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Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather address the big news of the past week by discussing the smallest things they can think of, including the MTV Europe Video Music Awards and a Catholic devotional hymn they remember from childhood.
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Further Reading
- “On Eagle’s Wings”: Song, Wikipedia
- “Be Not Afraid”: Song
- “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”: Wikipedia
- “Higher and Higher”: Song, Wikipedia
- “Resucitó”: Song
- Lydian Chord on Wikipedia
Not exactly what we had in mind https://t.co/RydKGCk9RA
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) November 7, 2020
Probably the most interesting things I’ve seen, this week, have been the various media outlet trying to figure out what they actually do for a living. I’m not saying they specifically told us that it would take a while to learn who won (AHEM) MTV Europe’s award and then turned around to make it seem like a horse-race where anybody could win, rather than just waiting for the final count. And I’m not saying that, four years into this new relationship, the media finally decided to start using the l-word when dealing with deliberately spreading false information about…Whitney Houston, maybe? I don’t know, I kind of lost track of the allegory.
Anyway, lesson to learn: If you only find the final decisions acceptable in, say, music awards, then it’s worth throwing effort into the “pipeline” systems that the awards committee take into account, radicalizing the…DJs (I guess?) when you can, so that they make sure BTS (or maybe even a non-K-Pop act) gets the exposure needed. In a completely hypothetical different context, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine outreach programs developed by the most ignored segments of society saving the rest of us from our apathy. Again, just hypothetically in music, since the steel drum soloists have yet to rescue us from the clutches of mainstream rock.
I also watched “The Goes Wrong Show” on Amazon Prime and laughed harder than I have in a while. I don’t know if it’s quite overthink-able, but they definitely put a lot of thought into every episode. In case anybody’s looking for such a thing. I’m sure we’ll eventually learn that half the cast are serial killers and I’ll be embarrassed to have enjoyed it, but until then…
Oh, and I should have thought of this neat tidbit, especially with the mention of Vatican II and songs crammed in to fit a melody: Tom Lehrer (Harvard math professor, pianist, comedian) has released all of his contributions to his songs–everything except the pre-existing music that he used–into as close to the public domain as his lawyers could figure out.
On the one hand, it probably doesn’t bode well for his health at ninety-two, if he’s working on his legacy and not planning on renewing his domain name. On the other hand, there’s some great material in there, “The Vatican Rag” and “The Folk Song Army” most relevant to this week’s discussion, for anyone not familiar with his work.
Or, I guess everyone knows his list of chemical elements set to the melody of “Modern Major General,” and (depending on age) might recognize his Electric Company songs.
I was very active in my college Catholic Center and the perpetual use of “On Eagles Wings” as a song every week has burned it so in my mind that the few times that I, as a now lapsed Catholic, hear that song it triggers very specific memories of a time past, much like biting into a specific variety of cookie might.