Lyric Of The Day #3 (February 6, 2020)

Waste your summer praying in vain

For a savior to rise from these streets

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGBXnw86Mgc

 

Normally I wouldn’t spotlight a lyric from a song that I had previously recognized. In this case, however, these two lines seemed to perfectly summarize the current state of the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Lyric Of The Day #2 (February 4, 2020)

This ain't the same summer song that you used to know

'Cause Jack left Diane thirty years ago

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPLeuBXoPXI

 

Great song (written by Nate Blasdell / Evan Bogart / Andrew Goldstein / Emanuel Kiriakou / Lindy Robbins) that turned out to be a complete flop in the U.S., although a hit in New Zealand. Performed by a duo best known for its 2014 hit “Classic” (which gets bonus points for name-checking Donny Hathaway, along with the more obvious Michael Jackson, Prince, and Marvin Gaye), “American Dream” is much more of a downer, which probably explains why it didn’t even make Billboard’s Hot 100.

Big Brother is watching

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/01/28/off-facebook-activity-page/

 

He knows when you’ve been sleeping …

 

… Facebook and sister apps Instagram and Messenger don’t need a microphone to target you with those eerily specific ads and posts — they’re all up in your business countless other ways.

 

Even with Facebook closed on my phone, the social network gets notified when I use the Peet’s Coffee app. It knows when I read the website of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg or view articles from The Atlantic. Facebook knows when I click on my Home Depot shopping cart and when I open the Ring app to answer my video doorbell. It uses all this information from my not-on-Facebook, real-world life to shape the messages I see from businesses and politicians alike.

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

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxRfbJvjsN8

 

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:

 

Angel

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.

Can Facebook and our democracy co-exist?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/01/24/facebook-is-inflaming-divides-tearing-democratic-party/

 

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.

Shuffle #128 (January 25, 2020)

The Guitar – They Might Be Giants

One Fine Wire – Colbie Caillat

Coyote – Joni Mitchell

You Ain’t Thinking (About Me) – Sonia Dada

The Land Of Milk And Honey – The Vogues

Food For Songs – Del Amitri

Son Of Your Father – Elton John

Southland In The Springtime – Indigo Girls

Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder

Richard Thompson – The Birchmere, 1/22/2020

Table 319 – the leftmost of the tables that are parallel to the stage and just in front of the divider. Only drawback was that it was extremely difficult to stand for ovations.

 

I’ve said plenty about Richard Thompson on other occasions, so I won’t go into great detail here. There were 22 songs over about 105 minutes. While there was no opening act, Zara Phillips joined him to sing harmony on the final five songs of the main set (“Wall Of Death”, followed by four tunes from his more recent albums) and the last two encores. Hit-wise, the show was very much front-loaded; 6 of his first 7 selections appear on my list of 20 RT favorites.

 

Personal highlights: I Misunderstood (which opened the show), the relatively seldom-performed Walking The Long Miles Home (with a great story about what he’d have to do as a boy in order to stay until the end of shows by The Who), Crocodile Tears, Who Knows Where The Time Goes, plus two great (and apparently new) songs: If I Could Live My Life Again, and When The Saints Rise Out Of Their Graves (the final encore)

 

Setlist