Most of the Time, Ani Di Franco

last night she picked one of my all times favourites movies, High Fidelity... it features Bob Dylan's Most of the Time, but Ani Di Franco's is her favourite version, I guess for the beginning: "It's serious shit now, I've got the banjo out!"

To a night well saved...!

Florence and the Machine, Dog Days Are Over - Taken by the Trees, Lost and Found

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run



I took myself out walking
by the evening I was running
I hadn't done this for a long while
My friends said cheer up
it was high time

Tom Waits, Jean Michel Basquiat and the Swagman

it's been a while, such a while... almost three months... it seems ages... well, I'm certainly a few years older since then, consumed to say the least, a feeling similar to Waits' sand paper vocal cords, rusty, painfully deep and haunting.

A lot has changed, but nothing was planned and, ultimately, the real change won't happen this time either.

The last post had Tom Waits in; it's only fair to start again (!) with Tom Waits. This song is part of the soundtrack of Basquiat, a decent movie - not completely original and daring though (it has actually a scene identical to Pollock, with the artist painting the canvas on the floor and walking all over it).
The soundtrack is good though, actually very good. Tom Traubert's Blues accompanies Basquiat in a nightwalk the day he's told Andy Warhol is dead; it also features bits of "A Walzing Matilda", the most popular (I've been just told) Aussie folk song, that features the Swagman, the foot traveller looking for work and going from farm to farm.

Well, I'm not going anywhere with this, but it's use(less)ful information; a bit like those British quiz programs...

"The Morning Hour": Tom Waits and Daniele Silvestri

the one i went to sleep with...




I've listened to Tom Waits a few times in the past, i actually had a couple of his albums once. It never clicked though, as it clicked last night while Alice was on Lifegate Radio. I just got blown away by his rusty voice, it can tear you apart if you get too close.


and the one i woke up with...

Late-Night Audio: The Jam - 'Down in a Tube Station at Midnight"

The Jam is awesome. Nuff said.

"The Morning Hour": Dente, Vieni a Vivere

A few months ago I wrote something along these lines "Waking alone in the morning sucks". I still stand by it.

And it's kind of bitter-sweet that the album i've been listening to in a loop for the past 3 days is called "L'amore non e' bello".

A few reasons to watch the video:
it's shot in Venice
features a polaroid camera and polaroid stills
Dente's hair and tie

Something tells me that tomorrow's song will be Quel Mazzolino, my new alter ego. Thanks to Agatella and her dentisms, who started this all madness.

G'day!

"The Morning Hour": Jacksons 5, Don't Know Why I Love You

This is not a proper Morning Hour song, but to tell you the truth... that's true for most of the songs that I've uploaded lately, let's say I'm broadening a bit the concept of the Morning Hour...

anyway, this is the song we heard when we got into the pub for the preview of Paint It White, the photographic show I've taken part and that opened with a bang last night. The party was great and I'm still hooked up on the adrenaline of seeing a lot of people looking at my work on the wall and liking it. A few friends came all the way to Shoreditch for the party and, have to say, that's flattening!

Late-Night Audio: Erasure - "A Little Respect"

I like Erasure a bit more than I should. They don't even have the best songwriter from Depeche Mode. Still, if you want to listen to melodramatic-yet-uptempo synthpop, Erasure's your band. Their songs are ridiculously catchy. I have a tendency to sing material from this group's catalogue to myself when no one's listening. I did a pretty killer version of this song at a karaoke party once.

(No, I am not into the Pet Shop Boys. Neil Tennant sounds like a whiny hamster.)

Late-Night Audio: The Jacksons - "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)"

Everyone remembers the early Motown hits ("I Want You Back", "ABC", "I'll Be There", etc.). In comparison, the Jacksons' late-70s funk masterpieces are unjustly overlooked. This is from the album Destiny, and suffice it to say, if you like Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, you should get that record. Especially since the album version of this song is over seven minutes long, and totally justifies that length.

"The Morning Hour": Ivano Fossati, Panama

Most of the time, the UK is one hour apart from Continental Europe.
There are moments though, when a less-than-2-hours flight can bring you ahead a few months... namely, from August to November. Looking out of the window these days, it's really hard to think that not far from here and only two days ago, August means 35 degrees, hard sun flattening all the shadows to the ground, slow walking and mosquitoes (jeez, I'm even missing them!). The sky here is shining with silver clouds these days, the air is not cold but is definitely not hot and, above all, the feeling is that summer is way behind us, back to work, back to long sleeves, back to planning life.

The song here is, beyond the shocking look to Italian fashion in the 80's, a postcard from my holidays. Fossati is singing Panama and I see French roads again, yellow patches of sunflower fields and red cherries in my hands. I'm again swimming in the hot dry air, letting my body breathe, slowly.