I love Pink Floyd. Animals, The Wall, Dark Side they all make my list of desert island albums. Wish You Were Here was a five song full length album written after the incredible success of Dark Side of the Moon. Beginning and ending the album are the two parts of the song Shine on You Crazy Diamond.
I downloaded it off Amazon the other day. I had heard parts before, the shortened live versions or the greatest hits version. But I wanted to hear the whole thing. The album's most known song, Wish You Were Here served as a ode to Syd Barrett, the founder of the group who had slipped into mental illness and left the band years before. This song in it's epic length also served as a song for Syd.
It is, like much of Pink Floyd, uncompromising in it's vitality and, to many, it's inaccessibility. After all 22 minutes plus just for two different stanza's of actual singing.
What does it mean. It means that Pink Floyd became one of the biggest bands in the world. It means that this happened after their founder slipped away into a mental haze. It means that they never forgot his influence. It means that as soon as they were beyond the record company's instruction and " untouchable" they made sure Syd knew how they felt.
Shine on You Crazy Diamond is a personal message we all get to hear.
Friday, April 30, 2010
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
This eleven minute song from Traffic is a classic. Not exactly a rocker it is a slow, jazzy number from Traffic when they were at their creative peak. Steve Winwood, probably a little underrated in rock history had a sweet voice. Earlier I have commented on this songs with Blind Faith.
Every week or two I add a playlist to my 14 year old son's IPOD so that he can explore music he has not been exposed too. Remarkably while not all of the music I send his way becomes music he enjoys much if it does. Music appears to be the one thing that he actually thinks I know something about.
In this recent list I gave him this song appears. I have my doubts if he can appreciate it. He loves Bruce, Petty and The Who. Traffic might be a little too artsy for him but we shall see. He did love Dark Side of the Moon
Dear Mr Fantasy, John Barleycorn must die and this song. if you need a Traffic three play those would be what I would suggest. But, you will not exactly tap you foot.
Every week or two I add a playlist to my 14 year old son's IPOD so that he can explore music he has not been exposed too. Remarkably while not all of the music I send his way becomes music he enjoys much if it does. Music appears to be the one thing that he actually thinks I know something about.
In this recent list I gave him this song appears. I have my doubts if he can appreciate it. He loves Bruce, Petty and The Who. Traffic might be a little too artsy for him but we shall see. He did love Dark Side of the Moon
Dear Mr Fantasy, John Barleycorn must die and this song. if you need a Traffic three play those would be what I would suggest. But, you will not exactly tap you foot.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Sunday night we were down to just one kid, my 14 year old son. Being that he is 14 he was in a funk of unknown origin and my wife being my wife was about up to her neck in sports television we decided maybe with just the three of us we could find a movie we could agree on. I had Step Brothers on Tivo and while I am sure it is a movie and that my wife and I might enjoy, well at least I will enjoy at the right time we knew two minutes in that it was not a movie my son should be watching. Or as he would say at least not a movie that he would want to watch in our presence. Sometimes embarrassment goes two ways. So we flipped through what HBO had on demand for free and The Day the Earth Stood Still looked harmless enough.
For those of you who saw The Day After Tomorrow and did not think that the environmental message was not heavy handed and preachy enough this movie is the one for you. To further complicate matters the movie itself was as dumb as they come. Keanu Reeves starred as an alien who had come back to Earth to save not us, but the planet from us. Jennifer Connally played a single Mom who as a scientist had to change his mind that we humans did have a capacity for change.
Movies with a message have their place but it is assumed that the message will be told in a coherent manner. There was not a likable character in this movie, the plot was dumb and preachy. I feel like I need to read some Dickens or Twain to get my brain cells back.
I am not a snob. Far from it, see the aforementioned desire for Will Ferrell. This movie was the worst movie I have seen in a long long time. The only redeeming value was when the Big Metal GI Joe creature made all the electric and motor driven items in the world stop. As an amateur historian I love the idea of a time without modernity. Ironic to be blogging that statement I know but there it is. But outside of that glimpse this movie was just ........awful
For those of you who saw The Day After Tomorrow and did not think that the environmental message was not heavy handed and preachy enough this movie is the one for you. To further complicate matters the movie itself was as dumb as they come. Keanu Reeves starred as an alien who had come back to Earth to save not us, but the planet from us. Jennifer Connally played a single Mom who as a scientist had to change his mind that we humans did have a capacity for change.
Movies with a message have their place but it is assumed that the message will be told in a coherent manner. There was not a likable character in this movie, the plot was dumb and preachy. I feel like I need to read some Dickens or Twain to get my brain cells back.
I am not a snob. Far from it, see the aforementioned desire for Will Ferrell. This movie was the worst movie I have seen in a long long time. The only redeeming value was when the Big Metal GI Joe creature made all the electric and motor driven items in the world stop. As an amateur historian I love the idea of a time without modernity. Ironic to be blogging that statement I know but there it is. But outside of that glimpse this movie was just ........awful
Monday, April 5, 2010
Citizens of London by Lynne Olsen
For well over a year England faced down Germany by itself in the European War. France had fallen, the low countries had collapsed and Russia had struck a peace with Germany that allowed Germany to focus on it's battle with England.
The Royal Air Force fighting off the constant barrage from the Luftwaffe and the ability to recover from the nightly assaults of the Germans Air Force was something to behold.
Into this three Americans entered. Averill Harriman the administrator of Lend Lease, John Winant who replaced the hated ( by the British) Joe Kennedy as ambassador to England and Edward R Murrow the correspondent for CBS Radio. These men all did as much as they could to keep Americans involved in what was going on across the ocean. Living in London it became impossible for them to be totally objective, it soon became obvious to them that allowing London to fall would be in political terms a mistake and in human terms an absolute moral disgrace.
President Roosevelt, fearful of the isolationist movement in the United States felt that he could not lead America too far too fast. It is easy to think now that this was cowardly of him but Americans were simply not there, and the Republicans were certainly not in a mood to cooperate.
Churchill was, Churchill, a contrast of personality, bluster and bluff but one who in the end became a spiritual leader of his whole country. There are those that said Churchill saved the country. If he did he had much help.
The stories of Winant and Murrow have special interest and Winant comes out of this a man who should not be forgotten both for his roles described in the book and earlier as a progressive governor. His life is one that once one sees the end can only be viewed as a tragedy. Murrow became the stuff of legend and this book does nothing to reduce his legend.
Harriman, to me, was not a man I could embrace as easily. Certainly he did accomplish many great things and was working with his country's future as his goal. His character does not appear as crystal clear as his counterparts but even so it is information well worth knowing about this man who became a powerful figure in Democratic circles for decades.
Those who lived in London from 1939 to 1945 lived in an exciting, horrific time. As has been said there were no black and whites, all colors were bright and vivid. Life was intense in all ways. Lynne Olsen does a great job letting us know about this time and place
The Royal Air Force fighting off the constant barrage from the Luftwaffe and the ability to recover from the nightly assaults of the Germans Air Force was something to behold.
Into this three Americans entered. Averill Harriman the administrator of Lend Lease, John Winant who replaced the hated ( by the British) Joe Kennedy as ambassador to England and Edward R Murrow the correspondent for CBS Radio. These men all did as much as they could to keep Americans involved in what was going on across the ocean. Living in London it became impossible for them to be totally objective, it soon became obvious to them that allowing London to fall would be in political terms a mistake and in human terms an absolute moral disgrace.
President Roosevelt, fearful of the isolationist movement in the United States felt that he could not lead America too far too fast. It is easy to think now that this was cowardly of him but Americans were simply not there, and the Republicans were certainly not in a mood to cooperate.
Churchill was, Churchill, a contrast of personality, bluster and bluff but one who in the end became a spiritual leader of his whole country. There are those that said Churchill saved the country. If he did he had much help.
The stories of Winant and Murrow have special interest and Winant comes out of this a man who should not be forgotten both for his roles described in the book and earlier as a progressive governor. His life is one that once one sees the end can only be viewed as a tragedy. Murrow became the stuff of legend and this book does nothing to reduce his legend.
Harriman, to me, was not a man I could embrace as easily. Certainly he did accomplish many great things and was working with his country's future as his goal. His character does not appear as crystal clear as his counterparts but even so it is information well worth knowing about this man who became a powerful figure in Democratic circles for decades.
Those who lived in London from 1939 to 1945 lived in an exciting, horrific time. As has been said there were no black and whites, all colors were bright and vivid. Life was intense in all ways. Lynne Olsen does a great job letting us know about this time and place
Daring Young Men by Richard Reeves
This book tells the story of the Berlin Air Lift. I have heard of the Airlift but I did not have as much knowledge about this time as I should. The book tells the story of the Airlift but also the stories of many of the people involved, not just the generals and such, but also the soldiers and those flying the planes.
One of the things that struck me was getting a full picture of the geography of Germany as it relates to Berlin and the Berlin crisis. When at the end of World War II General Eisenhowser let Russia race to the city while America did not he unwittingly set up many of the issues that came about. By having Russian troops meet American troops many miles West of Berlin, Berlin remained comfortably in the Russian zone of control. This did not last, in final negotiations Berlin was divided into four quadrants of control, French, British, American and Russian. To get supplies into the Western areas of control the allies had to truck in supplies on the highway across the Russian controlled zone west of Berlin. For while Berlin was divided, the areas to the West of Berlin that were controlled by Russia remained so leaving the Westerners in Berlin isolated.
The situation was not good and got worse in 1948 when Stalin frustrated by constant refugees from East Germany to the Western sectors placed a blockade. The rail lines and roads leading into Berlin from the West were cut off. The only air travel in from the West to the West Berlin airports had to travel along a very thin corridor. This left the Germans in West Berlin to freeze and the soldiers from France, England and the United States not much better.
President Truman's insistence that America would stay and the subsequent airlift designed to last a week or two that extended to a over a year was truly one of the great logistical feats of modern times. The men and women who made it happen were heroes that most will never know.
Reeves is not an author that I love. The information was good, the presentation could have been much better. It is a book worth watching. Heroes are everywhere today but their are so few real heroes. Many of the men you read about here are real heroes. They deserve for us to know them.
One of the things that struck me was getting a full picture of the geography of Germany as it relates to Berlin and the Berlin crisis. When at the end of World War II General Eisenhowser let Russia race to the city while America did not he unwittingly set up many of the issues that came about. By having Russian troops meet American troops many miles West of Berlin, Berlin remained comfortably in the Russian zone of control. This did not last, in final negotiations Berlin was divided into four quadrants of control, French, British, American and Russian. To get supplies into the Western areas of control the allies had to truck in supplies on the highway across the Russian controlled zone west of Berlin. For while Berlin was divided, the areas to the West of Berlin that were controlled by Russia remained so leaving the Westerners in Berlin isolated.
The situation was not good and got worse in 1948 when Stalin frustrated by constant refugees from East Germany to the Western sectors placed a blockade. The rail lines and roads leading into Berlin from the West were cut off. The only air travel in from the West to the West Berlin airports had to travel along a very thin corridor. This left the Germans in West Berlin to freeze and the soldiers from France, England and the United States not much better.
President Truman's insistence that America would stay and the subsequent airlift designed to last a week or two that extended to a over a year was truly one of the great logistical feats of modern times. The men and women who made it happen were heroes that most will never know.
Reeves is not an author that I love. The information was good, the presentation could have been much better. It is a book worth watching. Heroes are everywhere today but their are so few real heroes. Many of the men you read about here are real heroes. They deserve for us to know them.
Survivor
We still watch this show in our house. The kids like it, it is after all a competition. One of the first reality shows it is a fact that the formula still works. It is hard to explain why it still works and I will admit that my interest drifts in and out depending on the point in the show and the personalities involved but the show does work. A few friends of mine and I have joked that the series would be funny if they held the contest in a cold climate. It would be different, but of course the skimpy clothing is part of the attraction as well.
Currently in an All star format this season has been very interesting. Russell , perhaps the most interesting contestant I can remember is dominating the show and his tribe. Boston Rob who has been on several episodes lost a battle to Russell and was thus taken down at the most recent tribal council.
The show is not groundbreaking, if it ever was. You pretty much know the pattern and what the process will be. Surprise does not mean excellence however and in terms of what it does this series remains at the top.
Currently in an All star format this season has been very interesting. Russell , perhaps the most interesting contestant I can remember is dominating the show and his tribe. Boston Rob who has been on several episodes lost a battle to Russell and was thus taken down at the most recent tribal council.
The show is not groundbreaking, if it ever was. You pretty much know the pattern and what the process will be. Surprise does not mean excellence however and in terms of what it does this series remains at the top.
The Pacific
We have watched the first three episodes of the Pacific. We have the fourth in the TIVO. Thus far the show has been very good, visually very strong. The war in the Pacific is often noted as having been a different war than that in Europe. Talking with my children I have advised them that this war contained elements of racism that were not as evident in the war in Europe. Because of that this war was a precursor to the wars to come in Korea and Vietnam and recently the Persian Gulf War and the later Iraq War. When ones enemies do not look like ourselves it is easier to attach a level of inferiority to them and treat them in some ways as less than human. Certainly the Japanese considered the Americans as inferior in strength and will and treated them as such.
The show itself is what you would expect from Hanks and Spielberg. The only issue I might offer is that though episode three did more to make us " know" the characters the narrative thus far has not been as compelling as it was in Band of Brothers. For much of the first two episodes we were witnesses more than involved in the story.
It is must see television for our family and we will continue to watch it. To see how the storylines affect our two sons who are very different has been eye opening for us as well. The violence is very intense, again more so to me than what we witnessed in Band of Brothers. It is not as I tell my youngest son, a video game. It is a definitive picture of the violence, randomness and most of all confusion of war. It is not pretty
The show itself is what you would expect from Hanks and Spielberg. The only issue I might offer is that though episode three did more to make us " know" the characters the narrative thus far has not been as compelling as it was in Band of Brothers. For much of the first two episodes we were witnesses more than involved in the story.
It is must see television for our family and we will continue to watch it. To see how the storylines affect our two sons who are very different has been eye opening for us as well. The violence is very intense, again more so to me than what we witnessed in Band of Brothers. It is not as I tell my youngest son, a video game. It is a definitive picture of the violence, randomness and most of all confusion of war. It is not pretty
Parenthood
We watched a couple episodes of this new series on NBC last week. Our local cable company on demand has all the episodes available and m wife and I watched a couple last week. I was very impressed. This series best known for being the first new series in the post Jay Leno ten pm time slot is a show that we have to hope catches on. A wonderful cast filled with faces you know and names you might not but for me the highlight is Craig Nelson as the family patriarch. An aging hippy who still expects his grandson to straighten up and fly right but once he is brought into the understanding that the child has a real issue he steps up and does all he can. Perhaps we as men identify as being gruff on the outside and mellow on the inside. We plan to watch the rest of the episodes and I hope we are not disappointed with the longevity of the series.
For me I have made the decision that with all the options we have I no longer will watch shows that do not bring me some kind of value in return. I have no need to see Jack Bauer kill or the narcissistic doctors on Nip Tuck. I sometimes think I am turning into my parents and wish to watch the Waltons or Little House on the Prairie. Those shows are not coming back, and Parenthood certainly would not be that show, my parents would not have approved of the joke of the four grown siblings smoking a joint in the school on a parent night.
The show however is worth watching. We will continue
For me I have made the decision that with all the options we have I no longer will watch shows that do not bring me some kind of value in return. I have no need to see Jack Bauer kill or the narcissistic doctors on Nip Tuck. I sometimes think I am turning into my parents and wish to watch the Waltons or Little House on the Prairie. Those shows are not coming back, and Parenthood certainly would not be that show, my parents would not have approved of the joke of the four grown siblings smoking a joint in the school on a parent night.
The show however is worth watching. We will continue
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