Shine A Light On Me

Did you bastards know there’s an official Midnight Special channel on YouTube releasing entire unedited episodes (as well as clips)? Holy shit, it’s a treasure trove!

Timestamped performances for this episode are here. I mostly just watched Sly and the Family Stone, obviously.

BONUS: Here’s another recently released episode with Mott the Hoople and The New York Dolls. Not sure who the guy is in the back playing the Thunderbird for the Dolls. Arthur Kane appears to be in a cast and is obviously miming …

A Long Way From Yellowstone Park

Black bear spotted by a friend’s neighbor in Brentwood
by u/eh_cee in nashville

Ursus americanus is relatively unknown in these parts. I think the last one reported in Nashville was four years ago. This is from the next neighborhood over, earlier this week. This guy, or one of his friends, is showing up all over town and I’m here for it.

The two main populations of bears in the state are Appalachian and north Cumberland. They’re currently re-colonizing their old territory. Your town is next. Tie up your garbage.

The Soprano

Samuel Mariño is a rarity in opera: a true male soprano.

Rather than relying on falsetto as a countertenor would, Mariño, 28, is able to comfortably sing high notes with his chest voice. Now he is branching out from Baroque parts originally written for castrati.

“The teachers were trying to treat me as a countertenor. I had to sing lower when I could sing much higher. Being a countertenor is an established thing, and they were trying to put me into that box. Then, in 2017, I met Barbara Bonney. A friend told me that I sing very much like her. I wrote to her and said: “Hi. I’m Samuel and I want to take lessons with you.” I went to Salzburg, Austria, and Barbara was like a fairy godmother. She told me to sing how I speak, to just put notes to my speaking voice. And that is what I do today.”

Your new album starts with a famous Mozart aria written for a woman who is playing a man. What do you bring to the role as a male singer?

“My voice is a light lyric soprano, with a bit of coloratura. In the score, Cherubino is a soprano role, but today it’s for mezzo-sopranos and their male-ish colors. If you talk to any mezzo, they will tell you it’s very hard to sing Cherubino, because it’s quite high — not super high notes, but sitting all the time in a high tessitura. Cherubino is a young teenager, and I do him as a boy who is innocent and confused. It’s a totally different vision of how the role can be sung.”

Still One Of The Funniest Things I’ve Ever Seen

As usual, I rely on Wikipedia to fill in the gaps …

Korgoth of Barbaria is a pilot episode for what was originally planned as an American adult animated television series created by Aaron Springer, a storyboard artist, writer and director for Dexter’s Laboratory, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Samurai Jack, and SpongeBob SquarePants, who previously created another failed pilot at Cartoon Network Studios called Periwinkle Around the World. He would later go on to produce Billy Dilley’s Super-Duper Subterranean Summer for Disney XD. Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack, directed the animation for the pilot. This was not the only time he worked on a pilot created by Springer, as Tartakovsky also produced and directed Periwinkle Around the World.

It was first aired in the United States on June 3, 2006, at 12:30 AM (EST) on Adult Swim. On June 18, Adult Swim ran a bumper announcing that Korgoth of Barbaria was officially picked up as a series, because of its critical and commercial success with garnering high ratings. Later events, including a formal petition to revive the show and an Adult Swim bumper announcement mentioning its cancellation, indicate that it was dropped before production began due to high production costs.

Rick Nielsen’s Guitar Collection

Here’s something to pass the time while you wait on those COVID test results.

When it comes to guitar collections, some are so large, so special, and so rare, that even the best collectors can’t help but do a double-take. This is how you would define Rick Nielsen’s collection – a total head-turner.

In the latest episode of “The Collection,” host Mark Agnesi heads to Rockford, IL, to visit the godfather of guitar hoarding. Rick Nielsen, the lead guitarist for Cheap Trick, takes us through his cavern of guitars. Ranging from quirky and strange to the ultimate rare and last of its kind. And in a “The Collection” first, Rick shows off three original 1958 Explorers out of only nineteen in existence.

While Rick’s guitar bevy is superior to most, what’s striking is his irreverence for ‘value’ in a world full of collectors and purists. In Rick’s eyes, the guitar belongs to him, and how pristine the guitar is doesn’t really matter. His passion for guitars and the guitar world is apparent as he is still adding to the vault. Follow along as Rick takes us through his fantastic collection.