A Sweet Unrest

Can't leave rap alone

 

Very little idea what these youngsters The Game and his friend Dre are on about, but what a groove. Download for free, repeat endlessly.

 

Uneasy in my easy chair

Ah, January: month of new leaves, fresh starts and regret.  Should you find yourself up in the wee hours seeking a no-longer-there warmth from the hot water bottle, listening for cars outside the window and thinking of bygones, may I offer you this-

Stan Getz & Oscar Peterson - It Never Entered My Mind (live)

Happy New Year x

Golly what a spirit

I've never been there, not yet, but this is one of my most favorite Christmas songs.  I love the way it radiates warmth while remaining completely cool, big and easy indeed.  

Louis Armstrong - Christmas In New Orleans

May your days be merry and bright x

The Gate

The Gate by Marie Howe   

 

I had no idea that the gate I would step through
to finally enter this world

would be the space my brother's body made.  He was
a little taller than me: a young man

but grown, himself by then,
done at twenty-eight, having folded every sheet,

rinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the cold
and running water.

This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me.
And I'd say, What?

And he'd say, This - holding up my cheese and mustard sandwich.

And I'd say, What?

And he'd say, This, sort of looking around. 

(mini) Mixtape Tuesday: Do You Kiss Your Mother With A Mouth Like That

The Christmas shopping is not going as smoothly as it could.  My younger son's list includes (but is not limited to):

- A penny that rolls by itself
- A 'magnetic' (?) heliocopter with a monster inside
- A dragon 

Santa, if you are reading, please advise.

Below you will find my favorite playlist of the moment.  It's Christmas tune free, in case you need a break.  I especially love the Benjamin Gibbard one-  maybe it makes some kind of sense that an aging showgirl would find resonance in a song about a replaced monument.  God bless the tunes x

Do You Kiss Your Mother With A Mouth Like That by Asweetunrest on Mixcloud

Happy Thanksgiving

 

I'm so grateful for my bloggy friends and our small little corner of the Internet.

Let's dance- and then have a feast.

 Louis Jordan - Beans and Cornbread

Mysterious transactions

I loved this.  It is exactly what it says, essays about how she became the poet she is.  But of course in a larger sense it is about one person finding her way, partially, through books, through reading the carefully chosen words of other people.

 One thing she writes-

"Poems are read in lonely rooms, in solitary humors, by people for whom the love of poetry is a do-or-die part of their lives.  The poem and the reader enter into a mysterious transaction, composed of time and memory and obsession.  The mystery of it resides in the fact that- if it is a good poem, or even a great one- the mortal reader will assist it to live on."

Festive Fifty Voting

We haven't had too many Contrast Podcasts this year, but James and Tim are putting together our annual Festive Fifty episodes as I write this.  Here is the info from James if you want to take part.  I can't wait to hear the voices of my old CP friends plus the surprise guests that usually pop up and maybe some new voices too.  Send your picks to James - [email protected]

1. From the list below, pick your 10 favorite songs

2. Arrange them in order from 1-10 with 1 being your most favorite.

3. If you choose to, you can give a negative vote to any one song.

4. Share the list! Get more people to vote! Facebook! Blog! Twitter! Tumblr!

Please do all of the above by Sunday, November 25th

Thanks,

Happy Voting!

James

A.C. Newman - I'm Not Talking

Adele - Skyfall

Alabama Shakes - Be Mine

Alabama Shakes - Hold On

Amy Cook - Getting to You

Anais Mitchell - Young Man in America

Antlers - Drift Dive

Bat For Lashes - Laura

Beach House - Myth

Beach House - Other People

Ben Folds Five - Do It Anyway

Bill Fay - Cosmic Concerto

Bright Light Bright Light - Cry at Films

Brother Ali - Mourning in America

Bruce Springsteen - Land of Hope & Dreams

Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball

Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe

Cat Power - Ruin

Chromatics - Kill For Love

Chuck Prophet - Play That Song Again

Crocodiles - Endless Flowers

Curtis Stigers - Things Have Changed

Daughter - Candles

David Byrne & St. Vincent - Who

Dexy's - Free

Dexy's - Nowhere is Home

Divine Fits - Would That Not Be Nice

Django Django - Default

Father John Misty - Hollywood Forever Cemetary Sings

Field Music - A New Town

Fiona Apple - Every Single Night

First Aid Kit - Emmylou

First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

Frank Ocean - Thinkin Bout You

fun. - Some Nights

fun. - We Are Young

Giant Giant Sand - Forever and a Day

Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - Never Go Back

Grimes - Genesis

Grimes - Oblivion

Grizzly Bear - Sleeping Ute

Grizzly Bear - Yet Again

Harmed Brothers - A Letter to Lisa

Isaiah Toothtaker - LA Nights

Jack White - I'm Shakin

Japandroids - Continuous Thunder

Japandroids - The House That Heaven Built

Jason Lytle - Department of Disappearance

Kanye West et al - Clique

Kendrick Lamar - Backseat Freestyle

Killers - Runaways

Lana Del Rey - Video Games

Linden - If I Had Wings

Lumineers - Ho Hey

Magnetic Fields - Andrew in Drag

Metric - Breathing Underwater

METZ - Wet Blanket

Meursault - Flittin'

Meursault - Settling

Muse - Madness

Muse - Survival

Mynabirds - Generals

North Sea Scrolls - Witches in the Water

Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks

Offspring - Secrets From the Underground

Offspring - The Future is Now

P.O.S - Fuck Your Stuff

P.O.S - Get Down

Passion Pit - Constant Conversations

Perfume Genius - Hood

Phantom Limb - The Pines

Ponderosa - For Here I Am Born

Psyched - Cut the Chord

Purity Ring - Fineshrine

Purity Ring - Obedear

Raul Midon - Sunshine "I can fly" (Live)

Richard Hawley - Leave Your Body Behind You

Santigold - Disparate Youth

School of Seven Bells - The Night

Sharon Van Etten - Serpents

Shearwater - Dread Sovereign

Shins - Simple Song

Sigur Ros - Ekki Mukk

Sigur Ros - Varud

Tallest Man on Earth - 1904

Tame Impala - Elephant

Tender Trap - Love is Hard Enough

Ting Tings - Hit Me Down Sonny

TNGHT - Higher Ground

Trampled By Turtles - Alone

Triggerfinger - I Will Follow (live)

Twilight Sad - Another Bed

Underworld - And I Will Kiss

Very Best - We Ok

Vespers - Better Now

Walkmen - Heaven

Wedding Present - Deer Caught in the Headlights

White Rabbits - Heavy Metal

xx - Angels

Mixtape Monday (on Tuesday): Indestructible Soul

I tried to do this yesterday but my Internet connection had other ideas.

This playlist is made from one of my brother's old radio shows.  He was playing a string of hip hop classics one day in December 1998 and some unknown soul popped a cassette into their system, taped a part of the show, hung onto it for years and then sent it into a local hip hop archive who sent me a copy.  Some of the songs cut off on the tape and so making a playlist of it is something I've wanted to do for a while.  I hope you enjoy hearing some of the oldies once again as much as I do.

ps- Language not suitable for listening with the little ones! 

Indestructible Soul by Asweetunrest on Mixcloud

Picture Show #2

1. Bottega Veneta Fall 2012 ad which reminded me of the first picture last time I did this (Breakout Session: "Is Fashion Art? Re/Imagining the Body" 3:30PM, Lido Deck, BYOB)  2. From a book of Henri Cartier-Bresson's photography 3. A page from the book Paris In Color  4. Carla Bruni by Bharat Sikka, from her No Promises CD 5. Grooves in San Francisco as captured in the book Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop  6. A café in Vienna from the book Kaffehaus  7. Peasant Meal by Le Nain, in Paintings in the Louvre  8. A Dancer of the Ouled Nail by Etienne Dinet in the book Serpent of the Nile (I recently saw two dancers of this style at a festival I was taking part in and the costumes were absolutely breathtaking in person)  9. Breakfast in Bed from a book about Mary Cassat  10. Amanda de Cadenet and daughter Atlanta Taylor by Véronique Vial from the book Women Before 10 a.m.