Today! Today! Today! (A 9/11 Memorial BlogCast)

It’s been quite awhile since the self-imposed suspension of my monthly BlogCasts. But, seeing how the content, herein, engenders the spirit of community, not unlike that felt during 9/11 memorial services…

Today! Today! Today is the day to hit the comeback trail!

For those who may be new to this site, these BlogCasts, typically, feature anywhere from 3 to 5 musical selections that thematically, visually, instrumentally… sometimes even tonally… all tie together quite nicely to make a more impactful impression.

As for the specific music, at hand, we’ll get a snapshot of where America was, is, and (if we’re lucky) can be all about.

For starters, our blog topper vid, America, melds Neil Diamond’s emotionally driven, lyrical sentiments with YouTube videographer Johnny Kim’s smartly edited photo montage.  My mega-thanks to Kim, for I could ALMOST envision the (circa early 1900s) Ellis Island arrival of my own maternal and paternal grandparents.

Suffice to say, this emotionally uplifting vid offers up a welcome breath of fresh air. And that’s no easy task, considering the gloomy, funky, stale storm clouds of intolerance which hang over the White House these days. If only restoring America’s image… as a welcoming nation… were as easy as clicking onto that playback button, right?

Let’s now move along to Simon and Garfunkel’s performance of America. This track takes on a dramatically different meaning when accompanied by YouTuber Eric Schantz’s skillful edits, which reveal Saginaw, Michigan’s urban decay. Suffice to say…  we’re viewing a textbook case of greed ruining a once grand city and state. If left unchecked, it can only metastasize nationwide. Sorry to say, no matter how frequently roaring political rally throngs chant “Make America great again”, this cannot possibly come true until that hollow mantra gets backed up by substantive actions of a green nature.

BTW, be sure to keep an eagle eye out while playing back this vid. Amidst the drab scenery, you’ll discover all of the song lyrics appearing as graffiti, spray-painted on buildings, fences, vehicles, overpasses… and everything else in between.

With Michigan being my lifelong home state, I’ve felt a strong bond with this song ever since its April 1968 release date. Additionally… I’m pretty sure that, as a little boy (road tripping with my parents and sister) we did pass through Saginaw on our way to Minnesota to visit my above-mentioned grandparents.

For this BlogCast finale, I’ll also be making my own cinematic statement. You see, not unlike the B&W Kansas cross-fade to the technicolor found within the Land of Oz… less dreary / more cheery times are ahead… all courtesy of the late great Ray Charles’ rendition of America the Beautiful… visually enhanced by YouTuber 12mulligan.

Their combined creativity provides us a view of The Real America. Wow! I really do get a sense of being home, again. And, to quote one of the most memorable lines from that Wizard of Oz flick…

“There’s no place like home! There’s no place like home! There’s no place like home! There’s no place like home!”

I now thank you for stopping by and cordially invite you to check out my Sunday Song Series presentation that hits the www… when else… each Sunday… usually between midnight and six a.m. in the U.S. Eastern Time Zone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Parkland… We Will Remember (March BlogCast)

 

A little over two weeks ago, gun violence… once again… erupted and reared its ugly head, here, within gun sick America… this time the bloodshed occurring at Parkland, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Once more, the lives of innocent school kids and educators have been tragically cut short.

It is with heavy heart that I extend my condolences to their surviving families and friends. My best wishes that the wounded victims experience the speediest and most complete recoveries possible. May the living nightmare everyone has been enduring begin to ease up so, hopefully, you can start piecing your shattered lives back together again.

My respect and admiration also go outward bound to you, the surviving students, who have turned to political activism. Your resolve to ensure your voices get heard and continue to be heard by the gun lobbyist owned legislators and “president” have proven that youth is a force to be reckoned with. You do offer a glimmer of hope to all the rest of us, who’ve been feeling powerless due to our overexposure to decades’ worth of worthless, decadent politicians.

Come March 24th… when you take your March For Our Lives demonstration to Washington, DC, continue to raise your collective voice to give ‘em all hell… and don’t stop until they stop dragging their political asses.

As for my further response to this massacre, I’ve decided to suspend my regular BlogCast format in favor of providing all who perished yet another social media platform to be remembered and another opportunity for all who survived to be heard once more…

 

Parkland… We Will Remember

To Enhance The Incomplete Bios of CNN’s / Anderson Cooper’s Tribute…

The Stoneman Douglas Drama Club performs “Shine”

(An original composition to express both their sorrow and hope for a safer, saner tomorrow.)

 

 

 

BlogCast: A.M. Music For All Our Tomorrows

 

If deep within you beats the heart and resides the soul of a poet…

If you harbor a mind which freely embraces trippy imagery…

If your eyes are drawn to worldly and otherworldly scenes…

If your ears are attuned to orchestral/progressive rock fusion at it very finest…

 

Oh… have the Moody Blues, YouTube videographer Nick Mort and I ever got a musical treat for you!

 

While this rather lengthy gem tracks out at just under ten minutes, for those who truly get into entrancing, mesmerizing soundscapes, you’ll soon be wishing our shared experience had lasted much longer.

Of course, such an expansion… by a multiple of four… would be totally within the realm of possibility. All one need do is what I’ve done quite regularly over the course of the past half century… in fact just this past a.m….

Give a listen to the entire Moody Blues CD, LP… or in the case of the linked vid the cassette copy of Days of Future Passed… the band’s debut 1967 album.

True, such a playback will be minus the images, but… I’m certain most of us have experienced many of of Mother Nature’s “OH WOW” moments. So, all we need do is project our fave, personal recollections onto the big screen within the theatre of our minds.

And with that in mind,

The Day Begins / Dawn is a Feeling / Another Morning

By the Moody Blues… accompanied by The London Festival Orchestra

If you LIKE what you heard, click back here for my regular monthly BlogCast scheduled for Sunday, October 1, 2017.

Past programs are archived in my BlogCast and music categories.

 

 

July Musical BlogCast ~ Pleas For Freedom

Welcome to my July BlogCast. In a land called America (soon to celebrate its 241st birthday) there is supposed to be liberty and justice for all.

How shocking it is that such age and wisdom do not walk hand in hand. How appalling that still unresolved ethnic, religious and gender issues sow the seeds of deadly oppression and hate crimes.

Where all people are not allowed to be free there can be no true, free society.

Each of this month’s recording artists have so powerfully presented their appeals for freedom that there’s absolutely no need for any further DJ type set up.

Let’s let the music speak for itself…

 

Beyoncé ~ Freedom

Ardee ~ #BlackLivesMatter (Freedom)

Pharrell Williams ~ Freedom

Thank you for clicking by for a listen. If you like what you’ve heard today, be sure to stop back again on Tuesday, August 1, 2017 for my next regularly scheduled monthly BlogCast.

To access past programs, click unto my BlogCasts and Music categories.

 

June Blogcast ~ “Horny” Music

A key element in the success of any recording artist is in the divining and defining of one’s “sound”… i.e. developing a “sound”, which is so distinctive that, even if… oh… say… an on-the-air or club DJ were to fail to announce a band by name, nearly everyone could instantly identify it upon hearing only the song’s opening notes.

Undoubtedly, the trailblazing Beatles’ album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band¹… with it’s opening, horn section enhanced title track… had inspired other musicians to be as musically adventurous as they had been… in this case… to go onward to fearlessly front the brassy bands from that same 60s and 70s epoch… e.g. Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Ides of March and Lighthouse.

On a technical note, YouTube advertisements frequently ruin my segues… but if you’re sufficiently adventurous and resolute… i.e., (time permitting) track through these selections more than once… there may be occasions when they’ll play minus the commercials. At the risk of “tooting my own horn”, that Chicago and BS&T segue… in particular… really does sound fabulous. If you luck out and time it out right, you can simultaneously play… mix together… these two tracks’ concluding and opening crescendos.

And that having been said… the time has arrived for me to clam up and allow these four bands to amply speak for themselves… little doubt… after a few words from our sponsors…

Chicago ~ Make Me Smile

Blood, Sweat & Tears ~ Spinning Wheel

Ides of March ~ Vehicle

Lighthouse ~ Pretty Lady

If you like what you heard on this day, I invite you back to give a listen to my next BlogCast… slated to hit the www on Saturday, July 1, 2017.

If you’d like to experience past BlogCasts, they are neatly filed away within my BlogCast and Music Categories.

¹Released in the UK 50 years ago on May 26, 1967 and in the U.S. on June 1, 1967

Musical BlogCast ~ Just Going Through A Phase

 

A “leader”, who shall go nameless, has been going on a rampage from Day One… posing a major threat to humanity’s very survival. If not an outright, treasonous, political puppet or “just” pure evil, might we categorize him as a terrible two tyke experiencing a major meltdown… exhibiting a YUGE temper tantrum to our horrified, global community?

Would a spin-doctor’s diagnosis be, “Oh… he’s just going through a phase?”

If so… WTF would it take for “junior”, to stop blowing up and start growing up? A go stand in the corner time out would seem rather pointless docha think? After all… in his oval digs, there are no such architectural structures.

But… even in a rectangular setting that would still be a moot point. Very few of his running amuck, fellow political party, party animal enablers seem willing to trot out the inter-branch, governmental checks and balances. And if they cannot muster the maturity and courage to administer the necessary Constitutional tough love to discipline this tyrant… what’s left?

Well folks, how about a much needed (albeit temporary) musical diversion?

How about an unscheduled, mid-May BlogCast where I’ll be going through a phase? More to the point… phasing the music.

One of the really cool “tricks of the DJ trade” involves taking the two turntables, at hand, to the outer limits; especially if they have pitch controls, which does greatly facilitate such phasing.

But even if the available tech is not sufficiently fancy schmancy to allow the jock to slightly vary the speed… i.e., so one turntable plays infinitesimally faster than the customary 33 1/3 and 45 RPM… not all hope is lost.

Now, let’s say we’re dealing with the less sophisticated tech scenario. As is often the case, even when comparing the performances of two “identical” model numbered turntables, manufacturing tolerances (i.e., variances in speed) will handily come into play. That’s the key element! (Oh…btw… CD players are also subject to similar, unintended speed variables… ergo… this makes phasing compact discs possible, too).

What the DJ does is cue up two identical copies of a recorded song and then start up the slightly faster player a few “microseconds” AFTER the slower one. (S)he’ll then keep the faster player’s sound “off the air” while monitoring its progress with a pair of headphones… awaiting the ideal moment… that point just before it catches up with the slower one. At that juncture, (s)he’ll gradually increase the volume of the off-the-air turntable… mix that audio output into the over-the-air signal.

The sound waves between the two will then start to “duke it out” as they get closer and closer to synchronization… thereby producing those hippie, trippy, nearly otherworldly sound effects.

Seeing that I don’t have the ability to actually demonstrate this, I now present four recordings where no timing rigmarole is required…

That’s because similar audio wizardry was employed at the recording studio level to permanently incorporate these spacy effects into the master tape.

Of course in playing these tracks back, we’re bound to encounter some ads, which, regrettably, will disrupt our ability to directly segue this special music… but… after all… YouTube’s “paying the piper” is also a fact of life in the DJ trade.

 

Arbors ~ The Letter

Small Faces ~ Itchycoo Park

Bloomfield, Kooper & Stills ~ You Don’t Love Me

Doobie Brothers ~ Listen To The Music (Drum Cover by Sina)

 

If you liked what you heard today, click back for my June 1, 2017 BlogCast.

 

May BlogCast ~ Swan Songs(?) For a Troubled World

Welcome to my BlogCast… this installment is focused on May themed lyrics and song titles.

Admittedly, I’m posting this content a day later than originally intended… my excuse for this tardiness being the difficulty in getting motivated to blog much of anything here @WordPress… not while we’re all standing by, helplessly, eye witnessing Tweetie so thoughtlessly… so gleefully… bullying other likeminded, mindless “leaders”… and then… to add injury to insult… punctuating his 140 characters by casually and callously firing off missiles and dropping the MOAB (Mother of all Bombs).

We might categorize what has transpired within his first 100 days as nuclear brinksmanship, but that would imply that he would know when it’s time to back down (many doubt he does). Left unchecked by sounder minds, all his daring (and double daring) winds up accomplishing is inculcating absolute zero respect (for him) and boundless enmity (towards America)… from whomever he trains his antisocial media crosshairs on.

IN THE END that can only escalate us / the US towards WW-III.

In all honesty… if (when?) Tweetie pushes the button… given my druthers… I’d much prefer residing smack, dead center of some soon-to-be, ground zero bull’s-eye than winding up condemned to becoming either a buried alive, fallout shelter dweller or a staggering, irradiated, rotting corpse existing within his zombie apocalypse.

Sorry to start off on such a downer, but having this discussion is relevant. You see, it was my somber, reflective, angst-ridden mood that got factored into the emotional mix… and played a significant role in what became this month’s musical mix.

True, the lead song qualifies as upbeat… but after that? Well… I found it impossible to maintain this mood… as is evident re the concluding two tracks.

There is one additional noteworthy aspect… the stunning visuals accompanying these tunes… which draw our attention to the natural beauty and fragility of planet Earth and our DNA… which should serve to remind all of humanity of all we stand to lose if (when?) Tweetie loses his temper… and of how, once, in the thick of that post WW-III nuclear winter… “survivors” will soon long for freshly rain-washed air, clear skies, sunrises and sunsets… will soon discover something as primal as falling in love to be complicated and (perhaps in this cataclysmic context) even pointless.

And that all duly noted, it’s time for the music to do the rest of the “talking”…

Temptations ~ My Girl

Bee Gees ~ First of May

Michael Bublé ~ End of May

My props to the inestimable, inexhaustible talents of the YouTube videographers who have made possible all viewed and heard here, this day.

If you’ve liked what you’ve heard, stop by for my next BlogCast on (or in the temporal vicinity of) Thursday, June 1, 2017… i.e., if humanity survives that long.

Musical BlogCast ~ No Foolin’… April Or Otherwise

My greetings go out to music lovers everywhere and my thanks go out to GWB… the biggest fool to ever hit the big time… for his so “adeptly” setting up this month’s BlogCast theme.

Considering the diversity of musical genre and wealth of compositions with the word, “fool” incorporated into the title/lyrics, distilling a playlist down to a scant five songs was one tough task… no… strike that… a much-welcomed labor of love.

Had I the opportunity to actually broadcast on the air or stream online, I could’ve easily maxed out an hour’s worth of programming… if not longer… no foolin’.

Since my BlogCasting philosophy / focus, as always, has been to keep the chitchat to a minimum… i.e, to let the music do all the talking… let’s get these tunes a’trackin’…

 

Aretha Franklin ~ Chain Of Fools

Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers ~ Why Do Fools Fall In Love

Quarterflash ~ Find Another Fool

A bit of a downshifting in the musical gears… that’ll permit Patti, Tegan and Sara to cool things musically and emotionally… like only they can. Enjoy…

Patti Smith ~ April Fool

Tegan and Sara – I Was A Fool

Mega thanks to all who stopped by to listen. If you found the mix to your liking, do stop by again… my next BlogCast will be on Monday, May 1, 2017.

 

March BlogCast ~ Don’t Touch That Dial!

I swear to my Creator that there’s not a speck of narcissism involved. Just for the pure fun of it, this DJ is about to spin five tunes about DJs, radio stations, radio static, etc.

Synopsis: As our story begins Chuck Berry’s intent is to request a song… to “write a little letter” and “mail it to (his) local DJ”… followed by Bob Seger listening intently to the Heavy Music on his radio “when the big bad beat comes on.” btw, the song title below is a link to a video which features Fred Astaire dancing to Seger’s Heavy Music. A bit of a caveat, while the visual aspects are excellent, regrettably, the sound quality is poor… in DJ parlance the off center vinyl pressing created a mild case of the “wows”.

Soon after that, the Kinks supersonic rock sends us soaring up, Up and Away on our musical journey Around the Dial… however… at this juncture, there’s a bit of mystery unfolding… Ray Davies’ lyrical reportage claiming “one of our DJs is missing.”

Perhaps an alien abduction is afoot… as suggested by David Bowie’s Starman… lyrics about the late night ambient lighting set low and the listener leaning back on his radio… more to the point… “That weren’t no DJ that was hazy cosmic jive”. Oh, btw, many of you Sci-Fi aficionados will likely recognize this Bowie tune from the film soundtrack: The Martian.

Coming full circle… once again we’re back on terra firma, where the earthly static reasserts itself ala Ten Years After rockin’ ‘n’ rollin’ us to wrap up this March BlogCast.

 

Chuck Berry ~ Roll Over Beethoven

Bob Seger ~ Heavy Music

Kinks ~ Around The Dial

David Bowie ~ Starman

Ten Years After ~ Baby Won’t You Let Me Rock ‘n’ Roll You

If you’ve liked what you’ve heard, my next blogcast will be on April 1, 2017… no foolin’!

 

February Blogcast ~ “The Whole World Is Watching!”

Playback of the above video (prior to reading this blog) will set the proper mood. Now… to put this in DJ parlance…

Catch ya on the other side!

Whew! Can you believe the power and range of Ms. Cristina Ramos’ voice? WOW! The way she belted out that blow-the-roof-off-da-dump cover of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell amply proves she’s truly a force of nature! Considering this vid’s nearly one-year-old, YouTube posting date, her statement was purely musical… not political… totally unrelated to America’s more recent, rocky transition of power.

Even so, I’ve come to consider Ms. Ramos’ abrupt segue of musical genre… from potent operatic to kickass raunch and roll… as emblematic to my country’s regrettable transition from the sane, sober, mellifluous maturity of Constitutional scholar President Barack Obama to the chaotic, whack-a-doodle, whiny infantilism of Constitutional shredder #45.

Now… don’t misconstrue my meaning here. In no way am I maligning hard rock. To the contrary, we liberals (and I suspect even a few moderates, too)… a.k.a. the no longer represented Americans… are hankering for a new, ire inspiring National Anthem such as this… and We must make such a song the rallying cry to energize the picking up steam resistance movement.

Again… don’t misconstrue my meaning here. Above all else, I am a pacifist… and while there’s nothing I’d like to see more than We The People, somehow, some way, smoothing over the new régime’s rough edges through coolheaded, common sense and Constitutional channels… well…

Let’s just say that the dissent will remain orderly so long as these powers-that-be are willing to be humbled by some incontrovertible and damning statistics. Those, which prove only 25% of Americans elected #45 and only 25% of all polled Americans approve of him. Any normal man would realize he’s… uh… to be charitable here… not well liked.

Of course, since words such as “humbled” and “normal” are a bit of a stretch… well… that means there’s now a whole new connotation to those AC/DC lyrics…

“We’re on the Highway to HELL!”

In the political equation… America = We the People. That means We are in for a bumpy ride AND are going to need more music… more rallying songs.

My having come of age during the turbulent Sixties, the following tunes immediately come to mind. My generation oft literally poured into the streets to express our bipartisan outrage… first directed at Democratic Prez Lyndon B. Johnson and, soon afterward, zeroed in on political zero Republican Prez Richard M. Nixon. The societal changes we sought were to establish essential civil rights and put an end to needless war. Regrettably, the new admin is now gleefully gutting whatever modest gains were made during that era.

And that said… it’s time to let the music do the rest of the “talking”.

 

Rolling Stones ~ Street Fighting Man

Graham Nash ~ Chicago / We Can Change The World

Chicago ~ Prologue / Someday August 29, 1968 (“The Whole World Is Watching”)

Tending to some Old Biz…

My apologies for being nearly two weeks late in posting this February BlogCast… we can blame that on my feeling excessively bummed out about the new régime’s takeover overthrow of America. I’ll try not to let them drag me down again.

Onward and upward to the New Biz…

So long as I’m firing off synapses in my brain… my ten fingers are able to navigate my keyboard… and my American freedom persists… my next BlogCast will be on March 1, 2017… stay tuned…