Ray Davies: A Well Respected Man, at last?

Maybe I'm just taking the time to dissect my Ray Davies Google Alerts, but it seems like my man is finally getting some of the long-elusive respect he so rightly deserves.

First, his musical comedy Come Dancing, the one my daughter and I took off on a crazy cross-Channel weekend to see, won the What's On Stage award for the best off-West End production of 2008.

Now, his name is suddenly popping up all over the press. To wit, take a look at the high-flung praise that just the last three days has brought through my wires:

1. [In 1968] "There was terrific music wherever you turned, including The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society - Ray Davies' concept album about pastoral England..." Canada.com, February 28 2009
2. "As a kid, Fountains of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger would listen to Kinks records and dream about the places they describe.
   
   One of his favorites, 'Waterloo Sunset,' may be about a dirty London subway station, but songwriter Ray Davies finds a way to romanticize the ordinary...
   
   Since the mid-'90s, Schlesinger and his songwriting partner, singer and guitarist Chris Collingwood, have upheld Davies' proud tradition." Hartford Courant, February 26, 2009
3. "Brooklyn's Mitch Friedman has just released his fourth album of idiosyncratic, funny, original quirky pop - GAME SHOW TEETH...Even Ray Davies, song-writing legend and lead singer of The Kinks [Am I really reading this? "Even" Ray Davies?], has become a fan of Friedman's unique skills as a wordsmith. Having attended a Davies song-writing course in England, Friedman took the advice of the sixties legend that every song must have a clear structure and composed 'This Is a Song' - an amusing tribute to the simple formula that can be found in so many beautiful pieces of pop. (Top40-charts.com, February 26, 2009)
4. "'There have been a million records that tell you a straight story and, really, is anybody going to do it better than Ray Davies?'" he [Bryan Poole, guitarist for Of Montreal] says."(WAtoday.com.au, February 27, 2009)

Kinks fans, be of good cheer. Our day has come!

The 15 most significant albums in my life

So, I got this idea from my big blog buddy Elisabeth. Except I first did it on Facebook.

Has anyone else noticed how bloggy things are happening on Facebook? All of the sudden it's all tags and memes. Well, at least I prefer that to inane quizzes.

Anyway, I like this list concept because it's not a list of "My Favorite Albums." There's a big difference between favorite and significant.

So, with no further ado, minimum linkage, and in order at least for the first seven or so:

1. Schoolboys in Disgrace by The Kinks:

This is anything but the best Kinks album. In fact, many would argue it's one of the worst. But it's the first one I owned and the one that really got me interested in the Kinks as purveyors of more than singles. The rest is history: my history.

2. My Aim is True by Elvis Costello:

I saw the future of British rock and roll and his name was Declan McManus. I also saw his first US tour at the Waldorf in San Francisco. His part of the concert lasted 28 minutes.

3. Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen:

I saw the future of American rock and roll and his concerts lasted four hours.

4. Reckoning by REM:

When I was teaching in the USA and wondering whatever I was going to listen to, other than Bruce Springsteen, now that New Wave was dying out, one of the people tagged in this article suggested I try REM. I took his suggestion.

5. Meet the Beatles:

Because my mom brought it home on vinyl and I'll always remember how it looked sitting in our living room. Plus it has a song from the Music Man on it, which is pretty cool.

6. Squeezing Out Sparks by Graham Parker:

Well, it's the only autographed album I own because I went to a record-signing and met Graham Parker. And it's just so bloody brilliant.

7. Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan:

OK, I admit, this is here because it's my favorite Dylan album. So by definition, it's significant.

8. Singles Going Steady by The Buzzcocks:

Maybe it's not cool to include greatest hits albums, but I think this is about all one really needs of the Buzzcocks. Call it distilled genius.

9. Face to Face by The Kinks:

Or the one where I became konvinced that The Kinks were, and always will be, better than the Beatles.

10. Live at the Roxy by Michel Polnareff:

It's a family affair.

11. Straight Up by Badfinger:

At one point, Badfinger was my number two group. Given their tragic history (two suicides), now I just feel sad when I listen to them, especially to the song "Name of the Game" by Pete Ham (1947-1975) which is on this album.

12. Late for the Sky by Jackson Browne:

The beauty of song.

13. Parallel Lines by Blondie:

Pure pop for now guys and gals, in all its glory.

14. Stop Making Sense by The Talking Heads:

Because it doesn't.

15. Le Fou Chantant en Public by Charles Trenet:

Recorded in 1987, this fabulous concert by the then 74-year-old Trenet is a gem. I'll always regret not seeing him in concert in the early 90s, when I had two opportunities to do so. But I take some comfort in the fact that apparently he was a totally odious person in real life.

I would love to read anybody else's lists, but especially Randall's, Holly's, Joe's, spacedlaw's, and one from the guy who is playing an all-Kinks show on WCBN-FM as I write.

Unconscious Mutterings 11

1. Be mine ::
tonight
2. Ecstatic ::
like
3. Orderly ::
hospital
4. Sebastian ::
Belle
5. Sore ::
Neck
6. Don’t need ::
this
7. Rockstar ::
Oh, yeah
8. Tinfoil ::
AluMInium as the British say
9. Addiction ::
to love
10. Where? ::
or when?

Click here for this week's Unconscious Mutterings. It's really a lot of fun to do!

Listography, or organizational geekiness headquarters

(I would like to credit this photo but can't quite figure out where it comes from.)

Somehow as I was creating my 101 things to do in 1001 days list, which I have finally finished, I ran into the site Listography. As its name implies, it's a place to write lists. And it is cool, as well as extremely easy-to-use.

They even have something a simplified html-like system that allows you to check, cross off, italicize and more without having to write type characters like the one I just tried to write, but that wouldn't show up on this post because it was html.

There is a lot more to do with Listography then I have done so far, but if you want to take a look at my incipient geeky lists, feel free.

Unconscious Mutterings 10

1. Take :: a break, take it easy
   


2. 350 :: days
   


3. Stand :: By Me
   


4. Raspberry :: my grandma
   


5. Turnstile :: Métro


6. Infomercial :: Yuk
   


7. Dejected :: Rejected


8. What’s the word? :: in English for...
   


9. Awestruck :: Starstruck


10. Smashed :: Pumpkins

Random photo linked to item 1 courtesy of Design for Mankind, which looks like a pretty cool blog if you're into modern design and fashion. These two kitties are definitely taking it easy.

Click here for this week's Unconscious Mutterings.

General update: bracing myself for February

I really don't care for February whatsoever. As I turn the calendar, I hate to say I don't have a lot to look forward to. Lots of work, dreadful weather, the feeling that winter will never end...

While I'm at it, let me throw in March, then I won't have to whine about that other disappointing month when I next turn the calendar.

March has absolutely nothing to recommend itself to me. I used to be tricked by its "harbinger of spring" quality, but, at least where we live, it's usually more of the same: lots of work, dreadful weather...and so forth.

At least I have finished my 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days list. I was right -- just doing the list took me a month. Maybe it will give me some much-needed oomph. I must admit it has already helped me focus better on what I want to do with my time.

Unconscious Mutterings 9

1. Arrival :: Departure


2. Vomit :: And when they said sit down, I threw up
   


3. Fit :: As a fiddle and ready to...
   


4. Stutter :: Stammer


5. Lifestream :: What's that?
   


6. Tread :: Water
   


7. Desire :: Wish


8. Freezing :: Now


9. Permit :: Allow


10. Crinkle :: Wrinkle

Click here for this week's Unconscious Mutterings -- and why not play yourself?

Two...one....

(AP photo by Charles Darapak, found in a slideshow on the home page of today's Huffington Post)

My Bush countdown widget seems a little off to me -- as I write this at 6:20 am EST on Sunday the 18th, don't we still have more than two days to go? Maybe the clock just counts down to Inauguration Day itself.

WHATEVER! I've been feeling bitter the past weeks about how Bush and his historically horrible cronies are getting off the hook so easily.

But I'm going to focus on the positive for the next few days -- we may never pass this way again.

Unconscious Mutterings 8

1. Resolution :: New Year's, now is that ever NOT original
   


2. Break :: Spring
   


3. Tied :: and Bound
   


4. Suffering :: in silence
   


5. Instead :: of doing
   


6. Slash :: and burn
   


7. Divorce :: what law
   


8. Cough :: Syrup
   


9. Happy :: Man


10. Sniffle :: Sniff

Wow, number 9 is kind of scary...

By the way, remember that I decorate each Unconscious Mutterings post with the first legally usable image that comes up when I do a Google Image search for the first word association on the list. It adds another fun, random aspect to this activity.

This week, I'd like to give a little recognition to the royalty-free cartoons on sangrea.net.

Click here for more of this week's Unconscious Mutterings.

The end of the Bush era: mixed feelings

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

I found myself laughing pretty hard at the clever satire in the above video. But as my mother said, it's funny -- sort of.

I haven't written anything about politics in a while, and I must admit to having tuned out a bit after my election-season obsession. Of course I'm still very excited about Obama's inauguration, despite all of the much-pontificated-about "challenges he'll be facing," which I know are real.

At the same time, seeing the President who really should have been impeached get off so easy makes me absolutely furious.

I imagine some of you are feeling the same way.

Unconscious Mutterings 7

1. Confirmation :: Proclamation


2. Verse :: Chorus


3. Authorize :: Permit
4. Blog :: This


5. Thirty :: -something


6. Heir :: Heirloom
   


7. What are you doing? :: I'm writing this darn post
   


8. Complaint :: Réclamation


9. Leave :: it or love it
   


10. Tune :: Song

Click here for this week's Unconscious Mutterings.

101 things to do in 1001 days

The project

101. (Who said things have to be in order?) Finish my 101 things to do in 1001 days project list 1/1

Cinema

1. Watch De-Lovely 0/1
2. Watch There Will Be Blood 0/1
3. Watch Shine a Light 0/1
4. Watch I'm Not There 1/1
5. Watch Across the Universe 0/1
6. Watch Absolute Beginners 0/1
7. Watch The Darjeeling Limited 0/1
8. Watch The Painted Veil 0/1
9. Watch one movie a week. 10/143
10. Go to the cinema on average once a month. 0/32
11. Watch some other movie to be announced because I just realized I had a double entry on this list. Okay, Milk. 0/1

Watch all of the Woody Allen movies I haven't yet seen

12. Whatever Works
13. Vicky Christina Barcelona
14. Cassandra's Dream
15. Scoop
16. Match Point
17. Anything Else
18. Hollywood Ending
19. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
20. Count Mercury Goes to the Suburbs
21. Shadows and Fog
22. Crimes and Misdemeanors
23. New York Stories
24. Another Woman

Music

25. Listen to some NPR music programs (Maybe with my new Samsung MP3.)
26. Kontinue to purchase Kinks CDs to the extent my budget can handle it. Try to komplete my kollektion. 3/28 (appx.)

Household

27. De-clutter one space a week, no matter how small 6/143
28. Do one load of laundry during the workweek to avoid weekend pile-up 7/143
29. Deal with all accumulated postal mail at least once a week 7/143
30. File away papers from orange folder 0/1
31. Put away laundry every weekend 7/143
32. Frame family photo 1 0/1
33. Frame family photo 2 0/1

Work

34. Bring more technology into my classes. For the rest of academic year 2008, think in terms of at least 3 new activities per month. 8/18
35. Plan and propose a "How to learn language" module for incoming students next school year. 0/1 (The proposal part is done.)
36. Get my new Edublog totally operational for September 2009. 0/1
37. Start vocabulary lists for my classes on Listography (started...but going nowhere)

Reading

38. Read at least parts of all of the Aveyron-related books I own
39. Read French Toast 0/1
40. Read Chagrin d'Ecole 0/1
41. Read Five Quarters of Orange 0/1
42. Read A Thousand Splendid Suns 0/1
43. Read Fast food : roadside restaurants in the automobile age 0/1
44. Finish reading X-Ray: The Unauthorized Biography 1/1
45. Increase my non-fiction reading, since that is what I'm interested in writing myself. Save novels for the summer, at least in 2009. 0/1
46. Read Please Please Me 1/1
47. Read five books I've never read from The Modern Library 100 Best Lists 0/5
48. Finish reading Blended Learning 1/1

Personal contacts

49. Have friends over for dinner on average once a month 1/32
50. Send a letter or card to someone in the USA once a month 1/32
51. Send at least an e-card for all appropriate birthdays
52. Send paper cards for all family birthdays.


Email

53. Unsubscribe to all little-read newsletters and alerts by the end of January 08 1/1 (And I don't miss them!)
54. Clear out inbox backlog on my many email accounts by the end of March 08 0/1

Blogging
55. Take some photo walks and photo outings -- New activity; count
56. Maintain posting pace for La France Profonde 12/143
57. Maintain once-a-week posting for Cuisine Quotidienne 4/143 (sadly, as of late February, I put this blog on vacation. There are so many other things to do on this list!)
58. Reduce banal commenting on other blogs -- OK, I'm commenting less but I'm also following blogs less...this is a double-edged
59. Write more about music on this blog
60. Limit comment subscriptions to threads I really want to follow -- done, but see 58

Professional Writing

61. Get my editorial calendar set up for my professional blogs every Sunday 9/143
62. Get a second professional writing gig of some sort by September 09 1/1

General online and computer life

63. Reduce my Google Reader subscriptions and go back to following sidebar blogs 1/1
64. Use Facebook on weekends only, other than to check up on family
1/1 for the most part
65. Learn how to organize my Facebook contacts and organize them 1/1
66. Reorganize my digital photos 0/49 (folders)

Cooking

67. Make an average of one homemade dessert a week for my dessert-deprived family, or buy from a local pastry-maker 6/143
68. Learn to make good pizza from scratch 0/1
69. Do a slow cooker meal once a month 1/32
70. Use bread machine on the average once a month, including some new recipes 4/32
71. Keep up my kitchen notebook 5/143


Travel and Tourism

72. Go back to California and visit my old university and meet up with a few old friends 0/1
73. Go to at least one European country other than Great Britain 0/1
74. Go to the Lodève art museum at least once a year 0/3
75.Visit Marseille 0/1
76. Go to Paris at least once other than for work 0/1
77. Visit Montauban 0/1
78. Visit Cahors 0/1
79. Visit Clermont-Ferrand 0/1
80.Go (back) to London 0/1
81.Go (back) to London again 0/1

General Learning

82. Learn more about painting -- General Progress
83. Learn more about London -- General Progress
84. Learn more about the U.K. overall -- General Progress
85. Learn more about Sweden -- General Progress
86. Learn more about French regional cooking -- General Progress
87. Consolidate my knowledge about wine -- General Progress
88. Learn more about the Aveyron and its recent history -- General Progress
89. Learn more about the history of pop and rock music -- General Progress
90. Learn more about photography -- General Progress


Outings

91. Try fifteen new (to me) restaurants 3/15
92. Go away for a weekend by myself or with a girlfriend 1/1
93. Go to two operas 0/2
94. Go to St. Geniez d'Olt, for God's sake! 0/1
95. Go to a major rock-type concert with my daughters 0/1

Languages

96. Continue my timid efforts to relearn my basic German -- General Progress

Miscellaneous

97. Join the local media library again and use it 1/1
98. Keep up on the Obama administration and stay involved from a distance
99. Join one new club or group 0/1
100. Get to the Wednesday morning or Friday evening market at least once a month 0/32

101 things to do in 1001 days

The Internet takes me to strange and inspiring places.

I had just started sending New Year's greetings to some of my expat blog contacts, and I only got to the third one on La France Profonde's sidebar: Megan of An American in Provence. I was intrigued by a passage she had in her sidebar:

"101 things in 1001 days project begun July 4th, 2008 time left until April 1st, 2011 : 821 days 4 hours and 57 minutes left"

She had no link, but geek and ye shall find: a quick Google search brought me to Day Zero - The home of the 101 things to do in 1001 days project.

As a lover of lists and goals, I might just take the plunge on this one. And also, unlike New Year's resolutions, it won't have to be done by tomorrow.

Unconscious Mutterings 6

Click here to play with this week's Unconscious Mutterings.

1. Destined : to fail
   


2. FAIL : too weird
   


3. Camping : campground


4. Only you : can make my life complete
   


5. Incessant : mutterings
   


6. Tomorrow : is another day
   


7. Impressive : resumé


8. Riches : wealth


9. Dislike : hate


10. Speaker : phone

Looking over these mutterings, it's interesting for me to see how the English (as a second language) teacher in me comes out. On 8 and 9, I just spit out synonyms, much as I do in class.

Number 3 was not so much a synonym, but a recurrent correction: the French word for campground is le camping, so students often, and rather logically, think that that must be the English word. So I'm often correcting that error. I can hear myself:

No, in English we go camping (to go camping gets written on the board) but the place we go to is called a campground (go to a campground flies up on the board as I speak...)

From business school to batik

One of the miracles of the Internet is being able to keep up with all of those people I surely would have lost touch with in the pre-digital days.

As someone who loves life stories -- or life's stories -- I was tickled that electronic communication brought me back in touch with Julie, one of my former business school students, and also one of my daughters' past babysitters.

I always thought Julie's personality might take her down a different life path from the typical business route, and I was right: she is now living in Senegal and recently married batik clothing designer Omer Silé Dao Diatta. She is helping out with his business and also occasionally modeling his creations, as you can see above!

Check out Omer's website and his beautiful work here.

Unconscious (Christmas) Mutterings

I decided to do this week's Unconscious Mutterings with a Christmas spirit in mind. I don't know if that's true to the idea of the activity, but it sounded like a fun thing to write.

1. Carpet : No Christmas ideas


2. Bottoms : Up


3. Music : Jingle Bells
   


4. Nails : Nine Inch
   


5. Watch it! : Haven't we done this one before?
   


6. Your life : Varied


7. Candies : Candy Canes
   


8. Chafing : Dish, I think my mom has one
   


9. Svelte : A brand
   


10. Ding : Dong, Christmas bells

Well, I didn't manage to keep the Christmas theme for all of the words, but a few worked out rather nicely!

Happy Holidays!

PS: Dear Santa, For Christmas I would like somebody to read and comment on my previous post. I guess it didn't get picked up by Google alerts because if it had, I'm sure some Kinks fans would have chimed in.

Rekonnekting with the Kinks 1: Arthur Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have made up my mind to gradually purchase all or most of the Kinks' CDs in order to rediskover my favorite group.

If they're my favorite group, how, you might ask, did I end up living without them for practically two decades?

Let's just say practical considerations (Do you remember the young and innocent pre-Amazon days?) and life got in the way.

But I'm not one to sit by the fire in my Shangri-la. I can now one-click my way over to the UK and order as many Kinks CDs as I want; I got my first shipment a few weeks back.

I'm determined to take my time and savor every moment of this unstructured rediskovery.

The first album I have listened to repeatedly has been Arthur Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire. I ended up with the Castle edition, which has all sorts of extra tracks, but I'm not going to deal with those.

And I'm not going to attempt a full review, which would be great if I did this for a living, or if this were my only blog, or if anyone other than fans who get Kinks Google alerts were going to read this post...

Instead, I thought I'd have my fun categorizing the songs according to my reactions to them after a nearly twenty-year hiatus, with comments on some of the songs.

MASTERPIECES:

Victoria: Between the unexpected lyrics and the infectious melody, this is not just a Kinks masterpiece; it's a rock masterpiece.

Shangri-la: This song will certainly move way up in my Kinks' Top Ten list when this whole re-listening project is over. When Ray Davies sings "But he's too scared to complain, 'cos he's conditioned that way," my heart just breaks.

OTHER GREAT TUNES:

Yes Sir, No Sir

Australia: This song is more intriguing to me since I saw Come Dancing, which picks up on the same theme.

Arthur

FUN SONGS:

Drivin': Along with Victoria, this is the song that my 17-year-old daughter likes the most on the album.

She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina: For the title if for nothing else.

SONGS I QUITE LIKE BUT MAYBE YOU HAVE TO BE A KINKS FAN TO AGREE:

Brainwashed

Young and Innocent Days: I always visualize this song; I think it certainly would have worked better in the original Arthur "televised rock opera" concept than it does on the album.

SONGS THAT DON'T QUITE DO IT FOR ME:

Some Mother's Son: I know a lot of fans love this song. To me, it starts out well but doesn't hold its promises, and veers dangerously towards the maudlin.

Nothing to Say: I could say the same thing.

A FORGETTABLE SONG:

Mr. Churchill Says: The category is to be taken in the first degree; I had totally forgotten this song, and may well do so again.

One final comment: Arthur Or... is without a doubt my favorite Kinks' album title.

Unconscious Mutterings 5

1. Travel :: Uncountable


2. Expensive :: Stuff


3. Backspace :: Typing foxes
   


4. Traffic noise :: Beep


5. Now see here :: Missy


6. Vegetables :: Vegetarian


7. Chat :: Cat
   


8. Your calling :: Teaching


9. Weekly :: Reader


10. Oh! :: MG

Inspired by Unconscious Mutterings. Photo credit here.

Kinks Wordle

(Click on photo to enlarge)

In the category of "fun things to do on the Internet," I have just discovered Wordle -- thanks to big blogging buddy spacedlaw. It's an application that turns a bunch of text into an image, featuring the most frequent words.

This is my first attempt. I'm sure one can be much more poetic and artistic, but I liked the image I got out of the content of all of my blogposts about the Kinks and Ray Davies.

Wordle seems to have a rather stringent copyright rule going which I don't quite understand, but I think it means I need to link to my actual onsite version.

Since I'm going on and on about Kinkdom, I'll mention that I enjoyed reading a fresh and well-written blog post review of Ray's December 12th concert at the Hammerstein ballroom in New York. The writer had never seen the Kinks or Ray in concert, and he managed to catch the spirit of what Ray brings to audiences as well as any of us oldies.

Kinks Koncerts

I'm just passing this along. I saw this tour (or a similar version of it) in July in Seattle and it was fantastic:

"Ray Davies has 4 shows remaining on his current tour and there are still tickets available for each of the performances. By all accounts this has been an excellent tour.

The following 4 dates remain:

10 Dec, 2008: Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, Providence, Rhode Island.
11 Dec, 2008: Higher Ground, Burlington, VT.
12 Dec, 2008: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, New York.
13 Dec, 2008: Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, New Jersey.

You can find ticket info at Dave Emlen's Kinks site:

http://kinks.it.rit.edu/tourdates.php

If you can make it to one of the shows, please try and do so. Also let your friends know that there are still tickets available. A Ray Davies concert is a not to be missed experience. If you don't buy tickets online, call ahead to confirm seats."