A Buncha Short Fixes

So things are starting to slow down at work here, but it's still intermittently busy. And I can't really eat up the store's bandwidth uploading songs on this slow connection, so here I have for you some very good but very short tracks I was able to upload in the brief moments this morning when we had no customers. Slainte.

I've also decided to switch from Yousendit.com to Rapidshare for hosting, as pretty much a permanent thing from now on. This means fractionally more hassle in terms of downloading--you've got to wait about 30 seconds to download each file--but the files will stay up theoretically forever, so long as they don't go 30 consecutive days without a download. Yousendit expires the links after 7 days or 25 downloads, whichever comes first. I've been downloading from Rapidshare a lot lately, and I like it a lot better.

Sun Ra - A Foggy Day
A lot of the early Sun Ra singles are okay kind of R&B, nothing very special, but I've always had a huge soft spot for this one. Really, if Sun Ra's doing standards, it's hard to think of a song more SUN RA than "A Foggy Day". Even putting aside the canny mysteriousness of London fog... The British Museum gets a name-check? And the Age of Miracles? Geez, Sun Ra could've written that song.

Elvis Costello - A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety
It's true. With my new "I'm broke" emergency measures, I've had to stop buying booze, which is kind of a large expense for me. Now I'm down to the liquors I don't really like very much, vodka and I think maybe a little gin and one bottle of wine I'll probably drink tonight. Next week will probably be all singing, all dancing, all sober at the FMF homestead. Sadly. While sober I did get rather a lot of translating work done last night, though...

Matthew Shipp - Maze Hint
Pianist of the superb David S. Ware quartet. Some of his solo stuff is really iffy or actually even kind of lame, but this record's pretty okay, and I like this song a lot.

Redman - Beet Drop
Redman's brief, catchy riff on "The New Style" from the first Beastie Boys record (I think...I don't remember that record very well, even though it was my favorite album when I was 11 years old).

Bela Bartók - Arabian Song

Bob Dylan - London Calling
This one is courtesy of that rockin' apostle of Robert Bork known as Right Wing Bob. It's really just a single verse and chorus of the Clash tune, done as an intro to his show of 11/21/05 (I think). But kinda fun nevertheless.

Rah Digga - Harriet Thugman
A lot of chick rappers are really, really lame... basically supermodelly pop stars who can't rap. Rah Digga? Daaaaaaaamn. Harder than 95% of the guys rapping out there. Great voice, great rhymes, great production. Also kinda hot too; all in all, a lethal combination.

Mahalia Jackson - Keep Your Hand on the Plow (live)
Mahalia! Jesus, speaking of big, beautiful voices filled with soul and soulful authority. Mahalia will stop your sinning and send you to heaven. So listen to her. Listen!