They say the best is for the best...

Happy Rally to Restore Sanity Day! Although I am unable to be in Washington this weekend to lend my indoor voice to the proceedings, I can dedicate today's OSaD to the occasion.

The song for today is the only song I know of that's been written about Stephen Colbert. It is so damn catchy you'll find yourself singing it, oh, pretty much all the time.

"Stephen Stephen" by The Apples in Stereo
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In less awesome news, with all my standing around on concrete at work and long-walk taking from yesterday, I seem to have messed up my left knee badly enough that I'm having big trouble going up and down stairs. :( It would be funny if it didn't hurt so much. No running for me today, I see.

Finally, I want to write a review about last night's episode of Supernatural (which was significantly better than 6x05), but I don't have the time. Maybe tomorrow.

This one has got its hooks in me right now. Sometimes it makes me happy, sometimes it makes me sad. Tonight, I feel nothing, but I've listened to it four times in a row.

"Tightrope" by Yeasayer

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Happy Johnny Flynn American release day!! \o/ I was going to post something from the new album tonight, but I wanted to listen to it all the way through first and this was more important anyway.

I listened to a lot of Heather Nova when I was in college. I was particularly fond of her album South. This song of hers popped up on my iPod today and I just had to smile. I've been doing a little too much introspection lately, and I've been letting societal norms/expectations get me down. This is my "time-out" song, my reminder that, hey, the folks who aren't following the prescribed path of their contemporaries are usually the most interesting people, and I should be happy because I'm not tied down by anything in this life.

"Virus of the Mind" by Heather Nova
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Doing this early because it's been a bit of a rough morning and I need to focus on writing for the rest of the day.

It's really stormy here today. On days like this I prefer to listen to artists like Nina Simone, Al Green, and Billie Holiday. Antony and The Johnsons fit into this category as well. I like this song perhaps a bit too much considering that, while I've read other interpretations, I'm pretty well convinced that it's about domestic abuse. But the arrangement is so danceable and smile-inducing. I'm conflicted. I love Antony Hegarty's voice, and any song that has Lou Reed doing a spoken word intro is automatically awesome.

"Fistful of Love" by Antony and the Johnsons
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A little drunk from dinner tonight and so nothing of importance to say. Oh, there was this very sweet looking young man who dropped off bagels at our office this morning. He & his partner wanted to talk to my boss who is at a trade show, so I got to talk to them instead, unfortunately I was wearing my zombie shirt and my computer glasses and my hair was all frizzy. *sigh* Isn't that always the way? Anyway.

When people think of Joan Osborne, most folks think of the slightly annoying chart-topper, "What if God was One of Us." Relish, the album that song appears on, is chock-full of some amazing tracks. One of my favorites is "Dracula Moon." This has been a Supernatural song for me for a long, long time and I get the feeling from the preview for the episode for this week that it is particularly fitting.

"Dracula Moon" by Joan Osborne
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(psst - dissonant_dream, we need to talk about this song)

As I posted about earlier, I wore purple today in remembrance of all the young people who feel ostracized and alienated because of their sexuality, and especially for those who have chosen to take their own lives as a result of homophobic abuse in their homes or at their schools. While thinking about what sort of song to post this evening, I remembered Patty Griffin's "Tony", a song that made me sob the first time I heard it alone in my bedroom six or seven years ago. It seems like we, as a society, should've grown in the twelve years since this song was recorded, but I look at those six young men to whom this day was dedicated and I wonder.

"Tony" by Patty Griffin
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In an effort not to be a total downer, I will also post this song in honor of the birthday of Viggo Mortensen. Until very recently (ugh, the film version of The Road) Mr. Mortensen has been one of my very favorites, and this song still makes me think of him.

"World Falls" by Indigo Girls
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I heard this song in my car on the way to work this morning and it dropped me right back into high school when my friend Shauna & I would perform it in the car/at the park/wherever we could. We were pretty slick, and I still have all the words memorized.

Here you go, the best rap song EVER WRITTEN.

"It's Tricky" by Run-D.M.C.
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( Last week's Sons of Anarchy )

dissonant_dream talked today about having watched one of my favorite films from two years ago, Into the Wild, so I thought I'd talk about the music from that film tonight.

One of my favorite things that happened after the movie came out a few years ago was that people would come up to me while I was working behind the music counter at GRoots and say "I really love Eddie Vedder's work on the Into the Wild soundtrack; he's done other stuff right? Can you point me towards that?" My gut reaction was to say something along the lines of "Sure, c'mon, lemme play you 'Satan's Bed' or 'Do the Evolution.' You'll love it." These were not Pearl Jam listeners but most would not be dissuaded, so I'd special order them Ten or Vs or Yield and send them on their way.

No, Vedder's work on the soundtrack is not really anything like Pearl Jam, but that doesn't mean I love it any less. I think this was an inspired choice by Sean Penn as Vedder really tapped into the story and created a soundtrack that so easily captured the feel of both Krakauer's book and Penn's film. It was Vedder's music that brought me to tears during teh final sequences of the film and without it, the visual interpretation of the story wouldn't have been as powerful as it was.

I'm posting two of my favorite Vedder songs from the soundtrack because I love the theme of "Society" and the raw intensity of "The Wolf."

The thing that bums me out a little bit about the soundtrack is that they don't include any of the other great songs that appear in the film, so I'm also going to include Kaki King's "Doing the Wrong Thing", because I love that one, too.

"Society" by Eddie Vedder
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"The Wolf" by Eddie Vedder
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"Doing the Wrong Thing" by Kaki King
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I was not a big fan of A Fine Frenzy's first album, One Cell in the Sea. There was nothing in it that set it apart for me; certainly not offensive but it was never a disc that I put on by choice. Understandably I was then hesitant this year to give Bomb in a Birdcage a try, but oh I'm glad that I did. This album is quirkier and significantly more interesting than its predecessor. I like nearly every song on it and it has become my "going out" music. I couldn't decide between my two favorites, so I'm putting them both up tonight.

"Electric Twist" by A Fine Frenzy (I put this one on repeat when I'm getting ready to leave the house; I love the beat and the skippy vocals)
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"Swan Song" by A Fine Frenzy (This one aches; I love the fragility of the melody in the chorus)
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Last night I talked about West Side Story and I'm going to elaborate more this evening. I think I was seven years old the first time I saw the film, but I honestly don't remember much beyond the music and the colors. It wasn't until the high schools performed it when I was ten that I really understood the story or the characters. To this day that is the only live production of the play I've seen, and I would like it to remain so.

I've seen the film countless times since then and the music never fails to blow me away. Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim: does it get any better than that? Add in choreographer Jerome Robbins and you've got the perfect musical.

I chose the prologue because the opening scenes for the film comprise one of my favorite cinematic sequences of all time. This is my childhood and my adolescence; everything you need to know about me you can discover in this music. So much love. ♥

"West Side Story Prologue" music by Leonard Bernstein, conducted by Johnny Green

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