Category: Ani diFranco

Monday Earworm: Dar Williams and Ani diFranco

On By angeliquejamailIn Ani diFranco, Dar Williams, Monday earworm, music, Pink FloydLeave a comment

Since I spent the weekend recovering from a little surgical procedure, this seemed like a good choice for today’s earworm.

To be fair, I eschewed the prescription painkillers for Tylenol (which was just fine for me in this case), and I’ve mostly just rested on the couch the last few days trying to get low-key stuff done, but I’ve wanted to throw this song up as an earworm for a while, so here we are.

I like Pink Floyd okay. I’m not a superfan as some are, but I respect and enjoy a lot of their music. I adore both Dar Williams and Ani diFranco, though, with the passion of a white-hot sun, and so when I ran across this rendition, it made this song so much more interesting for me.

Enjoy, from whatever restful perch you currently have. (And for what it’s worth, I’m still inhabiting mine, with mixed feelings.)

(Oh, and bear in mind that next month will be time for my annual 12 Days of Christmas Music series, so be sure to drop me a line if you have any suggestions. I mean, the Houston radio station that plays Christmas music started with it OVER A WEEK AGO SRSLY WTAF. But I digress.)

*****

Want to read more of my writing that’s already published? Click here for poetry, click here for urban fantasy, and click here for realistic flash fiction. You can also buy my books in Houston at Blue Willow Bookshop, and I hope you will!  🙂

Monday Earworm: Ani diFranco (I know, she’s one of my favorites…)

On By angeliquejamailIn Ani diFranco, Monday earworm, music, politics, votingLeave a comment

Tomorrow is Election Day. It’s not a presidential election year or even a Congressional mid-term, and so not a lot of people are likely to show up. When I early-voted last week (halfway through the early voting cycle), I was one of only 1.9% of the eligible voters in my district who had done so.

I cannot stress enough the importance of showing up and participating. Especially if you want change. Please.

If you know me, you know Ani diFranco is one of my very favorite artists, so you’ll get to see a fair bit of her on this blog when I feature music and poetry. This one is not only beautiful, it’s important.

Poem-A-Day: Ani diFranco (again)

On By angeliquejamailIn Ani diFranco, culture, music, National Poetry Month, Poem-A-Day, poetry, politicsLeave a comment

Here’s another poem-set-to-music by Ani diFranco. This one is from a live performance, possibly the same version as on her live double album Living In Clip (which is one of those take-with-me-if-I’m-stranded-on-a-deserted-island albums, by the way, so definitely check it out if you’re interested in hearing more of her music).

In “Not So Soft,” Ani takes on inequity.

Poem-A-Day: Ani diFranco

On By angeliquejamailIn Ani diFranco, anxiety, culture, music, National Poetry Month, Poem-A-Day, poetry, spoken word poetry2 Comments

So, the connection and crossover between poetry and song is storied and long. I think it was Paul Otremba, in a poetry workshop I was taking, who once suggested (and I’m paraphrasing) that if the song lyrics could stand on their own, if they didn’t need the experience of the music behind them to be meaningful or have an impact, they were probably also poetry. This seems like as wonderful an explanation as any I’ve ever heard about where these two forms overlap.

One of my favorite artists, without question, is the incomparable Ani diFranco. I love her work. Sometimes her albums (and her concerts) offer us a bit of spoken-word poetry, and because I’m keen to demonstrate that poetry comes to us in sometimes unexpected places and unexpected ways, tonight I’m sharing this song/poem of hers.

“Tamburitza Lingua” appears on the Reveling/Reckoning double album. It captures, adeptly, the existential angst of life in America at the apprehensive end of the last century and precarious dawning of this one, intertwined with the existential angst also of being a human of a particular mindset, age, and consciousness. I think you’ll understand this as you listen to the words, which are backed up deftly with a minimalist score that increases the feelings in the poem in an unexpectedly catchy, but never kitschy, way. (As a side note, a “tamburitza” is a mandolin-like instrument played in Slavic regions, and “lingua” means resembling or a part of a tongue.)

There are other videos of this song which are perhaps more interesting to watch, but I’m not really focused on that. This is a beautiful image, the lyrics show up like a moving poem over it, and the audio is good. Please to enjoy.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tamburitza+lingua&qpvt=tamburitza+lingua&view=detail&mid=608041E006FCCCF07D49608041E006FCCCF07D49&FORM=VRDGAR