Marian Call will be spinnin' the discs for KRNN this Wednesday night for a couple of hours from 8pm PST (11pm EST).
She says she'll be playing "music by [her] favorite artists — several Alaskans, several utterly obscure artists, and a few very popular ones".
MC puts the work in 'quirk' and the cover in 'discovery' and the fun in 'latifundium'! So if you're so inclined and you've got the time, feel free to stream netwise at http://krnn.org/ .
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Silent Moon, Jia Peng Fang (賈鵬芳)
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If I still made mix tapes, this is the one I'd have made this year.
Supremes: My Christmas Tree.
Carla Thomas: Gee Whiz It's Christmas.
Darlene Love: Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).
Elvis Presley: Blue Christmas.
Mahalia Jackson: Silent Night.
Vince Guaraldi: Christmas Time Is Here.
Eartha Kitt: Santa Baby.
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan: Baby It's Cold Outside.
Roger Miller: Old Toy Trains.
Buck Owens: Christmas Ain't Christmas.
Joey Ramone: Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight).
Nat King Cole: The Christmas Song.
Feel free to play it. Sorry about the advertising.
I believe I first heard the advent hymn a solis ortus cardine in the 80s, when I was living just up the road from the Benedictine Abbey of S. Martin in Ligugé, France. The monks there were known for their chants, so I picked up their Chefs-d'oeuvre Grégoriens (on cassette tapes back then). It served well as a soundtrack for my quasi-total immersion in the middle ages.
Here's what Wikipedia offers about the song:
A solis ortus cardine … is a Latin poem by Coelius Sedulius (died circa 450), narrating Christ's life from His birth to His resurrection. Its 23 verses each begin with a consecutive letter of the alphabet, making the poem an Abecedarius…
The first seven verses, with a doxology verse by a different writer, were used from the early Middle Ages onwards as a Christmas hymn. They write of the striking contrast between the grandeur and omnipotence of the Word of God (the second person in the Holy Trinity) and the vulnerable humanity of the child in whom the Word became flesh.
Although I have a sentimental attachment to the version by the Choeur des Moines at L'Abbaye de Ligugé, I think this video by the Schola Gregoriana Monostorinensis in Transylvania presents the lovely melody at its best:
A solis ortus cardine
ad usque terrae limitem
Christum canamus principem,
natum Maria Virgine.
Beatus auctor saeculi
servile corpus induit,
ut carne carnem liberans
ne perderet quos condidit.
Caste parentis viscera
caelestis intrat gratia;
venter puellae baiulat
secreta quae non noverat.
Domus pudici pectoris
templum repente fit Dei;
intacta nesciens virum
verbo concepit Filium.
Enixa est puerpera
quem Gabriel praedixerat,
quem matris alvo gestiens
clausus Ioannes senserat.
Feno iacere pertulit,
praesepe non abhorruit,
parvoque lacte pastus est
per quem nec ales esurit.
Gaudet chorus caelestium
et angeli canunt Deum,
palamque fit pastoribus
Pastor, Creator omnium.
Gloria tibi, Domine
Qui natus est de virgine
cum Patre et Sancto Spiritu,
in sempiterna saecula.
Amen.
Marian Call has gone post-apocalyptic:
Addicted to good music?
Here's a link to the schedule of upcoming performances by Ana Vidovic. I've written of her persuasive charms before.
Do yourself and/or a loved one the favor. Seriously.
(Context is, of course, l'affaire Akin.)
… I've got to give away some music!
By supporting Marian Call's recent, very successful Kickstarter campaign/game/thing, I received some download codes for her albums. I already have her albums, so I'd like to give these codes to people who lack them and want them.
The albums are Vanilla (her first), Got To Fly (the Firefly/Galactica-inspired one), Songs of the Month Project (miscellaneous playful weirdness), and Something Fierce (her most recent, the double album).
I have one download code for each, and I'd like to give each to a different person. If you would like a download code for one of these albums, please send me an email message and name the album you prefer. Distribution is first come, first served by email time stamp. Please name exactly one title; I'd prefer not to go all Condorcet.
I'll edit this post when the codes have been claimed. My email address is david at popehat dot com.
Edit: outcomes:
Note: if you learn that your first request has already been claimed, please feel free to make a separate, second request for a different item. All gone!
Note #2: If you also received an extra download code during the Kickstarter and would like to find a good home for it, feel free to send it to me and I'll redistribute it to one of the people now flooding my inbox! 
Note #3: A kind donor followed the advice in Note #2, and more codes were redistributed as shown above.
Note #4: Another donor, another couple of album codes. Email me if you haven't yet received a treat and would like one.
Thanks to Leif S. and to Tom B. for making some of these available!
Time to deprecate the 88? Here's where old pianos go to die.
Nearly 365,000 were sold at the peak, in 1910, according to the National Piano Manufacturers Association. …In 2011, 41,000 were sold, along with 120,000 digital pianos and 1.1 million keyboards….
Just an update on our recent coverage of Marian Call's Adventure Quest. The indie songstress wanted to perform for her fans in Europe and turned her kickstarter into a Zelda-like game of unlocking countries and novelty songs (e.g., Lehrer's Elements, Muppet stuff), all with the goal of performing abroad and cutting a live album for supporters of the endeavor. (Follow the link for details.)
The kickstarter, which ends in about 12 hours, has garnered over 750 backers and just shy of $55k so far. This makes it possible for Marian to perform in England, Wales, Germany, Be/Ne/Lux, Austria, Ireland, Czech, and Switzerland. Scotland and Norway are on the brink of being unlocked as well, and if she exceeds $55k, Marian will be performing live at CERN (Particle Man by TMBG).
If you participated, thanks! This is art supported the new old fashioned way– by private patronage, individual gumption, and exploration of the new social graph.
Anoushka Shankar
By now we're all familiar, and rightly so, with Norah Jones. Song like Don't Know Why don't just make a splash; they leave an impression… or tear stains or a scar. I suppose most know, though some may have missed, that Norah is a daughter of sitar legend and World Heritage Site Ravi Shankar.
Less known, but well worth knowing, is the master's other daughter, the splendid and prodigiously talented sitar player Anoushka Shankar. He was, of course, her instructor and chief inspiration. Here they are together, she the padawan to his Yoda, in a charming mock lesson that grows more and more difficult:
That's a delight because of the backstory, but here's a beautiful video of Anoushka rocking the sitar hard as she and the brilliant tabla percussionist Tanmoy Bose drive their instruments to a satisfying musical climax:
In addition to being an ambitiously pure exponent of classical Indian music, Anoushka also aims her inquisitive musical creativity at various kinds of fusion. Thinking a gentle sitar/torchpop fusion featuring Anoushka and Norah would be the best thing ever? Ça existe! Here's the track Easy from Anoushka's album Breathing Underwater:
Soft and evocative.
Seeking to make good on a lifelong fascination, Anoushka fuses Indian with Flamenco on her latest album, Traveller (interview, Amazon). The result is rhythmically magnificent:
This is the work not only of skilled hands and performative savvy, but of a mind engaged deeply in the pursuit of that place where mastery, improvisation, calculation, and celebration converge. In the following brief interview, Anoushka provides a number of wonderful insights into this sort of creativity:
Enjoy!
Photo by Studio Valette, http://studiovalette.com
A Kickstarter quest! Back in 2010, with help from her many fans, the charmingly geeky Alaskan songstress Marian Call managed to pull off a tour of all 50 states and a dash of Canada. In the wake of her album Something Fierce, Marian is now aiming to play Europe.
She has the music. She has the armor and weaponry. She has the kickstarter video (see below). She has the adorably dorky Adventure Quest game by means of which the supporters of her kickstarter may unlock cities across Europe (i.e., bring her to them to play). She has a FAQ. She even has the publicly accessible thumbnail budget, whereby she establishes herself as the most open administration in history.
All she needs is support! The initial kickstarter amount takes her, and her guitarist, to England and Wales. Resources above that level unlock other countries, as shown on the game's map. Especially if you're a Popehat reader in Europe and a fan of Marian's work, please follow the links and see whether you'd like to play her game:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mariancall/marian-call-european-adventure-quest (The kickstarter)
http://www.mariancalladventurequest.com/ (The game, rulebook, loot inventory, and adventuring opportunities)
Longtime readers of Popehat may recall my coverage of Marian's music– especially her lyrics– here (shallow) and here (deep). I'll be supporting her quest, even though it means sending her far, far away to gives shows I won't attend. If you like her way of making, funding, spreading, and sharing art, then I invite you to join me!
Click to envidify!
1. Game of Thrones on HBO. We're several episodes behind. I'm savoring them.
2. The Abbado recording of The Magic Flute. I treated myself to buying a few recordings on iTunes before vacation, and chose this based on the Penguin Guide recommendation. On the one hand, I don't love the pacing — it's authentic, but a little jumpy for my taste. However, the voices are simply spectacular.
3. To End All Wars, a book about England in World War One. Two themes were well-portrayed and resonated. The first was how hubris and uncritical devotion to traditional tactics led to disaster. The second was how, in wartime, nominal critics of government will become uncritically pro-war to gain and maintain power.
4. Warlock: Master of the Arcane. I've been looking for a game in this genre as satisfying as 1994's Master of Magic since — well, since 1994. This, as far as I am concerned, is it.
5. The iPad. My precious.
6. Patron tequila.
7. The Bloggess' new book. She's like the result of a genetic experiment involving Dave Barry, Dorothy Parker, Erma Bombeck, David Sedaris, and [think of some writer who says "fuck" a whole lot]. Hilarious, and in consistently surprising ways. She's one of those writers who makes me say "I want to be a writer."
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May 6, 2013 
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