links for 2011-04-27

Runs in the family

The Internet Archive has all four of my dad’s college yearbooks digitized and available for viewing on line. The N.C. State Agromech of 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962 may not make for the most engrossing reading, but they definitely have the best blackmail photos.

And they carry a good reminder that I come by my Glee Club obsession honestly: Dad sang in the NC State Glee Club all four years, and was in the quartet for the last two, as this image proves:

NC State Glee Club Quartet, 1962 (Olin Jarrett on the left)

A special bonus for me was seeing my Dad’s four yearbook “headshots.” It’s amazing how much the 1959 Olin looks like photos of his brother from the same era, and how much the 1962 one looks like the dad I remember from ten years later.

Olin Jarrett, 1959-1962

Grab bag: Data leakage

Grab bag: Plumbing the depths

Grab bag: Paul Simon edition

New mix: every day is getting straighter

This mix has been percolating a while. I didn’t know how to move beyond Jeff Buckley’s absolutely epic reading of his lament for his dead father, but it turns out that anger works remarkably well when played against grief and loss. And that’s how the rest of the mix went.

I make no apologies for the elegiac (some would say self indulgent) triple punch of the Death Cab, Cure, and Jane’s songs stacking up all together. Somewhere there is a sixteen year old who’s just broken up with his girlfriend who only wishes he could put that much misery together in one place on the mix that he’s going to send her.

Bascom Lamar Lunsford’s a cappella version of “To the Pines, to the Pines” is both more matter of fact and more chilling than the version by Leadbelly (and the bloodcurdling Nirvana cover it inspired).

  1. Dream BrotherJeff Buckley (Mystery White Boy (Live))
  2. Careening with ConvictionMission Of Burma (The Obliterati)
  3. Written In ReverseSpoon (Transference)
  4. Company in My BackWilco (A Ghost Is Born)
  5. What Is Your Secret?Nada Surf (The Weight is a Gift)
  6. RevelatorGillian Welch (Time (The Revelator))
  7. The Queen Is Dead (Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty)The Smiths (The Queen Is Dead)
  8. Pump It UpElvis Costello (The Very Best of Elvis Costello And The Attractions)
  9. Radio CureWilco (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
  10. ProgressMission of Burma (Vs. )
  11. TransatlanticismDeath Cab for Cutie (Transatlanticism)
  12. DisintegrationThe Cure (Disintegration)
  13. Then She Did…Jane’s Addiction (Ritual De Lo Habitual)
  14. To The Pines, To The PinesBascom Lamar Lunsford (Ballads, Banjo Tunes, And Sacred Songs Of Western North Carolina)
  15. Einstein’s DayMission of Burma (Vs. )

Grab bag: Hobbitty goodness

1990s Glee Club archive (nearly) complete

Thanks to the contributions of Jeff Slutzky, the archive of information about the Virginia Glee Club of the 1990s is now nearly complete. It stands at 90 articles, including concert articles, information about tours and rolls, and information about members of the group. For an alum who was a member of the group during this formative time, the archive should stir quite a few memories. If you’re inclined, please go and check it out and leave some impressions.

Incidentally, the places where the archive comes up short is in the 1990-1991 season, and the 1999-2000 season. I believe we have concert programs at a minimum for every home concert and most of the away concerts in the other seasons.