Ernest Thoreau has left a new comment on your post “On the Road July 2013”:
Here’s a music selection for you if you want it. Marvin Gaye on stage by his lonesome doing Grapevine a capella. It’s haunting. He keeps great rhythm. Uses the silence as much as his voice. And throws down some killer smooth dance steps.
Seems like they aren’t making as many great pure musicians as they used to.
I took off Tuesday in my car (Honda Fit, such a pleasure to drive) heading north along the coast. Overcast day, the colors best then (blue-sky sunny days wash out the color). Visual treat as i headed along the country roads, subtle colors, summer gold of the hills, green patches where there’s a bit of moisture; bales of hay, sheep grazing.
Gotta admit, I like driving (Calif. boy, started at age 14). With Sirius radio. Away from office and phones, mind can wander.
Turned on Outlaw Country for truckdrivin music — bingo! The Meat Purveyors singing “Burr Under My Saddle,” all the reasons she’s (they’re) dumping this guy… next song, “Zip-i-dee-doo-dah,” — “wonderful feeling, wonderful day.” Upbeat. The Coasters doing fabulous version of “Zing Went the
Strings of My Heart.”
Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart by The Coasters on Grooveshark This all put me in my best polyanna mode. Glass half full. Acc-en-chu-ate the positive. Can’t help it, optimism’s part of my m.o.
There must have been 100 boats out along the coast. The salmon are back in a big way. They’re fat and large. Best in a dozen years. Guys catching them out of kayaks. Good news in this bad-news-filled world. The ocean here is healthy.
“Located in Dresden, Germany, the small colorful house is built with some funnels on the wall and they’ll create charming (really?!) musical sound whenever the rain comes. Due to that interesting and unique idea, the wall is also one of the most enjoyable attractions in Dresden’s student district in the new town.”
Click here.
From Anonymous
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y5yHqAMSjag
Ain't That Just Like Me by The Searchers on Grooveshark
Cranked this up to high volume driving along the coast last night, moonlight shining on water. I’m getting interviewed tomorrow by a Russian author, Vladimir Yakovlev, who’s doing a book called The Rules of Happiness. Its about, um, old people who are physically active. An earlier book called The Age of Happiness (in Russian) was a hit. His photographs are superb.
One of the questions they are going to ask me is “What makes you happy?” and I’ve been thinking about it. Well, about 1000 things, but music is sure one of them. The Searchers are from Liverpool. Boy, did those English guys (incl Beatles, Stones) teach us Americans a thing or two about our music!
Dust My Broom by Elmore James on Grooveshark
Way to start a sunny beautiful morning!
Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out by Preservation Hall Jazz Band;Jason Isbell on Grooveshark
It’s been over 90 degrees the past few days. Last night, after leaving the convention center, I had dinner at The Chop Shop, right near the High Line (on 10th Ave/25th St.), excellent sort of Asian fusion food, caught a cab cross-town to the 34th street East River Ferry, a surprisingly fast (and funky) ferry; the skipper was a cowboy, he’d roar into each dock, then reverse the props, and gently bump up to the landing gangplank.
It was cool out on the river, a novel way to get to Brooklyn. I walked through Williamsburg to FADA, a French bistro and listened to 2 sets by the Baby Soda Jazz Band as they went through ’20s-’30s songs like Darktown Strutters Ball, Marie, I’ll See You in My Dreams, and the like. This is a great little band. The entire street wall of the place was open to the street and people walking by would either start dancing, or otherwise move to the music.
In spite of the fact that Williamsburg has been “discovered,” I like it a lot. Great place to wander and explore. I’m told that Bushwick is now what Williamsburg was 10 years ago.
From top: Barefoot & Flying, excellent cajun band in subway; great doo wop group outside Metropolitan museum; an ain’t-it-the-truth book title from Chronicle Books, more turn-of-century subway station tile work
