The instrument Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is playing is his own invention, the Mohan veena. This piece is more commonly known as a duet with Ry Cooder, but here Bhatt goes it alone with just tabla accompaniment.
You know the drill. You want an open thread? Go ahead. Make our day.
I don’t know about you, but it’s been a slightly trying week here one way or another, so far topped by our cat Gus going missing overnight, sparking a neighborhood-wide hunt this morning that eventually led to my finding him sitting in a neighbor’s hedge about 20 yards from the house, impervious to rattlings of kibble packets and plaintive calls from his worried houseslaves. At the moment, I’m assuming something’s freaked him (there’s tree felling and roadworks going on all around us at the moment), rather than anything being seriously wrong, but he’s a bit subdued and confined to the house (he’s going to love this!) under observation for the next day or so, just in case. I’ll take him to the vet on Monday if he’s still not right.
So I felt like something soothing to listen to, and this vid hit the spot. That’s a traditional Swedish nyckelharpa—a bit like a bowed hurdygurdy (played by Mariusz Radwanski)—accompanied by a gorgeous development of the guitar family called the arch-harp guitar (invented by James Kline, who’s playing it here) that makes me go “WANT ONE!!!!”
As ever, think of this as an open thread if you feel the need.
Not sure if this little game (which I am parasitically redistributing from ReaLAMErican Industrialist Tim F.) will work here. If not, serve me right for being a moocher.
Grab yer mp3 player (or the remote for your CD player). Hit shuffle. What’s the first song that plays?
Or discuss why people who call soft drinks “pop” are worse than cilantro haters.
Or whatever.
I got Tears for Fears’ Mad World:
(Selected for sound quality. You can watch the original video here, if you must have an 80’s flashback. And the site performs better for you than it did for me.)
This clip links to Monday’s Tim Minchin track because both songs were part of the repertoire in the BBC’s first ever Comedy Prom on August 13, which was a total hoot despite some highbrow sniffing from pro critics. I imagine YouTubes of excerpts will become available soon if they haven’t already. Meanwhile, here’s Kit & The Widow’s adaptation of Saint-Saens’ “The Swan.”
Since we appear to have a few of his fans in the house, more Tim Minchin after the fold. As ever, treat this as an open thread if you want.
Also. Note the sticky at the top of the page. Now’s your chance to say goodbye to captcha rage and say hello to the freedom to join us in posting nonsense in the ever-rollicking Rumper Room.
My daughter saw this and commented on how freaking lame music videos were in the 80s. Well, the production values suck, for sure. But I’m not sure the substance is really all that different from the crap she watches, the snotty brat.
So, hurricane-affected peeps, how’s it going? I think I speak for many Floridians when I say we feel so…left out. We’re rooting for you, though, and stand ready to send our highly experienced electrical power restoration crews to assist you when the storm passes. For reals. I saw them mobilizing already.
In case you’re wondering about the funky set, this is a live version from sadly mourned seminal BBC late-night music show The Old Grey Whistle Test, with a brief cameo from Whispering Bob Harris as an intro.
You folks seem to be getting more into open threads lately, so go for it if you feel so inclined.
You know what kind of person refuses to play this loud? The kind of person who is too busy playing with his full sized, anatomically correct Mitt Romney doll*.
I don’t know about you, but I need some kick-ass hypno-trance-rap counterprogramming to all the Evangelical Kneeling-Noise on Polly’s thread. Put your hand in the hand of the man who wears the breathable print skirt.
Nothing raises my hackles like a political conversation that starts with “both sides do…” because 999 times out of a thousand, what follows is pure, unadulterated bullshit. But here’s that one in a thousand case of true equivalency: Both sides do contain way more than their fair share of puling infants.
First there’s the right-wing freak-out over the identification of self-proclaimed Christian Anders Behring Breivik as a “Christian” and a fan of anti-Islam hate sites like Atlas Shrugs. Sorry, but that’s what he calls himself. And if you’ve spent the last decade shrieking “GLOBAL JIHAD” every time a Muslim jaywalks, you don’t get to yell “BLOOD LIBEL” when one of your fans takes your eliminationist rhetoric to its logical conclusion.
With the clock ticking down Wednesday on the debt limit negotiations in Washington, presidential candidate Michele Bachmann announced her entertainment lineup for the Aug. 13 GOP straw poll in Ames, Iowa.
The Minnesota Republican’s campaign team released a program that includes country music singers Richie McDonald and Tim Rushlow, along with Christian artist Charles Billingsley.
Bachmann, one of three House members in the GOP nominating contest, has drawn fire for missing a large number of votes over the past week of her campaign.
