I’ve always been a big fan of the Indianapolis 500 and the festivities which flare up around it every year at this time. This week’s playlist features music from Memorial Day weekends past. I’ve even thrown in a song from Stone Temple Pilots who are playing the big Carb Day concert today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. What kind of tunes make you think of the Greatest Spectacle In Racing?
It’s spring cleaning in my household this weekend and so I put together some good housekeeping jams for anyone else who needs such a playlist.
Here are a handful of tunes to express some thoughts lyrically about what happened in the most recent primary. Interpret this on your own.
Cross posted from Layman Media
I've been using Open Pandora for a while to listen to my Pandora radio stations as I work periodically and I have to say its a brilliant piece of software that has some really cool features built into it. The primary reason I grabbed it in the first place was to take advantage of the fact that as you listen to songs on your Pandora stations, your song feed from Pandora will be syndicated to Last.fm where it will track your listening habits for sharing with others via widgets in such social networks as Facebook, MySpace and more.
For fans of the Pandora service this is a godsend, it gives you the powerful Pandora music sampling service, with the social features of Last.fm that Pandora in its pure form lacks. With so many social nets using last.fm widgets and feeds, sharing your musical taste has become easier than ever before. In addition to Last.fm Open Pandora also features integration with Microsoft Messenger, Xfire and Skype
My Social Music Links:
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My Global Master Feed Aggregator:
This week I have 5 videos reflecting various news items from the week of 3/31/08 to 4/04/08. First up is Disturbed with their cover of “Land of Confusion”, originally a hit by Genesis in 1986. This song matches up perfectly with the current economic crises, meltdowns and bubbles bursting. Here’s to our Wall Street geniuses and the policies of the Bush economic team.
Gnarls Barkley have a new song out called “Run” from their new album The Odd Couple. With all the bad news in the wind some parents are concerned about their children’s futures. A lot of fear has invaded society and this song is some good sound advice for the young folks coming up in this world.
Former Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French has turned his old band’s biggest hit “I Wanna Rock” into a pro-Obama anthem for the rock n roll lovers in Sen. Barack Obama’s camp. “I want Barack” is an instant classic political song. Time for me to start growing the big hair again? No thanks.
In Indiana, Hillary Clinton is leading her opponent ever so slightly and has a formidable organization built by her booster and our Junior Senator Evan Bayh and his political cohort Joe Hogsett, Chairman of the Clinton Indiana campaign. Here’s a video of the famous Fleetwood Mac reunion for President Bill Clinton’s Inauguration Ball. These were great times for Bill and Hill, and as a young precinct worker who worked the 1992 election it was exciting times for me as well.
And finally, the hopefuls in the Democratic Gubernatorial primary have been slugging it out on the airwaves and finally it seems people are starting to come down one way or the other for their candidates. In the recent poll that WISH TV and a coalition of several other TV stations statewide commissioned, South Bend born Jim Schellinger is enjoying a slight lead in the polls over his opponent former Congresswoman Jill Long Thompson. The good news is Indiana seems to like both candidates about the same as Clinton and Obama. Looks like we have a decent primary all around for once. See you next week!
This week the playlist is all about feeling heat and the actions that take place soon after.
The first song in the playlist is in honor of the news this week that 4000 US soldiers have died in Iraq these last 5 years. “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire is a classic antiwar song from the Vietnam era, but is still perfectly descriptive of the situation in Iraq. We have got to get our folks out of Iraq and soon or we will lose our way in this country.
The second song in the playlist is an ode to campaign finance courtesy of Pink Floyd. “Money” is a perfect tune to describe the feelings I have regarding campaign finance in the US.
With the current fiscal crisis in the real estate markets, oil prices at record levels, the Surge tactic in Iraq failing and riots in Tibet, one of the most peaceful places on Earth, the third song in the playlist from REM seems to apply perfectly. “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” just seems too perfect to pass up for the playlist this week.
The fourth song in the playlist is in honor of departing Pacers head honcho Donnie Walsh who is leaving my beloved Pacers team to become the CEO of the New York Knickerbockers. “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot is about a captain who went down with his ship. Donnie, thanks for the years of service to the community in Indianapolis!
The final song in the playlist, “Changes” by David Bowie, is in honor of my fellow blogger Jen Wagner at Taking Down Words who is leaving her current job with the Indiana Democratic Party and leaving her blog in others’ hands to take the reigns as Communications Director for Jim Schellinger’s gubernatorial campaign. Thanks for 3 years worth of local political snark like no one else could deliver, Jen.
That is all for this week’s Friday Dissonance. I will see you next week with a brand new playlist!
Posting has been light lately due to some business developments, for that I apologize, but life will be slowing down soon and I will be back in no time full force. In the meantime, enjoy your Friday Dissonance this week.
I figured I would take a new approach with these playlists and start to put some more thought behind the picks on each playlist to provide a bit of a narrative to the week’s news stories. First off on the playlist this week is Rockwell featuring Michael Jackson with their anthem for paranoid freaks everywhere “Somebody’s Watching Me.”
This is the first of two songs this week for Senator Barack Obama, this song being significant due to the revelation that contractors and an employee for the US State Department have been diving into his passport records, despite a monitoring system designed to catch employee monkeying around in the private passport files of Famous-Americans. Hey, you’re not paranoid if they really are out to get you, right? Right?
The second song is also for Barack Obama and the controversy surrounding his minister, Dr. Jeremiah Wright. The Gap band’s hit from the early 80s, “You Dropped A Bomb On Me”, a song about a shocking statement, seems to apply to this situation perfectly. Obama seems to be reeling from the revelation that his minister that he is so close with has said some rather disparaging statements from the pulpit.
The third song is for the good men and women of Bear Stearns. Originally written by Bob Dylan, but perfected here in this version made famous by Jimi Hendrix, “All Along the Watchtower” is a song about greed and politics. ‘Nuff said methinks.
The fourth song, “Thieves” by Ministry, is for the Indiana General Assembly and My Man Mitch “Govfather” Daniels. “Property Tax Reform” legislation was passed at the tail end of the session last week and signed into law this week by Daniels. Homeowners got their tax relief by making sure poor schmoes like me get to pay extra money for those luxuries in life like food and clothing with a hike in the sales tax. THANKS PALS!
The fifth song is in honor of all the damn rain we have had this week as we moved from late winter into springtime. “Blame It On the Rain” by Milli Vanilli is a saccharin sweet faux tune but lyrically it kind of hit a chord with me this week. Hey Milli and Vanilli might not have sang a note in their lives, but the tunes were decent if you listen to em no matter who sung them for real. I kinda wish they would have brought out the guy who actually sang the tunes they lip synced to. Ahhhh the pre-Pro Tools days were truly magical!
And finally, the sixth and last song in the playlist is from The Carter Family, an American music institution. June Carter Cash, the late wife of the late Johnny Cash came from a very talented country music tradition and “When the Springtime Comes Again” is a classic from their repertoire in honor of the vernal equinox which was yesterday, marking the first day of spring. Springin’ a leak with all of the rain this week, but by God the winter is over and spring has sprung!
Fellow Hoosier rocker John Mellencamp is being inducted come Monday into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame at the traditional induction ceremony in New York City. From the Anderson Herald-Bulletin, one of the last bastions of actual Hoosier journalism:
Hoosier rocker John Mellencamp has positioned himself in the common vocabulary of American households with a series of events that are sure to be enhanced by his induction Monday into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…
In ceremonies Monday in New York, Mellencamp will be inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Leonard Cohen, The Dave Clark Five, Madonna and The Ventures. He’ll join the ranks of rock greats like Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Van Morrison…
Larry Smith, associate professor of communication studies at Ball State University, said Mellencamp’s influences “run far and wide. He not only captures the intersection of a generation and a geography, but his insistence on musical diversity has contributed to rock music in many, many ways.”
Smith wrote a biography of Bob Dylan and analyzes storytelling in the lyrics of rock music.
“I have to say that John Mellencamp is most deserving of the Rock Hall,” Smith wrote in an e-mail. “Great artists like Bob Dylan respect him greatly.”
In celebration of this year’s RnRHoF today’s Friday Dissonance is made up entirely of HoF inductees and a selection from each. Enjoy!
Here are some music videos to get your toes tappin’ and your fingers klackin’ on the keyboard. This is going to become a regular feature with new videos added to the mix every week. Enjoy!
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