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Leni Stern, “Bury Me Standing”

Here’s another post of mine from Larry Haley’s The Bop Shop.

New York City-based Leni Stern — singer/songwriter/guitarist (both she and her husband Mike Stern studied the instrument at Berklee) — collaborated with Larry John McNally (you’ll know his “The Motown Song”, a big hit for Rod Stewart) on this song of resignation and defiance. It’s based on the Roma (Gypsy) proverb of Manush Romanov: “Bury me standing. I’ve been on my knees all my life.”

Very nice Hammond B-3 work by George Whitty!

play Leni Stern’s “Bury Me Standing” (2002) on YouTube

Jane Woodman & Zoë Keating, “Sister Europe”

Here’s another post of mine from Larry Haley’s The Bop Shop.

The too-brief 2012 collaboration between San Francisco guitarist Jane Woodman and cellist Zoë Keating (now a Burlington, Vermont resident) gave us this great Psychedelic Furs cover. Swooning flanged and layered guitars with cello slithering in and out, seasick lyrics — hothouse flower decadence for when you’re in that kind of mood…

play Jane Woodman & Zoë Keating’s “Sister Europe” on Bandcamp

Amanda Marshall, “Shades of Grey”

My friend Larry Haley is running a music sharing project he calls “a virtual record haven” – The Bop Shop.
Every day Larry or another contributor posts a link to a favorite song, along with a short appreciation.

Here’s one I contributed:

Amanda Marshall, born in Toronto in 1972 to a mother from Trinidad and a Canadian father, has called herself “a woman who looks white but is actually black.” I don’t know how closely this song portrays her actual personal story, but it’s a powerful portrayal of a mixed-race kid in a racist society.

play Amanda Marshall’s “Shades of Grey” (1999) on YouTube

Create every day

Laura Escudé talks about the importance of creating new music every day, even if it’s only for five or ten minutes (doesn’t matter if it’s “good” or “bad”). I’ve done this for some pretty good stretches in the past; time to start up this habit again. Laura also says, “I perform half-finished songs all the time, because it helps me come up with ideas.” You’re less likely to do that if you’re overly concerned with your creations being perfectly polished jewels.

Solitude Deprivation

Reading Cal Newport’s excellent (and recommended) Digital Minimalism. He coins the term “Solitude Deprivation”: “A state in which you spend close to zero time alone with your own thoughts and free from input from other minds.” Our current “obsession with connection” (connection having always been marketed as a benefit) yields widespread Solitude Deprivation — especially among young people born between 1995 and 2012. Many members of the “iGeneration” “have lost the ability to process and make sense of their emotions, or to reflect on who they are and what really matters, or to build strong relationships, or even to just allow their brains time to power down their critical social circuits, which are not meant to be used constantly, and to redirect that energy to other important cognitive housekeeping tasks. We shouldn’t be surprised that these absences lead to malfunctions.”

Big Ears 2019 Thursday

Big Ears trip day one: We stayed at a delightful Air BnB in McGaheysville VA, and in the morning went around the corner to the Thunderbird Cafe — best french toast ever (big puffy donut-flavored slices). Crispy spicy home fries drenched in maple syrup. We’re in the south now, so of course Valerie had a biscuit (and strawberry jam) with her omelette. Picked up grilled cheese sandwiches at Pop’s (grilled cheese their specialty) in Roanoke for the ride to Knoxville.

Feature creep

From Paul Jarvis: “Lately it seems like there are very few technology features I think are good ideas. Too frequently new “features” are touted as tools we can use, when more often than not they become annoyances we allow into our lives.”

Silence

I know one thing for certain: silence will not present itself unbidden amid the noise of the world. If I want it, I have to make space for it, and there is always a choice to make that space. … And in our time now, every decision in favor of silence is profound, even if it involves no more than deliberately turning away other things for hours or days in a week.
Jane Brox

Chamath Palihapitiya

The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth.
Former Facebook VP Chamath Palihapitiya

Santana on Szabo

Carlos Santana says that, for him, Gabor Szabo was the “exit out” from the “BB King freeway.”