Cool Stuff #3.

[Stuff One.]
We mentioned in passing George Harrison's intrigue with Indian music in class. Since an overwhelming portion of this campus is familiar with good ol' George as a Beatle, I figured I'd share some of his solo work. I grew up listening to this song with my dad and I loved it. My dad was a little uncomfortable with me listening to it though because of the (somewhat) subliminal message it has. Harrison fell for Indian music, and (up until his later years) was also into Indian religion. ...but "My Sweet Lord" has all these hallelujahs in it... well, that was to appeal to the greater public. Listen carefully to the background singers at 2:55 and realize the what made my trusty Southern Baptist dad so uneasy.

...Hare Krishna. 

And here's Crackerbox Palace, which has been stuck in my head the last few days... I don't believe there's any strong Indian influence, but I wanted to share it anyway.

[Stuff Two.]

I've only seen the majority of The Kite Runner. It's a wonderful movie though and apparently a very heart wrenching book as well. It's been about my only exposure to the middle east outside of Funny in Farsi, general research and our opening piece last fall in Music History. I was looking at the music from the soundtrack the other day and found this piece very interesting. It's by Sami Yusuf, born in Tehran, and it's in English. It piqued my interest because it's English words with simple accompaniment, but the turns he does have the intricacies and microtonality we discussed in class. Enjoy!

[Stuff Three.]

Since I couldn't get the Twelve Girls Band out of my head this morning, here's another healthy dose!

Also, if you thought that this morning's clip reminded you of Celtic Woman, what about when they actually do celtic music? BAM!

[Extra Stuff.]

And speaking of Celtic Woman: For those of you who haven't been exposed to Celtic Thunder and get a kick out of Celtic Woman... here's some eye candy. How about them kilts? ...and what about that kid?!

             

...They even feed my love for Moody Blues! *sigh*

[More Extra Stuff.]

Yes, I've come back and edited this several times, but it's before 11 and it's the last Cool Stuff! I have to get in what I can! We've learned a lot about Zither-like instruments, but how about a little more zither itself? 

Okay, I've assaulted you with enough. I'm content to walk away now.

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Talking 'Bout My Generation. [Entry #4.]

Here's my interview with my grandmother or "Grandmommy" Betty Wolfe from January 9th. You can either watch the video or read the transcription below. I encourage both, as she can be kind of soft spoken sometimes, but you don't get to enjoy her southern draw if you don't watch.
I edited out of the video all time spent thinking and any questions that lead to a dead end. In the video I edited out our last names and where we are, my audience is much larger than this class and I don't feel like being stalked. If you follow the link on the end of the video, you can watch the footage on dances which became a bit of a tangent... Enjoy!

MH: What type of music did you listen to? What genre?
BW: My era? The bands, the wonderful orchestras and bands like Sammy Kaye, and... what were the others?
MH: You were there, I wasn't there...
BW: I know it. At this age I'm forgetting so many of them... Even the concerts I went to at college were so wonderful, but they were all beautiful music. No rock 'n roll.

MH: Do you have any songs that you remember or stuck with you?
BW: I know soloists, like Perry Como and all of this era...
MH: "Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket..." That's him?
BW: Right. Right.
MH: Yay me!

MH: When you listen to music, was there a certain place you listened to it? You said orchestras.
BW: Well mainly radio at first and then we finally had television. Then when I was in college I'd go to concerts I mentioned and enjoy them.

MH: I'm ready to assume off of orchestras being a definition, how did you parents feel about your music? Did they approve of it?
BW: Oh they enjoyed it. In fact, I enjoyed the music that they enjoyed. And this is the same type of music that I still like.

MH: Was there a certain reason you listened to music that you could think of?
BW: We enjoyed music. Our family enjoyed music. Although I only took piano lessons, private lessons.
MH: You're jumping ahead of me. I was going to ask what instruments did you play or did you sing, how long.
BW: Just piano. I took two years, private lessons.
MH: You can still sit down and play one of those.
BW: Not really... I can pick out a lot by ear. But I really, I didn't continue in piano. But we did- I had three sisters, and we'd dance. We took tap dancing and, actually privately, from a man in school, and we did play, dancing, and we did dance a lot.
MH: And what about your brother, what did your brother do about that?
BW: He was very young. He was much younger than the rest of us so...
MH: He doesn't count.
BW: No, he was not included.

MH: Once you became a parent and your kids were growing up, what did you have to say about their music. Did you approve of it?
BW: Oh, I did. A bit more so than the music itself. Sometime's it's too loud- entirely too loud.

MH: You said you listened to it on the radio, did you not have LPs?
BW: Yes.

MH: Anything else you can think of?
BW: No...

My grandmother loathes being in front of a still camera, much less a camcorder, so she isn't very talkative. I found the information I gathered on dancing far more interesting and I think she did too... so feel free to check it out. (Or my other videos too if you would, I am getting close to 1,000 subscribers.)

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