Hopefully the person picking songs for the commercials is the same one picking songs for the show.

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Miles Davis – “Blue in Green”

This is the beauty of the shuffle, I don’t think I have ever listened to Jazz at work before and wouldn’t have picked this track if I was just searching for something to play. To be truthful, I don’t delve too deep into Jazz, I like a few select artists that embody the style and listen to those guys when the mood strikes.

This is a slow instrumental track with some great trumpet and piano work that is quiet relaxing. A good put the feet up on the desk and sip on your favorite beverage or doze off in a siesta kind of track. A much better stress release than the silly putty that corporate gave us during employee appreciation week to “work out our stress with.” That shit was a fucking germ magnet that spread disease through the office worse than a damn indoor pet chicken in Vietnam. I mean if I could be serious for a moment and offer a public service announcement, “Yes, chickens are great and they provide a constant food source but you don’t have to sleep on the same pile of straw with the little shit factories, build a fucking cage outside of your hut for them to live in.”

Anyway, back to the track, it was a nice surprise and a great piece of Jazz. Also, in case you’re wondering about the legitimacy of the shuffle, the fourth track on the random list was “Don’t Look Back in Anger” which is easily one of my absolute favorites but I resisted the urge to rant about it because of my newfound love for SRDSC.

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I have seen the film several times now and have always thought that I should pick up the soundtrack sometime since I thought so highly of the music as part of the movie. I was ordering some CDs a couple of months ago and I finally decided to pick up the soundtrack. I have listened to it several times now though and it doesn’t do anything for me.

How could I have thought so highly of the music when watching the movie and get nothing out of it when listening to just the soundtrack? I have other soundtracks that I like but typically they all contain one or two unusual tracks that wouldn’t be on other albums or some other catch that makes them more than a compilation of tracks.

Anyway, this whole scenario made me start to appreciate the critical role that music can have in movies. It really adds a layer of depth to the story and sets the stage for certain scenes. The weird part about it is that I don’t think the music is bad in anyway but I think that my association of it with the film makes it seem incomplete without the film.

Imagine watching the film without the soundtrack and the film wouldn’t be nearly as good either especially once the two have been put together. Maybe it is just my lack of imagination that limits my ability to enjoy the sounds without the images but at least I have a new appreciation for musical scores and will have something more to think about when watching movies.

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For example, I went to get a haircut yesterday and I like to keep my hair very very short. Well, the fat whore who reeked of cigarettes and cheap perfume pleads with me to not get my hair cut so short. She says that if I let it grow then I will it would give the illusion of having more hair. Well no shit bitch but maybe I don’t see it as that big of a deal. She proceeds to try to talk me off the ledge by saying that they just so happen to have a thickening shampoo that would also help. At this point I told her that I had come to grips with the disappointing fact that I couldn’t be the customer she wanted and axed if we could agree to disagree on my choice of haircuts, besides it is my fucking head and hair!

Now, I know this isn’t exactly an obvious intro for a music post but I am always thinking about music and this incident reminded me of a track that I had just listened to the night before while checking out the newly released “The Best of…” album from Radiohead.

The track, “Fake Plastic Trees” was originally on “The Bends” (which by the way is one of my favorite albums of all time in case you are keeping a list of my favorite albums somewhere…if so please e-mail it to me because I would love to have one). Anyway, the track is about superficial people and really a masterpiece by Radiohead. Here is an excellent live version from Glastonbury for your listening pleasure.

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Seriously the track is only 1:06 so just go listen.

Hell, listen four or five times.

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The most ruinous casualty of war is obviously the loss of life and it is disturbing to ponder the greatness squandered on battlefields.

Most people have heard of Impressionism and the group’s more prominent painters such as Monet and Renoir but another budding artists named Frederic Bazille was a promising member of the group until he was killed fighting in the Franco-Prussian War.

Perhaps he would have been a friend, brother, son or father and that loss would be tragedy enough but maybe the world lost out on great works of art that would inspire numerous people throughout the world for years to come.

Wilco has a track entitled “The Late Greats” which makes think of Bazille and the countless others like him would had something to say but were robbed of their opportunities.

The song actually is much more light hearted and fun than my connection makes it seem but at the same time the theme is about missing out on something and to that end it is prudent to ponder what the true cost of war is.

Perhaps more appropriate would be Wilco’s track “Comment” which is more thought provoking about the ways of society so make sure and check it out as well while you are taking in “The Late Greats”

Two additional thoughts - First, Wilco is an absolutely amazing band and everyone should listen to the album “Kicking Television: Live in Chicago” at least once. There isn’t a bad track on the two disc set and I’m sure I’ll post on many more in the future. Hell, I may even cite this track again when I rant on why I couldn’t get signed to a record label.

Second, Einstein is also quoted as saying. “As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable” and “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”

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I decided to check out her last CD which is Goodbye Alice In Wonderland. It came out in 2006 but it completely missed my radar. Then again I was probably letting the execs at Clear Channel tell me what to listen to back then. Ok, not really but I wanted to work in a shot at crappy FM radio.

So anyway, I started on the CD and was immediately pleased when I heard “Again and Again”. This is a good Jewel song with a very catchy line in it. Very good song and has made it in on a few of my playlists.

Shortly after “Again and Again” I heard a song that really hit me. This is one of those songs I’ll put on repeat and listen to 30 times this week. It is the title track and “Goodbye Alice In Wonderland” is one of the best songs Jewel has ever written. That is also saying something because Jewel is an excellent songwriter. The lyrics are so beautiful. They are also full of little one liners that you can take and apply to so many situations in your life.

You also don’t have to listen to the song to get the full power of it. Read the lyrics and you will see what I mean. That is a testament to what a wonderful poet Jewel is. You can hear “Goodbye Alice In Wonderland” at Jewels website.

It’s four in the afternoon
I’m on a flight leaving L.A.
Trying to figure out my life and
My youth scattered along the highway

Hotel rooms and headlights
I’ve made a living with a song
Guitar as my companion
Wanting desperately to belong

Fame is filled with spoiled children
we grow fat on fantasy
I guess that’s why I’m leaving
I crave reality

So goodbye Alice in Wonderland
Goodbye yellow brick road
There is a difference between dreaming and pretending
I did not find paradise
It was only a reflection of my lonely mind wanting
what’s been missing in my life

I’m embarrassed to say the rest is a rock and roll cliché
I hit the bottom when I reached the top
but I never knew it was you who was breaking my heart
I thought you had to love me
But you did not

Yes, a heart can hallucinate
If it’s completely starved for love
It can even turn monsters into
Angels from above

You forged my love just like a weapon
And turned it against me like a knife
You broke my last heartstring
But you opened up my eyes

So goodbye Alice in Wonderland
Goodbye yellow brick road
There is a difference between dreaming and pretending
That was not love in your eyes
It was only a reflection of my lonely mind searching
For what’s been missing in my life

And growing up is not an absence of dreaming
Its being able to understand the difference between
The ones you can hold and the ones that you’ve been sold
But dreaming is a good thing
Cause it brings new things to life
Pretending is an ending
That perpetuates a lie
Forgetting what you are
Seeing for what you’ve been told

Truth is stranger than fiction
this is my chance to get it right
Life is much better without all of those pretty lies

So Goodbye Alice in Wonderland
You can keep your yellow brick road
Cause there is a difference between dreaming and pretending
These are not tears in my eyes
They are only a reflection of my lonely mind finding
They are only a reflection of my lonely mind finding
I’ve found what’s missing in my life

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I haven’t listened to much Hip Hop lately so I wanted to work in a new CD review. Listening to Hip Hop isn’t exactly a chore for me because it is hard to beat a great hip hop song. I don’t listen to it all the time though. I am a much darker individual so I really have to be in the mood for the fake world of hip hop riding on the coat tails of brilliant producers.

Anyway before I get to far off topic I decided to listen to Usher’s new CD Here I Stand. “Love in This Club” has really been growing on me and I am really feeling it when I hear it. So I fired up the CD on Rhapsody and started listening.

The intro comes and goes, I hear my favorite song come along, and then I start getting pretty bored. I mean bored like wondering if that itch in my nose is a stray hair and I should go check in the mirror. Then I remember I am listening to a new CD to tell you fine folks about.

There isn’t much on it I really like. I kept listening to it waiting for that Usher hit. It was pretty disappointing. The second best song on Here I Stand is probably “What is a Man to Do”. Although it needs to lose the rancid whale mating sounds that chick is trying to make. I mean what is that? If that is suppose to be a middle eastern flair? You need to go back and listen to Sting and “Desert Rose” to see how it is done.

The other notable song on the CD is notable because of it’s absurdity. Your honor please allow me to enter these lyrics in as evidence.

Stay struggling with the part of me that wants to run the streets,
My Mac is in my backpack, I’m surfing on the sites,
I’m chatting, this ain’t cheating, jus telling myself a lie,
And it’s almost like I’m caught up and living another life,
Man I’m hungry for something, I need to feed this appetite

Did he really say he is struggling with the streets, he has a Mac in his backpack, and is cheating on his wife by having cyber sex in one whole verse? I don’t think they are gonna let you back in the ATL bro. I am just keeping it real.

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