I've been down in San Marcos, south of Austin by about 30 minutes, for work the past two days. Always good to catch up with colleagues and whatnot, and, frankly, it's probably easier getting to the library at Texas State than to my own building every day. The commute is about the same.
This evening Jamie and I had dinner with the lovely Margarita G., a former local, recently returned, and one of the many folks I've met inadvertently through JimD. Lovely person, and I look forward to seeing more of Margarita around town.
Somehow I came home and went down several Google holes, including playing Barba Streisand tunes from YouTube to see how long it would take before Jamie asked me what I was doing. The answer is: 6 songs, and it really took "Papa Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl before she finally started asking questions.
Also, Jamie insisted we listen to some Michael McDonald. Nobody likes warbling along with Michael McDonald like my wife.
This all somehow got wound up in me simultaneously listening to circa 1980 pop sensation Juice Newton when Paul's ladyfriend, Val, posed on Twitter "whatever happened to Juice Newton?"
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| some of us never gave up on Juice Newton |
If you weren't aware of your surroundings or did not exist in 1980, Juice Newton was a briefly extremely popular pop musician famed for two songs, in particular "Queen of Hearts" and "Angel of the Morning".
I suspect "Queen of Hearts" was always more Newton's speed, and reflects the general feel of the album better than "Angel of the Morning", which was also performed by Merillee Rush, Dusty Springfield, The Pretenders and many others, I learned while doing some Googling.
Still, you gotta love the Juice Newton cover.
I always like a good, 1980's-era over produced pop song.
I'm also digging the new Daft Punk tune, but I guess we're all supposed to like this thing. It's what I suspect Justin Timberlake thought he was going to have in a catchy tune we'd all agree on with "Suit and Tie", but... I'm voting for "Get Lucky" as our ubiquitous tune for 2013.
This weekend while I was working on my office, I downloaded the extremely abbreviated cut of the four-opera Ring Cycle from the cast at the Metropolitan and kind of was listening to that on a loop.
I'm telling you, ladies... I know scale armor, spears and winged helmets are a risky look, but it works.
At some point I do want to re-watch the entirety of the Ring Cycle, but, you know... 14 hours. In the meantime I'm enjoying reading the comics adaptation by P. Craig Russell.
fun fact! He used artist Jill Thompson as his model for Brunhilde for the series.
2 comments:
It's because trying to sing like Michael McDonald is always a good time. And hearing "Shine Sweet Freedom" makes me laugh and laugh. We had to sing that in 6th grade.
You are on your own with the Ring Cycle again.
Angel of the Morning. Wow. Kind of a silly song, but it does a good job of moving from those quiet verses into the wall of sound style chorus (complete with chimes), with Juice really belting out the vocals. Soft loud soft. Kind of the inverse of The Pixies Loud Quiet Loud.
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