Category: Music (Page 1 of 8)
The Metropolitan Opera is offering free streams of their past performances. I have the luxury of two monitors at home, so I leave the performance up in a browser window and listen/watch throughout the day while I work in the primary screen. The process is a little more osmosis than active engagement, but by the end, I feel like I got 80% out of it as I would watching the first time.
One tip, I also pull up the synopsis of what happens in the opera in Wikipedia and it increases my understanding of the work immensely.
Opera sets seem to be a whole different type of stagecraft. All are spartan in some manner, “pointing” their construction to the performers. I watched the entirety of Carmen and they employed a complicated mechanism of rotating sets. The design and way the performers used this to dramatic effect was top-notch.
This week is Wagner week, and here is the schedule for The Metropolitan Opera.
I thought I’d post this J.E.-created Spotify playlist to Ye Ol’ Blog.
Stolen from Facebook, this was compiled from the Album Top 10 lists from the Yonder Days of 2018.
I thought it would be a good time to return to our blog. I am going to work on catching up with things I’ve set aside, intending to post but never posting.
So far, the only detour in our lives has been our kids were excused from school on Friday before Spring Break. This would have originally been Spring Break. We have changed plans — we will postpone the more adventurous intentions until everyone emerges later, all at once.
The interesting thing I’ve noticed has been a return to the good sort of boredom. There’s a restless, creative sort of energy I haven’t felt in a while. I think mindless distractions took up too much of my time. How to tell the difference between good pursuits and bad ones? Even good mindless from bad mindless?
Facebook doesn’t feel like one of the good ones. Perhaps this will be a refuge for us in these strange times.
I’ve been listening to back catalogs lately. I have the tendency to start in with an artist, and then move forward with them…a few exceptions (looking at you, Midnight Oil, Rush, U2, and Seventy Sevens). So now I’m playing catchup.
I’ve been hitting this lately:
The latest Sigur Ros album has really grown on me, especially this track and the first one. I guess they have another album coming out in a few months. But this one is fine by me.
One of my favorite Bowie songs, made into a video that would have blown my 80’s MTV-watchin’ mind away.
Another streaming album I discovered yesterday by John Grant, and haven’t listened to more than once. However, what I heard makes me want to listen to it more. It’s got complexities and textures to the songs…I found myself being won over by songs I didn’t think I liked at first by the end of the last notes.
I thought I shouldn’t be afraid to talk about it, as there are lots of people in my situation, who feel like outcasts in society, people who had addiction problems, who feel ashamed and unlovable because of it,” Grant said in a recent press release. “I want these people to know they have someone on a stage who is dealing with this too.
Let me know what you think about this, and I’ll try to add my own thoughts after I’ve had a chance to give it a listen.
I’ve included her on some of the Memorial Day albums in the past, but Patty Griffin has a new album out today. I found a link to a streaming version of it, and wanted to share it with you all. Her songs grow on me — she’s the best type of songwriter in that her songs aren’t a “one-listen and discard” type.  It takes some long, attentive listens and road trips across Kansas to really become embedded in my life experience, giving a voice to bunch of emotions I didn’t even know I had until her songs came along.
Hope you enjoy this….
MT can stand for Music Tuesday, too, you know….
The National is one band I keep coming back to, although I like High Violet, Boxer is the one on my steady-repeat list.
They’re releasing a new album in May, but I managed to snag one of the tracks and thought I’d share.
I hope this is a return to the blog for me. I feel like I have things to say here that I don’t really feel like saying “in the crowd” on Facebook.
Video here. Sara showed me this.
I don’t know that all of you have any history with this band, though most of you received an Irish cd at some point with some of their music on it. Their latest album is a series of slower, more sombre tunes, but their musicianship still shines. I thought the video was kind of pretty too.
I’ve been listening to Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and think you guys might like the recommendation. You can download some free tracks from their album here…including the song reinterpreted below.
I found them thanks to video below, one of the most endearing YouTube videos I’ve seen in a long time…. Hope I’m not overselling it.
I wish I could play a guitar, so I could do this with my kids….
I thought I’d feature some music that I’ve discovered lately from each of our cities. Peters may have to settle for Lawrence — I ‘m not sure if Lindsborg is churning out new music. So I found this band called Now, Now (formerly Now, Now Every Children) and like their music quite a bit…catchy and light. Hope you guys are in the mood for some of that today. If you like these tracks, I recommend checking out some more of their wares.
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