"The Morning Hour": The Jam, Beat Surrender

you wake up, it's sunny. you get out of the house, and tiny drops of rain are getting onto your face while you ride to work. It is what it is, you know what it is!

but today I don't care, last night I got great news! Nothing big, nothing major, but it makes me very happy and blows new energy into my veins. Too soon to say more...

enjoy the video, let your feet move and follow the tune, surrender to the beat!

You'll see me come runnin
To the sound of your strummin'
Fill my heart with joy and gladness
I've lived too long in shadows of sadness

"The Morning Hour": Elbow, One Day Like This

When the idea of "The Morning Hour" started it was meant to include music, words and photos. It was, basically, a way to link three media I'm keen into around the same entity. To help me decide the single song/theme each time, I turned to my alarm and "outsourced" the service.

Words are fast, YouTube is even faster, my eye, my mind and my camera couldn't keep up. Hence I've been writing and posting about each song (almost) every day, while taking some more time to shoot the pictures.

When I heard this song today coming out of the radio, I looked out - it was a brilliant morning, I smiled - I finally had a photo to post with the song! The song has been one of the first to feature in the project and, I remember, came out a few weeks ago in another shining sunny day.

Here is the picture, my own personal way to look at this song, to its melody and its lyrics, to the mood it puts me in whenever I listen to it.



I don't know where the project will end up, but I'm enjoying it. Taking beautiful photos by capturing moments that life offers to us is a tough task, building an idea, looking at ways to implement it through the lens and getting a satisfactory final results is proving to be a daunting one!
But I'm taking up the challenge!

"The Morning Hour": The Killers, The World We Live In

a few days ago I wrote about pushing an elephant... well, I came back from a long weekend in a rainy and turbulent Italy, the elephant was running all the way back against me... what a stampede...

I'm honestly short of words tonight, I'm watching Coffee and Cigarette for the second time in a row to keep me awake but I'm not doing that great. Luckily, there's a great bit with Bill Murray as a coffee junkie, that's just incredible.

"The Morning Hour": Cold War Kids, Hospital Beds

I'm pretty sure the first words I heard today from the radio were "Cheese sandwich", that at 7am in the morning are particularly suited for a sprint waking up. What's more strange is that the first thing I thought then was "Red Wine" and so I started humming "Red Wine, Success" from the Cold War Kids.

Though, since I got to pick, for the morning I went for Hospital Beds, my favourite song from their first album.
The song has a story, it is a story from the deep American country; from places miles away from the jet set, from the golden beaches of the West Coast and the Ivy League schools of the East. I can picture it through the photos of Robert Frank, through the gas stations of Ed Ruscha, through the pages of John Fante. Real people, daily problems, dull lives- but still worth a story!

"The Morning Hour- Double Bill": Travis, Driftwood and Duffy, Mercy

It might be the spring, the April laziness that comes along with the sunny and warm days; it might be the stampede of overdue work and projects that is overwhelming me, but in the last few days I'm not "functioning" properly.
It takes me ages to do simple things and I get easily distracted.
I feel like I'm pushing an elephant around.

Today's a double bill: Travis is yesterday's song, Duffy's from this morning.

Driftwood is a great song, from a few years back but always spot on. I think I'll go back in time today and listen to "Good Feeling", their first album, really really different from anything else they have done ever since.

Duffy... don't like her. Catchy tunes but it seems to me she's trying too hard to emulate something from the past, something that's not of our times and it seems fake to me. Maybe it's my mood... poor girl, I'm being very harsh with her...

Here's Travis


Here's Duffy

"The Band's Visit", ending track and theme song.

A wonderful example of how two clashing worlds, divided by a concrete wall (that's becoming an open-air art gallery by the day) can meet somewhere in the middle and create a beautiful thing.

A bittersweet story with a touch of irony and pure comedy. Lives that meet in the middle of nowhere, in the dullest of the days and in a place that only has slight human resemblances ("No culture. No Israeli culture, not Arab... no culture at all"). Nevertheless, from their clashing, an incredible sweetness bursts off; human stories intertwine, the music begins.

"Do you like Chet Baker?"
"Who?"




the trailer as well..

Devendra Banhart, Little Yellow Spider

I've gotta a new friend, a little yellow spider; only exchanged a few words, the right ones. sometimes you don't need that much to find some magic around.


One, two, three, four

Little yellow spider, laughing at the snow
Ah, maybe that spider knows something that I don't know
'Cause I'm goddamn cold

Little white monkey, staring at the sand
Well, maybe that monkey figured out something I couldn't understand
Who knows?

Well, I came upon a dancing crab, and I stopped to watch it shake
I said, "Dance for me just one more time
Before you hibernate and you come out a crab cake"

Hey there, little snapping turtle, snapping at a shell
Ah, there's mysteries inside, I know
But what they are I just can't tell for sure

And hey ya, little baby crow, you're looking kinda mean
I think I outta spit before you start letting off your steam
For sure

And hey there, little sexy pig, you made it with a man
And you're got a little kid with hooves instead of hands

And oh, all the animals
All the animals

And hey there, little mockingbird, they sing about you in songs
Ah, where you been? Have you broke a wing?
I haven't heard you in so long

And hey there, little albatross, swimming in the air
Ah c'mon, you know I can't fly
And I, I think we really outta play fair

And hey there, Mr. happy squid, you move so psychadelically
You hypnotize with your magic dance all the animals in the sea
For sure

And oh, all the animals
All the animals

And hey there, Mr. morning sun, what kind of creature are you?
I can't stare, but I know you're there
Goddamn, how I wish I knew

And hey there, Mrs. lovely moon, you're lonely and you're blue
It's kinda strange, the way you change
But then again, we all do too

"The Morning Hour": Sheryl Crow, All I Wanna Do

This ain't no country club, ain't no disco.

A spring break song today and Sheryl Crow again, in curious skinny jeans- star&striped butt.

Weather-wise, we are back to february again, and while a few morons on tv keep clapping their hands for the CNBC anniversary (a few youtube videos show how useless such a tv channel has proved to be in the years), a good and healthy thought is that it's friday afternoon and 6pm are fast approaching- ok, they could be faster...

There's some work waiting for me this weekend and I think I'll keep listening to this song just to keep up with it! It's also going to be a Garrett Pierce weekend, I hope he bodes well with photo-editing because I'd really need to pull up a few rabbits from the hat. Hoping for the best!

"The Morning Hour": U2, Magnificient

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

A different start to the post today. Just yeasterday I was day-dreaming about spring time in Italy while looking out of the window onto a decent day in London. Maybe the town felt it wasn't fair, so today we woke up here in a grey and misty day, that it has now turned into a pale sunshine. Anyway, this is the sky we found once back here on Monday... we blame the English weather a lot, sometimes it's not so bad afterall.

This U2 song makes the morning hour for the second time- it's pleasant for a wake up tune and quite catchy. I don't want to write more about it or the band as i'd like to keep this post on the positive (sunny) side... I've picked the video with the album cover, as it's a beautiful photo from a Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Going for an intense afternoon and evening, good things might come today, let's hope for the best!

"The Morning Hour": Franz Ferdinand, Ulysses

This brings me a few years back: Franz Ferdinand were indeed my first ever article on the web, for Yellow Submarine on OraD'Aria. That was also my first year in London with Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight and The Killers being its soundtrack.
It was a rather new music for me back then, I'd been listening to a lot of Brit Pop while I was in Italy and got stuck for a while on Coldplay as an almost natural evolution of the Oasis, Blur, Radiohead years... I still remember the first sentence of that first article "Il vento fresco arriva dalla lontana Glasgow, scende giu' sul sud dell'Inghilterra per divenire uragano e infiammare la capitale, veste con gusto ed eleganza anni '30, sale sul palco in camicia di raso e cravatta, pantalone con la piega e stivaletto, ma ha un'unica missione: divertirsi e far scatenare il pubblico."
The change of rithm and the beat of Take Me Out is still one of my favourite tune ever!

For me it was actually just like that, new town, new music scene, new rithm. This was all I thought this morning as my sleeping ears cought the new song from Franz Ferdinand. The four Scots (or sort of) seem back to their basics, at least for me. I'm not a fan of their second album, but the first two songs of their last one and the white shoes Alex is wearing in this video are promising.


Anyway, I'm back in London after 4 days of Italian spring- jeez, I'm getting more and more homesick by the year, and this worsen a lot with the summer approaching... when, while on that side Ferruccio Tagliavini sings "Voglio Vivere cosi' col sole in fronte", here we have Travis with "Why does it always rain on me".

For the curious (and Italian friendly) ones, here is the link to OraD'Aria http://xoomer.virgilio.it/oradaria/archivio/Giallo-franzferdinand

"From Texas": The Moody Blues, Tuesday Afternoon

I was watching TV and suddenly, during the commercial for Visa's Check Card, a particular sound caught my attention. It was the beginning of an absolutely amazing song I’d never heard before.
I couldn’t recognize the band and I didn’t understand the words (so I couldn’t look for it on the web), so I had to ask to an American friend of mine for a suggestion.

The song is “Tuesday Afternoon”, composed by the British band The Moody Blues in 1968 (on the album this song was listed as “The Afternoon: Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)", at the insistence of the producer).
The Moody Blues were born as a blues band, but after the introduction of orchestral arrangements and the tones of mellotron, they set the stage for the progressive rock movement.
In fact the strange sound I was listening to was produced by the “mellotron”, an electronic keyboard invented some years earlier.

This band composed the only song by them I knew: “Nights in White Satin”, of which the Italian band I Nomadi performed a cover called “Ho difeso il mio amore”.

According to an interview with Justin Hayward, he wrote "Tuesday Afternoon" while sitting in the middle of a field near his home in England on a beautiful spring afternoon. He claims that he had his acoustic guitar in hand and the song just came to him.

The use of mellotron fits the poetry of the lyrics and the daydreaming atmosphere and it’s like getting captured in this fantastic and relaxing world, a place where you can find your peace of mind.
Was the writer under the effects of any drugs or does this song reflect the habits of that period? In the 60’s and 70’s the use of hallucinogens and psychedelic drugs became a very popular means to find a new realty and to reach the truth.

“I'm just beginning to see, now I'm on my way
...
Something, calls to me,
The trees are drawing me near, I've got to find out why?
Those gentle voices I hear, explain it all with a sigh.”

"The Morning Hour": Sheryl Crow, If It Makes You Happy

today i'm short of sleep, short of time and short of words... hence just enjoy the video.

I'll add one thing though, on Radio Prosecco you can now register your email and receive the posts once a day (if there are new ones) in your inbox... just a thought for the interested but lazy ones..

have a g'day!

"The Morning Hour": The Beatles, Day Tripper

It wasn't a song or the raucous voice of the dj that woke me up today. It was a whisper in my ears, from a very familiar voice, while my eyes were still shut: Ti amo.
With such a start, this needs to be a great day!
It follows almost naturally that, unawarely, she picked the song for the morning hour today... she picked The Beatles (I could see that coming...) and a song that we actually had been singing (her)/humming (me) a few days ago within a driving-related-Beatles-songs theme. Drive me car, One ticket to ride, Day Tripper, Get back.
We went on debating the meaning of this song, what actually it means to be a daytripper and which way out John is singing about... we didn't finish it, so no final word on it yet! We also listened to more Beatles song while having breakfast, hence the morning hour today has more than 1 video as usual.

I need some positive vibes today for some creative work... it'd really better be a dam good day!

"The Morning Hour": Red Hot Chili Peppers, Give It Away

"The Morning Hour": Red Hot Chili Peppers, Give It Away
i guess this is the first time since I've been writing down The Morning Hour that a song is completely out of tune with my day and my mood; ah no, there's been a November Rain listened at 5am one morning.
Give It Away is the RHCP at their best, it's groovy, it's funky and very upbeat; but today I really can't listen to it.
The earthquake in Italy has proven to be much worst than a number on the Richter scale could indicate, and each single story from a victim makes that number even more meaningless.
There's a bright point in all this tragedy though: solidariety. The country, and the web actually, have mobilitated in no time with different ideas and ways to help, from money to blood, from blankets to a roof. It's great to see that Facebook users, among the thousands "doubtfully-useful" tests are also taking the time to carry messages in support of the victims or to raise money. At least, a glimpse of light!

"The Morning Hour": Stereophonics, Maybe Tomorrow

today's pick is a bit of a cheat; the real morning hour song was Lily Allen's The Fear, again! As per Monday and Friday of last week. Now, I wrote that the song is brilliant... but I cannot write about it every single day! So I stayed in bed and waited for the next one...
Maybe Tomorrow was one of my favourite songs during the first months in London, a few years back- hence I thought today was going to be a good day. Unfortunately as I launched Firefox while sipping the coffee, the news from the earthquake in Italy hit me. Luckily, none of my relatives has been affected, and the only friend from the region is safe, as it's her family. Though, when a region close to home looks like a scrap yard and among the scrap you can see people... all the rest seems trivial and it's difficult to focus on the small things that make my everyday's life. I hope things don't get worst than they are (and look) right now in Abbruzzo.

Gabriele D'Annunzio
Alcyone, Sogni di terre lontane
I PASTORI

Settembre, andiamo. E' tempo di migrare.
Ora in terra d'Abruzzi i miei pastori
lascian gli stazzi e vanno verso il mare:
scendono all'Adriatico selvaggio
che verde è come i pascoli dei monti.

Han bevuto profondamente ai fonti
alpestri, che sapor d'acqua natía
rimanga ne' cuori esuli a conforto,
che lungo illuda la lor sete in via.
Rinnovato hanno verga d'avellano.

E vanno pel tratturo antico al piano,
quasi per un erbal fiume silente,
su le vestigia degli antichi padri.
O voce di colui che primamente
conosce il tremolar della marina!

Ora lungh'esso il litoral cammina
la greggia. Senza mutamento è l'aria.
il sole imbionda sì la viva lana
che quasi dalla sabbia non divaria.
Isciacquío, calpestío, dolci romori.

Ah perché non son io cò miei pastori?

"The Morning Hour": Stealers Wheel, Stuck in the Middle with You

I woke up with a classic tune today, well, it's classic here as you can hear it often in the pubs and become accustumed with it despite, in my case, ignoring completely who's singing it and how it's become so popular in the years. In my playlist, it sits along "I will walk 500 miles" (also known by its official name "I'm gonna be") by The Proclaimers, and "Weather with You" by Crowded House. These are the songs that can bring together a whole pub in a second, strangers singing together and smiling at each other- an arcane mystery for some foreigner who has heard those songs only a couple of times in his/her life on the radio.

It's day 2 of the G20 and I'm still trying to figure out what all of this means for the town that is hosting it and, coincidentally, is hosting me as well.
i went to the demonstrations yesterday night. Not so much to protest but more to witness the moment since it's all over the media and so close to my house, and take some pictures (though i forgot to put a new memory card in...). Well, the demo was in line with what i was expecting, lots of people of different sorts shouting and holding banners, tightly guarded by the police in riot gear (i guess the open face policy of the morning had to give up to a tougher stance once the protesters became too "energetic").
What really struck me is what i didn't see... less than 50 meters far from the shouting crowd, people were watching the England game in the pub, the news stand was selling the mags with the pictures of the morning clashes, and the Terravision guy was selling the tickets for the shuttle coach to and from Stansted Airport. Everything very normal, everything so smooth and ordinary, but for the amount of police around and the helicopter constantly flying over my head. Not even debris in the street...
It was probably a matter of expectations after having watched the news all day about the riots and the excitement, the mob and the police, smashed windows and dressed up people- or maybe it was that i didn't manage to get close to the "action".
oh well, I'll leave it like that.

here are the pictures from Trafalgar Square, 15 minutes before the rally.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gianleo/sets/72157616165602061/

and here is the video:

"The Morning Hour": MGMT, Kids

It's G20 today and I'm writing from the office before going to lunch- here everything is quiet, there's a generous sun shining over Central London, making the day pretty bright.

Over a couple of miles east though, the sky is now red with tear-gas and everything is a mess. thousands of people are protesting and the police is there in massive force. The pickle, for me, is... "it's the same city and, nonetheless, without tv, radio, internet you could live your day not noticing it at all. I guess it's a compliment to the London police to allow both protest and normal life at the same time- or it's just that this town is so big that each area can live a different life of its own.

Though... my feet are itchy and i want to see... I guess i'll go there after work today and shoot pictures at what is left. At the moment i can see on tv that for each protester there are at least 5 cameras shooting him... one guy went down while fighting with the police and got surrounded...hemm by photographers!

i'll close the post today with the best chant i've heard from the protests "MAKE LOVE NOT LEVERAGE"

"The Morning Hour": The Killers, Mr Brightside

It feels a bit strange to be writing The Morning Hour in the deep of the night... just a few hours before the next song will play and wake my ears to a new day... it feels also strange to be writing about a song and a group on which I wrote a lengthy article back in 2005, when I had the music column of OraD'Aria- good old groovy times! Closing the day on a slightly sad note... the link to my articles there seems to be out of order... bollocks!

the eyelids are getting heavier and the fingers more uncertain on the keyboard.. wrap it up man!

I've picked this acoustic version as I thought it may sound new to a few ones- I personally prefer the original version, it's punchier and the beat supports much better the panic mode of the average guy who finds out his girlfriend has been screwing somebody...

g'night!