This version is good, too

For some reason, this song--"Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" from Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila--just totally pumps up the crowd every time I sing it. Here is Marilyn Horne trying her hand at it:

Ryan Adams is rich

So Ryan Adams is playing Verizon on Tuesday, October 14, 2008, and I says to myself, I says, "Self, you deserve a treat. But since My Morning Jacket has decided to skip over Houston on its way to Dallas and Austin this month, you'll just have to make do with Ryan Adams." Which is actually fine because I do like the Ryan Adams. Songs like "City Rain, City Streets" and "I See Monsters" (both from 2004's Love Is Hell) are catchy. And also "Summer of '69." (God, I hate myself for just saying that. Number 4 sign that the person you're hanging out with is a complete bore: he or she still thinks that the Ryan Adams = Bryan Adams joke is funnee.)

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. What I don't like about all this is that the two tickets I bought for Gwen and me somehow cost $94.15. What the? Does Ryan Adams's guitar run on unleaded gas? Because that's the only way I can understand that price. WHY CAN'T WASHINGTON STAND UP TO BIG OIL AND STOP THIS MADNESS.

I will try not to sing on a Kia

Fact: misheard lyrics are mildly amusing at best. Fact: Joe Cocker was Stan Lee's inspiration for The Hulk. But further fact: the following video made me laugh kinda. (By the by, how freaking awesome is that above photo of the Cockster? Every time I look at it, I can't help but think, "He did the mash / he did the mooonster mash / the monster mash / it was a graveyard smash . . . .")

(H/T to Houston Clear Thinkers for this video)

Look what I can do with my feet

So I like this video and this song. I'm not hurting anybody!

Once again, back is the incredible

Pitchfork's video site, Pitchfork.TV, is commemorating the twentieth anniversary of Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back with a three-part video series offering a behind-the-scenes look at the making of that kick-ass album. You know what other great album was released in 1988? If you said Martika by Martika, then you get a gold star. I used to do this totally rad lip synch routine to "Toy Soldiers" in front of my stuffed animals, and let me put it this way: I got a standing ovation EVERY time.

Here's the first chapter of Pitchfork.TV's three-part look at Nation of Millions (go to the above link to see the full picture at Pitchfork.TV):

You're not a kid at 33

This 1972 gem by Danny O'Keefe, covered by countless others (including Elvis, Waylon Jennings, Charlie Rich, and Dwight Yoakum), is my favorite song of the moment:

We're fated to pretend

This song (from the 2007 album Oracular Spectacular) is catchy. (Yes, I know I'm late to the MGMT party.)  Here is a live version from the show "Later . . . with Jools Holland." You ingrate.

Lottery or car crash

Another good song from 1995's Post is "Possibly Maybe." The lyrics are interesting, and the opening riff is cool and spooky and moody sounding. And here we go:

And everybody knows Bjork's most famous song, "Big Time Sensuality" (from 1993's Debut). But here is a pretty different, live version of the song, with Bjork accompanied by Talvin Singh and Guy Sigsworth: