Michael Franti & Spearhead "The Sound of Sunshine"

Saw him at Penn State last night. One of the best live acts in the world. Classy, feel-good, smiley music.

Metallica "Enter Sandman"

The best live version of the Best Metallica song. Seattle '98

Manu Chao at Abbey Road

:-)

Cyndi Lauper "Money Changes Everything"

I wouldn't know

Emile Simon "Flowers"

I want to buy you flowers
it's such a shame you're a boy
but when you are not a girl
nobody buys you flowers

I want to buy you flowers
and now I'm standing in the shop
I must confess I wonder
if you will like my flowers

You are so sweet and I'm so alone
oh darling please
tell me you're the one
I'll buy you flowers
I'll buy you flowers
like no other girl did before

You were so sweet and I was in love
oh darling don't tell me
you found another girl
forget the flowers
because the flowers
never last for ever
never last for ever
never last for ever
my love"

Pearl Jam "Even Flow"

I love the segue at the beginning...Italian fans singing "Porch"

Freezin', rests his head on a pillow made of concrete, again.
Oh, feelin' maybe he'll see a little better set a days, ooh yeah
Oh hand out faces that he sees time again ain't that familiar, ooh yeah
Oh, dark grin he can't help when he's happy, looks insane ooh

Even flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies
Oh, he don't know so he chases them away-yeah
Oh, someday, yea, he'll begin his life again
Life again, Life again

Kneeling, looking through the paper though he doesn't know to read, ooh yeah
Oh, praying now to something that has never showed him anything
Oh, feeling understands the weather of the winters on its way
Oh, ceilings few and far between all the legal halls of shame, hey

Even flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies
Oh, he don't know so he chases them away-yeah
Oh, someday yet he'll begin his life again
Oh, whispering hands gently lead him away
Him away, him away
Yeah

Natacha Atlas "Amulet"

Natacha Atlas from Belgium

Henry Miller---The American Dream

“I had the misfortune to be nourished by the dreams and visions of great Americans—the poets and seers. Some other breed of man has won out. This world which is in the making fills me with dread. I have seen it germinate; I can read it like a blue-print. It is not a world I want to live in. It is a world suited for monomaniacs obsessed with the idea of progress—a false progress, a progress which stinks. It is a world cluttered with useless objects which men and women, in order to be exploited and degraded, are taught to regard as useful. The dreamer whose dreams are non-utilitarian has no place in this world. Whatever does not lend itself to being bought and sold, whether in the realm of things, ideas, principles, dreams or hopes, is debarred. In this world the poet is anathema, the thinker a fool, the artist an escapist, the man of vision a criminal.”

--Henry Miller

The Band "The Weight"

Levon Helm & The Band with the Staples.   LH was a drummer, singer, actor and inspiration to many. RIP.

Ligabue "Piccola Stella Senza Cielo"

Stupendo davvero. Grande liga è sempre magico!!!
I first heard Ligabue while sitting in a cafe in Rome.


Cosa ci fai in mezzo a tutta questa gente
Sei tu che vuoi
O in fin dei conti non ti frega niente
Tanti ti cercano
Spiazzati da una luce senza futuro
Altri si allungano
Vorrebbero tenerti nel loro buio

Ti brucerai
Piccola stella senza cielo
Ti mostrerai
Ci incanteremo mentre scoppi in volo
Ti scioglierai
Dietro una scia, un soffio, un velo
Ti staccherai
Perché ti tiene su soltanto un filo lo sai

Tieniti su
Le altre stelle son disposte
Solo che tu
A volte credi non ti basti
Forse capiterà

Che ti si chiuderanno gli occhi ancora
O soltanto sarà
Una parentesi di una mezz’ora

Ti brucerai
Piccola stella senza cielo
Ti mostrerai
Ci incanteremo mentre scoppi in volo
Ti scioglierai
Dietro una scia, un soffio, un velo
Ti staccherai
Perché ti tiene su soltanto un filo lo sai

Ti brucerai
Piccola stella senza cielo
Ti mostrerai
Ci incanteremo mentre scoppi in volo
Ti scioglierai
Dietro una scia, un soffio, un velo
Ti staccherai
Perché ti tiene su soltanto un filo lo sai


LITTLE STAR WITHOUT A SKY

- Translation byNausicaa -

What are you doing with all this people?
Is it your will
Or after all you don't give it a damn
Many looked for you
They were shocked by a light without a future
Many lengthened
They want to keep you in their darkness

You'll get burn
Little star without a sky
You'll show yourself
We'll be cahrmed seeing you exploding in the sky
You'll melt
After a wake, a whiff, a veil
You'll break away
Because there's only a yarn to hold you up there

Hold on
Other stars want to
Only you
Sometimes think it's not enough
Maybe it'll happen

Your eyes will close again
Or maybe it'll be
just half-an-hour break

You'll get burn
Little star without a sky
You'll show yourself
We'll be cahrmed seeing you exploding in the sky
You'll melt
After a wake, a whiff, a veil
You'll break away
Because there's only a yarn to hold you up there

You'll get burn
Little star without a sky
You'll show yourself
We'll be cahrmed seeing you exploding in the sky
You'll melt
After a wake, a whiff, a veil
You'll break away
Because there's only a yarn to hold you up there

Iceland

The song is "Staralfur" by Sigur Ros.

Bonnie Raitt "Love Me Like A Man"

I lose track of Everything else whenever this song begins to play.  

Fugees "Fu-Gee-La"

We used to be number 10, now we're permanent one
In the battle lost my finger, Mic became my arm
Pistol nozzle hits your nasal, blood becomes lukewarm
Tell the woman be easy Naah squeeze the Charmin
Test Wyclef, see death flesh get scorned
Beat you so bad make you feel like you ain't wanna be born
And tell your friends stay the hell out of my lawn
Chicken George became Dead George stealin' chickens
From my farm, damn, another dead pigeon
If your mafiosos then I'm bringin' on Haitian Sicilians
Nobody's shootin', my body's made of hand grenade
Girl bled to death while she was tongue-kissing a razor blade
That sounds sick maybe one day I'll write a horror
Blackula comes to the ghetto, jacks an ACURA
Stevie Wonder sees Crack Babies Be-Coming Enemies
Of their own families, what's going on?
Armageddon come you know we soon done
Gun by my side just in case I gotta rump
A boy on the side of Babylon
Trying to front like he's down with Mount Zion

1-Oooh La La La,
It's the way that we rock when we're doing our thang
Oooh La La La,
It's the natural LA that the Refugees Bring
Oooh La La La La La La Lalala La Laaah,
Sweeeeet Thing

Yeah in saloons we drink Boone's and battle goons till high noon,
Bust rap toons on flat spoons, take no shorts like poon poon's.
See hoochies pop coochies, for Gucci's and Lucci
Find me in my Mitsubishi, eatin' sushi, bumpin' Fugees.
Hey Hey Hey
Try to take the crew and we don't play play
Say say say
Like Paul McCartney, not hardly,
ODD-ly enough
I can see right through your bluff
Niggas huff and they puff but they can't handle us, WE BUST
Cause we fortified, I could never hide, seen "Cooley High",
Cried when Cochise died.
I'm twisted, black-listed by some other negroes,
Don't remove my Polos on the first episode.
Ha Ha Ha Ha, You shouldn't diss refugees, and
Ha Ha Ha Ha, You whole sound set's bootie , and
Ha Ha Ha Ha, You have to respect JERSEY, cause I'm superfly when
I'm super-high on the Fu-Gee-La.

(repeat 1)

I sit 90 degrees underneath palm trees,
Smokin' beadies as I burn my calories,
Brooklyn roof tops become Brooklyn tee-pees,
Who that be, enemies, wanna see the death of me.
From Hawaii to Hawthorne, I run marathons, like
Buju Banton, I'm a true champion, like,
Farakkhan reads his Daily Qu'ran it's a phenomenon,
lyrics fast like Ramadan.

What's goin' on
Armageddon come you know we soon done
Gun by my side just in case I gotta rump
A boy on the side of Babylon, trying to front like he's down with
Mount Zion.

Bjork "All is Full of Love"

Original. Amazing.

you'll be given love
you'll be taken care of
you'll be given love
you have to trust it

maybe not from the sources
you have poured yours
maybe not from the directions
you are staring at

twist your head around ;)
it's all around you
all is full of love
all around you

all is full of love
you just aint receiving
all is full of love
your phone is off the hook
all is full of love
your doors are all shut
all is full of love!

Jimmy Durante "Did you ever have the Feeling"

I get this feeling all the time.  Jimmy Durante singing 'Did You Ever Have the Feeling That You Wanted to Go' from the film 'The Man Who Came to Dinner'

Depeche Mode "Personal Jesus"

Reach out and touch .......Faith.  No really...touch it :-)     Booooyeah.

Northern Exposure "Running of the Bulls"

"If we all
Go insane
We can all
Go together
In this wild
wanton world
We can all
break
down
Forever."

 "d. w. suite" by lindsey buckingham from the album "go insane"

Northern Exposure "The Fling"

It's not the thing you fling, it's the fling itself.

Marconi Union "Weightless"

This is the song “Weightless,” by British ambient artists Marconi Union. It was written in conjunction with sound therapists from the UK.
According to this ShortList article, “Weightless works by using specific rhythms, tones, frequencies and intervals to relax the listener. A continuous rhythm of 60 BPM causes the brainwaves and heart rate to synchronise with the rhythm: a process known as ‘entrainment’. Low underlying bass tones relax the listener and a low whooshing sound with a trance-like quality takes the listener into an even deeper state of calm.”

Yeah, whatever. All I know is that I’ve listened to a decent amount of guided meditations and spiritual new-agey relaxation sounds, and this one seems to really trump them all.  Lay back in a comfy place, put on your best headphones and relax. Or better yet, get a massage while listening to this tune. Even better, lay back on your lounger on a boat floating in the South China Sea, listen to this song and watch the clouds drift by while the warm breeze caresses your bare skin.

Iggy Pop "Lust for Life"

My Birthday Song.

Neil Young "Heart of Gold"

And I'm gettin' old

Bobby Long "Two Tone Lover"

Wonderful songwriting and cool crooning from Bobby Long....enjoy.

Muddy Waters "Got My Mojo Workin'"

Got that mojo STILL working after all these years.  Happy Birthday MW.

Filastine "Colony Collapse"

Great music and video with a real message. All sites in Indonesia.

 Music: Filastine (with Nova)
Director/DOP/Editor: Astu Prasidya (aka Tooliq)
Production and Concept: Grey Filastine &
Nova Funded: by a crowd

Colony Collapse is filmed at sites of ecological friction, the fault lines of conflict between humanity and (the rest of) nature. It is a video made to confront and indict the ongoing catastrophes that are the very fabric of our globalized economic order. For examples we used....

Lapindo (Sidoarjo) Mud Disaster is an eruption of scalding mud and flammable vapors triggered by a gas drilling gone awry. It has buried more than a dozen villages and blocked a major highway, and is expected to keep expanding for the next 25 years. Lapindo is located close to the home town of the the director (Tooliq) and singer (Nova).

Below a freshly shattered dam on the shoulder of Merapi mountain. This required a meeting with an important Islamic mountain shaman, who wanted to know we weren't up to anything frivolous or disrespectful. After the vetting he sent his crew to guide and protect us, some men went upriver a few kilometers to warn us by mobile phone if a new flood was coming down.

Bantar Gebang is a landscape of trash. Garbage stretches farther than the eye can see. Mountains, rivers, and even villages where the trash-pickers live. Not something easy to summarize in words.

A supermarket nested in a mega-mall within a skyscraper. Air conditioning, shopping carts, muzak, just like any posh supermarket. But right outside is a the permanent traffic jam of Jakarta, a sprawling mega-city of at least 10 million.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
All that you can see
beneath the sun
what is made by humans
now must be undone

landscape of confusion
leaving one and all
vying against the other
welcome to our fall

(this section sung in very old javanese poetic style, not many lyrics, but what few are saying essentially says not respect for nature, not to turn our backs on our origins, or there will be consequences)

Capos of financial scams
discount offer flat-rate plan
stuck again in traffic jams
with double meaning i say damn

damn Lapindo* damn the oil
damn the gas that's burned the soil
water, air, and land are damned
now behold the works of man

allah o akbar what they say
from loudspeakers every day
i get down on knees to pray
or the sons of god might go away

(verse in bahasa)

rapping politics is uncool
but just a sec it's almost through
it's downer than the oldest school
cheap boombox more broke than rules

Gamelan and on and on
while complaining about what's wrong
the time has passed & now it's gone
it's about time to end this song

All that you can see
beneath the sun
what is made by humans
now must be undone

landscape of confusion
leaving one and all
vying against the other
welcome to our fall

Singapore

Feed the Right Wolf

Radiohead "House of Cards"

Hypnotic.



I don't wanna be your friend
I just wanna be your lover
No matter how it ends
No matter how it starts

Forget about your house of cards
And I'll do mine
Forget about your house of cards
And I'll do mine

And fall off the table, get swept under

Denial, denial

The infrastructure will collapse
Voltage spikes
Throw your keys in the bowl
Kiss your husband goodnight

Forget about your house of cards
And I'll do mine
Forget about your house of cards
And I'll do mine

Fall off the table, get swept under

Denial, denial
Denial, denial

Your ears should be burning
Denial, denial
Your ears should be burning

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Stagger Lee"

Stagger with SWAGGER.  Attitude.  The best version of this song I could find.

Lonnie Johnson "Rambler's Blues"

My traveling song.  Lonnie Johnson from New Orleans.  Played with T-Bone Burnett, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann and many other blues & jazz greats.

Rize "Heiwa"

Saw this great band during the LiveEarth broadcast in 2008. the band is RIZE.