Variations on A Cappella Theme

I was searching for a cappella songs, and ran across this one.  I hadn't heard of Kara Della Valle and Grace Doty, but I do know the original `Cups (When I'm Gone), sung and performed by the pretty Anna Kendrick.  Kara and Grace, along with Otto Tunes, do a truly fine cover.

These guys from University of California do an awesome `Bohemian Rhapsody in a cappella!

Perpetuum Jazzile does a totally a cappella rendition of Toto's "Africa," rain and all! 

Variations on a Rainy Theme

Karen Carpenter had a voice that could've easily been that of a young lady next door: She was talented without being overpowering, popular yet down-to-earth.  She and her brother, Richard, were consistently magic.  My parents loved their music, and I loved it, too, as a boy.

Look up mellifluous in the dictionary, and you will see a reference to Michael Frank.  I have loved his voice, his lyricism, and his music for over 30 years.  

I first heard of Yiruma from a concert at my daughter's school in Dubai, and one classmate performed `River Flows in You.  Such a lovely piece.  Then I discovered this one, and my heart was immediately taken.  

Variations on a Breakup Theme

A different sort of love song, by the lovely Gwen Stefani. How "cool" can you be, being friends, with a former lover, especially a former lover who has a new lover?

I was once enticed to sing this karaoke on stage at a small nightclub, and I was pleased with my effort.  James Ingram is impassioned about a relationship that repeatedly falls short of passion.

That's well-put, Paula, one of his many depressing love songs... What's funny, my friends and I loved this as a party song, because it was a chance for a "close dance." A girl and I would sing it to each other, while we were dancing, for example. Clearly we were clueless about its being a breakup song! We just loved: "I'm easy like Sunday morning..." And some our parties lasted into Sunday morning, so it was a perfect song :)

Anne Frank, Colorized

Anne Frank, colorized by Sanna Dullaway

These colorized photos are eerie.  They give us the impression of being modern day, but all other visual and background information tells us they are from another era altogether.  There is art in this process for jarring us, if only moderately, into an alternative perception of reality.

Anne Frank (1929 - 1945) never made it to her 16th birthday.  I remember walking by the Anne Frank House, while walking about in Amsterdam on one of several long layovers in that city, en route from the US to the Middle East on client business.  It was about 10 years ago, and back then I wasn't so curious about her story.  

She and her family fled to the Netherlands in 1933 to escape Nazi Germany, but by 1940 they were trapped in Amsterdam as the Germans occupied their chosen country.  On her 13th birthday, June 12th 1942, she was given a blank diary, and wrote in it until August 1st 1944, well into age 15.  Betrayed, the family was caught, and sent to concentration camps in Northern Germany, where she and her sister Margot died of Typhus in March 1945.  Her father Otto survived the Holocaust, and arranged to have the diary published in 1947 as The Diary of a Young Girl.

The Anne Frank House tells her story in words, photos and timelines.  

Walt Whitman, Colorized

Walt Whitman, colorized by Dana Keller

These colorized photos are eerie.  They give us the impression of being modern day, but all other visual and background information tells us they are from another era altogether.  There is art in this process for jarring us, if only moderately, into an alternative perception of reality.

I was tweeting with hockey friends tonight, and one of them said the following, in reference to Jonathan Toews, the standout captain of the Chicago Blackhawks:

@PlayDagger4Me @krechy85 @pnayder @Caraw88 Oh, Captain, my Captain... Walt Whitman ;P
— sportsPond53 (@sportsPond53) May 15, 2014

(image credit)

O Captain! My Captain is the breathtaking poem Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892) wrote about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.  The brilliant 1989 film `Dead Poets Society not only alludes to it, but also anchors its theme on the pivotal role Lincoln played in emancipating the slaves.

Mark Twain, Colorized

Mark Twain, colorized by zuzahin on Reddit

These colorized photos are eerie.  They give us the impression of being modern day, but all other visual and background information tells us they are from another era altogether.  There is art in this process for jarring us, if only moderately, into an alternative perception of reality.

I read `The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and `The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in junior high school, which was 40 years ago.  I hardly remember anything about these, except for the two boys' mischief and cleverness. Nowadays, though, it's just pithy quotes from Mark Twain (1835 - 1910) that wend their way on my Timelines.

There is razor to his wit

There is existential import to his wisdom

There is bipartisanship to his politics

Evian Babies Define Energy and Delight

It was five years ago that Evian launched their dancing babies on rollerskates.  It was an awesome effort to resonate their bottled water with energy and delight.

Then, there was Baby & Me last year, another brilliant, decidedly delightful effort.

And of course the now-obligatory, behind-the-scenes, making-of video.  Which also went viral.  It gives us curious sorts not just a voyeuristic look, but also a mini-film study.

Evian baby even gets it on with the Amazing Spider Man.  

Julia Gunthel in Extreme Flexibility

Sometimes you feel displeased with the stack of work you have to do

You are easy to pack up, and off to the airport you go

You pour coffee like this every morning

I saw this photo in particular on Google+, and joked that this was how I poured coffee every morning.  The lady is Julia Gunthel (aka Zlata), and she is a photogenic 27-year old Russian living in Germany.  She discovered her talent for bending backward to an extreme degree when she was 4 years old, and has contorted herself in all sorts of jaw-dropping, unmistakably erotic ways since.

The photos above are from her 2013 calendar - Office master class - and below is a video compilation of it:

Here is much more about her in the article Meet the World's Most Flexible Woman, on her website Goddess of Flexibility, and the following mini-documentary:

The Evolution of Dancing, Jimmy Fallon Style

Come on, Dads, we can do better than this!  I love the Elbow Factory... (Lip Bite Bonus), though.

Hey, that doesn't look like Michelle Obama!  There's a lot to like about this video, especially Where's Your Father? (Get Him Back Here!).  

Veneno Para Las Hadas, by Steven Wilson

When you're young, you're sleeping
With the love you're feeling
Waking up to evening
To the pulse you're breathing. 

Lift me up, I'm sinking
I never know what you're thinking. 

Nothing left, just ember
Only we remember
A bottle not for sharing
Poison for the fairy.

What people post on social media is often a curiosity for me.  My friend Mafe Encizo posted this on Facebook on June 4th 2013, and I remember feeling taken by it.  She posted the lyrics specifically, mentioning neither the song nor the singer.  A brooding melody with a painstaking rhythm.

I had never heard of Steven Wilson, but what I just found out was the title of his song is also the title of a 1984 Mexican horror film `Veneno Para Las Hadas (Poison for the Fairies).  The video uses only one image, that curiously of a man wearing a gas mask.  Wilson founded the band Porcupine Tree, and this image is on the cover of their album Insurgentes.

A Synchronicity

I added `Veneno Para Las Hadas, `Love on a Real Train, and `Forbidden Colours consecutively to my Pop Instrumentals, New Stuff playlist.  What I learned just as I was writing these articles was that they were all associated with films from 30 years ago: `Veneno Para Las Hadas (1984), `Risky Business (1983), and `Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983).  Hmm.