A Far Cry from My Previous Post

I have always admired Bono for his determination and doggedness to convince world leaders to ramp up their efforts to combat a host of problems in Africa, with hunger, AIDS, and debt relief being his biggest crusades. I'm not sure how I feel about the debt relief aspect of his work, but I do support his work on behalf of ending hunger and combatting AIDS and have a great appreciation for the fact that he doesn't have any intention of giving up. Here is a man who wants for nothing, whose family wants for nothing, and who could easily say, "Well, I'm rich and successful, and until this involves me I won't get involved." But he doesn't say that -- and he doesn't give up, as this video clip from CNN demonstrates (and I was glad to see, despite CNN's best efforts to slide it by the viewer, that the problem with this isn't the United States, who has actually done more than they promised).

A Bossa Nova Break

There are so many serious things I can post about today, and I may get to those later on. However, in an attempt to provide a little bright spot, I opted instead to post this video of one of the best bossa nova songs ever: Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Aquas de Marco" ("Waters of March"). They just don't write music like this anymore.....

Rodrigo y Gabriela

I saw these folks posted to another blog, and in the hour or so since have become a HUGE fan. Take a look and listen (Letterman's intro is very brief); these two are incredible!

If You Can't Go to Linus, Bring Linus to You

Okay, after posting my list yesterday, I decided I couldn't wait for network executives to decide when Linus should explain the true meaning of Christmas to Charlie Brown -- so I found it myself. Today's posting marks a tough comparison -- what Christmas should be and what Christmas has become.

Classic Christmas


Modern Christmas (a little funny, but quite sad, if you think about it)

God's Gonna Cut You Down

There's lots I want to write about in the coming days, and I'm still gathering my thoughts on all of that -- more in the creative front shortly. In the meantime, I heard a new song in the past few days that I think is well worth sharing.

This is, in my opinion, one of the best Johnny Cash songs ever -- and the multitude of celebrities appearing in this video (most of whom I like, some of whom I couldn't care less about) make it even more interesting. Definitely a great tribute to an incredible artist.....

Fragile

There's no particular reason for posting this today, other than it's something that's most definitely worth posting. One of Sting's all-time best.....

And for the More Traditional Folks, Some Horowitz....

If Gould is too extreme for you, here's a bit of an alternative -- Vladimir Horowitz performing the third movement of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto.

Either way, Gould or Horowitz, you can't go wrong.

Music In Lieu of the Spoken Word

I decided to take a break from writing today and instead share some music. Glenn Gould was -- and is -- one of my favorites, and this is one of his finest recordings.

Variations 1-7 of his 1980 recording of Bach's "Goldberg Variations".....