So came across Cesare Bonizzi on BBC's website. Fra Bonizzi is a monk of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, an offshoot of the Franciscan order dating back to the 16th century. Fra Bonizzi is also lead singer of a Heavy Metal band that regularly shows up at the Gods of Metal festival in Italy:

UPDATE: Found a better video (still in Italian, though) to add in:

One of the illest songs to come out of this campaign.

Not only is NAS remixing Barack Obama's victory speech, he's thrown the immortal Tupac.
Download it here.

By the by, what do you think about the cover of NAS' album?

H/T To dnA over at Too Sense.

Is music important to you? I went to two full days of music and dancing at Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival in Croton Point Park last weekend about which I will write later. The chatter, the buzz, at Clearwater was about another festival, Make Music New York this Thursday June 21, 2007 and you can go for free. All day, all over NY on almost every street corner, park, band shell and café, musicians will welcome the solstice, the first day of summer with countless concerts.

You can get the idea of the program by looking at the website of
Make Music New York but to understand the enormity of the project, click on the schedule which is hosted by Time Out New York . There is, it seems to me, no limit to Thursday’s music. You don’t like folk? How about hip-hop? Opera? Reggae?

Tuvan Throat Singing will be at the Rubin Museum 150 West 17th Street from 12-1; Have you never heard it? Go! Never heard of Tuva (I hadn't)? Try wiki. Alash, the throat singers, will be around NY other times for the next week or so. Their schedule is here They’ll be at a “donations accepted” concert at Judson Memorial Church next Thursday, June 28th.

Okay, here I am plugging the efforts of a relative. Okay, a distant relative. Really distant. My great-grandfather was the brother of the great-grandfather of a man named Henry Garfinkel, better known to the world as Henry Rollins, one time lead singer of Black Flag. Yes, THAT Henry Rollins. But even if Henry Rollins wasn't a distant cousin of mine, I'd eagerly plug his show. My wife and I caught about a half dozen episodes of the Henry Rollins Show on IFC last year and we loved it. RABIDLY biting satire combined with some pretty interesting interviews and some musical guests who ranged from a bit too avant guarde for my tastes to damned good rock. Of course my favorite musical guest was his last episode of the season where his own Henry Rollins Band was the musical "guest."

Henry Rollins isn't just a punker. He is a very angry, pretty smart man. He sometimes seems a little out of his league when he is interviewing people, but this is scarcely noticeable most of the time. His monologues can be mesmerizing, like with his shaggy dog story of his trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway with intestinal disorders and axe-wielding train attendents. His bitter hatred of Bush would be dear to the hearts of many here, though those who want to see all of us get along happily and merrily petting eachother's puppies despite the disgusting and disturbing Republican attempts to demolish our democracy in a frenzy of pseudo-patriotic war-profiteering over the bodies of our dead soldiers may be disappointed by the harsh, ass-kicking sarcasm of Henry Rollins' wit. But for those who are horrified and even a bit terrified by the direct assault the Halliburton Republicans are making on our democracy will LOVE Henry Rollins' commentary.

I received a request from Internet radio provider Pandora to contact my Congressman before tomorrow's Congressional hearing concerning royalty payment schedules for web based stations. I didn't recall ever giving them my street address, but they somehow knew that unfortunately Vito Fossella is my Congressperson.

I wrote back that any requests to Vito from me would go deaf ears considering I spent most of my 2006 waking hours trying to cause him to be unemployed.

Unlike terrestrial radio, which pays fairly small fees to music copyright licensing companies such as ASCAP and BMI, Internet stations are charged ridiculously high per song rates by Sound Exchange which receives royalty payments for artists and the major record labels.

The new fee schedule will essentially kill web based music radio by making the cost of playing music prohibitive.

I rarely listen to terrestrial commercial music radio anymore because the playlists are repetitive or just outright suck.

Pandora is an interesting service. You can give them an artist or a song and they will put together a compatible playlist.

I put together a station based on the 70s Genesis song, "Supper's Ready". Tonight's Supper's Ready radio station music selections included Genesis, YES, Phish, Procol Harum and Jethro Tull.

In the early hours of Friday, February 24th, 2006, a deliberately set fire tore through an apartment building on Pacific Street in Prospect Heights, causing the deaths of four people, including two young children.

While we sadly can't bring back those who lost their lives in this tragic crime, we can help the survivors. Please join Community Board 8 Fire Safety Committee for a musical performance benefiting the victims of the 1033 Pacific Street arson fire.

The event will feature the music of Kakande, playing the powerful and beautiful melodies of West Africa, with music director Famoro Dioubate, traditional xylophonist from Guinea, and Raul Rothblatt on cello.

Sunday February 25
6 pm: Honoring the community
7 pm: Kakande plays
Dakar Restaurant
285 Grand Avenue (between Lafayette & Clifton)
Please call for reservations at 718-398-8900

Suggested donation: $20
Please donate what you can ~ Donations will help the families of the survivors

Last year, we organized a similar event and we raised $1,600 in one night.

After tireless community organizing, the number of suspicious fires has dropped dramatically. Of course, Kakande's music is not exclusively responsible for this, but we all have our part to play.

Sitting in front of your computer screen late at night on Fat Tuesday (going into Wednesday)? While you read the great posts here on TDG, you might want to listen to a full sixteen and a half minutes of great N'Awlins music. In the middle of a what seems to be a deserted neighborhood, Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis got together to support the Musicians' Village and Habitat for Humanity.

Thanks to hmbscully on YouTube! More NOLA jazz on my blog

I posted about this elsewhere, but I can't bear the thought that anyone might have missed this gem from today's Daily News. Here's a New Year's send off, and let the screenplay rights bidding begin - it's James Brown's last ride:

William Murrell, who had shuttled the music legend around for the past 15 years, drove Brown's body on an 800-mile pilgrimage from Augusta, Ga., to Harlem - a trip that took him from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 10 a.m. yesterday.

"I drove him in life, and I drove him in death," said Murrell, 47. "I can't say no to Mr. Brown."

The coffin had arrived too late at the funeral home for staff there to make a scheduled flight out of Atlanta. And the remaining flights that could carry the remains were all booked as well.

Without a second thought, Murrell yanked the backseats out of his Ford van and loaded up. He and a co-worker piloted the Ford Club Wagon van up I-95 with the Rev. Al Sharpton, the funeral home director and Brown's 24-karat gold-plated coffin in back.

"We talked the whole time," added Murrell who owns a transportation company in Augusta. "Old times, the good old days, all the fun that we had, all the people he touched, the lives that he changed. It went on and on."

And as soon as they reached New York, they flipped on the radio to find Brown's songs playing nonstop.

Murrell had to hurry to get to the city in time. But, hey:

"Who's gonna stop us? We've got the Godfather of Soul in the car!"

Beautiful...

You never know how much you love New York until you go away for a few days and return a turkey-fattened, tryptophaned, cranberried and essentially immobile victim of the SUV lifestyle, or perhaps merely of the holiday spirit.

But in any event, here's a clip, from the broadcast last Wednesday on NBC, of Madonna performing "I Love New York"; the bleeped-out part should be rendered "and you can suck George Bush's ....".

Please, do enjoy.

Hey gang. I'm feeling a bit daughter-of-Israel-ish this morning. I woke up with a hankering of Matisyahu.

Yah.

Even though I talk about my being atheist, religion and spirituality have always been important in my life. I take seriously people's claims of a life of divinity. It's why I come down so harsh on x-tian fundamentialist dominionists who use the name of Jesus not just in vain but for Power.

It's also why, when I come across people like Matisyahu, I stand in awe.