I know this VIDEO is viral all over the web now, but I just happened to see it this morning and thought… hmmm… Mary… Martin… get on those dancin’ shoes!! Seriously though… this is great. If this video doesn’t make you feel good, I don’t know what will. Congrats to J&K.
Music
All posts tagged Music
Enjoying.a Night of Music, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Spent a lovely evening Friday night with friends at the Indigo Girls concert at the Oregon Zoo. A good time was had by all. And the girls… well they were in great form. Plus, the opening act, David Ryan Harris, was pretty damn good as well. The only issue we had was having to wait 40 minutes in line for food. Once we got it… the rest of the night was cake. Great time, great company. Excellent.
Karen and I watch a few TV shows regularly. One of them is So You Think You Can Dance. It’s basically a talent show for dancers. During the course of the show the dancers are paired into couples and every week a guy and a girl is voted off, until they get down to the top 10. This show is pretty amazing if you haven’t watched it. The dancing is phenomenal and the choreography is… spectacular at times. Last night there was a piece, choreographed by Mia Michaels, that was breath taking and very emotional. Check it out.
Total Film has built a top 40 movie music moments of all time, counting down from 40 on the first page to one, on page 14. Check out their list to see if your favorite made it in, if you agree… or not. There are YouTube clips from each, pretty fun to watch them again. I think I’ll try and see if I can come up with my personal top 10 in the next week or so. Check back to see what I’ve chosen. For now just enjoy their list. It’s a walk down movie music memory lane. Say that three times fast….
This might be coming from out in left field… or maybe I should say from the outfield… bah ha ha ha!! So corny. Anyway… I had my iPod rolling today at the office and this tune came on. Love it. Very toe tapping. Check it out and let’s all flash back! Woo Hoo! I see all those head nods happening in front of your screens.
The Outfield – Say It Isn’t So (Official Music Video) – Watch more funny videos here
Liz, fellow angle and rock star human being, shared this with a few of us today at the office. This is one of the coolest, most inspiring, videos I’ve seen. Ever. If this doesn’t make you feel good about being alive, living on this planet, and getting to share the human experience every day, I don’t know what will. Take a listen and then head to the Playing For Change website to check out other videos and support this fantastic movement/cause.
Just a quick note to say that my uncle R has been, as I mentioned in an earlier post, been sending out the music of my cousin, K. In one of those mailings he also included a link to an interview my cousin did with a woman, who’s a musical artist in her own right, from Nashville. I thought I’d post the link to that interview here. He has a pretty good way with words. Check out the interview HERE.
My cousin is a sweet souled man. He’s had his share of ups and downs but, really, who hasn’t had those of one sort or another. As is the case with many of us who look for an outlet to express those ups and downs, he has his. Amongst other talents he is a self trained musician, and over the course of the last several years he’s amassed quite a collection of tunes. Tunes that are unusual, unique, thought provoking, and very personal. Fairly recently K’s run into some circumstances that have caused him to say he might never write and play music again. His dad, my uncle, has decided that just in case K’s serious about this statement, my uncle’s sharing K’s music with all of us who know and love him, as well as anyone else out there who might be interested in hearing what this good-hearted man has to offer.
The song I’ve included here was the first my uncle sent out. The following is what my Uncle had to say about K, his music, and the reason for this project. This is a father who absolutely, without a doubt, loves his son. Read what he has to say and then check out “Let It All Out” by Coamhim. And K… we love you man.
I’ve decided to initiate an email musical endeavor I’m calling the “Coamhim Music Project” (pronounced Kwom-heem). As many of you probably know, Coamhim is the musical moniker for my son K. From about 1996 until October of 2007 (mostly in the the last 5 years), Coamhim created more than 250 complete songs and many dozens more partial and incomplete audio projects. His musical stylings are totally eclectic; it is impossible to cubbyhole his creativity. He has produced songs in every genre imaginable: Rock,Country Rock, Blues, World, Emo, Christian, Experimental, Ambient, Trance, Alternative,Spoken Word, Rap, Hip Hop, Americana, Folk, Acoustic, Funk, Metal, Easy Listening, etc…His bedroom would usually end up being his studio where ever he lived. He worked with a $150 electric guitar knock-off, a $150 bass guitar knock-off, an $600 Korg electric keyboard, a $100 acoustic guitar knock-off, a $300 programmable drum “machine” , a couple of different guitar pedals, a $20 garage sale Wurlitzer organ, a $50 microphone, and a computerized music program called Pro Tools (Also M’s piano when he lived with us). Later on he threw in an ocarina and a pan pipe. Also, earlier on he used pots and pans for his percussion and our upstairs bathroom (in Seattle) at 2 and 3 in the morning for drumming, singing, screaming and what ever other sounds he needed to make for a particular song. Basically he did music almost whenever and wherever he could. His mind was constantly overflowing with music, and he had to “let it all out”. K has never been and never will be a great guitarist, he’s just barely adequate on the keyboards, and his vocals will never get him to American Idol. But I absolutely guarantee you there is not a more imaginative musical or lyrical mind ANYWHERE!! What he might lack in physical skills he more than makes up with imagination, tenacity, technical expertise, and a laser musical focus. When he would step into his “creative zone” he often would work 12, 16, 20 hours or more straight. Those finely honed talents and skills have allowed him to produce an unimaginable volume and variety of songs. He has told me that he doesn’t think he will ever again compose any more music. I don’t know if that statement will come to fruition or not, but I wanted to do something to honor his ability and creativity. So, to that end, beginning today, I am going to send out one Coamhim song a day until the well runs dry. If any of you don’t want these songs, please just delete them or let me know and I will take you off the list. Conversely, if any of you think there is someone else who may want to receive this music, please let me know and I will add them to the list. So, if you are inclined, open up the music and let it flow……………..Thanks so much for your interest………R………… PS, It seems appropriate to begin with “Let it All Out”……..
I absolutely love this band. We were lucky enough to see them when they were in Portland. If you get a chance to see them, do. I’m telling you, you will not be disappointed.
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Probably THE best version of the United States National Anthem I’ve ever heard. Marvin Gaye was a true genius.
Getting Ready, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
I decided to include another Zoo concert photo from Saturday evening. This one is of the stage pre-show. The other I already posted is actually from the same spot facing the other direction. As you can tell, we had good seats. That’s what I’m talkin’ about….
Oh, and a big PS… the Indigo Girls were awesome. It was just the two of them with their guitars and occasionally a third woman on piano and accordion. Wow. You can tell they’ve been doing this together for a long time. Impeccable timing, excellent harmonies, and just a great flow to the show. They were on and it was really amazing. If you’re into great music, great harmonies, and music with a message definitely check them out. You will not, I guarantee it, be disappointed.
On The Concert Lawn, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
To continue the recap of the last few days…
Saturday we went to see the Cowboy Junkies and the Indigo Girls at the Oregon Zoo. Man, what a great place to see a show. Sitting in little chairs on the lawn, really good sound, really good view, a bottle of wine, some fruit, a t-shirt buying opportunity, the company of good friends, running into other good friends, a convenient and easy MAX ride to get there, decent food, hanging out with my sweetie, and some fantastic music. I ask you, what else does a person need?
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I’ve always made mixes. In fact, those who know me know I’m enough of a nerd that I now number them. As in, I’m making playlists now for the iPod and I’m on number 61. Before that I made cd mixes, and before that tape mixes. That’s why I totally dug this idea, and the site. So Loni, you rock! Thanks for showing me the way girl.
… and I haven’t even done a post about The Swell Season concert this last Monday at the Keller Auditorium. What can I say about it. It was wonderful. You know when you’re planning on going to see someone you’ve never seen live and there’s a slight concern that they won’t live up to the expectations you have? Well… that definitely wasn’t the case here. These people, Glen Hansard (also the lead singer of an Irish band called The Frames) and Marketa Irglova, were amazing. The musicianship alone was outstanding, and then to top it off, they can sing, and sing well. I found myself thinking, holy crap, they are even better live than either recorded or in the movie, Once.
The evening started off, before The Swell Season even took the stage, with a small set from a couple of Irish guys, Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Liam Ó Maonlaí (founder of Hothouse Flowers) (a big thanks to Isorski’s comment on my photo of the inside of the Keller on my photo blog, image – ination, and then his posting of a link to his great review of the show, which you can find here, that clued me in on what these guys names were, I had no idea). I knew, after they started into the first number, that the show was going to be stellar. These two were amazing. Completely entertaining, wonderful musicians, and terrific music. These two were mentors to Glen Hansard when he, and they, were street musicians in Ireland. I’m glad he brought them along… just very cool, and really remarkable.
A totally random, yet completely cool moment was when Hansard started talking about the two of them, he and Irglova, going for a walk about Portland earlier in the day and their meeting and conversation with a young man who was a local musician. Hansard mentioned that sometimes when you meet somone you connect with them, and this was one of those times. He then preceeded to yell out to the audience to see if the kid was there, and yes, he was. Hansard then did something unexpected, he invited the kid on stage to sing a song. The kid was sitting in the nosebleed section and said so, but Hansard just called back up to him, “we’ll wait”. So the kid runs down to the main level and up the aisle to then be lifted up onto the stage by a burly looking roadie. He converses with the band for a moment and then steps up to the microphone saying that he’s going to sing Brandy (you’re a fine girl), but the band doesn’t really know it so he’ll sing and they’ll try to figure it out. He starts singing and about half way through the band is getting into full swing backing him and the whole place is going nuts and grooving along with this kid who is having the moment of his life. By the end of the song they were all fairly in sync and sounding not half bad. The kid puts the big finish on and then stands there amazed as he gets the first standing ovation of the night. Speechless he just shakes his head back and forth in disbelief as he then sort of hugs and shakes hands with the band and walks off stage. It was a really great moment.
The moment with the kid was just one of many great moments because Hansard and Irglova are the real thing… fantastic musicians who absolutely love what they do. They’re humble, real, and totally splendid to see live. If you get the chance, though many of the shows are getting sold out, as the show was at the Keller, go see them. It’s worth the price of the ticket. There’s no doubt in my mind, you’ll have a fantastic time. We did.
Monday… Who would’ve thunk it, I’m glad it’s Monday. LOL OK, maybe I won’t go that far, but still. Our lives have been hectic, and busy. It’s great fun having this rental house as a project, but we are SO DONE with the whole painting thing. We spent yesterday over there working on it, again. This time Karen did some mowing and weed eating while I painted and Kev did some “man stuff” for us. Ha ha… that makes me laugh, “man stuff”. It’s stuff we could do, but hey, when you have a guy there with tools, he wants to do the man stuff. We were happy to have him do it. Thanks Kev! We still have a bit to do, but we feel like we’ve gotten over the hump of it now, which is great. Only a tad more painting (it’s so much when you paint the entire inside of a house and have to do multiple coats… but, I’m whining), some cove base to install, and a few other minor things. Not much really. We’re almost ready to rent it out. Anyone need a place to live?
Saturday we decided we needed to have some fun after we’d painted for 4 and a half hours Friday night and knew we were going back to the rental on Sunday, so first we headed to a rugby match (Our friend’s team was in the finals… they lost, but it was still so very cool they made it that far), then to a kayak demo day up at Vancouver Lake in Washington, followed by a drive over to Ridgefield Kayak to reserve a boat for next weekend’s kayak trip, then home to drop off the boy (Weston got to enjoy some rugby and some time in the car at the park – no dogs allowed, c’mon people, he has a harness and a leash… but anyway, and some bounding around the docks at Ridgefield Kayak and surrounding marina, on his lead of course) before heading downtown to meet Maggie at the Apple Store for some laptop buying support and a great dinner at Typhoon that was completely tasty… as always. It was a really nice day. Very nice.
Tonight… we get to play a bit more as we have tickets to see The Swell Season at the Keller Auditorium. I’m excited. For those of you who don’t know, or even for those who do, The Swell Season is Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the duo who wrote the music for and starred in the film Once. If you haven’t seen it, do. It’s a great little film and the music is outstanding.
Ah, it’s been a full few days and looking ahead it’s going to be another full week and weekend. It’s a good life. Tiring at times, but really damn good.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
I was asked, not so nicely, by the aisle attendant to not take pictures, if that’s what I was doing. There were other people all around doing the same thing… but it seems I looked the most like a criminal phone camera picture taker. Ah well… I told him they didn’t turn out well anyway. Which is really pretty true. I mean, you can hardly see anything in this…. this little piece of contraband.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
We went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra last night. Wow. What a show. I’d seen them once before, but it appears that they just get better with time. This one was fantastic. Great music, lights and lasers flashing, smoke, fire, fireworks, and again… great music. If you’ve never seen them, do. It’s worth the price of admission.
PS… Con, it was great seeing you there, if only for a second or two. I love you sister of mine. Funny that with all of those people in the venue, we ran into each other. Fate I say. And again… I love you very much.
I got home yesterday to find a letter from my grandpa had arrived. I was thrilled.
We live in an age when hand written communication is going by the wayside. We call, we fax, we e-mail, we instant message, and we text message. We hardly ever sit down and actually write out, in longhand, what we want to say… and then to follow that up with taking the time to put it in an envelope, address it, put a stamp on it, and mail it. Unheard of.
So grandpa… thanks. I loved getting a letter from you. And, I had no trouble reading it either, as you had imagined I might. In fact, I read it aloud to Karen as she made dinner last night. It was fantastic.
Getting the letter made me think about my grandfather… and there’s so much I could say about him. Like, I wonder if he knows he’s the axis at the center of things in our family. I wonder if he realizes he’s where we all get our incredible sense of what’s right, our wonderful sense of play, and our good hearted and good natured demeanor. Because, amazingly enough, down to the last of the 60 of us, we are all both good natured and good hearted. It’s incredible really, the way we all look at life as a big adventure while at the same time keeping that balanced with a strong sense of responsibility. How did that happen, how did we get so lucky. Personally, I think it started at the top. It was grandpa. Grandpa and grandma.
It is luck really, to be born into such a family. This brood of fun loving, intelligent, interested, educated (and I don’t mean just formally), curious, playful, music loving, genuinely nice, thinking, eclectic, sincere people. And I say to myself… thank God I drew this lot. Thank you thank you.
I think about all of us, the line of us, and at the pinnacle is grandpa. He is the embodiment of everything we strive to be. And I know, if he’s reading this, being the guy he is, he won’t take credit for too much of who we’ve become… but he should. He was the example we all gauged our lives by… and in fact, he still is, and we still do.
He worked hard to support a family of 9, and I don’t think anyone has ever heard him complain about it. Ever. Not only that, through all of those years, he was a true partner to my grandma. They had, at least to an outside eye, a near perfect balance. He was the calm, always, in any storm. Level headed, easy going, and generous with his time, and his attention. As he still is.
One of the most amazing things about him is the glint in his eyes. He has a bit of mischief in him, and always a bit of fun. No matter what he’s doing, when I’ve been with him at least, he seems to enjoy himself… to find the fun. He gets life, knows what’s important, and loves it. To see that glint is to know he enjoys every day, and sees it as a gift. At least, I feel like he always has, and even if that’s not true, he made me feel that every time I was and have been with him, which is incredible.
I think about grandpa and I feel this overwhelming sense of pride. Pride because he’s my grandfather, pride because he raised my mother and her siblings to be who they are, and pride because I get to be a part of that… a part of this amazing history we are making every day. What’s more, I feel like grandpa has always understood me… like he’s always seen the real me. He’s always seemed to know what made me tick, and he has always been genuinely interested in what I had to say, even when I was very young. I’ve learned so much from him. Not just how to tie my shoes, which he did teach me, or how to play chess or backgammon, but what it means to be accepting, generous of spirit, and emotional. In fact, I’m getting emotional now… writing all of this and thinking about him. It’s how I am. I think about what makes me proud or happy or how much I love the people in my life and I get teary…. which, I guess, is something else I got from him. He is truly a grand self possessed man.
Lastly, there’s something else that when talking about grandpa a person can’t ignore or leave out… music and dance. He has played music nearly all of his life it seems, from the time he was a young man. Piano is his instrument of choice. He didn’t learn to read music, but instead listened, and then played. He loves it, completely, and has a style that is all his own and instantly engaging. Largely because of him music has always been a part of our lives, the love of it passed down from one generation to the next. Many of us have learned to play an instrument, or sing, or just to appreciate all kinds of music, the sounds of it playing around us most of our days. And for the gift of that, of making and listening to music, I am immeasurably grateful to him. The joy it brings, the center, the peace… he understands that, and has helped us to understand it as well. Besides playing and listening though, my grandpa also loves to dance. He relishes it, most especially now with his daughters and granddaughters. And when you partner him it’s as if you are transported to another place, forced to let go of everything in life expect for the moment you’re in with him… following him and moving to his own personal rhythm. It’s a wondrous thing. To get the honor of dancing with him, anytime… it’s jumping into life with both feet, letting go, and holding on… all at once. His love of it has been infectious, lovely, and yet another lesson in living life to the fullest.
It’s hard to sum up your feelings for and about someone, but I guess I’ll just say this… to know him is to respect and care about him, and to be his granddaughter is, in a word, breathtaking. He’s taught me so much about life, living well, what it means to be a good person, and fun. He is, without a doubt, one of the best people I have ever met. In fact, he could easily be the best person I have ever met. And lucky me… he’s not just some amazing guy I know… he’s my grandpa.
I just updated the song spot on the right of my page. There are actually 25 songs there for your perusal. It’s simple really, just hit the fast forward button to move to the next song. You can listen to a song all the way through, or browse until you find one you like better. Check it out, and enjoy.
As for this kid… Karen is in making pad thai right now, and man, does it smell good. I think I’ll go in and find out what magic is happening in the kitchen. Yum.
