Nothing happened today so that means it’s Shuffle Time

Day Dreaming -Aretha Franklin
Great late Atlantic Records period for Miss Aretha. On the NPR website they interviewed Arif Mardin about this specific production. Really space agey for Aretha. Must’ve been around 1972-73 when the future held promise.

There Was a Time -James Brown
One of my all time favorite James Brown songs. This is the studio version, the real killer version is on Live at the Apollo. A list of dances from around the country or at least the south. It’s still an amazing song.

I’m A One Man Woman – Barbara Lynn
Another Atlantic Records singer. Famous, to me at least, for singing You’ll Lose a Good Thing, featured in the Hairspray movie. I loved that song so much that I bought this which has one or two stand out tracks on it. This isn’t one of those tracks.

London Calling – Dave Grohl, Steve Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello
Live from the Grammy’s this tribute to Joe Strummer works better as a video and you can get that online at Youtube.com no doubt. Go ahead it’s worth it. I’ll wait.

High Risk Insurance – The Ramones
From the Phil Spector produced End of the Century album. A cleaner wall of sound meeting the brothers dirty wall of sound making something odd and enjoyable in moderation.

You Must Be Mad- Marine Girls
Bedsit jazz from England. Perfect for a battleship gray day like today. Tracey Thorn from Everything But The Girl’s first group. Really cool though, must’ve been around 1983.

Living a Lie- The dB’s
Sunny Afternoon is what I remember following Marine Girls from a mix tape that I made when I was DJing at McSwells, but that was in the analog age. Now this is the iTunes shuffle everything digitalized rewriting my memories. Good song from their second lp, Re-percussion. Power pop at it’s finest.

God Lives Through – A Tribe Called Quest
More mellow jazz type things, this time from the Tribe. Last song from Midnight Marauders which was a great album. They lost the plot eventually but their 2nd and 3rd albums are legendary and ground breaking.

Daytime Nighttime Suffering -Paul McCartney and Wings
A b-side from Macca which turned out to be better than the a-side. One of the last Wings releases, late 70’s where we find Paul flirting with contemporary disco type drum beats. Different world back then, that 1979.

Pandora- Cocteau Twins
La da dada. That’s about you can figure out what Liz Fraser is singing which is fine by me. Added to their appeal and guaranteed to make you look and sound like an idiot if you tried to sing along. And is she singing ‘peanut butter, peanut butter, peanut butter’ towards the end? You tell me.

Reel Around the Fountain – The Smiths
First song on first album. Did anyone know what was to follow? 23 years of Morrissey? I doubt if they knew. Slap him on the patio. Go ahead. Slap Morrissey. Johnny Marr from the Smiths is now in Modest Mouse and they have the number one record in the US this week.

It’s Saturday and a good productive day. Woke up early enough, showered, had coffee, went out for bagels and groceries, back by 9:00. An early start. Bill was off to a reading I think in Jersey City for a movie part. I had a nice breakfast and started doing laundry soon after. Nothing special kind of day. Bill didn’t come home until late last night due to a really bad accident involving a bus jumping a divider on the exit ramp out of the Lincoln Tunnel. Not his bus but everything stopped in the traffic area and several passengers had to go to the hospital.

I watched To Sir, With Love again. I remember seeing it on the 4:30 Movie when I was growing up. Not the Channel 7 4:40 Movie, but Channel 4. Channel 7 would have themed weeks, like Monster Week or Easter Week on the 4:30 Movie. Channel 4 would have A Hard Day’s Night or Help or To Sir, With Love. I really enjoy the movie after watching it dozens of times and checking the message boards on IMDB, it seems quite a few others feel the same. The movie inspired some to go into teaching. I just wanted to move to London.

Then I watched Bill Maher who was rather ho hum and smuggy smug. Sort of preaching to the choir, both at home and in the studio audience. I much prefer the Daily Show and Colbert Report. I think HBO should try to pick up those two shows. It would be a genius move, just to hear Jon Stewart being able to swear without being bleeped out. Bill came home soon after that after sitting in traffic for so long and I went to bed a little while after that. Bill joined me momentarily and we both fell into deep sleeps.

Today I watched Children of God* (correction by Annemarie: Children of MEN). Good movie albeit downbeat. Set in 2027 everyone in the world is infertile. Clive Owen is a bureaucrat who meets his ex-wife who is a revolutionary. He is assigned reluctantly to escort a woman who is pregnant. First person on the planet in 18 years to actually conceive. It’s worth seeing, quite a few twists and turns and a touch violent for these are supposed to be times of war and the collapse of society.

After that I watched Infamous, which is infamous for being the other movie about Truman Capote writing In Cold Blood. This was a lower budget film I think, but had a more luminous cast. Sandra Bullock was pretty good in it as Harper Lee and Toby Jones was really spot on as Truman, not begrudging my doppleganger Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Being a smaller movie it seemed more intimate than Capote, and Daniel Craig was really good as Perry. He looked like Sean Connery a bit which may have led to his being cast as the latest James Bond.

I went into the city to see Bill in The Crooner directed by and starring Rome Neal. It’s still in previews so there are a few kinks that need to be worked out. I stopped at Farfetched on my way to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and chatted with Susan about my latest adventures in employment. Jessica was leaving early and asked me what I was up to and invited her to join me and to my surprise she did. We had a good time and I think she enjoyed the performance. I know she enjoyed going to the Poets Cafe. She always wanted to go and this was her first time.

Here’s a few snapshots from tonight’s performance of The Crooner.