This week I’ll be burning CDs of 12 songs I downloaded yesterday. One of the gifts I give my four nieces each year is music. I also burn a disc to play in my car. I have almost 40 that I rotate, keeping them fresh. I usually listen to one while driving during the weekend. It’s getting harder to find songs I consider “download-worthy,” to paraphrase Elaine’s hilarious “sponge-worthy” phrase from Seinfeld. Here's the list. I've checked it twice:
1. Rolling in the Deep - Adele. Fantastic vocal, impossible to quell the urge to sing along with her on the chorus.
2. My One and Only Love - Chris Botti/Paula Cole. Botti sounds like Miles Davis, in understated mode, on this track, and Cole matches him with a touching vocal.
3. Wicked Game - Chris Isaak's haunting big hit from the ‘90’s.
4. Somebody I Used To Know - Gotye’s brilliant, eerie look at a failed relationship, with Kimba expertly providing the female counterpoint.
5. Favourite Shirt - Haircut 100 jazzing it up, a track usually referred to as “Boy Meets Girl.”
6. Guilt - Marianne Faithfull. Her sandpaper voice is completely different from the one that sang As Tears Go By way back when, but it is more compelling, and her lyrics are interesting.
7. Quando, Quando, Quando - Michael Buble’s smoothness and Nelly Furtado’s sweetness blend perfectly.
8. Don’t Know Why - Norah Jones’ irresistible hit.
9. Dead Man’s Party - Oingo Boingo. Great dance record featured in Rodney Dangerfield’s Back to School (1986). The band’s leader, Danny Elfman, has gone on to score Hollywood blockbusters like Tim Burton's Batman (1989).
10. Messages - Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD). I think it was playing the first time I entered Hurrah, circa 1980, my favorite Manhattan club, which was like a no-frills basement. The main keyboard part has remained with me for more than three decades.
11. Wrapped Around Your Finger - the Police. I’ve always loved their references to literature, in this case The Odyssey: “…Caught between Scylla and Charybdis.”
12. Pleasure and Pain - Steve Jones’ beautiful ballad, the version from the soundtrack of Sid and Nancy (1986), the antithesis of his lead guitar work with the Sex Pistols.
Everyone knows Division One NCAA football is a big business that usually puts winning, which attracts alumni donations, ahead of ethics. Western Kentucky University is the latest to descend onto the path of darkness, hiring Bobby Petrino. While head coach at Louisville, he constantly went on secret interviews with representatives of the likes of Auburn and Notre Dame, and denied it. Five months after signing a ten-year contract with Louisville, he left them for the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, where he quit after just 13 games, without having the decency to meet with his players. He was hired by the University of Arkansas and was immediately successful. He lost that job after a motorcycle crash and subsequent cover up of the fact that his lover, whom he'd hired to his office staff, was riding on the back. I imagine office pools will begin at WKU on how long it will be before Petrino jilts the school for a more prestigious program.
I spent a couple of fruitless hours at the rear of the Sheepshead Bay train station, out of the rain, expecting to be shooed away by police, as I was a year-and -half ago. A patrol car did stop at the curb, causing my sphincter to contract, but neither officer got out. A few people asked about the books, but there were no takers.
Visit Vic's sites:
Vic's Third Novel (Print or Kindle): http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
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