Saturday, January 30, 2010

Sensual songs..

I wanted to avoid any cliches here - like taking any song from Marvin Gaye, or Chris Isaak's "Wicked Games". I started with creating a list of ten "love" songs, but ended up just limiting it to three. To keep it select. To keep it limited. To keep the standard high.

(1) Robbie Robbertson - Somewhere down the crazy river



This song sounds like a hot summer night - a night too hot to sleep.
Robberston's smokey voice, the smooth bass, the subtle guitar, the loose drums - it all melts together to make a perfect "love" song.


I'm a man with a clear destination
I'm a man with a broad imagination
You fog the mind, you stir the soul
I can't find, ... no control

(2) Vangelis - Love Theme

No need for lyrics. Without the saxaphone the song is so clean - so beautiful - so untouched. As soon as the saxaphone sets in - it becomes very, very sexy - dirty even at the points where it starts to crack up. It sounds like two people coming together. A forbidden love. They know they shouldn`t, but it's unavoidable...

(3) The Flamingos - I only have eyes for you

Nothing a little doo-wop can`t fix. It's slow, it's gentle, it's warm blooded - and has that great hollow tone. You can serenade it to her - or just be the bass if you can`t make the high notes.
Best part of the lyrics:

You are here
So am I
Maybe millions of people go by,
but they all disappear from view.
And I Only Have Eyes For You

Honourable mentions: Peter Gabriel's Steam, Sade's Smooth Operator, War's Spill the Wine, Santana's Black Magic Woman.....

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The True Battle of Chernobyl

After seeing a documentary on Belgium television about people in France demonstrating against the bad maintenance/state of French nuclear power plants - I got interested in the biggest nuclear disaster we had in Europe: Chernobyl. This documentary is fascinating - do yourself a favour and watch it.

It convinced me even more that nuclear energy is not a viable replacement for fossil fuel.
Although the possibility of disasters like this one are extremely small - I feel it is not worth the risk. Europe was lucky in 1986 - it could have been far worse.