audio books out of context #2

this is the second post in the audio books out of context series. posts in this series premier exclusively on the ragbag every ¾(π²√5)² hours. the next post is scheduled for wide release on november 29th, 2009 at 4:53 (eastern standard time). by that time, the original of laura will have dropped online and in bookstores. should you have attempted to read it, please keep in mind that nabokov’s ghost will most likely attempt to eat your soul.

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the previous post in the series was excerpted (rather rudely) from pillars of the earth by ken follet (1989). the proprietress of the alphalemon blog was the first to correctly identify this—for that, i bestow upon her my most sincere congratulations.

audio books out of context #1

this is the first in the audio books out of context series. posts will appear every ¾(π²√5)² hours. the next post will be on november 13th, 2009 at 23:35 at which point the moon will be in a waning crescent phase (in the northern hemisphere) and a lady gaga song is predicted to be the #1 single (in eastern european night clubs).

the linen anniversary

as today marks my 4 (four (iv)) year anniversary of dispatching curiosities on the ragbag, i thought that i would break new grounds and post something that i wouldn’t normally post. thus, i give you my fourth audio entry, the song, “it probably always will” from the album, it’ll shine when it shines by the ozark mountain daredevils (1975).

this relatively obscure bluegrass/rock song has a deep personal significance for me and each occasion that i listen to it, i am astrally projected back to the time and mind to which it is unfailingly linked. but i shan’t go into that here because i am very curious to learn of your thoughts on it.

also: in order to post this song, i had to check a box stating that i had permission to do so. i have no such permission, and that is what rock and/or roll* is all about.

*this song is more properly classified as country rock. additionally, rock and/or roll is also about raging against the establishment and crooning about chicks.

dead poets

perhaps there is more to hip-hop than lusting after girls in apple bottom jeans and/or sipping a brand name rum as if in celebration of the day you were born. what of the 28 year old grad student studying the ancestors of modern rhymesters for the last five years of his life? is he not entitled to his own anthem to which he can put his own damn hands up?

baba brinkman has made the case that he is entitled to such an anthem and has crafted a very convincing candidate in “dead poets” from his 2006 album, swordplay. consider some of his savvy lyrics and make your own decision:

For a challenge I’m known to approach talent shows with
Poems that I stole from Edgar Allen Poe’s lips
Opium hits dope Alexander Pope’s wits
I was Samuel Coleridge in a trance when I wrote this
And I awoke with the whole song done
I felt the soul of John Donne; Andrew Marvel
Taught me to chase the sun; I can’t make it stand still
So instead I’ll make it run, with puns denser
Than Edmund Spencer’s, and modern lyrics
Modeled on Robert Herrick’s;

the two other audio posts on the ragbag can be found here.

another peculiar holiday tradition: m’aider!

ever since i was really really little, my mom would barge into my room at 6:30 a.m. every may 1st blasting the appended song (vanessa redgrave singing the lusty month of may from the musical, camelot) on a portable boombox. she continues this tradition via phone EVERY year. i post this audio° not so much for your benefit but out of annual pavlovian conditioning.

what’s this? an audio post—on the ragbag? indeed. listen along as thomas stearns eliot affects a phony british accent (like madonna and greenday) while reading his poem, macavity the mystery cat.

Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
For he’s a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square -
But when a crime’s discovered, then Macavity’s not there!