Suicide Blonde

In November it will be 15 years since the death of Michael Hutchence, the charismatic lead singer of INXS who took his life on the 22nd of that month in 1997. I remember first hearing of INXS in 1986 with the release of their big hit "What You Need." I liked it but I didn't give the song or the band much thought after that. Not that they needed me to claim their success...they had a string of hits into the 1990s and looking back now, I appreciate them for what they were...an effervescent band that epitomized being cool. The bands that are popular today simply don't have the panache, self-assuredness or kick-ass technicality that these rockers from Australia had. I miss that.

Tonight as I was driving up from Nashville I heard "Suicide Blonde" on the radio. What a great song! I love the harmonica on it. And Michael Hutchence was being the typical energetic, rock and roll lead singer mesmerizing listeners with his passion and unequivocal, carefree, no BS attitude that very few singers display these days.

Here's to you, Michael!

Enjoy "Suicide Blonde!" If you don't feel like moving, just a little after you hear this song...I would have to ask if you have a pulse!

What Young People Think

It seems that every year a new survey is released that claims to reveal what young people (college-aged individuals) are thinking. Recently, the Harvard University Institute of Politics created an instrument that required students to prioritize the importance of various national and international issues. Learn what students feel about the European debt crisis, health care, education, troops in Afghanistan, etc. Click her to review the results: Young People's Priorities Chart. Thank you to Charles Blow for posting this!

If you would like to read the survey in greater detail (over 20 pages long), click here: Survey of Young Americans' Attitudes Toward Politics and Public Service

The Art of Noise

I now regret not having paid better attention to the Art of Noise. What an innovative group! I guess since I was a teenager during their heyday in the 80s, I did not appreciate them, because they did not follow the formulaic approach to making pop/rock songs back then: they create a lot of synth, electric sampling, elegiac environments that listening to now, I really like.

Some of us may remember them for their big hit, the remake of the Henry Mancini classic "Peter Gunn".
Check them out here in "Moments in Love." It has a nice ethereal, New Age feel to it.

Epitaph on a Tyrant and Charles Taylor

W.H. Auden

Justice has finally been served. Charles Taylor, the brutal warlord who became president of Liberia and provided arms to rebels in Sierra Leone that led to horrific treatment of citizens that included the chopping off of arms and hands, was convicted by an international crimes court in Leidshendam, Netherlands of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He will be sentenced next month. Check out the Washington Post article Charles Taylor Conviction.

Reading this news made me think of an excellent poem written by W. H. Auden in 1939. In light of World War II, Auden knew a thing or two about tyrants and evil. Nothing has changed since then.


                        Epitaph on a Tyrant

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets,
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried little children died in the streets.