John Lennon Visits Our BLawg And Sings For Us

The wonderful 'It's Christmas' song by Lennon was heard over and over that year when he died just a few days before Christmas. This movie makes it all look as if it's happening now. And things haven't really changed that much! The singing starts at around 2/3 into that video. Enjoy

Worse Music Video Ever

Finnish music video from the 80's. Having worked in Finland in the late seventies, why am I not surprised?

Mantra Pour Deux Internautes

Nicole's latest musical creation, served with WMP colored backgrounds. The theme of two beings meeting peacefully in cyberspace.

Our Friend Is Back With This Time A Bouquet Of Jewish Folklore

That same Lithuanian Martynas who gave us the wonderful Vivaldi Autumn comes up with this medley of Jewish songs with wonderful Baltic (or Slavic?) harmonics. 'Hava Naguila' will never sound the same to us again. Unless of course you chose to hear it from the Polish heavy metal group below, an utterly different...if somewhat scary!... experience.

Which Accordionist Do You Prefer - I Need To Know In What Direction To Develop

Young Excitable Stainless Steel Russia

This as response to a well deserve tongue lashing from an insulted Russian blawger (you know...'Mazel Tov" with the lady pulling the plow). This other Russia is equally valid. And there will be others soon. Meanwhile click on MENU for recent Russian pop.

Mazel Tov (Good Luck!) - Russia, we love ya!

This photomontage is dedicated to Marie (aka Odile, aka MangoBetty) who admitted that the only Yiddish she knows is 'Mazel Tov', an expression still without a meaning to her. This montage of Russian photos on the song 'Mazel Tov' , will show fellow humans that seems to beg for 'Mazel Tov', a little 'Good Luck!'. There! now you know the meaning ;-)
Now when this video is over, click on MENU and see various renditions of MAZEL TOV.some hilarious.
Thanks Eric for the great photos.

Old Cajun Wedding Song

Both sides of my family are Acadians, farmers from Eastern Canada. They all ran away from the English in Nova Scotia and thus avoided deportation to foreign land. They had to hide in the woods for a 100 years, learning survival skills and trading with the indians. They slowly migrated towards New Brunswick and Quebec and multiplied like rabbits.
Those who got deported on boats as far south as Louisiana were called Cajuns ( from 'cadians) and developed agriculture to provide food for the Spanish troops what had sponsored them. They were cut off from France for 400 years and today have their own linguo, music and food all e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y picturesque.
I'm playing the accordion for a marriage this Sunday, so I checked out YouTube for ideas and found this: a cajun wedding song, with strange echoes of longing. These folks stay close to home and party. Who wants to be deported again anyway.
VIDEO BY: CajunAccordeon
If you can't stand this song, click MENU and check out the other videos (Bayou Lafourche wedding, etc...for a different Cajun tune and a happier tone ;-)

The Power Of 'Tennessee Waltz'

After the war, the prolific Belgian author Simenon, father of famed Commissaire Maigret, was not happy with his wife nor with his editor or even with Europe. So he moved to Quebec and started writing again with Denyse Ouimet as his new secretary. As was his custom with all of them, he soon fathered a child with Denyse, keeping all his people in tow when he moved, which he did every year. So a caravan of large cars successively traveled to Connecticut, Tennessee, Arizona etc...buying a huge house at every stop until he had 33. In Reno, he got a quick divorce from his first wife and sent her packing, then started to dip into a Spanish maid. Later Denyse slowly went insane and had to be placed into a mental institution.
Then the beautiful but disturbed daughter Marie-Jo got jealous. When she was 8 years old she already knew that she was madly in love with her father. He had bought her a wedding ring then. In her letters published posthumously she admitted that the happiest moment of her short life was on a transatlantic cruise when daddy asked her for a dance as the band started to play 'Tennessee Waltz'. "He held me tight against his tweed jacket and smelled of wonderful pipe tobacco" .
Later, after having written his biography where he bragged of having had sex with 10,000 women, Mari-Jo asked him "Why not me?" He refused to make love to her even when she threatened him at gunpoint to do so, instead giving her a bottomless bank account. Simenon sent her to an insane asylum several times. She was diagnosed at that time as manic-depressive, but she was mostly depressed for long periods, having few manic attacks like the one just described. A twenty five, after writing 100 wonderful unmailed letters from her all-devouring passion for daddy, she shot herself. "Save me Daddy – I’m dying – I’m lost in the space, the silence of death" In her last message, she asked to be cremated wearing the ring he had given her.
You can read all about it here. Her ashes were spread on a Lausanne lawn where Simenon died several years later, a darkness having enveloped his later years.
I composed this audio track last night thinking about her not a little because I was also obsessed with that same song, albeit not sharing the same degree of affection for her father. The steel guitar continuum is actually a piano play modified by the software. Same for the flute and everything else actually. Hope you like it for a mood to suggest the mind of the disturbed child of an autocratic father. Bi-polar disorder is a problem solving mechanism gone awry, mostly because the problem to be solved just cannot be solved. The dear girl wanted the love of her father. He had told her, "if you love me, please please do not disturb me needlessly". She sometimes spent over a year with no contact from her father, not wanting to displease him.
On a lighter note, I just hope Amélie doesn't develop the same passion for me...but then we had her neutered. That should help.

It's a BLAW day, so lets hit Garage Band on the Mac

The pictures are mostly 2 years old but the tune is only one hour old. Done entirely using the garage band software on the Mac I only use for music. It's meant to scare you for Halloween.
The northern landscape scrolling is a site where I did a project where the owner still owes me $15K. Just a reminder for me to go collect that money and save the honor of this household. I will keep you posted.

We Were Young and Innocent in 1959 - See And Hear Kathy Young and The Innocents 48 Years Later

I fell in love with that beautiful voice through her first and only hit, 'A Thousand Stars'. I didn't know that she was only 14 when she taped it. I was a 'mature' 16 at that time. She lived in Santa Ana, CA where her father worked at the Studebaker factory. Our family owned a Studebaker. I was going to write her to tell her that.
Recently reunited with her group, 'The Innocents', for a PBS fund raiser, my heart still swells hearing that song again from her pretty mouth. Today she is a Sunkist Orange representative and a renowned marathon runner. Read about the complicated life she has had... just like our own, I suppose.

It's Czaturday! Let's Have a Czarda!

Nutin' like a czarda to czase the blues away! And these two British musicians have so much unity of purpose and performance. Let's all move to Bucharest and learn to dance. If you liked the accelerating pace, try the 2nd and 5th tunes these guys play by clicking on MENU. Write your comments!
Pour Roberpierre zé autres francophones anglophobes:
Y'a rien comme une vigoureuse czarda roumaine pour chasser les blouzes.

The 'CABALLO VIEJO' musical poll, 15 minutes of real work for you.

This Venezuelian classic that celebrates 'the tired old horse' is interpreted by everything from Julio , several dancers and one caged parrot. Chose the version(s) that are the least irritating to your ears...and eyes. Scroll up and down arrows to see the full selection. And don't forget the second half of Nabil's performance: it's in ARABIC!!! Multiple choices are encouraged ...and VOTE PRONTO! this is last poll of the month. Promised!
The winning performers will receive a bottle of aged White Horse Blended Scotch Whisky. The Parrot? Well! Can he really win??

Oh! by the way, the voting booth has been moved at the bottom LEFT of this blog for convenience. 4 days left and only 4 voters. Bad news as we may end up drinking that entire bottle ourselves.

Accordion Autumn. Vivaldi Still Rocks!

For those of you lucky enough to have the smell of burning autumn leaves in your nostrils, this young man will give you his best rendition of a favorite of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Wonderful to have an 18th century Venitian priest played four centuries later by a boy in a room facing a $29.95 videocam. The libretto of this work reads aloud like colorful falling leaves.

Autumn Concerto in F Major

Allegro
"Celebra il Vilanel con balli e Canti
Del felice raccolto il bel piacere
E del liquor de Bacco accesi tanti
Finiscono col Sonno il lor godere"

Adagio molto
"Fa ch' ogn' uno tralasci e balli e canti
L' aria che temperata da piacere,
E la Staggion ch' invita tanti e tanti
D' un dolcissimo Sonno al bel godere."

Allegro
"I cacciator alla nov' alba a caccia
Con corni, Schioppi, e canni escono fuore
Fugge la belua, e Seguono la traccia;
Gia Sbigottita, e lassa al gran rumore
De' Schioppi e canni, ferita minaccia
Languida di fuggir, ma oppressa muore."

Unfortunately the translation posted
in my comment below does leaves a hurt.

Siquieros, A Mexicain Painter At The New Ensenada Fine Arts Museum.

Click START to view animation, REFRESH page to stop it. I know, it sucks!

The newly opened 'Casa De Artes' in Ensenada is a lovely building. Equally admirable was their first show, the Mexican painter called Siquieros who produced this energetic fresh piece back in 1952. It is a perspective study for a mural, one that I interpreted in 'loop format' to make the pleasure last ...much longer. The remix is something done by throwing together a cumbia (great Columbian music like this tune posted earlier) with a flamenco piece and some special effects.

Rome with the Music of Nino Rota, a Free Weekend Trip for All

Money back guarantee if you are not entirely satisfied! J.

'OKTOBER', Our First Marching Band Musical Composition Ever

It needs to be said that the air has a simple purpose: to suggest the simplicity and universality of our low-cost and efficient building technology. We think of ourselves at being better designers than musicians, but please remember that the faults in this march do not reflect the product that is being built, but rather the funky low-skill crew required for its erection. This being said, we did not WILLINGLY include dissonances and bad timing ;-) ... I can't wait to write another march, hopefully on par with this classic 1900 French march

La Gota Fria - A Little Fire For Your Soul

We need this for cold autumn evenings, right? . It's Carlos Vives doin' GOTA FRIA ...from the classic columbian song. Then read the lyrics below and if you can improve the English translation.

La Gota Fría
Emiliano Zuleta
Interprete: Carlos Vives
Disco: Clásicos De La Provincia

El autor de esta famosa canción, Emiliano Zuleta, parece tener un pleito con otro músico, un tal Lorenzo Morales. El esta canción, Emiliano le dice algunas cosas no muy agradables a Lorenzo. Tengo entendido que Lorenzo le contestó en su día con otra canción.

Acordate Moralito de aquel día que estuviste en Urumita y no quisiste hacer parranda. Te fuiste de mañanita. Sería de la misma rabia (bis) En mis notas soy extenso. A mí nadie me corrige. (bis) Para tocar con Lorenzo mañana sábado, día de la Virgen (bis) * Me lleva él o me lo llevo yo pa' que se acabe la vaina (bis) ¡Ay! Morales a mí no me lleva porque no me da la gana Moralito a mí no me lleva porque no me da la gana. ¿Qué cultura, qué cultura va a tener un indio chumeca como Lorenzo Morales? ¿qué cultura va a tener, si nació en los cardonales? (bis) Morales mienta a mi mama solamente pa' ofender. (bis) Para que él también se ofenda, ahora le miento a la de él. (bis) Me lleva él o me lo llevo yo … Moralito, Moralito se creía que él a mí, que él a mí me iba a ganar, pero cuando me oyo tocar le cayó la gota fría, (bis) Al cabo él la compartía y el tiro le salió mal. (bis) Me lleva él o me lo llevo yo …

Moralito, remember that day When you were in Uramita and did not want to come to the party? You left early in the morning Was it because of that grugde from long ago? When I play the accordion, my notes are extensive And nobody needs to correct me To play with him at the feast Saturday morning On the day of Virgin Mary, Either he'll defeat me, or I'll defeat him there Finishing that argument once and for all Ay, Morales does not defeat me Because I don't feel like giving in Moralito does not defeat me Because I don't feel like giving inWhat good manners would a chumeca indianlike Lorenzo Morales have?What good manners would he haveSince he was raised amidst fields of cardón cacti? Moralito tells my mom lies about me Just to upset me And now, just to upset him I'll tell his lies about him Moralito was sure that He would beat me But when he heard me playing He sweated cold for fear In the end, he agreed he had lost And his ambitions just backfired

Precious Musical DNA From The Fifties

Here is a rare glimpse of my well-traveled grand-papa Jared Poirier. As a youth he picked bananas for United Fruits in Guatemala, and also this lovely song. This demonstrates the unique musical talent, good looks and taste for anything Spanish that runs in the family..... Thanks Jared!

Beethoven's Rollover - An Identity Crisis

You might prefer this more definitive version I posted at YouTube: