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Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesFriday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Louis Jordan Edition
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Today is the birthday of Louis Jordan, the singer, sax player and one of the most successful bandleaders of the 1940s and 1950s. At a time when big bands were beginning a downward trend in popularity and musicians like Charlie Parker and Miles Davis were taking Jazz into bold new directions, Jordan kept the faith with the crowds who still wanted to dance. With his band the tympany Five, Jordan enjoyed a huge amount of success with segregated Black and White audiences, writing and performing arrangements for smaller groups that would serve as the fundamental building blocks of what would become R&B and Rock ‘n’ Roll. In addition to being a fantastic performer, he never let the crowd forget that music is fun.
Help celebrate Mr. Jordan’s birthday by take your MP3 player, pressing the "shuffle" button, and sharing the first 10 songs that play:
Greg Kantowicz writesCHIRP In July
William Lennon writesCHIRP Radio Movie Collection: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
[The CHIRP Radio Movie Collection documents great movies that feature musicians or the use of music in storytelling.]
The Plot: In the cosmic depths of the Marvel Universe, a human scrapper assembles a team of thieves and bounty hunters to recover a weapon capable of destroying the galaxy.
[VERY MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD]
Look at it in the right light and Guardians of the Galaxy is a movie about the dark side of wish fulfillment. After all, what red-blooded American twelve-year-old doesn’t dream of taking to the stars and becoming a Flash Gordon-by-way-of-Han Solo style vagabond?
That’s just what happens to Peter Quill (who takes the name Star Lord to celebrate his transition from middle-schooler to space pirate) and, while he seems to enjoy gallivanting across the cosmos, he never manages to sever the connection between himself and what made the earth special to him: his family.
Guardians is a movie with two MacGuffins. First, there’s The Orb, known as the Power Stone to the greater Marvel Universe, a standard sci-fi plot device described as being able to “mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field.” It does a fine job of moving the story forward and it makes some seriously cool purple sparks when it’s activated, but beyond that The Orb is not all that interesting. Swap it out with, say, The Tesseract from Guardians’ sister film The Avengers and nothing really changes. Quill even breaks the fourth wall a bit mid-movie, mentioning that The Orb has a “Maltese Falcon, Arc of the Covenant vibe.” See also: The Holy Grail, the Death Star Plans, the One Ring.
SKaiser writesCHIRP Photos: Independence Day Salute
Share your Independece Day salute with CHIRP by sending favorite images to Shawna Kaiser at skaiser@chirpradio.org. Here's a collection from Grant Park last night and the 110-voice National Youth Choir of Scotland who joined Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras. For more information on the Grant Park Music Festival, click here.
The Audible Snail writesGive Up Your Car for New Belgium!
Have you ever dreamed of a car-free life? Of the open bikeways in a big city? Of trading in your car keys for a steel frame on two wheels with all of the love you can muster? New Belgium’s Tour de Fat needs you!
New Belgium is giving away a $2,250 stipend to buy a new bicycle and bicycle gear. Potential commuters must submit a 2-minute video to New Belgium’s Facebook page and Chicago’s Tour de Fat Facebook event by Wednesday, July 6 addressing why you want to go car-free and commit to biking full-time.
Click here if you would like to trade in your vehicle.
CHIRP is proud to sponsor the 2016 Tour de Fat on Saturday, July 9 in Chicago’s Palmer Square. In addition to the car-for-bike challenge, CHIRP volunteers will be supporting New Belgium by riding in the Bike Parade!
CHIRP Volunteer Bicycle Trivia: In 2005, DJ The Audible Snail left her broken down minivan at the bottom of a mountain in Western Massachusetts for what would become a 10+ year commuter bicycle life in the great city of Chicago! Her minivan was impounded of course, not left for dead in the middle of nowhere, but she can attest to the freedom of living a life on two wheels and self-propelled velocity! There is no joy like getting to where you need to go on your own time, nor the simple pleasure of passing cars stuck in traffic along the way.
Become a car trader. Submit!