Benjamin Ashley

Adagio for Strings, by Samuel Barber, as performed by The New...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:13:00 -0600

Adagio for Strings, by Samuel Barber, as performed by The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

It’s just about the most popular and instantly recognizable collection of strings we’ve all been graced with. We’ve heard it in movies, documentaries, TV shows, and riffs of it in almost as many songs, popular and otherwise. But having said that, it surely does stand on its own. The first time you hear it, no matter the context, I’m entirely confident you appreciate it just as fully.

So of course the song feels resoundingly sad, and goodness knows I do love some melancholy in my music. But there’s far more than melancholy going on here. There’s some wonder, some hope, some toil, some frustration, some reward, some delight, and some peace. Yet above all that, there really is sadness, and it would be unspeakable if not for music like this.

And I get the feeling Samuel Barber, who was just about exactly my own age at the time he completed Adagio, was so on top of his game that he was able to compose a piece so technically capable, yet so entirely accessible, and so emotionally unavoidable, as to exist safely above even the possibility of criticism. Basically, I’ve never heard anybody say they didn’t adore it.

And I’m no expert on strings, but it doesn’t take one to understand that the choir highlighting the end of the middle section is playing near the bounds of its varied comfort level, and beautifully so. Followed by just a stunningly apt moment of reflection before we ease back into the melody’s original lovely ascent. It feels like we’ve climbed Everest, and we’ve seen the view so few get to see - but the beauty was not only in that view, it was in the entire journey.

It’s the most beautiful showcase of a melody founded entirely on simplicity and honesty, born of an era so troubled yet so glorious. The wonder of Adagio is that it doesn’t even feel like a stretch to say we hear all of that in it.

This song is for Jen.

La Cienega Just Smiled by Ryan Adams Ahh, where to start with...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:20:00 -0600

La Cienega Just Smiled

by Ryan Adams

Ahh, where to start with this gem. YOU start by listening to it, of course. Doesn’t it start beautifully? Simple, soft, understated. Really setting the tone.

And setting the tone is what this song is all about. If it weren’t, we’d hear these lyrics and cringe, and this song would be relegated to 50 years of Hallmark movie soundtracks. But we don’t, and it’s not.

The lovely setup starts with this line:

oh, the night, here it comes again
it’s on with the jeans, the jacket and shirt

Is there any better outfit, any attire more perfect for our best memories? No, no there isn’t. The Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts have it again. (Apparently, Ryan Adams didn’t include his trademark glasses in this short list of things to wear for the coming night. Perhaps he tried but the syllables didn’t line up.)

I expect that he was well past his teenage years when he wrote this, yet it feels like one of those perfect teen love anthems. He says, “and I’m too scared to know how I feel about you now”, and I think about when I was 18 and I was completely in love, and I was scared to death. And then he says, “and [I] raise my glass ‘cause either way I’m dead.” That’s terrific teenage fatalist hyperbole right there, folks. Totally petrified, but not running away - willing to raise a glass of bodily destruction to the destruction of his soul.

The end of the night comes around, the jeans, the jacket, and the shirt come off, and all ‘La Cienega’ said was “I’ll see you around”, and she smiled and waved goodbye. Still, he’s holding her close in the back of his mind, and that’s almost enough.

Get the song.

Brainy by The National This was my favorite song from Boxer, but...

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:02:00 -0500

Brainy

by The National

This was my favorite song from Boxer, but it was a pretty tight race between, well, every song on Boxer.

Here’s the thing. The National seems to have this indescribable feeling surrounding their music - this man and his ‘tall kingdom’. Brainy encompasses the sublime feel of the entire album well with lyrics about intellectualism (or maybe pseudo-intellectualism), complex drum rhythms, and gorgeously orchestrated strings.

Like almost all of their songs, I can’t say I entirely comprehend the story here. But look at this:

“I was up all night again, boning up and reading the American dictionary
you’ll never believe me what I found
I think I better follow you around”

The guy was reading the dictionary. If not trying somehow to feel a little less inferior, trying to learn at least something about her, anything. And he learns something perfectly unspecified. About who? This girl -

“I’ve been draggin’ around from the end of your coat for two weeks
everywhere you go is swirlin’, everything you say has water under it”

and

“you’re the tall kingdom I surround
I think I better follow you around”

This guy is hopelessly, destructively, incapably in love. With somebody he doesn’t really understand. And so he makes his pitch:

“You might need me more than you think you will
come home in the car you love, brainy brainy brainy”

And his pitch is suitably human and normal and even a little bit irresistible.

Get the song here.

He Lays In The Reins

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:34:00 -0500

by Calexico and Iron & Wine, written by Sam Beam.

How old have I become? Because there’s a line in the song that says,

“One more kiss tonight from some tall stable girl
She’s like grace from the earth
When you’re all tuckered out and tame”

and it makes me melt. And it’s not the kind of line that should really get to a man until he’s reached, like, a certain point in his life. Tuckered out and tame? Grace from the earth? Yes please.

This song sits proudly at the top of my Most Played list. According to iTunes, I’ve listened to it 87 times since I added it in March of 2006. About seven times just now.

We learn about a gray stallion and the gray moon in separate verses. But then we’re awakened by cursing in our sleep. Then it’s back to the stallion, tangled in the reins, too tight and too long to fight.

But somewhere in there, there’s this amazing if somewhat left-fieldish Salvador Duran vocal solo. Rough translation of this is as follows:

“I thought that I’d never again
have the opportunity
to find the path and
form a better world”

There could be no better way to offset the somber resignation of this story. Incredible song.

Link to song.

Ernest Hemingway kicks a can?

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:54:00 -0500

Ernest Hemingway kicks a can?

Ladyhawke stole my cat.

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:01:57 -0500

Ladyhawke stole my cat.

Wolfe+585, Senior

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:13:21 -0500

There was a man named Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfe schlegelstein hausenberger dorffvoraltern waren gewissenhaft schaferswessen schafewaren wohlgepflege undsorgfaltigkeit beschutzen von angreifen durch ihrraubgierigfeinde welche voraltern zwolftausend jahres vorandieerscheinen wander ersteer demenschderraumschiff gebrauchlicht als sein ursprung von kraftgestart sein lange fahrt hinzwischen sternartigraum auf der suchenach diestern welche gehabtbewohnbar planeten kreise drehen sich und wohin der neurasse von verstandigmen schlichkeit konnte fortplanzen und sicher freuen anlebens langlich freude undruhe mit nicht ein furcht vor angreifen von anderer intelligent geschopfs von hinzwischen sternartigraum, Senior.

You can read about him at the usual place where you would read about somebody on the Internet.

What I’m most delighted about, though, is the interpretation of his name:

“Who before ages were conscientious shepherds whose sheep were well tended and diligently protected against attackers who by their rapacity were enemies who 12,000 years ago appeared from the stars to the humans by spaceships with light as an origin of power, started a long voyage within starlike space in search for the star which has habitable planets orbiting and whither the new race of reasonable humanity could thrive and enjoy lifelong happiness and tranquility without fear of attack from other intelligent creatures from within starlike space”

My niece toots her horn.

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:19:11 -0500

My niece toots her horn.

Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule. “What good have...

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:01:55 -0500

Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule.

“What good have I done today?”

The Quick Brown Fox Finally Jumped Over The Lazy Dog For Real.

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:15:20 -0500

The Quick Brown Fox Finally Jumped Over The Lazy Dog For Real.

Craig Ferguson explains how we ended up with the Jonas...

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:24:00 -0500

Craig Ferguson explains how we ended up with the Jonas Brothers.

Golf clap for Mr. Ferguson.

Invading Your Grandfather’s Postcards (by Franco...

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:06:55 -0500

Invading Your Grandfather’s Postcards (by Franco Brambilla)

Michelangelo painted this around the year 1488, aged 13...

Thu, 14 May 2009 10:05:15 -0500

Michelangelo painted this around the year 1488, aged 13 years.

I just can’t believe how much Maurice Sendak’s cute guys from Where The Wild Things Are look like this.

All Together Now, Music.

Tue, 12 May 2009 09:21:44 -0500

http://playingforchange.com/
http://inbflat.net/
http://thru-you.com/

I’m just aggregating my favorite remote-collaboration music sites here so I don’t forget them.

First of all, this is on the front page of CNN.com. Pause....

Wed, 06 May 2009 12:47:00 -0500

First of all, this is on the front page of CNN.com. Pause. Repeat. THIS IS ON THE FRONT PAGE OF CNN.COM.

There are certainly many far more important news things for important news people to think about, but they did manage to find the one thing that could dishearten me more than all other things. Combined.

If I ever have to hear that man sing again, I don’t even know how I’ll react.

I saw this on CNN.com awhile back. I was reading...

Wed, 06 May 2009 12:40:04 -0500

I saw this on CNN.com awhile back. I was reading Steinbeck’s The Wayward Bus at the time. I feared that somehow real life and its attendant media coverage had somehow spoiled the ending for me. It hadn’t, really.

Take me now to NYC.Dec. 5, 1933.

Mon, 04 May 2009 11:17:11 -0500

Take me now to NYC.
Dec. 5, 1933.

Francis and the Lights - The Top

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:52:22 -0500

Francis and the Lights - The Top

Martin Luther King, Jr. sings “I Have A Dream”

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:25:52 -0500

Martin Luther King, Jr. sings “I Have A Dream”

I love the idea of The Hold Steady touring around in a little...

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:28:26 -0500

I love the idea of The Hold Steady touring around in a little camper van.