#historian 2018 album of ALL time

[verymuchablog42]

im just calling bc im used to it 🙄 and you pick up bc ur not a quitter 😤‼️

[sidewalk-scrawls]

Hello, please may you recommend five of your favourite albums to me, as I am still recovering from my dark era of "just outsource it, get someone else to pick the music" of the last thirty yrs and I wish to learn :)

I haven't been as active about seeking out music these days, but I really want to start doing it again! I used to be *very* good at it, so if you'd like tips, happy to share!!!

In terms of my five favorite albums... These are a little arbitrary because I have too many, but I decided to focus on albums that I consider to be really strong from beginning to end. So, in no particular order:

Draw Down the Moon by Foxing: Foxing is Midwest emo-adjacent, so this one speaks to my nostalgia a bit. It's a gorgeous album in the post-rock vein, so it's got a lot of really lovely texture. Also features the culmination of nearly 10 year long recurring albatross imagery which absolutely demolished me the first time I heard it.

The Million Masks of God by Manchester Orchestra: Manchester Orchestra has been around for like 20 years now, and it's been really fun to watch their music change over time. As a post rock lover, this is my favorite album by them (the album is not really post rock, but listen, it's post rock adjacent.)

Historian by Lucy Dacus: A beautiful album with some real gut punches of songs. Lucy Dacus is frequently associated with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker (they all make up the band boygenius), but tbh I don't find her style all that similar to theirs -- She has a much more energetic approach to melody as well as instrumentation in general, and lyrically, she's a lot more hopeful.

Crushing by Julia Jacklin: Severely underrated imo! Singer/songwriter with some indie pop and folk influences. If you like Historian, you'll probably like this album, too.

The Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit: A weirdly hopeful album about overcoming depression that rewired my brain in college. I find this one kind of hard to listen to these days (the leader singer killed himself back in 2018, god it's been 6 years--), but it's gotten easier. It's a good fucking album!

Bonus: Because Some Things Cannot Happen Enough by Tomasz Bednarczyk. I intentionally left instrumental albums out of the above list because they take up a very different space in my brain but like... holy shit it's such a good instrumental album. The textures.... Pop on a good pair of headphones for this one if you can.

[wikiuntamed]

On this day in Wikipedia: Sunday, 13th August

Welcome, Dzień dobry, Benvenuta, Välkommen 🤗 What does @Wikipedia say about 13th August through the years 🏛️📜🗓️?

13th August 2021 🗓️ : Death - Nanci Griffith Nanci Griffith, American singer-songwriter (b. 1953) "Nanci Caroline Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She appeared many times on the PBS music program Austin City Limits starting in 1985 (season 10). In 1994 she won a Grammy Award for the album Other Voices, Other Rooms.Griffith toured with..."

Image licensed under CC BY 2.0? by Bryan Ledgard

13th August 2018 🗓️ : Death - Jim Neidhart Jim Neidhart, American wrestler (b. 1955) "James Henry Neidhart (February 8, 1955 – August 13, 2018) was an American professional wrestler known for his appearances in the 1980s and 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation as Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, where he was a two-time WWF Tag Team Champion with his real-life brother-in-law Bret Hart in..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0? by Miguel Discart

13th August 2013 🗓️ : Death - Lothar Bisky Lothar Bisky, German politician (b. 1941) "Lothar Bisky (17 August 1941 – 13 August 2013) was a German politician. He was the chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor of East Germany's Socialist Unity Party (SED). In June 2007 he became co-chairman of The Left (Die Linke) party, formed by a merger of the PDS and..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0? by Unknown authorUnknown author

13th August 1973 🗓️ : Event - Aviaco Flight 118 Aviaco Flight 118 crashes on approach to A Coruña Airport in A Coruña, Spain, killing 85. "Aviaco Flight 118 was a Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle operated by Aviaco that crashed in the village of Montrove, Spain on 13 August 1973, while attempting to land at Alvedro Airport in heavy fog. The aircraft crashed into an abandoned farmhouse approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi; 1.1 nmi) from the..."

Image licensed under GFDL 1.2? by Udo K. Haafke

13th August 1922 🗓️ : Birth - Chuck Gilmur Chuck Gilmur, American basketball player, coach, and educator (d. 2011) "Charles E. Gilmur Jr. (August 13, 1922 – January 14, 2011) was an American basketball player, enthusiast, and high school teacher. A 6'4" forward/center from the University of Washington, Gilmur earned first-team All-PCC honors in 1943. He played in the National Basketball Association from 1946 to..."

Image by Bowman Gum

13th August 1823 🗓️ : Birth - Goldwin Smith Goldwin Smith, English-Canadian historian and journalist (d. 1910) "Goldwin Smith (13 August 1823 – 7 June 1910) was a British historian and journalist, active in the United Kingdom and Canada. In the 1860s he also taught at Cornell University in the United States...."

Image

13th August 🗓️ : Holiday - Christian feast day: Jeremy Taylor (Anglican Communion) "Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) was a cleric in the Church of England who achieved fame as an author during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He is sometimes known as the "Shakespeare of Divines" for his poetic style of expression, and he is frequently cited as one of the greatest prose writers in the..."

Image by Eden Upton Eddis

[imnothingimnobody]

"Accomplishment" P1 "The Fall p2 "Swans"

This my feeling. I correspond with people on speed first getting into The Fall, primarily from Europe, because I hold one of the largest .jpeg scan archives and live recording archives of the group (except the 80s fans and they're aging out). So they get to read interviews from when the record they're listening to (there are 40 "official" ones and over a hundred others). Then they write to me and I see the wheels turn and they edit posts on the group dedicated to analyzing those LPs. It's more important to me than any serious music criticism could ever be because these people already like the music, they just don't have all the information on it yet. They can make up their own minds. I worked on a project called "The Fall Annotated" started by another American fan. The Fall aren't that popular here and so many references in the music were topical. It finally gathered the information from the European fans who had it. Scans started getting traded, song files shared. Our goal through correspondence had become to make it a sort of Wiki for The Fall, a resource that annotated the obscure, unfamiliar, overly specific (supported by third party sources like interviews) etc. It grew and now includes everything they released officially. When Mark E. Smith died in January of 2018, I entered a flurry of activity related to archiving material related to The Fall that lasted several months. I still think that's important, I don't give a fuck that no one cares. The internet let me see that a few people do that I otherwise never could've met. When I was young and the "world wide web" was being introduced that was my dream of what it could be. It would unite everyone around the world -- music fans, niche hobbyists, amateur historians, legitimate scientists. I thought a huge burst of advancement of mankind would happen and in some ways it truly did. By the end of 2018 the work that I could contribute to was done. And it still stands for anyone who googles the Fall Annotated. I didn't pick the name but that's the accurate description. It is a series of annotations of Mark E. Smith's body of lyrical work. I started to correspond with Julia Nagle, Smith's ex girlfriend and member of The Fall for 5 years. I never betrayed anything she told me to the general knowledge of the group. I respected what they did too much for that. Before them, the band Swans...I added greatly to the canon of scanned interviews, concert posters, and especially live bootlegs. A film producer working for them from Europe contacted me in 2017. He asked about using the live file I had of the Bochum West Germany concert from 1987. He wanted to know more about other bootlegs, and wanted written permission to use them in the documentary he was making. I wrote Michael Gira (only permanent member of Swans) and he replied. For one he sent me a signed 8"x10" photo. Secondly, a letter (typed). He said to give him whatever he asked for and he was sorry he couldn't pay me. I talked to the director and sent him everything I had. I sent Michael Gira a letter that thanked him and said I never wanted money -- I wanted more people to hear their music. December came. My girlfriend got hold of 1 of the 500 box sets pressed by Swans and with autograph. Vinyls of two albums, a CD copy, and a digital download within a box set with expanded artwork. At that time I was making the money to keep us going and I wondered how she'd spent over $100 without it affecting anything. She told me, "I e-mailed their site and mentioned you. He sent it for $25." I never accomplished much in my life. These are the things I hold dear. The Fall:

[sheetmusiclibrarypdf]

John Coltrane - "Giant Steps" Jazz Play Along (sheet music)

John Coltrane - "Giant Steps" Jazz Play Along

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXSl5xRyjzY

Coltrane Giant Steps

Giant Steps is a John Coltrane composition that quickly became famous among jazz musicians, but more as an obstacle course than jam session material. It was actually the same role that Cherokee had once played among the bebop musicians of the early 1940s, a piece that served to weed out musicians who weren't up to the demands of modern jazz. Writer and historian Ted Gioia summed this up perfectly by quoting that Gian Steps is a Cherokee on anabolics. The song belongs to the album of the same name and Coltrane's fifth studio album as leader, his first recording for Atlantic Records, recorded between May and December 1959, coinciding with the dates on which Coltrane participated in the classic Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. . This is how history is written, surprising, right? During this recording, Coltrane breaks with the usual procedure of doing a maximum of two or three takes per song, needing between five and ten takes for the final result to be to his liking. In addition, Coltrane tried different rhythm sections for the recording, which gives us an idea of ​​his obsession and perfectionism. One way or another, Giant Steps is his album, the album for his loved ones. All the songs are his own compositions and show his gratitude towards his family and musician friends, with whom he was in absolute complicity. Mr PC is dedicated to double bass player Paul Chambers, and Naima, Cousin Mary or Syeeda's Song Flute, to his wife and daughter. Returning to the theme and looking at the harmonic progression, Coltrane used elements that other musicians had used previously, as an example the bridge of Have You Met Miss Jones, a classic theme composed by Richard Rodgers in 1937. It seems that Tommy Flanagan, pianist on Coltrane's first and only recording of the theme, was baffled by such a harmonic "ballot". It's understandable. Although it is also fair to say that during the 80s, Flanagan made several recordings of Gian Steps, showing that he had already had time to study the subject. Coltrane put into practice here some improvisational patterns that he seemed to have devised beforehand. Various motifs and groups of four notes (permutations) that can be heard clearly and repeatedly in his solo. There are those who maintain the thought that more than a song, Giant Steps is an exercise that Coltrane developed as part of the rigorous musical training that he imposed on himself, an exercise that once mastered he took off. Beyond this assessment, it is true that he rarely interpreted it again. We cannot and should not forget this composition, since every self-respecting jazz musician should improvise on it, standing up to the harmonic flow plotted by Coltrane. In 2004, it was one of fifty recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. It attained gold record status in 2018, having sold 500,000 copies. Two tracks, "Naima" and "Syeeda's Song Flute", are respectively named after Coltrane's wife at the time and her daughter, whom he adopted. A third, "Mr. P.C.", takes its name from the initials of bassist Paul Chambers, who played on the album. A fourth, "Cousin Mary", is named in honor of Mary Lyerly, Coltrane's younger cousin. Personnel Musicians John Coltrane – tenor saxophone Tommy Flanagan – piano Wynton Kelly – piano on "Naima" Paul Chambers – bass Art Taylor – drums Jimmy Cobb – drums on "Naima" Cedar Walton – piano on "Giant Steps" and “Naima" alternate versions Lex Humphries – drums on "Giant Steps" and “Naima" alternate versions Read the full article

[territelecom]

Barney min nutcracker

#Barney min nutcracker how to#

#Barney min nutcracker how to#

Warner Video has a yabba-dabba-do time (you knew that was coming, right?) releasing this 60th anniversary Blu-ray boxed-set compilations of The Flintstones, running the entire lifetime of the original show from 1960 to 1966 (a 20-disk DVD complete collection appeared in 2018).Įach disc is accompanied by a mini-documentary or extra, ranging from William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (filmed in 1991) demonstrating for the viewer how to draw Flintstones characters to the music tracks of an all-Flintstones song album to short making-of and behind-the-scenes documentaries (cartoonist and historian Scott Shaw also shows off his formidable home stash of international Flintstones collectibles).

[kindahoping4forever]

Crystal, well esteemed historian, can you do a timeline post of when Ash got his tats? As far as you know, of course; not expecting exact dates (except for the star, which I know you know!). ~ Rema

@ivebeenasleepsolong There's legitimately nothing I'd rather do more 😌 I'll try not to play favorites 😂

Ash's first tattoo was the 5SOS tally in May 2014. He teased on Twitter that he'd gotten a tattoo before finally posting a pic a few days later with the sweet message: "This band means everything to me, and so do my brothers, so I got this!"

Next was the heart tattoo in January 2016. Again, he teased on Twitter, this time by posting a pic of himself getting tatted, with only a ❤️ emoji for a caption. A couple weeks later (on Valentine's Day no less 🤓) he finally revealed the tattoo in an Instagram post, again with a ❤️ caption. In the 5SOS Tattoo Break Down video for GQ, he explains he got it as a reminder to stay loving and soft-hearted.

The California condor (😏) came a few months later, in June 2016. He posted a photo on Instagram with a jokey caption (that he blamed on Calum 🤭) but also in the GQ video, he describes this piece as representative of the band making a new life for themselves in CA

Those were his only tattoos until May 2018 when he got the blood moon phases (I swear I post the video of him in the chair all the time but here it is again just because 🤡). He never made an "official" post about them and I don't think he's ever really talked about them either.

Then we jump to 2019 where things really ramped up! He got the snake, the rose, the 1994, the Late Late and The Star all in the span of 4 months 👀

In June, a London tattoo artist posted a pic of Cal's dagger tattoo - this wasn't too surprising since if you were following 5SOS's photographer at the time, Dusty Kessler, you would've seen a "freshly tatted" Cal with his arm wrapped up. What was shocking was when the same artist tagged Ash in a pic of a giant snake tattoo and it was a whole ~thing~ where fans weren't sure if it was real or not. The next day was when Ash did that live gallery painting and when he took off his suit jacket, the snake was hard to miss 😌

He later posted a pic from the event on his Instagram, simply titling it "The Red Belly Black Snake." He hasn't talked about this tattoo at length but that type of snake is native to Australia and so it's presumably a reminder of home.

In July, the rose tattoo was also "leaked" by his artist, this time in Sydney. Shortly after, 5SOS appeared on the Fitzy & Wippa radio show where Ash showed off the tatt and explained it was for his sister, Lauren Rose. There wasn't really an "official" photo of it until about a week later when the band visited Manila for promo.

This content was also where the 1994 tattoo was first spotted (though there was discrepancy for a while over what the tattoo said) so I assume he got these done around the same time, if not the same session. The 1994 tattoo has never been discussed but it is his birth year so that feels like an easy explanation.

Another easy explanation is the Late Late tattoo which took place in September. The band appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden and participated in a game called "Tattoo Roulette". Ash "lost" and had to get the show's name tattooed during the episode.

THE STAR came next in October ⭐👄⭐ - during a night off on the World War Joy tour, 5SOS's photographer/creative director Andy Deluca posted on Instagram that he'd gotten a tattoo and Ash reposted it to his story. No one thought anything of it and then the next night on stage, Ash had a giant star on his giant bicep. Though often seen (👁️👄👁️), the tattoo has never been addressed by Ash; the widespread belief is that it could be a tribute to David Bowie, whose final album was titled Blackstar.

Next came the coin and the greyhound, though the timeline here is a bit convoluted. Towards the end of July 2020, a LA tattoo artist tagged Ash in a picture of a "mortality coin" that reads Memento Mori, a Latin phrase that roughly translates to "remember that you will die." THE NEXT DAY, pictures came out of Ash getting coffee, showcasing a tattoo of what we now know is a greyhound (and which we now know is inspired by his own song but at the time we had no clue about the design or the song).

Here's why the timeline is weird: in the music video for Skinny Skinny, he has the greyhound but not the coin. He was photographed twice the previous month and didn't appear to have the tattoo yet so the greyhound must have happened between late June and late July. 🧐

Which brings us to February 2021 😌 It appears as tho Ash may have gotten new ink on the top of his left wrist, though it's hard to tell what it is since in both videos where it's visible, he refuses to sit still 😂 The leading guess so far seems to be that it could be an eye, which I think seems likely given how prevalent eye imagery was during the Superbloom era (the most obvious example being on his "ai" logo, the letter i is literally dotted with an eye).

If/when we get confirmation of this tattoo - or news of any others (manifest the back tattoo) 👀 - I will be sure to update this post! 😌

[a3day]

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.

If there’s one difficulty about hosting a podcast focused on experiencing music in group-named alphabetical order, it’s having to withhold listening to basically anything to avoid developing a bias. Sure, this cannot be avoided with groups I’ve actively enjoyed listening to since I became a fan of Korean entertainment. In the case of this group, however, not only have I managed to skip every possible sliver of music content, I was living in South Korea during their rookie year. Was my effort worth it? We’ll find out together as the long-awaited exploration of KQ Entertainment’s ATEEZ begins, right after the drop.

You’re tuned into An Album a Day. Show, start.

Hey y’all. This was a long time coming. Aside from being aware of a group member who could split apples with his bare hands, and  the existence of several cat-like facial features, I knew nothing about this boy band except that they waved large flags around with their names on it. I’ve a friend who goes by the name of AquaBrainLives on Twitter who’s waited patiently for years to educate me on the group, along with others, but as she puts it, these are her sons so the motherly interest is likely high.

KQ Entertainment houses this group specifically off the endearing strength of ATEEZ’s leader, Kim Hong-joong, who submitted a letter and demo to the label due to his admiration of legendary group Block B. That group’s influential leader, Woo Ji-Ho, better known as Zico, and his group mates once existed in a space and time where their efforts and that of fellow B-named male groups BIGBANG and disbanded group B.A.P. birthed and walked the path that BTS has run towards historic heights. That’s another story for another day.

In that space and time, Hongjoong was inspired and driven to be the next big thing. Granted, ATEEZ is a play on the words “A TEENager Z,” based on the 8-member groups' ages during training and debut at both KQ and other labels such as TOP Media, Big Hit, and Maroo Entertainment. However,  I’m inclined to believe that it also stands for a definition for teasing the industry like one would do hair, because they’ve gently pulled at the strands of what’s “always” worked and separated those pieces into a commendable career of their own.

The effort put forth to avoid listening to their music, watching music videos, and dodging every live performance and appearance has been deeply intentional.I didn’t want to become a fan with a bias and be unable to listen to their discography objectively. Though this hasn’t impacted any past favorite groups, ATEEZ would be the first boy band I’d potentially fall head over heels for since NCT. It wasn’t a risk worth taking. Even amongst my former middle school and high school students who were becoming fans of the group the final year I lived in South Korea, I wouldn’t acknowledge photocards and wouldn’t allow music to be played in the classroom. I’m serious about my podcast and my aspiration of being your favorite foreign Korean music historian!

Oh but now, after all these years, it’s time to let loose. Since their 2018 debut, ATEEZ has released three studio albums, nine EPs, 12 singles, and have made two soundtrack appearances. They’ve released 19 music videos, at the time of this podcast’s publication. And! And, they’ve already had a re-release of one of their projects. Suffice to say, the young men are working hard. Likewise, I’ve been working to end this extra-long podcast season. Therefore, I will tackle at least two albums for each episode dedicated to the group. This allows me to acknowledge progression from project to project faster as well as end this never-ending story that is Season 6 of An Album a Day.

Jumping right into it, on October 24, 2018, members Kim Hong-joong, Park Seong-hwa, Jeong Yun-ho, Kang Yeo-sang, Choi San, Song Min-gi, Jung Woo-young, and Choi Jung-ho, made their debut with Treasure EP.1: All to Zero. The six-tracked debut EP is just under 20 minutes long and announced to the world that the banner-waving, pirate cat boys had arrived. They followed that EP with a second 20-minute one, Treasure EP.2: Zero to One, on January 15, 2019.

The debut album certainly establishes positive debut energy for the members of ATEEZ. The album explores hip-hop and its various genres -- both fusion and derived -- and paces well. At just under 20 minutes, it leaves you interested in hearing more. If the first album is telling listeners, “We’re here! We’re here!” then the second one clearly says, “We’re not going anywhere.” “Zero to One” feels mature and defined. You know who’s doing what, and you know that at least one song is going to distort your facial expression in awe. In fact, by this point, you’ve accepted Hong-joong as your leader and will provide all the catnip and/or neck veins to the vampire. Not you, just me?

K-pop fans on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being essential listening and 1 not worth mentioning, the A3Day rating for “All to Zero” is a 4. Due to it being a debut, which is not always the easiest thing to knock out of the ballpark, it did well with illustrating the unique colors of a group. The A3Day rating for “Zero to One” is a 5. They sprinted towards a defined sound and we’ll look more into that, including the writing and production choices, before their discography concludes on the show.

There’s sponsored ads and social media hashtags but this show is truly supported by the efforts of my MACGoalas, the most amazing fan base a lil’ entertainer could ever have. Special shout out to my Patreon patrons -- the Freshmen, Student Body, the Scholars, and the Staff -- who keep my vision of becoming your favorite foreign Korean music historian, exploring all the industry from A to Z a real thing. If you’re interested in supporting the growth of this content, please visit patreon.com/multifacetedacg and for as little as $1.00 a month, you can get in on the magic.

Interested in continuing your support at the free-99 price? I love you for it. You can still engage with the show and me, your lovely host, when you retweet, repost, and share the show and use #a3day. And please consider leaving a few stars or a review on Apple Music, iTunes, IMDb, or Podchaser to keep things growing in the right direction. Thank you for listening and I’ll catch you in the next episode. Bye y’all.

[soundsof71]

So, considering you are a passionate fan of music released in 1971, I feel justifiably obligated to ask you what you think of Buffy Sainte-Marie's 'She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina' album. 😂 (Also, it would make me beyond happy if you could post more about Buffy, my friend! Thank you! ❣)

Buffy Sainte-Marie + Crazy Horse - what’s not to love? LOL I confess that it was the Crazy Horse connection that caught my attention first. I had a general idea who Buffy was, had seen her on TV a few times, but I was a big Crazy Horse fan. News that they were her backing band for this album was easily enough for me to scoop it up.

They weren’t doing anything much with Neil Young in 1971 (other than this album, on which Neil also appeared!), but they had released a tasty solo album in February 71, produced by Jack Nitzsche (who also produced this, and would later marry Buffy), and featuring Ry Cooder (also featured here, although did not marry Buffy). 

(btw, the first place that Buffy, Ry, and Jack worked together was on the Nic Roeg film Performance, starring Mick Jagger. People obviously remember Mick in that, but musically, Buffy was the best part!) 

She Used To Wanna... also features Jesse Ed Davis, a Native American guitarist and singer who was a frequent “usual suspect” at these sort of “sure, invite everyone!” jam albums of the era, and played a prominent role at 1971′s biggest concert (at least in the US), The Concert for Bangladesh on August 1.

(I know you know  RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked The World, the documentary about indigenous music’s influence on rock and roll, which has chapters on both Buffy and Jesse Ed. I just watched it again recently, and love it! A reminder of Buffy’s pivotal role in classic rock history. Not mentioned in the film: she relentlessly championed the work of her fellow Canadians Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, helping them get their first record deals.)

I haven’t listened to She Used To Wanna Be A Ballerina for a while, so I definitely need to do that, along with posting more pictures of Buffy.  (I can’t believe I’ve only posted two!) 

But I’ll tell you what still stands out to me about that record years later. “Smack Water Jack” is an underrated track from Carole King’s Tapestry that got a ton of airplay at the time. Quincy Jones did an instrumental cover as the title track for his terrific 1971 album, too, but it has somehow faded to obscurity since then. Buffy takes a playful trifle, and turns it into a powerful fable of men of color who explode into violence in response to the violence visited upon them, and self-satisfaction of whites in authority who answer their demands for better living conditions by killing them on the spot. 

No need for a trial when you can murder them in the streets, right? “You can't talk to a man when he don't wanna understand / And he don't wanna understand” hits different when Buffy sings it, and in 2020 for that matter. 

It’s also just a terrific performance whose combination of soul and rock and roll and driving piano in a sort of Old West-sounding context would have made this sound right at home on a record like Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection  or something by The Band. I’m limited to five video embeds per post so I can’t embed it here, so I'm linking instead: anyone who hasn’t heard this definitely needs to.

Her cover of Neil’s CSNY track “Helpless” has things I like even better than Neil’s original, including Merry Clayton standing in for CSN. Buffy’s version is more muscular (thanks again to Crazy Horse), and taps even more deeply into the isolation of the song that the star power of CSNY somewhat obscured. 

Buffy’s version also made a brief but memorable appearance in the 2018 film Hotel Artemis, starring Jodie Foster. A weird little movie that I loved maybe more than it deserved LOL but I recommend nonetheless:

I know that this album gets attention because of the unusual number of covers, including one by Leonard Cohen, and a cover of a cover that Leonard had made famous on top of that, called "Song of the French Partisan” (hers is the far superior version imo, a song of French resistance to Nazi occupation from the perspective of a woman hiding a resister), but there are a couple of standout originals too. 

I love the title of this record, and the title track is a delightful little stomper that playfully cautions against equating the intentions of grown women with the childhood fantasies they’ve grown out of. More Merry Clayton goodness here on backing vocals too. 

“Soldier Blue” is a powerful song first written for the 1970 film of the same name, billed at the time as “The most savage film in history” -- and maybe it was. It used the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre as a metaphor for Vietnam, and it's still shockingly brutal. It was the third-highest grossing movie in the UK in 1971, though, and the single became a top-10 hit for Buffy there. 

It didn’t do as well here, either the song or the movie. Perhaps not shockingly in retrospect, Soldier Blue was pulled from American theaters after a few days, the Vietnam metaphor not at all lost on the Nixon administration. 

As horrifying as it was, this is about when I was reading Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (first published in 1970), and Soldier Blue resonated with me in a whole lot of ways. Here’s the song in the opening credits of the movie.

I was also really struck by “Moratorium”, which is the story of “Universal Soldier” (from her 1963 debut, but a bigger hit for Donovan in 1965), coming from the opposite direction. In the earlier song, she blamed war on the soldiers who think that fighting is honorable, but here, she has empathizes with the young men, boys really in many cases, who’ve been lied to by their countries, their parents, and even their friends. They’re not vainglorious. They’ve been duped by people they trusted. 

(I don't think she takes enough into account how many men sign up to fight because they want to embrace and celebrate their worst, most violent impulses, which was of course an undercurrent of “Universal Soldier”, but I appreciate her empathy here. More than one thing is true at a time.)

Buffy goes even farther, though, calling on soldiers to support and validate demands for peace as explicitly supporting them, summed up in the unforgettable cry, "Fuck the war and bring our brothers home!" 

1971 was the peak of antiwar demonstrations in the US, with the biggest crowds ever seen in this country until the 2017 Women’s March. The May 1971 demonstrations pretty much shut down Washington, culminating with Vietnam Veterans Against The War throwing back their medals on the steps of the US Capitol, incredibly powerful stuff to see on TV in my formative years, and Buffy was right there in it. Anti-war songs were a cottage industry for sure, but nobody was writing with the nuance and empathy that Buffy was.

Here’s a 1972 performance of “Moratorium”, Buffy and a piano, and more emotionally bare than that:

There’s obviously lots more to say about Buffy, far outside the realm of protest music that was actually just a small part of her musical palette -- her pioneering experiments with electronic music, her educational philanthropy starting in her 20s, Sesame Street, you name it. Her commercial peak was still in front of her, and while I can’t say that this is my favorite of her records, it does have some of my favorite songs of hers, and 1971 and She Used to Wanna Be A Ballerina is definitely where I went from knowing who Buffy Sainte-Marie was to being a fan. 

I'll also note as I do now and again that while this blog started as an offshoot of a book on 1971 that I’d started but abandoned, I mostly listen to music released now. That’s always been my policy, including in 1971. When 1972 rolled up, I was mostly listening to music from 1972, music from ‘80 in ‘80, ‘91 in ‘91, 2018 in 2018, etc., to name just a few other favorites. (Plus The Beatles, okay? LOL I still listen to The Beatles every day. No apologies.) Honestly? It took me until 2011, in my fifties, when a whole bunch of 40th anniversary editions of 1971 albums got released all at once that made me think, “Wait a minute, this was maybe THE pivotal year in classic rock history!” 

So yeah, the historian in me dug into 1971, but even though I happened to be alive and enthralled by music in that year, what I’m doing here has nothing to do with nostalgia, or any idea that that was the *best* year in music, even if for the narrow slice of music that is classic rock, yeah, it absolutely is. For soul/R&B too, and for the explosion of women artists outside the even narrower confines of pop as well. This is not subject to debate. No year like it, before or since. It's just that classic rock is a such a narrow slice, and I like my slices wide. LOL Which is also why my blog has less and less 1971 content as I go along. 

While my general policy is that my favorite year for music is THIS year, this particular year hasn’t left me as much energy as usual for listening to music. Some of it is These Trying Times™, some of it is my bipolarity and schizophrenia getting the better of me in waves, as is the way with these, uhm, things. (Keep taking those meds, kids!) I listen to music and post about the people making it as a creative act, not a passive or reflexive one, and I just haven’t felt as creative as usual.

(This is also has everything to do with why so many Asks have been piling up unanswered. I apologize if you’re one of the many kind and indulgent souls who’s gotten in touch, but I swear I’m gonna get to ‘em all!)

To get an idea of what I’m ACTUALLY passionate about right now, my “to be edited later” running list of 2020 favorites randomly added to a playlist as I encounter them, to be properly curated later, is at Spotify, cleverly entitled “2020″ -- 94% women, which is about right. LOL 

But since I do in fact listen to old stuff (by which I mean 2019 LOL), I made a list of mostly 2020 bangers from women rockers with some tasty treats from 2019 that I haven’t been able to let go of just yet, inspired by a post I saw at tumblr saying that punk music by women is just plain better (also beyond debate), called “Women Bangers: A Tumblr New Classics Jam”. I’ll be posting an essay with a YouTube playlist soon, because god forbid that I only talk briefly about anything LOL and most of these women need to be heard AND seen.

Like Buffy Sainte-Marie, whom you'll both see and hear more often on my blog soon. Thanks for the reminder! Always a pleasure to hear from you and be challenged by you. :-)

Peace, Tim 

[defensefilms]

Defense Films Names His Top 5 Favorite Rappers

In All It’s Infinite Glory And Magnanimity, Defense Gives You His Top 5 Favorite Rappers. 

5. 50 Cent 

To this day, when you need a playlist for a MMA class and the group is hella diverse, you’re not really sure which way to go with it, pop in that 50. Can’t go wrong with Get Rich Or Die Trying (the original), or even that G-Unit Beg For Mercy.

That run from late 2002-2005/06 was unlike anything you’ll ever see again. That was a perfect situation where there was organic support from fans and there were people at a business level, mainly 50, that knew how to turn it into the wave that it became and industry has been trying to replicate this ever since.

While most people remember is the numerous scandals, beefs and controversies of that time but it was the music that moved the audience. For all the ways 50 Cent’s success mirrors ruthless American capitalism, his debut album is low key one of the most inspiring albums you’ll ever listen to. 

It’s a foxhole mentality on wax. It’s me-versus-you type thinking. It’s someone has to lose and I’ll be damned. It’s who ever has to get hit, is gonna get hit. 

See the first time I listened to it, it was about “In Da Club”, “Wanksta”, you know the more palatable records that got on radio and all that but the more I listened the more I realized, it was actually built on the backs of songs like “Patiently Waiting”, “Many Men”, “Back Down”, “Don’t Push Me” and “Gotta Make It To Heaven”. On one side it’s as motivational as you can think of but it’s not the wacky kind of naivé motivational talk because it’s willing to get it’s hands dirty and go in to much grittier ideas. 

Like his predecessors, 50 pulls off the trick of balancing easy-to-listen-to records on a foundation of graphic and aggressive songs.  

Recommended Songs: Maybe We Crazy, When It Rains It Pours

4. Jedi Mind Tricks

I’ll give you props if you know who these man are but they are legends. Point blank. Violent By Design will forever rank as one of the great group albums in hip-hop history.  Vinny Paz, Jus Allah and producer/DJ Stoupe The Enemy of Mankind, gave hip-hop a shockwave they weren’t ready for, especially back in 1999.

Hip-hop as a business wasn’t ready to market a group, whose themes were rooted in topics like government control, military warfare, covert control tactics, religion and psychological warfare. To have all that in one bundle wasn’t something that big time A&R’s were ready for. 

Had they started this group in 2010, they would have walked in to a business landscape that was far more suitable to who they were as an act and as MC’s. 

Even with that JMT still enjoyed a lot of notoriety and they definitely succeeded in establishing their following, despite the odds. 

While Violent By Design may serve as the magnum opus of their body of work, their run really starts in 1997 with the Psycho-Social, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation Of Human Kind. 

Yes guy, that’s an album title. You gotta think now, I was in high school the first time I heard this and I was very into conspiracy theories and nonsense, so this album hit me right between the eyes. The idea that someone could use the medium of hip-hop in this way was crazy and the album would have been more than 10 years old when I first heard it.

No, the hip-hop historians among us will argue that Wu-Tang were a better and more influential group and I’d tend to agree, I can also bust back and say, “these dudes took Wu-Tang’s formula and gave it a whole different edge.”

 I’ll break it to you like this, Wu-Tang gave the world swordsmanship and the first projectile weapons like bow and arrows, spears and the likes. Jedi Mind Tricks gave the world gun powder, advanced modern explosives and semi-automatics. You see what I mean?

Recommended Songs: Untitled, Retaliation Remix

3. Jay-Z

No top rappers list is complete without my man. The only reason he ain’t higher is because, I rate a rapper more highly if they’re in the prime of their musical abilities. If this were an all-time list he’d be way way higher. 

Beginning with Reasonable Doubt is really the only place to start when it comes to Jay. The production, the skits, the way every sentence was so tightly wound together, the word selection and sentence construction. It’s remembered as an album of hits because of tracks like “Cant Knock The Hustle”, ”Feelin It” and “Brooklyn’s Finest” but Reasonable Doubt was really defined by “Dead Presidents”, “D’evils”, “Politics As Usual” and “Can I Live”. 

The first batch of songs gave the album some relatability, as far as depicting club vibes and nightlife glamour because that second batch of songs were all built on darker themes like betrayal, jealousy, greed, blind ambition and deception. That combination of themes as well as the production to match each one is why that album will always rank high among a certain listenership. 

With that being said, never make the mistake of thinking Jay or any man is perfect. There’s like a 3 album run where there’s moments of dope-ness but not a truly complete album. 

Still with that, songs like “Imaginary Player” and “Where I’m From” will rank among his best songs.

It’s only when you get to The Blueprint can you start to see Jay perfecting the art of crafting, whole, complete albums that bump from start to finish. The Blueprint was near perfection in this regard. “U Don’t Know”, “Heart Of The City” and “Momma Loves Me” will rank as his best efforts and yeah, I skipped a few.

The Black Album replicated the Blueprint’s listenability, while also dealing in topics that created an album that sounded very personal to Jay. 

All told, the best parts of his catalogue are so strong that there is no denying his place on my list.

Recommended Songs: Dead Presidents, I Love The Dough

2. Action Bronson

I cannot for the life of me fathom how this man doesn’t get the love but the real ones know. 

The mixtape download era (2010-2017 give or take), had many unlikely success stories. An overweight white guy, who grew up cooking in his parents deli/eatery, turned pro-chef then turned rapper, is beyond unlikely. Only the internet could allow this man to succeed and thank the hip-hop gods it did.

From 2012 to about 2018, Action was one of the only constants in my playlist. I still remember where I was the first time I heard “Brunch”. His catalogue starting with the Tommy Mas produced, Dr Lecter and boasting full collaborations albums along side Statik Selektah and the Alchemist, and of course the classic Blue Chips series. This man’s prime will be underrated. 

If you’re going to take one chapter of Bronson’s art and study it, it’s going to be Blue Chips 1 and 2. Both are thematically perfect without ever trying to be. Which is what allowed Party Supplies to make production choices that grabbed you from the jump. From the first time you hit play on the opening of Blue Chips 1, you’re hit with the sound of falling shards of glass and a violin sound that makes the opening song un-skippable. The songs themes are also a perfect introduction to the man himself. Debauchery, expensive taste, hedonism, revelry, unabashed pleasure-seeking, drug use and just enough self-depreciation that you felt you were along for the ride rather than just a fly on the wall, turning your nose in disgust. It was a perfect mixtape, at a time when mixtapes were at a crazy dumb high standard.

It’s not so much that a rapper made punchlines about food, that would be an over-simplification and really missing the trick. It’s that he made everything he said sound like the dopest thing ever and the most underrated trick about his music is that he made grown man rap without needing to be thuggin’. A rare feat. 

Bronson has since gone on to establish himself as a content creator/producer/food review guy but man, what he accomplished as a complete body of work is nothing short of astonishing.

Recommended Songs: Midget Cough, Bonzai

1. Headie One

So it’s late last year. I’m hanging with my boy Phil and Brown, we had just finished some content and Phil says “yo listen to this”. He proceeds to play Golden Boot and it hasn’t stopped bumping since. 

A UK rapper with a lyrical nous and wit that rivals even legends like Jay-Z, but rapping over trap and drill beats. What Headie One is doing is not the norm and I’m talking in terms of his lyrics, sentence construction, word selection, metaphors, he does it all and like all the greats, he makes it look easy. 

His collaboration with RV definitely helped mold him, with both the “Sticks and Stones” and “Drillers and Trappers” mixtapes giving you an idea of what Headie offers as a lyricist. He compliments RV’s brash, aggressive boasts with slightly less obvious but incredibly witty boasts of his own.

His discography though really starts to peak with 2018′s “The One”. That’s where Headie begins find a sweet spot between his lyrics, production and the themes of his songs. A mixtape like this can only exist via independent release because outside of the aforementioned “Golden Boot”, ain’t none of those songs getting any radio play especially in a country as “conservative” as England. Even in a genre saturated with gangsta/trap, “The One” stands out for what he accomplishes lyrically.

Headie would follow that by releasing “The One Two” in June of 2018 and he ascends even more in what he’s able to accomplish with the words.

 The track “Banter On Me” should be in an all-time list somewhere for being the wittiest track of all time. The song is literally just Headie finding new and innovative ways to boast, call out and bait his foes. Hip-hop/Rap has plenty of beef songs that weren’t really direct call outs to any known public figure but were still definitely taking shots at someone. 50 cent’s “Wanksta” and “Officer Down” are some examples of such songs I can think of. Those did not really have the kind of wit Headie displays here. The constant streams of alliterations, double meanings, puns, metaphors, inferences and innuendos is just astonishing. There’s a real mastery of language at play here. The song is a lesson in language, no textbooks. 

Headie has since released his debut album along with additional tracks for the delux version of the album. His debut studio release “Edna” does what studio releases are supposed to do. “Parle-Vouz Anglais” and “Aint It Different” will standout and are difinitely the most palatable songs as far as radio play. Those are the 2 songs I’d play for first time listeners. 

Recommended Songs: Hard To Believe, Dues, Zodiac

[jungleindierock]

Jungle Indie Rock (2010-2020) - 10th Anniversary Playlist

On May 1st, 2010, a group of friends founded a music website to post the songs and videos they liked. We were Mar, Dao, Rebjukebox and Nik, four music lovers from USA, Spain, UK and Sweden who used to meet online to share bands and tracks. We called our site Jimdo Indie Rock Music, like our free hosting name, so the URL matched too. Later, we changed such a bad idea for Jungle Indie Rock, to keep the J of JIR. Our first playlist was posted exactly today, 10 years ago. It was downloaded by 42 people, including somebody from a lost island in the middle of the Pacific ocean. We were so excited... 42!!! Wow! Due to the “humongous” success of our music lists, we kept posting them. Every month was a fight to get our songs  opening the playlist. Yes, “our songs”, because we feel each track as if we had recorded it. Our songs, our bands, our albums,... When you like music so much you make it yours.

Today, with thousands of followers supporting us, we are together again to bring you our favourite songs from the 2010′s decade. This time, Mar, Rebjukebox, David (Daloja) y Dao selected I7 songs per year, 70 in total and 5 bonus tracks. Two extra songs are the ones we could not add via Spotify. To close the playlist, we have included some artists that were often posted in our blog and, unfortunately, they left us. We dedicate our 10th Anniversary Playlist to all the ones that passed away, many leaving so good music for all of us.

Video Playlist (Watch on TV)

Tracklist:

The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio (2010) | [Rebjukebox]

Arcade Fire - Ready To Start (2010) | [Daloja]

Biffy Clyro - Many of Horror (2010) | [Mar]

Warpaint - Undertow (2010) | [Rebjukebox]

Jónsi - Grow Till Tall (2010) | [Mar]

Caribou - Odessa (2010) | [Dao]

Hurts - Stay (2010) | [Daloja]

Two Door Cinema Club - What you Know (2011) | [Dao]

M83 - Midnight City (2011) | [Daloja]

The Black Keys - Lonely Boy (2011) | [Rebjukebox]

We Are Augustines - Chapel Song (2011) | [Mar]

The Airborne Toxic Event - All I Ever Wanted (2011) | [Mar]

The Black Keys - Little Black Submarines (2011) | [Daloja]

WU LYF - L Y F (2011) | [Rebjukebox]

Beach House - Myth (2012) | [Daloja]

Arcade Fire - Abraham's Daughter (2012) | [Dao]

First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar (2012) | [Rebjukebox]

The Lumineers - Ho Hey (2012) | [Rebjukebox]

The Shins - Simple Song (2012) | [Mar]

Keane - Sovereign Light Café (2012) | [Mar]

alt-J - Breezeblocks (2012) | [Daloja]

London Grammar - Wasting My Young Years (2013) | [Mar]

CHVRCHES - The Mother We Share (2013) | [Daloja]

Placebo - Loud Like Love (2013) | [Dao]

Arctic Monkeys - Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High? (2013) | [Rebjukebox]

Radkey - Romance Dawn (2013) | [Rebjukebox]

Arctic Monkeys -  I Wanna Be Yours (2013) | [Daloja]

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Better Days (2013) | [Mar]

The War On Drugs - Red Eyes (2014) | [Daloja]

We Were Promised Jetpakcs - Safety in Numbers (2014) | [Mar]

Royal Blood – Little Monster (2014) | [Rebjukebox]

BRONCHO - Class Historian (2014) | [Mar]

Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting On You) (2014) | [Daloja]

Mogwai - Teenage Exorcists (2014) | [Rebjukebox]

The National - I need My Girl (2014) | [Dao]

Kurt Vile - Pretty Pimpin (2015) | [Rebjukebox]

Sufjan Stevens - Should Have Known Better (2015) | [Daloja]

Wolf Alice - Bros (2015) | [Daloja]

Stereophonics - C'est La Vie (2015) | [Mar]

The Maccabees - Marks To Prove It (2015) | [Mar]

Foals - What When Down (2015) | [Dao]

Tame Impala - Let It Happen (2015) | [Rebjukebox]

Kings Of Leon - Waste A Moment (2016) | [Dao]

Júníus Meyvant - Neon Experience (2016) | [Mar]

Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate (2016) | [Daloja]

Savages - The Answer (2016) | [Rebjukebox]

Pixies – Um Chagga Lagga (2016) | [Rebjukebox]

DMA'S - Delete (2016) | [Mar]

Daughter - How (2016) | [Daloja]

Entertainment For The Braindead - Bicycle Bell (2017) | [Dao]

Cigarettes After Sex - Sweet (2017) | [Daloja]

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile – Continental Breakfast (2017) | [Rebjukebox]

Cage The Elephant - Too Late To Say Goodbye (Unpeeled) (2017) | [Mar]

The National - The system Only Dreams in Total Darkness (2017) | [Daloja]

Cherry Glazer – Nurse Ratched (2017) | [Rebjukebox]

Slowdive - Sugar For The Pill (2017) | [Mar]

MGMT - Little Dark Age (2018) | [Daloja]

Superorganism – Everybody Wants To Be Famous (2018) | [Rebjukebox]

Anna Calvi - Don't Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy (2018) | [Daloja]

Goat Girl - The Man (2018) | [Mar]

Manchester Orchestra - The Gold/The Moth (2017/2018) | [Dao]

Spiritualized – I’m Your Man (2018) | [Rebjukebox]

tAngerinecAt – Roses From Blood (2018) | [Mar]

black midi - Ducter (2019) | [Mar]

Fontaines DC – Big (2019) | [Rebjukebox]

Social Animals - Bad Things (2019) | [Dao]

Foals - On The Luna (2019) | [Daloja]

Angel Olsen - All Mirrors (2019) | [Daloja]

Big Thief – Not (2019) | [Rebjukebox]

Strand Of Oaks - Weird Ways (2019) | [Mar]

BONUS TRACKS ---------------------

Tim Easton - Old New Straitsville Blues (2018) | [Mar]

The Great Artiste - Song For A & E (2013) | [Dao]

Frightened Rabbit - State Hospital (2013) | [Mar]

Viola Beach - Get to Dancing (Live BBC Session) (2016) | [Mar]

David Bowie - Where Are We Now? | [Mar]

Thank you for being there all these years. Take care and keep rocking!!! 

Mar, Rebjukebox, David (Daloja), and Dao (Mi Rollo Es El Indie).

[2loady]

historian (2018) by lucy dacus is surely one of the albums of all time

[canaryrecords]

“And then, all music silences itself into duration, measures duration; like duration, it is irreversible succession. Thus the music, whatever else it may be, is concretized time; it is audible time. This precious vehicle permits one to grasp inaccessible time.” Rene Daumal, “On Indian Music,” 1931. Translated by Louise Landes-Levi in Rasa or Knowledge of the Self (New Directions, 1982)

Unlike most of the immigrant musicians we present, many of whose lives can hardly be constructed into the bare frame of a biography even, in the best cases, with the participation of their descendants, there is a wealth of information on Archbishop Samuel David available because of his role for three decades as an eminence of the Orthodox Christian church in the U.S.

He was born John David Husson on August 26, 1893 to David and Gazaly Haddad in a mountain village now called Aita el Foukhar, Lebanon (then Aitha, Greater Syria). The youngest of 6 children, he completed secondary school and was sent to seminary at Balamand Monestary, 5 miles south of Tripoli, Lebanon.

Supplemental to his theological training, he was taught ecclesiastic Byzantine hymnody by the singer and composer Mitri el Murr (b. Tripoli 1880; d. 1969). El Murr taught music to at least a dozen bishops, sang for and was decorated by the Romanov family in Russia, and recorded for the Baidaphon company in Beirut in the 1920s.

Having ascended several levels through the church hierarchy and having survived the destruction and famine that killed about half of the population of Lebanon during the First World War, by the age of 27 John David had been given the name Samuel and was ordained to the Holy Priesthood in 1920. In 1921 he was sent by the church to Toledo, Ohio as a senior celibate priest, an archimandrite. His music teacher visited in 1930, and three of his brothers immigrated to Ohio and Massachusetts. In 1936, Fr. Samuel David ascended to the role of bishop of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdioceses of Toledo and Dependencies, a territory that extended from Canada to Mexico, but under controversial circumstances riddled with problems inside the patriarchy of the church as a result of the Russian Revolution and the death of the former U.S. archbishop.

Suffice it to say that there was a split in the leaders of the church patriarchy regarding who would be in charge of North America. One faction, those closest aligned with the Russian Orthodox church and New York City sided with Antony (Bashir). The other, closest aligned with Zahle, Lebanon and Antioch went with Samuel (David). Samuel David, meanwhile, traveled and gave communion through Boston, Ottawa, Cedar Rapids, and Lexington in 1936, but in August 1938, was excommunicated in a manifesto by Alexander III, who instructed the laity not to celebrate communion with him. Samuel David immediately responded that the excommunication had no standing, not having been issued by the Holy Synod (the church’s governing body) and without hearings. Two years later the decision was reversed, so that by November 1940 Samuel David was given full and official recognition of his status as Archbishop of the Syrian Orthodox Antiochian Church of the Toledo Diocese and its Dependencies by decree of Patriarch Alexander of Damascus, Syria, spiritual head of the church after action taken by the Holy Synod of Antioch. The schism between the New York City and Toledo factions remained unresolved until the mid-1970s, when they were finally united. A much more detailed account given by Prof. Richard Breaux, a historian specializing in the Syrian / Lebanese diaspora of the midwestern U.S., can be read at syrianlebanesediasporasound.blogspot.com/2018/11/metropolitan-samuel-david-metropolitan.html .

1940-41, Archbishop Samuel David began once again to visit various parishes: Ironwood, Michigan; Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Ottawa, Ontario; Austin, Texas; Mexico City; Cedar Rapids, Iowa, etc. Between 1945 and 1953, he published at least seven prayer books, made available for free to any Arabic-speaking congregation in North America, and it was likely during that period that he privately published two albums of a total of eight 78rpm discs of his singing, made available to church members with proceeds in benefit of the church.

It’s clear that the sixteen sides he recorded were made at at least two separate sessions. Harvard’s archivists have made a data point of the recordings having been cut at Gennett studios in Richmond, Indiana. While this may be true (although their dating of the recordings to the 1930s certainly is not), I cannot say for sure. The red vinyl discs themselves have, to me, the feel of a post-WWII RCA production, but this is admittedly reckless speculation on my part. Among the repertoire he performed are hymns and doxologies on the subjects of the Day of Judgement (track 1), the angel Gabriel (track 2), the crucifixion (track 3), Epiphany (track 8), and Christ’s miracle at the wedding at Cana (tracks 9-10). I would be grateful to learn the composers; Mitri el Murr would appear to be among them. Similarly, the accompanists are unclear. The quanun throughout has been speculated to have been by played by Samuel David himself. We do not at present know who the drone-singing accompanists on the first session (tracks 1-8) or the violinist on the second session, recorded through a spring reverb (a novel invention in the 40s) in emulation of a large space, (tracks 9-18) are.

In 1955 Samuel David was elevated to the status of one of the Orthodox Church’s fifteen metropolitans. He was found dead at his home on 523 Bush St. in Toledo from an apparent heart attack on August 12, 1958 at the age of 63. Newspapers reported that he was discovered “slumped in a chair, holding an open Bible.” His open casket funeral was attended by high-ranking church officials from Ottawa, Brooklyn, Cambridge MA, Charleston WV, Wichita, Omaha, Grand Rapids, Glens Falls, Louisville, Phoenix, Buffalo, Lowell, and Chicago as well a full house and as many as five hundred others who were forced to listen outside on loudspeakers to the rites performed in Arabic, Albanian, and English.

[blackkudos]

Rosario Dawson

Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress and singer. She made her feature film debut in the 1995 independent drama Kids. Her subsequent film roles include He Got Game (1998), Josie and the Pussycats (2001), Men in Black II (2002), Rent (2005), Sin City (2005), Clerks II (2006), Death Proof (2007), Unstoppable (2010), and Top Five (2014). Dawson has also provided voice-over work for Disney, Warner Bros., DC Comics, and ViacomCBS' Nickelodeon unit.

For her role in Rent, Dawson won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture; for her role in Top Five, she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in a Comedy.

Dawson is also known for having several roles in comic book adaptations. These include Gail in Sin City (2005) and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), providing the voices of Diana Prince / Wonder Woman in the DC Animated Movie Universe and Barbara Gordon / Batgirl in The Lego Batman Movie, as well as her portrayal of Claire Temple in five of the Marvel/Netflix series: Daredevil (2015–2016), Jessica Jones (2015), Luke Cage (2016–2018), Iron Fist and The Defenders (both 2017).

Early life

Dawson was born on May 9, 1979, in New York City. Her mother, Isabel Celeste, is of Cuban and Puerto Rican ancestry. Isabel was 16 years old when Rosario was born; she never married Rosario's biological father, Patrick C. Harris. When Rosario was a year old, her mother married Greg Dawson, a construction worker. Dawson has a half-brother, Clay, who is four years younger.

Isabel and Greg sublet their 199 Avenue A apartment to Paul de Rienzo and moved their family into a reclaimed building after being approved by the 544 East 13 Street residents on the Lower East Side of Manhattan as members of a affordable housing plan. During that time Rosario and Clay would also grow up in Texas. Dawson has cited this part of her history when explaining how she learned that, "If you wanted something better, you had to do it all yourself."

Career

As a child, Dawson made a brief appearance on Sesame Street. At the age of 15, she was subsequently discovered on her front-porch step by photographer Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, where Korine lauded her as being perfect for a part he had written in his screenplay that would become the controversial 1995 film Kids. She went on to star in varied roles, ranging from independent films to big budget blockbusters including Rent, He Got Game and Men in Black II.

In 1998, Dawson teamed up with Prince for the re-release of his 1980s hit "1999". The new remixed version featured the actress in an introductory voice over, offering commentary on the state of the world in the year before the new millennium. The following year, she appeared in The Chemical Brothers' video for the song "Out of Control" from the album Surrender. She is also featured on the track "She Lives In My Lap" from the second disc of the OutKast album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, in which she speaks the intro and a brief interlude towards the end.

In 2001, she appeared in the movie, Josie and the Pussycats as band member Valerie Brown.

Dawson starred as Naturelle Rivera, the love interest of a convicted drug dealer played by Edward Norton, in the 2002 Spike Lee film drama, 25th Hour. In the 2004 Oliver Stone film Alexander, she played the bride of Alexander the Great. In the autumn of 2005, Dawson appeared on stage as Julia in the Public Theater's "Shakespeare in the Park" revival of Two Gentlemen of Verona. It was her first appearance on stage.

In the film adaptation of the popular musical Rent in 2005, she played the exotic dancer Mimi Marquez, replacing Daphne Rubin-Vega, who was pregnant and unable to play the part. She also appeared in the adaptation of the graphic novel Sin City, co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, portraying Gail, a prostitute-dominatrix. Also in that year, she appeared in a graphically violent scene in the Rob Zombie film The Devil's Rejects. Though the scene was cut from the final film, it is available in the deleted scenes on the DVD release.

She starred as Becky in 2006's Clerks II, and mentioned in Back to the Well, the making-of documentary, that the donkey show sequence was what made her decide to take the role. In May of the same year, Dawson, an avid comic book fan, co-created and co-wrote the comic book miniseries Occult Crimes Taskforce. She was at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con to promote the comic. She co-starred with former Rent alum Tracie Thoms in the Quentin Tarantino throwback movie Death Proof in 2007, part of the Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double feature Grindhouse. She teamed up with friend Talia Lugacy, whom she met at the Lee Strasberg Academy, to produce and star in Descent. On July 7, 2007, Dawson presented at the American leg of Live Earth.

In 2008, Dawson starred with Will Smith in Seven Pounds and in Eagle Eye, produced by Steven Spielberg. Beginning in August, she starred in Gemini Division, an online science fiction series. In the computer animated series Afterworld, she voiced the character Officer Delondre Baines. On January 17, 2009, Dawson hosted Saturday Night Live. Later in the year, she voiced Artemis of Bana-Mighdall in the animated film Wonder Woman.

In 2009, Dawson performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. In 2009, Dawson also voiced the character of Velvet Von Black in Rob Zombie's animated feature, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. For the Kasabian album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, she is featured singing on the track "West Ryder Silver Bullet".

In 2010, she starred in the movies Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, as Persephone, and Unstoppable, as railway yardmaster Connie. In 2013, she played Apple's mother in the independent film Gimme Shelter. The following year, she reprised her role as Gail in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. In 2015, she played Claire Temple in the Netflix web television series Daredevil, a role which she reprised in Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. Dawson's likeness was also used in the Jessica Jones tie-in comic as her character on both shows. Dawson has continued this role in 2017 in Iron Fist and The Defenders. In 2018, she played the female lead role in the Netflix movie, Krystal. In 2020, she was cast as the Star Wars character Ahsoka Tano in the second season of The Mandalorian on Disney+.

Personal life

Dawson is a self-professed Trekkie who mentioned both her and her brother's love of Star Trek in an interview with Conan O'Brien, and also demonstrated her knowledge of several Klingon words.

Dawson adopted a 11-year-old girl in 2014.

From 2016 to 2017, Dawson dated comedian and television host Eric Andre.

In March 2019, Dawson confirmed that she is in a relationship with United States senator Cory Booker.

In October 2019 Derek Finley, a trans man, filed a case in Los Angeles against Dawson and her family for alleged incidents involving discrimination, verbal abuse, misgendering and physical assault. Finley had been employed as a handyman, living with the family and had known them for decades. The Dawson family has not publicly commented.

In February 2020, Dawson publicly came out as a member of the LGBT community.

Politics

Dawson was arrested in 2004, while protesting against president George W. Bush.

Dawson endorsed Barack Obama for re-election in 2012, and Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 Democratic Party primaries. On April 15, 2016, Dawson was among the protesters arrested during Democracy Spring in Washington, D.C.

In mid-2019, Dawson endorsed her boyfriend Cory Booker in the 2020 presidential election. Booker ended his campaign for president on January 13, 2020. Had she become First Lady of the United States, Dawson said she would have advocated for solutions to youth homelessness. On March 9, 2020, Dawson endorsed the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, whom she had also previously endorsed in his 2016 bid.

Philanthropy

Dawson is involved with the Lower East Side Girls Club and supports other charities such as environmental group Global Cool, One Campaign, Operation USA, Oxfam, Amnesty International, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), the International Rescue Committee, Voto Latino, and Stay Close.org, a poster and public service ad campaign for PFLAG where she is featured with her uncle Frank Jump. She has participated in the Vagina Monologues (she refers to her vagina as "The General") and serves on the board for V-Day, a global non-profit movement that raises funds for women's anti-violence groups through benefits of this play.

In October 2008, Dawson became a spokeswoman for TripAdvisor.com's philanthropy program, More Than Footprints, Conservation International, Doctors Without Borders, National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy and Save The Children. Also in October 2008, she lent her voice to the RESPECT! Campaign, a movement aimed at preventing domestic violence. She recorded a voice message for the Giverespect.org Web site stressing the importance of respect in helping stop domestic violence. In 2012, Dawson partnered with SodaStream International in launching the first annual Unbottle the World Day, a campaign conceived in an effort to raise awareness to the impact of cans and plastic bottles on the environment. Dawson also sits on the Board of Directors of Scenarios USA, which works to support a generation of reflective, outspoken, and confident youth through filmmaking and uses film to educate students through a variety of programs.

[datingcasper]

Deleting on September 2, 2021.

The owner of this blog (Maribelle) will be permanently leaving Tumblr and deleting this blog on September 2, 2021 due to irreconcilable feelings about Tumblr’s rules regarding NSFW content (among other grievances about the website.) For any questions, please feel free to contact through the DMs or by leaving a reply to this post!

Maribelle still loves AAR (as well as a lot of other pop punk bands and fandoms)! If you’d like to stay connected with her on any other social media -- Twitter, Reddit, Discord, etc. -- feel free to send a DM!

As for The All-American Rejects:

AAR:

next known show: Riot Fest, Sep. 17 - 19, 2021

Move Along the album turned 15 years old in 2020

Spotify, Aug. 20, 2020: procured a playlist called “Rejects Faves,” made up of what they believed to be underrated AAR songs

featured on Ep. 2 of Mark Hoppus’ radio show, “After School Radio”

on that note: when guest-starring anywhere, often only represented by Tyson

not coming out with new music any time soon so please stop asking (”Send Her To Heaven,” “Gen Why,” and “Demons” officially came out in 2019, calm down)

Tyson:

stays creative (writing songs, writing scripts, etc.)

NEW SONG, Aug. 04, 2020: Pine Box; calling the project “Sharpton Mann”

often screenshot-draws over photographs of people lovingly referred to as “doodle dee doos”

announced at the end of July 2020 that he’ll be living in New Zealand for a while to support Elena as she works on a project there

buzzed his long hair off

Nick:

spends most time in his own studio production and engineering, “Wheelhouse Studio,” where he co-writes and produces songs for/with various musicians/artists

in late July/early August 2020: received an Advanced Certificate from Berklee for General Music Studies

Mike:

still records and mixes for other bands (e.g. They Stay Dead, Screeching Weasel, Direct Hit!, etc.)

set up a side Instagram in 2018 to post solely about his record collection and other old school punk rock paraphernalia; posts regularly

hosts the “From the Vault” series on AAR’s Instagram -- videos where Mike acts as the band’s historian; he talks about AAR’s music history based on his physical, personal collection of AAR stuff dating as far back as the 90s

Chris:

We never really know, do we? Lol. HERE is the most recent public photo of him from Feb. 2020.

[peppersjam]

My Top 10 Albums of 2019

2019 presented me with a handful of incredible events and memories (I turned 30, I got married, etc.), while also serving me a big challenge (my partner is temporarily living on the other side of the country). In a poetic world, these things would have a significant impact on the music that I listened to and loved, but no, not really. This year is pretty on the nose for me, music-wise. Oh, except that I got really into Taylor Swift in the second half of the year.

Before we hop into boring Steve's boring top 10 list, let's revisit the 2018 list. The only album on the list that I barely listened to in 2019 was Cardi's Invasion of Privacy. Everything else gets at least semi-regular spins, although I'd elevate Historian, boygenius, and Big Red Machine above these others.

My biggest disappointment this year was Charli XCX's CHARLI, which is a solid album, but it didn't grab me nearly as much as Pop 2 did a couple years ago. It hasn't stuck in my rotation.

Runners up:

Bon Iver - "i,i" (I love it when I listen to it, but for some reason I'm not often compelled to listen to it)

Ariana Grande - "thank u, next" (Staple of early 2019, but fell off)

Carly Rae Jepsen - "Dedicated" (Great, but I'd rather listen to E•MO•TION)

Taylor Swift - "Lover" (Some true standout tracks, like Lover and Paper Rings, but too many cloyboys and CRJ rip-offs)

Weyes Blood - "Titanic Rising" (I could see this growing on me over the years, like a Radiohead record)

And the pre-2019 albums that should've made my respective yearly lists:

Beyoncé - "4" (2011)

Beyoncé - "BEYONCE" (2013)

Big Thief - "Capacity" (2017)

Big Thief - "Masterpiece" (2016)

Perfume Genius - "No Shape" (2017)

Snail Mail - "Lush" (2018)

Taylor Swift - "Red" (2012)

10. Big Thief – U.F.O.F

Early in the year, I "discovered" Big Thief. I don't know how I missed them before. Specifically, the song "Masterpiece" got right up in my brain and has been hanging out there since. Then Big Thief gave us U.F.O.F. which was yet another great Big Thief album. See #3 below.

9. Andrew Bird – My Finest Work Yet

Look, I'll stop putting Andrew Bird records on my end-of-year lists when he stops making them.

Andrew Bird turned a corner with the release of Are You Serious where he basically acknowledged that he was now going to work with other people and write scrutable songs. It was a good album, but My Finest Work Yet refines this Andrew Bird 2.0 and delivers some of his... finest work yet ("Sisyphus," "Manifest," "Olympians"). While I still prefer earlier Andrew Bird (A Nervous Tic Motion into Fake Palindromes into Measuring Cups... my gosh, that's 10 incredible minutes of music), I understand why he's moved on to something else.

8. JPEGMAFIA – All My Heroes Are Cornballs

I've been in a rap rut. Kanye is putting out self-indulgent gospel albums. Chance and Drake are boring now. JAY Z is working with the NFL.

But the rut is mostly a lack of imagination on my part. There's a lot of rap out there that hasn't made it through my naive filter, and I want to seek more of it out in 2020. Case in point: JPEGMAFIA. He's weird, political, funny... all the things that the aforementioned rappers aren't (or at least, aren't anymore). All My Heroes Are Cornballs is the most hypnotic rap album I've listened to in years. The glitchy beats and effortless flow makes it impossible to turn off mid-album.

7. BROCKHAMPTON – Ginger

GINGER is a proper follow-up to the SATURATION trilogy. While Iridescence had some good tracks on it, the overall experience was jarring (not without reason, given what the group was going through with Ameer). GINGER reads (ok, plays) like an album in a way that the Saturations never did. While it may be spiritually linked to the Satursation, it's a complete departure sonically. Even though it's more constrained and less bombastic than their hits from that era, it feels much bigger and, ahem, More Important. That might not be to the taste of some of their fans, but I'm happy to have both versions of BROCKHAMPTON in my music library.

6. Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell!

Music publications couldn't get over the fact that on NFR!, Lana, yes LANA DEL REY, was wordsmithing at a high level. Is it that hard to believe that someone would become a better poet as they gained more life experiences, inching closer to the mystical 10,000 hours? Some of the praise may have gone a little overboard (and, frankly, seems rooted in a narrow, misogynistic view of Who Can Do Music Good™️™️™️), but I agree with the underlying principle of the praise: that this is a collection of well written and well performed songs. It has my favorite album closer of the year, "Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have - but I Have It." I get chills just thinking about it.

5. Clairo – Immunity

I enjoyed my first listen.

On my second listen, I wondered if it was maybe too simple. I didn't listen again for several months.

But then, when I was working from Pittsburgh the week before Christmas, I listened again. And I couldn't stop listening. It's simpler music than many of the albums on this list, but it appeals to me for the same reason I had a fixation with Snail Mail's Lush this year: it's incredible that songs that sound so "simple" (and I truly do not mean simple in an insulting way) can still be different than anything we've heard before, and can still transfix us in new ways. Behold ye, the power of combinatorics!

4. Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride

Channel Orange to Blonde was 4 years. There's nothing you can do to get your favorite artists to make music faster. There's some beauty in that... that if an artist is financially successful enough, they don't need to rush.

Modern Vampires of the City to Father of the Bride was 6 years (i.e., 20% of my lifetime). But at least there are no duds here, and "Harmony Hall" might sneak into my hypothetical favorite-songs-of-all-time pantheon.

3. Big Thief – Two Hands

Oh, but then a few months later, Big Thief gave us another album. They started working on it right after they finished U.F.O.F, which tracks based on every interview I've read with Adrianne Lenker. She talked about the insane touring and album release schedule they've been on in the past four years, but her point wasn't "I'm getting tired," but rather "let's see if I can do this forever." I saw them play at The Fillmore after they released Two Hands and I got the sense that Adrianne has to make and perform music. She was uncomfortable engaging in the standard nearly-identical pleasantries that artists share with the audience. She was shy. She was surprised to find that we were hanging on her every word and chord. It was relatable. She's the closest to a genius I've seen in an indie rock band in the last several years, although I'm sure she'd hate anyone calling her that.

That genius produced Two Hands, an affecting indie rock record that practically demands that you close your eyes because you need to experience it and only it.

2. Tyler, the Creator – IGOR

This year, I listened to IGOR over and over again. The hooks, verses, beats, and vibe are all infectious. Boring Steve says "hey, look, it's just a great album." I don't have a deeper thought about it. I eagerly await Tyler's next project.

1. Nilüfer Yanya – Miss Universe

This year, like 2009 a decade ago, was an exciting year to be an indie rock fan. Vampire Weekend and Bon Iver cemented their elder ("elder") statesperson statuses, Big Thief came into their own as a true force of nature, and acts like Clairo and Nilüfer made me extremely jazzed about the Ghost of Indie Future.

Nilüfer has a unique and delightful voice that punches through some really fun songwriting and arrangements. Like, what a dumb, awesome lyric:

Although I cannot tell if I'm paranoid

Or it's all in my head, it's all in my head

Miss Universe is her debut full-length album, and it's a lovable and off-kilter thesis statement for what I assume will be a lovable and off-kilter music career. I can better explain why some of the other albums on this list are great, but suffice it to say, the system rewards unique performances.