Welcome to the first Saturday Systematic X of 2007. Both "new" and "year" produced excessive numbers of songs, so instead, I present you these "flower" songs for the new year:
1. (Forgive Me) My Little Flower Princess, John Lennon
2. (Nothing But) Flowers, Talking Heads
3. Chad Gadya, Chava Alberstein
4. Flower Lady, Phil Ochs
5. Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall, Simon & Garfunkel
6. Flowers on the Wall, the Statler Brothers
7. San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair), Scott McKenzie
8. Wallflower, Bob Dylan
Explanation of the non-obvious entry: Chava Alberstein's "Chad Gadya" is from the album Crazy Flower. Oh, and the "open-parenthesis-is-before-a-in-the-alphabet-thing" is iTune's idea; I just copied it.
And before you ask, yeah, I've been told before that the Wallflowers (headlined by the son of the author of "Wallflower") are a good band, but I've never heard them. Any suggestions for a good album/song to start with? (Or any good "flower" songs I'm missing?)
As always, this is a meme: do it yourself (on "flower" or anything else), and leave a link in the comments.
***
In other news, I'm hoping that blog posting will now resume its more ordinary schedule. But I have a heavier-than-I've-ever-had-although-not-heavy-in-absolute-terms-I-suppose teaching schedule this term, so no promises.
Showing posts with label Saturday Systematic X. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saturday Systematic X. Show all posts
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Saturday Systematic X: Wait Edition
"If you want start a meme and stuff, you need to do it regularly."
-- apologies to Arlo Guthrie
-- apologies to Arlo Guthrie
With this whole Saturday Systematic X thing, not all words work equally well, of course. Typing "love" into my iTunes search box gets me -- unsurprisingly -- a huge number of results -- 128, in fact. No problem with that, I suppose, except that I don't feel like typing in 128 !@#$% entries. Similarly, typing in "night" got me 67 entries -- including every single song from the album A Hard Day's Night. (The iTunes search function searches not only title and but artist, album, and various other things too, I think.) Again, just too gorram many.
I suppose that, given the season, I should have made this a "Christmas" edition... but I only had three songs with "Christmas" in the title, and it didn't seem fun enough. (Yeah, only three: whadya want, I'm Jewish.)
So a certain selectivity is required. If the first one produces too many results (or too few), try again -- and wait until you get a manageable one, and blog that.
Like, for example, "wait", which produced a list of 15 songs -- a reasonable size. So, in alphabetical order by title, we have:
1. Awaiting On You All, George Harrison
2. Can't Wait, Bob Dylan
3. Crying, Waiting, Hoping, The Beatles
4. Groom's Still Waiting at the Alter, Bob Dylan
5. Jersey Girl, Bruce Springsteen
6. Just You Wait, Lerner & Lowe
7. Memories Can't Wait, Talking Heads
8. She's Waiting, Eric Clapton
9. Someone is Waiting, Stephen Sondheim
10. Wait, The Beatles
11. Waitin' on a Sunny Day, Bruce Springsteen
12. Waiting for a Girl Like You, Foreigner*
13. Waiting for the Big One, Peter Gabriel
14. Waiting for the End of the World, Elvis Costello
15. Waiting for the Sun, The Doors
A few notes: the Beatles rendition of "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" is from the Live at the BBC set that came out some years ago. (I actually once had the Buddy Holly version... but that was on cassette, and who listens to cassettes any more? I should get that again sometime.) And if you're wondering why "Jersey Girl" by Bruce Springsteen is on that list... it was actually written by Tom Waits.
As always, this is a meme: if you have an iPod and a blog (or the equivalents), do it for yourself, whether or not it's Saturday, either on the word "wait" or any other; report the results; and leave a link in the comments.
Also, what great "wait" songs am I missing? Anything I simply can't wait to get?**
_____________________
* I am so not going to apologize for this.
** I'm not going to apologize for that, either.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Saturday Systematic X: Wish Edition
To (rather loosely) paraphrase Arlo Guthrie, if you want start a meme and stuff, you need to do it regularly.
Last week I introduced the Saturday Systematic X, a variant on the blogosphere tradition of the Friday Random Ten. The basic idea, again, is this: instead hitting "random" on your iPod or equivalent, and blogging the first ten items, you type a word into the search box, and blog howevermany songs come up.
This week, the word is "wish". Rather to my surprise, I got a far shorter list than I did last week with "God"; instead of 17 songs, I only got 5:
1. I Wish You Would, The Yardbirds
2. I Wish You Wouldn't Say That, Talking Heads
3. More I Cannot Wish You, Frank Loesser
4. Wish I Could Stay, Joss Whedon
5. Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd
Given the tradition of the "wish song" in the musical, I suppose it's fitting that two of the five should be from musicals -- "More I Cannot Wish You" from Guys and Dolls, and "Wish I Could Stay" from the Bufy the Vampire Slayer musical episode... except that neither of those are traditional wish songs. Go figure.
Again, a fun list -- and a fun mix (not the same thing).
And, as before, this is a meme: if you have an iPod and a blog (or the equivalents), consider yourself tagged: do it for yourself -- either on the word "wish" or any other (and it doesn't have to be on Saturday) -- report the results... and don't forget to leave a link in the comments!
Last week I introduced the Saturday Systematic X, a variant on the blogosphere tradition of the Friday Random Ten. The basic idea, again, is this: instead hitting "random" on your iPod or equivalent, and blogging the first ten items, you type a word into the search box, and blog howevermany songs come up.
This week, the word is "wish". Rather to my surprise, I got a far shorter list than I did last week with "God"; instead of 17 songs, I only got 5:
1. I Wish You Would, The Yardbirds
2. I Wish You Wouldn't Say That, Talking Heads
3. More I Cannot Wish You, Frank Loesser
4. Wish I Could Stay, Joss Whedon
5. Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd
Given the tradition of the "wish song" in the musical, I suppose it's fitting that two of the five should be from musicals -- "More I Cannot Wish You" from Guys and Dolls, and "Wish I Could Stay" from the Bufy the Vampire Slayer musical episode... except that neither of those are traditional wish songs. Go figure.
Again, a fun list -- and a fun mix (not the same thing).
And, as before, this is a meme: if you have an iPod and a blog (or the equivalents), consider yourself tagged: do it for yourself -- either on the word "wish" or any other (and it doesn't have to be on Saturday) -- report the results... and don't forget to leave a link in the comments!
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Friday Saturday Random Systematic Ten X: God Edition
Variation on a theme.
There's a long-standing blogosphere tradition of a "Friday Random Ten" -- set your iPod to "random", read off the first ten items, and blog them. (I even participated once myself.) Then there are variations -- Fred Clark on Slacktivist has been doing systematic Friday tens for some time now, reading off an alphabetical selection of his iPod with titles like "Racing to Rapture", "Not Nothing" and "Mr. & Mrs.".
Well, here's a variation: the Saturday Systematic X. It's Saturday, not Friday*; it's systematic, not random, as I'll explain in a minute; and since the system determines the outcome, the number is a variable -- X -- rather than a set number like 10.
Here's how it goes. You pick a word, type that into the search box of iTunes or the equivalent, and read off the list of pieces that are included.
So for the first week -- for no particular reason -- I typed "god" into my search box, and got 17 items, which I here present in alphabetical order by title:
1. Chorus: Glory to God in the Highest, Handel
2. God, John Lennon
3. God Bless My S.U.V., The Capital Steps
4. God Give Me Strength, Elvis Costello
5. God is Love, Marvin Gaye
6. God Only Knows, The Beach Boys
7. God Part II, U2
8. God Save the Internet, The Broadband
9. Hand Of The Almighty! (God Will Fuck You Up), John R. Butler
10. Little Tin God, Don Henley
11. Part 2: Chorus: Behold the L, Handel
12. Ravel:Ma mère l'Oye (4hands)/3: Laideronnette, imperatrice des pagodes, Ravel
13. The Messiah, Part 28. Chorus: He Trusted in God, Handel
14. The Messiah, Part 35. Chorus: Let all the Angels of God Worship Him, Handel
15. The Messiah, Part 51. Chorus: But Thanks Be to God, Handel
16. The Messiah, Part 52. Air(Contralt): If God be for us, Handel
17. With God On Our Side, Bob Dylan
It's systematic, since it depends on entering a word... but it's also random in lots of ways, of course. Not the least is that which items come up are a bit random, since they depend on how the titles were entered -- which in my case was frequently done by that automatic function in iTunes that looks at a CD and figures out the title -- often differently for different disks in a set (e.g. Handel's Messiah above), which I never bother to correct; I have copied them as is above, with all the variations intact). So, for example, Joan Osborne's "One of Us" was entered just as that and not as Joan Osborne, "(What if God Was) One of Us" -- which is how it's listed on the album cover, I think -- and thus doesn't show up. And I love that Ravel shows up for "des pagodes" -- the pagodas -- where, if only alphabetically speaking, God dwells.
Still, a fun list. At least I thought so. A lot of Handel.
It does make a damn strange mix to play (I've been playing it, in random order, as I write this), what with the leaps from song-structured music to snippets of classical music. But I sort of like it.
I may even do this again.
And now this is a meme: if you have an iPod (or the equivalent) and a blog (ditto), consider yourself tagged: do it yourself -- either on the word "god" or any other -- and report the results. (It doesn't have to be on Saturday -- whenever you read this, you're tagged!) And leave a link in the comments!
____________________________
* Not for any interesting reason, or even for the alliteration, but because I just thought of it today.
There's a long-standing blogosphere tradition of a "Friday Random Ten" -- set your iPod to "random", read off the first ten items, and blog them. (I even participated once myself.) Then there are variations -- Fred Clark on Slacktivist has been doing systematic Friday tens for some time now, reading off an alphabetical selection of his iPod with titles like "Racing to Rapture", "Not Nothing" and "Mr. & Mrs.".
Well, here's a variation: the Saturday Systematic X. It's Saturday, not Friday*; it's systematic, not random, as I'll explain in a minute; and since the system determines the outcome, the number is a variable -- X -- rather than a set number like 10.
Here's how it goes. You pick a word, type that into the search box of iTunes or the equivalent, and read off the list of pieces that are included.
So for the first week -- for no particular reason -- I typed "god" into my search box, and got 17 items, which I here present in alphabetical order by title:
1. Chorus: Glory to God in the Highest, Handel
2. God, John Lennon
3. God Bless My S.U.V., The Capital Steps
4. God Give Me Strength, Elvis Costello
5. God is Love, Marvin Gaye
6. God Only Knows, The Beach Boys
7. God Part II, U2
8. God Save the Internet, The Broadband
9. Hand Of The Almighty! (God Will Fuck You Up), John R. Butler
10. Little Tin God, Don Henley
11. Part 2: Chorus: Behold the L, Handel
12. Ravel:Ma mère l'Oye (4hands)/3: Laideronnette, imperatrice des pagodes, Ravel
13. The Messiah, Part 28. Chorus: He Trusted in God, Handel
14. The Messiah, Part 35. Chorus: Let all the Angels of God Worship Him, Handel
15. The Messiah, Part 51. Chorus: But Thanks Be to God, Handel
16. The Messiah, Part 52. Air(Contralt): If God be for us, Handel
17. With God On Our Side, Bob Dylan
It's systematic, since it depends on entering a word... but it's also random in lots of ways, of course. Not the least is that which items come up are a bit random, since they depend on how the titles were entered -- which in my case was frequently done by that automatic function in iTunes that looks at a CD and figures out the title -- often differently for different disks in a set (e.g. Handel's Messiah above), which I never bother to correct; I have copied them as is above, with all the variations intact). So, for example, Joan Osborne's "One of Us" was entered just as that and not as Joan Osborne, "(What if God Was) One of Us" -- which is how it's listed on the album cover, I think -- and thus doesn't show up. And I love that Ravel shows up for "des pagodes" -- the pagodas -- where, if only alphabetically speaking, God dwells.
Still, a fun list. At least I thought so. A lot of Handel.
It does make a damn strange mix to play (I've been playing it, in random order, as I write this), what with the leaps from song-structured music to snippets of classical music. But I sort of like it.
I may even do this again.
And now this is a meme: if you have an iPod (or the equivalent) and a blog (ditto), consider yourself tagged: do it yourself -- either on the word "god" or any other -- and report the results. (It doesn't have to be on Saturday -- whenever you read this, you're tagged!) And leave a link in the comments!
____________________________
* Not for any interesting reason, or even for the alliteration, but because I just thought of it today.
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