Friday, July 18, 2008
Musical interlude
Readers know that Patti Smith is perhaps my favorite artist, even if she is supporting Barack Obama in this election. ;-) Her most recent album, Twelve, is still in frequent rotation on my iPod. Yesterday (hat tip Cursor), I learned she had recently played in Beirut, and played a 2006 song of hers I hadn't heard before, Qana, about one of many Israeli massacres of the people of Lebanon. You can listen to or download the mp3 here or watch a YouTube video here. It's not her greatest song by a long shot, but it's an important subject (lyrics are here).
Yesterday I stopped at Starbucks (ok, shoot me, disown me, whatever). Actually I didn't buy anything (line was too long and I was in a hurry) but I did snap up one of the free music download cards. Every time I've done that before, the music has always been some pop pablum not worth the price (which is hard to do when the price is free!). But this time it was someone I've never heard of before named James Hunter. Hunter sounds like (and plays music like) a black guy from New Orleans, but actually he's a white guy from England. As it turns out, you can go to his website and listen to his entire latest album (as well as an earlier album) which is fabulous stuff. Check it out! There are a number of YouTube videos up; here's one:
