"\"Oh Death\" and Diane Izzo" written by Uncutsaniflush on estrip.org

Category: music

05/08/11 10:18 - ID#54247

"Oh Death" and Diane Izzo

In the late 1990s, I loved Diane Izzo's "One"

I loved her voice and her songwriting. It reminded me of Patti Smith with a wee bit of P.J. Harvey thrown in. I've not really understood why she didn't become more popular.

Last night, (e:heidi) 's recent posts about bluegrass got me thinking about the Stanley Brothers which got me thinking about Ralph Stanley's "Oh Brother where art thou?" version of "Oh, Death" which got me thinking about Diane Izzo's take on the song from the Executioner's Last Song (from circa 2002) which I love.

That got me wondering what Diane Izzo was up to these days. Well, I found out she died on Feb. 25 at the age of 43.

For some reason, this really shook me up.

I assume she didn't have cancer when she recorded the song, but I don't really know. If she did, that might explain the power of her performance. Otherwise, it is ironic.

In the 1980s and 1990s, lots of my age peers in my extended social circle died of sex (AIDS, etc), drugs (overdoses) and rock and roll (lifestyle hell). But brain cancer has nothing to do with sex, drugs or rock and roll. I reckon it is a reminder of my own mortality. My mom died of lung cancer post-surgery complications at the age of 60. So I guess that might have something to do with how I'm feeling around Mother's Day.

Well what is this that I can't see
With ice cold hands takin' hold of me
Well I am death, none can excel
I'll open the door to heaven or hell

O, Death
O, Death
Won't you spare me over til another year

Whoa, death someone would pray
Could you wait to call me another day
The children prayed, the preacher preached
Time and mercy is out of your reach
I'll fix your feet til you can't walk
I'll lock your jaw til you can't talk
I'll close your eyes so you can't see
This very air, come and go with me
I'm death I come to take the soul
Leave the body and leave it cold
To draw up the flesh off of the frame
Dirt and worm both have a claim

O, Death
O, Death
Won't you spare me over til another year

My mother came to my bed
Placed a cold towel upon my head
My head is warm my feet are cold
Death is a-movin upon my soul
Oh, death how you're treatin' me
You've close my eyes so I can't see
Well you're hurtin' my body
You make me cold
You run my life right outta my soul

O, Death
O, Death
Won't you spare me over til another year

Oh death please consider my age
Please don't take me at this stage
My wealth is all at your command
If you will move your icy hand
Oh the young, the rich or poor
Hunger like me you know
No wealth, no ruin, no silver no gold
Nothing satisfies me but your soul

O, death
O, death
Wont you spare me over til another year
Wont you spare me over til another year
Wont you spare me over til another year

Permalink: _Oh_Death_and_Diane_Izzo.html
Words: 553
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 05/08/11 10:57

Category: music

05/07/11 10:13 - ID#54239

Gary Gilmore's Eyes

During the Great Punk Scare in the late 1970s, this was one of my favie songs by the Adverts. Musically it was garage punk. But the lyrics weren't the usual Sod the Queen type.

Imagine waking up in hospital (as the Brits would say) and realizng that you are looking through a mass murderer's eyes. The mind boggles. That's what this song is about.

I chose to post this live version because the lyrics are captioned.

Permalink: Gary_Gilmore_s_Eyes.html
Words: 86
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 05/07/11 10:25

Category: buffalo

04/27/11 10:21 - ID#54162

Damn Skippy at the Auto Bureau

My U.S. passport is going to expire next month. In New York State, you can get an Enhanced Driver's License (EDL) that serves as proof of Citizenship for the U.S./Canadian border so you don't need a passport. So I figured what the hell, I'll get an EDL.

Yesterday, the Lovely Lettuce ((e:leetee)) and I went to the Erie Auto Bureau on George Urban. And believe it or not, it was a damn skippy time!!

We were in and out of there in under 20 minutes.

It was very organised. The "maze" that made me feel like I was a cow being led to the slaughter was gone.

People were issued numbers and could sit until their numbers were called. My number was called before I could sit down.

The clerks were pleasant, professional and efficient. It was a huge contrast to the horrific nightmare that was the DMV in lower Manhattan in the 1980s. (At the time, there were people would hire themselves out to wait in line for you and call/page you when it was almost your turn. It was worse than it sounds. 'nuff said.)

Good work, Kathy Hochul. I hear that she's running for something and I don't want anyone to think that this is some sort of political endorsement. For all I know, I may hate her politics but she made my time at the Auto Bureau damn skippy.

Permalink: Damn_Skippy_at_the_Auto_Bureau.html
Words: 237
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/27/11 10:25

04/21/11 02:32 - ID#54110

Ogg Not Allowed

This is the error message that I get when I try to upload an ogg file using drag and drop. Also, I don't think that ogg is recognised file type for the "upload files" button method.

Permalink: Ogg_Not_Allowed.html
Words: 39
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/21/11 02:36

Category: music

04/19/11 10:51 - ID#54100

The Teaches of Peaches

Miss Piggy and "Fuck the Pain Away"!!! The teaches of Peaches, indeed.

Permalink: The_Teaches_of_Peaches.html
Words: 20
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/19/11 10:57

Category: polish songs

04/17/11 10:56 - ID#54077

Krucha Blondynka (Tender Blonde)

Another one from Czelaw Mozil.

"You and I, we'll be a pair"

Permalink: Krucha_Blondynka_Tender_Blonde_.html
Words: 19
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/17/11 11:05

Category: dr. who

04/17/11 10:36 - ID#54076

The Doctor Says No

A reminder about the triumph ofï»¿ intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism.

"But youï»¿ have no weapons, no defenses, no plan!"

"Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death?"

'nuff said.

Permalink: The_Doctor_Says_No.html
Words: 50
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/17/11 10:57

Category: polish songs

03/31/11 09:00 - ID#53953

Aces High

Gaba Kulka

is also a member of an Iron Maiden cover band called Baaba Kulka (she is the Kulka and guitarist Bartek Weber is the Baaba). They just released a new album a week or so ago. This is one of the songs from it.

Permalink: Aces_High.html
Words: 57
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/31/11 09:00

Category: polish songs

03/31/11 08:32 - ID#53952

London Calling

I first came across Gaba

(Gabriela) Kulka

because she has performed with Czeslaw Mozil (CzesÅ‚aw Åšpiewa). As you might expect of someone who has performed with Czeslaw, this is not a faithful punk rock cover of the Clash song. In fact, I would venture the opinion that her vocal stylings here owe more to Kate Bush than they do to Joe Strummer.

Permalink: London_Calling.html
Words: 82
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/31/11 08:55

Category: linux

02/20/11 09:39 - ID#53663

Fedora 14 First Impressions

Well, I installed Fedora 14 from the live cd a couple of days ago and real life got in the way. So I didn't really get a chance to play with it until today.

In terms of hardware, everything just works. But I expected that.

The default install creates a persistent home partition in a LVM partition scheme (that includes /boot). The installer did not recognise the Ubuntu partition. I had the option to edit the grub config that anaconda came up with but I decided not to. I reckoned I could always fart around with it later.

Ubuntu uses grub2 and Fedora still uses grub so adding Ubuntu to Fedora's boot menu wasn't as obvious as it could have been. I actually had to read some grub2 documentation. Egads!

The Fedora 14 splash and wallpaper image sucks. I think I vaguely remember (e:paul) complaining about it at some point. It's not a big deal because it is easy to change.

So far, so good. I'm planning installing planet ccrma

which is the Fedora equivalent of Ubuntu Studio when time and tide let me.

I already like it better than Ubuntu 10.10

uncutsaniflush writes at 10:37:40 02/21/11 - Comment #60856: What I am realizing that I really don't like the Gnome desktop shell at all in both Ubuntu and Fedora with whatever windows manager du jour.

I hate gnome-screensaver. I hate the lack of configurability. I don't want to write a patch just to change the parameters of how a screensaver operates.

Oh, and by the way, gnome screensaver was crashing X today. But that may be my fault in part. I installed a couple of new screensavers today without updating Fedora since installing. Right now, it is installing 348 and counting updates. I'm sure it will be shiny and new on the other side. And yes, my system has reported the problem (something about "microcode") to Fedora.

BTW, I hate the gnome package manager. It is not user friendly. I can't tell if I am installing or removing software. But that could just be me. I'm used to Synaptic. Yum in the cli is ok. To me, it is just another apt-get. I first used yum in Yellow Dog Linux on the iBook a long time ago.

Maybe I'll install E17 by hook (easy_e17) or crook (compile from source). Who knows the cool kids of
Fedora might even have binary blobs.

paul writes at 10:20:53 02/20/11 - Comment #60809: A quick google search seems to suggest ubuntu does support nouveau

tinypliny writes at 10:13:52 02/20/11 - Comment #60807: Does it work with the *buntus?

paul writes at 10:00:41 02/20/11 - Comment #60806: The thing is most people should not need going forward as they now have that open source 3D driver called nouveau which is part of the fedora base package.

tinypliny writes at 09:53:58 02/20/11 - Comment #60805: Yeah, I noticed that display driver tussle about fedora...

paul writes at 09:51:29 02/20/11 - Comment #60804: Ya the wallpaper was so awful (e:paul,52182) My blog was about how that wallpaper won the contest but only like 10 people voted. It was sad because I really liked all of the previous fedora default wallpapers.

The thing that concerns me is that Fedora 15 seems like it is going to go with gnome shell 3. I am not a big fan of that yet. Maybe it will get better by release time but each time I try it, it sucks.

I hope the experience is good for you. It has really been great for me. The one thing that is slightly difficult for new users would be getting proprietary binary drivers like the nvidia driver up and running. I mean, its by no means hard but they do not make it as easy as it is with ubuntu and I am sure they do that on purpose as Fedora is all about everything being free and open.

Permalink: Fedora_14_First_Impressions.html
Words: 196
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 02/20/11 09:39