#here you are byrd! posted it as desired

[acrossthewavesoftime]

The Stuarts (plus the Earls of Portland and Albemarle), (not) helping you with your homework.

[therecordchanger62279]

THE TOP 100 DEFINITIVE ROCK RECORDS

Below is a list of the 100 records I believe define the spirit and the essence of Rock Music. They are, I believe, the answer to the question, "What is Rock?" They embody the qualities that make the music what it is. Attitude, arrogance, energy, spirit, sex, and rebellion are all part of it. But because Rock was originally often made by, and, certainly, for teenagers, there is also clumsiness, amateurism, uncertainty, and an eagerness to please. Oh, and one more thing - you should be able to dance to it.

This is a list of records - not songs. The performance counts. So does the production, and the arrangement. These songs, in hands other than the ones chosen here, might not make the list at all. And not every record on the list has every quality listed above. (Ever try dancing to Siberian Khatru by Yes?) But, I believe each fits in its own way. In no particular order then, here are my choices:

Sweet Jane - Lou Reed

Long Live Rock - The Who

That's Entertainment - The Jam

Who'll Stop The Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Child In Time - Deep Purple

Desolation Row - Bob Dylan

Moonlight Mile - The Rolling Stones

Help - The Beatles

L.A. Woman - The Doors

Roll Me Away - Bob Seger

Marquee Moon – Television

White Man in Hammersmith Palais - The Clash

Kick Out The Jams - MC5

I'm Waiting For The Man - Velvet Underground

Heroes - David Bowie

Street Life - Roxy Music

All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix

Good Times Bad Times - Led Zeppelin

Siberian Khatru – Yes

Rosalita - Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

Layla - Derek & the Dominoes

Whipping Post - The Allman Brothers Band

Supernaut - Black Sabbath

The Green Manalishi (with the Two-Pronged Crown) - Fleetwood Mac

Trouble Every Day - Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention

Wishing Well - Free

30 Days In The Hole - Humble Pie

Volunteers - Jefferson Airplane

Spanish Moon - Little Feat

All The Way From Memphis - Mott The Hoople

The House of the Rising Sun - The Animals

You're Gonna Miss Me - 13th Floor Elevators

Psychotic Reaction - Count Five

Don't Look Back - The Remains

99th Floor - Moving Sidewalks

Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana

Jeremy - Pearl Jam

Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) - Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Dancing Barefoot - Patti Smith

Shot In The Dark - Ozzy Osbourne

Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan

Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones

Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who

Twist & Shout - The Beatles

Light My Fire - The Doors

American Girl - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Sweet Emotion – Aerosmith

School's Out - Alice Cooper

(Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult

You Got Another Thing Coming - Judas Priest

Train Kept A-Rollin' - The Yardbirds

Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple

Baba O'Riley - The Who

Mississippi Queen - Mountain

Play It All Night Long - Warren Zevon

Rock & Roll - The Velvet Underground

Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White - The Standells

One World – Utopia

Desire - U2

Wild Thing - The Troggs

Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Let It Bleed - Rolling Stones

The Boys Are Back In Town - Thin Lizzy

Rumble - Link Wray

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Jerry Lee Lewis

Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley

Search & Destroy - Iggy & The Stooges

I'm A Man - Spencer Davis Group

Gloria - Shadows of Knight

Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry

I Fought The Law - Bobby Fuller Four

Instant Karma - John Lennon

Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio - The Ramones

Middle of the Road – Pretenders

L.A. Explosion - The Last

What I Like About You - The Romantics

Another Brick In The Wall - Pink Floyd

American Music - Ian Hunter & Mick Ronson

A Million Miles Away - The Plimsouls

The Kids Are Alright - The Who

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Rolling Stones

My Generation – The Who

Rock and Roll – Led Zeppelin

You Really Got Me – The Kinks

I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll – Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran

We’re An American Band – Grand Funk Railroad

So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star – The Byrds

I Can Only Give You Everything - Them

Mystery Train – The Band

We Gotta Get Out of This Place – The Animals

Crossroads – Cream

Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley

Baby, Don’t Do It – The Band

Born To Run – Bruce Springsteen

The Stroll – The Diamonds

Revolution – The Beatles

Walk On The Wild Side – Lou Reed

Heard It On The X – ZZ Top

Journey To The Center of the Mind – The Amboy Dukes

[mitjalovse]

A lot of quietly influential musicians were actually successful during their time, yet something happened to their later reception that caused to become a hidden layer everyone seems to be aware of. To be honest, the 60's had their share of such players. Look, the period had many who are not that familiar anymore to many people, such as The Rascals. Sure, they were feted at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but tell me – how many times have you heard their songs lately in comparison to, say, The Byrds. Listen, I tend to believe the 60's did several things right – not all of them, mind you, as many like to speak –, yet the later histories did put some musicians away thanks to, I'm uncertain, reasons? Sadly, I must add, since the era remains one of the most intriguing.

Has another year passed us by? Time doesn't move so slowly, time is a speed racer. Anyhow, thank you for following my discussion on music yet again, I cherish your reading. To be honest, these discussions kept me alive this year as I was going through one of the worst periods of my life, which could also be seen on me not really being here at some times. While I hope the crappiness shall not be that present later on, I'm well aware how vigilant I must be, some of my posts left a lot to be desired. Still, I will continue with this blog, where I share my musical discoveries and I wish you would also be willing to locate the treasure we take for granted. Listen to some great music, the latter's easier to find than ever.

[libidomechanica]

Followed friendships and no soone has driving ban

Followed friendships and no soone has driving ban, splastic town and lookd but where in post when two happy copularly friend, thou algate here is in her hand, as if she loves stay because the heartfelt an in the sure made for bride went time of the great look of themselves

where she lily wills of a City, fling fame out among that are we have her dream all her sepulchral urn,  wi mae north of a grain;           that flies in the byrds of the Nation, and who taught stars kept the Fleece may

be chair in a feels like thus I thou dost en yet I name. And let fail, his mother to breeze like Heaven will desire, was thine eyelids more by my head down overgrowth to her forms of golden cream on rose, and whilome to recolleges of Blood true: their first high. And shower, now betweene, he patterd Heart:

so, severenced my foot along, and love them all: for needling Name. Over Theotormon secret to the present moment, the strait is why shoud, above thy very parting, Moody, received solicit free disobedients singing light, ground

        “Yea,” answer and bursting a kiss, like a weigh, for that Musick, for shall it dare equal husbands are beam, whose lofty clash upon it all those earthlie moulderings, a thousands

his Heir, and leaues are your even afterway against stood king; shapeless shall my Fortune the last both: but hawks will we again she loe the Desire shall counsels broke hir made inter round them a body, reckon up they are just caughters false, which shards you entral cedar-plank end. a blisse;   But slips,

  Yet, sprung flutterer am gone. in clay, in the sight, the other time after, or some Eye, no bitts of my breaths I wants a cloudy eve and talon, and leaues from a fair pressd they loom the field of thou leaves on mantle had found nubby, you and might the silver way of baby tryd thy beat to gather one else true:

but you hast she often to when somehow, that when a land of British doth were, endless; when Kingly Diadem. a column, let themselves are sea what and strong curls, and no wish their place used to have love you

  “then I do departed times he Pack; tho his thy mind”   And quite morning: all men eager make the fine hostilence, forsloe, and flower-door, nearly noon, how sweet love,

in Sailors love on fire,’“tis a paired leaves. He cat in her peeced pyneons by the heart burdened lips as Queen; at will choose. Beauty in a cod: ill belovd They hath corage again I was in free,

and saw her elfin groom I should not Stone, that marble flowers that heat of happy her right, and those shonest more at times in blackning moon, with odour as them in the stall be the liuely nor is bear,” the land; and woxen old my franchised play:

I turns now a nymph! D, two widow.   How purer sighs.   for me. As change; but I won   Rabble we were, pleasures,

  then Repine scuse my sight? —The wood. you do us passing still I may, but my arms; then be shady leaf indefeasible, Studious Hate, and concludes him. My duty, not words boys and bleed, and sweatshirt and out answer, never crying, is there, lover & for a week:

but when, let still; was a friends. Our own wrong— a smooth admire; nor Interest man, garland gazers, and run the promisd Land, and thought: “had my fate, perhaps a kindled her less and once did rays, that she little dream; but was he said, ‘pass this is a cruell love her wrong

can now this I saw their with more delights of the twice and their reflect the sting so cooles, his Master then them, and tell her case the Government:      lurch’ past to leaves on you wilt though at a song, the strings and grew

in longer thats why shone them wide and to fall;     not wed. His life, which chin want— but a Slave one time forbear to giue to the grass;            But not a selfe the stead, but being made a mirror fill the lily I credulous ease

my son the years,  and questions, if thou great could hands with these; who cause of these motions and dancing,  he castless, and for age appeared, a Plot he worst of the hearing kiss, go to thee, and give me than whose alone.”

[parkerbombshell]

Just Another Menace Sunday 896 w: Simon Raymonde (Lost Horizons, Cocteau Twins)

Just Another Menace Sunday Just Another Menace Sunday" radio thing. Hour 1+: A Conversation with Simon Raymonde (Lost Horizons, Cocteau Twins) and his Musical Sandwich! Hour 2: New (and old) Melodic Rock 'n Roll from: Art d'ecco, Sparks, The Babe Rainbow, CHVRCHES, Kim Wilde, Martha Hill, The Sea At Midnight Ali Barter, Josie Cotton, Girl In Red This Week – Episode #896 A CONVERSATION WITH SIMON RAYMONDE (LOST HORIZONS) AND HIS MUSICAL SANDWICH! (05/02/2021) Theme Song Just Another Menace Sunday Theme (Dennis The Menace) - Mighty Six Ninety Hour 1 A CONVERSATION WITH SIMON RAYMONDE (LOST HORIZONS) AND HIS MUSICAL SANDWICH! OPENING SONG: Grey Tower – Lost Horizons feat. Tim Smith THE SIMON RAYMONDE/LOST HORIZONS MUSICAL SANDWICH! TOP BREAD: Primitive Heart – Cocteau Twins Calfskin Snack – Cocteau Twins Cherry Coloured Funk – Cocteau Twins Circle – Lost Horzions feat. C Duncan Kangaroo – This Mortal Coil This Is The Weather – Lost Horizon feat. Karen Peris White Car In Germany – The Associates It’s Raining Today – Scott Walker She Is Beyond Good And Evil – The Pop Group Seconds Too Late – Cabaret Voltaire Somebody Up There Likes Me – David Bowie BOTTOM BREAD: Uptown Top Ranking – Althea & Donna Hour 2 NEW MELODIC ROCK AND ROLL OPENING SONG: Desires – Art d’Ecco (Paper Bag) All You Ever Think About Is Sex – Sparks (Atlantic) Ready For Tomorrow – The Babe Rainbow (Self Release) He Said She Said – Chvrches (Glassnote) Kids In America – Kim Wilde (EMI) Change – Martha Hill (Self Release) We Share The Same Stars – The Sea At Midnight (Self Release) You Get In My Way – Ali Barter (Girly Bits) He Could Be The One – Josie Cotton (Elektra) The Shame Of Love – Juliana Hatfield (American Laundromat) You Stupid Bitch – Girl In Red (AWAL) CLOSING SONG: Serotonin – Girl In Red (AWAL) Just Another Menace Sunday Groups Horizons and More Public group  · 337 members We'd like to welcome you to Horizons and More EVERY Tuesday night from 8pm to 12am for gatherings, dancing, drinks, and Karaoke! Come on out to hear the music that you want to hear and MORE!!6 posts a week Freedom Kootenays 2022 -Unity Public group  · 640 members 10+ posts a day 1 friend is a member We want Marsden back on CFNY Public group  · 264 members http://www.spiritofradio.ca/Sounds.asp?searchtext=alumni I heard David Marsden on December 21, 2014 on air at CFNY and it wasn't enough! I want to change the name of this group to 'David Marsden is back at CFNY'.10 posts a year Dennis Scheyer spSnm2f0022  tl2M,2ach417y  · 5 pm PT/8 pm ET on Radio Malibu 99.1 KBU it's a new "Just Another Menace Sunday" radio thing. Hour 1+: A Conversation with Simon Raymonde (Lost Horizons, Cocteau Twins) and his Musical Sandwich! Hour 2: New (and old) Melodic Rock 'n Roll from: Art d'ecco, Sparks, The Babe Rainbow, CHVRCHES, Kim Wilde, Martha Hill, The Sea At Midnight Ali Barter, Josie Cotton, Girl In Red This Week – Episode #951 AN ARCHIVAL CONVERSATION WITH COURTING AND THEIR MUSICAL SANDWICH. (05/29/2022) Theme Song Just Another Menace Sunday Theme (Dennis The Menace) - Mighty Six Ninety Hour 1 AN ARCHIVAL CONVERSATION WITH COURTING AND THEIR MUSICAL SANDWICH. OPENING SONG: Tennis – Courting THE COURTING MUSICAL SANDWICH OPENING BREAD: Crass – Courting Cross-Eyed And Painless – Talking Heads We Dance – Pavement Get Innocuous – LCD Soundsystem Unsolved Mystery – Animal Collective Health and Efficiency – The Heat Here Come The Warm Jets – Brian Eno Noid – Yves Tumor VYZZE – Sophie BOTTOM BREAD: Loaded – Courting Hour 2 AN ARCHIVAL (2016) CONVERSATION & MUSICAL SANDWICH W/SUNFLOWER BEAN! OPENING SONG: Easier Said – Sunflower Bean SUNFLOWER BEAN MUSICAL SANDWICH OPENING BREAD: 2013 – Sunflower Bean Time To Pretend – MGMT Hat Trick – Empress Of Air Conditioning – Diiv Funny Friends – Unknown Mortal Orchestra I Am A Pilgrim – The Byrds Nightclubbing – Iggy Pop I Know What Boys Like – The Waitresses Black Angel Death Song – Velvet Underground CLOSING BREAD: Wall Watcher – Sunflower Bean Read the full article

[bread-and-roses-too]

Anon Hate/Buy My Silence Policy

We have a little system here.

When anons are on, hate costs money.   $5 for me to post the ask with whatever response I choose.  $15 to post it without comment.  Either way I’ll read it and be very hurt I’m sure. How do I know you paid?  Put “(I paid {$15 or $5})” at the beginning of your ask. Paying also guarantees you won't be reported, so if you value your blog the way it is, pay up or shut up. Also, I block you if you send hate anons without paying.

Rules:

- I won’t post graphic description of violence (including sexual violence/rape) for the safety of my followers even if they’re paid.  I might read them but they won’t be posted.

- I won’t post any asks containing ableism.  You'll also definitely be reported as I'm multiply disabled and being ableist towards me is, you know, actually oppression.

- After 2 weeks on my blog your anon will be deleted. 

- If any of my follows express a desire/need for trigger warnings anons will be tagged appropriately (even $15 ones, but they’ll have no unnecessary tags/talking in tags).

- If someone lies and the numbers don’t add up I’ll choose which asks to post randomly.  So if you lie there’s like a 1 in 10 chance it’ll get posted.  Is it worth the risk?  Up to you I guess.

- There’s a very small possibility I’ll respond to your negative if I think there might be a useful point to make, but paying guarantees I’ll see it.

- More rules may be added, be sure to check back here every time you send hate :)

You can also buy my silence for $25. 

Don’t feel like arguing with me anymore?  Tired of seeing me respond to your posts?  Just send me $25 and I’ll keep my mouth shut.  No one will know you bought my silence so it’ll look like you won if that’s what you want. If you do this send me an ask or message, it won’t be posted but it will let me know what the money is for. (Note: part of this agreement is that you also stop responding.  if you continue to mock me or flood my notes I will break my silence and you won’t be refunded).

My cashapp for all services is $adhzee, venmo is @Zee-Byrd, I also have a Throne wishlist you can contribute to.  I don’t have paypal.  I’m not sure how fast any of these services work as I’ve never actually used them but as soon as I get the money I’ll read and post whatever you’ve written.

No, this is not a joke.  You don’t get to waste my time with your shitty opinions without me getting anything out of it.

[mistresspandora-archive]

My Outlander Bingo 2020 Master Post

Since I haven’t put it all together in quite some time, here’s a list of the fics I’ve written for the @outlanderbingo2020​ (please always check the tags on AO3):

Square: Touch-Starved Title: The Anniversary (Part 1 of the Tartan Terror Chronicles) Rated: M Pairing: Gen, but Jamie Fraser & Dean Winchester if you squint Summary:  It has been ten years since Jamie's beloved wife Claire was killed by literal monsters. Ten years since he started down this path, ridding the world of vile darkness, once abomination at time. Ten years since, and Jamie's raid of a vampire nest gets interrupted by two brothers, hunters themselves.

Square: Inopportune boners and what to do about them Title: Trying Another Tactic Rated: E Pairing: Jamie Grey/Lord John Grey Summary: The genesis of the argument wasn't important. Yet here Grey was, once again engaged in a shouting match with Jamie Frigging Fraser. Until they realized why they were fighting, and it had nothing at all to do with the words that were said. Time to try a new tactic.

Square: Bed sharing Title: Sticky Fingers, Sticky Sheets (collab with @levisqueaks​) Rated: E Pairing: Lord John Grey/Tom Byrd Summary:  It had been years of wanting. Carefully contained desire set loose at last by the right circumstances, a moderate supply of good brandy, and a healthy dose of thrilling recklessness.

Square: After an injury/while hurt Title: Chapter Five (collab with @iihappydaysii​) Rated: E Pairing: Jamie Fraser/Lord John Grey Summary:  After a remarkably stupid mishap leaves Jamie blinded and incapacitated, Lord John reads to him to pass the time. Unfortunately, their choices of reading material are somewhat limited.

Square: Hand-feeding Title: Please, Master Me Rated: E Pairing: Lord John Grey/Stephan von Namtzen Summary:  Lord John Grey and Stephan von Namtzen have an arrangement. Sometimes, when Grey has exhausted himself in the execution of his many duties, von Namtzen offers him freedom from worry for a time, relieving Grey of his burdens. Caring for him in their own particular way.

Square: Creative interpretations of Doggy Style ***NEW*** Title: Howl at the Moon (collab with @levisqueaks​) Rated: E Pairing: Roger Mackenzie/Ian Fraser Murray Summary: While surveying his newly-granted land, Roger reveals to Ian a frightening secret about his journey back from the Mohawk years ago. This is all porn, y'all, also an AU Scene for 05.08.

[supermaryauniverse]

Characters and Yearning

What can the book Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions teach us about creating compelling characters? Written as a satire about the restrictive Victorian conduct code, the protagonist lives in a one dimensional world. Depending on one’s status in life one could have a defined shape. However, “…you would suppose we could at least distinguish by sight the Triangles, Squares, and other figures…Nothing was visible, nor could be visible, to us, except Straight Lines…” (1). The protagonist’s world is one dimensional and boring, just like one dimensional characters. And like the protagonist, as writers we won’t settle for one dimension, but develop characters that have depth and intrigue our readers.

 Larry Brooks, author of Story Engineering describes three separate dimensions that all great characters possess. The first includes “Surface Traits, Quirks and Habits” (63). Brooks calls these the, “exterior landscape” of a character (83). Here you establish the fact that your character “exists” (64). Next is the, “Second Dimension – Backstory and Inner Demons” (68). In this stage readers learn why the character makes the choices, “that define outward perception, or the efforts to control it…”(64). Lastly is the Third Dimension. Here we learn character’s, “Action, Behavior and World View” (70). Readers want to know who the character, really is, at his core” (70). Using the Character Profile provided by Prof. Byrd we explore  and develop these three dimensions.

 Brooks also warns against making characters too predictable. Whether the protagonist is a good or a bad guy, add areas that conflict with their predominant persona, for example Pablo Escobar. It is hard to imagine that Escobar had any redeeming qualities. Despite running a ruthless cartel, Escobar, as an elected official, was responsible for the construction of homes and sports facilities. Why is unclear, but as writers, we can create back stories that provide readers with reasons to root for our characters. Maybe our protagonist  always dreamed of being a doctor but wound up being a criminal. That desire to help people still exists and he attempts to do so. Will these cause him to change or will he stick with what he knows which is crime? We get to choose. By playing on his inner conflict we can keep our readers on the hook to see how things play out.

 Another method of developing good characters is observation. Pat Conroy was a best selling author who routinely made notes about his day. He recorded events and conversations and shamelessly used real people in his works. In doing so, he had fully developed characters from real life. He would change the name, the age and even the sex and hope that friends and family who recognized themselves in his writing were forgiving.

 A helpful tool  is TV and in particular shows such as Live PD and Live Rescue. Unscripted and “live” (with a slight delay) viewers get to see the action as it really happens. For example, one episode concerned a fight between two shirt less males. It’s winter, why would they be shirtless? More important was the condition of one of the fighters. This individual was disoriented and incoherent, unsteady on his feet. Was this the result of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs? Could this be the man’s normal behavior or as the officer suspected based on evidence that there was a possible head injury? If your character is in a fight, watching an episode like this can provide details to make your scene believable. What if you character is a druggie. What does an overdoes look like and how do first responders treat this? What are the dangers that first responders deal with daily? Watching those who do this all the time gives you the information you need to write about it convincingly.

 Good characters drive the plot of the story. Thomas in This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona plays a crucial role in Victor’s trip to Phoenix. Why does he offer to help? The last significant encounter between the two ends in Victor beating Thomas up. However, when Victor needs help, Thomas is the only one who offers assistance. As the story progresses we discover that Thomas and Victor’s father had a special encounter on the bridge, something Victor is unaware of. This helps explain Thomas’ willingness to pay for the trip. Thomas, at his very core, is an orphan who longs for a father and he sees this same thing in Victor. By reaching out, he helps Victor find closure and receives an unexpected, special gift for his generosity.

 Creating good, believable characters is an important element of writing stories. Crafting them in a way that grabs the reader’s attention is crucial. Drawing on real life can help us develop characters that aren’t one dimensions but have depth and complexity. The worksheet provided is a great foundation to work from. Answer the questions and watch the characters emerge.

 For some free, online writing tips and advice check out Live, Writer, Thrive at the link provided. This posting is about building characters.

https://www.livewritethrive.com/2020/01/27/how-to-breathe-life-into-your-characters/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LiveWriteThrive+%28Live+Write+Thrive%29

 Brooks, Larry.Story Engineering. Writers Digest Books, 2011

Sorry there’s no photos but I am still having a hard time figuring Tumblr out.

[handeaux]

Cincinnati’s First Woman Doctor: Her Dowry Included Her Mentor’s Head

If Temperance Hartman Pocock Kinsey was not the first female physician in Cincinnati, she was certainly among the first of that rare breed. As early as 1856, she was complimented as a fine physician by one of her professors, the formidable W. Byrd Powell, a titan of the eclectic medical movement. In the first edition of his masterwork, “The Natural History of Human Temperaments,” Powell describes Dr. Kinsey as an exemplar of the “bilious-encephalic” temperament:

“We will conclude this article by presenting the portrait of a female illustration, Mrs. T. Hartman Kinsey, M. D. This lady merits a place in a work of this kind. She is essentially feminine in all the outlines of her person and feelings, and yet her intellect has a masculine grasp. She has been a student upon this subject for several years, under our guidance. She is now familiarly and practically acquainted with it. She designates temperaments readily ; and those who may desire information upon the very important subject of marriage compatibility of constitution, may safely obtain it from her. In this department of the subject she is, and has been, deeply interested; and with reference to it she has rendered us important service in procuring the illustrations of this work. We have also a very favorable opinion of her abilities as a medical practitioner. She has labored to make herself useful, and has succeeded, but will succeed in a more eminent degree, if industry can effect it. She is now doing a lucrative business in medical practice.”

So taken was Dr. Powell with the bilious-encephalic Dr. Kinsey, that he included in his will a most unusual bequest. Dr. Powell died, aged 67, in 1866, and one can only imagine the reaction when the following item was read in probate:

“Furthermore, I give and bequeath to Mrs. T.H. Kinsey, of Cincinnati, Ohio, my head, to be removed from my body, for her use, by A.T. Keckeler, or his agents.”

You see, W. Byrd Powell was a noted phrenologist and was much invested in studying how the inner essence of human beings was expressed through the shape of their heads. It was rather common for phrenologists to donate their heads to science.

It is essential to note here that, almost simultaneously with Dr. Powell’s demise, Mrs. Kinsey became Mrs. Keckeler, by marrying the Adolphus Turner Keckeler authorized to remove Dr. Powell’s head. Keckeler was also a doctor and also a student of Dr. Powell’s. His wife died a few years prior to Powell’s death. Mrs. Kinsey was a widow; her husband, a silversmith had died a year before she remarried.

Shortly after W. Byrd Powell was consigned to his grave in Covington’s Linden Grove Cemetery, his eternal rest was disturbed, his body exhumed and his head removed by Dr. Alva Curtis, dean of Cincinnati’s Physio-Medical College, from which Mrs. Kinsey earned her M.D. in 1855.

A modern reader cannot escape the suspicion that A.T. Keckeler married T.H. Kinsey to gain access to Dr. Powell’s bequeathed cranium. She was 44; he was 10 years younger. Both Keckeler and Kinsey were trained as phrenologists, obsessed with skulls and heads. A contemporary news item relates that Dr. Keckeler’s scientific collection of heads exceeded 400 crania. One wonders where he kept them. At least one observer pondered the motivation behind this matrimonial union. A letter writer signing himself as “Poor Kentucky” in the Enquirer [26 July 1866] had this to say:

“Thus it transpires that if Dr. Keckeler possesses the head of the lamented Professor, his right of property has been established by his having sought and procured the hand of the fair legatee, with, also, the heart of the lady it is to be hoped; and also the head of the celebrated philosopher as a marriage portion contributed by the legatee herself.”

No one at the time recorded how many heads Dr. Kinsey-Keckeler had in her own collection, but it appears that the marriage was a reasonably happy one. The Drs. Keckeler published a second edition of W. Byrd Powell’s magnum opus (taking care to insert a new and presumably preferable woodcut of Temperance). They also promoted Temperance’s own 1869 book “Thaleia: Woman: Her Physiology and Pathology,” a popularly written handbook on obstetrics and gynecology. In the introduction to that book, we get a brief biography of this pioneering woman doctor:

“She was born near the city of Terre Haute, Indiana; was left an orphan at an early age, and passed her childhood and girlhood in Butler County, Ohio, under the adoption and care of a family whose members were particular friends of her father. Her first marriage was to Edward Kinsey, Esq., of Cincinnati, who was at that time, and for many years after, the only extensive manufacturer of silverware in the West. A most desirable, but unexpected opportunity presented itself in 1850, and, with the cordial approval, encouragement, and aid of her husband, but against the wishes and advice of every other relative, and with very little sympathy from most of her acquaintances, she commenced a regular course of medical study, her name having been enrolled as that of the first Western woman in the first Western college that had the liberality to acknowledge the right of woman to receive a full medical education, and, at the same time, to afford her an opportunity to obtain it. She pursued her studies in all the requisite branches, during five years, and graduated with honor.”

It appears that Temperance practiced medicine with an exclusively feminine clientele until her death in 1893. She is buried at Spring Grove.

Also buried at Spring Grove is her widower, A.T. Keckeler, who survived her until 1911, gaining some renown as a colleague and ally of Charles Darwin and an early practitioner of what we would now call cultural anthropology. No mention, at his death, where his 400 heads ended up.

As a footnote, it is a fact that, through his daughter by his first marriage, A.T. Keckeler is the great-great-grandfather of musician Ry Cooder.

[Thanks to Jay Gilbert for the tip leading to this post.]

[fabulousfabstuff]

Discothèque

Rien de très intéressant par ici, juste la liste complète de la collection de synecdoques vinyles(299) qui envahissent mon appartement.

ARTISTTitle24 CARAT BLACKGhetto: Misfortune's WealthA TRIBE CALLED QUESTWe Got It From Here…thank You 4 Your ServiceABBEY LINCOLNThat's HimAL GREENLet's Stay TogetherAL GREENI'm Still In Love With YouAL GREENI Can't StopALAIN BASHUNGChattertonALAIN BASHUNGFantaisie MilitaireALAIN BASHUNGL'imprudenceAMY WINEHOUSEBack To BlackANDERSON .PAAKMalibuANDERSON .PAAKOxnardANDREYA TRIANALost Where I BelongANDREYA TRIANAGiantsARETHA FRANKLINAretha ArrivesARETHA FRANKLINLady SoulARNOHuman IncognitoART BLAKEY QUINTETA Night At Birdland, Vol.2ART BLAKEY QUINTETMoanin'ARTO LINDSAY / AMBITIOUS LOVERSEnvyAYOTicket To The WorldBANKSGoddessBARBARA LYNNHere Is Barbara LynnBENJAMIN CLEMENTINEAt Least For NowBENJAMIN CLEMENTINEI Tell A FlyBERNARD WRIGHTMr. WrightBETTY DAVISIs It Love Or DesireBETTY HARRISThe Lost Queen Of New Orleans SoulBETTYE LAVETTENearer To YouBILL EVANS TRIOSunday at The Village VanguardBILL WITHERSBill Withers' Greatest HitsBILLIE HOLIDAYLadyBILLIE HOLIDAYLover ManBILLY COBHAMCrosswindsBILLY COBHAMMagicBILLY COBHAMSpectrumBILLY COBHAMTotal EclipseBILLY OCEANTear Down These WallsBLACK SABBATHBlack SabbathBLOOD ORANGECoastal GroovesBLOOD ORANGECupid DeluxeBLOOD ORANGEFreetown SoundBLOOD ORANGENegro SwanBOBBY WOMACKThe Bravest Man In The UniverseBREAKBOTStill WatersBRIGITTE FONTAINE13 Chansons Décadentes Et FantasmagoriquesCARIBOUOur LoveCARIBOUSwimCHAKA KHANHello HappinessCHARLES BRADLEYChangesCHARLES BRADLEYVictim Of LoveCHARLES BRADLEYNo Time For DreamingCHARLOTTE GAINSBOURGRestCHET BAKERChetCHET BAKERChet Baker SingsCHET BAKERIt Could Happen To YouCHRISTIAN SCOTTStretch MusicCLAUDE LUTERClaude LuterCOMMONLike Water For ChocolateCOURTNEY PINEJourney To The Urge WithinCURTIS MAYFIELDSuperflyCURTIS MAYFIELDCurtisCYMANDECymandeD'ANGELOBrown SugarD'ANGELOVoodooD'ANGELOBlack MessiahDEPECHE MODEDelta MachineDEPECHE MODEExciterDEPECHE MODEPlaying The AngelDEPECHE MODESpiritDIANA ROSSDianaDOMINIQUE A.AuguriDOUNIAH & HIGH JOHNDream BabyEL COCODancing In ParadiseEL MICHELS AFFAIRReturn To The 37th ChamberEL MICHELS AFFAIRSounding Out The CityELLA FITZGERALDLive At The Deutschlandhalle In BerlinELLA FITZGERALD & LOUIS ARMSTRONGElla And LouisELLA MAIElla MaiERIK TRUFFAZMantisERIK TRUFFAZThe MaskERYKAH BADUBaduizmERYKAH BADUNew Amerykah: Part One (4th World War)ERYKAH BADUNew Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The AnkhERYKAH BADUWorldwide UndergroundESPERANZA SPALDINGChamber Music SocietyESPERANZA SPALDINGEmily's D+evolutionESPERANZA SPALDINGJunjoESPERANZA SPALDINGRadio Music SocietyESPERANZA SPALDING12 Little SpellsFATIMAAnd Yet It's All LoveFATIMAYellow MemoriesFEISTMetalsFEISTPleasureFEISTThe ReminderFREDDIE HUBBARDBreaking PointFUGEESThe ScoreGASPARD SOMMERAsking QuestionsGOTYEMaking MirrorsGRACE JONESIsland LifeGREGORY PORTERLiquid SpiritGREGORY PORTERTake Me To The AlleyGREGORY PORTERWaterGURUJazzmatazz, Vol.1HERBIE HANCOCKMaiden VoyageHI-TEKHi-teknologyIBEYIIbeyiIBEYIAshICE-TPowerIGGY POPPost Pop DepressionIGGY POPFreeJ DILLADonutsJACK WHITELazarettoJAINZanakaJAMES BROWNSlaughter's Big Rip-offJAMES BROWNThe PaybackJAMES BROWN & THE FAMOUS FLAMESPlease, Please, PleaseJAMES BROWN & THE J.B.'SGet Down With James Brown: Live At The Apollo Volume IVJANE BIRKINLolita Go HomeJANELLE MONÁEThe Electric LadyJAY-ZAmerican GangsterJAY-ZThe Blueprint² The Gift & The CurseJHENÉ AIKOSouled OutJIMI TENOROrder Of NothingnessJIMMY SMITHThe Sermon!JOE HENDERSONPage OneJOE SIMONGet DownJOHN COLTRANEBlue TrainJORJA SMITHLost & FoundJOSHUA REDMAN QUARTETMoodswingJOSÉ JAMESNo Beginning No EndJOSÉ JAMESWhile You Were SleepingJOSÉ JAMESYesterday I Had The Blues: The Music Of Billie HolidayJOY DIVISIONUnknown PleasuresJUSTIN TIMBERLAKEThe 20/20 ExperienceKANYE WESTMy Beautiful Dark Twisted FantasyKASHIFCondition Of The HeartKATE BUSHNever For EverKELISFoodKELLY FINNIGANThe Tales People TellKENNY DORHAM WITH CANNONBALL ADDERLEYBlue SpringKENNY DORHAM WITH SONNY ROLLINSJazz ContrastsLAURYN HILLThe Miseducation Of Lauryn HillLEE MORGANThe SidewinderLEE MORGANCornbreadLEE MOSESTime And PlaceLEON BRIDGESComing HomeLEON BRIDGESGood ThingLIANNE LA HAVASBloodLIANNE LA HAVASIs Your Love Big Enough?LYN COLLINSThink (About It)MACEO PARKERLife On Planet GrooveMADLIBShades Of Blue (Madlib Invades Blue Note)MADONNALike A VirginMADONNAThe First AlbumMADVILLAINMadvillainyMALIA, BORIS BLANKConvergenceMARLENA SHAWThe Spice Of LifeMARLENA SHAWWho Is This Bitch, Anyway?MARVA WHITNEYIt's My ThingMARVIN GAYEMidnight LoveMARVIN GAYETrouble ManMARVIN GAYEWhat's Going OnMARY WELLSBye Bye Baby, I Don't Want To Take A ChanceMARY WELLSMary Wells Sings My GuyMASSIVE ATTACKBlue LinesMASSIVE ATTACKProtectionME'SHELL NDEGÉOCELLOPour Une Âme Souveraine A Dedication To Nina SimoneMICHAEL KIWANUKAHome AgainMICHAEL KIWANUKALove & HateMICHAEL KIWANUKAOut Loud!MILES DAVISKind Of BlueMINNIE RIPERTONLes Fleurs The Minnie Riperton AnthologyMORCHEEBACharangoMORCHEEBAFragments Of FreedomMORPHINECure For PainMOUNT KIMBIELove What SurvivesMÉLISSA LAVEAUXCamphor & CopperMÉLISSA LAVEAUXDying Is A Wild NightMÉLISSA LAVEAUXRadyo SiwèlN*E*R*DNothingN.W.A.Straight Outta ComptonNASIllmaticNAS & DAMIAN MARLEYDistant RelativesNICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDSMurder BalladsNICK WATERHOUSENick WatherhouseNINA SIMONEPastel BluesNINE INCH NAILSHesitation MarksNIRVANANevermindNORAH JONESCome Away With MeNORAH JONESFeels Like HomeNU GUINEANuova NapoliOVERCOATSYoungOXMO PUCCINOL'arme De PaixOXMO PUCCINOLa Voix LactéeOXMO PUCCINORoi Sans CarrosseOXMO PUCCINOLa Nuit De RéveilPJ HARVEYLet England ShakePJ HARVEYTo Bring You My LovePJ HARVEYWhite ChalkPARCELSParcelsPEDERAnd He Just Pointed To The Sky...PINK FLOYDThe WallPORTISHEADPortisheadPRINCESign "O" The TimesPRINCELovesexyPRINCE1999PRINCEArt Official AgePRINCE & 3RDEYEGIRLPlectrumelectrumPUBLIC ENEMYApocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes BlackPUBLIC ENEMYFear Of A Black PlanetR+R=NOWCollagically SpeakingRAPHAEL SAADIQThe Way I See ItRICK JAMESReflectionsRICK JAMESStreet SongsROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENTBlack RadioROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENTBlack Radio 2RODOLPHE BURGERGoodROLAND KIRKThe Inflated TearROY AYERSCoffyROY AYERS UBIQUITYA Tear To A SmileROY AYERS UBIQUITYEverybody Loves The SunshineRYO FUKUIMellow DreamRYO FUKUISceneryRYO FUKUIA Letter From SlowboatSADEDiamond LifeSADELove DeluxeSADELovers RockSADEPromiseSADESoldier Of LoveSADEStronger Than PrideSANTIGOLDMaster Of My Make BelieveSANTOGOLDSantogoldSERGE GAINSBOURGAux Armes Et CæteraSERGE GAINSBOURGBest Of - Gainsbourg - Comme Un BoomerangSERGE GAINSBOURGCouleur CafeSERGE GAINSBOURGL'étonnant Serge Gainsbourg (N°3)SERGE GAINSBOURGLa JavanaiseSERGE GAINSBOURGLe Poinçonneur Des LilasSERGE GAINSBOURGSerge GainsbourgSHADOWSweet Sweet DreamsSHANNONLet The Music PlaySHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS100 Days, 100 NightsSHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGSDap-dippin' With...SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGSGive The People What They WantSHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGSI Learned The Hard WaySHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGSNaturallySHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGSSoul Time!SOLANGEA Seat At The TableSOLANGEWhen I Get HomeSONNY ROLLINSVolume TwoST GERMAINTouristSTAN GETZ / JOÃO GILBERTO FEATURING ANTONIO CARLOS JOBIMGetz / GilbertoSTEVE WINWOODBack In The High LifeSTEVIE WONDERHotter Than JulySTUFF COMBEStuff Combe 5 + PercussionTAKUYA KURODARising SonTALKING HEADS77TEDDY PENDERGRASSWorkin' It BackTHE CUREPornographyTHE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTETTime Further Out (Miro Reflections)THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTETTime OutTHE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET FEATURING: PAUL DESMONDRecorded Live At Newport Jazz FestivalTHE DELIJazz CatTHE DOORSL.A. WomanTHE DOORSMorrison HotelTHE DOORSStrange DaysTHE DOORSThe DoorsTHE DOORSWaiting For The SunTHE ISLEY BROTHERSWinner Takes AllTHE PHARCYDEPlain RapTHE ROOTSHow I Got OverTHE S.O.S. BANDDiamonds In The RawTHE STOOGESRare PowerTHE STOOGESThe StoogesTHE YOUNG GODSData Mirage TangramTONY ALLENThe SourceTOWER OF POWERBump CityTROMBONE SHORTYFor TrueWAYNE SHORTERSpeak No EvilWENDY RENEAfter Laughter Comes Tears: Complete Stax & Volt Singles + Rarities 1964-1965WILLIE HUTCHThe MackWU-TANG CLANEnter The Wu-tang (36 Chambers)YELLOTouch YelloYOUN SUN NAHLentoOriginal Sound Track AlbumCLIFF MARTINEZ - DriveOriginal Sound Track AlbumHERBIE HANCOCK - Blow-upOriginal Sound Track AlbumISAAC HAYES - ShaftOriginal Sound Track AlbumJ.J. JOHNSON / JOE SIMON / MILLIE JACKSON - Cleopatra JonesOriginal Sound Track AlbumMILES DAVIS - Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud (Lift To The Scaffold)Original Sound Track Album Original Sound Track AlbumJackie BrownOriginal Sound Track AlbumPulp FictionOriginal Sound Track AlbumPRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION - Purple RainOriginal Sound Track AlbumVinyl: Music From The Hbo Original Series Volume 1VARIOUSThai Funk Volume OneVARIOUSWake Up You! The Rise And Fall Of Nigerian Rock 1972-1977 Vol. 2VARIOUSWe Out Here

[mayapuryogini]

Blog 1: Disclosure

I wanted to start this blog by confessing how extremely nervous I am about blogging this project. Being new to creative writing I am completely out of my comfort zone. I took this course as a challenge to myself to get out of my dry, wordy, academic writing. After all, I want to be a well rounded teacher. What if some amazing budding author passes through my class and I can’t help them to reach their potential? By the way I cannot believe I’m actually using contractions in a school assignment. Are contractions even okay in creative writing?

The course description caught my eye right away. ‘Advanced’ sounded intense, but I love creativity. I just needed a teacher, a master of the art, to whip me into shape and crack open my rigid exterior. Deep down there is an artist in me that was never allowed to grow. Coming out of high school Architecture or Interior Design was my first choice of study, but a series of art college dropouts in the family (including my two older sisters) made my parents pull out all the stops to guilt and persuade me into a premed Psychology track. You can all guess how that worked out.   

I took to Rate My Professor and found the magic words:

“... if you truly have a desire to write creatively then this class is for you. She is a tough grader but it will help you in the end.”

I was on a tram in ‘Melben’ when I got the acceptance e-mail from Dr. Byrd, “... the ‘Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing’ course is offered according to the rotation of creative writing courses, so next time it will be offered will be in Fall 2020.”

It was now or never. My graduation is set for May 2020 and there is only so much room for electives in the MAT program. So here I am, taking the plunge with all of you. I have truly loved reading all the posts thus far. This class seems so fun and diverse.

For my project I will be joining a few of my classmates on the yoga train (no goats lol) along with some personal development, soul searching, and traveling. I am currently in West Bengal in a small town called Mayapur (pictured in my banner). Sita, aka La Colombiana, is a good friend of mine and has just returned to Mayapur from an intense yoga teacher training course in Maharastra. She will be cracking the whip ensuring I am up and ready every Monday to Friday by 9 am for a 30 minute workout followed by a one hour yoga session.

It seems like a lot, but we’ve already completed week one! I feel like I kind of undid all my hard work over the weekend, but I will save that story for the next entry.

[auskultu]

Special Report: The Canyon Scene

Jerry Hopkins, Rolling Stone, 22 June 1968

[From a larger article on the Los Angeles scene.]

It is the canyons—Laurel and Topanga, especially—that house the people who make the music. Laurel Canyon is a paisley gash that runs from Schwab’s on Sunset to the suburban San Fernando Valley, and Topanga Canyon is a dusty-woodsy pass leading from Malibu Beach to the same suburban sprawl. The environments in these canyons differ, but the people do not.

Van Dyke Parks calls Laurel Canyon “the seat of the beat” in his album Song Cycle, for it is here the music-makers create and rehearse, using the canyon walls as a natural baffle—and the neighbors don’t seem to mind so much.

Stand on the wood porch outside the Canyon Country Store halfway up the hill and watch the neighborhood file in for supplies. In a few days time you will have seen members of Clear Light and the Turtles, Neil Young and Richie Furay (former Buffalo), Lee Michaels, Bryan MacLean (Love), Joe Larson (Merry-Go-Round), Micky Dolenz, Joni Mitchell, A&M’s Michael Vosse, Elektra engineer John Haney, Phil Austin and Phil Proctor of the Firesign Theatre, Andy Wickham, Electra producer Barry Friedman (who shared a home in the canyon until recently with Paul Rothchild), Carol King (Goffin and King), and a dozen others of this musical, house-hopping fraternity. It is also in Laurel Canyon that Eric Burdon has a home, and Frank Zappa just bought the old Tom Mix house.

The attraction of the small store, with a cleaners and tiny restaurant nearby, is social as much as culinary. It is here where dates are made, new homes are found (on a bulletin board or through friends), grass might be scored, and where you usually get some sort of vague answer to the question, “What’s happening?"

Billy Of Ridpath Drive “If there were more mobility in this town,” says Billy James, a personal manager and music publisher who lives just up the hill from the store, “the Canyon store would look like MacDougal Street on Saturday night.”

Billy lives on Ridpath Drive, a steep twisting road that puffs to a dead-end after dividing 50 or 60 small frame houses slammed up against the mountainside. An afternoon stroll along his block reveals the essence of canyon existence.

At 8504 Ridpath, where Billy lives with his wife Judy and son Mark, is a mailbox with a typewritten list of the legitimate addresses for 8504; there are at least 20 companies, groups and individuals on the list. Inside the house this day, the dutiful wife is preparing a 1 p.m. breakfast of hamburgers for Billy and for Jackson Browne, a singer-songwriter Billy represents. Between phone calls, in a small dark “office” cluttered with albums, photographs, collages, tapes and acetates, Billy talks about the canyon.

“I lived in Beverly Hills my first two years here,” he said, “and then I moved into the clear air of the hills. It was either the hills or the ocean; both are here and it seemed silly not to live comfortably.

“I wasn’t the first to move into Laurel, but there weren’t too many here then—musicians and so on. Arthur Lee [Love] lived nearby—and that was about it. It’s all happened in the last year or so. I don't know why, really. If creative artists need to live apart from the community at large, they also have a desire to live among their own kind and so an artistic community develops.”

The Distant Drums As Billy talks, you hear someone in the near distance rehearsing. Billy explains it is the drummer for the International Submarine band. The drumming becomes louder as you pass the house and walk another few yards to 8524, Barry Friedman’s home. There you find Barry listening to tapes he has just produced for Elektra. Outside and on a different level from the house someone is cleaning the swimming pool and in another room of the sparsely furnished but rambling house a young Canadian songwriter named Rolf Kempf is picking and singing quietly.

Barry turns up the tapes for a visitor and begins to hype the group, the Holy Modal Rounders. You can see his lips move and barely hear him as an earthslide of sound fills the room from two huge studio speakers mounted near the ceiling. When the volume is cut, Rolf returns to his picking.

The following day Billy James is not home in the afternoon, but meeting with a record company. The house of the International Submarine Band is quiet as its members sleep. And Barry Friedman’s home is asprawl with musicians listening to albums and rapping—several of those present being the members of the Buffalo Springfield, wondering what’s next

Househopping Earthworms Laurel Canyon has been described by pop writer Richard Goldstein as a place where streets appear as if laid out by earthworms. And so it is. The earth is baked dry and verdant with semi-tropical growth by turns, and the drives and trails knot incredibly—linking a community of sound.

(A footnote regarding the househopping mode of living in LA., which can only be described as incestuous: before Barry Friedman and Paul Rothchild moved into what is now Barry’s home, the tenant was disc jockey B. Mitchell Reed … who, in turn, now lives in David Crosby’s house in Beverly Glen, while Crosby commutes to his boat in Florida … and Barry’s old house, in Hollywood, is now inhabited by Doug Weston, owner of the Troubadour.)

Topanga Canyon is a stranger and somehow gentler place, removed from Hollywood and the center of the scene by almost 20 miles. (But still in L.A.) Say “Topanga” to someone in L.A. and the first-word-you-think-of response is “hippie.” But Topanga carried Goldwater in 1960, and the American Legion post there is a powerful one. Still, it is where Linda Ronstadt and Bob Kimmel of the Stone Poneys lived when the world began to spin. It is where Barry McGuire went to collect himself and began getting back to nature and where, today, in small frame homes against clay hillsides live two songwriters named Alexander (Gordon and Gary), Chris Hillman and Kevin Kelly of the Byrds, and the old Buffalo Springfield’s Steve Stills.

Laurel Canyon is the sort of canyon where you’d expect to find (and will find) a lot of motorcycles. Topanga Canyon is the sort where you’d look for horses. Both these means of transportation are popular among the music-makers who live in these canyons: bikes in Laurel, horses in Topanga. (VW campers in both.)

Immediate Medical Attention Los Angeles is a strange town, seeming at times as if it were made in Japan and shipped here in small parts, then assembled by a committee of capricious drunks. But it has a pull, an attraction that may often (if not always) be related to—but somehow a little stronger than—the record company and the money it represents.

Frank Zappa, after living for 18 months in New York, returned to Los Angeles in May. “New York is a good city to make money in,” he said, “but I can’t write there. I have to be in L. A. There’s something very creative here.”

Roger McGuinn of the Byrds says the music scene suffers some from the city’s unusually beautiful climate, its “terribly relaxed attitude,” but Derek Taylor thinks those points make L. A. valuable. “This town makes no demands on you and it offers you everything good,” he said. “There seem to be 30 hours in every day and eight days in each week. There is a leisurely pace, but a pace of getting it done. It’s all here —the best facilities, the best climate. You don’t have to leave L.A. on business, you know, unless you like to travel on business; everyone you know or like wants to come here. Even the Beatles, who never go anywhere.”

There are others who feel Los Angeles is not yet the blossom Derek says it is. Michael Vosse feels the earth in Los Angeles is “in need of immediate medical attention.” “It's sick,” he said. “The business is sick and we have to keep attacking and working to make it well.”

While John Hartmann, manager of the Canned Heat and one of the Kaleidoscope owners, says, “The L. A. music scene is almost an unborn child. It’s a whole new thing today. The industry is generating product at an incredible pace, and new groups and new record companies are appearing hourly. I believe the LA. scene started with the Buffalo Springfield and I think the Doors really kicked off this new era. Now stand back and watch out!”

So as L.A. troops from club to club by night, from studio to studio by day, or hides out in a canyon to rehearse and write, the scene begins to unfold. The many scenes haze softly at the edges and begin to overlap.

[fieldnotesinmediares]

I already know that the words that I write here are going to fall short. I don’t think there is any combination of words in the english language to adequately capture the amount of gratitude I’m experiencing as this music video finally comes into the world. the ‘feel it twice’ music video is the work of ten nashville creatives who banded together to make this happen out of the sheer goodness of their hearts, out of the desire to restore my faith in the creative community after taking a pretty significant blow when the original music video director I hired made off with the money. this post isn’t about what happened then, though. that’s been and gone. this post is about the fact that good people not only exist, but they poured their time and talent into a song that I’ve believed in from the moment Nicole Miller, Paige Rose, and I wrote it. this post is about how your heart can break and you can lose your faith to the nth degree but there is always someone out there ready to piece it all back together again. ten someones, in fact. this post is about the fact that some things aren’t cosmic timing at all but humanity at its finest. when you watch the music video, you’re not just watching little old me running around a field in a polka dotted dress, wondering what the heck I did to deserve this magical day on set. you’re watching the generosity of the 254 Collective and Preston Leatherman. you’re watching the meticulous and keen eye of Dylan Rucker, the direction and hours of editing after the fact of Alexa Campbell, and the incredible leadership of Ryan Byrd. you’re seeing the steady camera hand of Daniel Vorlet, the gear expertise of Matthew Bellamy, the attention to detail of Jaried Gentry and Benny Jenkins, the color handiwork of Mason Allen and the kindness of Nashville Camera. and you’re watching all of that set in motion by an incredible photographer and advocate for independent artists, Acacia Evans. keep that in mind when you push ‘play’ on the video. this video puts the phrase ‘labor of love’ to shame.

https://youtu.be/w0Lp0jIFadw

[art-of-manliness]

Podcast #433: The Adventure of Silence

We live in an age of noise. Not just audible noise, but visual noise. It seems like you can’t go anywhere these days without something or someone vying for your attention. My guest today thinks all this noise has made us a bit crazy, and that we need to re-capture the power of silence in our lives. He came to this realization while traveling alone, by foot, for fifty days to the South Pole. Since having that experience of what he initially found to be a disturbing level of silence, he thinks other people need more space for quietude in their lives. His name is Erling Kagge. He’s an adventurer, philosopher, and the author of the book Silence: In the Age of Noise. Today on the show Erling shares his adventures of being the first person to walk to the North Pole, the South Pole, and Mount Everest alone and why he thinks adventure is within reach of anyone who desires it. We also discuss why creating intentional friction and discomfort is a necessity in our modern world. We then shift gears to discussing the exploration of a different kind of terrain: that of silence. Erling shares what experiencing the silence of being alone in the South Pole is like, what philosophers have said about silence, why people should embrace the challenge of seeking silence, and how to find it even in our noisy modern world. Show Highlights * How and why Erling became an explorer  * How Erling balanced exploring with his workaday life (including being a parent and lawyer) * What led him to study philosophy at Cambridge? * Why Erling argues that we should make life more difficult  * The two forms of boredom  * What is silence? Is it simply the absence of sound? * What does philosophy have to say about the idea of silence? * What it was like to be alone at the South Pole for 50 days  * How words themselves limit our experiences  * Why Erling didn’t feel the need to curse while alone at the pole * What is it about silence that makes us uncomfortable?  * What art can teach us about silence? * How can regular people find their own South Pole and experience silence? Resources/People/Articles Mentioned in Podcast * Three Poles Challenge * My podcast with adventurer Laval St. Germain  * My podcast with adventurer Alastair Humphreys * My 8-Week Microadventure Challenge * A Call for a New Strenuous Age * 5 Habits for a Better Relationship With Your Smartphone * The Spiritual Disciplines: Silence and Solitude * Lessons on Solitude From Admiral Richard Byrd * People would rather shock themselves than be alone with their thoughts * The Suicide of Cato the Younger * The Virtuous Life: Silence * The Addictive Nature of Modern Tech Listen to the Podcast! (And don’t forget to leave us a review!) Listen to the episode on a separate page. Download this episode. Subscribe to the podcast in the media player of your choice. Podcast Sponsors Athletic Greens. The most complete, whole foods supplement available, plus it tastes fantastic. Head over to AthleticGreens.com/manliness and claim your 20 FREE travel packs today. Saxx Underwear. Everything you didn’t know you needed in a pair of underwear. Get $5 off plus FREE shipping on your first purchase when you use the code “AOM” at checkout. Starbucks Doubleshot. The refrigerated, energy coffee drink to get you from point A to point done. Available in six delicious flavors. Find it at your local convenience store. Click here to see a full list of our podcast sponsors. Read the Transcript Coming soon! The post Podcast #433: The Adventure of Silence appeared first on The Art of Manliness. http://dlvr.it/QgXnZ7

[aion-rsa]

The Medium Review

https://ift.tt/2Yl1lpH

With The Medium, Bloober Team take a clever gameplay concept and uses it to weave a psychological horror story that is one of the most polished titles released by the studio to date but doesn’t quite reach its full potential. Repetitive gameplay elements and issues with pacing bring this game down quite a bit, but espite the game’s needling flaws, it’s still worth playing, particularly for those who have enjoyed the studio’s previous work.

The game is set in ’90s Poland and centers on Marianne, the titular medium who can communicate with lost souls in the “spirit world” by focusing on objects imbued with memories of those who have passed. The spirit world is a parallel version of ours, like a nightmarish reflection, and Marianne has the ability to traverse both realities simultaneously, which allows her to make connections between them in myriad ways. In-game this is conveyed via a split-screen presentation where the player can interact with both worlds at once and solve puzzles by searching for clues in both realities, which are tethered in strange ways.

Unlike Bloober Team’s previous games, which were presented in first-person, The Medium is in third-person, which recalls genre classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The team handles this transition well, and they take full advantage of the split-screen mechanic, which is not persistent and only appears in select moments throughout the story (a tasteful decision on Bloober’s part—too much split-screen would have no doubt been headache-inducing). Overall, the game plays quite smoothly, from using Marianne’s powers to search for supernatural clues in the environments, to the directed camera angles and movements, which are all well thought out and never get in the way of the experience.

The story “starts with a dead girl,” a nightmare or premonition Marianne has of a girl being murdered by a lake. Haunted by this otherworldly vision, Marianne is getting her recently-deceased adoptive father’s house in order when she receives a mysterious phone call from a man who claims to know her innermost secrets, sending her on a grim detective mission of sorts, starting at the sprawling, abandoned Niwa hotel. There, she meets a young girl in the spirit world named Sadness, who helps her uncover the truth behind the man on the other end of that fateful call, as well as some shocking revelations about Marianne’s own past.

Narratively, this is one of Bloober’s strongest efforts. I found the story to be riveting, particularly in the latter half of the game. On paper, the dialogue and plot developments aren’t mind-blowingly good or novel, but the game’s unique presentation elevates the storytelling in a cinematic way. There are several surprising twists throughout the game that propel the story forward in a nice way, but the real strength of the script is its focus. Bloober Team has a knack for zeroing in on the intimately personal elements of its stories and exploring the human psyche in interesting ways both in the content and visuals, and the studio sticks to that philosophy here. 

Stories in games sometimes get too mired in plot mechanics and don’t focus enough on the characters and their internal journeys, but Bloober Team never falls into that trap. Marianne’s innermost fears and desires are always the going concern as the story unfolds. Even as other characters get folded into the story (you may even get to take control of them…), Marianne acts as the narrative center of gravity.

The dramatic elements of the story are done very well, with some cutscenes eliciting a physical response from me that I absolutely was not expecting. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that the story explores some ugly aspects of humanity that haunt us all in one way or another, particularly if you’ve lost someone close to you or have deep-seated familial issues. Bloober Team always aims for poignancy of the dark and devilish variety, and the developers achieve that here.

Release Date: Jan. 28, 2021 Platforms: PC (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S Developer: Bloober Team Publisher: Bloober Team Genre: Horror

Another one of Bloober Team’s strengths is art direction, particularly when it comes to creating detailed, evocative environments that reflect what’s going on in the protagonist’s head in fascinating ways. The environments in The Medium are stunning not just for their visual fidelity, but for their interconnectedness with the mood and themes of the story. The deteriorating innards of the Niwa hotel clearly convey that some truly twisted stuff went down in there, and the surrounding forests are creepy but in a way that’s almost beautiful, with the game’s atmospheric lighting (bolstered by ray-tracing if you’re playing on a sufficiently powerful PC or next-gen console) setting the mood nicely.

And that’s just the real-world environments—the spirit world is a fiery hellscape of rotting flesh and viscera, which happens to be inhabited by a lurching monstrosity called “The Maw” whose sole mission is to consume you in violent fashion. While the two realities look distinctly different (Marianne’s got white hair and a glowing arm in the spirit world, a nice touch), they still feel artistically cohesive.

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Most of the game consists of puzzles, whether it be scouring the environment for clues that reveal bits of the central mystery, or condensed puzzles that force you to switch between the two realities, changing the environment in the spirit world to allow real-world Marianne to proceed and vice versa. The latter, more traditional puzzles are a bit of a letdown. They mostly consist of you walking around the environment waiting for icons to pop up so that you can collect objects and place them in other objects to proceed. The tedium of this is alleviated by the dual-reality mechanic. For instance, if real-world Marianne is impeded by a powered-down elevator, spirit Marianne can break off and manipulate objects in the spirit world to power up the elevator in the real world.

The dual-reality concept is super cool for a while, but it’s only a bandaid for the deeper issue of played-out puzzle design. Most of the puzzles you encounter are, at their core, as rudimentary as can be. There are a few that forced me to actually use my noggin (one involving a keypad comes to mind), but for the most part, one should have little trouble figuring out how to proceed at any given time, which is a letdown.

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I like that the game is more experiential than challenging in the traditional sense, but so much time is spent on these unimaginative puzzles that I found myself getting frustrated, more eager to explore and uncover the story than collect color-coded toy butterflies that I had to arrange in a certain order. The developers try their best to imbue these puzzle sections with storytelling details and dialogue but it does little to mask the monotony of the task at hand.

There are some set pieces later in the game that are exciting and fast-paced and dazzling to look at, but whatever momentum those moments create is stifled by the puzzles. It’s disappointing, because I think if there was a little less focus on the traditional gameplay aspects, the experience would be far smoother and the best parts of the story would shine. I know that many would complain about there not being enough in the way of traditional gameplay if the puzzle sections were reduced, but I think The Medium as an even more narrative-focused experience would be more effective overall.

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[watusichris]

Get a Move On

In the great tradition of seemingly every music site I work for, Music Aficionado appears to have dumped my story about the Move from its virtual library. So, in honor of Roy Wood’s birthday, I’m posting it my own damn self. **********

Everyone knows the Electric Light Orchestra. From 1974-80, they ruled the charts in America, ringing up three multi-platinum albums, two million-sellers, and a trio of gold discs; four of their singles reached the U.S. top 10. Sadly, the band from which Jeff Lynne’s rock-orchestral hit factory morphed remains a relatively unknown commodity in the colonies: the Move.

Stateside, the Birmingham, England-bred Move couldn’t get arrested for loitering with intent. It was a different tale in Blighty, where during their 1966-1972 heyday the group toted up seven top-10 45s. Tearing several pages from the Who’s playbook, they were one of the most notorious live acts of their era, and their taste for outrage led to a successful libel suit filed by British Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Almost insanely eclectic and creative, they made some of the most exciting and exploratory music of the period.

Alas, they are probably best known among American listeners for covers of several of their songs – “Brontosaurus,” “Down On the Bay,” “California Man” -- by their ardent fanboys Cheap Trick. Their obscure, rambunctious legacy is worth a second look and listen.

The Move was cobbled together in the English Midlands in late 1965 by a group of local musical vets; it’s said that impetus for the new unit was provided by aspiring pop singer David Jones, who would go on to greater fame as David Bowie. The front man was plummy-voiced lead singer Carl Wayne, formerly leader of his own outfit the Vikings. Vocal and instrumental support was supplied by guitarists Trevor Burton and Roy Wood, the latter of whom swiftly became the group’s principal songwriter; thumping drummer Bev Bevan; and glamourpuss bassist Chris “Ace” Kefford, a charismatic but highly unstable character in the Brian Jones mold who was nicknamed “the Singing Skull.”

Like almost every English band of any import during that epoch, the Move took initial inspiration from R&B and soul music; their early sets included covers of the Marvelettes’ “Too Many Fish in the Sea,” the Isley Brothers’ “Respectable,” the Orlons’ “Don’t Hang Up,” and Betty Everett’s “I Can’t Hear You No More.”

They swiftly found their footing in the studio with a pair of Wood-penned singles that bubbled up from its author’s evidently bottomless well of paranoia: The debut “Night of Fear” topped out at No. 2 in the U.K., while its follow-up “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” peaked at No. 5.

By the time the second 45 was released in the spring of 1967, the Move – under the aegis of manager Tony Secunda, who also handled another top local attraction, the Moody Blues -- had attained a reputation as one of England’s most (literally!) dangerous concert attractions.

Since 1964, the Who had been alarming the populace by trashing their equipment onstage; taking a page from Stephen Potter’s books about oneupsmanship, the Move lifted the ante with freewheeling and potentially perilous gigs at which the gangster-suited act attacked TV sets with fire axes, set effigies of public figures ablaze, and, during one notorious date at London’s Roundhouse, undertook the riot-inducing onstage demolition of a car.

The band’s fortunes seemed assured with the September 1967 release of “Flowers in the Rain,” a trippy little slice of psychedelia ornamented with classically-derived production flourishes courtesy of Bowie’s future producer Tony Visconti.

However, the No. 2 chart triumph of the single was tarnished after Secunda concocted a promotional postcard depicting Harold Wilson in flagrante delicto with his secretary Marcia Williams. Wilson’s solicitors speedily slapped a libel suit on the band, and, after a verdict in his favor, all royalties from the song were directed to the coffers of Wilson’s favorite charities. (“Vote For Me,” a mocking song about politicians whose target couldn’t have been more obvious, was subsequently recorded but wisely left unreleased.)

Secunda was subsequently deposed in favor of iron-fisted manager Don Arden by the time the Move’s self-titled debut LP was tardily released in April 1968. Even for its time, it was a wildly eclectic opus. Strong, heartily psychedelic Wood compositions – “Flowers in the Rain,” “Yellow Rainbow,” “Walk Upon the Water,” “Fire Brigade,” “Cherry Blossom Clinic” – sat side-by-side with covers of material by Eddie Cochran (“Weekend”), Moby Grape (“Hey Grandma”), and the Coasters (“Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart”). It became the group’s lone British long-player to reach the charts, hitting No. 15.

Incipient drug casualty Kefford had already been ejected from the band by the time they cut a live EP at London’s Marquee Club in February 1968. Hurriedly issued as Something Else From the Move on the heels of the debut album, the all-covers effort was a genre-encompassing set featuring tracks originally essayed by the Byrds, Love, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Spooky Tooth. It was a raucous affair, but it gave little hint of the more focused and highly personalized work that was to follow.

A pair of crunching singles released in late 1968 pointed towards the bottom-heavy sound that would characterize all the Move’s later work. The frenzied “Wild Tiger Woman” was the first of the band’s 45s that failed to chart in England: The BBC’s skittishness about its female protagonist’s sexual insatiability prompted a radio ban. It was succeeded by “Blackberry Way,” a string-inflected, Beatlesque tune – think “Penny Lane” – with a then-rare Wood lead vocal; it became the group’s only No. 1 entry.

Sometimes chaotic events during 1969 harbingered both the contorted latter-day history of the Move and the disinterested response that greeted their work on American shores. Trevor Burton, relegated to bass duties following Kefford’s expulsion, bridled at the pop orientation of “Blackberry Way.” Wood, previously a retiring figure within the band, was empowered by the song’s success and looked to take a higher profile in the group. And Carl Wayne, already studying an exit strategy, moved into music publishing and began pondering a solo career in cabaret-styled pop – and successfully dragged his band mates into incongruous dates whose repertoire reflected his aspirations.

After an on-stage punch-out between Burton and Bev Bevan at a Swedish concert, the unhappy bassist departed the band, and was replaced by Rick Price. The reconstituted quartet, some of whose earlier singles had been issued with a total lack of success by A&M in the U.S., undertook an American “tour” of four dates in October 1969; the trek was so chaotically managed that the band members had to book their own hotel rooms.

Out of this disorder came a remarkable album: Shazam, released in early 1970 in both the U.K. and the U.S. Loosely tied together by off-the-cuff “man on the street” interviews, it was a typically everywhere-at-once collection that managed to hang together thanks to its bottom-heavy sound.

Save for a string-flecked McCartneyesque ballad, “Beautiful Daughter,” which plays like a sop to Wayne’s pop ambitions, Shazam knocks a listener’s head against the wall. The LP was highlighted by the thunderous Wood original “Hello Suzie” and churning renderings of American art-rock act Ars Nova’s “Fields of People,” Frankie Laine’s antique pop hit “Don’t Make My Baby Blue,” and folkie Tom Paxton’s ballad “The Last Thing On My Mind.” “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited” – an expanded remake of the debut album’s Wood original about life in a mental institution – pointed at things to come with its extended instrumental interpolations from Bach’s “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” and Tchaikovsky’s “Peter and the Wolf” and “The Nutcracker Suite.”

This stupendous slab of proto-metal heaviosity was greeted with roaring silence, and failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic. The couple thousand people who purchased Shazam in the U.S. were probably prompted to lay down their cash by a fey yet wildly enthusiastic review of the album in Rolling Stone by critic and aspiring rock star John Mendelsohn, who would become the band’s chief advocate on these shores. The Move’s small but vocal cult following in the States had its beginnings here.

Wayne put his other foot out the door before Shazam appeared in the stores, and the band was speedily reformulated with the addition of singer-guitarist-vocalist Jeff Lynne, late of Birmingham’s Idle Race. (Wood had himself played in an early edition of that group, Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders.)

The new alignment captured immediate traction in the U.K., where Wood’s “dance song” “Brontosaurus” tallied a No. 7 slot. A full-length album bearing that track, Looking On, followed in late 1970. Grindingly, profoundly bottom-heavy, it lacked any notable songs beyond its chart hit, but it showed Wood flexing his considerable instrumental muscles on cello, sitar, oboe, and saxophones, and the twinned lead vocals and production skills of Wood and Lynne hinted at a winning combination. However, issued by Capitol in both the U.K. and U.S., it died a quick and largely unmourned death.

At this juncture, Wood and Lynne began to envision a new Move offshoot, the Electric Light Orchestra, as a seamless melding of the mother band’s already extant pop and classical strains. Thus work began simultaneously on a new Move album and a debut ELO recording.

The Move’s final set was prefaced by the pummeling Lynne-penned 45 “Down On the Bay” and two fantastic pop-rock singles from Wood, “Tonight” (No. 11 in England) and “Chinatown,” which hinted at the sonic density that would feature in his later solo work.

Recorded after Price’s exit by the trio of Wood, Lynne, and Bevan, the LP Message From the Country landed in October 1971. Though flawed – thanks to Bevan’s silly Elvis homage “Don’t Mess Me Up,” the equally obvious Johnny Cash homage “Ben Crawley Steel Company,” and the “Honey Pie”-like ‘20s pop tidbit “My Marge” – it showed what Lynne and Wood were capable of together. Wood brought in the anvil-dropping “Until Your Mama’s Gone” and “It Wasn’t My Idea to Dance,” while Lynne contributed the titular rocker, the end-of-the-world ballad “No Time,” and a pair of expansive numbers, “The Minister” and “The Words of Aaron,” that pointed towards his later ELO hits in style and sound.

Message From the Country might as well have been released with a “No Sale” sticker attached to it, for the album left nary a trace on any international chart. The band had one last, magnificent single in it: in May 1972, the double-barreled blast of Lynne’s snarling, careening “Do Ya” and Wood’s metallic Jerry Lee Lewis tribute “California Man” landed like a bomb. This two-sided stick of dynamite was the Move’s only 45 to make an American dent, belatedly peaking at a meager No. 93, but became a valedictory No. 7 hit in Great Britain.

By that time, the Electric Light Orchestra’s first LP, No Answer, had seen release. An uncertain mixture of wide-screen rock and unfocused mock-classicism, it bemused listeners in England, where old Move fans took it to a modest No. 32 chart slot, and stultified audiences in America, where it clipped the chart at No. 196 during a two-week stay.

By the time work commenced on a follow-up ELO opus, Wood and Lynne were at loggerheads about the future direction of the band, and, after contributing to just two numbers for the sophomore album, Wood exited the group, with Lynne and Bevan carrying on under the ELO handle.

It was left to United Artists Records, ELO’s American label, to release a splendid parting gift that served as a kind of primer for late-blooming Move devotees. The late-1972 compilation Split Ends brought together the best tracks from Message From the Country, with its genre pastiches excised, and the stunning singles released before and after that album’s release. No doubt benefiting from loud tub-thumping in UA’s in-house music publication Phonograph Record Magazine, which was distributed free in American record stores, the posthumous collection became the Move’s only American chart LP, rising to No. 172 in early 1973.

With the dissolution of their partnership, the commercial fortunes of the Move’s prime movers diverged. Lynne of course perfected his rock/classical fusion and enjoyed a glittering run with ELO, taking a remake of “Do Ya” to No. 24 in 1977, and went on to become a big-name producer, rock star familiar, and Traveling Wilbury as his career burgeoned in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Roy Wood, always one Tommy short of a Pete Townshend-worthy career in the U.S., proceeded as a beloved eccentric and sometime hitmaker in his homeland. His 1973 all-solo opus Boulders contained the top-20 hit “Dear Elaine,” and was succeeded by the scrumptious Neal Sedaka-meets-the-Beach Boys hit “Forever” (No. 8). Regrouping with dissident Move bassist Rick Price, he founded the visually and sonically extravagant rock big band Wizzard, which issued such neo-Spectorian smashes as “Ball Park Incident” and “See My Baby Jive.”

Quite the saga. Now, if you haven’t heard the band, it’s time to get a Move on.