What happens when a reporter quits her job, then decides to include some news coverage in her persoanl blog – but writes what she’s actually thinking? Apparently, the Top-4 Crime Scenes list is what happens…
In lieu of anything more substantive (considering I’m three days off-the-wagon now, and feeling thoroughly ashamed)…
Each year, WBER holds a listener vote for the top songs from the last 12 months, then does an uber-countdown to the winner on New Year’s Day. As it turns out, voting for the top songs of 2007 is now open…
I’d tell you who think will win, but I think it’d be better if you tuned in yourself on January first to hear the real deal…
While the last couple of weeks have brought the excitement of new experiences, the fun of visits from friends and the joy of celebrations, they’ve left little room for Saturday Morning Tuneage. What they have offered is some time to absorb new music – cruising in the car with WBER, perusing the “virtual” new releases rack over at Amazon MP3, and trying some new (and not-so-new) albums on for size on my iPod.
So much as our moods change, so does the music we thirst for – and with Thanksgiving and the winter’s first snowfall arriving this week, my mood and my music have been quiet, soulful and contemplative. Music that’s perfect for driving at night, keeping time in lieu of the windshield wipers. Or sipping hot mulled cider with a fire crackling in the fireplace. Or just humming a melody quietly as I plod up the steps toward a warm bed.
It might seem odd that I’d find the source for such a thing behind the driving beat of what one Amazon reviewer called “the future of piano rock.” The song was Love Song, a piano-powered track that headlined the second studio release, Little Voice, from California-grown Sara Bareilles. Featured as the iTunes free song of the week just before the album’s release in early July, Love Song caught a sizable slice of attention, and found a home on the airwaves soon after. To say it’s anything short of rock-out-worthy would be far short of the whole story – she takes me right back to seeing Sarah Slean rock the Water Street Music Hall, with all the gusto of Ben Folds on the black-and-whites.
But what about soulful and contemplative? For that, look beyond the single to the rest of the album. Sara’s keyboards are mixed beautifully with acoustic guitar and expressive lyrics in One Sweet Love, a perfect companion for the peculiar romance of a wet road, a cold night and a hot cup of coffee. Gravity, a melodic exploration of “go or stay” emotions, is likely my favorite of the album’s songs – you can hear Sara’s soul drip from her fingertips onto the piano, and listening to her voice as she nails every passionate note gives a stirring look straight into the clash of feelings that are pouring out of her.
You needn’t take my word for it though; turn up the volume and watch her perform the song solo over at Amazon… Video: Sara Bareilles – Gravity
Little Voice, Sara’s major-label debut, is already being compared with the likes of Sarah McLachlan and Alicia Keys. With any luck, it’ll see the success it so clearly deserves – and find a place in your music collection. Meanwhile, I’ll be searching for her now out-of-print independent first offering, Careful Confessions. Given the great work she’s put into Little Voice, I’m confident the search will be worth the effort! Unfortunately, neither are available via the popular DRM-free download stores (Careful Confessions was even pulled from CDBaby), so the good old-fasioned pressed CD will have to remain the best way to add them to your collection.
Yes, it’s another complete-waste-of-bytes meme. Except this one is a daverea.com original, and this one is meant just for all you NaBloPoMo posters out there who are looking for filler material!
If You Could…
…change one insignificant, meaningless, trivial thing about the world, it would be:
The little signature strips on the backs of credit cards. They’re too small, and they stifle the signatorial creativity of millions. It’s time our signatures were set free!
…acquire any one useless but entertaining skill, it would be:
Learn to drive an autocross course backwards. Very fast. In someone else’s car.
…star in your own comic book adventure, your name and super-power would be:
“Ubergeek!”, who can solder 0201 resistors without the aid of a microscope! Oh, wait, already do that. Ahem. Um. “Ubergeek!”, who can carry on a conversation without staring at both parties’ shoes throughout!
…do one otherwise-frowned-upon thing everyone secretly wants to do without being challenged or confronted, it would be:
Calmly walk up to a chatty bluetooth-enabled real estate broker at the supermarket deli, wordlessly remove the little blinking communications appendage from her ear and drop it into a passing cleaner’s mop bucket. Yes, I realize a lot of things would have to come together perfectly to make this happen, but we’re squarely in the realm of the hypothetical here, mmkay?
Of course, feel free to spread the love, and add your own hypotheticals. And maybe use the trackback? Please?
I often wonder whether changes I observe in the world around me are really changes, or whether they’re just the percieved by-products of my becoming more aware of that world’s subtler aspects. Are people really getting more and more rude all around me, or am I just now noticing their discourtesy? Or, are my standards getting higher as those of strangers remain the same?
In any case, it brought a wide grin to my face to see Garrett’s latest post over at the Vanilla Garlic foodblog, entitled “Floral prints, frat boys and gum”. As someone who often has trouble containing myself (or at times just gives up entirely, much to my lovely [and far more composed] wife’s dismay) when others do unpleasant things within the sphere of my daily experience, I can certainly sympathize with his perspective. Now if only I could have a similar experience once in a while!
Rest assured, if I do, you’ll hear about it here!
…I opted to spend some time out in the woods:
After 11 hunting seasons spent in the woods, all that practice and preparation and anticipation and frusteration finally paid off! Of course it helps, as shuttle astronaut Mike Mullane put it, to be in a “target-rich environment”! In this case, a friend from work was gracious (or sympathetic? or both?) enough to welcome me to his nothing-less-than-spectacularly-beautiful property for an opening-morning hunt.
Last winter, I found myself behind the 8-ball as the first snow flew and our home’s exterior was still in summertime mode. Not so this year, thanks to a conveniently-placed GM holiday and some totally-decent weather. After a morning spent with a friend walking his hunting property, I set to work…
The first order of business was doing the semi-annual “shed exchange” … where the golf clubs, outdoor furniture and lawnmower go in – and the snowblower comes out. Of course, with the snowblower’s reappearance also comes the necessity for an oil change – and with that, the necessity for a trip to the gas station to get some 5W-30.
Now, it’s time to pull the bikes down into the basement, install the front storm door and – if I’m feeling brave – venture up to the roof to blow out the gutters.
[I think this post most squarely resides in the "free to disregard" portion of this blog's tagline! But hey, it's NaBloPoMo and I missed yesterday...]
We present: The Many Names of David Ryder
[Hat tip: Andy and Crack on Tour Radio]
Loading ...