The usefulness of an opinion is itself matter of opinion.

SO the other day I promised a close up of the mountain. Here you go, with bonus cloud!

In the the spirit of "running short of time and ideas", I've introduced a new theme for Sundays, the WORLD FAMOUS Sunday Top Five!

This week I start with ~~off the top of my head~~ a meticulously researched list of my Top Five Cover Songs:

The Gourds bluegrass interpretation of Snoop Doggy Dogg's Gin and Juice manages to turn a turgid mess into a stoke of genius.

A generous helping of banjo sees Marah's version of Streets of Philadelphia liven up Bruce Springsteen's laid back original.

Although Marvin Gaye improved on Gladys Knight (and the Pips) I Heard It Through the Grapevine, I think that Creedence Clearwater Revival have to take a bow for taking it in a whole different direction.

Love her or hate her, you have to admit that Sinead O'Connor manages to make a pretty decent single out of an ordinary Prince album track with Nothing Compares 2 U.

The last spot I'm giving to Saint Etienne, for crafting a dreamy version of Only Love Can Break Your Heart, rescuing it from warbling cat in heat, Neil Young.

Just failing to crack the five, I recommend Cat Power's take on (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Linda Ronstadt's You're No Good, The Flying Burrito Brothers almost immediate improvement on Wild Horses, the much maligned Carpenter's expansion on the already spacey Klaatu's Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft; with a final nod to Mary Lou Lord's feminine angel on Springsteen's Born to Run.

Now, I am sure you're all dying to tell me what I've missed. As the owner of a ridiculously expanding iTunes playlist, I'm happy to add more. Fire away in the comments and I'll tell you why your wrong!
Born To Run, Mary Lou Lord, Bruce Springsteen

Comments

Roddy said…

I like this one. It is almost ethereal. Great camera, great zoom.

14 June 2009 at 12:37

yamini said…

Great Photograph. Thanks Kris, we need such viewing here in Delhi to help us face a blistering summer.

15 June 2009 at 14:51

Kris McCracken said…

Roddy, it certainly does the job.

24 June 2009 at 12:06

Kris McCracken said…

Yamini, I could use some summer about now!

24 June 2009 at 12:08

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

This will hurt me...

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