Michael Von Der Heide debuted “Il pleut de l’or”, Switzerland’s entry into this year’s Eurovision Song Contest this past Saturday:
I’ve listened to it a couple of times already, and it hasn’t made much of an impression on me. I don’t hate it when I hear it, but I forget about it pretty quickly afterward. I’m sure it will do… moderately?
A metal concept album about Charlemagne by Christopher Lee. Yes. I have a feeling we could have avoided this fate somehow if Peter Jackson had done a better job resolving the Saruman arc in The Lord of the Rings.
Happy Bastille Day! I’m spinning les chanson pour la France audjourd’hui.
A conversation while listening to “The Windmills of Your Mind,” the hit song from The Thomas Crown Affair, from Jack Jones Sings Michel Legrand…
Jen: What does this song have to do with The Thomas Crown Affair?
Chris: What does this song have to do with anything?
Jen: This is true.
Chris: That’s the problem with French composers, though. You tell them what your movie’s about and they do they opposite. “Michel, we’ve got this movie…”
Jen: “Stop right there!”
Here’s why I love technology:
One of my favorite albums of all time, and I am deadly serious, is Rhythm of Youth by Men Without Hats. Yes, “The Safety Dance” band. Without this album, Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” would not have been possible. It’s true.
Anyway, I got Rhythm of Youth on vinyl when it came out in 1983, and I played it incessantly. Of course, I only had a few records at the time, so it wasn’t like I had a choice. But even if I had all the albums in the world, I still would have played it incessantly. I loved it so.
When I moved from Massachusetts to California in the mid-90s, my vinyl collection didn’t go with me. Since it was mostly made up of 80s hair metal, I was not sad to leave it behind. (Who buys Dokken albums? Seriously.) However, I foolishly left Rhythm of Youth in Massachusetts.
I had upgraded a lot of my records and cassettes to CD over the years, but, as far as I can tell, Rhythm of Youth has never been released on CD. At least not in the States. Maybe if I went to Canada, I would be able to find it. I could probably stock up on Helix albums, too, but I would never do that. Again.
Anyway, years later, Jen and I started collecting vinyl. Our collection is mostly 60s-era standards singers, like Jack Jones and Andy Williams. But some contemporary albums have snuck in, mostly from people who know we collect vinyl. A few months ago, we got a care package from our friends in New York City, and lo and behold, in the pile of swag, there was Rhythm of Youth.
Which brings me back to my love of technology. We recently bought a turntable that hooks into the USB port on our computer and converts LP tracks into MP3s. We got it so we could pull our swank Jack and Andy tracks into iTunes. Jen has been working on this. But the first album I converted to MP3 was Rhythm of Youth. My ears are happy again.
My sister Angela recently received her MFA, which I’m kinda jealous of because she beat me to a Masters degree. Of course, had I gone back to school five years ago… Anyway, you can see her work at her MNArtists.org page and at posts by Mookybaby at Intentional Accidents. Meanwhile, my brother Nick is currently in culinary school, and he’ll be getting his degree right after I get mine. Also, my cousin Sam James is making a go of it as a musician. You can here his songs on his MySpace page and buy his EP at CDfuse.com. I… am decent at Guitar Hero.
We took a look at the British PM’s e-petitions site in class yesterday. It is my new favorite site. Just scroll through the rejected petitions to see why. If I were a U.K. citizen and it weren’t rejected, I would have signed the petition to get Graham Coxon to rejoin Blur.
We’re back from Nashville. I didn’t post again, obviously, but I did update the photo album.
On Friday, we slept in since we still hadn’t gotten much sleep after the drive down. First thing we did that day was head to Grimey’s, which is a brilliant record store. I’m sorta kicking myself for not buying a t-shirt from them, but I’ll get it next time I’m there.
We went to the Loveless Cafe for lunch, which was fantastic. We took a picture of what we ate, although you’ll pardon us for remembering to shoot the shot after we started eating.
That night, we went to The Bluebird Cafe to see Tim Bays, Cindy Greene, Richard Berman, and James Nihan. Of the four, Jen and I both liked Greene the best.
After that show was over, we headed to The Basement (below Grimey’s) to see Umbrella Tree. They’re not country, because you can’t live off of country alone. Well, I can’t. Anyway, they are amazing, and they have energy to spare live. It’s hard to explain their sound, so just click the link and listen. They came into the audience with a bass drum, an acoustic guitar, and a mini-keyboard for “A Horse That Will Come When I Whistle.” It was swell.
Their opening act was Finnish and awful, not in that order.
The next day, we got up early so we could hit the Country Music Hall of Fame. I wore my brand new Umbrella Tree shirt. When we bought our tickets, the guy behind the counter asked me about the shirt. As it turns out, the band’s keyboardist, Jillian Leigh, works there, as does her boyfriend. We met up with him shortly thereafter; we recognized him because he was the guy who sold us the CD and the shirt the night before. This is them.
The museum was excellent, by the way, although they need work on the likenesses on the plaques of the folks they’ve inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Elvis picture looked more like Buddy Hackett.
After the museum, we went to lower Broadway, where all the bars are. Jen said that bands start doing shows as early as 10 am. There’s no cover; you just walk in and if you like the band, you tip them. It has to be unsettling for the bands to have people walk in, listen to a couple of songs, then walk out. Although I suppose you get used to it.
The most famous of the clubs is probably Tootsies Orchid Lounge. We actually didn’t spend a lot of time there because it was always really crowded, and we weren’t into the bands that were playing. They have an upstairs and a downstairs stage, but even with double the chance, we never found a reason to stick around.
The first band of note that we saw was Jypsi, who were playing at Layla’s. They’re a super-tight bluegrass band. In general, the people came in stayed to be a part of the audience, which says a lot about them as performers.
We saw a decent cover band at The Stage on Broadway, but after their third Merle Haggard cover in six songs, we wandered off.
After stops at Hatch Show Print, the Lawrence Record Shop and the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, we headed over to the Nashville Crossroads.
On the window of the bar, there was a poster advertising Jewels Hanson, a contestant on season four of Nashville Star, performing on Thursday nights. When we walked in, we saw that she was also tending the bar that afternoon as well.
Performing was Deirdre Reilly, who was a hoot. She’s a great performer, very engaging. We walked in around three, I think, and we ended up staying until six. She was on stage the entire time. She does Celtic music in addition to country, although I can’t imagine her doing Irish folk music after hearing her blast through “Folsom Prison Blues.”
Jewels told Jen that someone offered to switch shifts with her, but there was no way she was going to miss working while Deirdre was playing. I can understand that.
We left Broadway for dinner. We ended up at Sylvan Park Restaurant, which is in the middle of nowhere. The room is tiny, and you had to go through the kitchen to use the bathroom. But the food was generally great. We were there near closing time, and as we were getting ready to leave, one of the waitresses asked if we liked chocolate pie. We said yes, and they gave us a whole pie. You know, for the trip home.
We went back to Broadway after dinner and caught Mason Griffin at Legends Corner. Galen Griffin is an up-and-coming songwriter in Nashville; he co-wrote “I’m Country” with Craig Morgan. He’s got a knack for funny lyrics and stomping riffs. We sat through a couple of sets with the full band, and that was enough for us to buy their CD.
After that, we went to bed, then left Sunday morning to come home. Mason Griffin’s CD got stuck in our CD player. We were able to fish it out, fortunately.
Jen and I are in Nashville right now. Jen’s been on a big country kick lately. She’s been to Nashville once before and she’s been dying to come back.
Tonight was the finale of Nashville Star. We got tickets for it before the season started. The show has been taping at the Acuff Theater on the Grand Ole Opry complex. This theater is right next to the main Opry theater.
It’s very weird attending the show live. Before the live show began at 9:00 Central, they taped the performances by Jewel and by Randy Owen of Alabama with the show’s contestants. They then interspersed those performances into the show.
The Randy Owen segment opened the program, and it was funny to watch him sitting at the judge’s table in the audience watching his own performance on the big screen above the stage. The band was on stage watching the segment as well.
It was impossible to hear Jewel and Cowboy Troy do the host segments over the crowd noise. We could only hear what was going on when it was quiet. All the performances sounded great, though.
Because of the number of commercials, the show felt very herky-jerky. Plus, we had two segments where we were just sitting there watching the big screen because they had pre-taped the performances. We were told when to stand up (usually coming out of commercial breaks) and when to really let loose with the applause.
After Angela Hacker was named the winner, she performed “Sweet Home Alabama.” Once the song was over, the stage manager thanked us for coming, and people cleared out. The cast and crew milled about on stage, congratulating Angela and talking with each other. Quite a few people in the audience hung around, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just friends and family of the contestants.
Here are some pictures from the show and from our dinner at the Catfish House in Springfield, TN. We’ll probably add to it as the trip goes along. We just have my camera phone, so they won’t be the most brilliant shots, though.
Here’s what I miss about Boston: Rene Rancourt singing the National Anthem before Bruins games. He sounds like a drunk, tone-deaf Cowardly Lion, and it makes me smile every time. And when he’s done, he points to the crowd, he salutes the flag, he pumps his fist, and he leaves the ice with a flourish.
I took Jen to a B’s game when we were in Massachusetts for Christmas one year, and it happened to be the last home game before the holiday. So Jen not only got to hear the National Anthem, she also got to witness Rene’s Christmas special, in which he sings carols while dancing around the Bruins’ bench.