Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Music’

Two Angels

Posted in Music, Poetry, tagged , , , , , , on February 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers Two Angels 2001It’s Valentine’s Day. I went back through the blog archives and discovered that I sometimes don’t post anything on this day or sometimes post something  off the subject of this day.  One year, it was baseball.  Well, I do love the game so maybe it was a Valentine of sorts.

I thought I would post something this year, a poem that I posted several years ago.  It’s an anonymous verse from India that strikes just the right chord of love and devotion for me without turning to pablum.

Although I Conquer All the Earth 

Although I conquer all the earth,

Yet for me there is only one city.

In that city there is for me only one house;

And in that house, one room only;

And in that room, a bed.

And one woman sleeps there,

The shining joy and jewel of all my kingdom.

    —Anonymous, Ancient India

Also, below is a song from Peter Case, Two Angels,  an elegantly simple song that is a favorite of mine and also on subject for the day.  Surprisingly, it is a fairly little known song though I understand it was used on an episode of True Blood.  If that doesn’t scream romance, I don’t know what does.

The painting above is an oil on panel, 10″ by 58″,  that I did back in 2001.  I cannot find or recall its title at the moment but am calling it Two Angels for today.

Read Full Post »

Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Painting, tagged , , , , , , on February 13, 2015| 3 Comments »

GC Myers 992-141-small1It’s another cold day here in the northeast,  -5° this morning when I walked out the door.  By the time I got over here to the studio after my short commute ( a stroll through the woods) I was ready for a little heat.  Turned on the computer to look up an old piece and immediately came across this small triptych from 2002 which was always a favorite of mine. It’s a little anomaly comprised of three small squares, each about 4″ by 4″.  I always liked the surface of these pieces — they had a smooth, almost burnished look that I haven’t used in many years.

Seeing this piece made me want to revisit that surface treatment once more, thirteen years later.  It also made me want to feel that heat in the form of a very distinct song.  Fire from Jimi Hendrix.  Talk about going back in time.  Are You Experienced? in 1967.  This song will be fifty years old in a couple more years which seems crazy– it’s timeless heat.

So, Jimi, on this frigid morning, let me stand next to your fire.

 

Read Full Post »

Born to be Blue

Posted in At the Movies, Favorite Things, Music, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 1, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers The Blue Cool This is another small painting that is part of  the Little Gems exhibit opening this coming Friday at the West End Gallery.  This is a little 3″ by 5″ piece on paper that I call The Blue Cool.  I guess that it arose from the current frigid temps that we are in here in the Northeast.  The sky here is in three blocks of an aqua blue color that has a transparency that makes them seem like thin slabs of ice.  I don’t know if this quality shows up on the computer screen  but when this piece was in the studio I always felt like holding it up to the light to see light shine through the ice that I felt like I was seeing.

It’s a simple meditative piece, what I like to typically see in these small works.  The small scale lends itself to simplicity.  Maybe this built-in restraint is one of the reasons why I enjoy painting these small pieces and why I feel they often work so well.

I don’t know for sure.  And I think that uncertainty or puzzlement  is sometimes a good thing.  It creates a sense of wonder and surprise and that is always a good thing.

I thought for this week’s Sunday music I would stick with the Blue theme and some blue cool jazz from one of my favorites, the late great Chet Baker.  The song is Born to be Blue which is also the title of a film currently in production about Baker’s life with Ethan Hawke portraying the gifted but tragic trumpeter.  His story reads like a screenplay– Golden Boy of jazz with movie-star looks loses everything to drug addiction and violence and tries to find redemption.  I’ve thought for years that it was meant to be a film and now it is, hopefully one that does the story justice.

When I listen to Baker’s music, I hear it with that same sense of uncertainty and puzzlement I alluded to above.  There’s just something natural and right in it that can’t be, or shouldn’t be, defined.  It just is.  Give a listen and have a great Sunday.

Read Full Post »

The Storms Are On the Ocean

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 25, 2015| 8 Comments »

GC Myers- Storms Are on the OceanI’ve been working recently on some very small pieces for the upcoming Little Gems show at the West End Gallery in Corning.  I’ve mentioned here before that this particular show is always  a sentimental favorite of mine as it was in this show that I first publicly showed my work twenty years ago.  It represents the first step on to the path that I now follow and that makes it special for me.  Plus I enjoy working in the smaller scale for a bit.  It allows for easily easing back into older themes and forward into newer ones.

One of these pieces that just finished yesterday is shown here at the top.  It’s a 4″ by 6″ painting that I call Storms Are on the Ocean.  I haven’t done a boat painting in some time and thought the smaller format would be the perfect opportunity to re-visit the theme.  I am always drawn to the motion in these pieces and the billow of the sail.  It reminds me of a fable or a dream in some way that I find appealing.

I thought this would be the perfect match for this week’s Sunday morning music which is the song after which this painting is titled.  It’s The Storms Are on the Ocean, a song first done by the legendary Carter Family back in the late 20’s.  This version is from June Carter Cash‘s last album, Wildwood Flower, which was released in the year, 2003, after her death.  Like the final recordings of her husband, the great Johnny Cash, this album shows her in a fragile state of health which adds greatly to the emotional impact of the songs.

It definitely comes through on this lovely song with its haunting chorus:
The storms are on the ocean
The heavens may cease to be
This world may lose its motion, love
If I prove false to thee

Enjoy and have a great Sunday.

Read Full Post »

Soulful Shade of Blue

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, tagged , , , on January 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers Memory of Night smIt’s a Sunday morning, the first in the new year, and that means a little music to start the day.  I am still trying to figure out the feeling of this year.  I am not in any kind of rhythm yet, having taken a short hiatus, and am trying to break through to a hopefully rich vein.  Maybe today is the day.  We shall see.

But for my music I am going back to one of my favorites, Neko Case, whose music has appeared here a number of times.  This song is Soulful Shade of Blue, taken from a live set  in 2004 that became  The Tigers Have Spoken,  an album that instantly made me a fan when I was introduced to it.  This song is an old Buffy Saint-Marie tune which probably doesn’t mean much to you if you’re not of a certain age.  Click on her name for a quick education on her career.

It’s a wonderfully crafted song and Neko Case does it beautifully.  It’s a nice, easy entry into 2015.  Give a listen, take it easy and head down that road into the new year.

Have a great Sunday…

PS: The painting at the top is Memory of Night which is at the West End Gallery.

Read Full Post »

New Year’s Prayer

Posted in Current Events, Music, Recent Paintings, Video, tagged , , , , , , , on December 31, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Brighter Days Ahead sm

GC Myers- Brighter Days Ahead

It’s New Year’s eve tonight and we’ll shake off the dust  of yet another year and move into the next, all clean and shiny with that new year smell.  Well, that’s the popular belief.  We are, of course, who we are and no amount of calendar voodoo will alter that.

But that’s okay.  We should be okay with ourselves and just ride along on the tides of time.  Good and bad things happen along the way and both can be tolerated if we just can understand and accept who we are.

I think that’s why I chose this painting at the top and the song below to end 2014.  The painting is titled Brighter Days Ahead and has a brightness and optimism that jibes well with its title.  But the darkness underneath gives it some balance that keeps it from being too giddily gleeful.

Yes, there are brighter days ahead but there are some darker ones as well.  But having a belief in who we are, believing that we have the balance and strength to withstand troubles and accept the good with grace makes this brightness seem more tangible and less wishful thinking.

The song, New Year’s Prayer, is from the late Jeff Buckley who in his short life left us a remarkable version of the Leonard Cohen song, Hallelujah, and much more.  This song has a mantra-like feel to it with the phrase … feel no shame for what you are… as a refrain.  It doesn’t look forward or back with any hope or regret– it is just in the moment.  And that’s how I feel about the turning of this year.

Wishing you all a good New Year with the hope that feel no shame for what you are.

Read Full Post »

An Unlikely Christmas Classic

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , on December 21, 2014| 3 Comments »

Bing and Bowie 1977Well, it is Sunday morning and that usually means that it is time for some music here.  Since it is the last Sunday before Christmas a little holiday music is called for.  This is a song that I have played here before.  It’s that odd pairing between Bing Crosby and David Bowie and the song The Little Drummer Boy/ Peace on Earth.

The story behind how it came about is pretty interesting.  In 1977, 73 year old Bing Crosby was in the midst of  what would be his last British tour.  While there , producers put together Crosby’s annual holiday special for American TV, this time with an English theme, a Merrie Olde Christmas.  It was filmed in September with a number of British celebrity guests, including the 30 year old rock star David Bowie.  Bing actually introduced and showed the video to Bowie’s song Heroes on the special.

On the day of shooting, Bowie learns that he is scheduled to sing Little Drummer Boy with Crosby.  He balks, telling producers that he hates the song and if that’s the song they wanted he might as well leave.  He said he was only there because his mother was huge Crosby fan.

Producers and composers went to work.  In just over an hour, they produced an original tune, Peace on Earth, that would be sung by Bowie as a counterpoint to Bing’s Little Drummer Boy.  The two singers both liked the new addition and the arrangement and ran through it together several times in less than an hour before recording the final version.

Bing Crosby died less than a month later and the special ran as scheduled in December of 1977.  The pairing of Bing and Bowie was considered an oddity then and producers of the show and song thought that was the end of it.  But bootlegs of the song circulated for several years, gaining in popularity to the point that RCA decided to release it as single in 1982.  It has become one of the most popular holiday songs in the intervening years.

I know it’s one of my favorites.  Have a great Sunday…

 

Read Full Post »

A Change is Gonna Come

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , on December 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers- Beyond the Blues smGreat opening night for my show, Into the Common Ground, this past Friday at the Kada Gallery in Erie.  Great crowd with a nice mix of people, old and new to my work.  Good questions and conversations.  Just a very successful show opening all the way around.

Many, many thanks to Kathy, Joe and Morgan at the Kada for making it such a wonderful night and making me feel like a part of the family there. Also, many thanks to everyone who came out and took part.  I can’t tell you how much it is appreciated.  And thanks to the weather for being relatively mild, a sometimes rare thing on the shores of Lake Erie in December.

Thank you!

Well. that being said, it is time for a little Sunday music.  I was thinking Otis Redding and that voice that I could listen to sing almost anything.  It’s hard to believe that in a few days it will 47 years since he was killed in a plane crash in 1967 at the age of 26.  Hard to imagine what might have come from this huge talent.  But he did leave behind an impressive legacy of music, including this great version of the Sam Cooke classic A Change is Gonna Come. It gives you something to think about on this Sunday morning.

Have a great day.

Read Full Post »

Be Thankful

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, tagged , , , , , , on November 27, 2014| 1 Comment »

Snoopy ThanksgivingIt’s Thanksgiving and hopefully you haven’t waited all year to express a little gratitude for the good things in your life.  If that is the case, get on the stick and start giving out the thanks, pronto.  If you have been grateful throughout the year, relax and listen to a little Thanksgiving-inspired music.  It’s pianist George Winston‘s version of the theme from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.  The cartoon itself is not quite up to the level of A Charlie Brown Christmas but the music of Vince Guaraldi always shines.

And I am thankful for that.  And for Snoopy.

PS: The original YouTube clip with the George Winston version has been taken down but I have inserted Vince Guaraldi’s original below.  You can hear the Winston version on YouTube by clicking his name above or here.

Have a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving.

Read Full Post »

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , on November 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Sly Stone gifI thought I’d play some music for this Sunday music with the theme being giving thanks.  Looking around, I found there weren’t a lot of choices and none that really were explicitly about the holiday.  I guess the circumstances of the original event  didn’t lend themselves to really interesting holiday music, certainly not on the level of Christmas songs and carols.  But whenever I think of songs that mention thanks in them, even in a way that barely grazes the  idea of Thanksgiving, I always immediately come back to  the song of thanks from the magnificent funkiness that is Sly and the Family Stone.

Of course, I am talking about Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin.)   Love the wordplay.

I wrote about Sly Stone back in August on the 45th anniversary of his epic Woodstock appearance.  I mentioned then that whenever I hear something from him I find myself wondering why I am not listening to him all the time.  It seems to always perk me up, make me feel invigorated.  And this song is no different.

So, while it might not be on the playlists of any Pilgrims, here is a little Sly to kickstart your Sunday.  Have a great day and give some thanks to someone or something today.  Why wait until Thursday?

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »