Kanye West’s “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’,” featuring Zac Galifianakis gyrating on and around various farm equipment while Will Oldham lurks in the background.

PS: Also, clogging.

Sharon Jones (the undisputed current queen of soul, at least around here) and the Dap-Kings are going out on tour, but are coming nowhere near our fair city.. TEARDROPS. I missed her last time she was here, too. Anyway, BrooklynVegan has a bit of info on Daptone records, as well as a download from SJ’s new album. Highly recommended, obviously.

Some YouTube:

SJ singing Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In):

SJ sings “Things Got To Get Better”:

And a few mp3s:

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: How Do I Let a Good Man Down?, from Naturally
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: The Dap Dip, from Dap Dippin’ with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: Pick It Up, Lay It in the Cut, from Dap Dippin’ with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

love, celine

Nothing much to report over here. We went down to BarCamp this weekend, and out to the movies to see Superbad. Matt works for Emma, so it was kind of a given that he would be attending BarCamp. I had hoped for something a little different, maybe more conversation on music-related topics. I mean, seriously! There was a guitar in the logo. It’s my own fault for not really paying attention to the schedule of speakers beforehand. There were some interesting topics, and Alison (and Dean and Kelly) were kind enough to let me hang on the bus when the heat was too much to handle. Overall, it was an interesting experience, and I did get to meet a few new people and say hello to a couple of blogo-friends that I don’t get to see very often.

Superbad was, of course, excellent.

This week is kind of quiet for Matt and me. Dave, over at the NashvilleFeed, mentioned to us at BarCamp that he was happy to see our blog getting a little use. I do want to continue to blog around here, at least for the forseeable future. I had a lot on my plate, especially at the beginning of the year, that prevented me from really devoting a lot of time to anything outside of my job and my family. Some of that has subsided, at least for now, and I’ll have a little more time to write. Matt (heyyyy, did you know that there are two of us? ‘cuz most people don’t!), I think, is fresh out of blogjuice, so I think I’ll probably be flying solo around here for a while.

I start teaching full-time next week, so this week is devoted to doing all the things that I’ve avoided all summer. One of these completely unexciting tasks is scrubbing the kitchen floor. Here’s my OH BOY, IT’S TIME TO SCRUB THE FLOOR! mini-mix. There’s no real rhyme or reason to it, just stuff that I’ve been listening to lately.

Soundtrack to a Scrubbing:

1. Son Volt: Catching On, from Trace
2. Golden Smog: Corvette, from Another Fine Day
3. Rosco Gordon: No More Doggin’, from Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues - A Musical Journey
4. Elvis Presley: Mystery Train, from Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues - A Musical Journey
5. The Frames: God Bless Mom, from The Roads Outgrown

happy wednesday,

celine

I was born and raised in Mississippi, and when I was making the transition into junior high, my family moved up to a suburb of Memphis. We were so close to Graceland that I almost could have walked there. Growing up around Memphis, pretty much everyone has some sort of connection to Elvis. My best friend in high school was his cousin, and I knew a woman who worked at the airport who dated him, briefly (but seriously, growing up in Memphis, who didn’t know a woman who dated Elvis?). He would come and pick her up in his convertible and would buy her clothes for each date, and he was always such a gentleman, she said. I made her tell me every little detail she remembered, and she would be embarrassed to talk about it, but I think she was completely gaga over him.

I was actually fairly ambivalent about Elvis throughout all of my growing up years in Memphis (never even went to Graceland! not once!), and it’s only been in the last few years that I’ve really listened a little more deeply to his music, going beyond just the regular old stuff that you might hear on the radio every now and then. One of the ways that I make money around here is through teaching classes in music history, and as a component of the class we study the evolution of rock and roll. We always talk about the appearance of Elvis on the scene, his role in early rock, and how people like Elvis led us down the road of “whitewashing” the history of rock and roll. Rock and roll, a genre that evolved directly from R&B, blues and gospel (and, to be fair, some country, but the R&B influence is predominant), from the “race records” of the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s, built from the songs and culture of the black community. But this is a rant for another day. I should say, though, that I am consistently surprised by the number of students who come through my doors believing that rock and roll is a white man’s game, and always has been.

I really think, though, that Elvis just sang his heart out. I think he was a pawn in Sam Phillips’ game to sell black music to white audiences, but Elvis.. I think he was just there to rock.

A couple of interesting links:

Fuelfriends has a great remembrance, and a zip of the King’s final show in 1977.

WMFU never fails to entertain, with the mishmash of Elvis (and Elvis-related) oddities they have to share.

My Old Kentucky Home offers up some great Elvis covers.

Also, today is Elvis Presley day on Turner Classic Movies. If you are enjoying your day from the comforts of your own home, like me (I call it “summer vacation”), you can see sunup to sundown movies featuring the King. I am especially looking forward to Viva Las Vegas, showing tonight at 9 PM.

Johnny Cash does Elvis:

Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog”:

And a few MP3s from the Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, recorded in 1956 at Sun Studios):

Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis: I Shall Not Be Moved (the tracklisting doesn’t mention it, but I swear that I hear some Carl Perkins in there.)
Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis: Just a Little Talk With Jesus
Elvis Presley: Paralyzed
Elvis Presley: That’s When Your Heartaches Begin

These are a little.. “noodly” at points, but still great to hear.

love, celine

I especially appreciate the attempts of the host to translate “I would like to fuck her!” into “No no! Oh, he says you are great! Tres jolie! You are pretty.”

I missed A Fine Frenzy, but caught most of Neko’s set, which was enjoyable. Even though I think her voice is pretty much perfect, I haven’t ever really been able to get into her music.. Which makes me an indie rock sinner, I guess. I do like her stuff with the New Pornographers, though.

I had an excellent time.. Thank you again, Alison, for the ticket!! I owe you bigtime.

And, from youtube - Rufus as Judy:

Aaaand.. Judy as Judy!

The Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall recording has been a favorite of mine this summer. Hopefully later in the week I can do a post on that.

love, celine

Don’t think I’ve mentioned this here yet, but I started working for an amazing company in February called Emma. They are a permission based email marketing company based here in Nashville, and they are probably the coolest thing going. If you need a way to reach folks by email, let me know.

Anyway, Emma is sponsoring an Arbor Day campaign called “Vote For Trees.” It’s a simple concept: go to this website, and vote for trees. For every vote cast, Emma will donate a seedling to be planted, up to 5,000 trees. Plus, you can learn everything about trees that you were always afraid to ask (are they dangerous?) and learn some awesome tree facts as well (they can’t balance your checkbook).

The site is hilarious, and it’s a quick and easy way to do something good for our environment. Please take a second and click this link so you can vote! And if you’re a fellow blogger, please feel free to post about this. Let’s see how fast we can get to 5,000 trees!

PS-Be sure you get your thank you email, it’s almost the best part.

Tonight, at the 12 South Arts Venue, Improv Nashville is performing a comedy improv show as a part of Laughing Stock 2007, a benefit for Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital. St. Jude is a hospital that does very great things, and is dear to me because of my brother John, who was a patient there when we were children.

So, come! All proceeds from the show go to benefit St. Jude. Tickets are 12 dollars and can be purchased in advance from Improv Nashville’s fancy new online ticketing system! The show starts at 8 PM.

If you bring two extra dollars, you can purchase a delicious cupcake, as I will be distributing megatons of cupcakery at the show. All cupcake dollars earned will also go to Saint Jude. Tonight’s flavor: Devil’s Food!

love, celine

1. More Jack, Please - I don’t think we’ve ever had a time on 24 that the show was less about Jack than it is right now. Last night we saw Jack for about 2 minutes at the beginning, and then he was completely absent until the 2nd half of the show, where he basically sat in surveillance for the rest of the show. We had one very small Jack moment (when he shot that guy in the head), but for the most part, he’s been relegated to a bit part. This is made even worse by the lack of other longterm characters. If the story was focusing on Tony and Michelle, I might be into it. But I just don’t care about Nadia and Milo. At all.
2. Dropped storylines - 24 seems intent on dropping major plotlines this season over and over again. First it was that guy they put into the internment camp that got beaten up for spying on those guys (remember him?). Next it was the Logan story. Now it’s the Ben Folds lookalike story. That guy was causing Doyle all kinds of grief last week, and now he’s not mentioned at all. I have a feeling that he will show up again (and hopefully Logan will too), but I think we’ve seen the last of our Muslim friend.
3. Improbable plot points and unrealistic moves by the characters - Do we even need to talk about the President waking up for a coma in a matter of seconds? How about him launching a nuke right after he risked his life to make sure we wouldn’t launch a nuke? Doesn’t make any sense. And why is he taking adrenaline again? How does that relate to being in a coma? Here’s the official 24 site’s research on adrenaline. Notice how it doesn’t mention anything about treating guys that just came out of a coma. Honestly, Tom Lennox has been the only new character that has seemed believable to me at all. The VP is far too warmongering to the point that he’s really a parody (of a certain president perhaps?). Mike Doyle is still a caricature at this point. Morris’ story seems to be played out (turns out he’s not really an alkie anymore). Bleh.
4. Not using the good characters they have - Jack, Karen Hayes, Bill Buchanan, Chloe, and Jack…all of them have been squeezed out by the flood of new characters they’ve brought on to replace everyone they killed off last year. Unfortunately, the new characters are falling flat (see above), and it just makes us miss the veterans even more.

So is the season salvageable? I don’t really see how it’s possible at this point, but I’ll keep watching, of course. Don’t get me wrong, I still think 24 is the best thing on television these days (that I watch anyway), and my complaints are made in that context. It’s just been so great for so long, it’s disappointing to see such a poor season from them.

What do you guys think?