Charley Patton - Poor Me

This song is from the collection Founder of the Delta Blues, a title chosen because Charley Patton was a generation older than cohorts like Robert Johnson. Towards the end of his life his voice became more and more gravelly, and the contrast between that roughness and his often delicate guitar playing creates a unique sound. As always, if you're unfamiliar with this music but like it, check out the information about Patton available on the Web.

Jon Stewart explains CNBC

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

This has been making the rounds, but in case you haven't seen it yet...it's very good.

Phil Collins, Texas History Buff

It's not often that some piece of news leaves me speechless.

Alamo is new passion for Phil Collins

William Blake: "Jerusalem"

Enjoy an English (definitely not British) experience. Here is a choir accompanied by organ, singing a work that most people who grew up in England in the last century would have heard in a form very much like this. For comparison, listen to Billy Bragg's version.

Son House - Death Letter Blues

Son House climbed into a time machine so he could a learn White Stripes song. Or maybe there's another explanation.

For some reason I'd never noticed before that this song is related to Robert Johnson's "Walking Blues." But then old blues songs tend to be members of song families more often than not.

The Mamas & The Papas - Monday, Monday

So okay, this is not the most original idea for a post for a Monday. But I couldn't think of anything better because, after all, it's Monday.

Darwin College Lecture Series on Darwin

So it's no longer February, the month that contained the Darwin bicentennial, but what the hell. Darwin College of Cambridge University has an annual lecture series with a common topic, and for 2009 they chose, appropriately enough, Charles Darwin. If you have iTunes, then you can follow this link in order to listen to those lectures. There will be eight in all--so far only six have been posted. The only complaint I have about them is that nobody in charge considered the fact that these are lectures with visual images, which of course are lost. But they are still well worth it, and have constituted the bulk of my iPod listening for the last week. The lectures are each about an hour long, and are free.

UPDATE: Okay, the link I cut and pasted does not work. So instead open iTunes, go to the store, then open iTunes U. Look for the box labeled "Spotlight: Charles Darwin." In that box one item is "Darwin College Lecture Series; Cambridge University." Click on that and you'll be there.