just what the world needs, another 80's mix, but here it is. i've realized in the past three years or so that the vast majority of the music i listen to is from the 90's or later. i suppose this isn't too unusual; or maybe it is? in any case originally i'd intended to make a "pre-90's" mix to collect all the pre-90's songs that i do love, but as i got into it i was using more and more 80's songs until eventually i decided to focus on that. (i'm going to have to start doing research on the 60's and 70's.) i think in a lot of people's minds the 80's is very campy and cliche, but as i worked on the mix i realized there was a lot to enjoy and a lot that's very worthwhile even today. (for no particular reason, "human" is a track that hits me right in the gut, much like "what becomes of the broken-hearted". i find the synths (and vocals) on that track to be really warm despite the surface cheesiness. i know i'm a sap.) my first self-imposed limitation was to focus on the 80's synth/drum pads sound, thus ruling out some of my favorite people who were active in the 80's like the cure and the smiths. but w/in that limitation i found there were still many, many diff types of 80's music. there were a lot of tracks that were complete one-hit wonders. those inevitably get the emphasis on many an 80's compilation, so i decided to restrain myself and only include a few. i found songs that i'd completely forgotten about, but i tried to focus on ones that i enjoy outside of that incredibly powerful nostalgia factor. then there were people who worked in the 80's idiom but had been doing and later did a lot of other things as well. for ex, the kate bush track sounds very 80's but on that same album are many tracks that aren't at all. and of course joni has worked in many, many idioms. also, the track from the musical chess totally sounds like an ABBA track to me, and they were around long before the 80's. "wake me up before you go-go" would've been another good choice b/c it totally sounds like a motown track (even has similar chords to "heatwave"), but i decided not to include it. i guess the rest of the tracks are single tracks that i've come across (usu. courtesy of andy haha) or random bands that i've gotten to know through chance. for the latter i mostly tried to pick slightly more obscure tracks (e.g. the devo and talking heads tracks, the latter of which is one of my fav talking heads tracks ever). one thing that really amazes me is when you hear a song that "everyone" knows, and you sit down and listen to it carefully and realize what an incredible piece of work it is. in particular i'm thinking of "like a prayer". it's so cliche, but the arrangement is simply amazing. one of the few uses of a gospel choir in pop music that actually -works-. and madonna has almost never sounded better as on that track. okay that was prob. too much info. a few more comments: i included the track by carl's bro, daniel, to show that the 80's sound is still much alive today (erasure just put out an album this week). plus it's a great track that i've been trying to put on a mix for a while. also, i have to say that tori's failed 80's album is one of my favorite albums of hers (and much better than her newest imo), although i suppose many would disagree. lastly, while i was thinking about one of my fav 80's tracks, a-ha's take on me, i watched the video for the first time. it's really great (and the guy's kind of cute); def. worth looking up. --- now i'm dancing: 80's mix 1/28/05 1 devo . freedom of choice (1980) . cold war 2 michael jackson . thriller (1982) . billie jean 3 kate bush . the dreaming (1982) . sat in your lap 4 prince . 1999 (1982) . lady cab driver [edited] 5 talking heads . speaking in tongues (1983) . this must be the place (naive melody) 6 shannon . party monster (soundtrack) (1984) . give me tonight 7 deniece williams . footloose (soundtrack) (1984) . let's hear it for the boy 8 arthur russell . calling out of context (c. 1985?) . make 1, 2 9 scritti politti . cupid & psyche 85 (1985) . perfect way 10 joni mitchell . dog eat dog (1985) . lucky girl 11 erasure . wonderland (1986) . heavenly action 12 elaine paige, ulvaeus and andersson/rice . chess (1986 london concept cast) . the american and florence (nobody's side) [edited] 13 human league . crash (1986) . human 14 y kant tori read . self-titled (1988) . on the boundary 15 billy ocean . tear down these walls (1988) . get outta my dreams, get into my car 16 carly simon . working girl (soundtrack) (1989) . let the river run 17 big audio dynamite . megatop phoenix (1989) . 80 ways around the girl 18 madonna . like a prayer (1989) . like a prayer 19 daniel tashian . young love (c. 2003) . lifestyle close but rejected: wham! . make it big (1984) . wake me up before you go-go rick astley . whenever you need somebody (1987) . together forever new order . technique (1989) . fine time dirty dancing (soundtrack) . i've had the time of my life

andy and i went to croma a couple of days ago; i think it's relatively new. all in all it was about what i expected: average but inoffensive. andy started w/ the tomato/mozzarella and i had the baked mushrooms with garlic butter, arugula, and parmesan. like the spinach pizza we had for an entree, everything was quite bland. is this a new thing? we went to sonsie a couple of months ago (in a temporary fit of insanity otherwise known as it was cold and we didn't want to go far for non-ethnic food in the back bay) and both the pasta dishes we got from there were also extremely bland. or maybe our taste buds are just going in our old age. in any case, the english toffee pudding (a la mode) was better, although again not incredible. the ambience was okay: brick, white tiles, overall not particularly inviting. our waitress wasn't bad, though. for this type of place i'd have to go w/ cambridge, 1 in harvard sq, even though it doesn't bowl me over either. still, all in all i guess a half-decent, mid-range restaurant in the back bay is better than nothing. side note: the reviews on croma's website strongly reinforce my already firm distrust of every boston publications' food reviews. i never did get around to posting on winnie and my blog about lala rokh. i'm going to have to agree w/ winnie on this: what is the hype about? overpriced and two-dimensional. i know i say that about a lot of places, but it's true. i'm of the opinion that ethnic places particularly have to justify inflated prices more so than french or italian-based restaurants. i mean, for c. $15 for a spinach and kidney beans stew it had better be more interesting than just spinach and kidney beans thrown into a pot of water w/ some salt. and it wasn't. while i'm on the topic, the helmand (near the cambridgeside gallery) was also overhyped for me. it was okay, but not much more interesting than your average decent indian restaurant.

i love it when you find an album that makes you perk your ears up from the other side of the room. my fanhood of joni mitchell has been growing steadily for the past 6 years or so (blue is in my top 20 all-time fav albums), but i've gotten to the point where i'm starting to have to reach for the more obscure stuff. dog eat dog is one of the albums she did in the 80's, and it's been unjustly panned b/c joni unabashedly turned her back on acoustic guitars and used all the slick, totally 80's sounds. i can imagine a lot of 80's music can sound coldly synthetic, but this album, despite the occasional stentorian soapbox ranting and a few mumbled lyrics, is quite moving and sounds lovingly crafted. one of my fav tracks is "lucky girl", that's simply lovely, 80's and jazzy (!). i love this lyric: Wise guys Shy guys And sly lover boys With big bad bedroom eyes ... I never loved a man I trusted As far as I could pitch my shoe 'Til I loved you joni's def. one of those songwriters who shine no matter what medium they're writing in. i have to say i like this album better than some of the more famous ones, like court and spark (zz).

three of the best music videos i've seen recently: bjork: who is it (real video) from medulla junior senior: move your feet (real video/windows media player) from d-d-don't don't stop the beat | quicktime cat power: he war (real video) from you are free

my first mix of the new year (whoo!). this mix of classical vocal music is actually the 2nd i've made of the kind. i made the first one in high school and it had a similar mix of art songs, arias, scenes, and miscellany (and even a bit of recitative). i've been wanting to make a 2nd ever since. for this mix i again consciously included a mix of solo male and female tracks, and a duet, a couple of trios, a quartet, and a few choral tracks, as well as a more or less even mix of the principle languages (english, italian, french, and german) and representation of the giants (verdi, rossini, mozart, puccini, and britten). after i picked the tracks i wanted for this one i realized that the selection this time ended up being in general more downbeat than my first mix (comes from my older, more cynical point of view i suppose). there's a serene, somewhat pastoral feel to the stravinsky, mozart, and britten tracks; a melancholy in the schwantner, adams, first barber, seiber, and auber tracks; and some angst in some of the others, like the brahms, wagner, and puccini. i suppose the donizetti and rossini tracks don't quite fit the mood, but i guess you can think of them as relief from the gloom. the mix ended up being a bit hard to put into an order, but i think it works. for volume 3 i plan on making more of an effort to include even earlier works (e.g. renaissance) and more "contemporary" tracks (i totally forgot about this john cage track i wanted to include until after it was done). but all in all i think it turned out pretty well. well, at least i'm rockin' out to it. how fearful your beauty 1/2/04 1 stravinsky, garrard/manning/et al . the rake's progress . the woods are green ... 2 adams, james maddalena . the death of klinghoffer . it was just after one fifteen 3 brahms, leontyne price . zigeunerlieder . i. he, zigeuner, greife 4 mozart, harper/blegen . le nozze di figaro . sull'aria 5 donizetti, joan sutherland . linda di chamounix . ah! tardai troppo ... o luce di quest anima 6 barber/neruda . the lovers . iii. in the hot depth of this summer 7 seiber, bream/pears . four french folk songs . réveillez-vous 8 wagner, james king . die walküre . ein schwert verhieß mir der vater 9 vores/atwood, lynn torgove . atwood songs . vi. tricks with mirrors 10 puccini, luba orgonasova . turandot . tu che di gel cinta 11 barber, thomas hampson . melodies passageres . le clocher chante 12 britten, ward/wilson/pears . albert herring . meet me at a quarter past eight 13 rossini, juan diego florez . semiramide . ah dov'e, dov'e el cimento 14 auber, sumi jo . le domino noir . mes cheres soeurs 15 schubert, hermann prey . der hidalgo 16 verdi, johnson/quivar/et al . requiem . hostias 17 schwantner, dawn upshaw . black anemones