Speed of Life
Nov. 30th, 2006 01:31 pmHey everyone, it's National Methamphetamine Awareness Day, 2006!
You can read more about it here, as well as at the official White House link above, but may I add my own suggestions for a fine way to celebrate this day, and be aware of meth, in the proper MUSICAL spirit?

Start off easy, with a little something from the Man in Black, then move on . . .

. . . to mid-sixties Dylan (if you have the No Direction Home video, rewatch his crazed riffing on some English store signs at the beginning of Part Two). Then --

-- ease back into the rambling poetry and obsessively lush arrangements of Mr. Van Dyke Parks. I recommend this first album, though a reading of his amazing liner notes from 1972's Discover America would not be inappropriate to accompany the instrumental version of "Donovan's Colours" herein.
Finally, turn up your stereo all the way and slap on all 70-odd minutes of

Reading Lou's liner notes as an accompaniment would also be appropriate here, though I think that Van Dyke's notes should be read quietly, intensely and fast, and Lou's should be read AGGRESSIVELY AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS!
In striking things from the Havel Festival, I wound up walking away from The Ohio Theatre with an early-60s Magnavox "Stereophonic" console turntable -- it had been acquired here by the company from Bloomington, Indiana
that presented Havel's Unveiling, and they didn't feel a need to schlep it back home when they were done. Berit has plugged it in and says the turntable actually works (at least, it turns), so I just need to borrow a dolly from my super and roll the heavy thing from the car to here, and hope that it has a working stylus and the tubes inside are A-OK (it has tubes inside! it has TUBES inside!). Sometime soon I'll scan and post some of the instruction book for the console here -- the fonts and layout are LOVELY.
If it all works fine, I think the music above will be good to break it in. Though I'll also have to drag out my 45s and give them a spin (it has a big 45 rpm record changer!). Maybe my Yma Sumac Voice of the Xtabay box set of 45s.
I'll let you know how it goes . . .
You can read more about it here, as well as at the official White House link above, but may I add my own suggestions for a fine way to celebrate this day, and be aware of meth, in the proper MUSICAL spirit?

Start off easy, with a little something from the Man in Black, then move on . . .

. . . to mid-sixties Dylan (if you have the No Direction Home video, rewatch his crazed riffing on some English store signs at the beginning of Part Two). Then --

-- ease back into the rambling poetry and obsessively lush arrangements of Mr. Van Dyke Parks. I recommend this first album, though a reading of his amazing liner notes from 1972's Discover America would not be inappropriate to accompany the instrumental version of "Donovan's Colours" herein.
Finally, turn up your stereo all the way and slap on all 70-odd minutes of

Reading Lou's liner notes as an accompaniment would also be appropriate here, though I think that Van Dyke's notes should be read quietly, intensely and fast, and Lou's should be read AGGRESSIVELY AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS!
In striking things from the Havel Festival, I wound up walking away from The Ohio Theatre with an early-60s Magnavox "Stereophonic" console turntable -- it had been acquired here by the company from Bloomington, Indiana

If it all works fine, I think the music above will be good to break it in. Though I'll also have to drag out my 45s and give them a spin (it has a big 45 rpm record changer!). Maybe my Yma Sumac Voice of the Xtabay box set of 45s.
I'll let you know how it goes . . .