Saturday Night Soup for the Soul (11)

his is quite the schizoid soup that I serve tonight. The recipe is a perfect reflection of the the past week, which threw an incongruous series of things at me, including an angry female moose, a flying Monkey Man from New Mexico, endless work related pressure and overtime, a mysterious Fire Horse, Demons and Deities, 4-5 hours of sleep a night, and a ton of complicated changes to a software app that I am developing, all given to me as I was leaving work Friday night. The changes are to be fully implemented Tuesday morning (Monday is a holiday), so now I have to work this weekend. So much for my goal of escaping into the bliss zone. I'm working long hours now Six days a week Sometimes seven days a week Some of the above was pleasant, some not. Rather than attempt any literal explanation with words, I’ll stay abstract and let the music that passed thru me all week paint you all a picture. To be honest – I am not even sure of the true inner meaning of the portrait in sound that I present this week. The pieces appear to not belong together, and yet, here they are all one juxtaposed one against the other forming some sort of portrait. Everyday I want to be your friend, 'Cause you have stuck with me through thick and thin An' every day I want a smile in your lovely brown eyes(smile at your lovely brown eyes) 1. Prolog – This is the opening number that follows the Overture in West Side Story. Brainless violence and competition over nothing between two opposing gangs (the PR sharks versus the Anglo Jets). Could as easily be Bush and Cheney versus the turbaned Mullahs of Iran: Sworn enemies each who are what they accuse the other of being. They all just need to rent a cheap motel room, grease up, and get on with it and leave the rest of us to live in peace. Back to pleasant matters, Leonard Bernstein’s musical score is beyond brilliant. Some day I will get into Lenny. One of the great Americans of the 20th century. Here is a midi version of this number I found. I did up a so-so draft collage for this, but I ran out of time and will not work it beyond the draft you see above. 2. God's Lonely Man 3. All The Animals Come Out at Night These two pieces are by composer Bernard Herrmann for the iconic film Taxi Driver. 4. Love Having You Around Stevie Wonder's long Motown contract had finally expired, freeing him to explore the music that he heard in his mind, but had not yet recorded. Music of My Mind was absolutely something very new and still sounds fresh 35 years later. 5. Transspiritual Stomp comes from a CD titled Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest by The Fireman. The Fireman is the moniker given to electronic music experiments created by Paul McCartney and Youth. In 1993 they released their first album, Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest and followed that with Rushes in 1998. In 2000 Youth also took part in McCartney's similarly-styled Liverpool Sound Collage, their most recent collaboration. All of this makes it's way into this week's soup. You can get your 31.2 Mb bowl of Saturday Night Soup for the Soul by clicking the jukebox.