Record Cover of the Week
February 27, 2009
Diagnostic Fast: Fail Forward To Success
My Album From A Parallel Universe.
Make a yet-unheard band’s album cover:
1 – Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random” or click
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. (You may ignore any parenthetical words if your random article title contains them, at your discretion.)2 – Go to Quotations Page and select “random quotations” or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album. Or however many make a good title. (It might be nice to include the whole quote, and who said it, in the notes for your posted photo, too.)3 – Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. Alternately, if you’d prefer to only use Creative Commons images, this link will grab a random photo for your cover for you: http://mikelietz.org/code/flickr-ccgettr.php
We recommend noting the resulting URL when you click on that third picture (or get the random CC picure) to give the photographer credit.4 – Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together. Feel free to crop it square (or make it “gatefold”!) or whatever you have to do to make it ‘cover-esque’.
5 – Post it to FB (in a note) with this text in the “caption” or “comment” and TAG the friends you want to join in. We recommend also posting the URL you got in 3 above as a photo credit, so the artists can get credit for their work.
6 – Join the group Albums From a Parallel Universe and upload your masterwork and “discography” blurb! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52158212905&ref=mf
I’m not signing up for facebook, but I will tag Gary B. to make a cover.
Gary’s reply:
Stary Cis: It Just Unfolds Us
Just payin’ his rent…
February 27, 2009
Leonard Cohen is playing Rexall Place on April 25th on his North American tour. Can you believe that Cohen – age 74 – is doing an arena tour? Tickets start at $59.24 and go up to $549.00. I know he was swindled out of $5 million from his retirement fund, but does he have to make it all back in one night?
The Culling XV
February 23, 2009
I’m well overdue for an update on my progress culling my record collection. I’m approaching the end of the male vocalists section where René Simard and Frank Sinatra live next to one another.
I have a surprisingly large number of Rene Simard records – 8*. Simard was a child singing sensation in Quebec, sort of a Francophone Donny Osmond, making records from the age of 10. He was also very popular in Japan, recording many sides in Japanese. In English Canada he’s mostly known for his CBC TV musical variety show that ran from 1977 to ‘79. In the US he’s known… hardly at all. Simard’s early records were produced by René Angelil who had even greater success later with another precocious pre-teen singer. Simard remains in the entertainment industry – on stage (he was The Phantom of the Opera in a Toronto production in 1999) and tv (apparently he’s the host of a reality tv show).
Frank Sinatra was a singer who also made movies. My Sinatra section consists of 25* albums.
If we’re playing Six Degrees of Separation, the link between the two singers is direct: In 1974 Simard won the Frank Sinatra trophy at the International Festival of Song in Tokyo, which was presented by Sinatra himself.
*not counting Christmas records, which are in another section.
keepers: 1989
kaput: 445
kount: 2434
Record Cover of the Week
February 16, 2009
Paul Horn & The Concert Ensemble
From the cover of this record I thought it might be one of those “genre benders” where pop tunes are played baroque style or classical pieces are jazzed up. But no, the classical pieces (such as Bach’s Siciliano from Flute Sonata No. II) are done classical style without electric guitars, and everything else (Light My Fire, Look of Love, The Gentle Rain, etc.) is given a jazz reading sans harpsichord. A fine record nonetheless. In QS quadraphonic stereo.
Record Cover of the Week
February 1, 2009
Run For The Money (7″ 33 1/3 rpm in cardboard sleeve)
An industrial musical soundtrack hosted by Wayne and Shuster for Gulf Oil Canada’s 1969 Dealer Show. “Industrials” were stage musicals, often with lavish production values, produced by companies usually to motivate their employees. This one was used to get gas station owners enthused about Gulf’s “We hurry” ad campaign. Featuring members of the Billy Van Singers, Mutual Understanding, and Laurie Bower Singers. Some of it really swings in a groovy, 1960s sunshine pop way.
Wayne & Shuster were pioneers of Canadian TV comedy and appeared on the Ed Sullivan show more than any other guest (67 times). Loved by many, I never liked them much – I thought their sketches were plodding and the jokes predictable.
