{"id":320,"date":"2006-08-30T18:54:55","date_gmt":"2006-08-30T17:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/index.php\/2006\/08\/30\/item-internet-makes-mans-life-slighty-better\/"},"modified":"2006-08-30T19:38:32","modified_gmt":"2006-08-30T18:38:32","slug":"item-internet-makes-mans-life-slighty-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/2006\/08\/30\/item-internet-makes-mans-life-slighty-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Item: Internet Makes Man’s Life Slightly Better"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isn\u2019t the internet occasionally so damned useful, that you just thank the heavens for it? There I was, sitting at my desk, doing research into how to sue God, and listening to an NPR podcast<\/a>. The DJ, a man who sounds like one of those liberal elite academics that right wing Americans are always complaining about, introduces a track called \u201cMermaid Avenue???. My ears prick up: Mermaid Avenue was where folk singer Woody Guthrie lived in Brooklyn, and is the title of two great albums<\/a> by Billy Bragg and Wilco. At Woody\u2019s daughter, Nora\u2019s request, Bragg and Wilco had taken the written lyrics of some of Guthrie\u2019s thousands of unrecorded songs, written new tunes and recorded them. Mein host at NPR tells me that \u201cWonder Wheel<\/a>???, a third album of lost Guthrie songs has been made, this time by New York band the Klezmatics. They\u2019re one of the foremost modern outfits playing Jewish Klezmer<\/a> music, it seems. Then I hear the song. I cannot tell you charmed I was to learn that such an improbable piece of music even existed, nor how thrilled I was that it sounded wonderful. Before the track was even played through, Amazon had received my order for the album. A quick google brought me to a half-hour interview<\/a> with the band, including tracks performed in-studio. Ever the enthusiast when it comes to musical moments like this, it occurred to me \u201cnow I\u2019ll have to start listening to Klezmer music???. A few moments and my Last.fm station<\/a> was appropriately configured, and suddenly my living room was filled with that sad old atmosphere you get when Lisa and Bart go to the old Jewish Quarter to ask Rabbi Krustofsky<\/a> for advice on matters Rabbinical. And thus, a few small but previously unknown pleasures are added to my life. Oy! Ain\u2019t this internet just a kholem<\/em>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isn\u2019t the internet occasionally so damned useful, that you just thank the heavens for it? There I was, sitting at my desk, doing research into how to sue God, and listening to an NPR podcast. The DJ, a man who sounds like one of those liberal elite academics that right wing Americans are always complaining about, introduces a track called \u201cMermaid Avenue???. My ears prick up: Mermaid Avenue was where folk singer Woody Guthrie lived in Brooklyn, and is the title of two great albums by Billy Bragg and Wilco. At Woody\u2019s daughter, Nora\u2019s request, Bragg and Wilco had taken the written lyrics of some of Guthrie\u2019s thousands of unrecorded songs, written new tunes and recorded them. Mein host at NPR tells me that \u201cWonder Wheel???, a third album of lost Guthrie songs has been made, this time by New York band the Klezmatics. They\u2019re one of the foremost modern outfits playing Jewish Klezmer music, it seems. Then I hear the song. I cannot tell you charmed I was to learn that such an improbable piece of music even existed, nor how thrilled I was that it sounded wonderful. Before the track was even played through, Amazon had received my order for the album. A quick google brought me to a half-hour interview with the band, including tracks performed in-studio. Ever the enthusiast when it comes to musical moments like this, it occurred to me \u201cnow I\u2019ll have to start listening to Klezmer music???. A few moments and my Last.fm station was appropriately configured, and suddenly my living room was filled with that sad old atmosphere you get when Lisa and Bart go to the old Jewish Quarter to ask Rabbi Krustofsky for advice on matters Rabbinical. And thus, a few small but previously unknown pleasures are added to my life. Oy! Ain\u2019t this internet just a kholem?","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}