Show #144 (I think) Playlist, etc. + Long-Play Wednesday

Come on over to my place. The old orange/brown floral couches are comfy. We’ve got wine, tea, rum, coffee. It’s nice enough out to let a breeze in through the living room window. The stereo receiver is turned on and warmed up. The 3-way speaker towers are just waiting to have those 10″ woofers hum. Pick out an album from the shelves, have a seat and enjoy!

If you can’t come over, tune in from 4:00 to 6:00 for selections from my record collection. Just be sure to turn the volume up and relax!

What Are You Listening To These Days?

I’m wondering what you’ve been listening to in your travels or while you sit in the middle of your living room with the home amplifier turned up to 11. It probably doesn’t have to be as extensively monitored as what I have here (using last.fm), but leave a message in the Comments if there is anything that’s been getting frequent plays in your library.

Show #143 (I think) Playlist, etc. Special International Talk Like A Pirate Day Edition

Yarr!!!

It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day #itlapd 2012 and a might fine day it be, indeed! This be yer Cap’n speakin – er… typin to ye from below the mighty mast of the dreaded ship CJTR. I’s here to tell ye to tune in for a special pirate edition of What Planet Is This?!* We’ll be anchoring around 4:00 and settin’ sail by 6:00 tonight. Tuning in is required and the beatings will continue until morale improves.

*For the record, this will not be 2 hours of sea shanties. Sorry – or you’re welcome, depending on how you look at it.

Show #142 (I think) Playlist, etc.

Charles Mingus

If you could be any well-known figure in history, who would you be? Don’t pick yourself. That’s lame. Would you be a famous humanitarian like Dr. Martin Luther King or the Dalai Lama? A famous prophet like Jesus or Muhammed? A notorious political leader like Stalin or Hitler? How about a folk singer like Joni Mitchell or Bob Dylan? Or a brilliant thinker like Einstein or da Vinci?

To put specific rules on this particular fantasy, this would be your chance to be a passive tag-along in their life. This would not be your chance to go back and change history. This would be your chance to go back and experience everything about their life as an observer who could not participate actively.

I’d love to hear who you’d be and why, if you want to leave it in the Comments here.

Personally, I’d have to go with a jazz innovator like Miles Davis or John Coltrane or Dizzy Gillespie or Herbie Hancock. There are dozens of others, but those four names came to mind immediately, when I began to ponder the idea. I won’t go into their life stories, but each of them (in unique ways) has agressively pushed the limit of what is accepted as jazz and/or popular music. Each of them has taken their knowledge of an existing form of music and used that knowledge to utterly destroy the very conventions that gave them the opportunity in the first place. They’ve each received their share of flack from critics over their wild ideas too. Each of these inspired characters have been highly influential and has lived or is stilling living a in a world where their name is known by countless people and their style and influence continues to be drawn upon by musicians everywhere.

That’s cool.

Tune in from 4:00 to 6:00 PM for some great music.

Show #141 (I think) Playlist, etc.

Christine Leakey

I’m kind of on a independent weirdo / classic jazz kick these days. If it’s not essential jazz recordings like Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” or Charles Mingus’ “Mingus Ah Um”, it’s bluegrass covers of Radiohead, folk renditions of Weezer or new experimental electronic pop.

Same old, right?

Well, the big orange bag is about as full as it can handle with just such things and a few others. Not to be too intentionally vague, but that’s all I’m telling you for now.

Tune in from 4:00 to 6:00 for some possibly odd, likely jazzy, maybe folky, somewhat electronicky goodness.

Also, I may just play a Hank Williams cover. Undecided on that one though. We’ll see.