Life is an Ongoing Process » Music

U2 on Letterman for Five Nights

Carol — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:01:27 +0000

No doubt to promote the release of their new album, No Line on the Horizon, the first week in March, U2 will be guests on the Late Show with David Letterman for five nights straight from March 2-6. There is a short blurb here about the U2 Letterman appearances.

I am looking forward to hearing more cuts from the album. I like Get on Your Boots, but it is not destined to be one of my favorite U2 songs. I tend to like the more eclectic songs on U2 albums rather than the ‘hits’.

I am also anxiously awaiting the release of the new Green Day album which is set for release in May. Rumor has it that it is as good, or better, than American Idiot. I hope the rumors are true!

Cheers!

Benjamin Zander’s TED Talk on Classical Music

Carol — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:32:42 +0000

Benjamin Zander has been the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra since 1979, and is also a speaker on leadership. He reminds me of Leonard Bernstein who also not only had a musical gift, but could speak eloquently about his passion for music and the special, universal mode of communication that music is.

Go to the TED talk page for this item to read more about Benjamin Zander and to join in the conversation about this video.

Pete Seeger On Obama

Carol — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:57:33 +0000

I saw the wonderful PBS debut of “American Masters: Peter Seeger: The Power of Song” last night. If you like American folk music, and true American patriots, I highly recommend this show. If it weren’t for Pete Seeger, Alan Lomax, Woodie Guthrie, and the others that worked with them, we would have lost much American folk music that had not been notated and catalogued until they began work on a project to address that effort. As an American, and a musician, I will be forever grateful for their contribution to this effort to preserve American folk music.

I also came across a recent interview with Pete in the Rolling Stone which was quite interesting. He talks about some of his experiences with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Lead Belly, and shares some thoughts about the current American political landscape and the presidential race. See what he had to say about Obama below.

What do you think of Obama?
I guess if I had my choice, he’d be the one. I would’ve liked Kucinich. However, what I am for is I.R.V. Most people don’t even know what it is: Instant Recount Voting. When you vote, you vote for your first choice, your second choice and your third choice. I went to a school where we had proportional voting and that’s the way we voted for the student council. If your favorite already made it onto the council, then your second choice counted.

So you’d vote first for someone like Dennis Kucinich first?
That’s right. And if he didn’t make it, I’d vote for Obama and if he didn’t make it, I’d vote for Hillary. If she didn’t make it, I’d vote for Huckabee. Huckabee is a good speaker! He’s the most radical speaker of any of them.

Do you think America is on the verge of leaving these dark times with the impending election?
I’m absolutely convinced that the extraordinary tradition in America of speaking your mind has saved us decade after decade after decade. Right now I’m more optimistic than I was after Hiroshima. I felt then that surely it would only be 20 or 30 years until another of those bombs would be dropped and if we weren’t killed, we’d be poisoned by the fallout.

So you think the pendulum is going to shift back after eight years of Bush?
Well, I describe it this way. You know, if you bounce a ball on the sidewalk, the harder you throw it down, the higher it bounces. So, we may have some very good things happening. But who knows? There could be dirty tricks still tried.

The Saints are Back!

Carol — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:49:00 +0000

The concert, although much too short, was a rousing start to a well played football game. If you missed the concert, or want to hear it again, you can watch the 10 minute performance at the Rhapsody site here. You can also download an audio version of The Saints Are Coming from the Rhapsody site as well, with the proceeds going to Music Rising. And my final plug, if you want a cool Music Rising t-shirt like the one Edge is wearing in the photo from my blog post yesterday, go to the U2.com site to the U2 shop (again, proceeds go to Music Rising).

Since the demise of the Packers, I have been looking for a new football team to ‘adopt’. I thought it might be the Titans, since Vince went there, but they aren’t playing Vince yet, and they are really painful to watch at the moment. I thought it might be the Bucks, since Chris went there, but Chris won’t be playing for a while since having his spleen removed last Sunday after taking a horrible beating on the field (get better soon Chis), and the Bucks aren’t any more fun than the Titans to watch at the moment (one can only be amused by Chucky’s scowls for so long). So, that leaves the Saints, since Drew went there, and they look wonderful!! I haven’t seen such a well played game of football, front to finish, offense, defense and special teams, for quite some time. So it’s official, I am now a Saints fan.

I added a few more entries on the Plant Catalog page today. Take a look if you get a chance. I also uploaded some new pictures of the gardens and plants in the greenhouse to Flickr today, check them out too.

Take care & rock on.
Carol