New Old Music (long, long ago)

This is going to be a quick post (I think). Just wanted to tell you what I've been listening to lately.  I found a couple things from way back when that were favorite listens. I have the originals of these buried in my storage/archives.

Black Sea

Cover of "Black Sea" by XTC.

Black Sea is an album from 1980 by the Punk Rock/New Wave band, XTC. They are sort of quirky. In a way, a punk/new wave Kinks (i.e., lots of melodic, acclaimed work but not as popular as they deserved). I love just about every track on this album. I have all the original singles. One of my favorites is "Generals and Majors" (click on video below to hear).

The closing song on the album, Travels in Nihilon, is a stunner. It is sort of like a Tibetan drum piece mixed with the Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows. Another track that came out around this album (and so I included on my CD) was about a sleep walker, The Somnambulist. It is very ethereal, with a slow heart beat and dreamy synthesizer. I find it quite calming (look for it on YouTube).

NME/ROUGH TRADE C81

Cover of cassette of C81

C81 was a cassette album from 1981 that was FREE from the English music paper/magazine, New Musical Express which I subscribed to at the time. I clipped whatever was required and sent in for my copy which eventually arrived. This was only available on cassette (which was the hot medium at the time). It contained tracks from various artists, many from the record label Rough Trade. I was familar with several of the bands on the this collection: Pere Ubu (from Clevo), The Specials, Buzzcocks, Essential Logic, and The Raincoats. One of my favorite tracks became, "Born Again Cretin" by Robert Wyatt (click on the video below to hear for yourself). I don't know what it's about but I find it calming to listen to.

This is a very eclectic collection with many pieces that took me countless plays to be able to sit through (and some that I still skip past). Almost all the tracks (but not everything) can be found on YouTube.

So many memories.I can't believe this stuff goes back so many years (35!). It was weirder then because it was so different. Now everything is weird or rap/hiphop and this stuff almost sounds quaint.
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Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_(XTC_album)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCdxDh5D-1U
http://chalkhills.org/articles/XTCFans20080629.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_Never_Knows
http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_TheSomnambulist.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C81_(album)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NME
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough_Trade_Records
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pere_Ubu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Specials
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzzcocks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Logic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raincoats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wyatt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKyo-oZKu_4

Written Thursday 19 March 2015

Pray For A Miracle

Letter received Monday March 16, 2015 from Fr. Hattie via email.

See my Fr. Hattie page for more information on how to communicate with Father and how to donate to help "his" orphans in Nsumba, Uganda.

Below is my transcription of the above letter. I have taken the liberty of colorizing the background to simulate the Aerogram letters he used to send when he was in Uganda.  I also have "corrected" any typos and/or light keystrokes (he literally types these on a manual typewriter). I have tried to remain faithful to the text and meaning of the original correspondence.
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My Dear Rick:   Peace of Christ!

     Please excuse my tardiness in writing to thank you sincerely for your kind and generous Gift of $XX.XX for my kids, but the list of donors came only yesterday evening. Since Sister Christine is a full time teacher, she can mail me the list of donors only on the 1st and 15th of each month and she has to keep Records for her Mother General in Africa. But, I am most grateful to you for your kindness.

     For the past month or so I have been utterly devastated because the little 'street kid' that I picked up when he was just five has been kidnapped & flown to Saudi Arabia. This is surely the work of the Bank which is furious because he refused to testify vs. a man in court (said to have caused financial loss to the Bank) whom he doesn't even know. Evidently many VIPs in the Bank are involved & trying to save their skin.

     The 2 kidnappers took him to an area that is 99.9% Muslim and notorious for forcing conversion to Islam on Christians, killing some and burning churches. The 2 of them snatched his Passport and are demanding $4500 in order to get it back & he hasn't a penny to his name. I am afraid that, in his desperation, he might attempt to commit suicide.

     So, pray, pray, pray for a miracle. I have been encouraging him to go to the nearest Ugandan Embassy, but he is terrified lest they try to punish him further.

You are in my daily Mass & prayers,

Fr. Gene, S.J.

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Links:

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/p/letters-from-fr-hattie.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda

Written: Thursday 19 March 2015

Birthday Wishes

Box of candy from my friend, Satoko.

Candy inside the box (before it disappeared. Yummm).

Receiving a special box of chocolate from my pen pal, Satoko, in Japan has become a fond birthday tradition. This year I was able to use self-discipline to make the chocolate last almost a week. The little "cat" note card that came with the box has special significance for me since I had a black cat for nearly 20 years.

The chocolate from Japan was the high point of an otherwise very disappointing birthday for me this year (although any time one reaches another birthday it is a reason to be grateful). My birthday in February was on a Friday this year. So it was just another day at work for me. Of course, several in my family emailed or left voice messages for me-that was nice.

The main celebration of my birthday this year occurred the next day because it was a Saturday. The day started off bizarrely with my apartment building losing heat (and hot water) which apparently was related to the fire alarm system activating 3 times. Fortunately, no fire. But had to call 911 before the public fire department responded.

My son and I enjoyed watching his former high school's hockey team get slaughtered 11-2. You certainly could not claim it was a boring game.

After the game, we had lunch at a favorite burger joint, Plan B. But that turned out to be a downer when my son didn't get what he wanted and the ambient noise was so loud that it was difficult to have a conversation. That was probably the last time we'll go there.

Overall, the color for this birthday was BLUE. It didn't help that a gift from my mom arrived AFTER my birthday and it was totally something different than I had suggested (and was actually stupid food items that I had explicitly indicated I had no interest in)...very discouraging.

A couple of nice gifts from a FEW of my siblings (Cash, sheet of commemorative stamps) and the arrival of the box of candy from Japan salvaged somewhat this year's birthday. Let me be clear: it was not the presents but the thought that counts (and there was little thought). Hopefully the rest of the year will be better (and better). Did I say how much the box of candy means to me? Although the candy is long gone, I still have the box (and last year's too) and it brings warm feelings to me just to look at and remember my friend in Japan.

Link:

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2014/03/greetings-from-japan.html

Written Saturday June 6, 2015.