsider any of my assessments.

The Sugar Haul

Happy Halloween to all. The boys successfully brought in bags of candy last night, which combined with the end of daylight savings time (a convention that drives me a bit crazy) has led to requests for candy starting at 8 a.m. this morning! For those who haven't met the boys yet, here is your legend for future reference here at cps consolidated:

• The Skeleton = The Artist
• Obi-wan = The Engineer
• Captain Rex = well, The Captain

Friends and family know where to get more details and photos about the Brothers K Halloween.

Avett Brothers,Backwards, Part I

Another musical admission on my part. I had never listened to, much less owned, an Avett Brothers album prior to this month. That is notable because if the two albums I now have in my possession--which have been on almost constant play for two or three weeks--are any indication, I am a huge Avetts fan. I knew they were out there. I knew lots of people who admired their work. I just never acted on that information. Until now.

It started with NPR's All Songs Considered streaming the new album I & Love & You which I listened to repeatedly (while concentrating deeply on my work of course). I couldn't listen all that closely but I could tell I liked it and away we went. Now I know that this album, their first on a major label, has been received a lukewarm response from the critics for not being as cutting edge and adventuresome, for being sappy and not "true" enough--but really that narrative is so predictable it isn't worth worrying over. Then again, who am I to say since I am coming at their work from this perspective?

Well, here are a few of the reasons I have been enjoying this album and we will get to the Brothers in general in a minute.

• The album as a whole is uplifting which is not to say that all the songs are happy or upbeat, although some certainly are. It is uplifting to me because the lyrics seem primarily about trying to deal with life--the good, bad, happy, sad--as it comes without overstatement. They realize certain things at this point in their life but aren't preaching to anyone that they have all the answers. It is what it is.
• The music is simply put, beautiful. The arrangements have plenty going on but with lots of space among the instruments. This is helped by a really wonderful mix where each instrument comes out clean but integrated. And of course, that all rides on top of simply wonderful songs.
• Even if they are not as adventuresome here, it is clear that these guys have a good understanding of a wide range of music and the influences, from bluegrass to jazz to blues comes through.
• And ultimately it is perhaps because the music speaks to me both lyrically and musically.

Now I am going to try to be less mp3 heavy here in the new space (and somehow I imagine Sony will swoop down in a heartbeat if I sample this album), so here is the title track video. This tune which opens the album, definitely exemplifies the "here is where I am at in life" now approach of many of the songs. It is one of the many fine ballads on the album, but there are certainly other more upbeat tunes and also darker songs as well.


Now in the interest of time (mine and yours), I will come back to these brothers in another post to look at an earlier effort as I work my way back through their catalog.

Cuz it's about the blog, not time.

So this is the new space that I am going to now try to occupy. Why?

For starters, I wanted to try a new place that was different from The Tuning Room and other efforts where I had partitioned my life into particular interests and so it seemed like I could only post on limited issues. I recognize that is silly in some ways as I could have just posted on anything at that site, but The Room was built around being an mp3 blog and I want to get away from being limited to just that genre. I also always felt like I had to do considerable work to post on music, trying to find a new angle on music that so many others had already written about. That said, I still intend to write a lot about music and promote artists I find interesting.

Just another version of that same rationale was that I wanted to create a space to post shorter observations and accounts of life that were more about the various and interconnected parts of my life--kids, work, nature, projects and all the day to day that actually consumes life. The image of the aspens is obviously intentional since an aspen stand is all connected underground and that is how I feel about my life.

Finally, I really love the blog platform and wanted to create both a place to write about life more generally and also have a more personal blog if that isn't an oxymoron. My sense of blogging has always been about connections with friends and family and I am hoping this new space will be about that in a more expansive way than The Room was.

So, no promises, because as my title suggests, it really is a question about time and not the platform, but my intention is to be a bit more spontaneous and less formal. We will see how it goes.