Conservative Conversation and Community
I would normally post something like this on PIT 14 or the What Are You Listening To? group, but this tune seems suddenly to be everywhere. KJAZ in Longbeach, CA plays it but more than that, it is popping up on phone hold queues everywhere. It’s catchy enough, but I fear I will become as […]
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Over the years, Ricochet has inspired lasting friendships, not least of which is many members’ friendship with @tommeyer, who’s not only a great guy, but someone who rendered Ricochet great service before he moved on to other things. When Herb Meyer, Tom’s father, died, the outpouring of thanksgiving for Herb’s life was tremendous. At the time, I dedicated a motet I was working on to Herb’s memory, but life having gotten in the way, I haven’t had a chance to share it with the Ricoverse until now:
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Laurel Canyon is a beautiful hilly area just a few miles northwest of downtown Hollywood. And in the late ’60s, it became ground zero for a sort of Cambrian Explosion of rock music. Somehow, all the greats collected there at the same time: Frank Zappa, CSNY, The Mamas and the Papas, the Monkees, the Doors, Carol King, Joni Mitchell, the Byrds, and so many more. And they were all feeding off of each other’s musical creativity (and drugs).
Bob Dylan’s son, Jakob, has just released an impressive documentary of the scene.
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Yesterday is really two movies, one better than the other.
The better movie in Yesterday, the latest by director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), with a script by Richard Curtis (Love Actually), is a light, cute, modern fairy tale that assumes one’s love of the Beatles* (yes, this movie could not get more British). It presents a simple yet striking what-if: Jack** Malik (Himesh Patel), a struggling, mediocre musician, suddenly enters a world that resembles our own in (almost) every way but one: Only he remembers The Beatles.*** Through a series of convenient but credibly implausible circumstances, he then rides this newfound knowledge to astronomical success, doling out hit after hit seemingly from divine inspiration to all around him, while only he (?) knows the truth.
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I read somewhere, that 95% of revenue in the music industry goes to the top 100 acts. So the top 1% of the 1% make almost all the money. Considering the rock star lifestyles of well, rock stars, this might actually be true. Its one thing about the internet, Unknown acts can become well known […]
This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s growing community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Get your first month free.
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This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s growing community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Get your first month free.
As we know, in the study of Astrology the positions of the celestial bodies at the time of birth shape the rest of one’s life.
Pseudoscience? Perhaps. I’m not going to be judgmental here.
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Once in a while, Twitter can be fun. Today’s trending hashtag #MostUnderratedBeatlesSongs is the stuff of non-political warfare. Here’s mine for the suggestion box. What’s yours? More
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This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s growing community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Get your first month free.
Jay Nordlinger begins a new podcast, a music ’cast. As he says, he’ll talk about music – make some points, tell some stories, tell some jokes – but mainly play music. Because why talk when you can listen? He begins this inaugural episode with the song from which he swipes his title (“Music for a While”). There is also some piano music by Prokofiev – music seldom heard. Jay remembers a couple of musicians who have died recently. And he closes with a song from “Kiss Me, Kate,” which is back on Broadway.
“Music for a while,” goes Henry Purcell’s song, “shall all your cares beguile.”
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I don’t know why, but for some reason the most recent Saturday Night Classics by @randywebster reminded me of a video of the Motown girl group, Martha & the Vandellas. Specifically, this one; More
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You have been bombarded with messages about sales, specials, and entertainment opportunities for this weekend. Please add the following items at the top of your list for the weekend, slipping the big sale a little ways down the page.
If you have not seen the HBO movie Taking Chance (included in Amazon Prime, available elsewhere), watch it. Have a box of tissues or a couple hankies handy. If you had other entertainment plans, watch this trailer, and reassess your priorities for the weekend:
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Freddie Mercury was gay, very gay. That’s not what this post is about, but I thought we might as well recognize that fact right out of the gate. We may end up circling around to it later on.
I love Queen. A few of their songs rank among my favorites; “One Vision” and “Another One Bites The Dust” are up there in the top 50, and “Somebody to Love” has a nice penthouse view from the top 20 alongside Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor and David Crowder Band’s “Only You.” I loved the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” when I first heard it, and got annoyed when Wayne’s World ruined it. But Freddie Mercury was Queen, and when he died so did the band, no matter how much Brian May and Adam Lambert would have you believe otherwise.
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The Muse was a digital algorithmic music composing machine invented in 1969 by Artificial Intelligence researchers Marvin Minsky and Edward Fredkin at MIT. It was built with the digital logic circuitry of the day; gates, registers, and counters in simple integrated circuits.
While strongly associated with electronic music, The Muse was not a “synthesizer” as it only played a fixed level square wave. Instead, it created original melodies from algorithmic processes, something that hadn’t been seen before. There were no pre-programmed sequences or random sources involved.
MoreI came across this story the other day at Powerline and I thought I’d write about it here at Ricochet. It’s a now all too familiar story, 
that of a dead white person being expunged from our culture for some real or perceived transgression against one of the pillars of today’s identity politics (those pillars being race and sex). And that most recent transgressor is singer Kate Smith (1907-1986), most well known for her version of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America“. And what was Ms. Smith’s sin and the punishment therefor? First, the sin. It turns out that way back in 1931 she recorded the song “That’s Why Darkies Were Born”. It was a minor hit, reaching #12 on the Billboard chart. Here’s the song as performed by Ms. Smith;
With four different causes of redaction in the Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, something must be done to make the Mueller Report audio version both listenable and intelligible. Hereafter are offered some helpful suggestions. The publisher could certainly save money by just playing four distinct tones or having […]
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I first heard “Suzanne” on Judy Collins’ 1972 compilation album, Colors of the Day. In my youth, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was especially captured by the beauty of the voices of some songstresses. I remember getting to Judy Collins’ Fifth Album by way of Bob Dylan, whose songs and, shall we say vocal stylings, I appreciated.
[Fair warning, we have a few great recordings to work through here, any one of which may lead you down a rabbit hole. No, hopefully not that one! So, if you are too busy midweek, bookmark this post for your end-of-week wind-down.]
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I’m not a fan of the Disney Parks. I think they are contrived fantasy (yes, there is legitimate fantasy), overly expensive, and boring. But there are simple moments in life when you have the chance to see into a father-daughter relationship: adoration, pride and beauty, demonstrated in a few sweet moments. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I do.
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In the American government’s secular liturgical calendar, February is African-American History Month, and March is Women’s History Month. The subjects of these two observances converge in a historical event we think we know, but which actually was an unexpected gift to the nation: Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Over the years, the secularist left has not only erased King’s religious identity, they have also blotted out her-story. She was uncompromisingly faithful to her Lord and Savior in her music, so the leftists hated her words then and buried herstory.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
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Yet another song for your Valentine’s Day: Valentine – Ingrid St-Pierre More
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