Great Grape Day on Wine Sediments: Sauvignon Blanc

Yesterday was Great Grape Day on Wine Sediments, part of the Well Fed blog network. The subject of Sauvignon Blanc really got our fingers flying over the keyboard.

Check out viewpoints about Sauvignon Blanc from all over the world by reading Wine Sed's February 27th posts -- or if time is of the essence, just take a look at my contribution: Sauvignon Blanc -- from Burgundy?

Here's the music list already!

I have to face the facts: my post A Journey Through American Music did not drum up the comments and general enthusiasm I was hoping for. Now I mustn't forget that And So Forth is quite a new blog, and also it's "just for fun" -- that's what I said at the beginning, anyway!

So for anyone who is out there, here is my highly subjective yet somewhat informed list of the most influential American music artists from the 50s to the present. And who knows -- maybe you'll comment when you see it and start saying "That's totally wrong! What does she know about music?"

The 50s-60s: Johnny Cash

The 60s-70s: Bob Dylan

The 70s-80s: Talking Heads

The 80s-90s: R.E.M.

The 90s-present: Moby

The links are to official or non-official sites, all of which are an interesting journey in and of themselves.

Hope Springs Eternal

In case you're wondering, I haven't given up on this blog. It's just I keep hoping to get more comments on my previous post, A Journey Through American Music. I suppose I should have "memed" some people about that, but I've never participated in those activities and am sure I would make some faux pas.

In the meantime, I'm filling up the sidebar little by little. I want it to be a cross between a blogroll and a kind of adult "My Space" to share my tastes and obsessions.

"We can reach our destination....but it's still a ways away."

Hey, if you know which song that line comes from, click on you know where and leave your opinion!

A Journey Through American Music

I am finishing my third year of teaching English to a particularly motivated group of students, and in between business vocabulary and preparing the TOEIC, I've been sharing some American music with them.

It started out with just one song, but they seemed interested so I decided to go back over a 50-year period (yep, rock is that old, I know we all hate to believe it!) and present the singer or group that I feel was the most influential over several different time periods. My focus has been more on rock/folk/pop than soul or rhythm and blues, mainly because of my own tastes and knowledge.

It has been an interesting exercise -- especially for me, and I hope for them.

My criteria have been influence, innovation, and a certain longevity. The five periods I have set are:

The 50s-60s

The 60s-70s

The 70s-80s

The 80s-90s

The 90s-present

I felt these "double decade" categories better reflect what really went on in in American popular music; for example, punk started in 1977 (yep, punk is celebrating its 30-year anniversary, I know we all hate to believe that too!) but it continued to have a heavy influence in the early 80s.

The project has led me to pore over my CD collection , buy new ones, and do research on All Music , which has benefited from quite the facelift since I last visited it.

Of course I'm not going to reveal my choices yet -- that would be too easy! What do you think?

Remember, we're talking about American music here. I'm a big fan of British pop, rock and punk too but have felt like going back to my native country's roots....

All About Consultants -- HHOK!

I don't have anything against consultants, I really don't.

To prove as much, I will point out that my husband is one. But these two lists of "consultant humor" tickled my fancy. If they were about French consultants, I would add the habit of using English words where perfectly good French ones would do the trick...

Slip of the Tongue

Not that anybody could out-slip of the tongue president w. bush, but right-wing French presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy took a pretty good shot at it during his recent visit to Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.

"European socialists can be proud of what one of our own has done," said the decidedly non-socialist Sarkozy in London, before quickly changing the formulation to "one of theirs."

Perhaps Sarkozy is searching for a new identity. After Blair's full embrace of "w," nothing would surprise me anymore!

Oddly, the "slip-up" was included in this morning's article on BBC news, but is no longer part of this evening's updated version. Perhaps the same handlers that gave Sarkozy his great photo op with Blair got to the news article too...