Thursday Tunes: Jim Cornelison

Jim Cornelison sang the national anthem a couple of weeks ago at the NIU football game.  He usually sings for the Blackhawks games, and it's one of the greatest renditions ever.  Someone filmed the performance, so you can see it, too!

Thursday Tunes: Phoenix

Do you like the band Phoenix?  I love them.  And they're French!  Check them out on Austin City Limits here.

Thursday Tunes: Peter and the Wolf

I can't believe I haven't posted about this before!  I loved Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf as a child, and the new (2006) academy-award-winning animated short version is outstanding.  Have you seen it?  It's very cleverly done, and Peter's gigantic blue eyes remind me of my nephews.

Thursday Tunes: Gymnopedie

Being in French class has reminded me of Erik Satie's Gymnopedie.  It's such a lovely song.

Thursday Tunes: Serenade for Strings

We heard Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings on the radio last night.  I really like Tchaikovsky.  I even did my composer report on him in 6th grade.

Thursday Tunes: See You Later Alligator

I've got French class today, so I thought I'd share a French pop song that we listened to in class the other day.  See You Later Alligator is by the indie group Louise Attaque.  It's kind of fun.

Thursday Tunes: Chennai Express

Last week we went to the opening night of the Bollywood film, Chennai Express.  It was a lot of fun.  Bollywood films tend to have bright colors and lots of music and dancing (that sometimes has little to nothing to do with the film...).  The third song (below) has a dancer who was not part of the film other than this song.  Oh, and the actors are all lip-syncing - but it's all so colorful and fun!

Thursday Tunes: Steve Martin and Edie Brickell

Have you heard Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's collaboration?  The album is called Love Has Come For You, and what I've heard of it is lovely.  (I really like bluegrass.)  This is "When You Get to Asheville" as seen on David Letterman.

Thursday Tunes: Pilgrim Song

When we returned from Utah Saturday, we went straight from the airport to Ravinia to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  It was a lovely evening.  One of the songs that we enjoyed (that we had not heard before) was "Pilgrim Song."

Thursday Tunes: Feels Like Home

We were watching a show on TV the other night about Randy Newman.  His songs are so lovely.  One that we particularly like is "Feels Like Home" - especially Bonnie Raitt's rendition.  She's the best.

Thursday Tunes: Winter Wind

I heard some Chopin on our local classical station the other day that I had not heard before.  Etude No. 11 in A minor, Op. 25 'Winter Wind,' played here by Evgeny Kissin.

Thursday Tunes: Young Blood

We just returned from a trip to San Francisco.  (It was my first time in California since I was 11 and my first time ever in Nor Cal!)  We discovered a great alternative radio station out there Live 105.3.  They play a lot of good stuff from the '90s (and today).  My husband is liking this song: "Young Blood" by The Naked and Famous.

Thursday Tunes: Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise

When we were in Utah, we attended Music and the Spoken Word at the Tabernacle.  It was really great.  One of the numbers that the choir performed was Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise.  I couldn't find a version by the Tabernacle Choir on YouTube, but I found this one of a combined Institute choir.  (They often sing this hymn for General Conference, so be watching this weekend!)

Thursday Tunes: Hitchcock at the Movies

Last Friday we went to a Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert.  It was Friday Night at the Movies and featured some of Hitchcock's best films.  They showed clips from the movies on a large screen while the orchestra played the music live.  It was fantastic.

Thursday Tunes: Stand in Holy Places

Last night was our New Beginnings program for Young Women's.  The girls sang Jenny Phillips' Stand in Holy Places as a special musical number.  Our ward sang this song (with the Young Men) for the stake standards night.  It will stay in your head forever.  (We took it a little faster than this version...)  Very nice.

Thursday Tunes: Da Funk

We had Standards Night for the youth on Saturday, complete with a dinner and a dance.  It was pretty awesome.  I was reminded at the dance of how much I like Daft Punk's "Da Funk" and how funny the video is.  Do you remember this?

Thursday Tunes: Take a Walk

I heard this song the other day, and I thought it would be appropriate to share today since we're going to listen to an economist speak tonight.  Passion Pit's Take a Walk - a song about financial troubles.

Thursday Tunes: Summer Breeze

So, we were in Miami for New Year's - for the Huskies to play in the Orange Bowl.  It was a very nice trip.  It was especially nice that it was in the upper 70s there while it was in the upper 20s at home!  We had this song on our iPod - Summer Breeze by Trammell Starks (a Weather Channel composer...).  I really like this version.

Thursday Tunes: This Little Babe

Here's another high school choir Christmas song.  When we sang This Little Babe, I didn't realize that it was part of Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols.  It is fast and fantastic.  (This version is by a German choir, so you can hear a bit of an accent.)

Thursday Tunes: Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree

We went to the local high school choir concert last Friday.  All of the young women at church who attend the high school are in one of the choirs, so that was a lot of fun.  The madrigal choir sang a beautiful song that I had never heard before: Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree.  Here's a rendition by the Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge.