Freshman year of high school, I played Michael Damian's 1984 Love Is A Mystery so much my sister told me she knew every word of it even though she could not stand the sound of his voice. I had to buy it from Canada the album was so hard to find in the United States.

Lost and obscure almost from the beginning, Love Is A Mystery is even harder to track down today and a cd copy from Japan will cost you well over $100.

It always seemed to me that Michael Damian's singing style took a turn for the worse when he tried to go more commercial in the late 80s (his cover of David Essex's "Rock On" was his first and only #1 Top 40 hit).

I got to see him at Hammerjack's ages and ages ago and he is one of those singers who is much better live than on a recording. He's a super nice person and though many of his songs from other albums sound very dated these days, much of what is Love Is A Mystery isn't half bad.


Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kuWPipyEeQ


track listing: Love Is A Mystery

 

 

The Eagles are better for my nerves than almost any other band I love. With the exception of Bach, no other music soothes me when I'm troubled. There's something about Don Henley's soulful voice (especially) that makes me feel things are going to get better. I've always found him more sincere and easier to take seriously than Glenn Frey, though Frey sounds so yearning and earnest on "Lyin' Eyes" and "After The Thrill Is Gone" (where Henley joins him) I like his voice, too.

top ten most underrated Eagles songs

As if there isn't enough out there to read, I keep finding links to "forgotten classics" of the 19th century:

"forgotten classics" to put on your Kindle or Google Play  (English As She Is Spoke by Pedro Carolino is a truly funny read. Buried within this thread are mentions of books that provide interesting insights on how the mind and things like melancholy were once regarded. Those titles are not necessarily classic, but compelling in their take on life.)

20 Classic Novels You've Never Read  

Most of the titles referenced can be found for free in the Kindle or Google Play Books store!

The Missed Connections of their time...

Does your mind ever get scrambled when you think of all there is to do in the world, both what you want to do and what you have to do? All the books you want to read, the sights you want to see, the places to go?

Like many book lovers, I have a TBR list I'm sure I won't finish even if I live to be 99. Whenever I think of all there is to do, especially the exciting things, I'm usually able to snap myself out of my funk.

I just downloaded The Agony Columns of The Times 1800-1870,free from my Google Play Books app. It's fascinating stuff and not only because it's reproduced exactly as it would have looked to 19th century readers but also because it's a collection of columns from what seem to be the Missed Connections of their time. The above is just one of many examples.

The "agony" is supposedly taken from the writer's despair of ever again seeing the person he (though sometimes women would post an ad) found so fascinating, though other ads are more laments or thinly veiled messages that hint at illicit affairs or something from a spy novel. 

Alice Clay's introduction to the book could have been written today it has such modern insight into the human heart. Just one of the passages from her intro:

With hearts that are breaking, men and women can go through the duties of every-day life, wearing calm and even smiling faces. He knew human nature well who wrote 'Broken hearts are dumb or smile.' What is there to tell us that such smiles are only on the surface?

But not all of the ads are missed connections of the first encounter kind. Many repeat names and are mysterious and signed in code. You'd need a degree in cryptology to decipher them.

In one striking ad, someone refers to Cenerentola and writes: Until my heart is sick, have I tried to frame an explanation for you, but cannot. Silence is safest if the true cause is not suspected: if it is, all stories will be sifted to the bottom. Cenerentola is Italian for Cinderella, but it (if you add a "La" in front) is also the name of a 19th century opera.

For a book having an editor, it doesn't offer much source material or any footnotes (marvelous introduction aside!) You have to figure out references and codes yourself (if the codes can even be cracked.)

Despite these problems, you can have fun looking up things or recognizing them because you already know some of the popular culture at the time. There is sadness yet familiarity and comfort in the general malaise of the human condition always present in The Agony Column. Take out the dates and the formal language and you could almost be reading the best of Craig's List.

 

Happy Friday! If you need something to perk up your day head over to You Tube or your favorite place to listen to music and type in "Burning Down The House" as covered by Tom Jones and Nina Persson. It's so much fun to listen to and you can understand every single word. It's not as moody (definitely not!) or as eerie as The Talking Heads, but it's something else, all the same.

 

If high energy is not what you seek, try listening to the transcendent and hypnotic remix of Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight." It gets the best remix treatment of any song I've ever heard. It takes something that is already pretty awesome and makes it impossible to forget.

 

Seven minutes and twenty seconds of sensual beats, melodic piano and a haunting sound that is much better than what you find in the original. The only problem is the cost.

 

You cannot find this in MP3 form anywhere and the import price is enough to give you real pause. If you can afford it, though, it's definitely worth shelling out the money. In the meantime, you can always head over to You Tube and take a listen...or two.