Resisitng Empire

If you are interested in Iraq and what the mainstream media is not telling you...be sure to check out the tour dates of Resisting Empire.
http://www.resistingempire.org/Fall_speaking_tour/Home.html
I'm currently reading Blackwater-The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill who is speaking on the tour (a Brooklyn resident!). I'll be posting a review of Blackwater soon.

10 CDs

I've been playing around with the idea of making a top 10 list of songs, albums, bands with my main obstacle being that it would be hard to narrow it down to just 10. And so I've decided to make a list of 10 albums I like, as of today. My thoughts will probably change tomorrow so this is not set in stone. These are just 10 albums, excuse me, CDs(!) that I'm fond of. Most of these are albums from the past (when we still had albums!). I'll try to put something recent on...but as many of you know, I'm a bit of a retro girl (and that's putting it mildly). I grew up in the 80s where people were listening to Duran Duran and The Cure. I, however, in my continual quest to be different, was listening to the Beatles and 13th Floor Elevators. And even today...I'm still like that. I'm now obsessed with movies and music from the 1970s. I'm also obsessed with making lists (I am the "girl of 100 lists")! So here are 10 albums-some of them you've heard of...some of them will be new. All are available on CD. I hope you find one or two that you like:)


Shelter-Lone Justice
I first became interested in Lone Justice because Maria McKee, the lead singer, guitar player, songwriter etc., is the sister of Bryan MacLean who was in the group Love in the 1960s (see below). Lone Justice had its roots in the country, punk, rockabilly sound of the 1980s. Their first album did quite well but on their second album, Shelter, they went more for what critics saw as a "traditional" pop sound. However, I disagree, and I think Shelter is one great album. And when I listen to it, I can still get a hint of their early inspirations. Maria McKee kind of reminds me of Janice, Joni Mitchell, with a better vocal quality of Stevie Nicks all rolled into one. Reflected is my favorite song.



Rubber Soul-The Beatles
I will always have to put the Beatles somewhere no matter what kind of list I make! I picked Rubber Soul because...well..I felt like it so bugger off! I love the album cover. Yes, the Beatles were getting stoned...you can just see it in their eyes. This was pre-Sgt.Pepper so the boys were departing from their happy pop I Want to Hold Your Hand style and delving into musical genius. My favorites are Nowhere Man (because that song describes me so well); Girl and when you hear John suck in his breath..it's almost enough to make me rethink Paul as my favorite Beatle; and In my Life...because this song..it just says it all.


Rumors-Fleetwood Mac
Before I ever loved the Beatles, I loved Fleetwood Mac. When I was about 11/12, I wanted my hair to look like Stevie Nicks, I wanted to dress like Stevie Nicks...and fly around in a make believe world. There is so much drama going on in this album. Lindsey and Stevie were breaking up after 9 years together and Christine and John McVie were divorcing during the making of Rumors. You can feel the tension in the songs-Go Your own Way and Dreams especially. My favorites are Gold Dust Woman and Songbird.


Forever Changes-Love
I'm sure many of you have never heard of this band. When I was in my teens, my three favorite bands were the Beatles, Stones and The Who. I then started realizing that there was more music from the 1960s that I hadn't yet discovered. One of those bands was Love. I see Love as being part of the psychedelic punk/garage band explosion that happened in the mid to late 60s in Los Angeles. My favorite story about Love is that they were Jim Morrison's favorite band and he used to always say that he hoped they (meaning the Doors) made it as big as Love someday. How can I describe Forever Changes? Very psychedelic, most definitely acid (LSD) inspired, dreamlike. My favorites are You Set the Scene, The Daily Planet and Your Mind and We Belong Together. Bryan MacLean is the brother to Maria McKee (see above). He has since passed away as has Arthur Lee, the genius behind the band.


Parallel Lines-Blondie
Ah...Blondie. Deborah Harry is the bomb. I'm still hoping I'll run into her someplace in Manhattan, maybe at Staples? I was very young when Heart of Glass and One Way or Another came out and was instantly hooked. Deborah seemed so incredibly cool to me with her bleached blond hair. After I heard Parallel Lines I immediately went out and bought the band's previous albums-Blondie and Plastic Letters both of which I also recommend. Blondie was one of the bands along with the Ramones who played at CBGBs in the 1970s. My favorite songs are 11:59, Pretty Baby and Sunday Girl.


Play-Moby
I love Moby especially the fact that he's a hardcore vegan. This is a great CD-the music is organic and fuses (sorry for using two overly used words in one sentence-meaning organic and fusion!) techno, blues, gospel and funk. Bodyrock is full of energy and is a great one to dance to; Moby reveals his spiritual side in Natural Blues; and Porcelain is just a gorgeous song.


Automatic for the People-REM
This is an album I continually come back to and as I add and delete songs from my ipod, the ones from Automatic for the People tend to stay there. REM used to be so huge and they've kind of faded away although I hear their most recent CD is good and they did get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year. My favorite songs are Sweetness Follows, Ignoreland and Nightswimming. I like their politics too.


Star-Belly
I first heard Belly in the mid-90s or so. The band only had two albums, the first one being Star. Tanya Donelly, the lead singer and songwriter is an amazing talent. She gets a lot of her inspiration from dreams and fairy tales-my kind of person. This is a gem, a classic..every song is amazing with so much going on below the surface. The opening acoustic Someone to Die For is extremely haunting and a great introduction to what follows. Dusted is a disturbing song about child abuse or kidnapping. My favorite is Every Word-I can really relate to that song right now.



The Piper at the Gates of Dawn-Pink Floyd
Before I ever heard of Syd Barrett, I tended to think of The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon when Pink Floyd was mentioned. Thanks to Tim Storm (formally of the Gargoyles) who made me these very cool tapes many years ago. On several of them, he put tracks from Piper. Syd Barrett was the founding member of Pink Floyd (he's dead too!) and will probably go down in musical history as a footnote (Brian Jones is another footnote too..don't even get me started on him!). Like Love (see above) this album is extremely psychedelic but it's a definite classic-good music to play if you're on an acid trip (only if you're into that type of thing). Lucifer Sam and Bike are my favorites.


Seeing Things-Jakob Dylan
I managed to put a 2008 release on this list. I'm a big fan of the Wallflowers so it was great to hear Jakob Dylan was working on an acoustic solo CD. He's a great songwriter but his lyrics tend to be on the somber side and a little depressing. My favorites are Evil is Alive and Well and War is Kind.

Hope you enjoyed my list of 10 CDs I like as of today (I can always change my mind, you know!). Please let me know of a favorite CD that you have...and put them in the comments section so others will know about them.

Things to do on Saturday Night-Part 1

The Metropolitan Museum http://www.metmuseum.org/ is the bomb on Saturday Night. It's opened till 9:00pm on Friday and Saturday. It's less crowded in the evenings but at the same time, many more interesting people show up. The best thing to do is get a bunch of artists together and sketch in the Roman statue or Egyptian section...and then go out later. Yet another fun thing to do on a Saturday night in Manhattan.