Tag: YouTube

Bukka White – Aberdeen Mississippi Blues

Seth Anderson1 Comment

 

Amazing tune, really, from an amazing guitarist. Sounds simple, but yet it isn’t.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsMpHHSLSlc

I’ve studied this song for a long time, and cannot get this phenomenal right hand rhythm string-slapping pattern down. Probably why Bukka White is a guitar god, and I am not.

Bonus: Poor Boy Long Way From Home, lap style.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0jRX69mxcE

And since I looked it up, since it is Booker T. Washington White’s hometown:

Aberdeen is a city in Monroe County in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The population was 6,415 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Monroe County.Located on the banks of the Tombigbee River, Aberdeen was one of the busiest Mississippi ports of the nineteenth century. Cotton was heavily traded in town, and for a time Aberdeen was Mississippi’s second largest city. Today Aberdeen retains many historic structures from this period, with over 200 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. In the spring of each year, Aberdeen hosts pilgrimages to its historic antebellum homes. The most prominent of these antebellum homes is The Magnolias, which was built in 1850.

(click to continue reading Aberdeen, Mississippi – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)

One version of the lyrics goes something like this (but not the song above, some is the same, not all):

I was over in Aberdeen

On my way to New Orlean

I was over in Aberdeen

On my way to New Orlean

Them Aberdeen women told me

Will buy my gasoline

Hey, two little women

That I ain’t ever seen

They has two little women

That I ain’t never seen

These two little women

Just from New Orlean

Ooh, sittin’ down in Aberdeen

With New Orlean on my mind

I’m sittin’ down in Aberdeen

With New Orlean on my mind

Well, I believe them Aberdeen women

Gonna make me lose my mind, yeah

(Slide guitar & washboard)

Aber-deen is my home

But the mens don’t want me around

Aberdeen is my home But the men don’t want me around

They know I will take these women

An take them outta town

Listen, you Aberdeen women

You know I ain’t got no dime

Oh-oh listen you women

You know’d I ain’t got no dime

They been had the po’ boy

All up and down.

Shocking video shows Brietbart’s true allegiance: Al-Qaeda

Seth Anderson0 comment

As a follow up to conservative Brietbart and his nearly amusing dustup regarding Shirley Sherrod, I give you Andrew Breitbart and his undeniable and deep love for terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and Fox News:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHN_IZ7WjSU

Nearly amusing because while the whole thing was such a farce, Ms. Sherrod’s life was disrupted in an unpleasant manner, and that isn’t funny.

BP Oil Spill Animations

Seth Anderson0 comment

For your depressing news of the day, take a look at this animated simulation of possible oil spill dispersal. Frack me!

This animation shows one scenario of how oil released at the location of the Deepwater Horizon disaster on April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico may move in the upper 65 feet of the ocean. This is not a forecast, but rather, it illustrates a likely dispersal pathway of the oil for roughly four months following the spill. It assumes oil spilling continuously from April 20 to June 20. The colors represent a dilution factor ranging from red (most concentrated) to beige (most diluted).  The dilution factor does not attempt to estimate the actual barrels of oil at any spot; rather, it depicts how much of the total oil from the source that will be carried elsewhere by ocean currents.

For example, areas showing a dilution factor of 0.01 would have one-hundredth the concentration of oil present at the spill site. The animation is based on a computer model simulation, using a virtual dye, that assumes weather and current conditions similar to those that occur in a typical year. It is one of a set of six scenarios released today that simulate possible pathways the oil might take under a variety of oceanic conditions. Each of the six scenarios shows the same overall movement of oil through the Gulf to the Atlantic and up the East Coast. However, the timing and fine-scale details differ, depending on the details of the ocean currents in the Gulf. (Visualization by Tim Scheitlin and Mary Haley, NCAR; based on model simulations.)

(click to continue reading Oil Spill Animations | UCAR.)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE-1G_476nA

[Download  high resolution video]

Marv Albert interviews Barack Obama

Seth Anderson0 comment

Marv Albert interviewed President Barack Obama on the White House basketball court, including about the Arizona immigration law, and Los Suns:

Obama on sports figures and organization getting involved in political issues, such as the Phoenix Suns taking a stand against the Arizona immigration law: “I think that just because somebody’s a sports figure or you’ve got a sports team doesn’t mean that you’re not part of the community and you’re not part of our democracy. I think it’s terrific that the Suns, who obviously feel very strongly about their community, recognize that a big part of their community felt threatened by this new law. You know, when I was growing up, you had figures like Arthur Ashe and Bill Russell who routinely would talk about the world around them. You wouldn’t always agree with them, but that sense that people are engaged in the big issues of the day, I think, is a positive thing. I don’t think that either players or franchises need to always steer away from controversy. I happen to personally think that the Arizona Law is a bad idea, I’ve said so publically, and I see no reason why these guys can’t make the same statement.”

Obama on if he played against differently since becoming the President: “Well, it is true I usually have guys with guns around, so if somebody takes a real hard foul, they could get in trouble. Nobody ever lets me win because if you let me win, you’ll never hear the end of it. I’ll talk a little trash about you. I’ll make you feel bad about yourself if we beat you real bad.”

Obama on his improved bowling: “My bowling has greatly improved. So Marv, you’re touching on a slightly sensitive point. I’m not going to walk off the set here, but we do have a bowling alley here at the White House and I’ve gotten a lot better.” 

(click to continue reading NBA.com: Notes from TNT’s exclusive interview with President Obama.)

The entire interview (Flash), uncut:

 

Ella Fitzgerald Singing Sunshine Of Your Love

Seth Anderson0 comment

Wowsa. Ella Fitzgerald Live at Montreux 1969

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7tO8xaNtQk

and of course, the original Cream version is much different. Good in its own way, but a bit over-played, and ultimately not as much fun, at least for me.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMIUt42OCbc

(via Chuck Sudo)

Oscars 2010

Seth Anderson1 Comment

A few top-of-mind thoughts re: the 2010 Oscars

  • What the frak was Sean Penn babbling about? Said something like, “I’m not a member of the Academy, and don’t agree on the best actress nominations.” So vague as to be incomprehensible, why bother? And if he is not a member of the Academy, why was he chosen to present one of the most prestigious awards? (Best Actress)
  • Cringeworthy interpretative dance number involving jazz hands and break dancing to Oscar scores, especially the Hurt Locker theme. 95% of the Best Score nominations are instantly forgettable anyway, but why not show film clips for context instead of Up With People, or whatever that was?
  • Elinor Burkett interrupting Roger Ross Williams after he won Best Documentary Short for Music by Prudence, there’s a lawsuit between the two, why was she allowed to speak and not the actual winner?
  • Horror film montage was a waste of time. What exactly qualified a film as being a horror film? Marathon Man was included, for instance, by what measure is that film in the horror genre? Such a random montage without meaning or depth.
  • Sycophantic introduction of Best Actor and Best Actress by some other Hollywood luminary. A few were heartfelt, but most triggered rolled eyes in my viewing audience.
  • Did Kathryn Bigelow win Best Director because she was a woman? or because she was the best director? Seriously, why was her gender hyped so much? Am glad that Avatar didn’t win1 but did The Hurt Locker win on merit or on quota?
  • Why a closeup of some random African American each time Precious won an award? Morgan Freeman and Samuel Jackson had absolutely nothing to do with Precious, why look for their expression?
  • Sandra Bollock’s The Blind Side, which I have not seen, appears to be a little racially skeezy, plus is about football. I doubt I’ll ever sit through it, should I? Her acceptance speech was ok though.
  • Jeff Bridges, on the other hand, should have thought a bit about his speech because it was a mess. I’m happy he finally won an Oscar, and Crazy Heart looks interesting, so it goes. I mean, groovy, man.

Whatever, I watch the damn things every year, despite how frequently lame both the winners and the ceremony are.

-update
youTubery of Sean Penn announcing something or other: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztfG_ltWwNw

A few other points from various other, more astute critics:

Hamish Hamilton making the wrong choice at virtually every turn.

He gave us long shots when we needed something more intimate (for instance, when all the John Hughes movie alums first came on stage at the end of the Hughes tribute), random and confused edits, terrible choices on who to cut to in the audience (anytime “Precious” won, we of course had to see every notable African-American person in attendance, and after spending half the show cutting randomly to a surly George Clooney, nobody could bother when Sandra Bullock told a joke at his expense in her acceptance speech), etc., etc. After everyone screamed bloody murder about the framing of last year’s In Memoriam segment, which focused more on Queen Latifah than the images of the movie people who died, what excuse was there to make the exact same mistake for the first few entries in this year’s montage? (Unless you were squinting, you may not have even realized Patrick Swayze led things off.) And after giving us shot after shot after shot of former spouses/collaborators Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron every time one of “The Hurt Locker” or “Avatar” won, how in the world did Hamilton fail to show us their interaction when Bigelow beat Cameron for Best Director?

[Click to continue reading What’s Alan Watching?: Oscars 2010: Can’t anybody here make a good TV show?]

Salon explains the on-stage feud re Music by Prudence, and interviews both sides:

[Elinor Burkett] claims she found the movie’s story, that she brought it to you.

[Roger Ross] WILLIAMS: No, not at all. The truth is that she saw the band perform [in Zimbabwe], and told me about that, and then I opened up a dialogue with the [King George VI School & Centre for Children with Physical Disabilities] school and went on my own – which you would’ve heard about in my speech — and spent $6,000 going to Africa shooting myself. And when people expressed interest in the film, I asked her to come on board. And then I regretted that decision. Then she sued.

[Click to continue reading The story behind Oscar’s “Kanye moment” – Oscar Nominations, Academy Awards 2010 – Salon.com]

Footnotes:
  1. even though I’ll probably eventually see it. Though maybe not, I’ve still never seen Titanic, Cameron’s other blockbuster smash [↩]

Reading Around on January 20th

swanksalot0 comment

Some additional reading January 20th from 12:07 to 17:38:


  • Stuart Carlson – 2010-01-18 – Satan’s tools, Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh

  • DIY Refrigerator Care Saves Money, Keeps Refrigerator Alive Longer – Saving Money – Lifehacker – Pippen becomes famous for his refrigerator love
  • Devotion to CTA is tattooed on her foot – CTA Tattler – This woman loves maps so much — and the CTA — that she has the rail system map tattooed on the top of foot.

  • Open Letter From OK Go – OK Go – Fifteen years ago, when the terms of contracts like ours were dreamt up, a major label could record two cats fighting in a bag and three months later they’d have a hit. No more. People of the world, there has been a revolution. You no longer give a shit what major labels want you to listen to (good job, world!), and you no longer spend money actually buying the music you listen to (perhaps not so good job, world). So the money that used to flow through the music business has slowed to a trickle, and every label, large or small, is scrambling to catch every last drop. You can’t blame them; they need new shoes, just like everybody else. And musicians need them to survive so we can use them as banks. Even bands like us who do most of our own promotion still need them to write checks every once in a while.But where are they gonna find money if no one buys music?

Mississippi Goddamn

Seth Anderson0 comment

youtubery in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAYVaHEMK0I


“Verve Jazz Masters 58: Nina Sings Nina” (Nina Simone)

The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam
And I mean every word of it

Alabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Alabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Can’t you see it
Can’t you feel it
It’s all in the air
I can’t stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer

Alabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

This is a show tune
But the show hasn’t been written for it, yet

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day’s gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don’t belong here
I don’t belong there
I’ve even stopped believing in prayer

Don’t tell me
I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I’ve been there so I know
They keep on saying ‘Go slow! ‘

But that’s just the trouble
‘Do it slow’
Washing the windows
‘Do it slow’
Picking the cotton
‘Do it slow’
You’re just plain rotten
‘Do it slow’
You’re too damn lazy
‘Do it slow’
The thinking’s crazy
‘Do it slow’
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don’t know
I don’t know

Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

I made you thought I was kiddin’

Picket lines
School boy cots
They try to say it’s a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sister my brother my people and me

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you’d stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You’re all gonna die and die like flies
I don’t trust you any more
You keep on saying ‘Go slow! ‘
‘Go slow! ‘

But that’s just the trouble
‘Do it slow’
Desegregation
‘Do it slow’
Mass participation
‘Do it slow’
Reunification
‘Do it slow’
Do things gradually
‘Do it slow’
But bring more tragedy
‘Do it slow’
Why don’t you see it
Why don’t you feel it
I don’t know
I don’t know

You don’t have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Liam Clancy, RIP

Seth Anderson1 Comment


“Liam Clancy” (Liam Clancy)

Such a clear, strong voice. If you’ve listened to The Pogues, Sinead O’Connor, or even U2, you’ve heard his influence.

Liam Clancy, an Irish troubadour and the last surviving member of the singing Clancy Brothers, who found fame in the United States and helped spread the popularity of Irish folk music around the world, died on Thursday in Cork, Ireland. He was 74.

His death was announced by his family and reported on the Web site www.liamclancy.com. He had been treated for pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease

…

Liam Clancy lived in Greenwich Village, where he befriended another young folk singer, Bob Dylan. They dated a pair of sisters, Mr. Clancy told interviewers. Recalling that time in an interview on Irish television two years ago, Mr. Clancy said that he, a Roman Catholic from rural Ireland, and Mr. Dylan, a Jew from a small Minnesota town, shared an important quality.

“People who were trying to escape repressed backgrounds, like mine and Bob Dylan’s, were congregating in Greenwich Village,” he said. “It was a place you could be yourself, where you could get away from the directives of the people who went before you, people who you loved but who you knew had blinkers on.”

Mr. Dylan told an interviewer in 1984: “I never heard a singer as good as Liam ever. He was just the best ballad singer I’d ever heard in my life. Still is, probably.”

[Click to continue reading Liam Clancy, Last of Singing Brothers, Dies at 74 – Obituary (Obit) – NYTimes.com]


“The Makem & Clancy Concert” (Tommy Makem w, Liam Clancy)

There’s a documentary called The Yellow Bittern – The Life and Times of Liam Clancy, but it does not look to be available in the US, at least yet.

Special Edition Double DVD Box Set

Featuring exclusive footage, interviews and additional performances from the man Bob Dylan called “the best ballad singer I ever heard in my whole life. Still is, probably”

Free delivery within Ireland. Orders will be delivered to Irish addresses from October 30th and to UK addresses from Nov 9th.

This is a Region 2 DVD and may not be viewable outside Europe.
Please be advised that we can only ship to addresses in Ireland and the UK. We can not process orders outside of these territories.

Feature Run Time: 110’
Extras: Film Trailer | Interviews | Additional Performances including “Those Were The Days” from the White Horse Tavern, New York and “Brennan On The Moor” | Liam at home with friends

[Click to continue reading The Yellow Bittern – The Life And Times Of Liam Clancy]

I wonder if Mr. Clancy’s death will speed the release of this film in the Americas? Sounds quite intriguing.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52mMuW2P38c

Here’s a YouTube clip from it:

In the interview he talks about The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Maken and their huge success worldwide, where they outsold the Beatles and played for JFK. The new documentary released in cinemas in 2009 is directed by Alan Gilsenan.

BBC photographers are not a criminals either

Seth Anderson0 comment

So how many photos of St Paul’s Cathedral are taken every day? How easy would it be for someone to find a photo without even having to visit London? Pretty easy, methinks.1 Or just purchase a postcard, usually sold right in front of the building in question. And of course, what terrorist needs to have snapped art photos of architecturally and culturally significant buildings before planning their attack? None, remember? It’s just a movie plot, never happened in real life.

A BBC photographer was stopped from taking a picture of the sun setting by St Paul’s Cathedral in London. A real police officer and a fake “community support officer” stopped the photog and said he couldn’t take any pictures because with his professional-style camera, he might be an “al Qaeda operative” on a “scouting mission.” Now, St Paul’s is one of the most photographed buildings in the world (luckily, there is zero evidence that terrorists need photographs to plan their attacks), and presumably a smart al Qaeda operative with a yen to get some snaps would use a tiny tourist camera — or a hidden camera in his buttonhole. An ex-MP2 goes on to describe being stopped for talking into a hand-sized dictaphone in Trafalgar Square (where thousands of people talking in their phones — most of which have dictaphone capabilities — can be seen at any given time).

The real damage from terrorist attacks doesn’t come from the explosion. The real damage is done after the explosion, by the victims, who repeatedly and determinedly attack themselves, giving over reason in favor of terror. Every London cop who stops someone from taking a picture of a public building, every TSA agent who takes away your kid’s toothpaste, every NSA spook who wiretaps your email, does the terrorist’s job for him. Terrorism is about magnifying one mediagenic act of violence into one hundred billion acts of terrorized authoritarian idiocy. There were two al Qaeda operatives at St Paul’s that day: the cop and her sidekick, who were about Osama bin Laden’s business in London all day long.

[Click to continue reading BBC photographer prevented from shooting St Paul’s because he might be “al Qaeda operative” – Boing Boing]

Indeed.

video interview at the BBC:

BBC News photographer Jeff Overs was stopped and questioned for taking photographs in Westminster.
Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, for which he takes photographs, Mr Overs said he was worried that policing against terrorism was making the UK feel like “the Eastern Bloc”.

[Click to continue reading BBC News – BBC photographer on being stopped by police]

Know Your Rights! These Are Your Rights!3 /4

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPeWSpB_7w4

Footnotes:
  1. 54,464 items just at Flickr [↩]
  2. Mathew Parris [↩]
  3. apologies to The Clash. This is a public service announcement. With guitars! [↩]
  4. Bert Krages Photographer’s Right in handy PDF form [↩]

William S Burroughs Thanksgiving Prayer

Seth Anderson0 comment

And Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without William S. Burroughs Thanksgiving Prayer…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8m_J6sXj_0

Music video by William S. Burroughs performing A Thanksgiving Prayer with Gus Van Sant [Video Director], Wade Evans [Video Editor], Bob Yeoman [Director of Photography] (C) 1990 The Island Def Jam Music Group

Text reprinted from Inter-Zone

Thanks for the wild turkey and the passenger pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts.

Thanks for a continent to despoil and poison.

Thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin leaving the carcasses to rot.

Thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK.

For nigger-killin’ lawmen, feelin’ their notches.

For decent church-goin’ women, with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces.

Thanks for “Kill a Queer for Christ” stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where nobody’s allowed to mind the own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the memories– all right let’s see your arms!

You always were a headache and you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

Seth Anderson0 comment

If you are one of the few who hasn’t already watched The Muppets shred Queen’s classic, Bohemian Rhapsody1, well, watch it. As of 11/25/09, this video already has 1,061,351 views.2

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

[Click to continue reading YouTube- The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody ]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY

Nice touch to have a female lead guitarist, playing a Gibson Les Paul, in emulation of Brian May of course.

Footnotes:
  1. from A Night at the Opera [↩]
  2. By 11/2/09, the video has been watched 3,440,482 times [↩]

Bad Like Jesse James

swanksalot0 comment


“Live At The Cafe Au Go-Go (And Soledad Prison)” (John Lee Hooker)

There are certain songs that give you chills, no matter how many times you’ve heard them. John Lee Hooker singing, “I’m Bad Like Jesse James”, from the album, Live at Cafe Au Go Go is one such song for me.

It is one of those tracks you want to stomp your own foot to the relentless and insistent beat.

Simply one of the greatest live blues recordings ever. Hooker plays alone at Soledad, yet the real thrill is hearing him backed at Greenwich Village’s Café Au-Go-Go in 1966 by Muddy Waters and his band, including pianist Otis Spann, unsung harmonica giant George Smith, Francis Clay on drums, and guitarists Sammy Lawhorn and Luther Johnson. All are at the height of their abilities, but it’s Hooker who works like a hoodoo conjurer, making misery rain down in “Seven Days” and “When My First Wife Left Me.” This August night’s reading of I’m Bad Like Jesse James ranks among the most intimidating vocal performances ever taped. His guitar and baritone singing sink to rarely heard depths of the blues–that secret place in the music (known only to its absolute masters) where it becomes an elemental force.

the lyrics go something like this:

A little thing I’m going to do called
‘I’m Bad Like Jesse James’

I’m bad
I’m bad
Like Jesse James, uh-huh

I had a friend one time
Least I thought I did
He come to me
Said, ‘Johnny?’
[I ] Said, ‘What man?’
‘I’m outdoor’
I say, ‘Yeah?’

I taken the cat in
Get him a place to stay
And I found out
He goin’ ’round town
Tellin’ everybody that he
He got my wife

Then I gets mad
I goes to the cat
Like a good guy should
I said, ‘Look man
‘I’m gonna warn, you just one time’
Next time I warn you’
‘I’m gonna use my gun’

‘Cause I’m mad, I’m bad, like Jesse James

I’m so mad, I’m so mad.
I’m gonna ruin you this mornin’.
I’ve got three boys
Do my dirty work
Now, you don’t see me
I’m the big boss
I do the payin’ off
After they take care of you

In their own way
They may shoot you
They may cut you.
They may drown you
I just don’t know
I don’t care
Long as they take care of you
In their own way

I’m so mad, I’m bad this mornin’, like Jesse James.

They gon’ take you right down
By the riverside
Now four is goin’ down
Ain’t but three comin’ back
You read between the line
We’re gonna have a deal

‘Cause I’m mad, I’m bad, like Jesse James.

They gonna tie yo’ hands
They gonna tie yo’ feet
They gonna gag your throat
Where you can’t holler none

An cryin’ won’t help you none
Set you in the water
Yeah, the bubbles comin’ up.
Whoa
Rrrrrrr
Rrrrrrr

Oh yeah, I’m so mad!

So intense. When I saw John Lee Hooker perform at Antone’s1 he stomped his foot to keep time. Hard not to when playing songs like this. When I saw him perform, he was playing solo, but surprisingly, turned up his distortion and played a little proto-grunge on a couple of songs. I’d say circa 19882

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J3j74R9dbw
a 1986 solo version, not nearly as intense, but still, JLH!3

Footnotes:
  1. the famous blues club in Austin – I think it is closed down now – Clifford Antone had some problems with the law, sold drugs or something, and has since passed away [↩]
  2. I remember being too young to drink, went by myself, and tried to tip the waitress $5 for taking her table and only drinking a coke. Of course, I had my bong in my car, but that’s another story [↩]
  3. playing a guitar with BB King’s name on it for some reason. [↩]

The Rant Moves to YouTube

Seth Anderson0 comment

You’ve probably seen or at least heard mention of most of these rants

Modern YouTube ranters include Christian Bale, William Shatner, Alec Baldwin and Lily Tomlin, the arrogant actors; Jim Mora and Dennis Green, the furious football coaches; Axl Rose, the intense rocker; Pat Condell, the smug atheist; Rick Santelli, the fed-up CNBC reporter; and Kanye West, the imperious musician. In a less-masculine key are end-of-rope rants by Chris Crocker, the Britney Spears superfan, and Tricia Walsh-Smith, the vengeful and off-kilter ex-wife.

Fictional YouTube rants — scenes from movies and TV that have found a second life online — include Jeremy Piven’s dressing-down of his therapist in “Entourage” (“I thought . . . you could give her [his wife] a pill that could either fix it or make her a mute!”) and Al Pacino’s savage tirade in “Glengarry Glen Ross” (“Where did you learn your trade . . . , you idiot? Who ever told you. That you. Could work. With men?”).

Watch all these rants — there should be a greatest-hits album — and intriguing patterns emerge. First, the Chicago connection. Axl Rose’s heated 1992 soliloquy about his cruel family took place at a theater outside the city. Lee Elia, the onetime manager of the Chicago Cubs, ranted memorably about disloyal fans at Wrigley Field. This year, Rick Santelli raged against the president’s housing plan from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. “Glengarry Glen Ross” is set in Chicago — the hometown of its author, David Mamet, the nation’s leading playwright of rants.

Second, rants happen in prose, and often ugly, spluttery prose. Not poetry. Verse tirades (including Shaquille O’Neal’s rap roast of Kobe Bryant and Nas’s “I embrace y’all with Napalm” ripping of Jay-Z) are far too elegant to be rants, which are simultaneously more dangerous and more pathetic. The rhyme that dominates rants is not a rhyme at all but a repetition: a word matched exactly with itself, as in Bale’s harangue on the set of “Terminator Salvation,” in which he spit out a single obscenity some three dozen times. (As a general rule, inflection substitutes for reason.)

[Click to continue reading The Medium – The Rant Moves to YouTube – NYTimes.com]

This is placeholder text:I want to find as many of these rants on YouTube as I can. For amusement purposes only, of course, no wagering allowed.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HURJNd0J4U

Ricky Roma all but destroys Williamson after the latter screws up Roma’s big sale. One of the two great scenes from Glengarry Glen Ross, and one of Pacino’s best monologues.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLXVuy0h29c

Christian Bale Goes nuts on the set of “Terminator Salvation”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HURJNd0J4U

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpVuxgSxFFE

Jessica Savitch goes on a tirade. Don’t know if she’s totally in the wrong though, after all the anchor is the one that ends up looking silly, even if its everyone behind the scenes that screwed up

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGDC2J_E0rY

Live performance in Rosemont (Chicago), Illinois, 1992.04.09. Axl talks about the things he said in his Rolling Stone interview about his upbringing.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv23pqH9iG0

Elia’s outburst occurred on April 29, 1983, after the Cubs suffered a one-run home loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The rant took place during a postgame session with reporters in his office. Elia was pissed off at the continual booing by the Wrigley crowd (both during and after the game) and frustrated that no one could see beyond the Cubs’ 5-14 record for any of the progress he felt the team was making.
The fact that Elia’s rant has been preserved for posterity is something of a miracle. In the early 80s, “baseball reporters didn’t work with tape recorders. But radio guys certainly did. So it was that Elia’s outburst came to be a part of the public domain.”
Les Grobstein, aka “ubiquitous” Les, was lurking on the edges of Elia’s office, with tape rolling. For Grobstein, graduate of Chicago’s Von Steuben High School, “it was his Zapruder moment.” Elia commented that he dearly wished Grobstein “had gotten a flat tire on his way to Wrigley that afternoon.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pp6WC1Ocz4

The title explains it all. Michael Richards becomes combative and explodes in a vile, racist diatribe at Laugh Factory in LA.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAeLFjNCb3A

Bill Shatner asks the question – ‘What is it with George Takei and his issues with me?’ The question is based on George Takei’s recent marriage and the multitude of press stories about his decision not to invite William Shatner to his wedding

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J0-ZatDHug – Alec Baldwin yelling at his daughter

The definition of Cool

Seth Anderson0 comment


“Kind of Blue (Legacy Edition)” (Miles Davis)

Speaking of police arresting iconic black dudes, Miles Davis had his own dustup with the police, as Bernard Chazelle reminds us:

Why didn’t Professor Gates keep his cool? Not sure. Let’s ask the man who gave birth to the cool. In the words of Leonard Feather,

After escorting a young white girl out of the club to a taxi [outside Birdland in NYC] he was standing on the sidewalk when a patrolman came by and asked him to move on. When Miles said, “I’m not going nowhere — I’m just getting a breath of fresh air,” the patrolman threatened to arrest him. Miles said, “Go ahead, lock me up.” When the patrolman seized his arm, a scuffle ensued during which a painclothes cop passing by began hitting Miles with a blackjack. With blood dripping all over his clothes, he was taken to the police station where, with his distraught wife, Frances, at his side he was booked on charges of disorderly conduct and assault. At a hospital, 10 stitches were taken in his scalp.

Feather doesn’t tell us if President Eisenhower had the cops over for a beer.

[Click to continue reading A Tiny Revolution: “So What”]

[Miles Davis after resisting arrest]

From Miles Davis’ autobiography:

I had just finished doing an Armed Forces Day broadcast, you know, Voice of America and all that bullshit. I had just walked this pretty white girl named Judy out to get a cab. She got in the cab, and I’m standing there in front of Birdland wringing wet because it’s a hot, steaming, muggy night in August. This white policeman comes up to me and tells me to move on. At the time I was doing a lot of boxing, so I thought to myself, I ought to hit this motherfucker because I knew what he was doing. But instead I said, “Move on, for what? I’m working downstairs. That’s my name up there, Miles Davis,” and I pointed to my name on the marquee all up in lights.

He said, “I don’t care where you work, I said move on! If you don’t move on I’m going to arrest you.”

I just looked at his face real straight and hard, and I didn’t move. Then he said, “You’re under arrest!” He reached for his handcuffs, but he was stepping back. Now, boxers had told me that if a guy’s going to hit you, if you walk toward him you can see what’s happening. I saw by the way he was handling himself that the policeman was an ex-fighter. So I kind of leaned in closer because I wasn’t going to give him no distance so he could hit me on the head He stumbled, and all his stuff fell on the sidewalk, and I thought to myself, Oh, shit, they’re going to think that I fucked with him or something. I’m waiting for him to put the handcuffs, on, because all his stuff is on the ground and shit. Then I move closer so he won’t be able to fuck me up. A crowd had gathered all of a sudden from out of nowhere, and this white detective runs in and BAM! hits me on the head. I never saw him coming. Blood was running down the khaki suit I had on. Then I remember Dorothy Kilgallen coming outside with this horrible look on her face–I had known Dorothy for years and I used to date her good friend Jean Bock–and saying, “Miles, what happened?” I couldn’t say nothing. Illinois Jacquet was there, too.

It was almost a race riot, so the police got scared and hurried up and got my ass out of there and took me to the 54th Precinct, where they took pictures of me bleeding and shit. So, I’m sitting there, madder than a motherfucker, right? And they’re saying to me in the station, “So you’re the wiseguy, huh?” Then they’d bump up against me, you know, try to get me mad so they could probably knock me

[Click to continue reading Hot House: Race Relations, 50 Years Later]

Miles Davis after being arrested for standing next to a white girl, helping her catch a taxi

Back to Mr. Chazelle who subsequently enters into another kind of discussion, the kind I can read all day without really understanding the details. Just the feeling is enough. D-minor is a favorite chord of mine, albeit on guitar. I have never had a piano of my own that I could noodle/learn on, so haven’t ever figured out what chords are what without laboriously putting them together. I mean, I can create melodies on a piano, but don’t have enough formal musical training to sustain an entire 10 minute jam, much less explain what the hell Dorian modal scales are.

OK, What about the music? “Kind of Blue” is the most extraordinary jam session ever, featuring a dream team of jazz musicians (Miles, Evans, Coltrane, Adderley, Cobb, Chambers). It’s one of the most influential albums in jazz. It broke from bebop in a big way by going modal. But that’s not why I can listen to it a million times without ever getting tired. The reason for that is the dream team. All the modality does is give them space to breathe and explore melodic ideas that are ruled out in chord-heavy bebop (unless you’re Bird and you can play a full-fledged melody in two-and-a-half seconds).

“So What” is harmonically straightforward: you go Dorian for the first 16 bars, then move up half a step for 8 bars and then back to the original key for the last 8. Sounds so simple. Until, of course, it’s your turn to solo right after Coltrane. Good luck! It’s often said that jazz introduced modes to modern music. Nothing could be further from the truth. Satie, Debussy, Ravel and all those guys used modes heavily a good 50 years before Miles, using far more complex arrangements. But who cares? This video alone gives you a good sense of why jazz is the music of the 20th century par excellence.

Click to continue reading A Tiny Revolution: “So What”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4TbrgIdm0E

Miles Davis and John Coltrane play one of the best renditions of SO WHAT ever captured on film-Live in 1958. Edit : in fact, was in New York, april 2, 1959. Recorded by CBS producer Robert Herridge. Cannonball Adderley had a migrane and was absent from the session. Wynton Kelly played piano–he was the regular band member at this time–but Bill Evans had played on the original recording of “So What” on March 2, 1959. The other musicians seen in the film were part of the Gil Evans Orchestra, who performed selections from “Miles Ahead”. Jimmy Cobb on drums.