Last Kiss (1999) – Pearl Jam

Posted on February 4, 2023 by observationblogger — 15 Comments

I always enjoyed listening to this cover version of Last Kiss by Pearl Jam. The Last Kiss was originally recorded by Wayne Cochran in 1961 on the Gala label. It failed to do well on the charts. It was later revived by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers in 1964. The song was one of several teen tragedy songs from that period. Soon after I arrived in Colombia I heard the widely popular 1989 Latin version El Ultimo Beso sung by Argentine Leo Dan.

Eddie Vedder found an old record of the song at the Fremont Antique Mall in Seattle, Washington. They recorded it exclusively for their fan club, but radio stations got ahold of it and began airing it. Eventually the song went all the way to #2 in the summer of 1999 in the US. It remains their biggest pop-crossover success. The proceeds from sales of the single went to to benefit refugees in Kosovo.

[Chorus]
Oh where, oh where can my baby be?
The Lord took her away from me
She’s gone to heaven, so I got to be good
So I can see my baby when I leave this world

[Verse 1]
We were out on a date in my daddy’s car
We hadn’t driven very far
There in the road, straight ahead
A car was stalled, the engine was dead
I couldn’t stop, so I swerved to the right
I’ll never forget the sound that night
The screaming tires, the busting glass
The painful scream that I heard last

Last Kiss would later appear on the group’s 2003 rarities album Lost Dogs. This version was successful, especially in Australia, where it topped the ARIA Singles Chart for seven weeks. It also reached number one in Iceland for six weeks and as aforementioned peaked at number two in the United States and Canada, making it the band’s highest-charting single in either country.

The band spent only a few thousand dollars mixing the song. Bassist Jeff Ament said, “It was the most minimalist recording we’ve ever done.” Christopher John Farley of Time said, “It’s a spare, morose song with Vedder’s voice warbling lovelorn over a straight-ahead drum beat. Going back to basics has put Pearl Jam back on top.” Guitarist Stone Gossard said, “You can try album after album to write a hit and spend months getting drum sounds and rewriting lyrics, or you can go to a used record store and pick out a single and fall in love with it.“

References:
1. Last Kiss – Wikipedia
2. About – Last Kiss – Genius

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I Know the End (2020) – Phoebe Bridgers (Alex and Jo Music)

Posted on February 4, 2023 by observationblogger — 3 Comments
Alex and Jo on their You Tube page

At the time I was delving into Christina Perri’s material, You Tube sent me Alex and Jo’s version of Perri’s Back in Time. To say I was moved would be an understatement. I sent it to all in a blink of an eye. Alex and Jo told me 6 days ago they are huge fans of Perri:

Haha, it’s impossible Christina Perri can’t have any bad songs, every song is masterpiece she’s that brilliant… thank YOU for listening. Sending your family much love and happiness

Since I saw Alex and Joanna’s Back in Time, I have enjoyed other versions by the Serbian twins including today’s featured track I Know the End by Phoebe Bridgers and Lorde’s Liability. My family and I are big admirers of Lorde’s Team which will feature here when we work down the alphabetical list of songs in the project. Also, Alex and Jo do an amazing job of At My Worst – Pink Sweat$.

Somewhere in Germany, but I can’t place it
Man, I hate this part of Texas
Close my eyes, fantasize
Three clicks and I’m home
When I get back I’ll lay around
Then I’ll get up and lay back down
Romanticize a quiet life
There’s no place like my room

[Chorus]
But you had to go, I know, I know, I know
Like a wave that crashed and melted on the shore
Not even the burnouts are out here anymore
And you had to go, I know, I know, I know

I was saying to Alex and Jo with respect to their version of today’s song I Know the End (which I prefer much more btw than the original) that ‘The way you break your voices at just the right parts is a stroke of genius. For example, the lines ‘Like a wave’ & Burnouts’ Wow!’ I hope one day these sisters are recognised.

They wrote in the description of their YT channel:

Hi! We are twins with passion for music and this is our journey thru singing, hope you come along and join us! Love, Alexandra and Joanna 😉

Reference:
1. I Know the End – Wikipedia

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Take Shelter (2011) – Jeff Nichols (Friday’s Finest)

Posted on February 3, 2023 by observationblogger — 2 Comments

I saw Take Shelter a few times in the year it came out. I was roused by this highly original story and appreciated how it doesn’t play down to the audience and the acting is nuanced, but impactful. It explores the themes of masculinity, mental illness, and the lengths people go to protect the ones they love. The plot as outlined below drew me in from the get-go and escalates in tension until it reaches its ambiguous climax.

IMDB Storyline:

Curtis, a father and husband, is starting to experience bad dreams and hallucinations. Assuming mental illness, he seeks medical help and counseling. However, fearing the worst, he starts building an elaborate and expensive storm shelter in their backyard. This storm shelter threatens to tear apart his family, threatens his sanity and his standing in the community, but he builds it to save his family’s life.

Take Shelter written and directed by Jeff Nichols and starring the underrated actor Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. It premiered in January 2011 at the Sundance Film Festival, and Sony Pictures Classics acquired rights to distribute the film in North America, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand. The film also screened at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the 50th Critics’ Week Grand Prix.

Take Shelter received critical acclaim. It has a rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 168 reviews, with an average score of 8/10. The consensus states “Michael Shannon gives a powerhouse performance and the purposefully subtle filmmaking creates a perfect blend of drama, terror, and dread.”
Michael Shannon purposely didn’t read up on mental illnesses before taking on the role as Curtis, as this is something the character himself knew little about. Also, in playing the role of Samantha, Jessica Chastain was paid just $100 per day.

Director Jeff Nichols reflected: “I had a very strict idea of what the end of Take Shelter was. I know exactly what happens, and it’s fascinating to see people respond to it in their own ways. The beautiful part of storytelling is that you’re not just telling people a story, they’re also telling you something about themselves too through their reactions. In that situation you’re in a conversation with your audience. I really can’t think of a more rewarding or fulfilling result for something you’ve written. It’s active, kinetic, and really humbling.”

References:
1. Take Shelter – Wikipedia
2. Take Shelter – IMDB

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Las Caleñas Son Como La Flores (1990) – The Latin Brothers

Posted on February 2, 2023 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

I wouldn’t class myself a connoisseur of Salsa music, even less an aficionado of Salsa dancing, but I prefer the more traditional and distinguished Salsa over the modern material. Las Caleñas Son Como La Flores (The Caleñas are like Flowers) is one such example of Salsa music I like listening to called ‘Tropical Music‘, although there are many different styles of Salsa some of which have been presented in this blog.

Las Caleñas Son Como La Flores heralds from the home of Salsa music in Colombia, Cali seen in the map above. This song was written to attract audiences to salsa’s capital city and its beautiful dancing women, Las Caleñas. What this title expresses is that Women from Cali are similar to the flowers because they always dress very colourful like the woman below of a thousand colours:

“The woman of a thousand colors”: the Ensálsate show that opens at the Cali Fair

(A loose english translation is below)

Cali!
Land of pretty and beautiful women

The Caleñas are like flowers
What dresses are in a thousand colors
They never give their love
If their love is not reciprocated

Walking they go along the sidewalks
Waddling they carry their waist
they move their hips
like the sugar cane in the wind

The following are excerpts from the informative article referenced below:
The origins of salsa music are often attributed to New York City’s relationship with the Puerto Rican territory and the nation of Cuba, however its popularity throughout the mid-twentieth century generated from Colombian radio broadcasts and recordings of cumbia folk music.

The Colombian record label Discos Fuentes, one of the oldest labels in Latin America, if not the world, was established in the 1930s by Antonio Fuentes Estrada and produced many timeless recordings that are still sought after by vinyl collectors. In response to the global boom of salsa music, Fuentes created The Latin Brothers in 1974.

Las Caleñas Son Como Las Flores is credited to Arturo Jorge Ospina, however the production credits of this recording are not as obvious. The 2-trombone horn section is somewhat unique while still traditional to the marching brass parades heard throughout South America, as well as a reminder that the power of salsa comes from its complementary rhythms that solidify the groove, rather than the flashy, extended, solo melodies of latin jazz.

References:
1. “Las Caleñas Son Como Las Flores” – The Latin Brothers – Trombone Alex

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The Story of the Soul

Posted on February 1, 2023 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

The following is transcribed (with minor changes for translation purposes) from 2 hours, 39 minutes in the 877th podcast of Joe Rogan with Jordan Peterson:

It isn’t as if intellectuals are characterised by an intrinsic moral superiority. ‘Oh they are smart so they will leap to the defence of what is right’. No. There is no evidence for that. Intelligence and moral wisdom aren’t the same thing. Like, if you are corrupt and smart, all that makes you is way more treacherous…You are 56 headed snakes instead of 2.

I have had clients who had very serious personality disorders who were very intelligent. It’s like.. that’s not necessarily a good thing for them. They are just better for arguing their pathology.

Let me tell you a story…

One time I had this client. This woman was just ruined. She looked like a street person and had very dirty clothes. She was so shy she couldn’t even approach you. She had to shield her eyes from you as if you were emitting light. She did that to everyone on the street and she was bent over and humble like a Chinese peasant brought before the emperor.

One of the things I was doing with her in Behavioural therapy was just trying to get her to present herself in a more normal manner so that people wouldn’t shy away from her and be instantly prejudiced towards her.
She wasn’t bright this woman. I think she only had a seventh-grade education and quite intellectually impaired. She lived with her sick Aunt who was schizophrenic and had a satanically possessed alcoholic boyfriend that was always tormenting my client. She lived in absolute hell.

But she had this dog and she used to take it and walk the dog all the time. And then she had come to the behavioural therapy clinic partly because of her own problem, but she had come to this place called the Douglas hospital where she had been inpatient in the hospital. And in the hospital, there were these long-term psychiatric patients. And they looked like something out of a Hieronymus Bosch painting (see above) or Dante’s Inferno. I mean these people…this is way worse than ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest‘. These people were seriously destroyed. And they couldn’t be let back on the street…They were there for life.

She had decided that part of the reason that she wanted to come to the hospital was because she had been institutionalised there and she thought that maybe when she took her dog out for a walk, that she could go and get one of those damn inmates and take them out for a walk also.

Now, this is a person who was moral.
Dumb as a post… screwed in 50 different directions and nothing going for her. And she had the ‘bloody’ moral capacity to just decide that there was someone worse off than her and believe me – that wasn’t easy to find. And maybe she could do them some good if the hospital would let her. Which they didn’t do by the way.

Yeh well, that’s the story of the soul. That’s not the intellect – that’s for sure.

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The AnkiDroid Collection (Part 32) – Beethoven, Assyrian Army & LUCA

Posted on February 1, 2023 by observationblogger — 7 Comments

Ankidroid additions related to Science, History and Philosophy. More information about Anki can be found in this article.

My Favourite Beethoven Piece

Beethoven in 1815, portrayed by Joseph Willibrord Mähler

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 Adagio Un Poco Mosso

I was finding it frustrating not remembering my favourite classical pieces. It’s a cinch to remember titles by contemporary music artists like Perri’s Jar of Hearts or Evergone, but a pain in the rump to remember the Van’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 Adagio Un Poco Mosso o Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 Mov 2. I have this blog where I can write about them, but I’m not going to remember the titles unless I put them to memory using my Ankidroid.

I was listening to this sublime piece by the Van only yesterday. If Classical music doesn’t do it for you, then I beg you to just listen from 1.30 until 2.30. The transition between the sweeping Violin ensemble into the single finger piano playing is something to behold. Someone described listening to Beethoven ‘like never being alone’. I had the sensation that life couldn’t be more beautiful listening to this. I will never forget the name of this piano concerto.

The First Great Military Army in History

The Assyrian Army

The Assyrians were a warrior society and major ancient Mesopotamian (Modern Iraq) civilization and grew to become the greatest empire in the ancient world prior to the conquests of Alexander the Great and, after him, the Roman Empire. They were cruel and ruthless and existed between 1360 – 1070 BC. Eventually the Babylonians took them down in 612 BC.

LUCA

LUCA – Last Universal Common Ancestor

Cerca 3.8 billion years ago there existed the last common ancestor of all life. Single Cell organisms branching to Bacteria or Archaea (another microorganism) which then branch out to form Plantae, Animalia and Fungi. LUCA’s genes metabolized Hydrogen as a source of energy and survive in scorching acidic waters.

Researchers found in the 1970’s at the depths of 2km near the Galapagos Islands – hydrothermal vents (400-degree waters). Here the Bacteria or Archaea in this vent ecosystem converted the chemical energy from black smoke’s complement of minerals into biologically available energy – food. Elsewhere food chains ultimately came back to the sun’s energy – plants capture the sun’s light and convert it into sugars creating complex food chains.

On the ocean floor there is no sun, but the single cell organisms take hydrogen gas or iron sulphide and use them to power their own metabolisms. Animals eat them or enslave them in their bodies to produce energy unreliant on the sun. Conditions ideal for LUCA.

Our lineage may not have seen the sun for millions of years.

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Posted in Music, Reading, Science

Largo from Xerxes (1738) – George Frideric Handel

Posted on January 31, 2023 by observationblogger — 4 Comments

This exquisite opening aria from Handel’s 1738 opera Serse is known as Ombra mai fu and Largo from Xerxes or Handel’s Largo. The opera was a commercial failure, lasting only five performances in London after its premiere. In the 19th century, however, the aria was rediscovered and became one of Handel’s best-known pieces. Handel adapted the aria from the setting by Giovanni Bononcini, who, in turn, adapted it from the setting by Francesco Cavalli. 

The title translates from the Italian as “Never was a shade“. It is sung by the main character, Xerxes I of Persia, admiring the shade of a plane tree.

Tender and beautiful fronds
of my beloved plane tree,
let Fate smile upon you.
May thunder, lightning, and storms
never disturb your dear peace,
nor may you by blowing winds be profaned.

Never was a shade
of any plant
dearer and more lovely,
or more sweet.

Originally composed to be sung by a soprano castrato (and typically sung in modern performances of Serse by a countertenor, contralto or a mezzo-soprano; sometimes even by a tenor or high baritone an octave below), it has been arranged for other voice types and instruments, including solo organ, solo piano, violin or cello and piano, and string ensembles, often under the title “Largo from Xerxes” or (as in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town) simply “Handel’s Largo”, although the original tempo is marked larghetto.

Steve Brooker wrote in the comments of the video below that ‘Beethoven said Handel was able to achieve dramatic effects with simple techniques and praised him as the greatest composer. This piece, sung by the lovely Patricia Janeckova -a rising star is a thing of elevated beauty‘.

References:
1. Ombra mai fu – Wikipedia

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23/1 – 29/1/23 – The Moon and The Joker

Posted on January 30, 2023 by observationblogger — 5 Comments
news on the march

Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.

The New Science of Moon Formation
Video presentation at PBS Space Time

I wrote in a new card entry recently for my AnkiDroid Collection about the origin of the Moon. It goes something like this:

The standard giant-impact hypothesis suggests that a Mars-sized body, called Theia, impacted the proto-Earth, creating a large debris ring around Earth, which then accreted to form the Moon. This collision also resulted in the 23.5° tilted axis of the Earth, thus causing the seasons. The Moon’s oxygen isotopic ratios seem to be essentially identical to Earth’s… 

This video expands on the fascinating topic of the formation of the moon.

Einstein once asked whether “the moon exists only when I look at it?”. It was rhetorical objection to the idea that measurement in quantum mechanics causes reality to become real. But there was a time when the moon didn’t exist, and then hours later suddenly did. At least, according to the latest simulations of its formation. (View the full presentation here)

Alan Watts – The Joker
Audio presentation at Positive Vibes

One of Alan’s most popular seminars, and for good reason—in The Joker, listeners will find out why every society needs fools in order to remind itself not to take life so damn seriously.

…the function of the fool became more sophisticated than that, and he became a person whose function was not simply to make jokes and to be a funny man, but to remind the monarch of his humanity so that he would never, never get too stuffy. You’ll remember, perhaps, the lines in Richard II, where the king says:

Within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his watch and there the antic sits,
Scoffing at his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a little time,
To monarchize, be fear’d and kill with looks,
And then at the last comes death, and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!

See, that was, in a way, the function of the fool. He was reminding you of your finitude; of your mortality; and death, at the end—in somewhat the same way as monks used to keep, on the desks in their cells, a grinning skull. And all this is, of course, nowadays thought very morbid, because today we repress death very, very strongly. (Listen to audio presentation here)

news on the march the end
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As it Seems (2013) – Lily Kershaw

Posted on January 29, 2023 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

I accidentally stumbled upon this song when I was looking for another song on You Tube. Some accidents pay dividends and that was the case when I heard As It Seems by Lily Kershaw. Apart from the gentle cadence and sweet voice of Lily, I found myself enchanted by the lyrics. It’s nice when you can relate so personally with a song. The feel of this song As It Seems reminds me of Natalie Merchant’s music especially the song Motherland.
All music described Lily as: ‘A folk pop singer, songwriter, and guitarist with a knack for writing melodic and narrative songs that carry an uncanny emotional resonance… that aren’t afraid to move into deeper territory than the typical pop song. 

Well I knew
What I didn’t want to know
And I saw
Where I didn’t want to go
So I took the path less traveled on
And I’ll let my stories be whispered
When I’m gone…

Well in this life you must find something to live for
‘Cause when the darkness comes a callin’
You’ll go back to where you were before
‘Cause this life is as
Fragile as a dream, and
Nothing’s ever really
As it seems…

Lily Kershaw was born on June 20, 1991 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She first began working as an actress, taking small television roles at a young age. Concurrent to her acting career, she was also playing guitar and honing her craft as a songwriter. Her public breakthrough as a musician came when one of her songs, As It Seems was featured in the season seven finale of the popular CBS television series Criminal Minds in 2012.

It is stated in Song Meanings – this song is about someone who’s dying and looking back. Lily Kershaw herself stated that it was about “death“, inspired by a “life crisis” and a “troublesome romantic relationship“.

References:
1. Lily Kershaw – All Music
2. As It Seems – Song Meanings

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Arms (2011) – Christina Perri

Posted on January 28, 2023 by observationblogger — 2 Comments

All aboard the Christina Perri train! Choo Choo! I spent yesterday updating songs to my music library project and trying to get back into blogger-mode. I realised as I was adding the new additions that about half of all the new songs were by Christina Perri. One of those is today’s featured song, the magnificent Arms. I’m yet to hear a bad song by Perri, in fact almost all songs by her that have arrived in my You Tube feed end up in my music collection. After hearing so much of her music yesterday, I came to the conclusion last night that Christina Perri IS my favourite female contemporary music artist. She knocked Eva Cassidy, Kasey Chambers and Marcela Gandara off that esteemed pedestal.

I’ll say it straight up that Perri’s facial expressions and accompanying voice in the first 25 seconds of the official video release below just leaves me breathless. That’s the aspect of her art which bewilders me is that this type of music isn’t what normally impresses me, but in the case of Perri’s music, by the end of each Perri song I hear, I just want to f&%king cry. I can’t remember the last time, if at all, I had this emotional connection with someone’s music. I must be getting sentimental in my old age.
Arms was the second single released from her 2011 debut album Lovestrong. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 94. Arms briefly made a comeback in 2017, reaching #36 on the iTunes chart.

[Verse 3]
The world is coming down on me and I can’t find a reason to be loved
I never wanna leave you but I can’t make you bleed if I’m alone

[Bridge]
You put your arms around me
And I believe that it’s easier for you to let me go…

[Hook]
I hope that you see right through my walls
I hope that you catch me cause I’m already falling
I’ll never let a love get so close
You put your arms around me and I’m home

Arms is Perri’s first song to be recorded with a full band, as Perri’s one previous single, Jar of Hearts, contained no drums. Like Jar of Hearts, Arms is built around a piano melody.  Although the song “packs a little less venom” than Perri’s lead single, it still lyrically contains the “crazy” lovesick emotions typically referred to Perri’s style of music. Lyrically, Perri begins the song in a happy tune, singing “I never thought that you would be the one to hold my heart / You came around and you knocked me off the ground from the start.” More into the song, Perri begins to question the relationship, ultimately finding comfort as she ends the song repeating the hook. Arms progresses from a folky ballad to a melodic love song, incorporating timpani drums.

Perri stated:

‘Arms’ is about the fight between your heart and your mind. Your heart wants to be loved but your head is always telling you reasons not to be with him or her, or how you are not worth the love. It’s about the struggle and finally giving in when you’re wrapped in their arms. Then you get it. Then you feel loved and love wins.”

The music video for the single was filmed in what Perri described as “a two-day shoot that kicked my ass so hard.” Perri had co-written the video treatment herself. Perri stated that she took a physical pummeling as she played a super-hero during the shoot, jokingly adding, “I don’t know why I think I’m an action hero” For the flying scenes, she was involved in weeks of training. It still escapes me why she needed that, but she is better than almost all birds I have seen flying in the sky. So, I suppose it kinda paid off.

Below the music video I have forwarded a magnificent live version by Perri in St Pete, Florida. I hope you enjoy.

References:
1. Arms – Christina Perri

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