by YTP on January 9, 2012
It’s a grey cloudy day here in New England, but nothing beats the grey like Southern rock with an edge. I know Cage the Elephant has been on the charts for the past year, but the band never ceases to hit the right note (oooh, I couldn’t resist that one) for me.
But lately, just to make things even better, I’ve been mixing Cage with a little Gnarls Barkley, and let me just say – it’s a devastating combo. Gnarls Barkley has been around a while – it’s a duo with a rather famous half: CeeLo Green. And as much as I like CeeLo solo, I far prefer the musical complexity of Gnarls Barkley. The only way I can think to explain it is that it is depth and difficulty of jazz at its best, mixed with the soulfulness of R&B at its best, and colored up nicely by a serious splash of rock here and there. It’s… fun. And funny.
I don’t often wax poetic on bands and musicians, primarily because I think people sound really strange when they do, but I’m making an exception to recommend this latest mix: Cage and Gnarls are all that is acoustically right in this digital world of ours. Set the playlist for yourself and see what I’m talking about.
by YTP on December 16, 2011
Christopher Hitchens died today.
That I am taking space on my blog to mention someone I don’t actually know is no small thing. I have, by default of a crusty and slightly suspicious personality, an aversion to the hero worship of celebrities, of authors, of… anyone, frankly. Having met many a President, Prime Minister, Senator, and celebrity in my twenties, and seen all too clearly that most don’t measure up intellectually or morally to many of the “regular” people I know, I see everyone’s value through the lens of what they contribute, not where they rank.
Perhaps that is why I am overcoming my aversion to speak emotionally of someone I’ve never met in this post. Christopher Hitchens contributed. Greatly. His writing was such that even if you did not agree with his point, you still wanted to finish reading his prose, and not just for greater edification on the opposing point of view. I admired his intellectual discipline, his obviously self-imposed high standards, his brutal honesty. We have so many voices in our world in this digital era that is it a bit impossible any more to have “the voice of a people” or “the writer of an age” as many of his peers were called in the past. Further, it’s not hard to be the voice of a people if there aren’t many voices.
Of the many, many, many writers out there, however, and the many, many, many voices joining in the discussion these days, Hitchens still managed to stand out among them. I will miss his mind and his provocations terribly, and can say, with all the cynicism of one who has met and worked with those who are supposed to be the best of our time, that Hitchens actually was.
