Musik

Watched an old movie tonight with my wife. Notting Hill. Sappy - laugh if you must. The score for the movie is quite brilliant. The main theme has so much texture and they were very creative with the way it was weaved through out the film.
I was once a fan of making mixed tapes. I once made one for a particular girl who I happened to be dating. I had several great tunes on this tape. If you know me, you know how much time I put into this 60 minute tape. It took 3 rough mixes to get it all together. At the end, I took great care to put 3 instrumentals that I thought to be quite nice.
I knew we would never last when she finally listened to the tape all the way through and said "most of the songs were nice, but why'd you waste the end of the tape with that music with no words?"
I could have pushed her out of the truck.

The Leader of the Band Has Died . . .

I was sad to read that Dan Fogelburg passed away yesterday morning. There are so many influences that pushed me toward music. Fogelburg is one of the bigger ones. When I think of singer/songwriters, he is one of the first that comes up. His delivery of heavy lyrics in such a sincere package of melody always shot right through my heart.
When I was a kid, I used to go to work with my father any time I had a day off of school. I can remember his alarm clock going off and being tuned to AM 750 in Atlanta. Back in the day, they used to play music during their morning broadcast. Great AM classics from Dan Fogelburg, Stephen Bishop, the Beatles, Julian Lennon. All sappy - all have shaped my view of music. I'll never forget riding to the job site with my dad nodding in and out of sleep with all of this music in my head. I can still remember the first time I heard Fogelburg's "Leader of the Band". I always feel overwhelmed when I hear "Same Old Lang Syne" - I once LIVED the experience described in that song . He put into words what I have only wished. I will miss him greatly.

A Smarter Germany

BERLIN (Reuters) - German federal and state interior ministers declared the Church of Scientology unconstitutional on Friday, opening the door for a possible ban on the organization.
Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and 16 state interior chiefs agreed "that we do not consider Scientology an organization that is compatible with the constitution," Ehrhart Koerting, Berlin's interior minister and chairman of a ministers' conference in Berlin, told reporters.
Germany does not recognize Scientology as a religion. seeing it as a cult masquerading as a church to make money. Scientologists reject this view.

WHAT!! - A cult!?!?!? I'm shocked.

Big 10"

Spent the evening at L & A's house. Every Wednesday, in fact. It's become a tradition that makes our week complete. A ALWAYS cooks and there's always plenty to drink plus Top Chef, or 80's movies, or Project Runway. It's the best part of the week.
So last night, L & A had procured a bottle of Mt. Gay Rum, a bottle of Kahlua, and a bottle of So Co. L broke out his records and he and I began to pontificate about vinyl and why it is far superior to any other audio source.
I know you guys like your MP3s and your audio files from iTunes. I own an iPod - I love being able to have all of my music at my fingertips. I love being able to purchase tunes at the push of a button.
But there's something about a record. The art work is huge. You can actually see the details in the pictures ant paintings (for example, the album cover for Axis Bold As Love).


If you meet a person who has an album lover, there is an automatic kindred there. When you have albums, you have to be REALLY careful - they break, they scratch, and the have to be stored properly or you'll ruin them. They're a responsibility. A friend of mine had about 30 records he wanted to get rid of. He gave them to me. I walked into his music room and there sat one of of the most amazing collections I had ever seen. He had been collecting since he was 11. He had thousands. It was like looking at an extension of him. He had touched them, smoked around them, listened to them in college when he experimented with LSD. These things were amazing. He gave me an original 1977 Wings Over America that has been out of print since 1988. I had been looking for it forever - you know "Maybe I'm amazed" - the live version? Yup - it's on there. He GAVE them to me. He may as well have given me 20 years of his life - it felt the same to me.
I will always prefer vinyl to MP3 - analog to digital. I was born about 20 years too late.