Sweet By & By

Pandora

The music world just took on a whole new meaning for me with the discovery of Pandora. A coworker pointed our team of editors to it, and we're all happily writing content for GoCityKids today while listening to our uniquely created "stations" and finding musicians/bands we never even knew existed. Bliss, I tell you, sheer bliss.

{sorry for the lack of posts. A heavy work load and a new camera to figure out have contributed to blog slackerdom}

Discoveries of the musical kind

I am always up for new music ("new" for me can mean that it's up to a year old -- it often takes me awhile to take the time to put on CDs that B. brings home or venture away from my favorites in iTunes). Today, I am without iTunes as I work, due to a small kitten that probably unplugged some critical outlet behind the computer. I went searching elsewhere for music-to-work-by and thought of MySpace, which my peeps in the know tell me features pretty decent new music.

So here's my favorite new artist -- Fionn Regan from Wicklow, Ireland. I have a thing for Irish guys, especially folk- and acoustic-playing Irish guys (Luka Bloom remains one of my all-time faves). I am soaking up his guitar playing and haunting (but in a good way) voice, reminding me a bit of Elliot Smith, Nick Drake, and Leonard Cohen. And the best part - he's playing an in-store at our favorite record store in Seattle when we're there later this month. Ka-ching!

And, in a second plug in one week, check out Bleu, whom we get to see perform on Friday night at the Hotel Cafe.

Still goth after all these years . . .

Well, not really.  But it's amazing how that music can transport me back in time and remember the heady days of college.

B. brought home A Life Less Lived: The Goth Box CD set from work, and we spent last weekend listening to it in the car and chuckling at the dark angst that had so many of us college kids worked up into wearing all black and simmering away late nights at dance clubs. 20 years later, the Cult still makes me jam, Bauhaus and Tones on Tail still sound fabulous, Sisters of Mercy tries my patience a little, and Ministry/Siouxie/Flesh for Lulu make me wince.   

The kids listened with us and were quite enthralled by much of it, surprisingly. They especially embraced Love & Rockets, and who can blame them, with those lush guitars and Daniel Ash's saxophone.  Now we hear little voices singing around the house, "We're waiting for the flood, we're waiting for the flood . . ."

The music comes full circle.

Bono is da man

Anyone watch "American Idol Gives Back" the other night? Admittedly, I am a total sap for telethons (it all started when Mike & George, my childhood neighbor friends, got me all whipped into a frenzy about collecting money for Jerry Lewis and the Labor Day telethon when I was about 6), but this one was so well done. I thought the film bits they did from Africa and Louisiana and LA and Kentucky were incredibly moving, and I found myself all antzy, wanting to run to the Appalachians and give every child 10 million books to read. Or blow bubbles with the kids in the African villages, just to see them smile and laugh a little. Of course, I knew all of this sadness was going on, and of course, we, in our own way, donate to several charities and make sure to remind the kids how lucky we are. But seeing it all in front of you on your nightly zone-out TV while you're sitting there eating a little cup of Honey Bunches of Oats -- wow.

So, we dutifully donated, and I was on Google this morning investigating literacy programs to help kids here in LA learn to read and learn to love reading. I can't quite figure out how I fit that into my already-nutty schedule, but I really want to see if I can. How else is this world going to get better if we don't extend something more than money?

And Bono, well, don't even get me started. He really is my hero, in so many ways. Who knew back in 1991, when I was writing my honor's thesis about debt relief in Latin America, that I shared a concern like that with the guy who'd been my musician hero since 1983? He kills me with the way he goes about making compassion cool and nonpartisan. When the Idol kids starting singing that "American Prayer" song at the end, B. looked over at me and said, "this sounds like a Bono song" and I was just thinking the same thing. He and Dave Stewart (Eurythmics fame) wrote it together. It's been in my head ever since.

Anyhow, no point at all in this rambling tonight except to say that, thanks to Idol, (a) I am trying to get my act together to do something I've wanted to do for a long time and (b) we had the coolest discussion with the kids at the dinner table tonight about being blessed and never taking for granted what we have. Amen.

My life as a soundtrack

Oh heavens, this was a fun exercise. I got this meme forwarded to me by my friend Steph. It requires you to pull up your library on iTunes, put it on shuffle, and press play. For every "stage of life," type in the song that’s playing. New stage, shuffle to a new song. Oh, and don’t lie and pretend you’re cool. {An aside: I am still so blissed out by iTunes. I cannot even fathom having all this music at the touch of a button, and then putting it on shuffle. I still hear songs that I haven’t heard for years, even two years after we’ve had the iPod and access to iTunes.}

I tag Miss Marcilee and Bryan!

opening credits: Jealous Guy -- Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music

waking up: Truth No. 2 -- Dixie Chicks

first day of school: I Will -- The Beatles

falling in love: This House Is Not for Sale -- Ryan Adams

breaking up: Stetch Out and Wait -- The Smiths

prom: Comfort Remains -- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

life's okay: Alive and Kicking -- Simple Minds

mental breakdown: Make Us Blind -- Echo and the Bunnymen

driving: The Truth -- Tanya Stephens

flashback: February Stars -- Foo Fighters

getting back together: Room to Roam -- The Waterboys

wedding: Waiting for the Flood -- Love & Rockets

birth of a child: 7/4 (Shoreline) -- Broken Social Scene

mid-life crisis: Things Behind the Sun -- Nick Drake

aging gracefully:  Same Deep Water As You -- The Cure

final battle: I'm Free -- The Who

death scene: Melt Into the Wall -- Pilate

funeral song: Hombre -- M.I.A.

end credits: Answering Bell -- Ryan Adams

How apropos are the "life’s good" and the "final battle" categories? I swear I did not cheat. And yes, Ryan Adams did come up twice, but that’s probably because we’ve uploaded nearly everything he’s ever done and he’s unequally represented. And because he’s kinda my boyfriend. Him and Zach Braff.