August 16 - All This Useless Beauty

I've found that it is easier to organize my weeks by a theme. I know, the themes don't always make sense, but as I am looking at my Amazon music collection (I store it all in the cloud, and their services are great as far as I am concerned - their cloud player has really worked well for me), the number of songs I have at my disposal is so large that without a theme, it becomes a lot more difficult to decide what to play. It's like any writing assignment - write whatever you want to is a lot more difficult than writing about an assignment ("og alle var enige om at det hadde vært en fin tur" - "and everybody agreed they had a nice trip" - the quintessential ending of any and all Norwegian essay about what we did on our summer vacations). This week, I think I am heading for title tracks.

The interesting thing for me about today's song, All This Useless Beauty by Elvis Costello, is that I barely have listened to the full album.  I had a huge Elvis Costello phase where I thought I needed as much of his music as possible. I still really like his music, but I have come to the conclusion that not every idea you have should make an album, and that is what I sometimes think he has suffered from. All This Useless Beauty is one of his albums that only has a couple of great songs on it. The rest are solid, but nothing special. It is also a fitting end to The Attractions - this album was the last one he recorded with his initial backing band. His current band, The Imposters, is really an upgrade of The Attractions, with Steve Nieve on keyboards, Pete Thomas on drums, and Davey Faragher replacing Bruce Thomas, whom Elvis Costello reportedly has said it is impossible to work with anymore, on bass.

However, while All This Useless Beauty might fall short as a whole, the title track is really worth the price of the album in itself. I find it hauntingly beautiful.

July 22 - (What's So Funny About) Peace, Love, and Understanding?

So the Republican National Circus is over. Lots of balancing acts, clowns, and declawed roaring animals with children (although they are the adult children of the ringmaster) volunteering as part of the act. The contortionist Republican Party is feverishly trying to bend itself away from where it has been into Trump's vision of, well... Calling it a vision is giving it too much credit. Trump's whims is probably better. Let's go to an election based on hate and fear - because that's what they are selling.

And that's where I will counter with Elvis Costello's version of Nick Lowe's (What's So Funny About) Peace, Love, and Understanding? Just to balance Trump out.

April 29 - Alison

It's already been 12 years. Just like with Emma, Alison was a scheduled induction;  however, the schedule became a little more difficult as United Memorial Hospital in Greenville had several first time moms who occupied all the nice birthing suites.  We ended up in the old birthing unit, where the amenities clearly showed signs of aging. I had to go to work in the morning, as I was low on available sick time, but I did make it in time for the birth. And what a birth it was.

 Any plan of anesthesia was quickly abandoned as the anesthesiologist left the room stating, "she is crowning." The stirrups were not up yet so I became a manual stirrup. And when she was born, they still hadn't cleared off the baby warmer which had been used as storage for towels and other linens.  She came out quickly, with an urgency to be here, and I still see that urgency in the way she lives her life.

 When it came to naming Alison I was very happy that we agreed on the name without too much problem. There was no fighting over Emma's name either,  but I was very happy that I could name  my second daughter after song that I truly love. The song is by Elvis Costello, and it's from his debut album called My Aim Is True, and we retained the traditional British spelling with one l. It was one of his first singles,  and I thought it appropriate that I play the song on her 12th birthday. Please enjoy Elvis Costello with the song Alison.

March 5 - After The Fall

I don't think I ever want to let 1991 go. After I started looking back at it, there was so much good music released that year, music that I almost started forgetting about. One album that I didn't discover in 1991, was Elvis Costello's Mighty Like A Rose. I think my interest in Elvis Costello started in 1994, when I picked up a copy of The Very Best Of Elvis Costello & The Attractions. Of course, my good friend and fellow immigrant Svein Ola had been listening to him for a long time by then, and he had tried convincing me of Costello's greatness years before (in particular I remember him pointing out King of America and Imperial Ballroom as great albums), but it wasn't until I was at a book- and record store in Molde while I was at Hustad Leir as part of the community service I did as a conscientious objector to military service.

After picking up the compilation album, I started doing what I so often do, which is to dive deeper into the artist's discography, and I eventually got to the solo albums, Spike and Mighty Like A Rose, released in 1989 and 1991, and the adventurous music they contained. Today's song is a fairly lamenting song that lifts the minor to the major in the chorus. I hope you like it as much as I do.