Wednesday, May 20, 2009

I love a good cover

Here's an old tune called "Love Vigilantes" by an old favorite band of mine, New Order:



Here's that same tune covered by Sam Beam of Iron & Wine. He played this last week at the solo show I saw with some friends up in Chicago. It was a great night, and this was one of the best songs of the set.

(update: apparently, they just played the tune on Fallon's late night show--I'll put it up here too)



Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Vintage Vinyl

I got a turntable for my birthday and have slowly been building up a small record collection.

Last Saturday, our local public radio station had a pledge drive where local listeners could donate their old records, cds, movies and electronic equipment. Then, folks like me could come and buy it up at $1-$2 a pop. I spent about $35. Here's what I got:

Soundtracks:
Fiddler on the Roof Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Mary Poppins Original Cast Soundtrack
Boris Karloff reads Peter and the Wolf

Old-time Country:
Country's Greatest Hits
60 Years of Country Music

(Believe it or not, these are two I am most interested in and most excited about--We're not talking contemporary, corporate Country here, folks. We're talking roots music and I'm eating it up. I'm really excited about exploring roots stuff and part of that search starts here, I figure. It goes back to the early early stuff: Jimmie Rodgers, Carter Family, Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, woo!)

60s & 70s
The Best of Buffy Sainte Marie (this is a wild card, actually--I've never heard of her, but she had a resonator guitar on the cover of the album and I thought, "eh--it's only a buck!"
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: 4 Way Street
John Denver- Back Home Again (with Grandma's Feather Bed!)
History of Eric Clapton
Beach Boys- Endless Summer (this is the only one I kind of regret--I should have got a real Beach Boys album, but I don't think they had any)

Hits collections from:
Gladys Knight & the Pips
Ray Charles
The Temptations

Elton John- Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (this record has my favorite EJ song on it, "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" and really rad packaging. I have seen it in record stores for $15, I got it for $1)

James Taylor:
Flag
Sweet Baby James
In the Pocket
(I have 5 JT records now)

Stevie Wonder: Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants (this one I'd never heard of, and was unopened. It's a soundtrack, I guess.)

80s!
Micheal Jackson- Thriller (Seth really loves the tune "Beat It"--he's gonna love Thriller)
Genesis- Invisible Touch (Probably the first record I ever listened to in it's entirety, 7 years old at Justin's house)
Tracy Chapman- Eponymous ('cause she's awesome)

Pretty eclectic little collection, eh? I'm having fun and all of this great music cost about the equivalent of two or three new CDs.

I also bought a pair of speakers for $5. Trying to think of a rig where i can set them up in the kitchen or basement and run them off my receiver's B channel.

Fun stuff.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Final for Writing For the Web: Sonic Rhetorics

I haven't posted anything for quite some time--

However, today I turned in my final project of the semester and will let a little vacation seep in until I begin teaching again early next month.

Here is a link to my final site created for my Writing for the Web course. I'm very excited about it, even if it is not quite completely functional. It will eventually work like a blog where I can post stuff (or links to stuff, rather) that I think functions as what I am calling Sonic Rhetorics--basically, the ways in which sound as music, rhythm, vocalization, noise, etc. operates as influencing discourse. So, if all goes as planned (and with a little help from my friends), this little beta-version of the site will soon be a full-fledged academic blog.

I'm hoping that it will help me start to find a focus for my future work on a dissertation (which I am thinking more and more will explore music/sound as rhetoric) and also, perhaps, put me on the map as someone who does that kind of work.

I'll let you know when the site is ready to function as a blog and you can get it syndicated with an RSS feed. I am playing with the idea of starting a sonicrhetorics twitter account from which I will also send out micro blogs on the subjects I highlight on the main site.

It's really fun and satisfying to find an academic focal point. Here's to hoping this one sticks!