DrW

A striking resemblance to Mussolini...

A very unusual band - Rasputina. Their usual set-up is a trio with two cellos. They have been around now for 30 years, fronted by Melora Creager on vocals and - you might have guessed it - cello. And they have done some beautiful covers...

Two versions of "Christmas Blues" by Canned Heat A short, faster one... ...and a long, slow one (with Dr. John on piano)

German band I had never heard of before I came across them on youtube. While the chat between the songs is in German, most songs are in English. Musically, a fascinating mix of punk, rock, folk, and a bit of Rammstein. Most importantly, no guitars; instead, two violins and a cello (plus bass and drums). The lead singer looks like a grown-up version of the lead character Aang in the animated TV series "Avatar: The Last Airbender" (my kids were just at the right age when that series came out; thus, I have seen a lot of it). Enjoy!

To avoid carts (here we call them "baskets") abandoned in the parking lot, our local/regional supermarket chain (United/Market Street) has employees (mostly school kids, some retirees) who push your cart to your car, load the stuff in your car, and take the cart back. You can imagine my culture shock when we moved from Rochester to Lubbock and I was shopping in the supermarket for the first time. After paying, there was suddenly this kid who wanted to steal my cart - I had to fight for it to be able to push it to my car. I was quite embarrassed after I had learned the local custom of "take out to register 11". How widely distributed is this service?

The highlight of this clip is Barbara Thompson. Her sax solo starts at about 5:30. Sadly, she died earlier this year of Parkinson's disease. She had been married to drummer Jon Hiseman.

Way back as a student in Germany in the 1970s (way back before you could check out music on the internet), I would go through the bargain sections of record stores in Hannover to look for something that piqued my interest. Usually, the bargain bins were stuffed with albums by artists you had never heard of (in Germany). On one of these shopping sprees, I saw (and bought) an album by the "Flying Burrito Brothers", mainly because the band name piqued my curiosity. This incident introduced me to... Gram Parsons

One of the best britpop bands of the 90' - Elastica. There is no weak spot on their 1995 eponymous first album. The second, "The Menace" (2000) did not live up to the high standard set by the first. Live, but no video - sorry! At that time, frontwoman Justine Frischmann had a relationship with Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz). You can see him here having fun on the keyboards.

William Drake had been a member of the Cardiacs, one of my favorite bands. This is a song of his solo career. It is amazing to watch how the mood goes from peaceful to chaos with the progress of the song. And here is William Drake on keyboards for the Cardiacs. This clip is from 1990, not 2015 as indicated on the video. If you have never heard of them, give it a try!

If Allen had 3 interceptions in a 6-point win against a 3-9 (now 3-10) team, this board would be just as upset.

Of course, you are right. I stand corrected.

This could be the first time that a final has the same teams as the previous World Cup, France vs. Croatia. However, while it saddens me, I think the underdog fairy tale is over, and the final will be Argentina vs France.

Elf A Christmas Story and my personal favorite ... The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (TV 1983)

Live in the recording studio - John Lennon and friends (George Harrison, Nicky Hopkins, Klaus Voorman, Alan White) recording "How Do You Sleep".

And in 47 years, at age 96, he will play soccer for my favorite soccer team when I grew up, Hannover 96 of the German second division.

One of the commentators described the Spanish style of soccer aptly as "death by a thousand passes". However, it was embarrassing how inept they were at converting penalties. Their coach had even personally selected the first three penalty-takers because he trusted them most.

If I would have headlined this post announcing "Womens' artistic gymnastics - vault", those of you interested in this topic at all would have probably thought that this was about Kerri Strug's heroics at the 1996 Olympics. Well, I would like to introduce you to another artistic gymnast specializing in the vault - Oksana Chusovitina. Her career spans eight Olympic Games. She was born in 1975 and won the team Olympic gold medal in 1992 with the "Unified Team", the former Soviet Union. Unlike most gymnasts, she continued to compete after becoming a mother. At the 2008 Olympics, at the age of 32, she won the silver medal in the vault. While this was an amazing achievement considering her age, it is even more astonishing that she is still competing - now at the age of 47.

Well, I think your post reminded them to do cereal commercials. Last night I saw two, one for Raisin Bran, the other for some sugary mush whose name I cannot remember. It was not for "Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs".

A late entry. Two iconic moments, the heavyweight boxing matches between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling in 1936 and 1938. Both were amazingly skilled boxers. The first bout in 1936 went to Schmeling. Bout two in !938 went to Louis. Commenting on the second bout in 1975, Schmeling stated in 1975: "Looking back, I'm almost happy I lost that fight. Just imagine if I would have come back to Germany with a victory. I had nothing to do with the Nazis, but they would have given me a medal. After the war I might have been considered a war criminal." After WWII, Louis and Schmeling remained connected until Louis' death in 1981. Schmeling became a successful businessman (he was the face of Coca-Cola's entry into Germany) allowing him to assist his former rival Joe Louis financially in his later years, eventually financing his funeral.

Bummer. I did not watch Japan beating Spain, but I can imagine that Spain did not make too much effort to tie the game. Being second in the group will likely help to avoid Brazil later. Now I just hope that the Bills can rescue my day.

Lou Reed and John Cale both had long careers after their Velvet Underground Days. My favorite John Cale song...

Sorry, but you are missing the point here. The idea is to find songs that elicit very different interpretations - it does not matter how difficult it is to play the song. One reason I chose this example is because it is rare to have a song with two different time signatures (3/4 or 4/4) about equally distributed between the cover versions. By the way, I do not own any beginner guitar books (many years ago, I played piano and organ). However, I would guess that they all provide the 3/4 time signature of the "House of the Rising Sun".

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I actually got a CD today, by one of my favorite artists - Kristin Hersh. Hersh was, together with her stepsister Tanya Donelly, the founding member of the alternative/indie band "Throwing Muses" in the mid-1980s (remember "Counting Backwards"?). Since then, she has been turning out great music under three different aliases: continuing the alt/indie output as "Throwing Muses", quieter folk-like songs under her own name, and the power-rock trio 50 Foot Wave. 50 Foot Wave just released their second album, "Black Pearl". Here are two songs... (you have to crank up the volume to fully appreciate it)

Another entry: The House of the Rising Sun This is a very old song of unknown origin. The first recorded version was by Ashley and Foster in 1933 as "Rising Sun Blues". Woodie Guthrie recorded his version in 1941. Interestingly it is in 4/4, not in 3/4 as the Ashley and Foster version. What made the song famous: Eric Burdon and the Animals (in 3/4) The heavy/psychedelic version; Frijid Pink (their only hit ever - in 4/4) A newer heavy version - Muse (in 3/4) I am aware that there are numerous other covers, e.g. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, even Dolly Parton. I do not think that any of those covers is very different from the examples shown here. Thus, I will conclude this chapter with... Puddles