As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Lyric Of The Day #1 (January 30, 2020)

The roller-coaster ride we took is nearly at an end
I bought my ticket with my tears, that's all I'm gonna spend
 
 
This one was co-written by Bruce Woodley of the Seekers and Paul Simon. It was turned into a big hit (#2 on Billboard’s Hot 100) in 1966 by a band from Easton, Pennsylvania, which is often unfairly labeled as a one-hit wonder.

Lyric Of The Day Intro

New feature for the new decade – I’m planning to occasionally post song lyrics (one or more lines, not entire songs) that struck me for one reason or another.

LP #26 Sarah McLachlan – Surfacing (1997)

This one came close to making my original list, but I basically just ran out of room. Although critical reaction was mixed, McLachlan certainly deserves all of the airplay and album sales that Surfacing produced. While the more uptempo tunes such as “Adia” and “Sweet Surrender” are fine, she’s at her best when she’s at her most ethereal, as with “Angel”, “Witness”, and “Full Of Grace”. As it happens, I also picked up her previous album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (good, but not as consistent in terms of material) and her follow-up effort Afterglow (which unfortunately didn’t do much for me at all).
 
Favorite tracks:
 
Do What You Have To Do
Witness
Building A Mystery
Full Of Grace

More Favorite Albums

As was the case earlier with songs, I decided that 25 favorite albums (plus 5 favorite live albums) weren’t enough. I also needed a new musical project for the year, although I’m already running behind with it.
 
So, I’ll be singing the praises of 15 more albums, starting with #26 and going through #40. Again, to spread the love around, only one album per artist, and those that appeared on the previous album lists aren’t eligible for this one.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Can Facebook and our democracy co-exist?


 
A couple of key quotes:
 
The volume and viciousness of the memes — portraying Warren (D-Mass.) as a snake, a backstabber and a liar — reflect how Facebook identifies and rewards emotionally charged content to generate reactions from its billions of users. That serves the company’s ad-driven business model, which equates engagement with profit. But it also, in the view of experts who study Facebook’s effect on political speech, distorts democratic debate by confirming biases, sharpening divisions and elevating the glib visual logic of memes over reasoned discussion.
 
Facebook’s “algorithm not only aggregates people, it activates people in a way that accentuates extremism,” said George Washington University professor Steven Livingston, director of the university’s Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics. “It inflames passions. It inflames the nature of the discourse.”
 
And:
 
[Trump’s] campaign aides have credited Facebook with his victory in 2016, when he poured money into advertising on the platform while also using organic posts on social media to speak directly to his followers, who responded with a torrent of posts backing him and lacerating his opponents.