Tag Archives: Music

Voices from the Grave: Bonus Stuart Adamson Edition

Posted on by
3

Big Country‘s Stuart Adamson would have been 54 today. In his honour, I’m straying a bit from the normal Voices from the Grave subject matter. I hope that you enjoy this special musical interlude. Here’s an acoustic version of ‘Harvest Home’.

 

 

Who saw the fences falling Who broke the ploughman’s bread

 

 

A Year in Books/Day 99: PUNK 365

Posted on by
2
  • Title: PUNK 365
  • Author: Holly George-Warren/Foreword by Richard Hell
  • Year Published: 2007 (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: 2010
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: There’s one intense, arresting image for every day of the year. From the legendary to the obscure, the best and brightest, wildest and strangest punk rockers have been time-captured by a long list of great rock photographers. George-Warren’s brief but illuminating text accompanies each photo.
  • Motivation: I’m a punk girl to my soul.
    Siouxsie Sioux at the Edinburgh Tiffany's, 1980

    Siouxsie Sioux at the Edinburgh Tiffany's, 1980 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    I could spend pages waxing eloquently about how Joe, Siouxsie, Ari, Poly, Richard, Lydia and Exene (and so many others) have affected my life, my outlook, my feminism, my humanity, my creativity.

  • Times Read: Countless
  • Random Excerpt/Page
  • Happiness Scale: Off the charts!!

A Year in Books/Day 84: Picture This Debbie Harry and Blondie

Posted on by
4
  • Title: Picture This Debbie Harry and Blondie
  • Author: Mick Rock
  • Year Published: 2004 (Sanctuary Publishing Limited)
  • Year Purchased: 2004
  • Source: Via mail, exact source unknown.
  • About: This is famed photographer Mick Rock’s obsessively lovely visual tribute to Debbie Harry and, casually, by way of association, her bandmates in Blondie. It’s a reminder-for those in actual need of one-of how truly stunning, original and photogenic the singer has always been. He also throws in anecdotes about other  rock and rollers who have been covered by his lens.
  • Motivation: Going into this one, I had to repeat the phrase “Must not natter on about my love for Debbie Harry, must not natter on about my love for Debbie Harry…” The Blondie frontwoman is who I wanted to grow up to be: confident, talented, singular and beautiful. I still feel that way.  I’m equipped with so many thoughts about DH that it is only with real effort that I pack them away for another day. I’ll move on to the next category before this becomes a 3,000 word essay or I stray into suspiciously flowery, fangirl territory.

    Debbie Harry performing with Blondie at the Zw...

    Debbie Harry performing with Blondie at the Zwarte Cross festival on Friday July 15th 2011 in Lichtenvoorde the Netherlands (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  • Times Read: cover-to-cover: 3/picture gawking: countless
  • Random Excerpt/Page 103: “Not that her allure was any less potent, for her appeal did not (and does not) reside solely in her blondness. It’s an innate quality. There has always been a softness,a non-narcissistic casualness about the way she deals with her physical appeal.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10++++++

A Year in Books/Day 28: Cinderella’s Big Score

Posted on by
Reply
  • Siouxsie Sioux at the Edinburgh Tiffany's, 1980

    Image via Wikipedia

    Title: Cinderella’s Big Score Women of the punk and Indie Underground

  • Author: Maria Raha
  • Year Published: 2005 (Seal Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2010
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: ‘Cinderella’s Big Score’ is a potent combination of music history and witty, trenchant beatdown on the punk patriarchy, served up with an awesome array of black and white photographs.
  • Motivation: Come closer. Come closer still. You may not know it-after all, we’re fairly new acquaintances and I usually look so mild-mannered-but I’m a punk chick, old school. I’m also a feminist. This book is a dream come true.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 44: Exene Cervenka exudes pure power. This sense of assuredness emanates from a stark emotional purity and her ability to fully, bravely expose herself without posturing. She hits hight notes without compromise and her voice conveys a raw severity and nakedness, once prompting John Doe to extol: “She had poems that were obviously songs, plus she was cut from classic lead singer cloth. She was such a bad ass! I pretended to be, but Exene was the real thing. She had the ax to grind, the sadness of her mother’s death, and the unusual wiring that made it possible for her to throw a drink in somebody’s face and still be right. She totally delivered as a lead singer.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10++

Inspiration Board-2 January 2012

Posted on by
Reply
Alfred Stieglitz

Image by Smithsonian Institution via Flickr

  1. My Faraway One Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz (Edited by Sarah Greenough)-Volume 1, covering the years 1915-1933, gathers nearly 800 pages of correspondence between one of the most celebrated creative couples of the 20th-Century. As another uncertain new year dawns, I am drawing inspiration from those who lived life close to the bone.
  2. Pack Up by Eliza Doolittle-3 minutes of upbeat, infectious fun with an unexpected retro bluesy hook by Lloyd Wade.
  3. Berries-The lush colour of ripe berries is popping up everywhere in stores this Winter. I purchased 2 pairs of deep raspberry shoes over the weekend. An explosive kick of colour is just what I need to get through the next few slushy, salty, grey months.
  4. The Winter Classic-As if on cue this morning, the sky over the Queen City burst open and shook out millions of fat, wet snowflakes just in time for the Winter Classic. Played this afternoon in Philadelphia between the Flyers and the New York Rangers, the annual open-air hockey fight-out is one of the few redeeming features of this coldest of seasons.
    English: Photo portrait of Georgia O'Keeffe by...

    Image via Wikipedia

     

Related articles