From the LP Collection_ "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" by Pink Floyd (1 of 8)

Today, we start a new feature series on albums from my personal record collection with "A Momentary Lapse of Reason," the 1987 record from the legendary rock band Pink Floyd.

This is also the record which somehow hypnotizes the family tuxedo cat, or at least makes him less neurotic than normal.

"Reason" was the 13th and next to last studio album for Pink Floyd. "The Final Cut"
(1983) and "The Division Bell" (1994) came before and after it.

The album was a highly controversial one, not so much for content, as much as it lead to a very open public feud between Roger Waters, one of the leaders of Pink Floyd, who left the group leaving David Gilmour as lead singer/guitarist. Waters even tried to sue Gilmour over the use of the name Pink Floyd.

The two remaining members of the lineup drummer Nick Mason and the late keyboardist Richard Wright (1943-2008) were also brought on board to record the album in England.

The album is also noted for having the first inserted sleeve photograph of the band since 1971's "Meedle." The record features the psychedlic single "Learning to Fly" which is said to be a metaphor for starting a new chapter in life.

"Reason" also contains "The Dogs of War," "One Slip" and "On the Turning Away," which seems to be our cat's personal favorite, or at least it mellows him considerably.

I won the record from a contest from the now defunct Rock 105 (104.9 FM_Blacksburg, Va.), though the station no longer exists, there is a cool college radio station serving the New River Valley of Virginia in 90.7 FM-Blacksburg, the student-run radio station of Virginia Tech.

Roger Waters will be performing the band's legendary album "The Wall" in concert at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC, on July 12, 2012.

NOTE: This blog will be on brief hiatus until Tuesday.

Quote of the Week- Ludwig van Beethoven

In the Whoops Department, we meant to quote Ludwig van Betthoven (1770-1827) first, and then quote Bryan Adams in the next entry. But, the phone was ringing and we are listening to the Virginia Tech- Georgia Tech football from Atlanta which have the Hokies beating the home team Yellow Jackets 21-13 at half-time. Ok, yes, that was a cop-out!

For fans of the Stanley Kubrick cinematic classic "A Clockwork Orange" (1971), the ninth symphony from 'Ludwig van' which is featured in the film always conjurs up sadistic notions (that film wasn't exactly "Bambi").

If you want to hear Bethooven on the Internet, both WETA-FM in Washington, DC, which is an NPR station, and WCPE in Raleigh, NC, which is an independent, non-profit station play the likes of Bethooven, Mozart and Metallica (ok, they don't play Metallica!) 24 hours a day.

Here is the quote:

"A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation."

Happy National College Radio Day

Happy National College Radio Day. I co-hosted a Turkish music show on WUVT-FM (90.7-FM) in 1994, so I fully respect the hard work and dedication that all college radio djs put in. Today's Turkish music show on WUVT-FM is called "Turkish Music Hour" and it airs from 1:00-2:30 p.m. (yes, it is an ironic title since the show lasts an hour and a half). I still listen to the show, and I think it's quite well-done. The hosts have in fact thought me about the Turkish female pop singer Nil Karaibrahimgil who is apparently very popular now.

There is a Greek music show before the Turkish show, as was the case when my friend Bahadir and I co-hosted the show. And, it is also quite good.

Since I now live in North Carolina, I also want to mention four exceptional college radio stations between Greensboro and Raleigh. They include WKNC (North Carolina State), which has a great heavy metal show on Friday nights, WXDU (Duke University, pictured) which has a great folk/local music show hosted by Washboard Dave.

In addition, there is WXYC (UNC) and WUAG (UNC-Greensboro).

SIDEBAR: This was a good weekend for many ACC sports team in Virginia and North Carolina. In college football, Wake Forest pulled off a huge upset of Florida State by a 35-30 score. Similarly, the Virginia Tech Hokies were able to defend their home turf in an exciting 38-35 win over Miami (Fla).

Not that this is pick on the Miami Hurricanes Day, but the UNC Tarheels won a home volleyball in five sets over the Hurricanes yesterday. Emily McGee of the Tarheels was named ACC Volleyball Player of the Week. On Thursday, the Tarheels, which also have a Turkish player named Ece Taner, host the Virginia Tech Hokies, a team that features junior Liz Trinchere, who is an alumnus of my high school, Glenvar High School in Salem, Va.

Sports Desk- Vikings and Spartans Victorious in Virginia

Yes, a Spartan mask from a museum was not our initial choice for an image for this blog, but all the marching band photos were either too big or unavailable for legal reasons.

As it is, my alma mater Glenvar High School from Salem, Va., was not in action, but 'the big school' Salem High School was. And, the Salem Spartans defeated the William Byrd Terriers 27-13 in a home game.

Up the road, the visiting Northside Vikings beat the Hidden Valley Titans 21-17. Hidden Valley High School is one of two Roanoke-area high schools, including Eastern Montgomery High School, which did not exist in the 1980s, when I was a star quarterback for the Glenvar Highlanders (that is a joke, our real quarterback was a guy named Barry).

Here is a rundown of other high school scores from the Roanoke/Lynchburg/Blacksburg region:

Cave Spring 34 Lord Botetourt 18
Christiansburg 47 Bassett 0
Galax 43 Radford 0
Magna Vista 28 Franklin County 26
E.C. Glass 21 William Fleming 20
Martinsville 44 Liberty 34
George Wythe 31 Floyd County 19

SIDEBAR: We learned recently that an alum of Glenvar High School named Liz Trinchere plays volleyball for Virginia Tech. The Hokies were victorious over their arch rivals the University of Virginia Cavaliers by a 3 sets to 1 score in Blacksburg. Cara Baarendsey, a junior from Mason, Ohio, scored 13 kills and 16 digs for the Hokies in the home victory.

It was a mixed bag for the UNC Tarheels in women's volleyball this weekend. The team hosted the Tarheels Classic, and they scored wins over St. Louis and Miami (Ohio), but the 'Heels feel to Tulsa 3-1. Kaylie Gibson of Apex, NC, and Aleksandra Georgieva of Bulgaria combined for 13 kills despite the loss.

Conversely, my alma mater Radford University fell in a road game to UNC-Greensboro in the Spartan Spiketacular in straight sets on Saturday in front of 311 spectators. Radford Highlanders senior Carly Fleming of Manassas, Va., did become the school's all-time solo blocks leader (50) in spite of the defeat.

Karrian Chambers, from College Station, Tex., helped guide the Spartans to their victory and she recieved all-conference honors as well.

Quote of the Week- Martin Scorsese

Wow! I just saw the stats for this blog, and assuredly if we were a cable reality tv show, we would have been cancelled three years ago. But, we do live in a world where more people watch "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" on Bravo than "Frontline" on PBS!

Today's quote of the day comes from Martin Scorsese. I guess one could argue about what is his best film: "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," "Goodfellas" or "Kundun," but we only get into politics when it involves Greeks, Armenians or Republicans (forgive the ethnic humor; I happen to be the only person of Turkish heritage here in Welch, West Virginia*).

Here is our quote from Scorsese:

"Cinema is a matter of what's in frame and what's out."

SIDEBAR: Well, we learned from their web site that The Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo., which is going to be held from Sept. 29th to Oct. 1st is alas sold out!

But, should one be able to attend, there will be vendors from all parts of les etats unis**, including Boulder Beer from (of course!) Boulder, Colo., Fat Head's Brewery from Cleveland, and Cigar City Brewing from Tampa.

Closer to home, there is the third annual Brew Do, which is a beer festival in Blacksburg, Va., on Sept. 24. Hopefully, there will not be a home football game for Virginia Tech for those attending!

*- Not actually where I live, but it is a place that seems fairly similar to that.

**- The French word for The United States

Special Quote of the Week- Bill Russell

Today's quote comes from Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell, and it is about love, of all things:

"Most people have a harder time letting themselves love than finding someone to love them."

SIDEBAR: We mentioned the Turkish music show on WUVT (90.7-FM), the student-run radio station of Virginia Tech two entries ago. There is also a Greek music show that airs right before it.

I must profess that I thought female Turkish pop singer Nil Karaibrahimgil's name was long enough, but Greece has two popular male pop singers with long names, including Notis Sfakianakis and Michalis Hatzigiannis.

Status Update_ Life Might Be Turning Back to Normal

Status Update for June 27, 2011:

"Life is apparently, somehow/somewhat becoming normal again. Can I listen to Slipknot now?"

For those who don't get my sense of humor, and many people do not, there is actually an entry on my sister blog "The Daily Vampire" with an image of the great composer Franz Liszt, whose music will be on the PRI/NPR show "Performance Today" this evening in our market.

Somehow, when the opportunity permits, I also like to listen to "Chainsaw Rock" on 88.1-FM (Raleigh), which is the North Carolina State student radio station. It airs from midnight to 2:00 a.m. on Friday night/Saturday morning; the show is hosted by Hammerhead. And, it is responsible for introducing me to the speed metal band Slipknot, a band that originated in Iowa, of all places!

Orginally, we were going to use Guns N Roses as the band for this entry, but we think Slipknot makes it more offbeat and perhaps slightly funnier. My own personal favorite music genres are actually Turkish psychedelic music from the '70s and New Wave music from the '80s. I should add that I much prefer Talking Heads over Culture Club. And, Turkish psychedelic pioneer Erkin Koray turned 70 this month.

A Turkish music radio show airs on WUVT-FM (90.7, Blacksburg, Va.), the student station of Virginia Tech, on Saturdays from 1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.

Status Update- Ben Cok Yorgunum (I'm Verrry Tired!)

Under 'normal' circumstances, I may have been tempted to stay up from 2:00 a.m-3:30 a.m., Hartford, Connecticut Time, and watched "Grizzly," a '70s crazy horror film about a bear who really, really goes wild and presumably eats people on TCM Underground.

But, I have been very overwhelmed---to put it mildly, in fact, right now, even though I am not a serial killer or sociopath, I am reminded of that Bret Easton Ellis novel "American Psycho" (1991), a book which I'm not sure what to make of even though Ellis is one of my favorite contemporary novelists, in which the title character Patrick Bateman states the haunting line 'this is not an exit,' meaning there is no escape!

SIDEBAR_One of the entries that I am working on, is another installment of our famous people with long, difficult names list. Nil Karaibrahimgil (perhaps I've mentioned this before?!), a female Turkish pop singer, is among the candidates for the list. They just played one of her songs today on "The Turkish Music Hour," which actually lasts 90 minutes. The show from WUVT-FM (90.7-FM, Blacksburg, Va.) airs and streams online from 1:00-2:30 p.m. on Saturdays.

Special Quote of the Week- Albert Camus

Today, we conclude with a spillover entry from the month of May, in which we posted quotes from famous novelists, with a quip from the late French writer Albert Camus
(1913-1950). Like the subject of our other entry on our other blog who was George Orwell (1905-1950), both writers were born abroad and died at age 46. While Orwell was born in India, Camus was born in Algeria. He often wrote about the plight of the north African country which remains an area of concern today given the political upheveal in neighboring Libya. Prior to the Libyan mess, there were earlier uprisings in neighboring Tunisia, which lead to the 'Arab Spring."

In addition to his criticism of colonialism, Camus was an outspoken critic of the death penalty, saying that it would never deter perspective murderers because 'the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in the state of equilibrium.'

Alas, the likes of Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va) and Gov. Rick Perry (R-Tex.) and others on the anti-intelllectual right will assuredly always find a way to dismiss any logic that challenges their self-righteous Christian hypocricy.

McDonnell will be speaking at the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center in Blackstone, Va. on June 11th, according to Eskii Kebede of "The Collegiate Times," the Virginia Tech student-run newspaper in Blacksburg, Va. The topic will be the faith of the founding fathers. Assuredly, any arguments about how a man who sees himself as an upstanding Christian can support the morally inconsistent pro-death penalty argument will not be brought forth.

Camus, who recieved the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, is known for three novels "The Stranger" (1942), "The Plague" (1947) and "The Fall" (1956).

Surreally enough, the much-heralded Turkish film director Zeki Demirkubuz loosely adapted "The Stranger" into his well-recieved 1999 film "Yazgi" ("Fate). I'm sure Camus would have been proud; here is his quote:

"An intellectual is someone who mind watches itself."

Quotes from the Composers- Zoltan Kodaly

We conclude our Quotes from The Composers series with a quip from Hungarian master Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967) who was also an educator, linguist and philosopher. Kodaly is perhaps best-known for his orchestral/opera "Hary Janos" (1926) which Wikipedia describes as 'a Hungarian folk opera.' It was first performed by the Royal Hungarian Opera House in Budapest that same year.

We love this quote, and in case, you were wondering the image above is of Hungarian goulash, which they might serve at the Mirabell Restaurant in Chicago, which is actually a German restaurant:

"The laws of morals and the laws of music are the same."

Classical music fans in Pittsburgh, Pa., can hear a performance of "Mozart's Symphony, Number 4" on Jan. 28 at 8:00 p.m., followed by another performance on Jan. 30 at 2:30 p.m.

SIDEBAR: Since I am a Turkish-American, it may surprise a few folks that I am a huge fan of the Greek film composer Mikis Theodakris, who is alive and well (we hope!) at age 85. Theodakris is known for his legendary compostions to "Z" and "Zorba the Greek" and he also scored the 1973 Al Pacino drama "Serpico."

One can listen to WUVT-FM (90.7 Blacksburg, Va), the student-run college radio station of Virginia Tech, for Greek music from 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. on Saturdays. A Turkish music show follows on the same station from 1:00-2:30 p.m. I co-hosted a Turkish music show on WUVT in 1994 and I was told that I played too much music from the late pop singer Baris Manco which proves it's impossible to make people happy!