Today it’s raining and gray, so I decided to create a little Last.FM station for the rag “rain”. It’s perfect for today.
Now I’m listening to songs in my iTunes with the word “rain”. It’s cool to match the music to the day. It makes the rain seem romantic rather than just straight-up icky! Here’s one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums. It’s “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” by Ella Fitzgerald from Live in Budapest:
John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats) has written a novel about a kid in an inpatient treatment facility who is denied his tapes, most particularly Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality. This novel is part of the 33 1/3 series. John read excerpts from the novel at Regulator Books in Durham. I bought a copy, and I definitely recommend you do that same. His ability as a songwriter definitely translates to prose, and his experience in a past life as a psychiatric nurse certainly adds to the realism of the piece.
Listen to a little bit:
John also played an AIDS Walk Benefit in NYC this past weekend. In his introduction, he said, “Thank you for coming out to support AIDS Walk. When I was a young nurse, I worked with people with AIDS in Los Angeles, and I’m not going to get all maudlin about it, but I really appreciate your support of this wonderful organization. In that spirit, I’m going to play a bunch of songs that I hardly ever play.”
NYC Taper has MP3’s of the entire set. It’s so worth a listen. I finally got around to it yesterday. Pop Tarts Suck Toasted has several videos of the gig posted.
The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton (chosen because it’s Brooklyn John’s favorite!)
John Darnielle keeps on keeping on. The proliferation of songs and writing from this man is endless. A hundred years after his death, rabid fans will still be trying to collect everything he ever did. Yeah, he could sit on his laurels for a long while, and his fans could try and catch up, but that’s what I like about him. He’s always one step ahead.
(Thanks to Wayne for taking these pictures tonight. While my wrist is fixed, my camera died today, so no pictures of me by me. Luckily, Andy and Rich have come to the rescue with loaners, and Al is sending me a film camera he’d mentioned he wanted to give me a while back. I’ve got good peeps around me. Have I said that before? I’ll say it again. I have good peeps around me.)
I have a busy day, so not much time to comment, but here is the ever-growing set of Obama pictures from last night. Tom picked me up at 5pm, we drove to The Friday Center, took the shuttle bus, waited in the rain in a VERY long line, and got inside the Dean Dome at UNC around 7pm. We opted to get as close as possible. Standing on the floor takes work, so I hope you all really enjoy these pictures!! My back is killing me today!
This set will be growing over the week, so keep checking back!
Some video of him entering the venue:
The next morning, Barack woke up bright and early to play pickup basketball with the Tarheels (and Sam Perkins, formerly of the Seattle Supersonics, a big Barack Obama supporter, and one of his introducers last night)! Link
I love that this is my most interesting/popular picture on Flickr from the last month:
