soundtracking with Robert Szkolnicki: Nick’s Mom

The question of where musicians get their inspiration could be answered by getting to know what they were listening to when they wrote or recorded a song. For a musician who has died, the answer for their inspiration may only be determined by who they sound like.

A recent episode of Sound Opinions featuring the music of late Nick Drake revealed an inspiration that surprised me. In a conversation with Nick Drake’s producer Joe Boyd, he says that the young musician was influenced by his mother, Molly Drake.

The thought that musicians are influenced by their parents surprises me only because I do not have many examples that I can reference. Unless a famous musician comes from a famous musical family (McGarrigle/Wainwright) then we have no comparison to listen to.

The music of Molly Drake has recently been released. Even though these are home recordings, fans of Nick Drake will find something familiar to appreciate. Squirrel Thing Recordings has released the album which you can hear on Bandcamp (or embedded below)

WNYC’s Spinning On Air plays the music of both mother and son.

David Garland presents selections from “Molly Drake,” the new limited edition album of those old home recordings, alongside songs from Nick Drake’s three albums, giving listeners the chance to hear the many connections between mother and son. Both were sensitive, talented, insightful people who wrote subtly devastating songs.

clip: screwing up and other breakthroughs courtesy of the TED Radio Hour

So I know you’ve heard about TED Talks. Maybe you’re already a fan. You might even know that the brilliantly distilled title of the video series of talks stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design.

Yeah, there’s an app for that or you can go to the TED site or, now, at least if you get Vermont Public Radio on radio or online you can listen to the TED Radio Hour, or subscribe to the NPR: TED Radio Hour Podcast . It amplifies and gives a kind of behind-the-scenes treatment of some of the most influential, interesting or popular TED Talks. This episode deals with mistakes via three TED speakers:

• Brian Goldman, the doctor and host of CBC Radio’s White Coat Black Arts,

• Brene Brown, who speaks about creativity and shame, and

• Stefon Harris, a jazz musician.

This is a particularly great show. Mistakes. We’ve all made a few. But once you get beyond the cringe, or the reprimand, or the holy-fuck-i-blew-it-and-no-one-noticed, what is the value of making a mistake, the thing that Samuel Beckett, in 1983′s Worstword Ho, described thusly:

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

More generally, TED Radio Hour is a perfect way to ease into TED talks if you haven’t yet. Equally perfect way for TED Talks fans to enjoy them when driving or commuting or otherwise can’t sit and watch the video.

the fine print: I Wish My Mother Would Call

You can shake your fist at Hallmark and FTD all you want, Mother’s Day would be a thing with or without the commercialization, which this year of 2013 comes on May 12.

But what kind of thing is Mother’s Day for you? And you? That’s the thing.

A loving, uncomplicated thing? A day to lavish gifts and gratitude?

A longing thing? For a mom gone, either from this life or from yours?

Regretting?

Relief?

Or perhaps accepting? And imperfect as you and she and your relationship is, wishing for just a little more time?

Gawker has a personal essay series that features a very moving remembrance of a mother that Dawna Dingwall shared. It’s called I Wish My Mother Would Call and you can read it here. And please do. It’s lovely. It’s written by Joshunda Sanders

If you’d like to wander through a few more motherly remembrances, try this blog I started a couple of years ago and, while not updated much since then, stands strong still in the collected stories of women I know writing about their mothers. That series of remembrances was called Mother’s Day Survivor Guide and you can read those posts here. If you’re a completist, the blog itself is called, and I will not apologize for the title because it still makes me smile at its dorkiness, 50 ways to grief your mother. If you can’t be sarcastically melodramatic to your friends, then what’s this world come to?

Happy Mother’s Day.

 

read, cook, eat: Ain’t-No-Newton Roasted Figs

Update: The thing about enthusiasm is that it knows no season. Am well aware figs are hard to come by (middle-eastern grocery stores, any one?), but I was so smitten by this I decided to post anyway. But Sue Montgomery made the good point that dried figs are also worth considering. And I’d say would be even better in this than the real McCoy. I’m about to add some photos and possibly tomorrow, Happy Mother’s Day, will give a go with dried figs. To be continued.

Figs. I am not alone in loving them, but I think it’s safe to say I appreciate them more than the average fig lover. I blame Fig Newtons, those square little tombstones of dessicated fig and the best prefab cookie material that the 1970s could spit into a cellophane container. My father has a sweet jones and Fig Newtons were his drug. I still get a little queasy thinking about it.

And then… And then I had a real fig. A real fig, all pink and tart in a tear drop shape, with tender skin not even a durable as a grape skin. I better stop. Starting to sound a little indecent.

So now I have a jones for figs. And so here’s this, with thanks to Pop Sugar’s Nicole Perry for the inspiration. And please, Winnipeggers, where can a girl get some figs when she visits?

Ain’t-No-Newton Roasted Figs

1. Fresh figs, with the nibby things cut off and slice in half length-wise

2. Laid out in a baking dish, cut side up

3. Topped with crumbled goat cheese to cover the top

4. Crested by walnut pieces or a half

5. Drizzled with this, which will get velvety thick when you whisk it briefly, giving it the perfect viscosity for drizzling): maple syrup, balsamic vinegar (ratio of about 5 to 1) and blurp of olive oil.

Prepare maybe 3-4 fig halves per person.

Roast 15 minutes in oven at 300 degrees C.

And if you are dining with your beloved, or even by yourself, eat it right out of the baking dish (wait for it to cool a bit) and spoon up as much of the drizzle as possible. It is the best. If you’re having a fancy dinner party and don’t feel everyone would be comfortable all eating out of your baking dish, you need new friends.

original writing: wine reviewing for the rest of us

You know these fancy ass people who pick wines because of the, what, like grapes? And regions? And whatever the hell appellations and varietals are? Poncy snobs. Insufferable.

I employ the same rule for choosing wine and race horses: Get the pretty one. I learned that from my step mom Dale. We don’t always win, but damn we keep good company. In a pinch, it’s also permissible to order whatever the very lovely bartender recommends.

But back to my point, and I do have one. I got so tired of reading these ridiculously otherworldly fancy wine reviews that I decided – well I along with Ellen, my California coast travelling companion last fall – we decided to come up with our own rating system. Now, it would have been splendid had we actually taken note of the actual wine we were actually drinking and apply the reviews, but we got a little tipsy and forgot. So I have randomly assigned wines and wine groups, just to illustrate. And so…

Denise and Ellen’s Wine Ratings Guide™ (aka wine reviewing for the rest of us)

5/5: So, if you poured, for example, any wine with the word “ripasso” on the label…

E&I might give it 5 stars out of 5 and saucily address such a bold wine this way:

Settle down there dude. We heard you the first two times. Full fruit on the tip of the tongue. Weight of a thousand butterflies carrying a mordant level of bad cholesterol.

4/5: If you were brave enough to decant a depanneur merlot…

E&I, knowing that you are savvy enough to appreciate that cheap doesn’t have to mean crappy, would pat you on the back, give your dep plong 4 stars out of 5, and elucidate thusly:

Salty bacon on the aggravating tear on the roof of your mouth; stings a little at first, but pleasantly, numbingly astringent. Finish of dark chocolate, with a whiff of slightly hummy canned pineapple.

3/5: And what about those trailer trash nights when only Gimli Goose or some other plonk is what you want?

E&I would chuckle and give you 3 stars out of 5, for chutzpah, and opine:

Opens with a bouquet of Doctor Pepper drizzled over burnt toast, settling on the tonsils like molasses left too long at the back of the fridge. No real finish. It just kind of walks away and stops acknowledging your texts. Like a guy named Steve.

2/5: But then there are those moments when you’re just trying too damn hard, like with a San Bernadino riesling…

E&I would be a little embarrassed for you, dole out 2 stars out of 5, and mutter:

Peanut butter and apricot jam on the nose, with no Kleenex handy. And even if there were, the tissue would disintegrate and leave tiny strips of jammy tissue hanging off your nose, which the condescending wine bar waiter would point out while calling you “ma’am”.

1/5: And if you dared to swill some chardonnay? ANY chardonnay?

E&I would cleanse our palates with tap water and flick you 1 star out of 5, sadly declaring:

Cheap gum on the nose, with tinny finish, and the longevity (and aftertaste) of a fish fly in early June.

This has been a Rut Dug Inc. Production ™

soundtracking with Robert Szkolnicki: The artist formerly known as David Bowie

2012 looked at David Bowie with some nostalgia as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars celebrated a 40th birthday. Forty!

Music critics Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot looked at David Bowie’s concept album in episode 347 of Sound Opinions.

The major bone of contention: was Bowie simply an assimilator of others’ musical styles or an innovator in his own right? While Greg touts Bowie as a rock legend, Jim stops short at “master assimilator.” But even Jim has to admit Ziggy Stardust is among the best records in Bowie’s career, if only because of all of his guises, it’s the most unabashedly over­the­top.

Music label Paper Bag Records celebrated Ziggy with their artists covering the album.

Here is the tracklist:

• Born Ruffians ‘Five Years’
• Austra & CFCF ‘Soul Love ‘
• PS I Love You ‘Moonage Daydream ‘
• The Rural Alberta Advantage ‘Starman ‘
• Slim Twig ‘It Ain’t Easy ‘
• The Luyas ‘Lady Stardust ‘
• Cuff The Duke ‘Star ‘
• Young Galaxy ‘Hang On To Yourself ‘
• Elliott BROOD ‘Ziggy Stardust ‘
• The Acorn ‘Suffragette City ‘
• Woodhands ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide ‘
• Yamantaka//Sonic Titan ‘John, I’m Only Dancing [Bonus Track]‘

You can download the Paper Bag Records tribute album (in exchange for your email address). Or you can click here or below to stream it on Soundcloud.

The artist currently known as David Bowie

Cruising into 2013 and quite unexpectedly, David Bowie released The Next Day. Critically well received (according to Metacritic) and bookie favourites for The Mercury Prize (FACTMAG), it is also clear that the album is not entirely admired.

Dave Bidini in The National Post likes the album but opens with this …

Whenever a legendary figure like David Bowie releases a new album, the genuflecting throng collapses in worship no matter the quality of the work, willing it to be something more than the puffings of a tired genius.

The guys at Sound Opinions take the new album for a spin in episode 381 and come up with different conclusions. It is quite refreshing to hear critics talk about music without being snarky.

Before the music review, there is an interview with music producer Tony Visconti that is worth the time regardless of what you think about the album.

clip: the amazing Amanda Palmer on TED and the art of asking

It’s hard to know about Amanda Palmer – pardon me Amanda Fucking Palmer – if you spend any time squatting on social media. Or indeed on the web anywhere. She’s a musician, fun gal, idea pusher, and, as I’ve discovered here (thanks Kirsten Andrews), not just a generous person but a politically, consciously, provocatively generous person. Since generosity ranks second on my list of favourite traits, behind gratitude, I’m kinda in love with Amanda these days. Here’s her TED talk. And here is some of her music.