Today’s first CD pile is a piano-rama, with the exception of one flute (AND piano) recording that slipped in there. And for good measure we bring you another bunch featuring choruses, orchestra, chamber music and music for wind ensemble.
Author: Antoinette Powell
So Take Them In Out of theRain
We’re smack in the middle of the National Soybean Rust Symposium, which began Dec. 12 and runs through tomorrow, Dec. 14 in Louisville, KY. Seems soybean crops are plagued by a ruddy fungus which, we have to say, would make an excellent name for a rock group.
You can read proceedings from last year’s symposium. You can also view related websites, such as “Soybean Rust Advisory Program (SoyRAP)” (SoyRAP, there’s another excellent name) on the Plant Management Network website.
So Long, Ike
It may surprise the young folk out there that what is widely considered to be the first rock ‘n’ roll recording was done three years before Bill Haley and the Comets did “Rock Around the Clock.” Jackie Brenston and the Kings of Rhythm recorded “Rocket 88” in 1951, a recording which had nothing to do with either the space program (then non-existent) or a piano. It was an Oldsmobile. Again, ask your granddad. Please enjoy the audio on <a href=""this clip and ignore the wildy inappropriate video. We have a recording in the Mudd, too.
One of the people responsible for that 1951 recording died today. Ike Turner, probably more widely known as the Svengali/abusive husband to Tina Turner, was 76. Ike and Tina were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
They’re Everywhere!
We can hardly keep ahead of the onslaught. For all of you who have been clamoring for CDs featuring doughnuts, trombone, didjeridu and Brahms piano music, too, today is your day. You can get everything you want in the Mudd’s latest CD pile.
More CDs!
Today’s new CD pile takes you from Bach to Takemitsu with a stop for some American composers. Take a look.
Blue Eyes
Frank Sinatra would have been 92 today. That’s all (which is a great song and the Mudd has it.) Enjoy some Sinatra, too.
Louis Seize
On December 11, 1792, Louis XVI was brought before the French Convention Nationale, the assembly that governed France after the overthrow of the monarchy. Not long afterward the Convention Nationale released a statement that went something like this:
If you had been a nicer king
we wouldn’t do a thing,
but you were bad, you must admit.
We’re gonna take you and the queen
down to the guillotine
and shorten you a little bit.
The Mudd has some contemporary reports of this event, including a transcript of the trial, which may or may not contain the above text.
Today’s CDs
This latest bunch of CDs carries on the Mudd tradition of bringing you just about every kind of music you desire. Today if you want vocal music, we’ve got it, both jazz and classical. How about cello? Some nice string quartets? Does symphonic music float your boat? Done, done, done and done.
Pibloktoq!
Discover is the greatest periodical. Naturally the Mudd subscribes to it. The latest issue (January, 2008) has “20 Things You Didn’t Know About Snow.” We’ll let you read about the other 19, but this one is a doozy: Too much snow can drive a person crazy. It seems pibloktoq, a little understood hysteria, can “cause senseless repetition of overheard words and running around naked in the snow.” Since our area is getting another 2 or 3 inches today (on top of what we already have,) this caught our eye. Since our area is getting another 2 or 3 inches today (on top of what we already have,) this caught our eye. Since our area is getting another 2 or 3 inches today (on top of what we already have,) this caught our eye.
TLAND?
A bunch of marauders-come-lately have invented a day to celebrate today: Annual Day of the Ninja. While we are all in favor of the quite legitimate holiday “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” we are not at all convinced that this ninja thing will catch on. Their suggestion to “wear a ninja mask to work” will most likely result in a call to the local constable. Wearing an eye patch to work, however, will evoke great admiration at your new-found coolness. Pirate versus ninja is like Mac Guy vs. PC Guy on the TV: one oozes self-confidence and the other tries a little too hard.