Radio On

Music for Saturday

 SB - thanks for reminding me of Van. This is the song I was trying to remember.

:-)

Summer Feeling

 Aaaaw, that Jonathan Richman is a crooner. With the worse winter storm in history raging as a backdrop, I could use a little daydreaming. 

The latest about Jonathan Richman here

Take care out there in the forest!

Pagan Sphinx Entertainment Highlight

Fool or Fools may refer to:

• A Jester, or Clown
• Foolishness, a person having poor judgment or little intelligence
• The Fool (Tarot card), a Tarot card
• Shakespearean fool, an archetypal character in numerous works by Shakespeare
• The Fool (design collective), a Dutch design collective and band influential in the psychedelic style of art in the 1960s
• The Fool (fictional character), a fictional character in The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb
• The Fool (film), a 1990 British film
• Fools (play), a 1981 play by Neil Simon
• Fool (novel), a novel by Christopher Moore

 

Picture for One Moment - Sky Watch - Blogging 'Round the Globe

Hello, Welcome!  In the new decade, I'm committed  to being...how shall we say...hospitable?    hehe. Not an easy task for a sphinx.  ;-)

Picture for one Moment and Blogging 'Round the Globe are my own little titles to head-up things I post, and not to be confused with the massive appeal of SkyWatch, which is truly global. Go take a look and hang on to your berets because you are in for a whirlwind tour of international skies!

The photo below is a result of a solo photo excursion I took last Sunday - a drive, with several stops. My timing was good for a bit of a sunset. Nothing dramatic in terms of a sunset, but when you add Mount Sugarloaf, it's a pretty impressive view. 

I touched the photo up a bit but only to see if I could capture it a bit more as I recall seeing it. Or maybe it was just my rose-colored glasses.  ;-)

Pagan Sphinx Photo 2011 © All Rights Reserved

 This is South Sugarloaf (The original Native American name for the mountain is Wequamps (or Wequomps)

Here is a bit of information about Mt. Sugarload Reservation:

Mt. Sugarloaf offers a commanding view of the Connecticut River, the Pioneer Valley, and the Pelham and Berkshire Hills. Consisting of two peaks, North and South Sugarloaf, the Reservation offers picnicking, scenic viewing and hiking. An auto road winds to the summit, making South Sugarloaf Mountain accessible by private automobiles. Available on the summit is a pavilion for scenic viewing and picnicking.

Mt. Sugarloaf, composed of a prominent sandstone rock called Sugarloaf Arkose, is a fine example of the Connecticut Valley's geological history. From its summit can be seen some of the best scenic views of the broad agricultural landscape of the Connecticut River Valley. More here.

And a song for you, too.  A much listened-to piece of angst from my youth. If you've lived a little, you know how that goes, right?   ;-)

SkyWatch Friday

Pagan Sphinx Entertainment Highlight for New Year's Eve

A Flower Power Moment with Yusuf (Cat Stevens)

A very good one at that and oh, very young...

Happy Birthday, John Lennon

Another Day, Another Song (or two)

I have been overtaken by another Flower Power Moment

Melanie Safka

Ruby Tuesday

Music for Friday

As Grateful Dead fans go, I'm assuming I'm a bit abnormal in that I always always liked their studio records better than live video or even live performances.

And I always liked the album cover art on Wake of the Flood.

Poet and Trubador - Paul Simon - American Tune (1975)

Pagan Sphinx Entertainment Highlight - NRBQ

This one's for Bob.  ;-)  Let's dance!

Pagan Sphinx Entertainment Highlight and Music for Sunday

 First, a young Jeff Bridges (with Cybil Shepard and others) in the great 1971 film The Last Picture Show



 And then as The Dude in The Big Lebowski (a Coen Brothers film) with music by Kenny Rogers and The First Edition (that's the "music for Sunday" part.  ;-)

Music for Sunday - Joni Mitchell demo for Shades of Scarlett Conquering

and some related American art

 

 From the album The Hissing of Summer Lawns

1974

Shades of Scarlett Conquering

Out of the fire like Catholic saints
Comes Scarlett and her deep complaint
Mimicking tenderness she sees
In sentimental movies
A celluloid rider comes to town
Cinematic lovers sway
Plantations and sweeping ballroom gowns
Take her breath away

Out in the wind in crinolines
Chasing the ghosts of Gable and Flynn
Through stand-in boys and extra players
Magnolias hopeful in her auburn hair
She comes from a school of southern charm
She likes to have things her way
Any man in the world holding out his arm
Would soon be made to pay

Friends have told her not so proud
Neighbors trying to sleep and yelling "not so loud"
Lovers in anger "Block of Ice"
Harder and harder just to be nice
Given in the night to dark dreams
From the dark things she feels
She covers her eyes in the X-rated scenes
Running from the reels

Beauty and madness to be praised
'Cause it is not easy to be brave
To walk around in so much need
To carry the weight of all that greed
Dressed in stolen clothes she stands
Cast iron and frail
With her impossibly gentle hands
And her blood-red fingernails

Out of the fire and still smoldering
She says "A woman must have everything"
Shades of Scarlett Conquering
She says "A woman must have everything"

A Bright Future

Harry Roselan
 American
1906

Morris Museum of Art

Augusta, Georgia

Music for Sunday - Billy Bragg - Waiting For the Great Leap Forwards

Some people sing about love

Some people sing about war

Some people sing about a better world to come

Well, I sing about all three and this is my theme song, Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards... 

Billy Bragg

Music for Sunday #4

Doesn't he look like he should be frolicking in the forest with the nymphs and satyr on my blog header? ;-)

The Runt: songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, singer, video artist and technical wiz. Check out his cool website, Go Ahead and Ignore Me.

Jonathan Richmand and The Modern Lovers

I was thinking today on my commute to work about the music I listened to in various decades. These thoughts prompted by my 1990's musical choice for gluttony, the third installment in Kay's Seven Deadly Sins meme.

Okay, so... I went all the way back to the 70's; 1976, to be exact. I was seventeen. And it really was a lot like Dazed and Confused, though in our town there was a lot more of an ethnic mix. And a lot more drugs. In fact, it was out of control. But that's a post for another time. If I can bear it. :-)

If you've seen that movie you'll probably want to ask me which character represented the likes of Pagan in '76. But I'm not gonna tell ya. You'll have to guess. ;-) Shouldn't be too hard...

But this isn't about a movie. It's about a quintessentially Massachusetts song about a very peculiar decade to be a kid.

Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers.

one two three four five six
Roadrunner, roadrunner
Going faster miles an hour
Gonna drive past the Stop 'n' Shop
With the radio on

I'm in love with Massachusetts
And the neon when it's cold outside
And the highway when it's late at night
Got the radio on
I'm like the roadrunner

I Dig This Soundtrack

A few days ago I funned around with a meme that Ed tagged me for. The last item on the meme list was to feature a clip from a favorite movie. Now, I have a ton of favorite movies, so Breaking the Waves is a recent favorite. I think I saw it for the first time last year on IFC but only partially. So I rented it and have now seen about three times.

I like it in part because the story of Bess McNeill is told in film "chapters" that change with dramatic images and great songs. So I just had to buy the soundtrack CD. It arrived, used from a vendor on Amazon. Under $5 plus free shipping. Being housebound and ill, this was a bit of a bright light for me.

This is about 2o minutes in length; a sampling of my favorite songs from the CD, so I understand if you skip around the tracks or skip it altogether! And I recommend the movie highly, though it's not for the faint-of-heart.

Breaking The Waves

Selections from the soundtrack to the film Breaking The Waves

1) A Broken Dream
Python Lee Jackson, featuring Rod Starwart
2) Hot Love - T Rex
3) Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
4) Cross-eyed Mary - Jethro Tull
5) Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John