Bulletin Board of the Brain » Music http://kjswanson.com/blog Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:08:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 “What Yankee Candle Means to Me” Episode 13- The Musical http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/11/what-yankee-candle-means-to-me-episode-13-the-musical/ http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/11/what-yankee-candle-means-to-me-episode-13-the-musical/#comments Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:58:47 +0000 Kj http://kjswanson.com/blog/?p=2844
More! More! More! This episode features gift giving, dogs, jewels, guessing games and singing! Why? Because of candles, people. Candles.


]]> http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/11/what-yankee-candle-means-to-me-episode-13-the-musical/feed/ 4 Sounds of Synethesia: The Nostalgic Season http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/10/sounds-of-synethesia-the-nostalgic-season/ http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/10/sounds-of-synethesia-the-nostalgic-season/#comments Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:07:38 +0000 Kj http://kjswanson.com/blog/?p=2765


The start of Fall marks a full year of chronicling my ever-intensifying method of seasonalizing my music by color and feel [Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer]. The only season missing is Christmas (coming in December) which won’t be quite so synesthetic, as most Christmas music sounds red, green and white to everyone, but I’ll post it anyway.

Fall is the season I first began to notice the rhythm of types I music I chose, as well as the evocative colors that helped me choose. I’ve also learned over the years that Fall is when I listen to a lot of historical and global folk music. I get nostalgic about American history, and that “back to school” feeling as well, which I think in large part explains the FIVE Harry Potter albums in the mix. (Also, perhaps that I’m re-reading the books). And NOTHING is more nostalgic to me in the world than George Winston’s album “Autumn.” But perhaps most notable in Fall, is nostalgia for the 1990′s. For some reason, most 90′s rock sounds yellowish-brown to me (no piss assocaitions that I know of…). So this year, I welcome Nirvana into my “Gold Leaf Radio” Playlist. And new to “Autumn Hearth” this year, Chet Baker, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti, and many more. Oh, and for those wondering, the two playlist are each over 24 hours long and always on shuffle. That’s how I roll.


You know you’re in The Cottage if you can smell Yankee Candle Harvest & Apple Cider and can hear:

George Winston: Autumn

Neil Young: After the Goldrush, Live at Massey Hall

Nirvana: Nevermind

Johnny Cash: At Folsom Prison, American Man IV

Bach: Brandenburg Concertos

Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out

Chet Baker: In Paris, Best of Chet baker Sings

Floyd Collins: Original Off-Broadway Sountrack

Erik Friedlander: Block Ice & Propane

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain

Dixie Chicks: Home

Dolly Parton: The Grass is Blue, Little Sparrow, Trio, Trio II

Harry Chapin: Greatest Stories Live

Zabe I Babe: Drumovi

Ralph Stanley& Kim Lauderdale: Sweethearts, Lost in the Lonesome Pines

Everything is Illuminated: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Joshua Bell: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Songs of the Civil War: Various Artists

Water: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Handel: Concerti Grossi & Water Music

Evan & Guy Carawan: Appalachian & Irish Tunes on Hammer Dulcimer

Yo-Yo Ma: Simply Baroque

Mozart: Marriage of Figaro, Serenades & Divertimenti

Kitka: Voices on the Eastern Wind

Alison Kraus: Lonely Runs Both Ways

Counting Crows: Augustu and Everything After

Csokolom: Dog Daze, May I Kiss Your Hand

Harry Potter Original Film Soundtracks: Prisoner of Azkaban, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, Death Hallows Part 1, and City of Prague Philharmonic’s Essential Harry Potter Film Music Collection


With Tracks by: Tom Waits, Fela Kuti, Blind Melon, The Cranberries, Gillian Welch, Lisa Ekdahl, Old Crow Medicine Show, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, and the Jesus Christ Superstar Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

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It’s June (in a few hours), my spring Yankee Candle flickered its last yesterday, and every time an introspective song comes up on my playlist, I press Skip. What does this mean? IT”S SUMMER. I’m no summer super-fan, and still prefer sweaters to T-shirts (would always rather stick my Ipod in a coat pocket than my jeans pocket), but down here in The Cottage, summer means leaving the door open and living in a vivid, green, sunlit paradise. (Not a hyperbole). Time to open the windows and crank up the volume and sing at the top of my lungs.


Right about now I start needing electric-colored music with blacks as sharp and jagged as neon pink and yellow. Time for LOUD, both in sound and hue. At least for my non-reading mix. This is the first year I’ve created a summer-themed reading mix as well. Usually I just use one of my narrative playlists, like “Vienna to Versailles” (inspired by Marie Antoinette) or “Chapel Royal” (mostly 16th century Anglican music). But since I’ve been so consistent with my dual seasonal playlists, I had to follow through. My reading mix takes on the character of the outdoors-my garden, while my social mix is more “rolling down the windows and singing down the highway.”

Here are some, not all, of what’s playing in The Cottage this summer in my playlists, “Sun Stroke” and “Secret Garden.”

The Police: (Remastered)

The White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan

T. Rex: Electric Warrior

The Smiths: The Sound of the Smiths

The Devil’s Rejects: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Haydn: Piano Sonatas Nos. 48-52

The Jam: The Sound of the Jam

Old Crow Medicine Show

Beirut: Lon Gisland

The Beatles: Let It Be, Abbey Road

Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Commentary! The Musical: Original Commentary Soundtrack

Radiohead: King of Limbs, In Rainbows

Chopin: Etüden, Nocturnes, Mazurken und Minutenwalzer

Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill

Kate Rusby: Hourglass

Alaska in Winter: Holiday

Grosse Pointe Blank: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Jane Eyre (2011): Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Paul Mealor & Con Anima Chmaber Choir: Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: 4 Way Street, So Far

Purcell: Evening Prayer, The Fairy Queen

Paul Simon: Graceland

Cat Stevens: Tea for the Tillerman

The Civil Wars: Barton Hollow

Simone Dinnerstein: The Berlin Concert

Handel: Water Music, Coronation Anthems, Dixit Dominus, Foundling Hospital Anthem, Utrecht Te Deum, Jubilate

Pacific Overtures: Original Broadway Cast

Plus tracks by Lionel Richie, Dashboard Confessional, Otis Redding, Arcade Fire, The Clash, David Bowie, The Cure, The Replacements, Phil Collins, Gary Go, Boston, Kylie Minogue, Iron & Wine, The Black Eyed Peas, Erasure, Temper Trap, Samuel Barber, Andreas Scholl, and the dulcet tones of Chris Lilley

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]]> http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/05/time-wasnt-the-only-thing-they-stepped-in-beware-mary-poppins-the-musical/feed/ 13 The Rollerama of Resurrection Songs http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/04/the-rollerama-of-resurrection-songs/ http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/04/the-rollerama-of-resurrection-songs/#comments Mon, 25 Apr 2011 02:57:39 +0000 Kj http://kjswanson.com/blog/?p=2252



One of the best things Evangelicalism ever brought us.

Thank you Keith.

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Spring is here more or less. At least enough for introspection to turn its eyes out to the garden and wait for the tulips to bloom and for love to grow. It’s the season for music of pastel blushes and soft blues tinged with green and yellow tips.



While all my seasonal playlists have some elements from the playlist previous or upcoming, this is some of what’s playing in the Cottage specifically for spring. I always have an instrumental playlist and one with vocals; the study mix and social, this year titled “Fée Reine” and “Sea Change,” for the season of romance, lyricism, and metamorphosis.


Spring Playlist Features

Bright Eyed Joy: The Songs of Ricky Ian Gordon

The Civil Wars: Barton Hollow

Henry Purcell: The Fairy Queen

Magnolia: Motion Picture Soundtrack

Alison Krauss: Forget About It

My Life With Albertine: Off-Broadway Cast Recording

Iron & Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days

Kate Rusby: The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly

Nanci Griffith: One Fair Summer Evening

New Order: Power, Corruption & Lies

Tom Bogdan & Harry Huff: For Your Delight—New American Art Songs

Marie Antoinette: Motion Picture Soundtrack

Pacific Overtures: Original Broadway Cast

Paris Magnifique: Various Artists

Sweetheart ’09: Love Song Covers Compilation

Simone Dinnerstein: Bach—A Strange Beauty

Bright Star: Motion Pictue Soundtrack with Keats’ Poems

Yo-Yo Ma: Bach’s Cello Suites

Handel: Coronation Anthems

Handel: Israel in Egypt

Liszt’s Schubert Song Transcriptions for Piano

Death Cab for Cutie: Plans

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Castor et Pollux

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Les Grands Motets

Yo-Yo Ma: Simply Baroque

Also a bunch of mix CDs with tracks by Labbi Siffe, Cat Stevens, The Cure, Temper Trap, Glen Hansard, Jens Lekman, Joni Mitchell, Jonsi, Mumford & Sons, Rickie Lee Jones, Rosie Thomas, Rufus Wainwright, Sufjan Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel and the gang from Mystery Science Theater 3000.

]]> http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/04/sounds-of-synestheisa-the-gentle-season/feed/ 0 “What Yankee Candle Means to Me” Episode 4 http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/04/what-yankee-candle-means-to-me-episode-4/ http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/04/what-yankee-candle-means-to-me-episode-4/#comments Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:02:39 +0000 Kj http://kjswanson.com/blog/?p=2170

]]> http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/04/what-yankee-candle-means-to-me-episode-4/feed/ 3 Sounds of Synesthesia: The Interior Season http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/01/sounds-of-synesthesia-the-interior-season/ http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/01/sounds-of-synesthesia-the-interior-season/#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:17:05 +0000 Kj http://kjswanson.com/blog/?p=1792
Winter comes and I crave cold music: gray, white, blue and dark green music to aid this season of introspection, reflection, snowfall and bare branches. It’s the Andrew Wyeth time of year: the quiet time after Christmas and before Spring. I might like it even more than Fall.


Winter Playlist Features

Joni Mitchell: Blue

Simone Dinnerstein: Bach’s Goldberg Variations

Beth Nielsen Chapman: Hymns

Judy Collins: Colors of the Day

Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago

Kate Rusby: 10

Sigur Ros: Takk

The Postal Service: Give Up

Meredith Monk: Book of Days

Alaska in Winter: Holiday

The Cranberries: Stars

Robert Plant & Allison Krauss: Raising Sand

Bright Star: Original Film Soundtrack

Sting: Songs from the Labyrinth

Max Richter: The Blue Notebooks

Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble: Officium

Anonymous 4: An English Ladymass

William Byrd: Three Masses

Jean-Philippe Rameau: La Naissance D’Osiris

Chanticleer: Henry Purcell Evening Prayer

Bryn Terfel: Shubert’s Schwanengesang

Fleet Foxes: White Winter Hymnal

Pacific Overtures: Original Broadway Cast

Elg, Grete Helle Rasmussen, Helge Havsgård Sunde: Remembrance

Radiohead: In Rainbows

]]> http://kjswanson.com/blog/2011/01/sounds-of-synesthesia-the-interior-season/feed/ 1 My First Movie –or- Top 10 Things I Learned Watching Amadeus at Age 4 http://kjswanson.com/blog/2010/10/my-first-movie-%e2%80%93or-top-10-things-i-learned-watching-amadeus-at-age-4/ http://kjswanson.com/blog/2010/10/my-first-movie-%e2%80%93or-top-10-things-i-learned-watching-amadeus-at-age-4/#comments Tue, 12 Oct 2010 07:44:36 +0000 Kj http://kjswanson.com/blog/?p=1445
I remember going in to see Chariots of Fire and I remember exiting Return of the Jedi,* but the first movie I actually remember seeing is Amadeus.

*(If I ever exit through the doors next to the screen at the front of a movie theater auditorium, I always think of the Imperial Guards from Return of the Jedi because we exited from the movie that way).

Now let’s pause for a moment. Chariots came out when I was 2, Jedi when I was three, and depending on what day of the month we went to see Amadeus, I was either 4 or a very new 5. This in itself might explain a lot to anyone who knows my brother or me. We were the kids whose parents would take a kid to see Amadeus in the theater before they could read.
I’ve been thinking about “firsts” and how they might influence everything that follows. Might one’s first movie indicate how one views all films thereafter? Clearly the early movie theater trips didn’t have an adverse affect, at least on our feelings about movies. Both Matt and I have DVD collections that number in the hundreds (though Matt has me beat by about 500%).

But as I was walking the other day, thinking about how weird it was that I still don’t own my own copy of Amadeus, I started wondering what lessons burned into my psyche from the primogenitor of all my film experiences. Here’s what I came up with:

1. Geniuses are Fun.

2. It’s cool to be smart and creative. You can laugh as loud as you want and stay up late.

3. You may be a genius, but that doesn’t necessarily help you stay out of debt.

4. Sometimes two people can love each other, but fail to take care of themselves.

5. You can’t save the people you love, but you don’t have to give up on them either.

6. Sometimes people do desperate things, but if someone will listen to their story, it might make a difference.

7. Music is a language, and not everyone speaks it the same way.

8. Even as adults, we will want our parents to be proud of us.

9. Jealousy is destructive.

10. Loneliness and sadness can be scary, but they can also be transformed into art.


I’ve loved this film for twenty-six years. Don’t know if it shaped how I understand movies, but pretty sure it shaped some of how I understand life.

]]> http://kjswanson.com/blog/2010/10/my-first-movie-%e2%80%93or-top-10-things-i-learned-watching-amadeus-at-age-4/feed/ 1 Ah The Glories Of Having A Best Friend With A Region 2 DVD Player… http://kjswanson.com/blog/2010/09/ah-the-glories-of-having-a-best-friend-with-a-region-2-dvd-player/ http://kjswanson.com/blog/2010/09/ah-the-glories-of-having-a-best-friend-with-a-region-2-dvd-player/#comments Sat, 25 Sep 2010 08:38:55 +0000 Kj http://kjswanson.com/blog/?p=1398
…For we are not beholden to the likes of BBCAmerica. We can roam freely in the land of UK TV on DVD.

Thank you Region 2 DVD player, for Blackpool, and for David Tennant doing choreography to The Smiths.

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