Evolution in Pokemon

is actually metamphosis.  Ru-Jun is really really really into Pokemon for a while.  Which is cool; Shian-Ren and I liked to watch the early episodes when we were in grad school.  I'm not worried about the show's use of the term evolution right now.  Ru-Jun will learn the real meaning of evolution soon enough.  Right now we're having a lot of fun with Pokemon.

I'll Drink To You - Duke Jupiter

[link] Were big locally in Rochester in the 80s.  Fun song.  Chorus is a great hook. Co-genric with Huey Lewis, I would say.

King For A Day - Planet P Project

From 1983.  I really liked this song, which briefly got airplay on album rock stations.  It's all about the chord progression (gets quite repetitive though).

Don't Pay the Ferryman - Chris De Burgh

From 1983. This was played incessantly on rock (and maybe pop) radio. My friend Scott was obsessed with the song. Seems to have aged OK, not great.

Her Head's Revolving - The Three O'Clock

[link] One of my all time favorite bands.  No one sounded quite like them.  The high male vocal, the instrumentation, the songwriting.  Hooky and bright.  Takes me away to around 1990.  Another one of the bands my friend Dave K in Durham (and later in Madison) introduced me to.
This song has power.  Hard guitar work.  Interlaced keyboards.  Nice breaks.

Neal and Jack and Me - King Crimson

[link] In the late 80s, early 90s I was somewhat into the album Beat by King Crimson. Late stuff from them. I never really got around to investigating their earlier, apparently more influential material.

New established songs

Please Come To Boston
A Girl Like Jesus
Stickleback
Blue-footed Booby Blues

What to do with my music

If not for dad and husband responsibilities, I would have been out with my uke this past year singing folk songs with the OWS people.  In the future I'll have some more time.  I think I'm going to have to get out and start singing for the Earth.  Might be just me in a lawn chair along the state highway somewhere with a sign and my banjo.  But it's gotta be done.

Banjo set so far

Camptown Races
Country Roads
Walking the Floor Over You
On the Road Again
Frankie and Johnnie

Jolson

Weirdly fascinating. And the blackface thing. Apalling but has a huge long history of nuance, appropriation and counter-appopriation. Culture is complex.

Mandinka - Sinead O'Connor

[link] This whole album was a huge breath of fresh air in alternative rock when it came out in 1987-1988. Her voice, the rhythm tracks, the production on these songs were just amazing. Big influence on me in my college years, when I was starting to write songs.

Blue Kiss - Jane Wiedlin

Always my favorite Go Go.  Love the vulnerability in her voice.  It contrasts her strength and confidence as a writer and performer.

Sandy

Yesterday and today we've been dealing with Hurricane Sandy passing through these parts. Very scary wind gusts and we list power for about 5 hours yesterday evening. But we are OK. Today will be some cleaning up around the yard and hopefully back to a normal schedule tomorrow.

Galbi - Ofra Haza

[link] Israeli singer Ofra Haza, who died in 2000 of cimplications from AIDS, was huge on college radio in the 90's. She probably would have been even bigger today had she survived. Her stunning voice and exotic (to the western ear) genre stylings are perfectly suited to the way world pop has gone since then.

The Battle of New Orleans - Johnny Horton

A blast from my childhood.  One of my Dad's favorite songs.  Just learned it (pretty easy).  I'll have to play it for him sometime.

Don't Let Him Go - REO Speedwagon

A blast from my hard rock past.  I like the rhythm - very tight on the bottom between the rhythm guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums.  The little keyboard figures in the chorus have always been infectious for me. (Although you can have the solo.)

Camptown Races - Johnny Cash

One of Ru-Jun's and my old favorites.  I like the lyrics of this version and Cash's facial expressions are great here.  The people in the background are funny.

Lady - Little River Band

From 1978. A blast from my youth.  Deep pop atmospherics here.  High narrative content in the chord progression and instrumentation/production.  Particularly in the verse.  In the chorus, the vocal harmonies take over the song (in a good way but the atmosphere isn't there like in the verse). The jazzy verse-break about 2/3 of the way through sort of reduces the impact for me.  But it was an arrangement of its time, so that kind of thing probably couldn't be avoided...

North, South, East, West - the Church

One from the times of Saturday nights alone with a 6 of Rolling Rock, writing and sitting on the back steps of the apartment in Durham.  Kind of which I knew how to play uke back then.

Considering a banjo set

Songs like When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again and Frankie and Johnnie.