Daniels and his band performing “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” in concert:
In memory of Charlie Daniels…
“One Shining Moment 2020”
“One Shining Moment” is the song that CBS uses in the final moments of their annual coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, to recap the highlights of the road to the championship. All well and good… except that there won’t be an NCAA men’s basketball tournament this year because of the coronavirus epidemic.
So I, foolish I, took it upon myself to address this curious situation…
World Premiere: “Snoke Is Just A Gigolo”
It’s Supreme Leader Snoke set to “Just A Gigolo” by David Lee Roth! You’ll never look at your Star Wars action figures the same way again…
The idea has been accreting throughout my neurons since at least April. Guess I had no choice but to do something about it. Made on my iPad Pro, took about 11 hours not counting breaks for dinner and playing with Tammy the Pup. Finished just before 4 this morning.
Dear Dave and Disney: please don’t sue me!!!!!...
Listen to church bells ringing “Space Oddity”
This may be the most amazing tribute to David Bowie that has been done in the past few days: Dom Tower, the tallest church tower in the Netherlands, built in 1382 and with bells dating back to 1505, tolling out “Space Oddity”.
I’ve grown ever more fascinated with Bowie since it was announced that he had passed. Having listened to his final album and watched the last two videos he made (“Blackstar” and especially “Lazarus”), one most certainly gets the sense that Bowie was not only fully aware of his mortality, but that he was accepting it with a mighty grace. I can’t help but think that there is also a sublime acknowledgement toward God in some of the lyrics and images, and that Bowie was surrendering to that.
When I posted about his passing a few days ago, I wrote that perhaps the most amazing thing of ...
Rest in peace James Horner
It was as many feared when the news came that the airplane he owned had crashed: James Horner, one of the most acclaimed composers in film history, died last night.
Aliens. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Braveheart. Apollo 13. Titanic. Avatar. Glory. Field of Dreams…
And so much other work too. His score for Krull is a classic example of the Eighties-era fantasy genre. If I don’t mention his music for The Rocketeer, somebody is going to jump flunky for it. Animation fans will remember that he scored An American Tail.
Since the first of his works that I can remember listening to was his score for the second Star Trek movie, here now is the complete composition for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Fittingly heroic and triumphant, in remembrance of a life just as ...
Look! Lindsey Stirling and Josh Groban perform “Pure Imagination”… with the Muppets!
You know you’ve hit the big time when you land a gig with the Muppets. So it has now happened with violinist/dancer/artistic force of nature Lindsey Stirling.
Check out Stirling performing a rendition of “Pure Imagination” in this video mounted by Kermit and the gang (and oh yeah, vocals by this Josh Groban guy too):
Video for Lindsey Stirling’s “Take Flight”
It was this past July when I wrote about discovering Lindsey Stirling and her enchanting mastery of the violin. That and how she choreographs herself while performing. So taken in by her music have I been, that by a vast margin it’s been her album Shatter Me that I’ve listened to the most while writing my book. And her music videos have been no less arresting, even hypnotic. In every way Stirling has astounded the senses in ways that very few examples of music nowadays have achieved.
A few days ago Stirling released the video for “Take Flight”, also from Shatter Me. I can’t remember any video lately that has got me scratching my head wondering “how did they do that??”
Here it is. Prepare yourself for a beautiful ride on a melodic journey through geometry as wild as it is beautiful…
Blow-by-blow account of “We Are The World”
This past week was the thirtieth anniversary of the release of “We Are The World”: the multi-multi-multi-talented collaboration of most of the biggest stars during the era. It was a song to inspire relief from hunger in Africa. Recording legend Quincy Jones miraculously corralled all of that musical force in the wee hours of the night right after the American Music Awards had wrapped. The result? Still a monument to pop culture at its best.
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| Something we’ll probably never see the likes of again. |
Rolling Stone has published an astounding account, practically moment-by-moment, of the night that Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Paul Simon, Cindy Lauper, Willie Nelson and 40-some of their closest friends (who also had Dan Ackroyd among them, strangely) came together to record the song. There is some really crazy material here. My favorite is probably the heated argument, at 1 a.m., ...
“November Rain”
It’s the first day of November. Seems like a lot of people are getting cold wind and precipitation of some kind (further west of my location many places are getting 3 inches of snow).
Perfect day for a song like this. Some consider this to be the best music video ever assembled…
Admittedly, I did post this same video six years ago. Somehow, seems even more appropriate now....
So… you wanna watch Chris play the Doctor Who theme on his dulcimer?!?
Sure. Why not…
I’ve mentioned a few times that ever since late spring I’ve been taking lessons on playing the mountain dulcimer. So far I’ve notched up quite a repertoire but I’m still learning the real basic mechanics of what is truly a beautiful instrument. Still, I’ve come a long way in a short amount of time 🙂
Anyhoo, from the very beginning I’ve had in mind to play the Doctor Who theme on dulcimer. It’s something that I’ve played around with for awhile now and… well, I think that I’ve got it. Just needs a little more finesse, is all. Only tonight did I figure out the last half of the second strain of the theme. When I get really good I’ll string them all together nice and flowing.
Okay, so if you want to see and hear what I’ve done so far ummm… well I can’t post it ...