Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen

Forgot to post this yesterday. I guess the future arrived anyway, although JR was right in general about its form.

Charlie Parker - April in Paris

Bird with strings. Needed to squeeze this one in before April came to an end.

Ann-Margret - Bye Bye Birdie (Title song)

Ann-Margret turns seventy today. The sequence shown here was used in an episode of Mad Men, and is a beautiful example of early sixties film-making. Not to mention a beautiful example of why Ann-Margret was so popular.

Nature and All That Stuff

Thunderhead at sunset, a little blurry.

X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage! Up Yours!

Otis Spann (with the Muddy Waters Band) - Cold Feeling Blues

Barbara Lynn - You'll Lose A Good Thing

Huey P. Meaux died yesterday at the age of eighty-two. He was a leading behind-the-scenes figure in Texas music in the second half of the twentieth century, although his reputation was deeply damaged by revelations that came out when he was about seventy of sex with underage females. He served nearly ten years in prison. But like O.J. Simpson's football career, the later crimes overshadow but don't erase the earlier achievements. Among many others, he produced Barbara Lynn's classic seen here.

William Shakespeare - Sonnet 73

Happy birthday to Willie the Shake. Not sure who the reader is.

Krugman on Health Care and Consumerism

Krugman explores the world of consumer-based medical care, as opposed to government-provided.

“Consumer-based” medicine has been a bust everywhere it has been tried. To take the most directly relevant example, Medicare Advantage, which was originally called Medicare + Choice, was supposed to save money; it ended up costing substantially more than traditional Medicare. America has the most “consumer-driven” health care system in the advanced world. It also has by far the highest costs yet provides a quality of care no better than far cheaper systems in other countries.

Jesus Christ Superstar - The Last Supper

The Kinks - Days

From their clothes and the general mise-en-scène, you wouldn't know that this is a song about mourning. But it is. So this is for the dearly departed.

Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli - Night and Day

When the angels take a break from singing, they listen to this.

Skip Spence - Little Hands

America's answer to Syd Barrett, at least as far as being a hippie-era brilliant songwriter whose career ended early thanks to madness.

Frank Sinatra - Summer Wind (Alternate take)

It's not summer yet in this hemisphere, but what the hell. Nelson Riddle arranged.

Aphra Behn - "Love Reveng'd"

As read by Karen Eterovich.

Ruination Day

Ruination day was actually yesterday, but I forgot. Here's Gillian Welch explaining.

"April the 14th, Pt. 1"


"Ruination Day, Pt. 2"

The Great Flydini

Just because.

Al Green - Love and Happiness

Josephine Baker - Bye Bye Blackbird (1927)

Krugman on Obama as Political Tactician

I fear Krugman is correct. Which is what I often feel when reading him.

Mr. Obama is conspicuously failing to mount any kind of challenge to the philosophy now dominating Washington discussion — a philosophy that says the poor must accept big cuts in Medicaid and food stamps; the middle class must accept big cuts in Medicare (actually a dismantling of the whole program); and corporations and the rich must accept big cuts in the taxes they have to pay. Shared sacrifice!

The Stylistics － Break Up To Make Up

Philadelphia songwriter Linda Creed died twenty-five years ago today. One of the behind-the-scenes regulars in the Philly soul music scene of the seventies, she's credited along with Kenny Gamble and Thom Bell for this song by the Stylistics.

Drudkh - 1648/Eternal Sun

Ukrainian death metal band I just learned about.

The Beach Boys - Shut Down

Haven't posted on politics recently, and...still aren't truly going to today. Not that there aren't important things happening, but I've had things going on in my life that put posting time at a premium, doing political posts takes time to do well, there are a lot of good blogs covering politics anyway, and there are always other things that are worth posting one way or another. The best I can do for now, to mark the impending US federal government shutdown, is a song about a different kind of shutdown.

Percy Faith - Theme from A Summer Place

When this song was included in the movie Animal House, it verified the filmmakers' attention to period detail. It was everywhere at one point in the early sixties. Tempus fugit, no? Still sounds pretty neat.

Firesign Theatre - Frame Me Pretty, Pt. 1

Happy birthday to Philip Austin, one-fourth of the Firesign Theatre, comic actor and writer of many and varied skills, but indelibly known as Nick Danger.

Lord Buckley - The Nazz (excerpt)

As the description says, "A snippet of Lord Buckley performing 'The Nazz,' Gate of Horn, Chicago, 1960."

Hannah Peel - The Almond Tree (solo)

Stephen Colbert Sings "Friday" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

H/t Atrios.

The Corner (Excerpt)

David Mills, television writer, died unexpectedly a year ago last Wednesday. I knew him a little from his online presence, and had exchanged e-mail and online comments with him. His knowledge, intelligence, and undemonstrative but very real kindness, made him something special.

Here's a few minutes from the TV show for which he shared two Emmies with his friend and colleague David Simon, The Corner. As you can see, it shared a number of elements with the later, better-known The Wire.

Susan Boyle - Wild Horses