Common Sparrow
CommonSparrow@mindly.social
<p>Hair is gray, but not yet retired. Currently working two jobs - Love both of them. Native of New York by Ontario's shore, with Canadian childhood memories. Lifelong Democrat, moving ever further left as the years pass. Have a half-dozen double-stacked bookcases of secondhand books, and still keep my public library card busy. Honorary Gramma to a cute kiddo. Dog lover and recorder of audiobooks for LibriVox.</p><p><a href="https://mindly.social/tags/DailyHaikuPrompt" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DailyHaikuPrompt</span></a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/BookRecommendations" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BookRecommendations</span></a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/Books" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Books</span></a> <a href="https://mindl
Posts
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Piano Music, we need some laughs. So here they are, courtesy of Victor Borge, who played the silliest piano concerts and had a lot of fun with the instrument. Excerpt from a live 1970 performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nli780dOlq0 #JukeboxFridayNight #PianoMusic
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For this week's jukebox music theme, here's a recording of the jazz piano virtuoso Art Tatum, playing Duke Ellington's "Caravan". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJgLZMFfa18 #JukeboxFridayNight #PianoMusic
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Piano Music, we must have one of Frederic Chopin's iconic Polonaises for piano. Here is his Polonaise No. 6 in A-flat, in recordings by two of the greatest classical pianists of the last century, in two quite different styles. First, a reflective interpretation by Arthur Rubinstein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5ScGtmvSgY Then, an emotional interpretation by Vladimir Horowitz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUbcaM_Aa_U #JukeboxFridayNight #Pia...
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Piano Music, here is Montreal-born jazz piano great Oscar Peterson, playing his memorable "Hymn to Freedom", which drew on the sounds of blues, jazz, and Baptist church music to create a moving piece for piano. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCrrZ1NnCuM #JukeboxFridayNight #PianoMusic
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Piano Music, here is a performance by one of the all-time ragtime piano greats, Eubie Blake, playing his early hit "Charleston Rag". He composed it in 1899, and here is performing it in 1973. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avxAzZtwP5o #JukeboxFridayNight #PianoMusic
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Piano Music, here's a song of reflective recollection. "Nobody Knows Me Like the Piano" written and performed by Sampha Lahai Sisay. "No one knows me like the piano in my mother's home, You would show me I had something some people call a soul, And you dropped out the sky, oh, you arrived when I was three years old, No one knows me like the piano in my mother's home." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvr3qraAq0U #Jukebo...
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Piano Music, here's Brenda Russell singing her soulful "Piano in the Dark", about the magnetic effect of her lover's nighttime piano playing. "Just as I walk through the door, I can feel your emotion, It's pulling me back, Back to love you. I know I'm caught up in the middle, I cry just a little, When I think of letting go, Oh no, gave up on the riddle, I cry just a little, When he plays piano in the dark." https://ww...
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Piano Music, here's a Latin Salsa hit in which the sound of a piano brings back melancholy memories of a lost love. "Piano", written by Manny Benito and Jorge Luis Piloto, sung by Paquito Hechavarria, piano by Rey Ruiz. "Piano que acompañas mi tristeza, Siempre que te escucho pienso en ella, Porque con tus notas me alimentas, Oh la esperanza de que vuelva." (English: "Piano, accompanying my sorrow, Whenever I hear you, I th...
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Piano Music, here is a love song to the musician's true love, his baby grand piano. "Baby Grand", written by Billy Joel, performed by Billy Joel and Ray Charles. "Late at night when it's dark and cold, I reach out for someone to hold, When I'm blue, when I'm lonely, She comes through, she's the only one who can, My baby grand, She's all I need." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUNOmN3YVL0 #JukeboxFridayNigh...
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Piano Music, here is a song which uses the black and white keys on a piano keyboard as a metaphor for racial harmony. "Ebony and Ivory", written by Paul McCartney, sung by McCartney and Stevie Wonder. "Ebony and ivory Live together in perfect harmony, Side by side on my piano keyboard, Oh Lord, why don't we?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm6J_5xwJW0 #JukeboxFridayNight #PianoMusic
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For this week's jukebox music theme, A Wider World, here is a wonderful NPR Tiny Desk Concert by Los Mirlos, a Peruvian cumbia band. Cumbia is originally a genre of folk music from Colombia, but later developed a fusion with Peruvian Andean music, Cuban percussion, and electric guitars. It became popular with workers in the Amazonian regions of Peru. Let Los Mirlos get you dancing along to their Tiny Desk concert here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCh4tfSqXFc #JukeboxFridayNight #AWide...
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For this week's jukebox music theme, A Wider World, here is a contemporary song from the world of Afro-Peruvian music. Susana Baca, the award-winning singer-songwriter, sings "María Landó", the song of a poor working woman's life. "María no tiene tiempo de alzar los ojos, María rotos de sueño, de andar sufriendo, María sólo trabaja, sólotrabaja, sólo trabaja, y su trabajo es ajeno." English translation: "María has no time to lift up her eyes, María exhausted by...
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Another song for this week's jukebox music theme of A Wider World. Joanne Shenendoah is a Haudenosaunee singer from the Oneida nation. Her music mixes sounds from her Six Nations tradition with a modern style. Here she is singing a series of Old Moccasin Dance songs from her 1993 album of Social Songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0lh6GH-LO0 #JukeboxFridayNight #AWiderWorld
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For this week's jukebox music theme, songs from a Wider World, here is a song rooted in the Haudenosaunee musical tradition. Sadie Buck is a Tonawanda Seneca artist and author who has written new songs based on traditional Seneca music. She is the lead singer of the group Six Nations Women Singers. Here is her amazing voice leading the group singing "Uheawaewhale" in March 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy6g8v7J1qU #JukeboxFridayNight #AWiderWorld
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For this week's jukebox music theme, songs from a Wider World, here is a song rooted in the Haudenosaunee musical tradition. Sadie Buck is a Tonawanda Seneca artist and author who has written new songs based on traditional Seneca music. She is the lead singer of the group Six Nations Women Singers. Here is her amazing voice leading the group singing in March 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy6g8v7J1qU #JukeboxFridayNight #AWiderWorld
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Dirty, here's another song called "Don't Go Near the Water". This one written and sung by Johnny Cash, lamenting how we humans are polluting the environment. "There was a time the air was clean, And you could see forever ‘cross the plains, The wind was sweet as honey, And no one had ever heard of acid rain. We’re torturin’ the earth, And pourin’ every kind of evil in the sea, We violated nature, And our children have to pay the pen...
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Dirty, here is "Don't Go Near the Water", written by Mike Love and Al Jardine, sung by the Beach Boys. Their usual songs celebrating fun times surfing in clean water are turned around in this song warning that the water is now too dirty and polluted to be safe. "Don't go near the water, Don't you think it's sad, What's happened to the water, Our water's going bad. Oceans, rivers, lakes and streams, Have all been tou...
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Dirty, here is "Black Waters", written and sung by Jean Ritchie, lamenting the pollution and devastation of the land caused by coal strip-mining. "I come from the mountains, Kentucky's my home, Where the wild deer and black bear so lately did roam, By the cool rushing waterfall the wildflowers dream, And through every green valley, there runs a clear stream. Now there's scenes of destruction on every hand, And only black waters run...
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For this week's jukebox music theme, here is a deceptively gentle song about atmospheric poisoning. "What Have They Done to the Rain?" was originally written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962 as a protest to the strontium-poisoned rain caused by above-ground nuclear tests. Later, the song also became a protest in the 1970's and 1980's against acid rain as well. Sung here by Malvina Reynolds. "Just a little boy standing in the rain, The gentle rain that falls for years, And...
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Dirt, here is "Pollution", scathing satire with a merry tune, written and sung by Tom Lehrer. "If you visit American city, You will find it very pretty. Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air! Pollution, pollution, They got smog and sewage and mud, Turn on your tap, And get hot and cold running crud... See the halibuts and the sturgeons, Being wiped out by detergents, Fish got to...
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For this week's jukebox music theme, Dirt, here is Bill Steele's "Garbage", a musical diatribe about our trashing of the earth. Sung by Pete Seeger for a 1986 environmental documentary, in front of a backdrop of garbage barges. "Mister Thompson calls the waiter, orders steak and baked potato, He leaves the bone and gristle and he never eats the skin, The busboy comes and takes it, with a cough contaminates it, And puts it in a can with coffee grounds and sardine tins, And...
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I began this week's Personal Playlist with "Amazing Grace", the central song of my entire life. Now I end this list with its bookend, another song that similarly speaks for my whole life, "How Can I Keep From Singing?" We heard it growing up on my dad's folk music records. We sang it around the campfire in girl scouts. I sang it in church with the choir. The first two verses have traveled with me throughout my years, sustaining me in song through life's ups and d...
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This week's jukebox music theme is Personal Playlist, the music of our own lives. I was 49 years old when I finally met Brian, at a time when I never expected to fall in love. We were together for 15 years, until he died of covid in 2024. Unlike the family I grew up in, Brian was not personally musical, and didn't have favorite albums or musical enthusiasms. But one of our favorite regular dates during our years together was going to free outdoor concerts. We took our folding chairs dow...
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This week's jukebox music theme is Personal Playlist, the music that followed us through life. My dad and I continued to discover new music together as we aged, influencing each other with our fresh enthusiasms. We discovered Motown and R&B when I was in my late 30's, and found a whole new musical world to explore. A couple of my personal favorites: Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?"- "Mother, mother, There's too many of you crying, Brother, brother, brot...
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This week's jukebox music theme, Personal Playlist, looks back at the music that marked our lives. I used to discover new albums I liked by borrowing them from the library. If I liked one well enough to spend money on it, I'd buy my own. Judy Collins' "Bread and Roses" album was one that I played over until it was scratched and worn. It spoke to me when I was in my 20's. Here is the title song from that album, a stirring anthem of working women. ".As we go marc...
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This week's jukebox music theme is Personal Playlist, the music of our own life. I grew up surrounded by eclectic music, in a household with my dad and my grandparents. I was awash in pop songs of the 60's and 70's, but certainly the music I heard from the older generation also struck deep into my ears. Dad listened to jazz, folk, blues, theater and movie music. Grandpa liked swing jazz and polka music. Grandma liked sweet jazz and the pop music of the 1930's and 40's. Their...
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This week's jukebox music theme is Personal Playlist, the music of our own life. I grew up surrounded my eclectic music, in a household with my dad and my grandparents. I was awash in pop songs of the 60's and 70's, but certainly the music I heard from the older generation also struck deep into my ears. Dad listened to jazz, folk, blues, theater and movie music. Grandpa liked swing jazz and polka music. Grandma liked sweet jazz and the pop music of the 1930's and 40's. Their...
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This week's jukebox music theme is Personal Playlist, the music that marked our lives. When I was a teen, I belonged to a girl scout troop filled with girls who liked to sing. Folk songs, popular songs of the day (1970's), and weird parodies, we sang anything. Here's one that was a popular sing-along in those days, late at night around the ashes of the campfire. "I'd like to build the world a home, And furnish it with love, Grow apple trees and honey bees, And snow white tu...
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This week's jukebox music theme is Personal Playlist, the music of our lives. When I was in high school, I played violin in the school orchestra, where I fell in love with Mozart. I had an album of Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" which was my homework album, spinning on my record player while I studied or did math or wrote essays. It shut out the world and helped me get in the groove and focus. Hearing this music to this day takes me back to high school. Here's the first...
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This week's jukebox music theme is Personal Playlist, the songs of our own life. Here is the one that always makes me stand up, starts my blood flowing, brings me to smiles and tears. The "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's 9th Symphony is one of the greatest musical compositions of human genius. Here it is moving an entire crowd of people to sing along. "Freude, Schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuer-trunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum! Deine Zauber...