CARDRUNNERS

Music. Let's talk about music. Certain songs remind me of certain people/events. No matter how many times I hear a particular song...it always brings me back to thinking about a special person or event. Some make me smile...some damn near bring me to tears. Tonight I was on youtube and watched the videos of just about every song that brings back memories. I figured I'd share them with you... Whats My Age Again?- Blink 182. This song reminds me of high school. My friends and myself weren't exactly mature lol. To be honest this song still reminds me of my current state.

I Swear- All 4 one. Reminds me of sixth grade dances. This was THE song to dance to. Sadly I never asked/got asked to dance to it. =(

Centerfield- John Fogerty. Everytime I hear this song I instantly think of playing youth baseball. They always played it between innings during all star games. Still one of my favorite songs currently.

Black Betty - Ram Jam. High school hockey warmup song freshman year...this song could always get me pumped up to play.

It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday - Boyz II Men. Reminds me of special people in my life who have passed away. Probably the saddest song that I know.

Today was very busy and it felt like I was racing the entire day. Usually before I crash I like to unwind a bit. Jeff218, CR's new Member Outreach Coordinator, had posted a link to some random humorous YouTube video. So once on the site, I decided to search a bit for some music. A poker friend had recently sent me a song or two from a group called Metric that I immediately enjoyed so I looked them up. I didn't realize I had even heard of them before. I've just been watching a few of their videos and realized how catchy they are. The formula is pretty simple, get a pretty woman with a nice voice in front of a decent band that can put together some good riffs and voila (the voila is thrown in because they seem to be french canadian or use french in some songs).

I thought I would share a few songs. The first is one I saw several months ago on Subterrenean "Monster Hospital".

The second is a very relaxing groovy song, Grow Up and Blow Away.

The third is called The Twist.

The last must be an older song from the sound of it called "Combat Baby" It's all very catchy and did the trick to relax me.

Continuing my Friday night music theme...

A few years ago, on my drives home from the gallery, I used to hear these new songs on the local alternative station, 94.7 KNRK in Portland, called mash ups. Mixing music has been around for quite a while, obviously. In fact today, you can hardly hear a hip hop or rap song that doesn't borrow heavily from some other well known song. But, in these cases they were taking two, three or four well known songs and 'mashing' them up. They brought together very disparate styles of music to blend them together making some very interesting combinations. Most of them were local DJ's creatively mixing on their own. I always wondered how they were allowed to do this with the strict music rights laws out there. I thought I would share a few interesting ones.

One of the early mash ups that made got a lot of run, was "Boulevard of Broken Songs".

In this version it took Green Day's popular song and mixed in Oasis, Travis and even Eminem.

"Stayin Alive in Da Club" 50 Cent vs. Bee Gees

"Digital love love baby" Daft Punk vs. Vanilla Ice

"Crushingly Close" Nine Inch Nails vs. Garbage

"Sweet Home Country Grammar" Nelly vs. Lynyrd Skynyrd

The last of tonights selection, "A Stroke of Genie-us" The Strokes vs. Christina Aquilera

If you are at all homophobic, please don't read any further. I'm not asking you to understand or sympathize with something you don't believe in. While I am a heterosexual with every desire and impulse in my life, I respect and support the rights and achievements of homosexuals.

Growing up with my mother, after my parents divorced, there was always an understanding environment for all persuasions. While I didn't object to the idea in any way, I had never known or closely befriended a gay person until my senior of college. My friend Eric was and still is the brightest person I've ever had the privilege of knowing. He has a PHD and teaches and writes books about intellectual history. He ran the alternative newspaper on campus. My senior year he encouraged me to join and become active when I showed some little flashes of progressive writing skills. Through our friendship, I was able to ask, in a comfortable environment, all the questions I ever had without fear or condemnation. It was a year of tremendous learning and growth. He remains a friend to this day.

Another pivotal gay friend was Mrs. Zimba's friend who invited her to Oregon after raving about it for months. If not for his passionate persistence, she might never have visited Portland and we moved out 15 years ago. He was always a very intense person with many talents. He has been in a long time commited relationship with a director who directs a theater company.

Fridays nights have become my music themed entries. Tonight, I'm going to select several songs as a tribute to these talented musicians. They may be too emo for you, so be forewarned. The first artist is Canadian songwriter Rufus Wainright. He was introduced to me by one of my gallery employees. He is considered one of our generations great songwriters. He has a very distinctive singing style with witty, often funny lyrics. I'm told he puts on a great live show.

The first song is "Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk"

The second song is "Going to a town" (about the sad state of affairs of the US under Bush)

The last song is from the cult movie 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch". It is a very strange but compelling movie about gender identity with good music amidst it's bizarre but creative elements. The scene is so funny and touching in so many ways. The song is a ballad called "Wicked Little Town'.

I was looking on YouTube for a couple new videos of songs I'm listening to currently, but I couldn't find them and then was reminded by one video of a group that I loved back in high school - Tears for Fears. Their first album, The Hurting, was a classic concept album filled with emotional distress and primal therapy, just what an angst filled teen needs, right? I saw them play live at the Tower in Philly, a run down theater that only had the edgiest bands.

The first song is Pale Shelter.

The second song is Head Over Heels.

The third song is Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

The last song was remade a number of times by other artists - Mad World.

This is one of the more popular and poignant remakes by Gary Jules.

It's Friday and time for another music themed entry and flashback.

When I was a young man in high school and college, there was one soulful voice that spoke to me like no other when it came to love - Luther Vandross.  He had one of the greatest voices of his generation and sang of love like no one else.  As I dreamed of falling in love some day, his songs evoked that seemingly far off potential of finding that one special person.  I knew little of romantic love, but had all these feelings inside of me that he captured in so many of his songs.  He died too young, but as Patti Labelle said at his funeral, he brought so much happiness and joy into the world that he won't soon be forgotten.

The first song was performed live in 1988, A House is Not a Home.

The second song is another live performance of his song Superstar.

Luther had so many great songs (If only for one night, So amazing, Love won't let me wait, Here and Now, Wait for love, Give me the reason) that I could select, but I'll add one early upbeat song to the more melancholy other selections, Your The Sweetest One

I've missed a couple Fridays with my music entries, so back on topic. 

If you are having a good time, who in their right mind wants it to end?  That is my feelings about music.  When I am enjoying a song, no matter what style of music it is, I want it to continue.  I've never liked the artificial constraints of 3-4 minutes that most mainstream songs conform to nowadays.  That shortened length prevents the artist from exploring the full potential of their songs.

That was on aspect of classical music that I appreciated when I was a youngster.  They took a theme and tried to fully explore and develop it through different movements.  Space music, the likes of Tangerine Dream or Jean Michel Jarre, often tried to do the same with ethereal no vocals music.  This element is also one reason I enjoy a lot of trance, electronica and dance music because when they find a good groove they look to extend the song so it realizes it's potential.  I like these longer compositions because they take me on a musical journey.  This is the type of music I prefer when playing poker, too.  They can provide a relaxing or sometimes energizing environment, that's not distracting to my focus of making good decisions at the tables. 

The first song is very mellow.  I stumbled across it this week. Spiralling by Takla Makan

The second song is a Tangerine Dream tune - Love On A Real Train (from Risky Business) 

The third song is a remixed version of Rapture by iiO.

About 10 years ago I started playing guitar, and started to listen to a bunch of up and coming musicians. My friends and I would get our hands on as many of their samples and little recordings that we could find on Napster and floating around via bootlegs. These guys were from our perspective really talented, for different reasons, and at the time were playing for crowds of maybe 100 people. Now all of them have seen some commercial success, yet a lot of the time their true talent is masked by their "pop"-y radio friendly songs.

The first guy is John Mayer (which I hate to admit). He's a complete d-bag, but the guy is actually a phenomenal guitarist. This is a pretty good example of what he used to pride himself on...sitting on stage with an acoustic guitar and jamming. I just wish he would stop singing.

The second guy is Howie Day. This guy has seen less commercial success, but he's a great solo talent. Many people dismiss him as just another guy with a guitar, but his solo performances and use of pedals are really one of a kind. Here's a great video of him performing "Ghost"

The third guy is Marc Broussard. I think my sophomore or junior year of college I stumbled across a 30 second clip of him playing in a little coffee shop. I couldn't find his name anywhere, until one night 2 years ago I was watching Conan, he played a song called "Home." I immediately bought his CD and found the song that he played in the coffee shop by total coincidence. Unfortunately I can't find the conan performance of the song, so here's the music video for "home"