Friday Random Ten: Dead Saddam Edition

The list this week doesn't actually have anything to do with him, but I'm watching the coverage as I write this, and felt like I should at least mention such a piece of news, even though I don't really have much to say. I feel weird about the fact that he's dead. I don't really have an opinion on the death penalty as a policy issue, but it makes me feel weird, because it's the ultimate premeditated killing. Somehow, it's strange to be notified in advance that at X time, a person will be dead. Especially when it's someone who is such a cultural figure like Saddam. He's a kind of celebrity, and he was publically, openly put to death.

It's weird. That's all I know to say about it.

Anyway, the list, which I started making in my head this morning, is themed "songs with weird time signatures", because rock (which is what I listen to almost exclusively) is heavily skewed toward 4/4 with a steady tempo. With help from Wikipedia:

1. Pink Floyd - Money: in 7/4. Conducted as pairs of 3/4, 4/4 measures, at least the way I always heard it with the triplets, and that's what the sheet music says, although David Gilmour calls it 7/8, and according to music scholars, it's technically in 21/8!
   
2. Blood, Sweat, and Tears - And When I Die: I can't find anything on it, but it sounds like a mix of 4/4 and 3/4 to me, changing with the different tempos. (tempi.)
   
3. Jesus Christ Superstar - Everything's Alright: one of my favorite 5/4s.
4. Mission: Impossible Theme - not the modern version: also a 5/4, we did it in band and it was pretty nifty.
5. Jethro Tull - Living In The Past: 5/4.
   
6. Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick: 6/8. Crazy fluteman is all about the fun time sigs. The article calls it as partially in 10/8, but doesn't say if I'm right on the 6/8 for the rest. But damnit, I can hear it! It sounds medieval.
   
7. John Carpenter - Theme from Halloween: 5/4. I heard this thing way too much when I worked at Six Flags during Fright Fest. A fun change from the usual location music, which I heard so much of that I'd hear it in my dreams.
8. Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill: 7/4.
9. Styx - Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man): 7/4 in some of the keyboard solos. I also think some of the opening keyboard work is either in 6/8 or heavy on triplets.
   
10. Beatles - All You Need Is Love: the verses are in 7/4.

Bonus America from West Side story: split 6/8, 3/4.

Friday Random Ten: Leaving On a Jet Plane Edition

Early, since my interwebbing will be iffy this weekend.

1. Prince - 1999 - because as long as it's not, in fact, 1999, I decided that you can legitimately party like it's 1999
2. Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon - Plastic Jesus - Martha, if you ever see this, it's for you.
3. Violent Femmes - American Music
4. Miami Sound Machine - Turn the Beat Around
5. Killers - Somebody Told Me
6. O-Zone - Dragostea din tei - in Hungarian
   
7. Sean Paul - Get Busy - might as well be in Hungarian
8. Presidents of the USA - (twofer) Lump and Peaches - Lookout! (ninjas appear)
9. Jason Mraz - Curbside Prophet - I never noticed before, but he mentions SpaceGhost!
10. Fergie - Fergalicious - she's expanding the reach of her fascist Fergtatorship

Bonus track: Jimi Mistry - Chori Chori Gori Se - I swear this man is the Venga Boys of Bollywood. Seriously, listen to it, and tell me that doesn't sound like the same semi-truck horn accent. Plus, it's got steeldrums!

Friday Random Ten Not On Friday: Middle of the Night Edition

I never remember about this until I read everyone else's the next day.

1. Disturbed - Land of Confusion
2. Kelis - Milkshake
3. Outkast - Hey Ya
4. Miami Sound Machine - Turn the Beat Around
5. Beatles - Helter Skelter
6. Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
7. Peter Gabriel - Big Time
8. Cranberries - Zombie
9. Eve 6 - Inside Out
10. Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil

And Jon and cat pic: Jon communes with The Loki.

Your mother's a tracer!

So there's a vehicle that I see parked near my office building frequently. Along with its multiple "Character Counts" bumper stickers (which I'm told are from a local elementary school program, but I remain suspicious), it has one that says "I don't believe the Liberal Media".

And my first thought was, good for you, van owner! You shouldn't believe what the liberal media tells you, for the same reason you shouldn't believe what you're told by, say, a blue dragon wearing rhinestone pants. Because, to quote Banky Edwards, they're both figments of your fucking imagination!

Johnny Hart, why did you have to start sucking?

B.C. comic for today, Pearl Harbor Day (here)


OOh, look, Americans are sellouts for not boycotting products from a country whose ass we kicked and whose leaders that fought us are likely all dead by now! Not to mention the fact that lots of Toyotas are built in Ohio, and Americans own stock in it!

WTF, mate, WTF.

(My parents own a bunch of B.C. collections from the '70s or '80s, and he didn't used to be a weird conservative nut. Sad times for my comic pages when all that started.)