Timber!

I've been wanting to write a little bit about popular music, especially the songs I listen to on AM radio driving around Chicago. This summer I picked up several albums by fairly popular musicians...and I'd like to review them too.

I am a crazy big fan of Ke$ha...and Pitbull. And right now they have a song on the radio together so I think I'll start with the idea I've been playing with.

A year ago I was making a soundtrack for a short film. I wanted some country folk style music mixed with dance music. In 2007 I was learning square dancing with the LGBT Square Dance league and they danced to techno music. I thought that was fantastic. (here is Betsy laying down some banjo
which I later mixed into a dance track)
I wrote a note for entering movie festivals and it points out my interest in crossover music genres here is what I wrote

Recently two songs have come out on AM radio and they are huge and they both mix EDM and pop with country roots music. I made a joke to Stagg that I could imagine Pitbull and Ke$ha sitting around and saying "Well if Miley Cyrus is going to reject her country background and move to our turf on pop music...maybe we should make a country song."

At first, I thought the song used the most stereotypical lyrics we might associate with rednecks, or country folk music. They named the song "Timber" which is like a cartoon vision of a lumberjack or country person ..literally the most common obvious image of being in the country and foraging or eeking out a living. They have made the title and repetitive shout "Timber" a call to fight for their right to party! Timber is also a pun on a musical attribute the timber of a voice or an instrument. Timber also says they will warn their peers on radio and the dance club they are going to take no prisoners. The lyrics also incoprorate another stereotype of country music, the square dance and what comes to mind? "swing your partner round and round"...right? Well, so they throw this into the song too. And Timber also makes a reference to "wood". One of the verses sings "face down booty up timber". And really the power of the woman is here because timber is before the tree falls. The female narrator has the force to fall that wood. And this line is the main reason I love Ke$ha...and Pitbull. These two are very very funny! (I will write about Pitbulls albums in a future post)

I knew nothing about Ke$ha when I first saw her a few years ago on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. Actually, I disliked her on first impression. I didn't like her make up, her rough voice and she just seemed so...flaky. Boy was I wrong. I have come to realize she is immensely talented and has a real insight on the dance scene, on the lives of young women and her voice is really special to me now. Ke$ha uses a variety of vocal styles including rap, yodelling, and dance style with autotune, but she really does have an attractive voice. Her mother is a songwriter and they lived in Nashville after leaving California when Ke$ ha was younger. So Ke$ha really is Nashville!

A couple weeks ago, my husband, Stagg said, Candy you were way ahead of this country music EDM and pop music thing...look here's something in The Reader

I disagree with the judgemental dismissive opinion of the READER article, I think they missed the potential for this music crossover. I disagree that the author dismisses Pitbull as being a good musician (I think he's amazing). They describe the song as having "nagging harmonica", and their opinion that country and pop dance is an "odd combination"...but there is something much more exciting and important that Miles Raymer missed about songs like this one...

What I am fascinated about with this song and Avicii's "Wake Me Up" (post tomorrow) is that they are addressing the history of popular music by very intensely using country images, country lyrics and the crossover music scene is where some cutting edge music is occurring today. When the music crosses over...with a powerful female like Ke$ha into the world of right wing, fundamentalist music in United States we can hope that ideologies and political freedom for women and minorities may also be confronted and influence that barrier between people. Abortion, racism, elitism, agism and many other hot liberal concerns may begin to meet in the middle between political parties of young people.

[Ke$ha]
It's going down, I'm yelling timber
You better move, you better dance
Let's make a night, you won't remember
I'll be the one, you won't forget

wooooo oooooh

[Pitbull]
The bigger they are, the harder they fall
This biggity boy's a diggity dog
I have them like Miley Cyrus,
clothes off twerking with my
bras and thongs, timber
Face down, booty up, timber
That's the way we like the war, timber
I'm slicker than an oil spill
She say she won't, but I bet she will, timber

Swing your partner round and round
End of the night, it's going down
One more shot, another round
End of the night, it's going down
Swing your partner round and round
End of the night, it's going down
One more shot, another round
End of the night, it's going down

[Pitbull]
Look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane
Nah, it's just me, ain't a damn thing changed
Live in hotels, swing on plane
Blessed to say, money ain't a thing
Club jumping like Lebron, now, Voli
Order me another round, homie
We about to climb, wild, 'cause it's about to go down

Film, Photography Violence Ciudad De Juaraz

Good short film please check this out....

The interviews are fascinating about the violence and images....

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V6dyp_rwuqI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DV6dyp_rwuqI

Fair

Stagg and I had some paintings for saleat my work tonight... It's open houseat OLD TOWN SCHOOL of FOLKMUSIC we also had some treatsand laundry soap for sale that wemade.

Delightful Mail

I got a lovely piece of mail when I got back from canada yesterday. A postcard of a Grecian theatre and a book. The Grecian theatre reference is because the gift is from a Shakespeare friend and fellow fan!

Deli Lunch

We met for lunch at capo sky's Deli in Toronto.... Where we had bacon smoked maple donuts, blondes, huge sandwiches cabbage borscht. Yum!!!! This is Rick and John friends of mine from online book club and The Cormac McCarthy a Society.

White Hart Red Lion By Nick Asbury

Yes those are fresh scones baked this morning in the photo below of a new got from our friend Martin in the U. K. In the front pages of the book is a geneology map of the families and people involved in the history plays by Shakespeare. It's so small I thought I would find one online and print it out... Which I did. It's a little different than the one in the book but it is helpful nonetheless. Then I took a set of highlighter pens to track the various families such as "House of Tudor" and "House of York". When I was done I used my thumb and forefinger to close the photocopy page!!! Not my phone!!!! I guess I was so involved that I just automatically tried to close the page how I would my phone page... Made me laugh at myself

Thrift Shop Art

Yes that is a gnome painted with oil paint. I found the following pieces in Wisconsin...at a goodwill store. When the cashier saw the gnome she really wanted me to know it was an oil painting... I said yes it is but it's still only worth $3. The Jewish paint-by-numbers are cool and I love the raccoon...a super fun score!!!!

More Little Paintings

Neighborhood Signs

I Made Laundry Soap

Apartment Stuff Continued

Local Post Office

Photos From My Phone?

 Testing if Ivan post photos and stuff from my phone... Our desktop is r. I.p. 9 years a house fire and three moves. My update on my phone had a photo app so I'm hoping this works.... I just picked random photos that came up hoping to uploaf

Fried Chicken

 I have not made fried chicken before. I had bought a cast iron frying pan a few months ago...and my friend at work kept asking me if I made fried chicken yet. No I did not...so I finally tried it. I just soaked the chicken in yogurt, then ground up some corn flakes (yes I don't like crn but it was for Stagg)

 I used my cool new rolling pin...put the corn flakes and some spices into a dish and rolled the chicken in it.

 The chicken came out very good. But I had some challenges because the coating kept falling off. Next time I will try a different technique.

Chicago Organizing Spree

The above picture is literally what you see as you come in our front door to our apartment.

 Since I've been back in Chicago I have done a lot of organizing. In January this year I made a little pledge to myself to stop procrastinating. Basically I got really exhausted ha! Yes, it's very tiring physically to stop procrastinating because I began finishing up all kinds of projects that left half done. I also began hardcore purging of items like old socks, old magazines and papers. Shredding documents and giving away stuff I didn't love or really need. It's been pretty cool.

 I had stashed all kinds of crap and flotsom on the mantel...so I took everything off. I winterized the mantel by taping plastic on any open woodwork. The fireplace is long dormant and air is leaking so now I have covered that up and I replaced some of the objects I had here...and the rest were either put away or disposed. The Madonna picture is an advertisement turned into a  collage by Stagg of a concert of hers I went to
in 2006.

 The porcelain Jesus in the middle of these figures is Stagg's from when he was growing up. I needed a female goddess and I found one in a second hand store with pink glitter!

 The watercolour is Stagg's from art school. I just painted a frame I found in the alley for it. A project I had procrastinated but now done!

 This is a polaroid of me from xmas 2004.

 This is Stagg and I dancing before we even dated...this is a dance at Eugene and Sheila's wedding 2001.

 Stagg and I are on our first date in the picture frames above. Memphis 2005. The fish is "Pickles". He's a fighter not a lover.

 This is a postcard I have on the mantel. It's from my dad
and step-mum Dariel. It's from Greece, July 13, 1988. It's a picture of squid hanging on a line by a boat and outdoor restaurant.

 Here is what the postcard says..."We weren't on the unfortunate cruise ship. Two days in Athens, heading for Istanbul today. Athens is hot, noisy, polluted, etc and very dependent on tourists. As you can see from the card, much of the seafood is self-serve. Miss you, wish you were here," Very representative of my dads kind of humour and opinions. Funny and not easily impressed.

 This is sitting on the mantel too. I found this in a secondhand store in the 90's. It's a cosmetic mirror. It says 50th festival du Cannes. I don't know the story behind it and have looked but not found anything. I assume it's from a  "swag bag" for festival events. It has "Davis" inscribed on it as well.

 We have these two metal storage cupboards int he corner. I've got our paints, brushes and hardware in them. We are suing this room to paint.

 Standing in front room looking down through apartment...if you click on the picture you can see all the way to the kitchen in the back of the place. I've changed the carpet in the living room this week...we now have a black and grey carpet in there.

 Standing in the living room this is the front room. I have atable with the computer on it. I used to have an "office" with a tv and the desktop. It was very dark and kind of not a good use of space....I realized our desktop had wifi so I just moved it out here as an experiment. It seems to be an okay spot for the desktop so far so good.