Friday, April 3, 2009

Two Totos, interdimensional and human

- Two friendly Cairn terriers (think Toto from the Wizard of Oz) come running up to me as I get out of my car at work wanting to be petted. Their owner trots up apologizing. Do you mind? We are neighbors and they like your patch of grass. I give my business card in case they ever need any printing.

- My usual WRAS-fm 88.5 lets me down this morning during my commute by playing too much techno-pop, so I switch to whatever is in the CD player. It turns out to be The b-52's Greatest Hits and "Is That You Mo-Dean?," making for a fun start to the morning. G, over at Cedar's Mountain, has a list of randomly selected favorite CDs on his post from yesterday, leading me to have a look at what else is in my car:
- the aforementioned b-52s Greatest Hits
- a Swing music CD picked up at Starbucks (my dad loves Big Band music and passed it on to his girl)
- Emmylou Harris, "Heartaches & Highways"
- and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland's rendition of Felix
Mendelssohn's "Symphonies Nos. 1 and 5 "Reformation." (Kind of dour, but I like it.)

A pretty good collection in case I am trapped for hours in traffic. What's in your car? Or if alternative transportation is used, what are you listening to?

- Blogger friend Anne, from Norway, at Ab imo pectore, has a link to a favorite song from The Killers, "Human" on her blog this morning. Are we human or are we dancers? I'll be singing that all day!

10 comments:

G. B. Miller said...

Interesting music choices. Let's see what I can up with for little factoids, etc.

B-52's: did the theme song for the kid's cartoon "Rocko's Modern Life".

Swing is pretty cool. I sort of got hooked into it from watching old movies.

Emmylou Harris: I think I have album of hers where she sings with Linda Ronstadt and either Dolly Parton or Loretta Lynn. (I got so much pre-country pop it'll make your head swim)

Classical: Forever corrupted by watching Merrie Melodies (and playing the stuff in elementary/middle/high school. I played the clairinet)

But very good choice nevertheless.

Lynn said...

Hey G -

The b-52s are from that whole Athens, GA band thing for me. Love them and REM. They've done us proud. One of the most fun times I ever had was at Lakewood Aphitheater sitting on the lawn for a b-52s concert.

I like the Emmylou Harris, Allison Krause, "Down from the Mountain" crowd. I went to a Down from the Mountain concert in Manassas, VA a few years ago that was fabulous. It's my favorite kind of music to sing along with.

Love those Merrie Melodies! Corrupted? Does that mean you don't like classical? :) I listen to my local NPR station when I'm on the road during the day. I find it very soothing when things get a little too tightly wound.

G. B. Miller said...

I like Alison Krause too.

I got hooked into that particular genre from listening to (what else) college radio.

I have a very nice live 2 CD set of Alison Krause with Union Station.

Actually, I do like classical. Those "Merrie Melodie" cartoons have made me search out from time to time those particular composers that some of the snippets are based on.

However, whenever I hit that state of being you've just described, I listen to jazz instead.

Lynn said...

Jazz. Again - from my dad - I learned to love New Orleans style jazz - Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, that kind of thing. I do not like that all over the place modern jazz. Who is your favorite jazz artist, G?

G. B. Miller said...

I don't have a favorite one. I listen to jazz programming M-F at work, but only about twenty minutes or so a day, and mostly as my "white noise".

What I can say is that I don't like jazz that is very very heavy on brass.

To me, jazz is more strings (guitar and bass), more woodwinds, more keys and more vocals (but no scat).

Lynn said...

I may just have to check out more jazz. I'm sure there is a station here in Atlanta.

Jannie Funster said...

In my car, which is not actually my car... long story.... Is the CD from Kelly's guitar class, another Learning Rhythm Guitar CD, 2 Pink Floyds, and i cannot remmber exactly what else now.

:)

Lynn said...

I love Pink Floyd! Favorite songs: Breathe and Wish You Were Here.

G. B. Miller said...

Pink Floyd is cool.

Almost everyone I know has the following two Floyd albums:

The Wall
Dark Side of The Moon

Lynn said...

Yes - I indeed have those two albums on vinyl, as well as A Momentary Lapse of Reason. I did get A Collection of Great Dance Songs on CD. It usually goes along on road trips.