Random Sample 10-10-08

Welcome to Friday?  I know we’ve been plagued with bad economic news, but let’s take a moment and savor a few tunes before jumping off that window ledge because your 401k is in the toilet.

“Thunderstruck,” AC/DC There are a few sledgehammer moments for me when this song came out, and they both have to do with living in San Francisco.  One night, Julie and I went to dinner with her co-workers (and I remember that night well because it was the first time I was wearing glasses to correct my vision).  After dinner, Kurt (a co-worker), wanted to keep the good times going, so he invited us back to his apartment for drinks, music, and more chit-chat/gossip about work. I was looking at his CDs and was surprised by the inordinate amount of hard rock/metal music in his collection.  I said, “Kurt, you like this stuff?”  He said, “Oh yeah, it’s great!”  “But, it’s so … suburban and a lot of the audience is, um, kind of straight.” I said.  Kurt retorted, “Honey, where do you think all that leather and spikes comes from?  It ain’t the 7-11 crowd in the ‘burbs.” Touche.

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“Lords of Kobol,” Bear McCreary Did you watch The Office last night? If so, you heard Jim needling Dwight about his Battlestar Galactica obsession by riffing with Andy about how the new version is a “shot by shot remake of the original,” and how it’s weird ’cause they have to get this ring back to Mordor, and there are wizards and … we’ll to see Dwight get visibly enraged was priceless. What was also funny was that Maya (a huge fan of both shows) was getting annoyed like Dwight the more Jim talked.  Still, this soundtrack is pretty wonderful. I think Bear McCreary has done a wonderful job of blending cultural musical forms to reflect the human cultures on earth.  I also found out that it was Edward James Olmos who suggested combining the Gayatri Mantra with the music on the opening credits, and it seems to have inspired McCreary to continue that fusion of styles.

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“Adouma,” Santana No, I didn’t pick this song because the title is close to “Adama.” I picked it because it randomly came up on my iTunes “Party Shuffle.”  No really!  Fine. Don’t believe me. I did see this song performed live on VH1 (or maybe it was PBS), and while the band was pretty tight, they didn’t use the same vocalist. I’m not sure why.  But hey, we have the recording, and it’s just a great tune that, well, just listen and you’ll see why.

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