SVR has been all about the music of late, and thanks to a few submissions by fellow Scrogue Mike Sheehan we’re going to continue the trend this morning. Today we shine the spotlight on what I guess we’ll call “unconventional musicianship.”Let’s start with this heartwarming tale of a country boy, a harmonica, and a dream of someday playing Carnegie Hall.
Read morePastor Dan has an absolutely must-read piece on faith and politics over at Street Prophets, and while I feel wholly inadequate for the task of matching the depth of his analysis, he raises a number of issues that got me to thinking. So to use a sports analogy, he’s just crushed an overhead at me, and I’m going to see
Read moreThe last couple of weeks have been awfully darned uplifting at SVR, what with all the talented kiddies we’ve been pimping for you. So today we’re going to drag the standards back down a little, as we honor the noble bear. (Well, okay, maybe “honor” is the wrong word.) First, you need a Tiddy Bear.
Read moreAccording to the BBC, “Thomas Edison sent his agents round to the Poet Laureate’s home to record his voice on wax cylinders in 1890.” That poet laureate turns out to be none other than Alfred, Lord Tennyson. No, the voice quality isn’t great (as you’d expect), but what a marvelous revelation – to be able to hear one of the
Read moreAccording to the BBC, “Thomas Edison sent his agents round to the Poet Laureate’s home to record his voice on wax cylinders in 1890.” That poet laureate turns out to be none other than Alfred, Lord Tennyson. No, the voice quality isn’t great (as you’d expect), but what a marvelous revelation – to be able to hear one of the
Read moreThe results of the latest S&R poll are in. What issue will be foremost in your thoughts when you vote for a president in 2008? 1. Civil Liberties (28) 2. Economy and Class (26) 3. Iraq and Military Issues (20)
Read moreWhile driving around this evening I caught NPR’s interview with Barack Obama, and I found myself having a reaction that had nothing at all to do with what he and the reporter were discussing. Go here, click on the “Listen Now” link at the top of the story, and give it a couple minutes of your time. Then go anywhere
Read moreIt was a pretty good year in music. A handful of artists produced absolutely fabulous CDs and a lot more managed releases ranging from “worth the money” to “are you sure that shouldn’t be rated a little higher”? Here’s the format. Instead of the tedious task of actually ranking CDs – a torture I used to inflict on myself every
Read moreI don’t get it. Thanks to Dr. Mike Pecaut for passing this along.
Read moreThe biggest challenge my EducationF1rst initiative faces is one of momentum: America is not, and never has been, an intellectual culture. We do not, however much we might protest, live in a nation that treasures teaching and learning. On the list of things that we care about, education falls well to the south of things like entertainment and sports. Worse,
Read moreFinding and buying music used to be a lot simpler process. You could sample new stuff by turning on this thing called a “radio,” and when you heard something you liked you could go purchase it at this other thing called a “record store.” It wasn’t a perfect system, of course. Sometimes the great song on the radio was the
Read moreGood morning, and welcome to this week’s edition of Saturday Video Roundup. I’m your host, Katie Couric. You might remember last week, when we presented some talented teens laying the smack down on the Electone. Well, JS O’Brien one of my colleagues who shall remain nameless wasn’t all that impressed. He comes from a pretty serious music background, I think,
Read moreEarlier today I posted an extended analysis of the reporting, good and bad, surrounding the recent California Department of Public Health study on thimerosal and autism rates. But then I got to wondering. What would a cynical, bought-up corporatist whore of an environmental holocaust denier who’d sell his own mother for a nickel’s profit think about the study? I know
Read moreI’ve written in the past about the problem of bad science reporting in the US. The short version: very few American reporters have enough grounding in statistics and the sciences to accurately parse the claims of quantitative research, and as a result they often misrepresent what studies actually say. This is an indictment of, among other things, university journalism school
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