Nerd Pride Radio

Current song in the brain: Just Dance by Lady Gaga, since it was on in the car this morning at a vulnerable pre-caffeine moment for the brains, which have now imprinted on it.

Interesting pair of songs from the afternoon to go with interesting pair of songs from the morning (see above):
The Police, Message in a Bottle, and ABBA, S.O.S. The Police version of sending an SOS addresses broader existential issues, the universal problem of loneliness and difficulty in achieving meaningful communication with others, etc. But the ABBA version, while superficially appearing to be about the loss of a particular loved one, ultimately reveals the inefficacy of distress signals the lost human creature attempts to send out into the universe. We are alone without direct contact with our God(s), who provided us with life but also the shock of mortality; we cannot hope to understand our dilemma; we remember only a falsely idealized past; we are utterly beyond salvation. The Police song ends with a resolution of sorts: comfort in the knowledge that we are not alone in our situation. The ABBA song leaves us without any such closure - we will continue to seek without finding, reach without hope of contact, yearn without progress. The loss of God unfortunately does not entail the loss of faith.

bom bom in my head.

PEOPLE. People. People, the other day my mom was telling me about an interview with Anderson Cooper and his mother Gloria Vanderbilt. Well, I know she is his mother but I had forgotten that until my mom mentioned it. Just now I was searching for an interview of Leopold Stokowski that I have been thinking about all week (memory is selective, obviously, because it's reaching down for this thing that was many, many years ago). I clicked off the initial page to Videos and News and such, and thanks to this recent flurry of interest in the Anderson Cooper / Gloria Vanderbilt interview, I discovered that Leopold Stokowski was married to Gloria Vanderbilt and his two sons with her are Anderson Cooper's older half brothers!!! HOLY COW! That is total news to me. BUT IT GETS BETTER. Gloria Vanderbilt refers to Leopold Stokowski as "God", for reasons that could be sincere or sarcastic or both but I have no idea, and she cheated on him with FRANK SINATRA before their divorce. WTH?! There are some stories there, I guess. Stokowski also had an affair with Greta Garbo at one point, supposedly. He was said (including by himself) to be very egocentric and difficult despite (because of?) his genius; his son also apparently cut himself off from the rest of the family (Anderson, Gloria, etc) which is very sad. One of my close relatives did this once, for the most part, and it was a very difficult thing to deal with and still is even in hindsight. I believe he had what you would call "OCPD" and it's just one of those things you have to accept about how that brain operates - they expect people to be perfect and have utterly unrealistic standards of what constitutes acceptable behavior, so when people inevitably disappoint them, it cannot be borne and they cut them out entirely rather than wading into the difficult gray spaces where most people apparently live their lives. Anyway, Stokowski is known for saying that "Music is the voice of the All." He walked out on his interview with Dan Rather in disgust and the whole thing made a big impression on me at the time. I am dying to see it again if anyone knows where to find it - used to be on YouTube but was removed.

They used the guitar melody from David Bowie's "Man Who Sold The World" to make . It is most noticeably at 2:20 and following. It is not a rip off of his work but intentional and attributed.

I forgot how much I love this song. I like Busta Rhymes doing pretty much anything, but this one catches me every time. It's the horns. And I like Eminem well enough, but I think this particular song would have been better without him, Even with him though, it's a good song.

for you

I have always loathed that song. It physically hurts me! But I guess you are sending it to Mike so we're safe here.

Three songs of the same name by 3 different bands! Choose your favorite!

Now I'm listening to . Tom Waits is demented, but a genius.

I'll stop posting now.

The work stress is finally getting to be excessive. I don't have any music in my mind, for days now. It was a great relief when my kid practiced violin because it gave me something beautiful to listen to while cooking dinner. When he got home I went outside and my husband was like, you look like you've been through the wringer. Yet all I have done today is work and go to the store and such. Plus I slept for about nine hours. I should feel great. Music-wise, I got nothin.

Yes to ska. I am listening to the whole Toasters album now.

Skaboom!

Okay, and I definitely wanted to watch. Except who is this small blond boy in a Mr. Bungle shirt (points for that, guy!) pretending to be "Tim Armstrong"? Surely this is not how one of the great hotties of my youth ended up - emaciated and singing comprehensible lyrics?! It's ok: you just have to wait until a more auspicious moment later in the song when the actual guy appears on stage, mumbles in a reassuringly incomprehensible manner, shows us his head tattoo and a terrifying beard I've never witnessed before, hugs the imposter somewhat dangerously, and then disappears again!