The Voice Of Reason

I'm not a major Mozart fan but I've had a few bars of it running around in my head all morning. I *think* it's from the Magic Flute but unless you're familiar with it and i could "sing" it for you, there's no way of guessing. I did check a couple of sound clips on Amazon but i didn't find it. Anyway, my ride picked me up and we headed out to Bedford for our ping committee meeting this afternoon and there was a classical cd in the player in the car. Not Mozart but it sparked a conversation about classical music and i mentioned the clip. On the way home, later in the same cd, a familiar tune started up. No, not the tune i'd been ear-worming, but something equally well known, the Allegro from Eine kleine Nachtmusik. You'd recognize it if you heard it. And naturally the conversation turned to Mozart and the movie, Amadeus, which i have on dvd and have now had to put on to watch again. Fan or not, it really is a wonderful movie. Mozart really was the pop superstar of his day and behaved nearly as badly as the ones today do!

Your Song
Lyrics by Bernie Taupin, Music by Elton John
That has got to be one of the world's perfect songs.
Sir Elton was on Inside the Actor's Studio, a rebroadcast from 2005 and he played it live, there on the stage.
My eyes welled up, i admit it. I think, at least for that song, his voice as it is now, deeper than it was when he first recorded it 30 years ago or so, makes that song even better for me. The camera panned the audience and i saw a more than a few tears on cheeks. I've seen the Rolling Stones live, I've seen a Beatle, I think if i ever get to see Elton, my list of legends will be complete barring Queen and without Freddie, it wouldn't be the same.

So that's it for my first and last reality show :) It reminds me of why i hate Bingo so much. I get my hopes all built up and then lose. My favourite Magni didn't even get into the last show tonight (what happened there? not even an announcement that he was the low voter or having him on stage when they eliminated him. Nothing was shown on last night's show on my screen. Was it on yours?) aside from flashbacks and the other one i thought was a front runner, Toby, was unceremoniously dropped. Down to Dilana and Lukas. We didn't even get a final sing-off ... What gets me is Lukas and Dilana were all huggy and warm and fuzzy and it's been clear all along everyone hated Lukas's guts! Including me! So naturally who gets to be the new singer? Fucking Lukas! (does his hair remind you all of a skunk?) The only good thing, though, is that's two for two for Canada! (INXS has a local Nova Scotia boy as their lead) It's too bad, of those final two, i think Dilana would have sounded a lot better.

Oh well. They all got paid well for the whole show from what i've heard. Got gifts (guitars and a couple of them got new cars). No doubt the winner gets a pretty lucrative (even if it's going to be short) contract. It's only a McGroup anyway. See you next summer, that's what the host said! Gahhhh they're going to do it again! Someone give me a sharp stick!

Anyone watching Rockstar Supernova?
Anyone think they *all* sound the same?
None of them can hold a tune in a bucket.
Most of the shriek and scream and flail about on the stage in an effort to "ramp it up" .
And the rock star judges? They like everyone pretty much. Hardly any harsh words when some of them very justly deserve it.
"You can't effing sing!"
*sigh*
Why am i watching this crap?

We've finally got some sunshine and clear blue skies!!! I think it must have been the worst week for weather in April i've experienced in ages. But that's fairly normal i think. You can experience all four seasons in a week! Lovely blue skies yesterday and today though quite high winds yesterday. I did a bit of shopping for a new spring coat. I have one that's a sort of nylon but it's heavy like leather but it's not real leather or like fake leather because it isn't shiny like that. Anyway. The collar is all cracked and it's getting kind of ratty looking. The other one is an old cloth one i really don't like. I found one that fit me though it's a bit dressier than i would normally pick but it is quite nice. Almost knee length, black cloth, with a collar and a button on hood with white top stitching around the cuffs and collar and actually it looks kind of nice because it's not overdone. Won't be waterproof like my nylon one so i don't suppose i will be retiring that one just yet. I also went into the men's big and tall store to get a couple of plain basic tshirts. I can get tshirts in the large size ladies' stores but they aren't really long enough or full enough for the gym and my old tshirt that i used for the gym is stained and just manky! I got a couple of v-neck shirts for 20 dollars each and they're quite comfy. I tried a larger size on but though it was find, the top part was just too huge around my shoulders and chest. I may have big boobs but my shoulder area is definitely not broad like a man's. I even threw out my old tshirt in the bin in the locker room at the gym yesterday too so i wouldn't be tempted to keep it for "just around the house". I do like it because of the logo on it which is the same as on this icon and promotes the beauty in us women who are built for comfort and not for speed ;) I'll have to make do with just the icon now.

Today i took my bucket and put a little elbow grease into the squeegee and cleaned my living room/balcony doors and windows. What a difference!! The winter grunge is gone and even though there are one or two streaks, it's so much nicer to see out through clear glass! Laundry is in the dryer and i've just had something to eat.

gramie_dee is off to see War of the Worlds performed at the MEN arena in Manchester tonight with some of our friends so i will be waiting to hear a complete review about that. I'm sure he'll post his review on LJ tomorrow. Hmm that reminds me. Alice Cooper is playing here in a couple of weeks, May 3 i think, and he wants me to write a review of the concert as well. I know i won't remember all the playlist but he said that won't matter. I guess i'll give it a go!

Merry Christmas to me :) My sweetie, Rock God gramie_dee has done it again! My very own handwritten and recorded song for this year is up and online at Myspace and is called Livin for Lovin. It's very different from last year's ballad. This year he's gone retro to 80's radio rock, complete with spandex. ;)

( Cd Cover )

and ( lyrics )

Seeing as quite a few people on my flist are looking forward to a gig by the Bauhaus (forgive me if that should just be Bauhaus ... what do i know? LOL) Anyway, i decided to download a few tunes to see what they were like. Hard to know what to pick so i just went by titles that i liked. Of the ones i tried, i liked about half and one of my favourites is an industrial mix of Passion of Lovers. naturalbornkaos it reminds me a little of some of the industrial mix stuff you did a few years ago, or reminiscent of it anyway. Anyway i liked that one. Also kind of liked the cover of Ziggy Stardust but really hated a cover of Spirit in the Sky and also disliked Of Lilies and Remains, Dancing. Also liked Sanity Assassin, Theme from the Lost Boys (soundtrack) and All In My Mind. Another song that was tagged as Bauhaus appears to actually be Love and Rockets "Holy Fool" but i like it. The ones i didn't like i found a bit too punk. That's the only way i can describe it.

So the question is... what other Bauhaus tracks can i try that i might like given the list of the ones i like? Anything else to suggest? (i do this about once a year and usually manage to get a handful of new tracks and artists that i quite like!

Misheard Lyrics

The site, Am I Right and also Kiss This Guy are the sites for "misheard" lyrics. The best one i know personally is one my sister, sammantha misheard years ago in the early 80's. A group of us were out and singing loudly to the car radio. When we got home, i heard her pootling about the house singing lightly "Greaseface! Greaseface!". Huh? Turns out that's what she thought they were singing in J. Geils Band's Freezeframe! I went to the "Am I Right" site and found the following misheard lyrics for the same thing which have me in fits this morning.


Breeze Way
Cheese face (!!!)
Flea Spray
Freeze brain
Freeze train
Sea spray
Squeeze play

Any particularly good ones you've heard yourself or personally know of?

Jim Clench, Brian Greenway, Jerry Mercer, Myles Goodwin... If you've been a fan of Canadian rock music over the last 20 or 30 years , those names will be as familiar to you as the back of your hand. April Wine. A local band made good. Very good. they were right up there on the Canadian charts in the 70's and early 80's along with the Guess Who, Loverboy, Trooper and Bachman Turner Overdrive. For four men in their 50's and 60's, oh baby can they fuckin' rock! They look older, they might not leap about the stage like they used to but after oh so familiar vocals, blistering guitar solos and one amazing heart pounding ear bashing drum solo, they still got it! I was shocked to hear that the drummer, Jerry Mercer, was 66 after hearing and seeing the drum solo tonight. And FYI Jerry Mercer's beard might be snow white but his arms are still the size of tree trunks. They did all the songs you know, and kept ratcheting it up higher and higher, louder and more intense. By half way through, it wasn't even cold anymore. You just didn't notice the damp ocean breeze that was making you shake and shiver through the two opening acts. In contrast, the encore was actually knocked down in pace to start with. After a chat about diabetes because Myles' young son has just been diagnosed with Type I, they started into a slow song that built up to a rockin chorus. Then they launched into a long mostly instrumental version of "It's My Life" (or something like that) which featured both lead guitarists and the bass player trading off solo pieces while Jerry kept pace. Bluesy rock. hot and smoky. But you knew it was coming...

That cowbell intro to....... OOOOOOH Whadda Night! To end it all off they gave the crowd what they were waiting for and nobody went away disappointed. My ears are ringing and my voice is hoarse. They're as good as they ever were and in this venue, i think they sound even better than the last time i heard them about 20 years ago or so at the Metro Center. This was an outdoor stage on the Dartmouth waterfront and i heard they had sold about 1500 tickets. There were a lot of plastic patio chairs out but by the time April Wine hit the stage, there was also a lot of people standing. Not standing still, you understand. But on their feet.

The opening act was called Never. We had fun with that. Never heard of them, Never thought they'd leave the stage... etc. Oh they weren't bad, they were having a lot of fun and they put a lot into their hour long performance. They certainly had their fans, mostly screaming females with flesh sagging out over the tops of tight jeans and skirts and short tops. One or two had me and psychfringe judging that they couldn't be living at home because their mother wouldn't have let them out of the house looking like that, and for damn sure their fathers would have barred the door lol One chick had a short skirt and some kind of top on. But remember that "big bar hair" of the late 80's when line dancing was all the rage? Yep, she's not changed her do in 15 years and boy when she strutted her stuff in that skirt you could tell she thought she was all that! *snort*

Second act up was another 70's local rock band, Snakeye who saw fit to confirm that yes, their band was named after some chick's boyfriend's penis. He said that. Twice. Like we couldn't all figure that out lol They were ok. I don't really remember them that well. They ended up their shorter set with a disco medly of K.C. and the Sunshine Band and a really bad version of Billy Ocean's Caribbean Queen. Never mind. They weren't on stage long.

Myles and company were hot tonight. Both of the other bands probably felt like burning their instruments when they heard these guys lay on the strings and skins. I know just looking at the drum kits they used, sat on stage in front of this tarped-over *huge* set back stage, yeah, i wanna be *that* when i grow up lol

To top it all off, well, to begin the night, i didn't have a ticket and planned on getting one at the door. 13 dollars. Cheap at twice the price. But my friends were talking to a guy in the line for ticket holders and he had a spare he "scalped" to me for 10, which was the original price. Only he was a lousy scalper because he actually paid 11.50 for it LOL that's the tax i guess.

( A few photos )
More photos

Here it is... My Christmas pressie from my sweetie, gramie_dee http://www.mp3unsigned.com/Showband.asp?id=4623 There is a player right on the page so you don't need anything downloadable, the player is embedded in the page. If you're on dialup it may take awhile. There's a clickable thingo that says Lyrics for yes, oddly enough, the lyrics :) the photo is the cd cover he made for it. Brilliant lol He did all the words, music, instrumentals, vocals and ... according to the cd cover info, the coffee lolol!! It ruins his metal street cred, he says but I always knew that metal exterior was hiding a soul of marshmallow ;) /ducks. It's a ballad with a bit of heavy guitar bridging which i like very much :)