Thursday, November 5, 2009 - Life and How To Live It

For you REM fans out there, you need to check out their recently released live CD. It has a lot of old stuff they haven't played in years and years. The CD was recorded live over five nights of rehearsals in Dublin and contains 39 songs with offerings from nearly all of their albums, including a lot of their old stuff - Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning, and Fables. Sure, I think there are some key songs missing from this collection, but I wasn't consulted on the set list so I will have to take what I can get. But the good news is that it doesn't include any of their gay songs, like Stand or Shiny Happy People, so that's a definite plus. Lead singer Michael Stipe must be clean and sober for these performances because you can actually comprehend most of the words. The words are still nonsensical, but understandable nonetheless. Stipe, who is very political and is known to promote causes from his pulpit onstage, this time blasts the Internet, but with his tongue firmly inserted into his cheek. He says the Internet sucks, even though he admits he has used it to research the lyrics to one of his own songs. See, Stipe is well-known for not remembering or simply not knowing the lyrics to his own songs...the very ones he himself penned. It is not an unusual occurrence at any REM concert to see frontman Stipe pull out a music stand at any given point throughout a show and casually flip the song sheets as he moves his way through a tune or two. On this CD, he laughs when he tells the story of searching an online database to find the words to "Driver 8," and the lyrics he finds on one website include a note that reads: "These lyrics are approximations. Stipe himself has no idea what he says."

I realize, of course, this has nothing to do with building a house, but I wanted to keep alive my daily streak of writing about the house. Just not a lot of exciting action in the backyard today, unless you find weatherproofing concrete blocks is exhilarating.