Miscellaneous pop-culture items from the last couple of weeks: — I’m apparently a sucker for half-finished music, as I bought Dylan’s Witmark Demos album a week or so ago, and Springsteen’s The Promise, a collection of stuff recorded between Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town, last night. The Springsteen stuff is […]
Category: Music
Rock Stars of Science
So, if you look at this picture: You might be asking yourself “Why does Debbie Harry rate Secret Service protection?” But no, this isn’t a photo from some alternate universe where the lead singer of Blondie went on to become leader of the free world, it’s part of the Rock Stars of Science campaign by […]
The Mild Grover
The other night at dinner, SteelyKid kept demanding that we sing. As there’s only so many times you can sing the alphabet in a row, I decided to mix it up a little, and sang her the first verse and the chorus of “The Wild Rover” (these lyrics are close to the ones I know, […]
The Bob Dylan Plan for Economic Growth
I bought the Witmark Demos a week or so ago, because I could always use another 50 Bob Dylan songs, and listening to them on shuffle play has managed to earworm me with one song in particular, “I Shall Be Free”, which it occurs to me has great current relevance: Well, my telephone rang it […]
Short Story Club: “My Father’s Singularity” by Brenda Cooper
This week’s Short Story Club entry is “My Father’s Singularity” by Brenda Cooper. Who I keep having to remind myself is not the Brenda-with-a-surname-starting-with-C that I remember posting to rec.arts.sf.written back in the day (that was Brenda Clough). This is set in the not-too-distant future in the Pacific Northwest, and is the first-person tale of […]
Musical Poll: Remix This!
On the way in to work, I heard yet another example of the deplorable trend of taking the vocal tracks of slow songs– in this case, “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance” by Vampire Weekend– and replacing the musical backing with a 120 beats-per-minute dance beat that sounds like it was generated by a high-end […]
Who Is the Velvet Underground of Science?
I’m shamelessly stealing this question from James Nicoll, who asked it about science fiction. The question is a play on the famous comment that only of order a thousand people bought the first Velvet Underground record, but every one of them went on to start a band. So, the question is, who is the Velvet […]
Cheerful Kiss-Off Songs
The AV Club offers a list of 28 gleeful breakup songs, a category that includes some great tunes. The comments contain some good additional suggestions, and they still missed one of my all-time favorites, “Bye, Bye” by the Subdudes (if that link won’t play, you can get a cell-phone camera live version on YouTube— skip […]
Ode to a Rubber Dinosaur
Rubber dino, you’re the one, You make bathtime lots of fun Rubber dino, I’m awfully fond of you Doo-doo doo-de-doo Rubber dino, fearsome roar, Good thing you’re a herbivore Rubber dino, I’m awfully fond of you doo-doo doo-de-doo Every day when I, get undressed next to the sink, I find a Little fella who’s, cute […]
Pop Culture Poll: Wedding Music
Prompted by an off-line conversation, a question about the magnum opus of Jim Steinman and Marvin Lee Aday: Playing “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” at a wedding reception is:online surveys I’m sure you can come up with lots of songs that would be even less appropriate. Feel free to leave them in the comments.