New favourite music - women again

All the music I like these days seems to be by women: Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams, and now Amy Winehouse.

Not that the styles of these three women are even remotely similar.

I downloaded Amy Winehouse's Back to Black the other day and I can't get enough of it. She's kind of in the soul-R&B-jazz vein and on this particular collection she seems to be channeling girl groups from the 60s. And it's fabulous. It's also kind of funny.

Whereas back in the sixties you'd get lyrics like, "He's so fine, wish he were mine," here you get things like, "I don't wanna go to rehab, no, no, no."

Well, I found it funny (in a culturally worrisome kind of way.)

Anyway ... thanks to Briana for pointing out Amy Winehouse to me.

The neighbourhood

In my new place, I have met some of the neighbours. On one side of me are a couple of golden retrievers. Late in the day I see them running up and down the street as they chase tennis balls - usually tossed by a guy in spandex tights and toque - you know, a runner's tights.

A german shepherd / black labrador cross (I think) lives in the house on the other side of me. I understand his name is Sam and I see him snuffling about every now and again, usually in the morning. He came by one day to give me the once over but quickly decided there was nothing of interest about me. Oh well.

And then there are the squirrels, including this guy pictured here. Whenever I go into the backyard, they seem to be there. And they've wandered up to me several times to eye me and, I suspect, to see if I was sucker enough to provide handouts. That won't be happening. At a friendly distance, I like them. I'm not sure we'd get along so well if they were to take up residence here.

By the way, the guy in the photo here was chattering at me to beat the band. I think he had a burr up his bum about government spending or something. Not sure. (Note: that's a frame from a video I took of the squirrel - a pretty awful video as I'm just learning how to operate the thing.)

Tags: squirrel, nature

Backyard in winter - window view

Yes, it's been snowing in this part of the world too. In fact, it's snowing (and blowing) as I type. I've already had my unplanned morning workout - shovelling heavy, wet snow.

This shot is my favourite, though you really can't see the snow ghosts as the wind blows snow off the roof. They sweep across the yard like ... well, spirits.

And you can't hear the roar of the wind as it blows over and through the massive park one house over from me. It literally roars then dies out ... just as it sweeps over my place. Really kinda cool.

Speaking of spirits and snow and generally odd things, this image is just plain weird.

(That's not how it looked last night when I took the shot.)

A post for Valentine's Day

I've been seeing Valentine's Day posts and news stories and so on all over the Internet today. So, not wishing to buck a trend, I thought I'd toss in.

Of course, yesterday and today I've been listening to (and loving) Lucinda Williams' latest musical venture, West. If I've not mentioned it before (and I think I have), I love Lucinda Williams. Well, her music. The woman herself might be a bit more than I can handle.

I highly recommend her new disc,by the way. Among its many gems is the one whose lyrics I post below, as my Valentine's Day offering. I love the song as a song and the lyrics as lyrics. Here it is:

Rescue

He can’t rescue you
Can’t pull the demons from your head
Can’t lull you from your sleepy bed
He can’t rescue you

He can’t protect you
From the powers that will be
The hours of insanity
He can’t protect you

He can’t change you
Change the summers of your beauty
The thunderstorms within your purity
He can’t change you

He can’t carry you
Past the door of every danger
Every foe and every stranger
He can’t carry you

He can’t save you
From the plain and simple truth
The waning winters of your youth
He can’t save you

He can’t fix you
From the tears that always leave their mark
And fears that stay inside the dark
He can’t fix you

What can he do?
But tie some ribbons in your hair
And show you that he’ll always care
That’s all he can do

- Lucinda Williams, West -

***

And for last year's Neruda offering, have a look here.

Spinning in our cups

Spinning Girl has posted Our Morning Cups: A Documentary and it's a fabulous post, the result of a great idea.

I only regret that I didn't hire cleaners to put my place in order first. And I didn't dress better. Well, I was going for realism. Yeah, that's it.

The machine and us?

Now this is worth a look.

Patty Griffin - Oh, heavenly day!

Today was made excellent by the arrival of the disc I ordered: Patty Griffin – Children Running Through. I don’t know how you classify her music. Generally, her music seems to get labeled with one of the following: rock, folk, roots, country. Essentially, she’s a wonderful singer who happens to write wonderful songs (that loads of people cover). And here’s the review I posted on Amazon of her Children Running Through release:

My disc arrived. I played it. I played it again. And again. Honestly, I took the disc in as a whole so I wasn't paying attention to particular song titles, though I recall my ears perking up on Trapeze and Burgundy Shoes. And I do know that if hearing Heavenly Day followed by No Bad News doesn't make you feel better about getting out of bed in the morning, you need more help than good music can provide.

Love this disc. Thank you Patty.

By the way … For those who are interested, I also highly recommend her previous release, Impossible Dream and, her first release Living With Ghosts (very folk in the sense it’s just her and her guitar – but holy shit! It is fabulous!)

My only regret is I didn't have the time or mental wherewithal to write a review worthy of the music. Ah, life's sorrows ...

No one at my shoulder bringing me fear
Got no clouds up above me bringing me tears
Got nothing much to tell you
I’ve got nothing much to say
Only I’m glad to be here with you
On this heavenly day.

Tags: Patty Griffin, Children Running Through

A gift from the city

Ever since I moved in to my place, it seems this part of the world is intent to make up for all the snow that didn't fall in the first half of winter.

I don't drive, so I'm in no big panic to get the driveway cleared out (though I have done that - I pay someone with a truck to clear it when there's a significant amount of snow). But the walkway up to the front door ... now that's something I like to keep clear.

Of course, once you do the plows come by and pile up the snow even higher, and in big, icy clumps. This is an aspect of moving into a house I may not have given enough attention to ...

Moan and groan etc.

On the other hand, I do enjoy the fireplace. Especially last night when the furnace shut off. It needed to be reset. However, coming from the west where everything is gas, and apartments and condos where worries such as this were non-existent, figuring out what I was supposed to do with a reluctant, oil-fueled furnace was something of a puzzle requiring figuring.

Yes, it was pretty easy to fix. But when you've never had a furnace like this before, and never this problem before, you do like to be cerain you're doing what you're supposed to be doing before you push reset buttons.

As mentioned, it's a pretty simple problem and one easy to fix. But I had visions of being the coyote and blowing myself and the house to hell and gone.

Tags: snow, plow, Fredericton, New Brunswick