Tag: music

Digital Love

sarah

Playing ukulele at Goldstream.

This spring I’ve been doing a lot of concrete activities, to balance out the last two or three years of mostly thoughtful time. I had a lot of thinking and reading to do, but I’ve been getting more and more itchy for action. So, taking the advice that any real activity can help you stop living inside your head, I decided to learn to play and sing a song.

It’s been about twelve or fifteen years since I made music for myself instead of relying on my musical friends for occasional sing-along opportunities. It’s strange to realize how much I backed off singing when I met all these trained musicians who perform for money and applause. (At this moment, while I’m typing a draft of this, I’m recording my partner performing live on the radio.) I used to lead music with kids and sing for fun quite a bit. These days I don’t even sing in a group without listening for a long time first, and maybe being drunk. So besides being a skill that happens outside my mind, learning a song seemed like a way to balance out my self-consciousness and intimidation about singing “well.”

The easiest way I could think to start was with a ukulele— tiny and rarely dissonant— and house music— something I listen to a lot that most of my friends don’t seem to pay much attention to. I thought it would be helpful to start on my own personal power territory. Then I thought it would be even more helpful to start with something really ridiculous and also guitar based, i.e., Daft Punk.

Digital Love by Daft Punk (2001). For plot background, start with One More Time. See? Ridiculous.

Galen helped me by working out some ukulele chords while we were bus camping a few weeks ago. (You know, being digital.)

Here are the chords we worked out, if you too want to play Digital Love by Daft Punk on the ukulele.

Galen demonstrates Digital Love on the ukulele. First chord.

Galen demonstrates Digital Love on the ukulele. Second chord.

Galen demonstrates Digital Love on the ukulele. Third chord.

Galen demonstrates Digital Love on the ukulele. Fourth chord.

Camping style, aka, being digital:

Playing ukulele at Goldstream.

Playing ukulele at Goldstream.

Movies I watched in April 2009

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Movies that passed the Bechdel Test

  1. Examined Life (filmmaker talks to Avital Ronnell, Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor go shopping)
  2. Ghostbusters (talking about ghosts, clearly)
  3. Rosemary’s Baby (talking about pregnancy, satanism, the usual)
  4. Mirrors of Privilege (mostly monologues, but women recount stories of talking to other women about white privilege)

Movies that failed

  1. Brick
  2. Let The Right One In
  3. Fellowship of the Ring
  4. The Two Towers
  5. Return of the King

Titles in bold were special treats. I may have finally burned myself out of Lord of the Rings as knitting movies. The replacement is totally Ghostbusters.

Like Busby Berkeley with censorship bars

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Toe Jam by David Byrne feat. Dizzee Rascal (via).

I need to organize more time to hang out naked with my friends. I love it so much. In the summer, there is usually night swimming and maybe this year I’ll go to our local nudie lake with it’s one hilariously small dock. But what about winter? What about now? I don’t think there is a women’s bath or anything in this town. I need to organize some nudeness at home. Anybody want to come over and take expressive naked photos? Give me a call.

Dead teenager songs

sarah

Undead teenager... Madonna/Iggy Pop

Behold! The only discussion of dead teenager songs that I haven’t found completely tedious!

I love ridiculous catalogs that overwhelm even the archivist, and this archivist is barely keeping a handle on his dead teen songs. If I set out to organize dozens of melodramatic ballads by cause of death (cars, rivers… surfing…) I’d probably get a bit silly too.

Honey – Bobby Goldsboro (1968) Kind of a twist, it sounds like she crashed the car and survived, but then died of some sort of disease. Most of the song is about the tree he planted.

He makes fun of most of the songs, but he still catalogs them. This role model might help me break on through to a “so bad they’re good” appreciation of these songs. I’m always game to stop hating something.

What really makes this list for me, though, is the inclusion of songs I genuinely like. I may be all burnt out on Leader Of The Pack and Tell Laura I Love Her, but I can still handle these post-punk gems:

(The photo above is a shot of Madonna that Galen pointed out looks just like Iggy Pop. They’re both kind of undead.)

Songs about death #1 (with bonus beard)

sarah

One of the death-related things I’ve been collecting is music. Death songs aren’t as common as love songs, but they’re up there, especially if you count songs about killing. I’m hoping to regularly post music here… say, every Tuesday, since today is the day I found The Saddest Beard In The World.

“Hope There’s Someone,” by Antony & The Johnsons is one of my favourite songs about dying. So weighty! “Oh I’m scared of the middle place between life and nowhere…” I wonder if the solution to that fear could actually be unlocked by contemplating this bearded gentleman and his ice cream (and the ice cream in his beard).

I’m not kidding— those heavy sighs are committed and respectful as well as hilarious. Watching this video makes me feel ok about most things.