Author: James McNally

New Radiohead

Andy has news about the new Radiohead CD coming out. His entry today reminded me that of course OK Computer has to be on my “Desert Island Discs.” So, I’m adding yet another:

  • Radiohead-OK Computer

What are the discs you couldn’t live without?

69 Love Songs

This weekend, I finally sprung the 60 bucks for The Magnetic Fields’ 3-CD set, “69 Love Songs.” With tax, it came to $68.99, just shy of $69, as the store clerk so wittily pointed out. My verdict, based only on Vol.1, is good, very good. Stephin Merritt’s voice takes getting used to, and the arrangements are pretty spare, but the guy has a way with words, and some really beautiful music. It’s all about the love, baby!

Desert Island Discs: Additions

Ok, you knew I was going to do this. I have to add a few more discs to the “Desert Island Discs” from a few days ago. I said I would, and here I am. At least I didn’t say a hundred discs, but ten is kind of limiting, don’t you think? Here are a few more I couldn’t live without:

  • The Smiths-The Queen is Dead
  • Jane’s Addiction-Nothing’s Shocking
  • The B-52’s-The B-52’s

I also want to tell you about all the shiny new CDs I buy here. Actually, it’s more for me to keep track, but you get to hear about it, too. Not much new that I wanted right now, so I bought a few CDs that I’d previously only had on vinyl. I usually don’t like doing it, but it has to be done. Most of my vinyl is all gone, and I have a huge box of cassette tapes that will also have to go soon. Here’s what I bought last Saturday:

  • The Cure-Staring at the Sea: The Singles (usually don’t like “Greatest Hits” type packages, but hey, it will tide me over until I can afford the rest of their CDs)
  • The Cure-Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me (still mad that they left off the song “Hey You!” to turn a 2 record set into one CD)
  • The Cure-Pornography (now watch the hits to my blog go way up!! I love search engines!!)
  • Weezer-Weezer (this was 8 bucks, don’t you just love/hate that? happy it’s cheap, sad that it ended up in the “bargain bin.”)

Now, don’t just sit there, buy some T-shirts from Heather!! And if you feel sorry for me, since shipping to Canada costs $20 (and those are U.S. dollars!), send one to me, too!

Esperanto

Jason posted some interesting stuff today about Esperanto. It’s a language invented more than a hundred years ago, and it was supposed to be a universal worldwide “second language” so that we could all communicate. Sadly, it continues to have only about 2 million speakers. I’ve been fascinated by the concept for years, though. So romantic, that we should all be able to transcend our differences and compromise and all learn something new. In reality, the world’s second language is English, the language of commerce, power, empire. When I finally publish (web, book, whatever) that first collection of poetry, I’m calling it “esperanto.” It’s such a lonely but noble idea.