Comment Archives: stories: Music, Arts & Culture
Re: “Off the Charts”
That "Motherfucking Bike" video is pretty funny — and I ride my bike every day!
Extra credit goes to Abdominal, 'Pedal Pusher':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTVxqXbjbCM
Re: “Off the Charts”
Seriously though, there are several more notable (non-joke) ones I'd like to add.
There was a 60's group called Tomorrow (featuring a pre-Yes Steve Howe) that recorded "My White Bicycle" (it's on one of the Nuggets collections and was evidently a hit in Europe) and was later covered by Nazareth, The Space Negroes and 'Neil' (actor Nigel Planer) from "The Young Ones".
Leo Kottke has a nice instrumental ditty called "Busted Bicycle".
XTC fans might know "Bike Ride To The Moon" by The Dukes Of Stratosphear.
Cracker has a couple relevant ones, my favorite being the hidden track #88 on the Kerosene Hat CD: "I Ride My Bike".
New York band Masters Of Reality (featuring Ginger Baker on drums at one point) had a short tune on their second album, "Sunrise On The Sufferbus", called "Bicycle" that's quite nice.
Livingston Taylor had a whole album entitled "Bicycle" in the mid 90s. The title track is somewhat humorous, intentional or not.
More current examples include The Decemberists' "Apology Song" (about guilt over a stolen bike), "Let Me Lie" by Trey Anastasio (“Gonna take my bike out, gonna take my bike. Gonna ride it slowly gonna ride it just how I like”), TV On The Radio's "Bicycles Are Red Hot" or even Bouncing Souls' "The BMX Song".
Since most of the above are good I'll add one stinker. "Handlebars" by The Flobots has to be one of the worst (seemingly) bicycle-related songs even though it's probably got nothing to do with riding a bike. It should have just been called "G.W.'s Folly".
The absolute best lyrics about manual pedaling may be from "The Acoustic Motorbike" by Luka Bloom:
"You see whenever I'm alone
I tend to brood
But when I'm out on my bike
It's a different mood
I leave my brain at home
Get up on the saddle
No hanging around
I don't diddle-daddle
I work my legs
I pump my thighs
Take in the scenery passing me by
The Kerry Mountains or the Wicklow Hills
The antidote to my emotional ills
A motion built upon human toil
Nuclear free needs no oil
But it makes me hot, makes me hard
I never thought I could have come this far
Through miles of mountains, valleys, streams
This is the right stuff filling my dreams
So come on, get up on your bike
Ah go on, get up on your bike"
Re: “Off the Charts”
C'mon Gabe. Don't tell me you missed THIS one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgCqz3l33kU
Re: “Most High God”
Looks like part of this story got cut - the part about how Snider's borrowing the outfit he first saw Jerry Jeff wear onstage when he performs his album-release tribute. Which is why the sentence about someone asking to borrow his Keith Richards T-shirt no longer makes sense. But c'est la vie.
Re: “Echoes of Kingston”
I went to the show!
One original left.
He didn't move much.
I did.
Re: “Broken Hearts”
I was recently at a Montgomery High School dance show in which they dedicated the entire show to Whitney and her music. It was refreshing to hear them recite and dance her beautiful ballads. I found myself singing along. Really, her music was so fun and I can't believe I remember every single word to each one. She was a true artist and may she rest in peace. Thanks Gabe.
Re: “Fifteen Minutes”
Open Mic nights coming to Heritage Public House soon: next to The Wineyard and DArgenzio Winery at 1305 Cleveland Ave Santa Rosa
Re: “Twenty Years On”
I met Polly once, she came over to play baseball. She was my best friend's best friend from Petaluma. The three of us had a typical childhood dispute about the rules of baseball. A year later, she was kidnapped. I remember feeling helpless to comfort my friend and grasping to cope with the unfolding events. Thank you to Rebecca Miller for writing this, I hope it's healing for anyone who was affected by the loss of this beautiful person.
Re: “The F-Word”
turns out Samuel L. Jackson did the audiobook....worth noting...and it's free to listen to
Re: “The F-Word”
Other great optional children's book titles:
"Charlie And the F'n Chocolate Factory"
"Blueberries for F'n Sal"
"Where the F- Are the wild things?
Re: “Space Odyssey”
Nice writeup! I had no idea how intuned Mikey Hart is with the universe, not that it's in the least surprising. What a rad concept though: converting lightwaves into sonic frequencies. Can't wait for the album...
Re: “Page Turner”
Speaking of books, here's an author event of a local author:
LOVE AND TERROR IN THE MIDDLE EAST by Dr. Frank Romano, author event:
- Saturday, May 12th, 2012 from 1-3 pm, at Barnes and Noble Booksellers, 700 4th
Street, Santa Rosa.
The book “Love and Terror in the Middle East” is about the author’s recent quest for spiritual peace among religions in the Middle East, notably highlighting interfaith activities in Israel and Palestine. He takes readers to the middle of the Jenin Refugee Camp as well as Hebron and Ramallah, where he spoke with many former prisoners of the Israeli government.
Traveling between these areas has been risky: he has been harassed and arrested by the Palestinian police, harassed by Israeli soldiers and attacked by West Bank settlers. Last month, a peace activist friend of Romano’s, an Israeli Jew, was murdered in the West Bank. Several months before that, another of his interfaith peace activist friends was murdered in Jerusalem.
The author believes that from the Jenin Refugee Camp, the heartthrob of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, will flow the river of peace that will reach the four corners of the world.
The book also delves into his agonized divorce with his first wife and separation from his three children after she fled to the United States, which ironically becomes a springboard for the author to seek his passion, interfaith peace in the Holy Land through love and understanding. In the meantime he meets another woman with whom he has a daughter. But his activities in Israel and the West Bank give rise to conflict with his new family. His passion for interfaith peace inspired the closing of his law firm in Marseille and the permanent separation from his partner and their daughter in Paris over his dedication to traveling to the Middle East and organizing marches and dialogues for peace in the middle of the conflict.
Then the author takes us to the middle of the Occupied Territories, to the West Bank City of Jenin, for a peace march in the place that offered the greatest resistance to Israeli soldiers during confrontations over the past 20 years.
His search thereafter for interfaith peace interweaves with his sometimes tragic personal life, hints of love and the desperation after a series of lovers and broken relationships. His life sometimes resembles more a personal battlefield than a peacemaking mission as he continues to look for love among Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Holy Land.
Concerning my first book, “Storm Over Morocco”, I earlier was interviewed live by FOX NEWS 26 and FOX 4 NEWS, Houston September 4th and Kansas City September 6, 2008 respectively and was a participant during a panel discussion concerning spiritual issues broadcasted live by a Houston Time Warner television station. Finally, I gave a power point presentation about my book and interfaith activities at the Mid-Manhattan Library in New York City on October 13, 2007. In addition, on January 4th, 2008, Brady Douglas and Jennifer Kielman, News Anchors, of NBC Channel 56 on KETK interviewed me during a 5 O’clock News broadcast, in particular about the situation in the Middle East.
Author has just returned from the Middle East.
See website: www.frankromano-lt.com.
For interviews and/or reviews, contact Dr. Romano at: frankfro@aol.com or 917 524 5005 or +33607763418
Re: “Schulz's Footsteps”
Hopefully someone or more than one will make a nice video of this ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyQ27hn1en8
Re: “Broken Hearts”
Thank you for such an honest and open piece on the sensualised death of an icon.
Re: “Broken Hearts”
Great piece, Gabe, probably the best I've read.
Re: “No Dur”
my mother's maiden name was rice. rice-a-roni was a popular nickname.. you know.. the san francisco treat..
Re: “Down in Flames”
That last sentence in the review didn't make any sense. Why does the author assume that pilots wouldn't talk a fair amount of smack when in the act of shooting down an enemy? Prayer before going up into the skies would seem like a commonplace act as well, especially so when one considers that the odds were fairly good that they wouldn't be returning. The reason for the CGI is simple; there simply aren't enough of the vintage planes depicted flying these days to make it practical to use them. So George Lucas used WW2 footage as the idea for Star Wars. How does that detract from the movie? There's nothing wrong with adding a little melodrama to make a movie more palatable to the movie goers that know very little about the war. The reviewer would have one believe that the movie was a bust with regard to its historical accuracy when really what he didn't like was that it pulled at heartstrings which didn't sit well with him. My father was a Tuskegee Airman and I'm quite sure that if he were alive today, he wouldn't have had nearly as much of a problem with the way his comrades were depicted as the reviewer did. Totally lame review, or rather, reviewer.
This Week's Issue
Re: “It's the Joint”
It was a fantastic find for my todo list this weekend. Thanks Bohemian! -Tony McCoy, Petaluma