The Midnight Diaries of Catty Wampus

midnight diaries radio: thanksgiving day parade

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Friday, November 21st, 2008

Thanksgiving is coming up here in less than a week in the United States, and that makes it the perfect time to revisit a little Dan Bern.

I’ve written about Dan Bern a few times in the past, but I wanted to bring him back now specifically because of his song Thanksgiving Day Parade. This is an epic song (close to eleven minutes!) with over a dozen versus and no choruses, and yet it all works as a journey from beginning to end.

The lyrics don’t tell a story, in the traditional sense, that carries through from verse to verse. Rather, there’s a feeling of coherence. Bern paints a picture, using colors from all over his palette to sing about friends and community and charity and joy and sex and youth and age and love and existence. It all builds towards the penultimate verse, which stretches itself out, gathering us all up together as the instrumentation gradually washes over us and carries us away in its flow.

I have hardly ever listened to this song when it didn’t bring me to chills and smiles by the very end. Enjoy!

duration - 10:46

And then we all held hands,
And no one was afraid.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Posted in Eric's Stories, midnight diaries radio | No Comments »

midnight diaries radio: josie and the pussycats

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Friday, October 3rd, 2008

Last week I watched Josie and the Pussycats. That’s right, somehow I missed seeing it in the theatres when it came out in 2001.

Actually, I had no real interest in the movie at the time. It looked like another dip into the nostalgia barrel to make another movie from a television show like The Brady Bunch Movie or Bewitched. Actually, this was even a little bit lower than those because Josie and the Pussycats had been a cartoon and the movie was going to be live action; and we all remember how successful The Flintstones movie was.

But my interest was rekindled a few years later when I learned that the singing voice of Josie in the film was actually Kay Hanley, the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, Letters to Cleo. I love her voice, and I knew that if she was connected with the music it couldn’t be all bad, right?

Then I heard that some of the songs were co-written by Adam Duritz, lead singer of another of my favorite bands, Counting Crows. Adam’s lyrics always make me pay attention, and I knew that if he was connected with the music it couldn’t be all bad, right?

I went out in search of the soundtrack. What I had expected was typical, forgettable pop music specifically tailored towards a teenage moviegoing public. It turns out I was half-right: the production of the songs on the album are definitely geared towards the under-20s. But I was wrong about the “forgettable” part.

The Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack is a great example of well-crafted teenybopper music that goes deeper musically and lyrically than you’d normally hear in, say, a song by Avril Levine or The Jonas Brothers.

The movie itself is, sadly, a little forgettable. It’s not a bad movie, but I can think of dozens of titles I’d recommend before this one.

So instead of critiquing the movie, I thought I would share one of my favorite songs from the soundtrack album. And if that inspires you to go grab a copy from the iTunes store, I won’t tell anyone that we’re both in the Josie and the Pussycats fanclub. Deal? Deal.

And now, with lyrics by Adam Duritz and Kay Hanley on vocals, this is Spin Around. Enjoy!

duration - 0:31

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the road trip of catty wampus (abridged)

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Friday, September 5th, 2008

Howdy folks!

You may have noticed that the past few Fridays have been quiet here at the Midnight Diaries. That’s largely because I’ve just returned from a five-week road trip around the country. Some of you have been following my exploits over at The Road Trip of Catty Wampus. For those who haven’t–and who could blame you, really, it’s a lot of reading!–I thought I’d recap some of my favorite moments here as a way of putting a cap on the entire adventure.

I took a microphone along with me on my travels, intending to interview many people along the way. I’ll also be including some of my favorite interview clips here. I hope you find it all entertaining, and perhaps it will even inspire you when you’re thinking about your next travel destination.

So, without further delay, I bring you The Highlights of the Road Trip of Catty Wampus (of Portland, OR).

DAY 1
Tuesday, July 15 2008
Portland, OR to Garberville, CA

Just south of Gold Beach, Oregon I met Eric. Eric was hitchhiking down the US101, and I decided that it would be nice to have some company along the way for a bit. He was a scrawny young man of 26, with dark red hair and a backpack full off whatever items he had found along his travels–a flag for a high school football team, a plastic yellow flute, etc.

Eric is a recovering drug addict, and working very hard at separating himself from the people he has been surrounded by; the people who are drug addicts as well, and make it very difficult to leave that lifestyle behind. I really applaud his determinism to get rid of his addiction and start on a new and productive way of life. He certainly seems smart and driven enough to find his way once he decides what he’d like to do with himself. He’s taking his time this summer, hitchhiking and biking and riding up and down the coast to find what his passions are.

Although it is something he is trying to leave behind, Eric has no trouble talking about his past drug use. With mystical hand gestures and eyes bugging out, staring off into infinity, he told me the story of an acid trip he and a friend took last year up on a hill in the Haight area of San Francisco. I’ve never been on an acid trip and it was fascinating to hear Eric tell his story. He has a calmness and a cadence to his speech that completely pulls me into his world. The full story is 20 minutes long, and I plan to edit it into a more cohesive piece later on. For now, enjoy this little snippet, which is one of my favorite parts of his trip:

duration - 2:10

I dropped Eric off in Eureka, California, where he told me he knew of a good spot he used to sleep when he lived in the area. I thanked him for the interview, he thanked me for the ride, and I went off in search of my own place to fall asleep before the next day’s drive.

DAY 6
Sunday, July 20 2008
Los Angeles, CA

Sunday, July 20 2008
Los Angeles, CA

If I had a nickel for everyone who said to me “While you’re in LA, you have to interview people on Venice Beach! There’s some real characters there!”… I’d have, like, at least three or four nickels. So on Sunday morning I headed down to Venice Beach. Down at the far end of the boardwalk, I met a tribe of post-hippies hanging out on blankets under an umbrella in a parking lot. The space belonged to a a lanky and grizzled man named Dreamcatcher. He had dirty blond hair (maybe dirty dirty blond?) hanging down in dreadlocks against his weather-worn face, and a half mustache/goatee thing (you know, the kind that doesn’t really connect at the sides? it’s like the mustache doesn’t talk to the goatee, and the goatee doesn’t talk to the mustache? they each just do their own thing). Dreamcatcher shared the space with Rebecca, who he referred to as “my first black lover.”

The moment I sat down with Dreamcatcher, I was caught in a bit of an awkward situation. We were approached by a large Mexican man, pointing and threatening “You stay away from me, Dreamcatcher! Don’t cross me, Dreamcatcher. It will be your downfall.” Dreamcatcher looked pretty confused about this, and after a few times insisting that he didn’t know what the man was so upset about, the Mexican said “You put too many fuckin’ people in jail, bro!” Apparently, the man believed that Dreamcatcher had been ratting out many of the Venice Beach regulars to the police. After the Mexican man left, Dreamcatcher was indignant:

duration - 0:36

I didn’t quite understand the bit about how Dreamcatcher smokes marijuana but doesn’t smoke pot. If any tokers out there care to enlighten me, I’m all ears. (do they still say ‘toker’ these days?)

We were soon joined by Jules (”Jules of the Nile,” she explained), a mousey woman with salt and pepper hair cut into a bob, sunken eyes and sunken cheeks. I was intrigued by her story because the common perception is that homelessness is something that happens to you, either because you have made poor decisions, or bad luck has looked down unfavorably on you. Jules found this lifestyle in another way:

duration - 1:00

The most interesting thing in all of this, aside from her gigantic decision to give up her entire former life, is how she says “I used to be a real person.” I’m not going to analyze that too much for you–but just let it sink in under that context.

I asked Jules what it was about Venice Beach that spoke to her the first time she saw it. This is what she said, along with a little history of the area:

duration - 1:45

A few minutes later I was introduced to the concept of Spiritual Tourette’s Syndrome, or STS. It’s an idea Rebecca had with a friend in Boston years ago. Jules and Dreamcatcher helped to explain. (note “the beeping” that Rebecca mentions refers to a car horn that honked a moment earlier)

duration - 0:51

Dreamcatcher often speaks in riddles and puns. This was his reaction to something as mundane as me talking about the weather, when I said I liked the atmosphere:

duration - 0:27

All in all, I really felt a lot of my own preconceptions and inhibitions being challenged while I sat with these folks. As straight-edge as I am, I bolted from the room the last time someone offered me a hit off of a marijuana pipe. So it was a big deal for me to even be able to hang in there while Dreamcatcher and Jules rolled and smoked a joint. Dreamcatcher even offered me a hit, and I didn’t feel any of the kind of judgement that I would have expected coming from him when I refused. I know I’m a square, and it was nice to have the feeling among these folks that it was okay.

A lot of this is all wrapped up in my own insecurities about who I am, and who I would like to be. I think about these things a lot, and when I come face to face with such a different way of living than I’m used to it can really send me off into a heap of questioning myself.

On the walk back to Erik and Lauren’s, I saw one of Venice Beach’s vendors with a sign that read:

If you worry, you die.
If you don’t worry, you die.
So why worry?

It seemed to speak directly to what had been filling my mind at that moment. Maybe there’s something to this Spiritual Tourettes after all.

DAY 11
Friday, July 25 2008
Denver, CO to Wichita, KS

While I was driving through Kansas, the sky turned completely gloomy and I saw a gigantic bolt of lightning reach from the sky to the ground out on the horizon! It was probably the brightest and thickest lightning I’d ever seen. It was one of those things that makes you say “If that was in a movie, I’d say it was a poorly done special effect and not very realistic.” Just goes to show you what we’ve come to expect from our world based on movies and television, and how it can still surprise us so very easily.

I grabbed my video camera and hoped there might be some more demonstrations of this amazing phenomenon. Here’s a little of what I caught in a four-minute period: (don’t worry, I’ve edited it so you don’t have to sit through the non-lightning parts)

Believe it or not, these were the babies that came before the real storm began, reaching down in fingers of lightning for the next forty-five minutes! I would have caught it all on the video, except that I’m pretty sure I would have crashed the car if I’d tried to hold the camera in one hand and steer with the other too much longer.

DAY 16
Wednesday, July 30 2008
Dallas, TX to Austin, TX

In the late afternoon I arrived at my friend Rick’s house in Austin. I got to speak to Rick’s 4 year old son Adam. Adam was told me about some of the geography he had learned about in school, but I think he was a little confused:

duration - 1:29

I love how quickly Rick and I were able to turn him around. Very suggestible, that one.

Rick told me that he and Adam play fight sometimes:

duration - 0:44

In case you didn’t quite catch who Adam likes to be when he’s fighting his dad, here’s a little clue:

duration - 0:15

Yup, that’s right. But even though Adam loves Spiderman, don’t pigeonhole him. He likes lots of things. Take a listen to this meandering ramble of a list:

duration - 1:39

Gosh, I love talking to kids. Is there anything more entertaining that that?

Note: gigantic post today–hang in there!

DAY 18
Friday, August 1 2008
Baton Rouge, LA

I stopped into a grocery store to get a little snack, but by the time I was ready to go the weather had changed from sunny to absolutely pouring. I’m talking about rain that comes down in sheets–sheets, blankets, pillowcases, and duvets! I have rarely seen rain like this. I believe it must have been the beginning part of the storm and hurricane that hit the area after I left, but at the time it just seemed like “Holy Cow, this is a lot of rain!” Many people were standing in the entrance to the grocery store, too timid to even run to their cars for fear of getting drenched. I stepped outside under an awning, and figured this would be as good a time as any to try to talk to people. I saw an older gentleman with big, muscular arms (one of them in a cast and sling), and asked if he would be interested in speaking. I’m so glad he was–I am super happy to have captured an extra-rich Louisiana accent.

While we were standing under the awning, Phil started to tell me a little bit about his background hanging out with hippies in the late ’60s, as well as a little bit about his brother. You may want to turn down your audio around the one minute mark of this audio clip: there are two loud thundercracks that nearly made my heart drop into my shoes. I could adjust the volume here on my end, but I feel like it’s really important to give you a taste of the untreated audio, so you can experience a little bit of this surprising thunder yourself. Just like that Kansas lightning, this was a kind of thunder I have never heard before:

P.S. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

duration - 1:26

Seriously, that second thunderclap literally knocked me off-balance, and I had to catch myself. So, um…. yeah. We stepped inside. Normally it’s mundane to simply talk about the weather, but I was in absolute awe. I asked Phil if this kind of weather was normal:

P.S. You can return your speakers and headphones to normal volume now.

duration - 0:43

Again, I love that accent! I also got a little bit of local jargon thrown in there, too. Here’s a little more weather talk:

duration - 0:55

I wanted to get back to Phil’s history from when he was hanging out with the hippies. I’m intrigued by the idea of what I think hippies were like based on what I’ve seen in tv shows and movies made decades later, and what it was actually like to be there. So I figured Phil would be an ideal person to ask:

duration - 0:44

Ahh, that accent! I love it! I love how I couldn’t even tell he was saying “drinking parties” until he repeated it two or three times! I also like how he doesn’t know if he would have been classified as a hippie or not, because it just goes to show the blurriness of a culture. According to Phil, a lot of what distinguished hippies from non-hippies was whether or not you had a job. You couldn’t be a hippie and have a job because the hippie lifestyle had a very loose attachment to time and responsibility; and you couldn’t have a job and be a hippie because having a job required you to fit into a specific mold and reliably perform your duties. Phil floated in and out of the hippie and job cultures, but it sounded to me like he had a higher percentage of his footing in keeping down a job and earning money for himself than in drinking and partying.

At one point, Phil and I were talking about food. He doesn’t really fancy himself as much of a cook, but he enjoys cooking for himself and his wife. He was telling me about the different dishes he makes, but I had to stop him when he mentioned something I’d never heard of before. This is Phil explaining to be what a roux is:

duration - 0:47

The topic turned from food to politics, and from politics to religion. Now, politics and religion are two things I have avoided speaking to people about because I pretty much assumed that my beliefs wouldn’t be the same as the people I’d meet–especially in the south. And you know what? I was right. But I also assumed that those differences, if they were out in the open, would lead to argument and bitterness. And that’s where I was completely wrong. I guess I’m just so used to being surrounded by people who, for the most part, believe the same things I do, and it’s so easy for us to caricature everyone else into a picture small-minded bigotry. Phil and I disagreed on a number of issues, but we simply included those issues into our conversations without either of us trying to convince the other to see things our way. Very different from what I would have expected, and I feel sheepish to even admit that that is what I would have expected.

Here is Phil talking about his Presbyterian beliefs, and explaining how they differ from Catholic beliefs:

duration - 1:38

Near the end of our conversation, Phil told me how the Lord saved him in 1975. I’ll let Phil take it out from here and finish this section of the interviews with his transformation:

duration - 2:05

DAY 30
Wednesday, August 13 2008
Indianapolis, IN

Today I went to the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. It is known as one of the most exciting Children’s Museums in the country, with wonderful hands-on exhibits and plenty of fun ways to learn about trains, Egyptian mummies, space, and dinosaurs.

Upstairs at the museum is an area called Story Avenue, a collection of life-size scenes (a bank, a barber shop, a dining room, the back of a car, etc.), where you can hear recorded stories from the experiences of Indianapolis’s African American community. This is where I met Portia Scholar Jackson, who helped create the Story Avenue exhibit. Portia is a professional storyteller, as well as a teacher of storytelling to all ages. I’ve recently become fascinated with the idea of storytelling technique (and I regularly listen to stories from The Moth), and I was fortunate enough to hear some of Portia’s stories of her Aunt Janice–you can tell that although these stories have a strong foundation in memory and fact, they have been crafted to enhance their ability to keep the listener entertained. The story begins when Portia’s supervisor at the museum asked a series of questions, designed to figure out what the Story Avenue exhibit should include:

duration - 2:53

See what I mean? I mean, clearly Portia is already starting off as a memorable personality and just hearing her tell a story would almost certainly be engaging in and of itself. But when she adds on top of that her craft and skill, well, I could have sat there listening to her all day.

DAY 32
Friday, August 15 2008
St. Louis, MO

I had a long walk and quite an adventure through St. Louis. My first big stop was the St. Louis Arch. Here are some photos I took of the monument:

And here’s one of the Arch’s reflection in one of St. Louis’s other buildings:

I happen to think those are some pretty cool pictures. But before I pat myself on the back too much, I have to say that one of the genius parts of the Arch’s design is that it is nearly impossible to take a bad photograph of it! Pretty impressive.

Now, I’m afraid of heights. But it seemed like it would be a shame to be so close to the Arch and not go up to the top. So I entered the underground ramp (after more security than I’ve even ever been through at an airport, by the way!), and found my way to the tram lines that run up either side of the arch. I shared an elevator with a family of four who were making a pilgrimage from Florida to Minnesota. And when I say “elevator,” I really mean something that’s a lot more like a space-pod, with room enough for five people to sit and stare at each other as the space-pod is brought up the Arch’s slope to the top. (a bank of eight pods run up and down on either side of the Arch)

At the top of the Arch are some thin, rectangular windows to peer out of. But even though the view from many of the windows was pretty cool, the most memorable thing I saw at the top of the Arch was an Amish family who was taking the tour as well! I was flabbergasted. I mean, I don’t know much about the Amish, but it seemed completely counter-intuitive to find them at the top of the St. Louis Arch. I decided that as much as I would have regretted not going to the top of the Arch, I would regret ten times as much if I didn’t try to get an interview with at least one of the family members once we were back on the ground. Thankfully, I was able to talk to Samuel Borntrager. Samuel told me that it’s not so uncommon for the Amish to make it outside of their community:

duration - 0:31

Do you hear the way he says “Souzwest Missouri”? I don’t think that this is a speech impediment, I believe it is the way that the community pronounces their ‘th’ sounds. Unfortunately I didn’t get to speak to anyone else in order to confirm this, but I am pretty certain that many Amish have different speech patterns than Standard English.

I asked Samuel about the differences between how people like me are taught to think of the Amish, and what the Amish are actually like. For example, how it’s jarring to see them out in the city. I am certain that I was absolutely insulting in the way I presented my question, but Samuel was kind and patient in explaining:

duration - 0:48

This got us onto the topic of religion which, if you’ve been following this blog, you’ll notice has been a pretty common theme among many people I’ve spoken to. But I will not go much into Samuel’s and my discussion because, frankly, it was a little heartbreaking for me to reveal to him that I don’t believe in Jesus. I could see such compassion and pity and concern for me, and by extension for America (and he said as much), it’s a little difficult to reflect on still.

So I’ll give one more clip from the man, if only to demonstrate what I think is another fascinating linguistic artifact. This is from when he and I were discussing certain theosophical doubts:

duration - 0:29

This is something I’d read about in other dialects of English, but I’ve never heard first hand. “It’s always been a world.” “It’s always been a blue sky.” He’s using the pronoun it’s where the Standard English uses there’s. When you think about it, there really isn’t any real meaning specific to there that requires us to use it in constructions like this. I love thinking about how language develops in different places to find that one word instead of another has made its way as the pronoun in these kinds of phrases. Forgive me for getting all language-geeky on you.

My final stop in St. Louis was the City Museum. I had been told by some friends that I absolutely needed to check it out, but they didn’t really tell me what to expect. I suppose I thought it would be a museum about St. Louis with some great exhibits, kind of like the ones at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. And I was dead wrong. In fact, “museum” doesn’t really seem to be the right word at all.

The City Museum used to be a shoe factory (in fact they take pride in the fact that Tennessee Williams worked in the factory, and even paid homage to the factory in The Glass Menagerie), but has long since been closed down. So the gigantic building was left abandoned until an urban revitilization project came along and decided to turn it into what I can only refer to as nothing less than the best treehouse ever!!!

Re-using all kinds of industrial beams, scaffolding, scrap, and other metal, the City Museum provides kids (and some adults, if you’re small and nimble enough) with twisty-windy ways to crawl through, slide through, run through, explore, and discover. And kids love it! This is just a small sample of the things I heard kids shouting throughout the museum:

“Follow me!”
“Where are you”
“Where does that lead?”
“We’re lost. Have you seen the Dragon’s head?”

I think it’s nearly impossible to get an idea for what the City Museum is like–how vast it is, how much fun it is–unless you actually see it. Nonetheless, I’ve tried to capture some video of a small fraction of the City Museum’s wonders. Tell me, if you were still 7 years old, wouldn’t this be the coolest place to be?

Those are the parts of my trip that I’ve been sharing with all of my friends. Again, you’re welcome to delve into more of my travels at The Road Trip of Catty Wampus.

And I wouldn’t be surprised to find that there were some new interview clips popping up here at the ol’ Midnight Diaries from time to time, now that I’ve got a feel for pointing the mic at someone and trying to get good stories from them. Stay tuned, folks, I’m not going anywhere!

Posted in Eric's Stories, Pictures, midnight diaries radio, people | No Comments »

junk in the trunk

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Friday, June 13th, 2008

(note: if you simply want to hear the audio in this post, scroll down to the end–but I hope that what I’ve written will give it some context, and be interesting enough to read through)

Learning a new skill can be exhilarating. It can be fun, and frightening, and inspiring. It can also be incredibly frustrating.

After listening to so many episodes of This American Life and Radio Lab and any number of the wonderful documentaries at Transom.org, I decided that I would try my hand at producing an audio piece of my own. As luck would have it, my friend Renee had a story that seemed like it would provide a great opportunity for a first attempt: she had made a mix tape for a friend, and the inspiration for the mix was funny and quirky and I knew it would be a lot of fun to talk about!

Renee and I sat down earlier this year to record the initial interview that would give me a foundation to build the documentary on top of. Renee is always great to talk to, and I truly enjoyed interviewing her for an hour and a half about the mix tape, the songs she included, and even some personal stories she associated with particular songs. I felt like I was off to a great start.

It turns out that the interview was the easiest part of the process. When I tried to edit the audio together into a cohesive story, I discovered it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

This is generally the case when you’re trying anything new. Many of the people who read this blog are animators. They can testify that their first attempts at animation were difficult, and may have even ended in abandonment. But they learned from those first attempts, and brought that knowledge to their second attempt. The second attempt may have been a bit better, but chances are that it was another opportunity to learn how to approach their third attempt.

And this is where I am with my first attempt at putting together an audio piece. I have reached a point where there are several sections I am proud of, and some I am less than happy with. Overall, I have learned a great deal from this experience. The piece is unfinished, but I will take my experience and knowledge and carry it over into my second project, whatever that might be.

The lack of posts at this blog has been due to my decision that I would not write another word for this blog until I was ready to post either the finished audio, or at least something that would give me closure on it. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to ask for 6 and a half minutes of your time to listen to four sections of the unfinished audio documentary, Junk In The Trunk

Enjoy!

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

I would appreciate any feedback you have; whether you enjoyed it or not (and why), whether the story was easy to follow (and if not, where and why), the production quality, the editing choices, anything at all. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and I will take them with me to guide me on my next project as well.

Finally, and most importantly, I want to express special gratitude to my very good friend Renee Marcotte, who has always been a source of smiles and laughter for me. Renee is the curator of the Gassy Knoll Gallery here in Portland, along with her boyfriend Robert Lewis, who has been one of my best friends for years and I hope will continue to be for years to come. Thanks so much to both of you!

Posted in Eric's Stories, Podcast, midnight diaries radio, music, people | 7 Comments »

midnight diaries radio 2

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Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

This is a monthly segment I’m calling Midnight Diaries Radio. It started last month as The Interlude, but I think the idea is much more like a little spot of my own personal radio. I’ll choose a small sample of music to share with you, and all you have to do is tune in and enjoy

I have to start off this month’s radio broadcast with an apology to my friend Renee. Renee, I told you I’d try to have your thing up this month–give me one more month, okay? I want to make sure it’s really good.

But I’ll give a nod to Renee anyway. See, a few months ago Renee helped me paint a room in my apartment and we spent a lot of the morning listening to The Adam Carolla show. I see eye-to-eye with Adam on a few subjects (less than eye-to-eye on a few others), and one of the issues I think that Adam and I are in perfect sync about is horn bands. They rock. There’s nothing that will get you going quite like a good horn section, and there’s no horn section quite like Blood, Sweat, & Tears.

Folks: Blood, Sweat, & Tears are a band from the 1970’s. They were a little bit before my time, but I heard them through the countless hours my father had them playing on cassette tape, CDs, and some funny old black discs called records. You may know BST from their bigger hits like “Spinning Wheel” (or as some refer to it “What goes up must come down”), or “And When I Die.” If you like those at all, dig deeper into their music catalog. You will not be disappointed.

This is one of my favorites, “John The Baptist (Holy John).” The song is from their fourth album, and it was never released as a single. That makes it all the more precious, I think, because it hasn’t been played out on the radio over the past three decades.

Even the intro to the song lets you know you’re in for something–listen to the horns swell with each chord hammered out on the piano. Then the drums kick in… the bass, then the guitar… Then finally David Clayton-Thomas with his unmistakable voice. MMMMmmmmMMMM! Give it a listen, friends:

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Yeah! Can you feel that deep down in your soul? Check out those horns again in the second verse, just after “I saw him down there in a long, white gown.” Hear those trumpets blaring the news of John’s baptism scene? How can you not feel good listening to that!

But I’d like to take it a step down now… mellow out a bit, you know? I bring you a classic song from 1972. This is The Looking Glass performing “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl).” This has a similar brass build-up as “John the Baptist,” but the real star of this song is the story. I’m a sucker for an unrequited love story. I think this started with all of the old folk songs I mentioned in Folkie. In fact, “Brandy” fits in very well with that sensibility of old-times: there’s no mention of modernity, it’s just ships and sailors, barmaids, and the sea.

If you don’t know the song already, I’ll let you listen to it so I don’t ruin the story.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Aww… isn’t that sad? It was true love for Brandy and her man, but they could never be together forever. He always returned to the sea.

I’m thankful that the “Brandy” story seems to have taken place so long ago. Setting it as a kind of fairy tale, I can swallow the romance of it all much more easily than I could if it were set in a time of airplanes and telephones. I wonder what it is about the past that allows it to be romanticized in that way.

Speaking of romance, I want to leave you with one final selection in our horn music segment this month. This is a story about a young man who has fallen in love with a prostitute. He begs and pleads with her to give up her unseemly ways, to give in to his love for her. But she knows that this boy is merely experiencing a crush, and he cannot provide for her in real life. So she continues selling her body, as this young man’s heart is torn in two. It’s so sad, and the brass in this song really stirs my soul–I urge you to listen to the song with headphones with your eyes closed just to take it all in.

Oh, also: it’s an instrumental. I’ll explain where I got the story from after the music. Get ready for it:

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Tearfully beautiful, isn’t it?

You may have even recognized a few familiar strains in there, though some of them are almost entirely removed from their original source. I won’t blame you if you couldn’t quite place it. Maybe the story gave you another clue as to the original piece. What if I told you that that prostitute’s name is…. Roxanne.

This song is from an album called “Straight to My Heart: The Music of Sting” performed by the Bob Belden Ensemble. If you are a fan of Sting or The Police, I highly recommend this album. Bob Belden has arranged some incredible jazz versions of Sting’s music–sometimes including vocals, and other times leaving the music to speak for itself. It is one of my favorite albums to listen to from beginning to end.

And with that, I bid you a good evening and I look forward to seeing you on the first Wednesday of next month for the latest installment of Midnight Diaries Radio.

See you then!

Posted in midnight diaries radio, music | No Comments »

midnight diaries radio: opera

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Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

It’s time for a new tradition here at Catty Wampus.

Welcome to the first Midnight Diaries Radio. This is an opportunity for me to share me to share some music with you; maybe it’s some music I’ve been listening to lately, or music along a topic that’s occurred to me, or just a song or two I feel like expressing my opinions about. I’ll even take requests if there are any suggestions.

I’m really looking forward to Midnight Diaries Radio becoming a regular addition to the ol’ blog, and maybe it will even introduce you (and me!) to music that would otherwise pass us by.

So! I thought I’d start with some opera.

Now, before you groan and roll your eyes, rest assured that most of the opera I know comes from Bugs Bunny. I’m guessing that it’s the same for most of you, too. You know picture Elmer chasing his wabbit, singing cwazy words to grand and ostentatious tunes written over a century ago. But behind all of that there’s some pretty cool stuff, too.

This first piece is from a Rosinni opera called “The Barber of Seville.” The aria Largo Al Factotum might now strike you by name, but I guarantee you’ll recognize it as soon as our main character, Figaro, hits his first stride of “la la la la la la la las.” And those familiar with the old “Our Gang” shorts will certainly remember Alfalfa’s off-key belting of the “Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!” part.

Largo Al Factotum is our introduction to Figaro. Figaro is a barber, well-liked among the citizens of the town, and an all-around happy-go-lucky guy. In addition to his regular barber’s duties, however, he also plays his hand at matchmaker, hooking up any number of young men and women around Seville. He’s quite proud of himself, and I really enjoy John Rawnsley’s performance here. He’s so boistrous and joyful!

(thankfully there are subtitles included in this clip, for those of us who don’t speak Italian)

Isn’t that wonderful? I love it.

Now that we’ve heard a jolly and happy song, lets get a little bit darker, shall we? Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” is an aria that I only knew from repeated viewings of Amadeus. In the film, the setpiece for this aria is a hypnotizing spiral of night sky, clouds, and stars. I simply assumed that it was a piece about beauty and poetry. Oh how wrong I was!

Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen translates to “Hell’s vengeance boils within my heart.” !!! Yikes! It seems that The Queen of the Night is ordering her own daughter to kill the Queen’s enemy, Sarastro, with a knife. If the daughter doesn’t, the Queen will disown, curse, and kill her.

Since this video doesn’t include subtitles, I’ll give you the English translation from Wikipedia:

The vengeance of Hell boils in my heart,
Death and despair flame around me!
If Sarastro does not through you feel the pain of death,
Then you will be my daughter nevermore.
Disowned may you be forever,
Abandoned may you be forever,
Destroyed be forever
All the bonds of nature,
If not through you Sarastro becomes pale! (as death)
Hear, Gods of Revenge, hear a mother’s oath!

Check this out:

That’s Diana Damrau performing the role The Queen of the Night. And let me tell you something: I’ve spent the past few days watching just about every performance of this aria that youTube has to offer and Damrau’s is, by a wide margin, the most frightening and feels the truest to the lyric. Particularly on those high and beautiful “oh oh oh” notes that appear throughout the piece. Where other actresses perform those notes very well , Damrau endows each of them with a menacing power–as if she’s using every single breath to bully her daughter into becoming a murderer. How evil!

And by the way, let’s just take a moment to think about both John Rawnsley and Diana Damrau, or really any masters of operatic voice, and respect the training and athleticism it takes to hit such amazing notes so clearly and accurately. A friend of mine commented that some of Damrau’s notes hardly sounded human–which I believe is not only the point of such an ethereal character and the music written for her, but also a real testament to her razor-sharp talent. The human body is an amazing thing, and with enough effort, you can condition it to perform the most stupendous tasks.

That’s it for this month’s music entry. Tune in on the first Wednesday of next month for more music; I promise it won’t be more opera.

Posted in Eric's Stories, midnight diaries radio, music | 3 Comments »

Archive for the ‘midnight diaries radio’ Category

midnight diaries radio: thanksgiving day parade

midnight diaries radio: josie and the pussycats

the road trip of catty wampus (abridged)

junk in the trunk

midnight diaries radio 2

midnight diaries radio: opera

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