Tag Archives: YouTube

Hi-Fi Friday: January 1, 2016

Audiophallic,

Happy 2016 to anyone crazy enough to still be around and reading this! Hopefully if you celebrated the calendar change, you did it without painful repercussions.

I guess I kind of picked out the music theme for the month. Hopefully Blobby agrees with it. At some point in a previous discussion, he brought up the idea of popular artists doing old timey music. I love old timey music. Well, I guess it depends on who is defining old timey music. Or if you’re a Doctor Who fan, old timey wimey music. I enjoy listening to music from the 1920s to the 1950s. To me that’s old timey music. So I’ll be focusing on songs by modern artists who have more-or-less either covered or been inspired by a song from that time zone. Hopefully Blobby will be able to run with this. Hopefully I will as well.

I’ll start with off with a selection from Christina Aguilera. Her 2006 double album “Back to Basics” was very much a throwback to songs from that era. Or at least songs that felt like they could belong in that era. Well, many of the songs were. There were definitely some very modern songs as well.

For my first theme selection this month, I present “I Got Trouble”:

Definitely not something one would expect from a modern pop artist. I’m not sure how well her following received the album as a whole either. But there were quite a few selections from it that I liked, and all fit that old timey wimey feel.

Timey wimey.

Until next time...
Erik

The Wettening

Ponderings,

The rains started late Christmas night. And it’s still raining as I type these words. But it’s finally letting up.

I'm all about getting 7" or more, but this is ridiculous...
I’m all about getting 7″ or more, but this is ridiculous…

Between the tornado warnings and flash flood warnings, I’m really tired of hearing that Emergency Broadcast System tone over the last two days. We ventured out to my favorite watering hole Saturday afternoon/evening, and it was “funny” because the entire restaurant would squeal out with that sound as everyone’s phones would go off simultaneously.

The Husbear came home to this wonderful mess happening Saturday night.

This is, or was, our driveway. We just can’t seem to get it fixed.

And this is coming down from between my workshop and the chicken barn. The deluge was so great the embankments couldn’t contain all the water.

Water was also starting to come into the back of the house from the back patio, as the drainage couldn’t keep up with the deluge. But luckily he worked his magic and got that corrected quickly.

Sunday afternoon we ventured into town, and were greeted with this monstrosity.

Sugar Creek on the south side of Hwy 72
Sugar Creek on the south side of Hwy 72

Normally Little Sugar Creek is just that: a VERY little creek, without the sugar. Today, not so much.

When you enlarge this picture by clicking on it, you’ll see the tree line way off in the distance. That’s normally where this little creek sits.

Sugar Creek just south of Hwy 72
Sugar Creek just south of Hwy 72

What’s funny to me is that a developer wanted to fill this area with very high-end homes. That would have ended… badly.

Panoramic view of Sugar Creek just south of Hwy 72
Panoramic view of Sugar Creek just south of Hwy 72

Everything seemed to become a river around here.

There was so much rain and runoff that it actually ate out culverts. Not small culverts either, mind you. The one you see in this picture is 3′ in diameter.

Washout on Sugar Creek Road
Washout on Sugar Creek Road

And this is the normally dry creek bed in front of the house.

Somewhere downstream is most of our driveway. I guess we’ll be getting that fixed. Again.

There are many roads in the area that are closed due to bridges and culverts washing out, and some people are trapped in their homes because of that. So we lucked out there that only one end of our road was washed out.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to not be raining, so I’ll venture out on the property and see what other damage may have occurred.

Until next time...
Erik

Hi-Fi Friday: December 25, 2015

Audiophallic,

Blobby got the theme pick this month, so he threw out some choices, and I kind of steered him in a direction. And that direction would be songs released on soundtracks, and as Blobby stated: “music that appears / appeared initially on soundtracks. not cast offs from other albums that ended up on a soundtrack.” I think I can manage this one. At least better than last month’s.

Before Danny Elfman was Danny Elfman the composer, Danny Elfman was singer and songwriter of the 80s new wave band Oingo Boingo. Both the band, and Elfman, have a very distinctive sound: you can hear one of the pieces and just know who it is. At least I do, in their case.

I still don’t really know the origin as to how Elfman became involved in the “Weird Science” movie project by John Hughes, but he did. And out of it came the theme song to the movie.

It’s a catchy tune. And one that definitely always reminds me of the movie.

Until next time...
Erik

Hi-Fi Friday: December 18, 2015

Audiophallic, ,

Blobby got the theme pick this month, so he threw out some choices, and I kind of steered him in a direction. And that direction would be songs released on soundtracks, and as Blobby stated: “music that appears / appeared initially on soundtracks. not cast offs from other albums that ended up on a soundtrack.” I think I can manage this one. At least better than last month’s.

All I have to do is say “The Breakfast Club”, and you can probably guess what song I’m talking about. Because nothing else musically in that movie from 1985 was memorable.

Probably like many youth of that era, I identified with the movie. But that’s for another post. Back to the song.

“Don’t You (Forget About Me)” was written by songwriting duo Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff, who both wrote stuff for many other movies in the 1980s. Originally, Keith Forsey wanted Bryan Ferry (of Roxy Music) to sing the song. Which didn’t happen. Then Annie Lennox. And Cy Curnin (of The Fixx). Chrissie Hynde (of the Pretenders) was interested in the song, but she eventually said no. She suggested her husband Jim Kerr, the lead singer of Simple Minds. Kerr wasn’t so keen on the idea: the song was not their style (I’d personally argue that one. It feels a lot like “Sanctify Yourself” and “All The Things She Said” and “Alive And Kicking“… and the list goes on.); he didn’t want to perform anything the band didn’t write; and he didn’t like the song. The other Simple Minds members convinced Kerr to do the song, hoping it would help them break into the American market. Which, guess what, it did.

“Don’t You (Forget About Me)” as performed by Simple Minds:

This is one of those songs on my “play it at my wake” list. Mostly because I’m a sadist. 😉

Until next time...
Erik

Hi-Fi Friday: December 4, 2015

Audiophallic,

It’s December. Which means… NOT holiday music!

Ever.

Blobby got the theme pick this month, especially after my tragic choice last month. It’s okay to admit it: it was a train wreck no one even wanted to watch. Kind of like Courtney Love.

So he threw out some choices, and I kind of steered him in a direction. And that direction would be songs released on soundtracks, and as Blobby stated: “music that appears / appeared initially on soundtracks. not cast offs from other albums that ended up on a soundtrack.” I think I can manage this one. At least better than last month’s.

And the first one that pops into my mind is from Alanis Morissette. For the 1998 “City of Angels” movie soundtrack. A movie that I’ve never seen. But I do love this song. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ love, even!

The song is “Uninvited”.

Such a musically simplistic song, but so much effect. And haunting.

I might have a thing for female singers and haunting music.

Until next time...
Erik

Hi-Fi Friday Saturday: November 28, 2015

Audiophallic,

November’s Hi-Fi Friday / My Music Monday theme is “The Worst Song From Your Favourite Artists.” I picked the theme. And Blobby was all in agreement. Because we all hate to love, or love to hate, a good train wreck. You know, like Judy!

“Worst” is relative. What I might dislike, I’m sure someone out there must like. Someone at the record label must have since it hit the album.

This challenge was more difficult than I anticipated. I’ve gone through the entire discography of bands I love, and some of them don’t seem to have a bad song (to me): Hootie & The Blowfish, Information Society, CAKE, Matchbox 20, Jimmy Buffett, “Weird Al” Yankovic.

I’m failing on getting things posted in a timely manner these days. Life has been busy. Or I’m a bad judge of time. More the latter, methinks.

I’m a fan of Alanis Morissette. It started with the Jagged Little Pill album in 1995. Twenty years ago! She has 8 studio albums under her belt, but only 6 have been released in the US. The first two were only in her home country of Canada. And probably for a good reason. They’re definitely not what we have come to know of Alanis.

One of which is where this little gem from 1992 came from. I give you “Real World”:

To be fair, almost every song on the album “Now is the Time” is just as bad. Or at least not what we came to know as “Alanis”. But it is like watching a train wreck. In reverse.

Until next time...
Erik