Episode 60: "Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes"

This is, for the foreseeable future, the last of the twice-a-week episodes. Beginning Oct. 3, the show will go to a weekly schedule, with new episodes on Wednesdays.

Here's what you'll hear today (direct download here):

Brobdingnagian Bards, "Scarborough Faire"
Marissa, "I Love You You Love Me"
Somnivore, "My Blood Is Melting"
Ainslie Henderson, "Dust"
Etlin Zylin, "In Case It Gets Ugly"
Stefanie Harger, "Our Love Is Here to Stay"



Tracks 1, 4 and 6 come from the Podsafe Music Network. Track 2 comes from the IODA Promonet. The other two came from the artists' Web sites.

Marissa
"I Love You, You Love Me" (mp3)
from "Eu Sambo Mesmo !"
(LAB 344)

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Episode 59: Bow Chicka Wow Wow

Yes, sex IS all this episode ever thinks about. So you shouldn't listen if you're under age 18 or if sexually themed material offends you.

Here's what you'll hear today (direct download here):

The Young Playthings, "Hot Sex With a Girl I Love"
A Brokeheart Pro, "Sometimes Saviours End Up on Their Knees"
Jonathan Coulton, "Baby Got Back"
Sounds Media, "Costume Ball"
Solstice Coil, "Anyone Can Be (A Porn Star)"
Kristin Mainhart, "Tainted Love"



Tracks one and four come via the IODA Promonet and can be downloaded below. The rest came from CD or from the artists' Web sites.

(And yeah, I know what some of you are thinking: I could have waited just a little longer and made this episode 69, but that would have been a bit too obvious and/or juvenile.)

The Young Playthings
"Hot Sex With A Girl I Love" (mp3)
from "Who Invented Love?"
(Smalltown America)

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Sounds Media
"Erotica - Spice - Costume Ball" (mp3)
from "Erotica - Spice Series - Nibbles & Bites"
(Sounds Media)

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Enigma: "Sadeness"

Those of a certain age have said they look back on this album as THE makeout album for sweaty adolescent nights.



(Ye Olde Podcaster would like to know what songs or videos YOU associate with sexually charged moments in time.)

Benny Benassi: "Hit My Heart"

Continuing a run of sexy songs/videos...



The "Who's Your Daddy?" song and video are well-done, too, if you can get past the squickage of "daddy" being a term of sexual endearment. (NSFW -- video contains nudity.)

New podcast coming Thursday.

Episode 58: Brief Lives

A shadow hangs over this episode: My beloved lost her grandfather in recent days, and a new acquaintance of mine passed away before I ever had that glass of wine with him. So if today's music seems somber or wistful, that's why.

Here's what you'll hear today (direct download here):

Rob Costlow, "Not Alone"
Daren Sirbough and Joshua Kyle, "Those Who Were"*
Gustav Bertha, "All the King's Men"
Helen Sventitsky, "Que Sera"
Etlin Zylin, "Change Is the Only Constant"
Jonathan Coulton, "A Talk With George"
The Mama and the Papas, "California Dreamin'"



Tracks 1, 5 and 6 come courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network. Again, no Bizarro Files today -- not a day for The Funny, and besides, time got away from me. But that feature will resume with the next episode, on Sept. 27.

* His name really is Daren, not David as I say in the show. Sorry about that.

Not the Bizarro Files for 22 September 2007

On this date in history:

2007: Ye Olde Podcaster, having ill prepared for a trip out of town, finds himself in the unfortunate position of having to lower his standards by releasing the 22 Sept. episode of his show without its accompanying Bizarro Files sideline.

... You know what, I'll drop the "Ye Olde Podcaster" bit for today. A note on process and on real-life things a bit weightier than Bush-bashing, scandalous female celeb photo-linking and faking a flat-earth stance:

There was also supposed to be an episode Sunday. Why I was planning to do two episodes this weekend, I don't know. I plotted out the course of episodes -- one in the middle of the week (anytime from Tuesday to Thursday) and one on weekends (Saturday or Sunday) months ago, based on what events could make the best snark fodder or drew my eye for mention, but couldn't remember now what had so grabbed me about the two days this weekend as to make me unable to decide between the two days.

So, you end up with Bizarro Files on neither day, and only one episode this weekend. Sorry 'bout that. Though how I spent the week, with the woman I love and her (not-so) little boy, is time that's incredibly precious to me. There's more to life than podcasting, though music does add spice to life.

I've had a lot of time to think on that sort of thing in recent days. Her grandfather passed away recently, and his funeral is today. Also being honored today in a memorial service is editorial cartoonist Brad McMillan, whom I met back in the spring, and whom I deeply regret only seeing the one time; he'd given me a standing invitation to come over and have a glass of wine and see his historic home, and I'll always rue the fact that I didn't take him up on it in time.

As I say in the podcast that'll be showing up later today: Tell the people who mean a lot to you how you feel while you can. You never know when the wind or the water or something inside the body might take them away past the sound of your voice. "If only" is the bitterest phrase in the English language, "a wish too late," as Robert Smith of The Cure put it in their song "Cut Here."

Gather ye rosebuds. Carpe diem. Drink deeply from the marrow of life. Reach out and call to say "I love you." Etc. I think you get where I'm going with this. You're smart folks.

New podcast coming up later in the day. I'll be back with The Funny in time for the Sept. 27 episode, have no fear.

Steve Earle: "I Feel Alright"

Continuing a theme from yesterday: This is the song that closed out season two of HBO's drama The Wire.



Earle's rendition of Tom Waits' song "Way Down in the Hole" will be the theme music for the upcoming season five. Each year of the series has featured a different recording of the song as its theme, showing that while some of the faces and names change, the nature of the game itself is universal.

I Feel Alright was Earle's comeback album after doing time in prison on heroin charges. His role on The Wire is that of a recovering heroin addict -- infected with HIV, if I remember correctly from season one -- who encounters and becomes a recovery sponsor for Bubbles (played with deep humanity by Andre Royo), the show's one-junkie Greek chorus who reveals the underside of the city and the ties that link it all together.

Steve Earle - I Feel Alright



The Wire - ...And All the Pieces Matter - Five Years of Music from the Wire



Various Artists - Beyond Hamsterdam - Baltimore Tracks from the Wire



HBO - The Wire (Season 5) - Podcast

Episode 57: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Time

Long episode, but short on music. This is another where I, in a fit of delusions of adequacy, inflict a reading of some of my past fiction on you: A long-ish piece of rural urban fantasy (roll with it...) titled "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Time."

Here's what you'll hear today, music-wise (direct download here):

Tribal Machine, "Down the Rabbit Hole"
Tommy B. Goode, "Fail the Blues"
The John Fox Orchestra, "Scarborough Fair"

The bit with me reading the story begins after song two; the third piece of music comes right at the end, if you want to fast-forward, because it's a lovely classical performance you should really hear.



Track three comes courtesy of the IODA Promonet.

John Fox Orchestra & Singers
"Scarborough Fair" (mp3)
from "Voyage Of A Lifetime: The Music of John Fox"
(Campion Cameo)

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Episode 56: Crazy Little Thing Called Song

No real theme here today other than music I like. Three of these artists have never appeared on the show before today.

Here's what you'll hear (direct download here):

Cris Delanno, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
Bruce Cockburn, "Mystery"
Gomez, "How We Operate"
Janiva Magness, "Bad Blood"
Jodie Borle, "45"
Tom Waits, "You Can Never Hold Back Spring"



Tracks 1-5 come from the IODA Promonet. Track 6 comes via the Podsafe Music Network.

Bruce Cockburn
"Mystery" (mp3)
from "Life Short Call Now"
(True North Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
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Gomez
"How We Operate" (mp3)
from "How We Operate"
(ATO Records)

Buy at Napster
More On This Album



Janiva Magness
"Bad Blood" (mp3)
from "Do I Move You"
(Northern Blues)

Buy at eMusic
Stream from Rhapsody
More On This Album



Jodie Borlé
"45" (mp3)
from "And Then I Did..."
(C4 Records)

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Billy Bragg: "Waiting for the Great Leap Forward"

New podcast coming later today. Got a bit distracted, didn't finish the show notes tonight. :)



Solo electric guitar -- takes a bit of chutzpah to pull that off, but Bragg does it well.

Daren Sirbough and Joshua Kyle: "Those Who Were"

This is a song I've only ever heard Jimmy Scott do before, and I'll honestly admit that on a vocal level, I like his performance better, but then, Jimmy Scott is a god among men. Not fair to compare someone in his 20s (that's the pianist's, Sirbough's, age -- I figure he and the vocalist, Kyle, are age peers) to that master. Mr. Kyle is good, but he's only human, and it's clear that unlike Mr. Scott, his voice changed in his early teens, so it's really not even accurate (much less fair) to compare them.



This is for Elizabeth Donald, whose grandfather passed away earlier today. I love you.

And I've just sent a MySpace friend request to Mr. Sirbough, and hope to have some of his work on the show in a future episode.

Episode 55: For What It's Worth

Today's episode is partly a nod toward the events of Sept. 11, 2001, partly just other music I like. But it's impossible not to acknowledge that particular elephant's presence in the psychic room of this week.

Here's what you'll hear today (direct download here):

Terry Prong, "6,500 Times or More"
Dean Madonia, "Cannot Turn Away (9/11 Song)"
Michelle Hotaling, "You Shoulda"
Robin Stine, "I Could Have Loved You"
Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth (Live)"



All music in today's show comes from the Podsafe Music Network.