The Dutchman

Dance me to the end of love

Flobots - Handlebars

Really like this one.



I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

Look at me, look at me
hands in the air like it's good to be
ALIVE
and I'm a famous rapper
even when the paths're all crookedy
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to "De Colores"
And "I'm Proud to be an American"
Me and my friend saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want cuz, look:

I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome

I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone

Look at me
Look at me
Just called to say that it's good to be
ALIVE
In such a small world
All curled up with a book to read
I can make money open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine sixty four
Miles to a gallon of gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions
I know how to run a business
And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance
I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone
I can split the atoms of a molecule
Of a molecule
Of a molecule

Look at me
Look at me
Driving and I won't stop
And it feels so good to be
Alive and on top
My reach is global
My tower secure
My cause is noble
My power is pure
I can hand out a million vaccinations
Or let'em all die in exasperation
Have'em all healed of their lacerations
Have'em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don't like'em and
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command
I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite
and I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope
and I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handle bars
No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

One

Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now?
You got someone to blame
You say

One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don't care for it

Did I disappoint you?
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without
Well it's

Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One

Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus?
To the lepers in your head

Did I ask too much?
More than a lot.
You gave me nothing,
Now it's all I got
We're one
But we're not the same
Well we
Hurt each other
Then we do it again
You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt

One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other

One

One

Falling Slowly - Hansard and Irglova

An unofficial music video. Let's see how long it can stay up before the corporate boys start blocking.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Turn Into

Sharon Shannon & Mundy - Galway Girl

Have to say, I prefer the Steve Earl and Sharon Shannon version of this, but this video is a good 'un too.

Another one stuck in my head

"Pukka-pukka-pukka-pukka-pukka-pukka...!"
"What?"
"Sorry. Tune stuck in my head. Pukka-pukka-pukka-pukka-pukka...!"
"Which tune?"
"That Van Halen song from the 80s.... 'Why can't this be love'..."

Since I joined up the blogmusik.net site, (also known as Deezer), I've been enjoying a nostalgic re-listen to the soundtrack of my mis-spent youth.

"Whee-whee-whee-whee-we-we....!"
"ZZ-top...? 'Legs'?
"Right on...!"

"Dee-dee-de-dee... de-de-de-dee-dee...!
"Europe...? 'The Final Countdown'?
"Definitely."

"You're talking to yourself again, aren't you?"
"Yes, we are."

Next week I'm making my second First Communion to the sound of T-Rex. Be warned. It may be quite a conversation.

Rory Gallagher - Garbage Man

Nightwish - Over the Hills and Far Away

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

A vial of hope and a vial of pain,
In the light they both looked the same.
Poured them out on into the world,
On every boy and every girl.

It's in the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival,
If the Neon Bible is right.

Take the poison of your age,
Don’t lick your fingers when you turn the page,
What I know is what you know is right,
In the city it's the only light.

It's the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival,
If the Neon Bible is right.

Oh God! well look at you now!
Oh! you lost it, but you don’t know how!
In the light of a golden calf,
Oh God! I had to laugh!

Take the poison of your age,
Don’t lick your fingers when you turn the page,
It was wrong but you said it was right,
In the future I will read at night.

In the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival,
If the Neon Bible is true.

Youth may be "wasted on the young..."

...but what fun to find this video of two fine ladies who rocked the 80s. Watch their original 1980s video here.

Best. Aria. Ever.

Wikipedia (all bow) tells us:

"An aria (Italian for air; plural: arie or arias in common usage) in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. It is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment. Perhaps the most common context for arias is opera..."

"Pagliacci (Clowns) is an opera in two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It is the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'Arte troupe...."

So anyway, this fella, Pagliaccio , finds out his mot is playing away with another clown. (Where have we heard this scenario before, or so perfectly described???). The show must go on. But the heart must also break. The words of the aria are shown in Italian and in English in Wikipedia in this article.

The best rendition, I think, of this is by Placido Domingo in this 1978 version:

UPDATE: The site owner has disabled embedding, so the video won't show now on this Blog. However, please Visit This Page to see the video.

Original Italian
Recitar! Mentre preso dal delirio,
non so più quel che dico,
e quel che faccio!
Eppur è d'uopo, sforzati!
Bah! sei tu forse un uom?
Tu se' Pagliaccio!
Vesti la giubba,
e la faccia in farina.
La gente paga, e rider vuole qua.
E se Arlecchin t'invola Colombina,
ridi, Pagliaccio, e ognun applaudirà!
Tramuta in lazzi lo spasmo ed il pianto;
in una smorfia il singhiozzo il dolor, Ah!
Ridi, Pagliaccio,
sul tuo amore infranto!
Ridi del duol, che t'avvelena il cor!

English Translation
Play a part! While I'm still reeling,
Unsure of what I say
or what I'm doing
Yet you've got to, force yourself!
Or aren't you a man?
You're just Pagliaccio!
Get into costume,
and smear on your makeup
The public's paying to have a laugh or two
If Arlecchino runs off with Colombina
laugh all the louder, the croud will cheer you on.
Pretend your anguish is nothing but clowning,
and hide your sobbing behind a silly grin.
Laugh, Pagliaccio
though your love lies in pieces.
Laugh through the pain, the pain that poisons your heart.

Eurovision 2007 over bar the shouting

Finland's presentation of the 2007 Eurovision song contest started with a new high-production value video of last year's winning group, Lordi, performing the incomparable "Hard Rock Halluljah." Doubtless there will be complaints from those who object to zombies warming up the Arctic with flaming computer effects, but I thought it was a great investment.

I won't add much more about the quality of the commentary on Irish television channel RTE. It remained abyssmally low.

The show itself was disappointing for the average quality of most of the songs. It seems that many of the harder rock numbers which had been entered in the semi-final stages had not been voted through and so the final 24 acts were generally pop acts. The Eurovision has traditionally tended towards pop music and if voting in the semi-final is anything to go by it seems to be going back in that direction.

Ireland's entry, "They can't stop the spring," has had its music score revised since it first appeared on the Late Late Show "competition" from which it sprung (sorry!). One is reminded that competition judge Frank McNamara almost told Pat Kenny how bad the song was at that time. Europe didn't spare the Irish any blushes last night putting the song in its proper place: given 5 points by Albania and not a sausage by anyone else, Dervish's attempt to make John Waters out-of-date political dirge seem remotely entertaining failed utterly. We finished in last place for the first time in the competition. Already the post-mortem denials are starting this morning on Irish radio: the contest is "no longer a song contest, but a spectacle," etc. But the fact is, Dervish's singer is, to be kind, a niche singer and in a contest of this type appeared out of place and in the unforgiving live performance she sounded annoyingly nasal.

The contrived pulp-pop UK entry didn't fare much better and finished joint second-last.

For me, two acts stood out of the ordinary: The Moldovan entry, Fight, performed by Natalia Barbu, who gave a masterly live vocal demonstration, and the entry from Slovenia, Cvet Z Juga, performed by Alenka Gotar. And no, I have no idea what Cvet Z Juga means...

Internet rumour has it that Finnish metal band, Nightwish, may be interested in inviting Alenka Gotar to join them to replace estranged lead singer, Tarya Turunen. I hope it's true.

The interval act was an entertaining mix of heavy rock music played by cello, acrobatic trapeze artistes and circus performers.

Countries whose entries had been eliminated in the semi-final stage were still qualified to vote, and so the competition had the potential for going on interminably at the voting stage. This was avoided by the instant application of the lower votes to the scoreboard and the calling out of the 8 point, 10 point, and 12 point awards of each country. While it meant the logistics of the competition were improved it did require a little mental and visual agility among viewers as the scoreboard rapidly changed.

In the end, Serbia, entering the competition for the first time, won with its ballad, Molitva, performed by Marija Šerifovic. It sounds like a traditional Eurovision winner and it has to be said Marija Šerifovic has some pair of lungs on her... whatever it is she's singing about..(!)

So, all over bar the shouting, the hangovers, the accusations, blame, and most of all the lack of any lesson learned. Will I be watching it again next year? I hope so. Will RTE produce something likely to win? Not without taking the courage to NOT send something sub-standard. Quality WILL win out over bloc-voting.

Grease

Click here. That's all.

Willie Nelson - She is Gone

Changed the link to this one. Now visit this link to see the man himself in action.

Huzzah!

Made it to Friday.

It's been a poxy week and today I started off wearing odd socks for luck, for as luck would have it two odd socks were paired up in the drawer when I took them out and I already had one on when I noticed. That's about as lucky as the day went. After that, no figures would balance, no report would report, no feckin numbers would crunch.

I have not established exactly how long before an election an election candidate may erect an election poster either. If anyone knows, please tell me.

Otherwise, I have learned my overtime cheque is spent already and is not going to be replenished in any near future by our Payroll section.

"We paid you two weeks overtime last paycheck," I am told.

Brian Cowan munched so much of it in tax I thought I'd only received the one and was quietly planning fiendish things for the second installment. On such notes did my day proceed to a 60th birthday teaparty for our boss. Songs and lemonade ensued, which was a pleasant ending to the week. I think I need beer.

Picture is of Ken Dodd, by the way.

I'm from Barcelona - Treehouse

And in celebration of the crowd at NTL doing their job and restoring our access to Blogger, here's a video of my current all-time (for the moment) favourite song, by I'm From Barcelona.

That's not a crowd invasion on the stage, by the way. That's the band. All 30 or so of 'em.

I'm from Barcelona

No need to beat yourself up?

First published at the Metal Music & Lifestyle Forum

"Keith Terry is a percussionist/rhythm dancer whose work encompasses a number of allied performance disciplines — music, dance, theater, performance art — which he brings together to create an artistic vision that defies easy categorization. As a self-defined "body musician," Terry uses the oldest musical instrument in the world — the human body (his own) — as the basis for exploring, blending and bending traditional and contemporary rhythmic, percussive and movement possibilities.

"Trained as a percussionist, Keith was the drummer for the original Jazz Tap Ensemble when he found his drum patterns becoming hand claps and foot steps. Soon percussion became dance, his body his instrument, and his own style of body music emerged. Keith's influences range from Japanese Taiko and Balinese Gamelan to North American rhythm tap and Ethiopian armpit music. http://www.crosspulse.com/ "

Okay. Ethiopian armpit music??