Category: music

music

I listened to MUSIC

Rick Mc

When podcasts and then audio books arrived, I pretty much quit listening to music.

BUT when skiing on my own for 3 days, I downloaded offline copies of 100 favourite songs. It was a retro treat.

Of those, the ones that really worked fro me on the slopes included:

Good Old Days – Macklemore
Invisible – U2
I Write Sins Not Tragedies – Panic! at the Disco
Times Like These – Live Lounge Allstars
Mr. Brightside – The Killers
Not Ready to Make Nice – Chicks
Hate It or Love It – The Game, 50 Cent
Cleveland Rocks – Ian Hunter
Ahead By A Century – Tragically Hip
Bad Guy – Billie Elish feat. Justin Bieber
California – U2

Click PLAY or listen to it on YouTube. It’s about U2’s transformative first trip to California in the early 1980s.

ethics, human rights, music

Miley Cyrus – Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl”

Rick Mc

I’d say Miley Cyrus was musical artist of the year for me in 2020.

Fierce.

She decided on a punk Lesbian anthem for the uber-MACHO Super Bowl crowd, for example. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

“Rebel Girl“ is a song by American punk rock band Bikini Kill released 1993.

… emblematic of the riot grrrl movement of the 1990s. …

Riot grrrl bands often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, patriarchy, classism, anarchism and female empowerment. 

Click PLAY or watch one of the original artists’ versions on YouTube.

I was reminded of the song by Amy Poehler’s ‘Moxie’.

music

Tragically Hip – Ahead By A Century

Rick Mc

When people asks me to name THE Canadian band — I always reply The Tragically Hip.

They’re surprised as the Hip are not nearly the most famous act.

In fact, in 2020 three Canadians were listed top 10 downloaded.

But, for me, Tragically Hip was the quintessential Canadian band.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related – As an immigrant, I wanted to understand Canada’s fascination with the Tragically Hip. This is what I found

books, music

Gun Street Girl by Adrian McKinty

Rick Mc

McKinty is my favourite author of late.

Gun Street Girl the 4th (2015) in the Sean Duffy series.

Dark themes. Yet I laughed at something on nearly every page.

When Duffy grudgingly takes on a double murder case, he finds himself on the trail of a conspiracy which could cost him everything.

Belfast, 1985.

Gunrunners on the borders, riots in the cities, The Power of Love on the radio. And somehow, in the middle, Detective Inspector Sean Duffy is hanging on, a Catholic policeman in the hostile Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Click PLAY or watch the Tom Waits song from the same era on YouTube.