CD 9: Cat Power: The Greatest; Fun Fact 27

This CD was given to us by our friends Stephanie and Moe when they visited earlier this summer. Reading an interesting article about Cat Power by Sasha Frere-Jones in this week's New Yorker reminded me that I had not yet blogged about it. Cat Power (real name: Chan - pronounced Sean - Marshall) has been around for a while and has played with some pretty big names including Patti Smith, Liz Phair, and Eddie Vedder. Early success and addiction issues seemed to have led to some uneven performances characterized by extreme stage fright, though most critics recognized her raw talent throughout those perilous years. (She certainly looks like she's having a great time performing now, if the picture here is any indication.) In any case, her new CD, The Greatest, is getting a lot of attention, suggesting that it may well become her breakout recording. She has a great voice, which puts me in the mind of white soul singers such as Shelby Lynne or her foremother Dusty Springfield. (And you really can't go wrong with Dusty, now, can you?)

Fun Fact: This is not the first time The New Yorker has commented on Cat Power's work. Check out this 2003 story, by Hilton Als.

CD 8: Gipsy Kings - Este Mundo; Fun Fact 26

We have started to think about taking a trip to Spain in a couple of years. We'd like to spend two weeks there, with each of choosing a theme to focus on. My theme will be music and Kate's theme will be religious art (icons, etc.) I was talking with our friend Miriam about this one day on the phone (she's travelled to Spain many times) and she was kind enough to send us several discs to get us started. The first one we listened to was The Gipsy Kings' "Este Mundo." Their music is said to be designed to bring traditional flamenco music into the pop world. This was a very accessible and entertaining place to start our musicial exploration of Spain. Thanks Miriam!

Fun Fact 1: The Kings are actually from France, as their parents fled Spain during the Civil War.

Fun Fact 2: Their cover of "Hotel California" is included in the soundtrack to the Coeh brother's film, "The Big Lebowski" (one of my favorite movies of all time - "The dude abides!"

Rock and Soul Class Part I - Experience 29; Fun Fact 25; CDs 6 &7

Last night I finished the first semester of a year long class on the history of rock and soul, taught by WXRT DJ Terri Hemmert (pictured right) at Columbia College in downtown Chicago. Fun Facts: Terri was the first woman assigned the morning drive slot in Chicago radio, over 25 years ago. I used to listen to her show when I was home from college working downtown during the summer. Columbia College is the largest media and arts college in the country.

This first part of the class focused on the roots of rock and soul starting with Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith in the 20's and ending up with The Beatles and Black Sabbath in the 60's. It was a fantastic in-depth review of the popular music of this period, facilitated by Terri's truly amazing dvd collection.

Next week the real students in the class will take the exam (in this case it pays to be a poser ;^) and then we'll all meet at a Thai restaurant across the street for an end of the class celebration. Kicking off the holiday party in advance, Terri gave all of us two fantastic cds. The first is called the College of Rock and Roll Knowledge is basically a review of the central roots artists that we studied this term, including Billie Holiday, Louis Jordan, Big Mama Thornton, Irma Thomas and others. The second is the 2007 edition of her Christmas disc which includes Christmas songs from artists who performed in Chicago during the term. Both are sensational and include excellent picutres of Terri dressed as Santa and Terri as a dj at maybe 4 years of age! Thanks for a great term Terri! See you next semester!

Another Pre - Experience 28

This is yet another catch-up post. We were invited to another "pre" dinner at our friends Mary and Amanda's place on Thanksgiving Eve. (We had three Thanskgiving dinners when all was said and done.) They cooked up a really tasty turkey (very moist) and had all the great traditional sides and the company was great too! If this keeps up we'll be as big as houses by the time we return to Athens!

Thanks to Mira and Eric for the great picture, taken just before the party was breaking up. (I lifted it off their great website, Life of Miric.)

First Winter Storm! Experience 27

The first winter storm of the season arrived in Chicago today, and it is looking like a doozy! It started out this afternoon with some beautiful big flaked snow, but by the time we got out of the movie (see below) the temperature had risen and it was sleeting, leaving the streets with a layer of ice on top. Here's hoping this is a sign that we're in for a very white holiday season!

For The Bible Tells Me So - Movie 17

Today we braved the beginning of a winter storm and slogged over to one of our favorite theatres, The Music Box, to see a documentary called For the Bible Tells Me So. This film focusses on five families that have gay children, as well as strong, fundamentalist Christian belief. How do they reconcile, or fail to reconcile the two? Two of the families include very public personas (Gene Robinson, Episcopalian Bishop of New Hampshire pictured above and Chrissy Gephardt, daughter of Congressman Dick Gephardt) and the other three families are everyday folks. This interesting and sometimes moving film shows the real and often very damaging human consequences of the anti-gay rhetoric of the religious right. It also offers an interesting and more complicated interpretation of what one interviewee calls the fifth grade level fundamentalist interpretation of the bible verses from Levitcus and Romans that are invariably trotted out to justify such beliefs. In one of the most powerful scenes a family tries to get in to see Rev. James Dobson at Focus on the Family in Colorado and is arrested for their efforts. Great way to portray a literal refusal to engage a challenging viewpoint. The movie is playing at least through this Thursday here in Chicago. Two thumbs up, way up!

Jin Ju - Restaurant 29; OB - Beer 25; LaShondra Barnett - Performance 11

Last Sunday I went to a discussion led by LaShondra Barnett about her new book, I Got Thunder: Black Women Songwriters and Their Craft at Women and Children First bookstore on Clark and Foster. This is a great book filled with interviews of black women songwriters ranging from Nina Simone to Alicia Keys. About 25 people turned out to hear Prof. Barnett (she's in Amereican Studies at Sarah Lawrence) talk about the accomplishments of these women as well as the way that they are usually diminished through a focus on the personal. Afterwards, I met up with Kate and we had dinner at Jin Ju, a Korean restaurant just down the street. We had a delicious scallion pancake and a tasty seaweed roll for appetizers. We each also had an OB beer (Oriental Brewery) which was a pretty unintersting lite beer. For dinner, Kate had Bi Bim Bop (a variety of mixed vegtables mixed together in a hot stone bowl right there at the table) and I had tilapia with eggplant and mushrooms. Both had excellent sauces with just the right amount of kick to make them interesting. The atmosphere was pretty quiet, it being early Sunday evening, but I'm sure the place jumps during the weekend! I've been told that there are cheaper places to get this quality of Korean food, so stay tuned for more soon!