My Current Interest

             For the longest time I didn’t realize Imagine Dragons had released a new album.   I kept hearing new songs from them in different places, but I thought they’d simply rereleased the same album with some additional songs attached.   This is something I know other musical artists have done, so I didn’t bother to look into the music I was hearing.   It wasn’t until a figure skater used one of Imagine Dragons’ songs in her program that I decided to see what I may be missing.   As I a result, I found out I was missing an entire album.   All that music I had been hearing was not a rerelease.   It was part of an entirely new piece of work, and I had to check it out.                       Right from the start of Smoke + Mirrors I could tell that Imagine Dragons had stayed true to who the...

             I must say I am surprised I am writing about The People’s Couch .   For the longest time I was embarrassed to admit I watched it at all.   I would catch pieces of it on the sly because I did not want anyone asking me why I was watching something so strange.   It’s not the usual type of thing I watch, as I tend to stay away from most reality-type shows, but there was something about this one I liked.   There was not anything in particular I could put my finger on as to why I did, but now I have figured it out.   The show is hilarious!   I find myself laughing through practically every moment of each and every episode.   It’s hard not to, because the people on it are so funny.   Now that I have this figured out, I will fully admit that not only do I watch this show, but I enjoy it as well.              ...

            Recently I have been hearing the song “Hey Brother” on TV.   It has been with two different ads (which two I don’t remember), and I have been ecstatic to hear it every time.   This is because “Hey Brother” is my favorite song off of Avicii’s True album.   For the longest time I have wondered why I never heard this song anywhere because it is such a great song.   It’s a shame that most people probably haven’t heard it.   Maybe now that it is being used in ads, they will find the song and listen to it in its entirety.   I know that was exactly what I wanted to do, especially since it got stuck in my head.   Once that happened, I knew I had to stop and listen to the entire True album.                 It is my understanding that Avicii is not a singer.   He seems to be involved in every other aspect of m...

               Before the start of World War II, a man helped save hundreds of Jewish children from what was then Czechoslovakia.   For fifty years this story remained untold until the man’s wife found a scrapbook in their attic.   It was because of this scrapbook that the world came to discover the great thing this man did.   People were inspired and became determined to do great things themselves all because of the action of one man.   This man was Nicholas Winton, and Nicky’s Family is his story.                     Nicholas Winton was supposed to go on a ski trip.   It was his friend who changed the plans.   His friend wanted to go to Czechoslovakia to help the children, and Mr. Winton agreed to go with him.   While there, the parents of Jewish children recognized Mr. Winton’s interest in ...

               The other week I saw the movie Bye Bye Birdie in full for the very first time.   It was on TCM and afterwards host Ben Mankiewicz mentioned how different the music in the film was from the original stage production.   Some songs were completely omitted while others were shortened.   Since I have never seen the Bye Bye Birdie stage musical, I was intrigued to see how different the two scores truly were.   I borrowed both discs from the library and played them back to back.   Doing it this way, it is clear there are distinct differences between the two.   I will not say one is better than the other, but they certainly are different.                                 Before I get into a comparison of the two scores, it w...