December 2007
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I have to do this every year, because I can't let Christmas go by without pushing my favorite Christmas album, A Tapestry of Carols, by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. If you liked that Steeleye Span "Gaudete" that I posted a few days ago (here), or for that matter if you like anything by…
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In comments attached to another post below (I think it was the one with the Incredible String Band video), Dave and Francesca discuss the question of whether poetry is the oldest art form and/or the oldest form of language. Which reminded me of a few things: There's a blaze of light in every word. —Leonard…
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Alias Clio has a really nice series of posts about several of the less widely sung Christmas carols, including audio (and sometimes video) for some of them and appropriate art. If you’re like me you’ll recognize most of them but will have heard them less than ten million times. The link takes you to her…
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Movie Roundup, End of Year Edition Hard to believe it was back in June when I did the last one of these. I see by our Netflix history that we’ve had 27 rentals since then, and there have been a few from other sources, so I’m not going to mention all of them, just the…
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Minutemen: Double Nickels on the Dime Continuing my investigation of punk classics, I arrive at this collection of 43 songs averaging something less than two minutes each in length, some under a minute. Aside from the brevity of the songs, the punk-ness here seems more a matter of attitude than sound. Musically, they remind me…
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The inimitable and beloved Steeleye Span: It's hard to believe their studio recording of this song was a hit single in the UK (or so I've heard). There's no indication of when this performance was recorded, but judging by the appearance of the band—not young, but not so old—I would guess sometime in the '80s.…
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(1) Some weeks ago, as we discussed here, I re-read Walker Percy’s Love in the Ruins. Toward the end of the book the narrator notes that he hears the cry of a kingfisher in the swamp. I don’t know what that sounds like, thought I. Funny that I live in the same part of the…
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Thank you, Karen. Pre-TypePad http://js-kit.com/for/lightondarkwater.com/comments.js
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Klaatu the Genocidal Peacenik NOTE: spoilers follow. Don’t read any further if you’ve never seen The Day the Earth Stood Still and don’t want to know how it ends. (I think this is fair use of this image, copied from Wikipedia). If you’ve seen it, you know this classic 1951 movie involves an alien emissary…
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Solas: The Edge of Silence This is a very good album, and I feel slightly churlish for not liking it more than I do. Solas is an Irish group that, at least on this album, does a sort of pop/Celtic crossover thing in the tradition of Clannad. And I’d predict that anyone who likes Clannad…
Light On Dark Water 