First of all, for those who aren’t familiar with it, Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) is a Mexican celebration of defeating the French army in 1862 at the Battle of Puebla. It’s pretty much a national holiday in California now, too, and a lot of fun. Would you like to know more?
And without further adios, here are my current obsessions:
On a island somewhere in the Southern Pacific lies the headquarters of the top secret organisation International Rescue. Their mission…to save the world from disaster. Go!
In Brave New World, ‘soma’ is the hypnotic drug everybody takes to, ah, feel better. According to WordNet, soma is the ‘personification of a sacred intoxicating drink used in Vedic ritual’ or the vine used to make the drink. It’s also the name of ‘listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative radio broadcasting from San Francisco’, AKA SomaFM.
One of the cooler features of the new iTunes is adding album artwork. Thanks to Clutter (especially the newest beta), that process is easy. Warning: if you’re at all like me, don’t plan on getting anything else done for the rest of the afternoon. And by the same token, if you’re anything like me, stay the fsck away from the Music Store. :)
While my previous obsession with The Royal Tenenbaums movie has abated somewhat, the soundtrack is still going strong. What do you do if you’ve almost (but not quite) over-listened to the album? You find the lyrics and obsess on them.
Speaking of music, I’ve been amassing some more American Roots music. Like Ralph Stanley, probably most famous for his haunting ‘O Death’ on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. His voice will rip you apart. It’s a very old song you might have heard covered by Camper Van Beethoven on Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart. Also on the Americana front: Bill Monroe, king of bluegrass, and Leadbelly, king of everything.
Nirvana fans will remember the band’s MTV Unplugged album, and perhaps especially the final track, listed as ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night?’ The song is actually an old traditional titled ‘In The Pines’, the sadness and creepiness of which you can feel even just reading the lyrics. (Here is a ‘standard’ version of them.) Leadbelly’s take on it added a new dimension of referring to the girl in the song as ‘Black Girl’, while Bill Monroe’s bluegrass ballad was less haunting yet still sad. And of course Nirvana’s version was loaded with subtext. You can hear Leadbelly’s on Where Did You Sleep Last Night: The Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 1 (1996), Smithsonian Folkways and Bill Monroe’s on either of the 20th Century Masters - Millennium Collection: Best of Bluegrass or Best of Bill Monroe CDs.
Next on the Obsessions hit parade is getting ready for my upcoming reclamation of fitness after quitting smoking and last year’s bout with hyperthyroidism. (Make a note to yourself: never, ever, ever get hyperthyroidism.) A big part of that has already been bouncing around town on my Specialized cycle, with which I am obsessed. It’s a two-year-old Hardrock, a combo bike, which means it does pretty well both on road and off. More on fitness another time.
Lastly, when I need to chill out, nothing works better than some combination of these three: the Drone station on SomaFM; some white-noise environmental tracks (forest, waterfall, ocean surf, traffic, etc.); and the Conet Project, quite possibly the coolest thing the CIA, MI6, and KGB ever did. Or didn’t do. We may never know. :)
(This must be what happens when your brain starts to get oxygen. ;)
