Back from New Orleans and a Musical Meme

The American Library Association's Annual conference was in New Orleans part of last week and this week; I just got back. While I was there, I saw Mary Chapin Carpenter, a singer I'd never paid a lot of attention to before. She's very good in concert and I suspect I'll buy some of her music. Her concert was for a program that provides scholarship funds for people to attend library school, so I got to have fun AND contribute money to something I think is worthwhile.

Anderson Cooper was part of the Public Library Association's President's Program, so I stood in line for him to sign my copy of Dispatches from the Edge. He talks so fast! I'd never really thought much about the speed of people's speech until I heard him -- it was as if I had to concentrate to keep up with him. He cried when he talked about New Orleans during Katrina (not wept, just had to stop talking because he was tearing up) and I cried.

Stolen from Badger because I like it -- it's about music.

Complete rules can be found here; you can put up to but no more than THREE answers for every question.

Song(s) That I Loathe to the Core of My Being:
Bad Day by Daniel Powter
MacArthur Park by Richard Harris, Donna Summer and anybody else who's sung it
Proud to be an American by Lee Greenwood

Artist(s) That I Loathe to the Core of My Being:
Barry Manilow
Captain and Tenille

Rolling Stones Song(s) I Love:
Paint It Black
Beast of Burden
Wild Horses

Beatles Song(s) I Love:
Norwegian Wood
Come Together
While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Who Song(s) I Love:
Behind Blue Eyes
I Can See for Miles
Summertime Blues

Reggae Song(s) I Love:
No Woman No Cry
Redemption Song
Rivers of Babylon

Country Song(s) I Love:
Ashes by Now by Rodney Crowell
Hickory Wind by Gram Parsons
If I Needed You by Emmylou Harris and Don Williams

Movie Soundtrack(s) I Love:
The Blues Brothers
Grosse Point Blank
Almost Famous

Musical soundtrack(s) I Love:
Camelot
My Fair Lady

Cover Song(s) I Love:
Red Hot Chili peppers' cover of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground
Nickel Creek's cover of Bob Dylan's Tomorrow is a Long Time
Aaron Neville's version of John Hiatt's Feels Like Rain

Contemporary Top-40 Artist(s) I Secretly Love:
Red Hot Chili Peppers

Song(s) That Bring Me to Tears:
The Wayward Wind by Patsy Cline
The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics
In the Ghetto by Elvis

Song(s) That Make Me Shake My Ass:
Better Together by Jack Johnson
Raspberry Beret by Prince and the Revolution

Classical Composer(s) I Love:
Brahms
Mendelssohn
Debussy

Rap/Hip-Hop Song(s) I Love:
Stan by Eminem
I Ain't Goin' Out Like That by Cypress Hill
Over and Over by Nelly and Tim McGraw

70s Disco Song(s) I Love:
Dance to the Music by Sly & the Family Stone (I didn't really consider this disco but the disco web sites do.)

70s Supergroup Song(s) I Love:
25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago

Metal Song(s) I Love:
Iron Man by Black Sabbath

New Wave Song(s) I Love:
Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode

Soul/R&B Song(s) I Love:
What's Going On by Marvin Gaye
Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding
Brown Skin by India.arie

Power Ballad(s) I Love:
I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) by Meat Loaf
Beth by Kiss
Only Women Bleed by Alice Cooper

Pre 1950s Song(s) I Love:
Night and Day by Frank Sinatra
What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday

Punk Song(s) I Love:
London Calling by the Clash
My Way by the Sex Pistols
Gone Again by Patti Smith

Singer/Songwriter Song(s) I Love:
Angel from Montgomery by John Prine
Shame on the Moon by Rodney Crowell
Howlin' Down The Cumberland by John Hiatt

MTV Video(s) I Love:
Thriller by Michael Jackson
Money for Nothing by Dire Straits

Songs To Have Sex To:
Moondance by Van Morrison
Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison

Guilty Pleasures:
Weekend in New England by Barry Manilow (I know that this defies all logic given I earlier said I loathed him but there you have it.)
I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys

A Dream Come True -- sort of

When I was a kid, I was going to be an archaeologist. Not just any archaeologist, but the most important one to ever excavate Egyptian sites (you know how kids are.) My daughter has the same archaeology bug and is interested in the same place. She's much more knowledgeable than I ever was however. She can tell you how mummies are prepared in quite graphic detail. Her knowledge of the Egyptian gods and goddesses is much more complete than mine. Imagine our surprise, when we found that Mummy: the Inside Story was coming to our local IMAX theater! And the combo ticket includes The Mystery of the Nile IMAX film and the Virtual Tour of Nefertari's tomb. And it will be here until July 31 so if we miss it, we've no one to blame but ourselves.

In music news: I wrote earlier about Nickel Creek, Ben Lee, John Hiatt, the North Mississippi Allstars and Bonnie Raitt coming here. Well, I just found out that in August, Lyle Lovett will be in town as well as Queensryche. I'll be attending the Lyle Lovett concert -- I can't wait. I just don't know what's becoming of this usually muscially barren wasteland.

Reading

Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper: Publishers' Weekly didn't review this book favorably, but so far I like it. I remember Cooper's coverage of Katrina; he really seemed to care about what was happening along the Gulf Coast. He takes the disasters he's covered (the tsunami in Asia, Katrina, and Iraq) and weaves his own personal history of loss into these tales. These large scale disasters awaken him to the smaller losses he'd experienced, and, probably for the first time, allow him to accept those losses and find a place for them. Yes, he's made himself part of the story, but this book is about him, not about the news, so that's appropriate.

The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King: Sometimes I like books about groups of women friends who've been friends a long time; sometimes they just wear on me. This one wears on me. The Same Sweet Girls have been friends since college and now, in their 50s, they get together twice a year. There are six women in the group but two of them are completely unnecessary to the tale and some of them I can't tell apart from the others. Even the two whose voices are used to tell the tale are not distinguishable from each other. The women all learn to deal with a major issue through one of the characters, but I knew what the issue was going to be and what the outcome would be as soon as I met the character. How boring is that! I should have saved this for beach reading.

On my bedside table:

Now is the Time to Open Your Heart: Alice Walker
Running Blind: Lee Child
Bee Season: Myla Goldberg
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: Lisa See