That right there is a speaker and sub-woofer in a 1910 suitcase, and what I’d really like is to commission them to construct a home theater sound system inside a collection various retro items that would sit around the TV room.
Well, it’s that time of year again, when I’ll be heading over the river and through the woods, to grandparents’ houses for Christmas.
We’re halfway through Chanukah, had a great time lighting candles, playing dreidel, and eating latkes, but we’re an interfaith family, and now we get to load up all of our Jewish stuff to bring with us for the second half of the holiday, along with all of our Christmas gifts, and drive to Seattle for time with the goyishe relatives.
Typically, this means that I won’t be blogging much for the next few days, so things will be quiet here at Fish & Bicycles, probably until Monday.
While I’m indisposed, feel free to browse around Fish & Bicycles in any of the following ways:
Tags: In the sidebar, under Stuff About…, you can click on any of the Tags and see all the posts I’ve done that have at least something to do with those topics.
Recurring Series: At the top of the page, hover over the Recurring Series drop-down menu and select from options like Celebrating Eco-Progress, which applauds businesses adopting sustainable practices; Eyecatchers, a collection of photos, graphics, and videos that have, well, caught my eye; Video Fridays, my favorite video of the week pick; and more.
Archives: Towards the bottom of the sidebar, select a specific month to see everything I posted in that time period.
Well, I owe a big thanks to my favorite radio station, KEXP in Seattle, for turning me on to all of the great music I’m featuring here in today’s Video Fridays installment.
Back in October, KEXP traveled to Iceland and set up recording equipment in the KEX Hostel in Reykjavík, capturing some incredible, intimate, and beautiful performances by artists participating in the Iceland Airwaves festival.
And by beautiful, I don’t just mean musically. Judging by the members of the various groups, it appears that every single person in Iceland is ridiculously good-looking!
Seriously, prior to checking out these videos, the only Icelandic musicians I was familiar with were Björk and Sigur Rós, so it’s a real pleasant surprise to discover all this great new music!
It’s hard to nail down specifics, but listening to all of these performances, and thinking of the Icelandic pop music I’ve heard before, there is a definite Icelandic sound that resonates throughout. The music can range from dark and moody to light and airy, and vocals tend to have a distinctive trill. There’s something ethereal going on there, born of that remote land of fire and ice perhaps, and though I haven’t listened to any traditional Icelandic folk music, my best guess is that it has a major influence as well.
There are many more clips on YouTube (search “Live on KEXP KEX”), including more artists than I’m featuring here, so be sure to spend some time browsing and listening.
Finally, the most unusual group of the bunch, Retro Stefson…well…um…I really don’t know how to classify them. Perhaps trying to do so would actually diminish them in some way. All I will say, then, is that there’s is happy, fun, energetic music that just brings a smile to my face.
Just in case anyone needed yet another example of how corporate power is out of control, enter Boeing.
Boeing is a company that over the 3-year period from 2008 to 2010 paid an effective U.S. tax rate of…
…wait for it…
… -1.8% (yes, you read that right, NEGATIVE 1.8%!!!) on $9.7 billion in profit, the fifth worst offender in the U.S., a company born right here in Washington State, a state where, during the same period, we’ve had budget shortfalls of up to $5 billion, resulting in massive cuts to public education, health care, state parks, transportation infrastructure, etc., with more “grim” cuts being proposed this year, and yet a state where Boeing enjoys state tax breaks to such an extent that the World Trade Organization determined the breaks to be, along with the U.S. federal tax breaks they enjoy, illegal under international trade agreements.
If that weren’t bad enough, Boeing has announced that it plans on overhauling it’s 737 airliner, that they’ve begun the process of determining whether they’ll keep 737 production in Renton, WA, or move it to another state, thereby motivating Washington Governor Chris Gregoire to propose $9.8 million in spending in order to protect 20,000 jobs and $500 million in annual tax revenues.
Let’s recount that quickly, shall we?
October 27, 2011: The governor proposes $1.5 billion in cuts to health care, social services, prisons and education to help plug a $2 billion budget gap.
November 16, 2011: The governor proposes $9.8 million in extortion payments to keep Boeing from firing 20,000 people and taking the little they do pay in state taxes to another state.
Breathtaking, isn’t it?
Just another arrangement of the “too big to fail” tune that corporations have been singing for WAY too long.
