Let’s begin with this: Windows XP, running in a virtual machine on Linux Mint. Hell, I even configured the Quick Launch toolbar, and the single screenshot I have of my XP days shows I never used the Quick Launch toolbar. So, why do I have a Windows XP virtual machine running under Linux? Yesterday morning,Continue reading “So Smart I’m Dumb”
Tag Archives: Elbow
Elbow’s Forthcoming Ninth Album
Yesterday, Mancunian band elbow announced their ninth studio album, Flying Dream 1. According to the announcement email from the band, the album was “written remotely in the band’s home studios before coming together at the empty Brighton Theatre Royal to perfect, perform, and record the songs.” And the teaser video captures some of that. TheContinue reading “Elbow’s Forthcoming Ninth Album”
Starlings
A cover of elbow’s “Starlings” on the ukulele. I have a uke. I bought it in the spring. I thought so might learn to play it… and then I never found — or made — the time.
Finding Beauty in Sorrow
In March. when the world was shutting down in the face of COVID-19, Elbow announced two things. First, they were postponing their upcoming live shows due to the pandemic. Sad, but not unexpected, and not something that affected me directly, as the band hadn’t announced an east coast tour. Second, they were releasing a newContinue reading “Finding Beauty in Sorrow”
The #elbowrooms Sessions
This week, Elbow released a new live album. Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the band has cancelled their live dates for this spring and summer, so they’ve been posting videos on YouTube of the band, separately, playing some of their songs from home, the #elbowrooms sessions. These aren’t polished, there are occasional fluffs, butContinue reading “The #elbowrooms Sessions”
Loving the World
I had to watch this video a few times before I really got it. It’s a short film, created The Climate Coaltion, a UK organization that fights climate change, that features Charles Dance, Miranda Richardson, Jason Isaacs, and David Gyasi dramatically reciting a poem by Anthony Anaxagorou about the wonders of nature and the threatContinue reading “Loving the World”
Magnificent
Elbow’s video for their single “Magnificent (She Says)” makes me think of Gandalf’s final line in The Lord of the Rings: “I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are evil.” (Page 1007 in my single-volume hardcover edition.) The song itself is gorgeous, and I have listened to it many times sinceContinue reading “Magnificent”
Fugitive Motel
I could count the number of times I’ve heard Elbow on the radio in the car on one hand. I’m talking actual music tracks, not interviews on NPR or somesuch. Imagine my surprise, then, when I heard “Fugitive Motel” on the radio when I was leaving the grocery store this evening. I was skipping throughContinue reading “Fugitive Motel”
Link Round-Up: December 14
I am inaugurating a new blog feature — a mostly-daily link round-up of things I read and found interesting. It’s primarily as much for my benefit as it is yours, the reader’s. I see something, I have thoughts, and then I forget about it or, worse, post a Tweet with the link and then neverContinue reading “Link Round-Up: December 14”
Party of Eight
This year I’ll be spending Thanksgiving by myself. I don’t have family nearby, and publishing doesn’t stop just because there’s a holiday; Friday I’ll be hip deep in getting January’s catalog out the door, long-distance travel to see family (only to have to turn around) simply doesn’t make sense. Don’t worry about me. I haveContinue reading “Party of Eight”