Rock ‘n’ Roll is Where I Hide
(image thanks to 'Australian Musician')
Songs in Our Heart # 69 Rock ‘n’ Roll is Where I Hide (by Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes) (written by Dave Graney; released August 1995) [One of the coolest songs ever, a never-ending, ascending masterpiece of groove with a brilliant lounge-lizard sound.] Graney is a pretty flamboyant ghost, a Rider on the Storm, and this song strikes us as akin to his confession – you think he’s just another singer, but he’s so much more, and he’s going to release your soul!
Continue Reading →French Connection
Pope Innocent X (who held the Keys to the Kingdom from 15 September 1644 to 1 January 1655) and whose name, in the world, was Giambattista Pamfili, died today (7 January) in 1655. A wily operator in the Age of Absolutism, Innocent flailed vainly against the rise of nations and decline of Catholic hegemony – his papal bull directing ripping-up of the Treaties of Westphalia was simply ignored. P is not so keen on Innocent as he was rather anti-Bernini (L would be favourably disposed to His Holiness for the same reason). On the other hand, the Holy See had…
Continue Reading →‘Good Job’
Whiplash-5547.cr2
Whiplash (Dir. Damien Chazelle) (2014) The Varnished Culture was rather taken aback at this over-the-top mix of The Boys in Company C and Pitch Perfect, with a pinch of Shine thrown in. The smashed drum kits, the hurled chairs, the bellowed (and bizarre) insults, the bleeding drumsticks, the spurned scores, the sweating cymbals frisbee’d about! The terrible formless music that we must remind ourselves is radical, innovative and improvised, the American art-form. So what if it turns its leading practitioners into surly, paranoid druggies? So what if the music school that is ‘The Shaffer Conservatory’ operates like a boot camp for draftees? To…
Continue Reading →Closed Casket
(by Sophie Hannah) (2016) For those whose guilty pleasure resided in Agatha Christie’s detective novels featuring the finicky Belgian, Hercule Poirot, we can recommend some of the better offerings from her oeuvre.* She cheated with her plotting, but always ingeniously and within her own rules. For those who want something new, or have ploughed through Christie’s seventy odd books already, Ms. Hannah has produced her second Poirot mystery, a homage to the Christie style and her most famous character. The scene of the crime is Lady Athelinda Playford’s mansion in County Cork, where family, staff, lawyers and detectives are summoned for…what? A new Will, for…
Continue Reading →While I breathe, I hope
Marcus Tullius Cicero (3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) Before Cavanagh QC, before Matlock, before Perry Mason, there was Cicero, one of the greatest orators in history. He more-or-less invented the attacking closing address, pointing the finger at real culprits whilst fiercely defending his clients. Lawyers inevitably stray into politics, with varying degrees of success: Cicero repeatedly condemned Marc Anthony as far worse than Catiline. It cost him both his head and his hands – even his tongue was ripped away, a symbol of the power of his words. He went to his death calmly, like a true Roman of the Republic. …
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