Blogs are so passe and pretentious. Oh well, here's my blog about music that's stuck in my head when I wake up in the mornings along with adventures of the Cash family and wacky wacky crazy wacky shenanigans.
If you've never heard this song, then you were born in the 90's or later, or you lived in a cave in High School.
This song is synonymous with "The Breakfast Club" the 1985 film that made the song popular.
From what I read, this song was written for the movie and was offered to three or four other artists (including Billy Idol) before Scottish New Wave band, Simple Minds, reluctantly took the gig. It so happens that this song was their greatest hit. Isn't that how it always happens?
In 1985 I was 6 years old. In 1995, I was 16 and this is when I first saw "The Breakfast Club." I remember being deeply moved by the characters. I haven't seen the movie since then and wonder if it would seem more like a melodrama now. At the time, it all felt so relatable, and so it felt like a vicarious experience to watch the film.
Can you guess which character I connected with? If you say Molly Ringwald, you're dead wrong.
This was a tough one today. The song stuck in my head this morning is by The New Pornographers. It's called "Broken Beads" and I do like the song:
What's the song about? Your guess is as good as mine. Band member Dan Bejar wrote this song and from what I gather, much of what he has to sing about requires a lot of uncovering of layers. Since deep thoughts are not my forte, I will leave delving into meaning of this song up to my mom who is the only person who reads this blog. For now, I'm just enjoying the way this song sounds.
Of note, this is my 100th post on the site. I hope to do 100 more as there is so much music out there to talk about.
Yesterday, in an effort to entertain a bored 5 year old,I turned on The Pirates of Penzance, a 1983 film starring Kevin Klein and Linda Ronstadt. The catchy music from this campy production is a fixture in the repertoire of my brain and therefore we get to enjoy a song together today.
This is the opening number of the show as the Pirates drink and celebrate the 21st birthday of Frederic, the play's protagonist.
I was in a production of Pirates of Penzance nearly 13 years ago. I was the lead, Frederic, and let's say that this was a fun production, but maybe not the highest in quality. The fact that I was the lead was the leading indicator that the talent was sub-par. We still had a great time.
One night, the production went awry. It might be a "you had to be there" kind of story, but let me explain what happened.....
First a little background- This was an outdoor production and the sound was really bad. So bad, in fact, that we went into a studio and had some of the cast record background voices onto the minus track during chorus numbers.
Also, I need to give a little background on the plot to clarify what happened this night on stage- The Pirates of Penzance is about Frederic, who is indentured to the Pirates until his 21st year. When the day comes he chooses to leave the pirates for a more civilized life. Soon, he meets Mabel and falls in love.
Later, it's revealed that Frederic was born on leap year. His contract states that he's indentured to the pirates until his 21st birthday and so he is forced to leave his new love to return to the pirates.
OK, so if you're still with me, this is what happened. There is a scene in the second act where the Pirate King returns to Frederic to inform him that he must return to the pirates. He sings a song explaining it. When the sound people cued the song- a different song entirely played. It was the finale to act 2, and it wouldn't stop- background voices and all. They kept stopping the track, and starting it again and the same song kept playing, with the voices singing.
We tried to improvise the best we could around this- I do remember someone on stage saying:
"I hear voices" and somebody else saying "I see dead people." (This was in 2000, right after The Sixth Sense had been so popular.) The audience was laughing, but clearly the performance had gotten out of control.
Next, the sound people cued a song that happened two scenes later in the show. It was a song between Frederic and Mabel. Mabel rushed onto the stage and started singing about how much she was going to miss me, even though we had never been able to do the scenes that explain why Frederic would be leaving. The song ended, I dipped Mabel, kissed her and improvised: "Farewell, Mabel. I don't know why I'm leaving, but farewell."
The audience was confused, and so were all the actors. The sound guy had no explanation for what happened. And now I'm writing about it here, and hopefully you're laughing about it.
You know how much I love to share good music here. It may be rare that it happens, but this is a song to which I think you should listen.
The artist is Kishi Bashi, and his album is great, but especially this song:
Kishi Bashi is part of a couple of other projects (Jupiter One, and of Montreal) and is clearly a unique talent. I hope to hear much more of his stuff.
What's that you say? This post isn't funny or entertaining enough for you? Then I shall share with you an email I sent to my in-laws this week. Hopefully it will make you laugh. The response I got from my father-in-law was "LOL" and from what I hear, he doesn't use his LOL's lightly so that must mean I'm funny, right? RIGHT?
A little background: My in-laws live in a small town in Southern Utah. All their children are grown up and have moved around the country and they are getting close to want to retire. Their grown children are mostly found in Dallas, Texas, Cape Girardeau, Missouri and here in Salt Lake City, Utah. Father-in-law has worked hard and now needs to find a way to be closer to his kids, especially the grand kids. They have been struggling to decide where to relocate to be closer to everyone. The email is a joke, meant to make them laugh.
Dear Mom and Dad-in-law,
I know that you are having an internal battle regarding your near
future and where to settle down. I had this great idea this morning.
I just spent some time on Mapquest and found out the perfect location
to move. Drumrolll.......
KEARNEY, NEBRASKA!
Here is why:
Kearney is almost exactly 10 hours from Salt Lake, Dallas and Cape
Girardeau. It's the perfect middle ground for all your kids to reach.
If that hasn't convinced you enough, let me give you a few other reasons:
Kearney is really really nice. It's also home to the Great Platte
River Road Archway Monument. You can read up on this important
national landmark here:
Still not convinced, try this- While living in Kearney, you will have
plenty and plenty and plenty of time to visit the Museum of Nebraska
Art (MONA) which houses some important works of art
http://monet.unk.edu/mona/ Remember, they are closed Mondays and
Holidays as you weighing the pros and cons of moving here.
If you're still feeling skeptical, I've found some prime real estate
for you to check out.
