2009.02.15
--So via a link I added to from that Trader Joe's ad the other day, I found out that the ad's music gets its tune and structure from Jobim's "Águas de Março"/"Waters of March"
Jobim wrote two versions, one in Portuguese, one in English. The former is about about the rains of autumn, which is what happens in March in Brazil, while the latter is about March in the Northern Hemisphere.
Jobim's "spring" English version has much in common with the direct translation of the Portuguese, but I'm more drawn to the haunting Autumn interpretation. I'm posting this video of Elis Regina performing it here, even though it has some skips in it... you can see same performance with no subtitles, but no skips either.
Not to sound too emo about it, but I find a lot of cover versions - including other bossa nova versions by Elis Regina - get it wrong by being more uptempo and cheery. And the English versions run even worse (including Art Garfunkel, WHO KNEW?) though I was happy to find an excellent cover by my favorite Holly Cole available for free at Amazon in a Jazz Sampler.
I made "mortality for skeptics" available at my domain http://mortals.be/ . Mortality: the good news is: nothing to worry about. Bad news: that there might be Nothing, to worry about
Youtube starting to crack down on download tools? Sucks, especially because it's going to be hit or miss what's available.
http://www.theroot.com/views/exit-interviews-my-exes - glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks about this stuff.
USA 00s as USSR 90s. Scary stuff, but so was Y2K. I think there's a resiliency here.
http://xtracycle.com/ - interesting (if very hippy) bikes for hauling.