Friday, June 29, 2012

iPod Log 8: a long morning walk.

Kayaks in the East River off Brooklyn Bridge Park.

My work schedule and other duties have kept me from doing the long version of my morning walk for some time. I was able to do it again a couple of weeks ago; below is the list of songs I heard (with links to videos, where available), and some photos I took along the way.

Neil Young, "Like a Hurricane". One of my favorite rock songs of all time. Hear it here.

Scott Joplin, "The Cascades", (New England  Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble, Gunther Schuller, cond.) Video, by the h2 Quartet, here
Flowerpots, Columbia Heights, Brooklyn.

Lightnin' Hopkins, "I'm Wit' It". Hear it here.

James Brown, "Chonnie-On-Chon". From Roots of a Revolution, Polydor's great collection of his early stuff recorded at King Studios in Cincinnati. Listen here.
Crossing Brooklyn Bridge.

Ruth Brown, "5-10-15 Hours". Hear it here.
Tee shirts for sale, Brooklyn Bridge.

Sibelius, Karelia Suite, Op. 11, 3rd movement, alla marcia (Helsinki Radio Orchestra, Okku Kamu cond.) Listen to the same piece by the London Philharmonic, Sir Charles Mackerras conducting, here.
Civic Fame, the Adolph A. Weinman statue atop McKim Mead & White's 1914 Municipal Building. Her backside faces the Brooklyn Bridge.

Fleetwood Mac, "Rhiannon". In 1978 I adopted a young street cat and named her for this song. Original recording, with still photo montage, here.
I was distressed to find the Brooklyn Bridge cactus bisected. Still, the surviving parts seem healthy. This is one tough succulent.

Marshall Tucker Band, "Heard it in a Love Song". Hear it here.

The Drifters, "This Magic Moment". One of my favorite R&B songs of all time. Listen here.
Entering City Hall Park.

Rod Stewart, "Reason to Believe". From Every Picture Tells a Story, in my opinion one of the top five or so greatest rock albums ever. Video of live performance here.

Dave & Ansel Collins, "Double Barrel". Sizzling reggae from the expanded version of the great The Harder They Come CD. Live performance video here.
The Cary Building, one of my favorites of the surviving old commercial buildings of lower Manhattan.

Johnny Cash, "I Walk the Line". Live performance video, with history lesson, here.

Stevie Wonder, "Living for the City". Live performance video here.
The new One World Trade Center (David Childs, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill) rises in the background.

The Byrds, "Bugler".  One of my favorite rock groups ever, here with a mellow country sound. Hear it here.
Teardrop Park, in Battery Park City, designed by Michael Van Valkenberg, who also designed Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Tom Russell Band, "Gallo del Cielo". Thrilling, and like many Mexican and Mexican-inspired songs, tragic. Video with photo montage and live performance audio here.
Sailboats on the Hudson, seen from Battery Park City. Jersey City is in the background.

Grateful Dead, "Ripple". This song perhaps best exemplifies what one critic called the Dead's "patchouli oil philosophy", but I still like it. Live performance video here.
Washingtonia palm trees inside the Winter Garden, World Financial Center.

Sue Foley, "Bad Luck Woman". A Canadian blues singer. Yes. Unfortunately, there's no video of this song, but here she is doing "Truckin' Little Woman".
Coming down off the bridge over West Street, approaching the World Trade Center site.

Rusty & Doug, "Louisiana Man". Sounds just like crawfish étouffée tastes. Hear it here.
As I head back to Brooklyn, a tug approaches the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Band, "Long Black Veil". Live performance video here.

Bruce Springsteen, "Open All Night". Live performance audio with photo montage here.
A Honeymooners line welcomes me back to the Borough of Cherce.

Fleetwood Mac, "Station Man". From Kiln House, a post Peter Green and pre Buckingham-Nicks album that critics drubbed but I love. Hear it here.

Fleetwood Mac, "Buddy's Song". From the same album; the best Buddy Holly song he didn't write (and never heard). You can hear it here.
The Manhattan Bridge, seen from Washington Street in DUMBO, a Brooklyn neighborhood the name of which is an acronym for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass."

Carole King, "Smackwater Jack" (live version). a bonus track from the Tapestry CD. Video of a different live performance (BBC) here.
A phone call to my wife resulted in a stop at Almondine for croissants.

The Byrds, "Renaissance Fair". Audio of live performance at 1967 Monterey Pop Festival with still photo here.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Jacksonville Kid" (aka "Honky Tonk Night Time Man"). A live bonus track from the Street Survivors CD. Audio of studio version here.
On the home stretch: the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, "Everybody's Boppin'". Annie Ross was a regular at the Lion's Head. Audio of the original recording, with a still of the album cover here. A fitting finish.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

A small victory in the apostrophe wars.

Here's the original version, along with my rant (which made me, in Stephen Fry's eyes, a loser).

Yes, I think the old sign was prettier than the new one, except for that egregious grammatical error.