"Happy" Music? Really Though?

The Blackbyrds' Happy Music



(Download Happy Music by The Blackbyrds at Mediafire)

The Internet doesn't have the full lyrics anywhere- so I will supply the missing lyrics which are relevant for our purposes:

" when you get up/and you gotta / start your day
feelin' lazy/and confused / you can find your way
Happy music/is the music / you need to play
if you want to/it will help you / save your day "

Good thing I am not writing my dissertation right now, because today, and the days that are like, have been and will be like, today, even preparing for class seems a chore.
Confused and Lazy.

Happy Music, sure, but also pretty dark for this band. Sort of the inverse of a point I've made before: The Stooges' "No Fun" is actually probably their most fun song.


For the Blackbyrds (most of their songs are fun, and light 'n' mellow),
this actually has a pretty dark edge.


Now, dark and happy are not strictly opposed- but neither do they have any necessary connection.
You could be both dark and happy at one moment, but that would be a bit of the old "cake and eat it too," wouldn't it?


So certainly these days (late-year, ... etc. ...) are dark, but ideally, they would be happy, for you, as well.

Sprang Thang: The Blackbyrds' "Thankful 'Bout Yourself"

It's pouring down rain again -- Spring has Sprung, I guess -- but let's bracket that, and listen to and download some summer something.


The Blackbyrds on YouTube

Download the Blackbyrds' Thankful 'Bout Yourself.mp3
This song is the kind that will go on the Cosby Show mix, "Hello Jello".

Speaking of BlackByrds, what is going on with all the bird deaths lately? Could it be....
a sign of the impending apocalypse?!?!?!
Clearly a rhetorical question.



Margeaux and I saw a dead bird by my house; I saw two more by Villanova's main chapel; the three ladies-who-lunch next to me are talking about seeing some too. I think it is fair to hazard that they saw different birds than the ones I saw. Which means that there is a minimum of four dead birds, seen by 5 different people -- clearly we have an epidemic on our hands.

But what kind of epidemic? Avian Bird Flu? Maybe the birds flew too much and died of exhaustion?: but what were they flying away from? The planet's impending doom, perhaps?
Or something more sinister?...?

Aren't birds supposed to get born, not die, in the spring?
Well. Anyhow.

Smack My Bass Up- Larry Graham, his Bass Badassery, and You

I got a new setup for taking records and putting them onto my computer. I won't bore you with technical details, but it will sound even better now.
One of the first albums I ripped using this newfangled high-tech methodology was Larry Graham's band 'Graham Central Station'.

The album I got is called "Now Do U Wanta Dance?" and it's first track is called "happ-e-2-c-u-a-ginn", NJK, which should have clued me in: he used to be in Sly and the Family Stone. Remember, they have that song "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)".



Evidently, this guy Larry Graham invented the slap bass, which is a pretty big deal. If you ain't hearda it, you are decidedly UNFONKY. You can hear some fonk here, where he and his band cover Al Green's "Love and Happiness". The bass, which Larry plays*, is big and right up front. You've already heard it, right?, funkily plunking away.

* Larry plays a bunch of instruments, and other than this (and another) cover, he wrote, produced, and arranged all the songs. He is evidently very proud of this (he should be), because on the back of this album, there is a 'TYPOGRAPHICAL NOTE' that clarifies: "There was a misprint on the last album: all songs WERE NOT WRITTEN by Steve Henderson. ALL songs were WRITTEN BY LARRY GRAHAM".
I'm approximating the note: I didn't bring the record to the cafe with me (regret).


Here are some more things that happened in Portland.


(This didn't happen- read below for details- it's an engraving by Albrecht Dürer- he's famous-like.)

At Stumptown, I drank coffee from $300 beans. I'm approximating again: they were $15 an ounce (you do the math, SQUARE!)! I don't know why they cost so much. I paid regular coffee price for a mug. It tasted good, but then, so do their $12/lb coffees. For $300+/lb, that coffee had better won some tasting awards. No: It better have won the damn Olympics.

I got these reading materials in Portland. (I now feel like I am filling out '15 books 15 minutes' on Facebook again.)

Par Lagerkvist- the sibyl
Never heard of, Nobel Prize winner

Graham Greene- quiet american
Kurt Vonnegut Jr- cat's cradle
Gregory Dicum- Window Seat
Pictures of the landscape, as you see it flying over in a plane. Shows you how to identify things, like former glacier movements, military installations, barrier reefs, etc. The writer and designer of the book had connections at Wired magazine, so the book has all these interesting cool looking diagrams.

BUSTED magazine
Wherein random mugshots of people arrested in your county are posted. You can read it at my house, next time you are there. (Lot of meth-related arrests and DUIs: Go Oregon!)

Candy Bombers - Andrei Cherny
About the Berlin airlift. Haven't heard? When the Russians blockaded Berlin, almost setting off Russia/USA violence in the middle of the Cold War, America airlifted necessary supplies into Berlin. Including (not limited to) candy/raisins for children, and a power plant. Really, all the tools and materials for a WHOLE POWER PLANT. If you ever get bored in life, remember that shit like this goes down all the time. Don't be lazy; read something; bye-bye boredom. Then you'll know that the kids affectionately called the pilots 'RaisinBombers', and extended this later to all Americans.

Technologies of the Self
Papers by Foucault and others who took this course from him.

Wax Poetics
Philly Issue! Philly International records, and such!

I'll share fun details out of this, as I read it! That's Teddy Pendergrass above, looking luxe.

Akira: two random collections of Akira comics.
A small small fraction of the over 1800 pages it eventually came out to.

Albrecht Dürer. Lots of pictures. He is famous for his engravings (but you knew that). A funny medium to be immortal in - good for you, Albrecht: good for you.
Click on them for larger versions, if you're into that sort of thing.