The Geography of Music August 9, 2006
Posted by Brian L. Belen in Odds and Ends.add a comment
I caught myself wondering recently (and I have no idea why) just how many songs are inspired by or are based on places. Along that train of thought, I also began to ask: Is any particular place sung about frequently? Do specific musical genres refer to places more than others?
Of course, I couldn’t help but hazard a half-decent answer and proceeded to conduct some armchair research: I went through my iTunes music library to see how many songs referred to a place in their title. Obviously this was a very limited survey, and a more thorough examination would involve going through song lyrics as well (U2’s Stay, for instance, mentions five cities in succession: Miami, New Orleans, London, Belfast and Berlin). I also omitted all songs that weren’t in English for the sake of uniformity.
What I found is listed below, divided into “place” and indicating song title and the version(s) that I have by way of the artist who sang it, with multiple versions divided by a backslash. Looking up the composer and/or lyricist would have been too unwieldy. Again, the overriding criterion was the specific place mentioned in the title, so I had to take a few liberties in classifying them as I did. To cut to the punch line, it appears that the clear winner is New York (go figure), and that Jazz songs refer to places more than any other genre, though this could also be because I have more Jazz music than I realize.
“Generic” Places
Allison Road (Gin Blossoms)
On Green Dolphin Street (Miles Davis/Mishka Adams/Louis Armstrong)
Lincoln Avenue (Train)
Moon Over Bourbon Street (Sting)
Africa
Africa (Toto)
Storms in Africa (Enya)
Asian Locales
Goodnight Saigon (Billy Joel)
China Roses (Enya)
Bali Ha’i (Peter Cincotti)
On a Slow Boat to China (Renee Olstead)
The Road to Mandalay (Robbie Williams)
European Locales
I Love Paris (Frank Sinatra/Peter Cincotti)
Hamburg Song (Keane)
A Foggy Day (In London Town (Michael Buble)
Dear Old Stockholm (Miles Davis/Miles Davis and John Coltrane)
Moonlight Over Paris (Paolo Santos)
Raoul and the Kings of Spain (Tears for Fears)
My Love Went to London (Tony Bennett)
California
Hotel California (Eagles)
Queen of Hollywood (The Corrs)
Santa Monica (Everclear)
I Will Talk and Hollywood Will Listen (Robbie Williams)
I Left My Heart in San Francisco (Richard Evans/Tony Bennett/Westlife)
Hollywood (Nickelback)
New York
New York State of Mind (Billy Joel)
N.Y. (Doves)
Theme from New York, New York (Frank Sinatra)
Autumn in New York (Harry Connick, Jr.)
New York City (Peter Malick Group featuring Norah Jones)
The Only Boy Living in New York (Simon and Garfunkel)
Englishman in New York (Sting)
New York (U2)
New York Locations
Angel of Harlem (U2)
Brooklyn Breezes (Will Downing)
Christmas in Herald Square (Tony Bennett)
Stolen Away on 55th & 3rd (Dave Matthews Band)
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Simon and Garfunkel)
Bleeker Street (Simon and Garfunkel)
Other American References
America the Beautiful (Ray Charles)
Louisiana Bayou (Dave Matthews Band)
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans (Louis Armstrong)
Motownphilly (Boyz II Men)
Moonlight in Vermont (Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong/Tony Bennett)
It Happened in Monterey (Frank Sinatra)
Back Home Again in Indiana (Louis Armstrong)
St. Louis Blues (Louis Armstrong)
Walking in Memphis (Marc Cohn/Paolo Santos)
Mississippi Goddamn (Nina Simone)
Georgia on My Mind (Ray Charles)
Idaho (Train)
Blue Hawaii (Lisa Ono)
Other Locations
Caribbean Blue (Enya)
Girl from Ipanema (Sitti Navarro)
Wanted: Good Fiction August 7, 2006
Posted by Brian L. Belen in Books.3 comments
Maybe it’s just me, but I haven’t come across good books in the fiction category for quite some time.
Admittedly, my tastes have been changing slightly over the years. There was a time when I was solidly into science fiction and fantasy; now I think I’ve found my way into more general fiction, plus or minus, of course. The one thing that has remained constant is my penchant for following the works of authors that I do read: I am a serial reader. Neil Gaiman is a given. The Asian Saga of James Clavell is one of my favorites. I am naturally fond of J.K. Rowling’s work as well as Dan Brown’s stuff (I know people feel strongly one way or another about this; but I like the Robert Langdon mythos, warts and all), and the political economist in me takes an inherent liking to Tom Clancy. Where classics are concerned, I have always had a soft spot for Dickens; and after my flirtation with mystery have dispensed with Conan-Doyle as well as a compendium of Agatha Christie’s Poirot stories.
On some level, I think part of the problem is that I expect what I read to be similar to the last three good books I remember enjoying. Two of them are by Ayn Rand: The Fountainhaid and Atlas Shrugged. The second I liked (but had to struggle through) just because I read the first, which was absolutely brilliant. The individualistic philosophy and the idealism espoused in those books (again, more in the former than the latter) just struck a chord. The last book I’ve begun swearing by recently is Carlos Ruiz-Zafon’s Shadow of the Wind. Just thinking of that book brings a smile to my face: I picked it up at a bookstore on a lark, but once I started I literally never put it down until I finished it, which has never happened to me before or since.
Lately, I have been in a rut: none of the titles I have tried out have particularly gripped me. Call me insensitive, but I really didn’t much enjoy The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, despite its critical acclaim. Wicked wasn’t too bad, but as I never read the original Wizard of Oz, I suspect plenty of the nuance was lost on me. The Rule of Four was a let-down, as was The Life of Pi, which I bought into until I got to the ending. My curiosity got the better of me and I took a stab at Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses and Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, but both were way out of my literary comfort zone. Arguably the most recent book that I found somewhat intriguing was Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveller’s Wife, though I still do not understand why the protagonists ever fell for one another (but, hey, I’m a guy).
Am I too particular? Maybe. Am I a literary boor? Perhaps, but I hope not. Is there a dearth of decent books? I doubt it, but I obviously need to be pointed in the right direction. I do hope someone helps me out with a suggestion or two in the days to come.
Show Me the Money August 3, 2006
Posted by Brian L. Belen in Ramblings.add a comment
Growing up, it was always my mom who would give me my allowance. Whether it was the Php5.00 I’d get in second grade (in case I’d want to treat a classmate to an Icee, each costing Php2.50) or the significantly larger amounts needed to get through college, I could always count on mom never to forget to have my allowance ready. Obviously the amounts would change over time, as would the delivery system: in grade school I’d get the money daily; in high school it would be weekly; in college it would mostly be deposited into my bank account in monthly increments or more. My dad would explain that this was an important way of learning how to manage my funds, but of course all I really learned was that when I needed money I could always run to mom.
Then I graduated and eventually started working. More than that, I ended up drawing two salaries: one from my teaching gig and the other for working in the family business. In spite of this, my mom would still give me an allowance. At first, I thought that this was a force of habit. But consistently for two years, my mom would give me the same amount month in and month out. At some point she did figure out how much I was earning on my own, which wasn’t exactly great but was definitely better than most, and quipped that maybe I should be the one to pay her an allowance. But she continued to give me an allowance all the same.
I’ve always had a hard time coming to terms with this. What self-respecting person wouldn’t want to show her/his parents s/he can live on their own earnings? Also, doesn’t pride get in the way of accepting dole-outs, however generous? I know it does in my case. Granted, necessity does sometimes make it easier to swallow one’s pride: I may not be destitute, but I did appreciate the fact that my mom (again!) gave me a bit of cash to tide me over while I’m in Manila not earning anything. Still, it’s hard to shake that uncomfortable feeling.
But today I discovered something that’s changed my view on the issue. Apparently, my dad also receives a weekly “allowance” from my mom, even if he needs very little day to day cash - save for the occasional game of golf - and settles most of his accounts with his credit card. And I suspect this is how things have been for as long as they’ve been married.
So I suppose this amounts to three life lessons I should take to heart:
First, it doesn’t hurt to swallow one’s pride and count one’s blessings every now and then.
Second, mothers will always be mothers, and they will invariably provide for their children regardless of circumstance.
Third, I better hang out around dad more. He hasn’t been playing golf lately, which has left him with quite a bit of extra cash to burn…
