Posts Tagged Mental Health Break
No Atheists In This Foxhole
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music, That's Life on January 29th, 2010
Patty Griffin's Downtown Church
Patty Griffin has built a fascinating body of work over the past 15 years. Her music has held the torch for traditional folk, brushed up against punk, and been recorded by some of Country’s biggest stars (The Dixie Chicks and Reba McEntire) although she is almost never played on popular mainstream radio. She may be this country’s finest singer-songwriter, consistently recording thoughtful and original music infused with a wide variety of American musical influences. Among the strongest recent influences in her last several albums has been the gospel and soul music of the American church.
Last year’s gospel collection “Oh Happy Day!” featured Griffin’s duet with the legendary Mavis Staples on “Waiting For My Child To Come Home” and proved to be a harbinger of the musical things to come. Griffin lists The Beatles, Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers as the primary musical influences of her childhood in a recent NY Times review of the new album. Although she has dipped her toe into gospel music recently, the new release is a full-out cannonball into the deep end of the gospel musical pool. The album is a mix of traditional favorites (“Wade In The Water”, “Move Up”, and the utterly breath-taking “All Creatures of Our God and King”) and originals performed by Griffin and an ensemble of folk and gospel artists that include Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, and Regina McCrary. Produced by Buddy Miller (best known for his association with Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s Grammy winner “Raising Sand”) the music stays true to its roots. Alternately meditative and foot-stomping, Downtown Church is Griffin’s vehicle to exposing the pop and folk audiences to what she believes is an under-represented and misunderstood piece of our musical heritage. Through it all, Griffin’s magnificent voice soothes, shouts, growls, trembles and inspires.
Whether you are in the Christopher Hitchens/Richard Dawkins camp or a regular attendee on Sundays, the music here is pretty transcendental of your philosophical grounding. Art may be inspired by faith or grow from its rejection – either way Griffin delivers a vibrant tribute to this part of America’s musical family tree.
Streaming Shakespeare & Tina Fey
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Technology, That's Life on January 14th, 2010
Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful...
While the debacle that is NBC’s programming department trying to pick up the pieces of the Conan/Leno train wreck for months will have some entertainment value, it’s pretty clear that there isn’t much worth watching on that new flat panel. There are, of course, a few notable exceptions: Chuck, 30 Rock, Mad Men… I’m told that Dexter and House are worth watching but I haven’t invested the time to find out. So on the occasional evening when free time and curiosity collide – what to do?
When the last cheap DVD player died I picked up a Blu-ray player that also connected to Netflix. I hadn’t had a subscription with the mail-in DVD giant for years – while the model is great (and really, isn’t anything that stomps Blockbuster into the ground?) I just didn’t plan ahead well enough to have the right movie in hand at the right time. Somehow the $14.99/month unlimited movie subscription turned into a $5/movie ongoing expense. Fast forward 8 years and Netflix is rapidly evolving the mail-in model to a content streaming model, i.e., now there is a growing library of content that can be accessed on an “instant” basis – through a variety of devices made by Blu-ray manufacturers like Samsung and Sony as well as stand-alone Netflix devices. Suffice it to say that I have bought into this hybrid rental/streaming model enough to have given a Roku device and a Netflix subscription as a Christmas gift to my inlaws. (In the interest of full disclosure, I’m only a Netflix subscriber and have no affiliate interest)
The majority of the content is back catalog, but there is a growing number of newer titles, particularly TV series. What this means is that one can sample a few episodes of Dexter, Friday Night Lights, etc., without having to cough-up the freight for a 22 episode season on DVD. It also means that some nuggets from the past can be easily unearthed – Ken Burns’ series on Jazz, Saturday Night Live from the beginning to Tina Fey’s deconstruction of Sarah Palin, the Addams Family, Bogart & Bacall, the original Star Trek, Bergman, Kurosawa; from the ridiculous to the classic the list goes on.
For the past several evenings I’ve indulged my geekness for Shakespeare by watching the four part series “In Search of Shakespeare”, a PBS series that originally aired in 2004. I had never seen it – frankly, I hadn’t heard of it. This series, presented by the delightful Michael Wood, explores the religious turmoil of Elizabethan England, the evolution of the theater and how the country boy born in the same year that Michelangelo died would grow to become the greatest writer in the English language. The ability to browse the online instant catalog, find something like this, sample it and then watch it at the time of my choosing is really compelling. No trip to the store or even the mailbox, no incremental pay-per-view or on-demand fees.
These are exciting times for consumers – the choices of content and media platforms have never been greater. The service described starts at about $125 for a basic Netflix device and $9/month. Now the challenge is to find the time to enjoy the treasure trove of entertainment. Will Ferrell or Rashomon?
3-Minute Mental Health Break
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music, TGIF on May 29th, 2009
It’s Friday – the weekend is almost in sight but there’s still a lot of work to get through. Take a break for 3 minutes to regain your sanity and push through to the end of the day.
This video clip from our friends at PlushMusic is the Courante from Bach’s Suite No. 3 for Cello performed by Claudio Bohórquez.
Watch JS Bach: Cello Suite No. 3 – Courante on Plushmusic
3-Minute Mental Health Break
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music on May 5th, 2009
Adrian Brendel and Tim Horton (the pianist, not the doughnut shop) make for a nice way to end the work day with their spirited playing of Beethoven’s Sonata for Cello #2.
Watch Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 2 on Plushmusic
2-Minute Mental Health Break
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music on April 23rd, 2009
A fine way to close the day before the day before the weekend. Aleksandar Madzar plays Haydn’s the third movement of Haydn’s Piano Sonata No. 31.