Musings on the byways of popular culture
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On the basis that this is a site on the fringes of culture, one way to uphold the people of Ukraine may be to explore and celebrate the music and culture of the country. Here’s the Eurovision Song Contest winner from 2016 with a song that just seems poignant, yet defiant. I’m sure there are far more examples from a country with a long history, if anyone wants to post.
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Whether or not NYT keeps Wordle free, I suggest a cultural byway version the Afterwordle.
!, Use ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ to offer a puzzle in a comment (5 is a suggestion – your choice of AW-appropriate texts – nouns, names, acronyms) 2. Offer answers in replies to comment 3. Mark replies in ‘replies to replies’ (Edit – cannot get green or yellow boxes to appear. I suggest green=G, yellow=Y, Blank=⬜)
Let’s see if this runs or fades…
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The Boris thread is doing a lot of heavy lifting with the never ending story of Johnson’s defenestration. Will it happen? Before or after Sue Grey reports? What more stories will come out? What defections?
Looks like it will run and run, so maybe a good idea to keep it on the front page.
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How has life been for you and yours over the last 12 months?
Use this space as you want – maybe a chance for the AW community to reflect and share in the quieter, shorter days at the end of December.
This is a service Hannah used to provide each year – it was good to learn about what everybody had been up to. I hope I’m not treading on her toes in posting this. I look forward to reading anything and everything you want to post. I might even find the time to remember and write up what I did this year.
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In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various artists to promote sales of their song “The Little Lost Child”. Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. In 1981, “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the first music video played on MTV.
So, either 117 or 40 years of music videos.
But what’s the cream of the crop – the artistic peak – the perfect melange of sound and vision? Which one do you like most and why? Which is the most beautiful creation?
Whatever you think of the music on this one, the visuals are amaaazing!
I know how we all love clip-heavy threads, with nothing but copy and pasted links to YouTube, but maybe be sparing and select only your finest flicks, dew-picked and flown from Iraq, cradled in the finest quality description, lightly posted, and sealed in a succulent, Swiss, quintuple-smooth, treble-adjective envelope, and lovingly frosted with superlatives.
I look forward to watching and appreciating every one!
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Sad news about the one remaining active member of Cabaret Voltaire. I first heard them when I bought 2×45 in 1986. I was intrigued by the plain black cover, being deep into my goth phase at the time, and judging records by their covers, this was too cool not to buy, for its sheer beauty. The music inside was like nothing I’d heard before, but there were definite dark elements to it, and a wonderful rhythm to all the tracks. I guess Cabaret Voltaire were more influential than popular, and their music wasn’t easy listening. But give it a few spins and there’s as much beauty to discover in the music as in the packaging it comes in.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/21/cabaret-voltaire-richard-h-kirk-dies-aged-65
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To save Black Celebration from having to do all the heavy lifting on the whimsical posting front, here’s me doing something exceptionally lazy and asking you to post mistaken identities, based on a comment in one of his many recent posts. E.G. I wanted to see Kate Nash, but it turned out to be Kate Bush. I was keen to hear the tuneful jazz rap stylings of OUi3, but ended up with stadium OAPs, U2. And I was so happy to have tickets to watch Dr and The Medics and Dr Hook, but was confronted with a double bill of the Saw Doctors and the Spin Doctors.
Speaking of whom, how long can we ‘spin’ this out for, eh readers?
https://theafterword.co.uk/throw-off-your-mental-chains-hoo-hoo-hoo/#comment-493834
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Sparked to attention by Bingo’s provocation on the guilty pleasures thread with his “Surely amongst the least Afterword-friendly artists imaginable, and yet… responsible for some amazing tunes”, I thought, surely not Cyndi? She’s so great (as well as unusual) and has trailed her own career path right into her 60s. Her quirky associations with WWF and her long and strong support for LGTB are just two indicators of her willingness to go her own way, and that openness floods out in many of her songs, which is why I think they connect to so many people.
A quick check and it turns out there is AW support for La Lauper. Twang reviewed her last album (of country songs), signing off with “But who doesn’t like Cyndi Lauper?” Of course there was a dissenting voice, but also a fair few assenting ones too.
Her hit singles always stand up fresh to replaying, taking me back to the time when I first heard them. But they are well known, so I’ll put below a few less frequently played songs from through her career to start off the lovefest, (in case anyone wants to join in).
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Captain 2020 Hindsight here again – this time hoovering up musics from a throwaway link from @Kaisfatdad in his one hit wonders thread – 35 best Colombian albums from 2020.
For now, Jessie Reyez (no.11 in the list) has found that sweet spot between my ears that Dua Lipa was the last to claim. As I often do when finding a new artist, a quick [artist theafterword] Google shows if anyone’s shared their enthusiasms on the forum already. In this case, it’s the estimable @Bingo-Little who put the case for Jessie – loving her phlegmy vocals. Happy to follow in your trail once more, Bingo.
This track is perfect for me – distinctively clear, beautifully harmonious vocals that soar and growl, coo and hum, tickle and breathe and even do that ickle girl sound Morwenna Banks copywrote. All set off against a wonderful confident dynamic musical backdrop of rhythm guitar, oozing bass sound tinctured with drops of Bollywood violin.
And the lyrics are thoughtful and heartfelt, whose boldness and startling intimacy is well expressed in the video.
As the poll says, “Jessie ha sabido hacer de su voz una experiencia trascendental, » Continue Reading.
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Time has passed since the news earlier this month about the Ofsted report* into sexual harassment in schools. Indeed, this may seem like a remote topic, apart from those AWers in the teaching profession, or with children of secondary school age, for most of us it’s many years (decades) since we experienced teenage years and puberty.
But I wonder if it is not a good topic to discuss in any case. Can the cause(s) for such harassment be identified? What could change the culture or prevent it? Is it different from/better than/worse than it was ‘in my day’? Is it just a boy thing?
I try to look at it from my perspective and experience, growing up in the English culture of embarrassment and squeamishness and jokiness about sex. As I’ve got older, I look back at how I learned about sex and relationships. The sex education I recall was mechanical, precautionary and limited. Relationship education didn’t come into it. Going to a secondary school single-sex from the age of 13-16, the arrival in the 6th form of girls was like encountering a whole new species – and as strange for them – entering an environment where they were » Continue Reading.
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I am a late adopter. So, the annual albums of the year poll is not something I can meaningfully contribute to in the compilation phase. But I like discovering new (to me) music. Consequently it is a mine of potential new joys for me each year. I decided to listen to (at least a minute or two of) all 560+ albums submitted to the 2020 poll. You guys like a lot of jazz (54), and US folk/country (59), and even piano (23) by my reckoning. I put some of my favourite new discoveries in KFD’s thread. This post is an extension of KFD’s challenge – one hit wonders – albums nominated by just one person.
I have listed below ten albums that only one person nominated, and in the comments below I will say something about why I liked them. They may not be the ‘best’ albums in the chart, even for my own idiosyncratic tastes. There were many other albums that were a revelation – that had greater instant appeal, but nominated by at least 2 people. But these all made me happy in different ways, often accompanying me on my daily home-based virtual commute to the global » Continue Reading.
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On I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, One of the rounds that they do Is make up limerick verse, And if you’re not averse, It’s something I’d like to offer to you
I thought that maybe we might Take it in turns each line to write. One line max per stanza – And here’s the bonanza – Write the fifth, and the next one’s yours to ignite.
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It’s Spring. The sap is rising. What songs get you going and make you feel good?
Let’s bring some aural pleasure to the Afterword. I think we all need to share the sounds that pound our mounds.
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The first coffee of the day Helps to get me on the way Makes me feel bright when the morning is grey What 4-line verse would you like to say?
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Whether life actually has any meaning, or just that what we give to it, it’s easy for answers to be trite or perfunctory, cliched or empty of any real meaning.
But sometimes a quote can pop up that grabs me unawares and says something in a way that makes me stop and think. It doesn’t answer all questions, but it points the way to more interesting perspective.
In honour of Douglas Adams, are there 42 such quotes out there? I’ll put two in the comments.
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On the grounds that there are no wrong questions, but some are quite silly, and that it’s not easy always pretending to be grownup and having all the answers.
But also, that it’s entertaining making up ridiculous answers and that the stupidity of crowds is as valid as assessment of humanity as its wisdom.
Here’s one to start with:
Why is water wet?
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I feel this is the place to come for answers to leading questions about current cultural mores. The Atlantic posits hyperpop as the countercultural sound of the 2020s.
But is it?
Please tell me!
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/03/hyperpop/617795/
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TLDR: bands – better knowing who the members are or not?
Browsing through the RSS feeds tonight I came across this article on the Beach Boys and the song in the clip. It’s beautiful – a ghostly shimmering sound that makes it as fresh as the first time I heard it. That’s a long time ago – Beach Boys songs were some of the earliest music I can remember listening to – my parents had a Greatest Hits cassette and Loop John B and others are ingrained in my memories like inner rings of a tree – weirdly sweet interweaving harmonies over happy, jolly music. I never wondered then who was singing what, and to this day, though I know a little more about prodigy Brian with his cracked psyche, tragic womanizing surfer Dennis, cynical and self-centred Mike, and even third bro Carl and Richie Cunningham lookalike Al, I couldn’t tell you who sang what in any of their songs. I wouldn’t know where to go to google it (a big thank to anyone who can break down the track for me).
Then I got to thinking about something that has entertained me every now and then – bands where » Continue Reading.
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TLDR – Eliot (and poetry in general) and modern music – discuss
I like the idea of T.S. Eliot. But I don’t like his poems much. They don’t ‘make sense’. I start off reading a phrase, a line with intent to draw meaning out, but frankly it’s a struggle. Thrown at school into Ash Wednesday, (what feels like the deep end of the pool of Eliot’s poetry), was almost enough to put me off completely. I mean: Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope I no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished power of the usual reign? A quote from Wikipedia “In the first section, Eliot introduces the idea of renunciation with a quote from Cavalcanti, in which the poet expresses his devotion to his lady as death approaches. Dante Gabriel Rossetti translated it under the title Ballata, Written in Exile at Sarzana, and rendered the first line as “Because I do not hope to return” What the fuck?
What better way to signal » Continue Reading.
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This video has really struck me, not particularly because my father is, probably like a few of yours, suffering from failing memory and cognition, but rather from the metaphor of 2 bookshelves, one of specific memories, one of emotional associations, and how shaking the shelves does or does not dislodge books. Part of our brain stores facts, part stores emotions – they are connected, but they don’t seem to function in the same way.
It’s a short video. If you watch it, which decade would you fall back to, should the circumstance arise? For me, it would be the 80s. I was listening to this video by Annie, and the deep connections to eighties synth pop just resonated with me so deeply, I just felt that, when I finally lose my cognition, music like this will reanimate me like those fan-driven inflatable figures outside car showrooms. https://youtu.be/aWj_fkGamfk Now, where’s Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald?
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Where do these things come from? I was watching Steven Colbert last night for his latest wry take on US politics, when he dropped in references to sea shanties. Whatever, I thought. Then, today the wave, which must have been cresting for days now, broke over me on Facebook. It’s officially a ‘thing’.
These phenomena multiply exponentially from out of nowhere, don’t they? So quick, you can almost see them happening in real time.
I guess communal choral singing is a good thing in these strange times, as @TheCheshireCat would probably attest. What would Afterworders sing a capella together, I wonder?
