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Showing posts from December, 2018

With The Weepies in Chicago

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We sat in the dark with a few hundred strangers and listened to The Weepies in a club in Chicago last Sunday. We were all so quiet. At first it felt strange sitting so still and listening so carefully. That room knew every note of Weepies music, but there was none of that I'm-gonna-clap-now-because-I-recognize-the-first-waltz-bars-of-Please-Speak-Well-Of-Me applause. The respectful quiet felt quite perfect, though. After all, we were in the presence of artists who don't say words, who don't leave brush strokes, who don't hit notes of harmony they don't mean. Why make noise and miss a breath, a tone, a colour? The Weepies, Park West, Chicago I follow The Weepies.  I love their music. I love their sound. The alliteration of lyrics that capture late light lingering in the grass and looking darkly on the day. I love the breathtaking way their harmonies paint the visual harmony of the sky we mortals know and name as twilight. I love the way Deb pronounces

Chicago 2018

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Our official Chicago 2018 video, starring Shelagh, featuring Santa, Hamilton, John Hancock, Chagall, Abts and others, with soundtrack purchased from The Weepies (and tickets too), has now been released: More on living under the influence of the The Weepies here . :) 

The Astriders

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Hands up if you've used the word astride  in conversation lately. Or ever? How about the first song that comes to mind that contains astride in the lyrics? Right. Just the Father John Misty fans. And a lone Walt Whitman disciple there at the back with an arm up. Astride is a perfectly good preposition, It comes down to us from Middle English and preserves the meaning of "extending across" or "having one leg on each side of."  He sat astride a horse, for example. Chekhov stood astride the 20th century, for example. The sailors at work astride the spars, for example. In our time, Pedro The Lion uses the old word in a new song about a beloved yellow bike from childhood. David Bazan sings: But I remember what it was like Astride my yellow bike First freedom, second life All the places I could ride... It's a wonderful song that make me consider how truly I hear. On first listen, it is a nostalgic song in the well-worn theme of the freedom