So, what have I been wasting time on lately?
Glad you asked.
Listening to Duke Ellington, hearing about a new baby, researching digital codes, researching digital codecs, . . .
Like that.
Wait a minute. Point of clarification, please!
Yes.
There is a difference between codes and codecs.
And no.
The baby's not mine.
The Duke, however . . .
The Beethoven and the Shakespeare of my time, baby.
Own that.
8 comments:
KK gave me "Ellington Indigos."
Quite possibly the best present I ever got.
I don't know what numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 would be, were I to be offered the chance to be stranded on a desert island with 10 CDs.
But I know, for sure, what #1 would be.
Thanks, pop.
--yersun
Whose baby?
Sometimes I invite friends over to brunch so they can bring their babies along. It's such a marvelous time for me; playing in the sink with toddlers; letting little ones crawl over my lap as I sit on the floor, guarding my coffee, my eyeglasses, and my now long hair.
Me, with my three teenagers, at an age I should be thinking about grandchildren ... and I still have the biological urge. Funny about the Irish Catholic genes.
Okay: You didn't exactly hurl down the gauntlet, but I'll bite. In no particular order, some desert island CDs:
* Miles Davis, "Kind of Blue"
* Bartok's string quartets
* Brahms's sextets
* "Art of the Fugue," played by the Emerson String Quartet
* "So What" by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, or some similar album where the same song is played by a variety of artists. This fascinates me.
* Led Zeppelin Remasters or David Bowie's Greatest Hits -- I only need one rocking CD; lately I've been posting PRs finishing my runs to Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll." For 3 minutes and 40 seconds, I can really move on a treadmill! But Bowie sounds amazingly fresh.
You have to admit, one of the nice things about other people's babies is that they go away when you're tired.
Actually, that probably applies more to toddlers.
I'm glad to hear that you've included at least one hard rock choice in your desert island list, Clare. I agree: Bowie and Zep are two old groups who remain quite listenable. Maybe not so much "Major Thom" or "Stairway."
Definitely not "Stairway." That is Must Flee Radio.
Based on two songs that I know, I think Sigur Ros would get a spot on my DI list. I'd probably have to add some early Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction, some Stevie Ray, some Danny Gatton, and the rest of the list is always in flux.
Oh, and of course, The Village Vanguard recordings of Bill Evans.
Who's Danny Gatton? Name like that, sounds like an extra for the Partridge Family.
Danny Gatton is probably the greatest guitar player that no one ever heard of (except for maybe Glen Philips, but don't get me started).
Gatton started out in a band called "Danny and the Fat Boys," back before "fat" meant "phat." I think they were based in the Washington, D.C. area at one point.
He later toured and recorded under his own name. His sound has been categorized as "redneck jazz." This is not as inaccurate as most labels, but it is unfairly limiting.
Most of his good stuff is instrumental, which goes a long way to explaining his lack of commercial success. He has no-singing-allowed versions of "The Simpsons Theme" and the old Beach Boys tune "In My Room" that are not to be missed. (If someone can make me like a Beach Boys song, that automatically makes him beyond noteworthy, in my book.)
Gatton killed himself a few years back. It's possible that his despair over his lack of success caused this, if memory serves.
There's what looks like a pretty good site out there on the Web, if you want to read more.
But Clare, you should remember DG from here.
If I were childish, I would say that it is heinous to compare my boy Danny Gatton to Danny Bonadouchebag. But I'm not. So I won't.
Yeah, Bill Evans rocks. Or swings. Or something. My only problem with him is that I keep getting him confused with Gil Evans, of the Gil Evans Orchestra, who once did a Montovani-like album called The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays The Music of Jimi Hendrix.
Yup. I bought it.
That's why I don't have kids -- I'm afraid they'd find stuff like this out.
I just happened to look up the iTunes listing for "Ellington Indigos."
The review is so incredibly wrong that I'm actually happy with it.
Perfectly negative correlation is always useful data.
Don't waste your time looking for it. Just trust me on this one.
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