Under a Red Roof

Plugged In

April 17, 2009 in Listening, Spotlighting by Colleen | Permalink

Is it Friday already? How did that happen?

Yesterday was a really nice day, weather wise, and the weekend (save today), if the forecasters have it on the money, is supposed to be exceptional. I plan on being out in the sunshine as much as possible. I am envisioning some major weed pulling, a long walk (wearing a skirt!), a bicycle ride, and clothes hanging dreamily from the line.

In contrast to last week’s music for drifting along, I’ve got a little something meant to get me plugged in, dialed up, moving, singing, shaking, and smiling. Here goes:

“Pimpf” – Depeche Mode

“Roadhouse Blues” – The Doors

“No One Knows” – Queens of the Stone Age

“O Valencia!” – The Decemberists

“Over the Hills and Far Away” – Led Zeppelin

“Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver” – Primus (Les Claypool rocks)

“No Love Lost” – Joy Division

“White Tooth Man” – Iron & Wine

“Everything” – Stereo MC’s

“I Got You (I feel good)” – James Brown

“Don’t Sweat the Technique” – Eric B. & Rakim

“Giant Steps” – John Coltrane

“A Little Less Conversation” – Elvis

“Ain’t No Other Man” – Christina Aguilera (the girl can SING!)

“Again & Again” – the bird and the bee

“Let Me Go” – CAKE

“Prayer For You” – Texas

“Here’s Where the Story Ends” – The Sundays (the story but not the playlist)

“I Don’t Know What It Is” – Rufus Wainwright

“Back” – Alpha

Here’s hoping we all have a wonderful weekend!

I Hear Music

April 10, 2009 in Listening, Spotlighting by Colleen | 1 comment

I watched part of the American Masters program on Philip Glass the other night. He is quite the dynamic character, and his music really reflects this. It was so fascinating to learn how there is always music playing in his mind, and when he composes, sometimes he has to strain to hear the notes. He doesn’t necessarily feel as though he is writing, but rather listening and scrambling to get it down with pencil and paper before it is gone.

I think writing is like that for me. I’ve always got my stories going, and sometimes, not nearly often enough, I sit at the keyboard and try to keep pace with the words as they stream through my mind. On the occasions when I hear music, unlike Mr. Glass, it is never my own, unique composition, though sometimes it is one of his!

This is what I’ve been hearing lately and actually queued up on the I-Pod. I call it Drifting. Try it yourself, you’ll see why.

“From the Same Hill” – Brian Eno

“Astral Weeks” – Van Morrison

“Sunset Soon Forgotten” – Iron & Wine

“Johnson’s Aeroplane” – INXS

“The Way” – Jill Scott

“Dime Que Te Quea” – Gecko Turner

“Umi Says” – Mos Def

“Sometime Later” – Alpha

“Jennifer” – Eurythmics

“Naima” – John Coltrane

“Moonlight Mile” – The Rolling Stones

“Going to California” – Led Zeppelin

“North Dakota” – Lyle Lovett

“Blue Sunday” – The Doors

“Violet” – Seal

“Alone in Kyoto” – Air

Have a great weekend!

The House of Meetings

April 3, 2009 in Reading, Spotlighting by Colleen | 1 comment

“It is nothing.”

These were the words uttered rather non chalantly by a Russian neighbor when I expressed my delight at her beautiful carnations. I had some, and they just didn’t look like hers, despite trying several methods to make them flourish. I was bugged by the answer.

Then, I started to notice this was a trend among those I encountered from former Soviet States. It is nothing is like a mantra, the go-to answer for accomplishments large and small. I didn’t really get it until reading The House of Meetings by Martin Amis. The novel describes the life of two brothers in 20th century Russia: their love for the same woman, the wars, life in the gulag, life afterward.

The novel is a long letter from a father to his daughter, confessing his crimes, and describing his love for his brother Lev and his wife Zoya. What really stands out for me is the it is nothing aspect. The lives of the people of Russia have been so tortured (quite literally) and on the precipice for so long that nothing is truly valued, for if this were to happen, it would make the loss more unbearable. There are marriages, children, wars, rapes, thefts, and squalid conditions, but with them only a vague sense of gratitude, joy, remorse, or loss. It’s very strange.

The novel itself is a pretty swift read, smart, well researched, and even humorous at times. Though I did have to make stops at the dictionary for these words: pelf, rictus, cloacal, scrofulous, and lachrymist. Golly, does Martin Amis have an enviable vocabulary – it is something. On the whole, I liked the book it and found it rather enlightening. I appreciated the fact that it was so detached, as, sensitive girl that I am, I certainly could not have stomached the work had the narrator been passionately engaged and vividly describing the events of his life. On the other hand, I cannot help but feel sad that one could live this way, or treat others in such a fashion, as cold as the Siberian plain. I doubt I would last very long.

Just Like Summer…

March 27, 2009 in Listening, Spotlighting by Colleen | Permalink

I am cold and shivery and have been craving summer like nobody’s business. In my desperation, curled up in front of the fire, I close my eyes and imagine sitting outside, sun on my cheeks, bare feet tickled by the grass, the occasional flutter of a bird’s wing and drifting clouds filling my vision.

The soundtrack to this day dreaming is Gecko Turner’s Guapapasea! Oh how this sounds of summer! It is wiggle until you jump out of your seat and dance, roll the windows down, crank the volume music. He is a mix master of the royal degree, using Afro-Cuban, jazz, pop, and plain dreaminess to enchant the listener through the dozen tracks.

Sung mostly in Spanish, and therefore, mostly foreign and vacation-like, it makes me reminisce about my honeymoon (nearly sixteen years ago!) and our wanderings through Spain. Warm and wonderful, eating kilo after kilo of cherries and paella, then washing it all down with the fantastically mouth puckering Kas Limon. Sweet summer perfection and a very grand time.

So, if, like me, you want a little summer right now, but aren’t scheduled on a flight to paradise, cozy up, put the music on, and dream away…

Tags: Music

The Beat that My Heart Skipped

March 20, 2009 in Spotlighting, Watching by Colleen | 1 comment

Ooh, this is an interesting one about the transformational power of art, in particular, music. A man, Tom, played perfectly by the dreamy Romain Duris, is a bit of a creep. He gets in bar fights and uses women. He’s in real estate, but not what one typically thinks. His is the shady underbelly of the business in Paris, where he and his colleagues have no qualms about making deals in the night or using unorthodox means to entice people to leave their homes. He’s his father’s son.

In stark contrast, his deceased mother was a rather accomplished classical pianist, and one night he, rather serendipitously, meets her former agent, where he, surprisingly, remembers Tom and his talent as a young man and suggests an audition. Tom need only pick the date.

What ensues is Tom’s progression from thug to real man. He begins to distance himself from that which is most destructive, making choices more akin to a man of integrity, with some missteps, too. He’s not perfect.

Now to what I love most about this movie – Tom’s deep connection to music of all kinds. He’s always listening, but it is more than that – it’s a visceral and emotional experience. He puts everything he has into the listening and the playing. In many ways, after that fortuitous meeting with his mother’s former agent, it becomes his compass, leading him to a better life.

Tags: Movies