For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.
This year I've been taking a once-a-month look at specific instruments and showcasing five songs or tunes which place that instrument front and center.
This year's feature is called Spotlight On...
...and for our tenth installment, let's move into an element of deeper tonal complexity by the addition of a string section. Strings immediately bring a sense of emotion along with them, whether it's joyfulness or melancholy.
Moving on, we explored percussion with April's look at drums, May's look at the vibraphone or vibes, June's look at piano, and wrapping things up with cowbell in July.
In August I trained the spotlight on a favorite of mine, the bass guitar. In September we gave the stage over to that diva of instruments -- the lead guitar.
For October, I'm moving from stringed guitars to orchestral strings. Here are five songs where the string arrangements are the prominent feature.
1 - Tonight, Tonight - Smashing Pumpkins - 1996
And what about the awesome music video by Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris?
For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.
The Canadian federal election is in full swing.
This week's set is dedicated to the sitting prime minister.
For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.
This year I've been taking a once-a-month look at specific instruments and showcasing five songs or tunes which place that instrument front and center.
This year's feature is called Spotlight On...
...and for our eighth installment, I'm transitioning from percussion to rhythm. We began the year listening to the primal body instruments of hand-clapping, whistling and vocal harmonies. Moving on, we explored percussion with April's look at drums, May's look at the vibraphone or vibes, June's look at piano, and wrapping things up with cowbell in July.
For August let's listen to one of my favorite instruments -- bass guitar.
The bass is a stringed instrument, yet its function is to anchor the groove of the music alongside the more obvious percussive sibling, the drums. Bass players often use percussion techniques such as slapping the strings, popping them (a more aggressive plucking) or thumping, as well as playing the strings as would a lead guitarist.
1 - Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey - The Beatles - 1968
This song is extra groovey, with handclaps, bell and other smaller percussion instruments shared out by The Beatles. Paul McCartney totally rocks out on bass with this track.
2 - Reach Out I'll Be There - The Four Tops -1966
The bass player on this track is the one, the only James Jamerson.
"A true session giant, Jamerson has played on over 30 number one records, laid down stone cold grooves for the biggest artists Motown, soul and funk could throw at him, and has influenced scores of bass players from all genres of music." -- Claire Davies, MusicRadar
What is a session musician? These are working musicians who are in demand for recording sessions or live performances, but who do not permanently join a particular group.
Being a session musician generally means more stability as far as residence, because there is less need to tour the country or head out internationally. The session musician builds a reputation locally and becomes the go-to instrumentalist when other acts come to town. This gives the musician the added benefit of playing in many musical styles and alongside a vast array of fellow musicians.
3 - Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) - Sly and the Family Stone - 1969
I hope you've been busy groovin' to these tunes. Get ready to cut loose with the slapping funk of Larry Graham, who is credited as the originator of this technique.
4 - Come On, Come Over - Jaco Pastorius featuring Sam and Dave - 1976
This is a fairly tame, more accessible tune from a legendary bass player. He was already teaching bass at the University of Miami at the age of 22. His self-titled debut album coaxed Sam and Dave to reunite just so they could work with him. He played for Weather Report from 1976 - 81, leaving to work on a myriad of solo projects, collaborations and session work. He passed away at the young age of 35 after years of erratic behavior and deteriorating health, a direct result of mental illness.
Jaco Pastorius was loved by family and friends, and revered by his fellow musicians. His death is a simple yet sober reminder that the grip of mental illness can be stronger than the best support system, stronger than the remedies available, stronger even than the burning flame burning inside the person who lives with this type of chronic condition.
As an added bonus for this week's set, here's a far more typical example of Jaco Pastorius' groundbreaking bass playing. He was incredibly influential, pushing the bass to new levels with his lyrical style and use of harmonics.
Continuum - 1976
5 - Hysteria - Muse - 2003
Stepping away from the funkier tracks to some rock bass playing, here is Christopher Wolstenholme of Muse with a base line voted 6th best bass line of all time by MusicRadar.
For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.
This is only the third annual celebration of this initiative, which seeks to balance the persistent drive to measure a nation's or a people's success in terms of economic output, with its citizens' sense of wellbeing.
One could be extremely jaded and point to a deep savings in national spending for such a measurement. After all, when a population is unhappy, there is more individual use of alcohol and recreational drugs, more medical costs to treat addiction and its ripple effects, more lost days at work, and if the unrest is at high levels, more risk for riots, which adds to spending on police forces and infrastructure rebuilding.
I feel that the International Day of Happiness is a combination of those factors as well as the real desire for nations to recognize that higher individual happiness leads to a higher-performing nation, overall.
You may have encountered this line of thinking in the corporate world already. A happier workforce, as it turns out, is far more energized and of course profitable.
This year, the Day of Happiness is looking to build "the world's happiest playlist". Here is my 5 on Friday contribution. All of the tracks remind me of a time in my life when things were hopeful, even when there were mountain-sized obstacles to climb.
For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.
Now that August has arrived, it's time for my monthly feature for 5 on Friday -- The Hit Makers.
Once a month I'm going to feature the songs that launched careers. I'll be looking at different musical styles and the groups or singers from those styles who I love the best.
Here are five of my favorite progressive rock bands and the songs that brought them to the masses.
1 - Roundabout -- Yes -- 1971
2 - Dancing With the Moonlit Knight -- Genesis -- 1973
For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.
If you've been following the #YesAllWomen social media trend this week, you'll know that the recent murder spree at the University of California, Santa Barbaratriggered an outpouring of reaction from women in response to the shooter's perceived lack of social success with the opposite gender.
In my opinion, the murder spree is a mental health issue, just as here in Halifax the murder two years ago of Raymond Taavel was also a mental health issue, though it triggered a wave of support for gay rights due to the words spoken at the time of the attack -- "He was consistently using the word faggot," said a witness to the fatal attack. (CTV News)
A tumblr blogger wrote the following account of just another day in the life of a woman, adding her voice to the #YesAllWomen hashtag:
In response, male writer Tom Hawking wrote this encouraging piece, which looks at the encounter from a broader perspective, which often gets missed in the heat of people sharing painful experiences:
"Put yourself in his position, in isolation, and you might see how he felt the way he did -- to his own eyes, he was no doubt making mildly flirtatious small talk with a girl who, to his eyes, shut him down with unnecessary emotional force. And now he feels like a victim. He didn't deserve that, he thinks to himself. What's up her ass, anyway? Why didn't she enjoy the attention?
If you're a woman reading this, you're probably shaking your head and saying, "F**k that guy'...
Understand that your actions don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in the context of a society where literally every woman you will ever meet has a similar story to tell...You don't get a gold star for being a good person. It's the minimum standard of human decency that anyone should be able to expect." -- Tom Hawking, Flavorwire
I am one of those with multiple #YesAllWomen stories to tell, only one of which I will share here with you:
After a long day of editing my fourth year film at Ryerson, I headed for the streetcar in Toronto in the late afternoon -- a bright, sunny day, lots of people around, and me dressed in comfortable, casual clothing for the editing room (not in any sort of come-hither outfit, which has to be mentioned because that is apparently always relevant.)
I was stopped by a young man about university-student age, someone who was well-groomed and not crazy-looking (also relevant, as there are enough odd sorts of people in the downtown of a large city, and giving wide berth to those who look like they've been on a bender is a good start.) So, not expecting trouble, I listened as he asked if I knew what time it was.
I checked my watch. "Quarter to three," I said.
"Beautiful tits," he said.
Me: going from tired and thinking about what was I going to have for supper, to mind-blanking rage in one split second (bearing in mind what Tom Hawking said about actions not existing in a vacuum, and already having too many #YesAllWomen encounters in my life)
Me: grabbing my purse from my shoulder intending to clobber him in the side of the head with it
Him: seeing me start to grab my purse to hit him
Me: (in my mind) No! No! You can't do that! It's assault. You can't assault someone.
Me: changing to my left hand, darting it forward, grabbing the white styrofoam coffee cup out of his hand, squeezing it and dumping the coffee all over him
Him: "What the hell are you doing, you f**king bitch?"
Me: "What did you say to me?" (loud enough for eveyone to hear)
Him: "I said 'What time is it?"
Me: "You said 'Beautiful tits'!"
I dumped the empty cup on the ground, looked up the street at everyone frozen in place, and carried on until I got on board my streetcar.
Another day in the life of two people whose experiences up to that point resulted in a misguided attempt at flattery (!?!) from him, and a Kill Bill reaction to it from me.
So this week's musical set is dedicated to the work that still needs to be done in our culture when it comes to gender relations.
I freely admit to many forms of obsession. I don't see any of them as minuses in my life as a creative person. An obsessive compulsive disorder detracts from a person's life, getting in the way of doing basic things. A driving passion, however, is not only to be embraced if you're going to master something enough to truly understand your creative medium (or your sport, if that's what you love to do) -- it's actually necessary. If I told you someone repeated the same actions in the same sequence over and over every evening before he went to bed, you might think, wow, that person must have OCD. Yet, if I told you that person was an elite violinist and he was working on musical scales, perfecting his technique, you would have a much different view of that person than if I told you it was a guy who re-sorted his DVD collection into perfect blocks of color according to the packaging spines of the jewel cases -- but only if he looked behind each DVD three times. If you asked hockey superstar Sidney Crosby how many hours he's spent shooting a puck into the net, he probably wouldn't be able to tell you. If he didn't obsessively practise his hockey technique, he would not be the player he has become. For artists and athletes, the word 'obsession' could basically be replaced with 'passion'. One of my most enjoyable obsessions/passions is listening to music while I'm writing. It often has nothing to do with the tone or subject matter of the scene I'm working on. I just have to be obsessed with it. I'll know I'm obsessed with a song or a piece of music when I end up choosing it as the first song of the writing session, playing it about six times in a row, and then returning to it a few times during that writing time. Often, that song will go through my head while I'm riding the bus, and I'll hum it through the day, only to race towards it once again the next evening. For me, I find that my musical obsessions act as a short-cut to placing me in the head-space I need in order to write fiction. I'm telling my brain 'Write NOW' with my obsessive selection. So, here are thirteen of my current and former musical obsessions, all of which have led to the scenes that become my books. 1 - I'm Your Boogie Man -- KC and the Sunshine Band
2 - Assassin -- Muse
3 - Princes of the Universe -- Queen
4 - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? -- Moby This version specifically, with all of the Dean and Sam voiceovers from Supernatural
5 - Lies -- The Pierces Also, this version specifically, because there are Guy of Gisborne scenes in this one that I will stop to watch.
6 - I'm Crying -- The Animals I guess I can see a bit of a pattern here (LOL!) Guess that's why I'm obsessed with these ones.
Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.
This week's set is inspired by a major character from my Scorpius work-in-progress, which is also my NaNoWriMo project. He appears in Book 1 in my Dragonsfyre series, and will return for Book 2 - Scorpius' second master, Lord Thibault.
1 - Fame - David Bowie
2 - Lust For Life - Iggy Pop
3 -Resistance - Muse
4 - Promise of a Lifetime - Kutless
(Footage is from Supernatural, featuring uber-responsible older brother Dean and dragged-into-the-family-business younger brother Sam)
Champion of the Arts - I write historical and paranormal fiction, as well as poetry. I love to showcase creative works by artists of all stripes. Blogging from Nova Scotia, Canada
Posts
