music

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– for April 16

| rcarmstrong

For the past month I’ve been kicking around in my head the idea of literally interpreting this song title– Bullet with Butterfly Wings, by The Smashing Pumpkins.

©2010 rafael armstrong

(Butterfly and bullet images courtesy of Morguefile).

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– for April 13

| rcarmstrong

I was too tired Tuesday night to put something together, so I decided to double-up yesterday. Unfortunately, I spent a good portion of the morning doing some bug hunting inside my computer, but not before I had put together the 4/13 piece. However, Firefox decided to play the slow as molasses game with me, and I walked away from it in frustration, telling myself I would put up both 4/13 and 4/14 today (April 15). I sat down and roughed out what I wanted to do for 4/14 and 4/15 and went to bed.

So, here’s the piece for 4/13. It’s inspired by my favorite track off disc 2 of the NCIS sountrack (vol. 1). A link to the video for the song will follow.

©2010 rafael armstrong

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– April 6

| rcarmstrong

Today, while enjoying the outdoors for a bit (read: doing yard work), the word “cucubano” came to mind, and with it a song (of the same name) popularized by Tony Croatto (and, if I’m not mistaken, covered by Menudo as well). In case you’re wondering what a cucubano is, the wiki entry (found here) sheds some light, and the blog “Speaking Boricua” has a short and sweet explanation on Tony Croatto here.

I always thought cucubanos were fireflies. It appears I was wrong about that. Anyway, today’s CSED was inspired by the song’s title and part of the lyrics, which translate as follows:

I am a star of the night
in the mountains as well as the plains

Enjoy! As always, your thoughts and feedback are most welcome.

©2010 rafael armstrong

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– For March 17

| rcarmstrong

So this extremely late piece will also dig into the obscure of my music catalog. It is the title of a piece by “El Combochorno Express”, the house band for Sunshine’s Café,  a sketch comedy show locally produced in PR during the late 80s (and, if memory serves me, into the early 90s). “Batutera” is a term used in Spanish for band or drum majorette (“batuta” being the Spanish for the baton used in majoring, or whatever the term is). “Batutera Asesina” translates into “murderous majorette”.

©2010 rafael armstrong

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– for March 13

| rcarmstrong

This entry was inspired by one of Urban Dance Squad’s songs. UDS is a Dutch band from whose music I’ve dug for quite a while, starting with “Deeper Shade of Soul”, their only US hit (to my knowledge). “Duck Ska” is a track off their second album, Life n’ Perspectives of a Genuine Crossover. Not their best by any stretch, but the title’s catchy enough.

Enjoy, and please feel free to drop me any feedback or comments below.

©2010 rafael armstrong

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– for March 12

| rcarmstrong

Still staying in the world of Spanish language music. This time it’s a Salsa classic by Rubén Blades. The song, “plástico”, uses its lyrics to criticize those people and societies who spend their time living a shallow, materialistic existence.

©2010 rafael armstrong

A live performance of the song by Rubén Blades

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– for March 11

| rcarmstrong

Some thoughts on the CSED:

There was a locally produced tv show in PR in the mid-late 80s called Sunshine’s Cafe. It was a sketch comedy show that satirized and lampooned society-at-large during that time. One of the more popular characters (and there were several), was “Vitín Alicea”, a poseur gym-rat wannabe (even though he was a bit soggy around the midsection) with an unhealthy fascination with professional wrestling and wrestlers (he constantly mentioned that he had a 15×15 wrestling ring with 8-inch foam padding built at home), and who was– in a not-at-all-subtly implied manner– gay.  The show’s house band had a “theme song” for each major character, and Vitín’s was Hombres en la Noche (Men in the Night). The show also released an album under the house band’s name– “el Combochorno Express” (“Combochorno” being a variation of con bochorno— with shame– as well as playing with the “combo” as a musical group), which included all the major theme songs.

After reading that paragraph, I’m not entirely sure if anyone that didn’t experience Sunshine’s Cafe first-hand will get it, so here goes:

©2010 rafael armstrong

Here’s an audio link to the song in question

as well as a video from the show.