TIMELESS SPIRAL: Michael Hawley's Favorite New Music 2011 Video Playlist

Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks: "Senator"



R.E.M.: "Mine Smell Like Honey"



R.E.M.: "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter"



Beth Ditto: "I Wrote the Book"



Hunx and his Punx: "That's the Curse of Being Young"



PJ Harvey: "The Words That Maketh Murder"



PJ Harvey: "Written On the Forehead"



Fountains of Wayne: "Someone's Going to Break Your Heart"



The Go! Team: "Secretary Song"



Beastie Boys: "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win"



Rye-Rye (feat. M.I.A.): "Sunshine"



Thurston Moore: "Circulation"

TIMELESS SPIRAL—Tommy James & the Shondells

As current and necessary as the Occupy Wall Street movement feels, it likewise conjures up a certain nostalgia for the protests characteristic of the late sixties, which in turn engenders conflicted feelings within me. As much as has changed in 40+ years since I was an idealistic teenager of the counterculture, my jaundiced eye isn't convinced these changes have been for the better. They certainly don't meet the promise we expected of change at the time. Then again, could they ever? Inversely, if anything hasn't changed it is precisely the constant need for the role of the citizenry to remain vigilant and to redress social injustice. Thus, I am in full solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement and praise each and every foot soldier on the streets of America, even as I harbor deep concern that the very forces of social protest that once proved so effective in decades past have somehow become co-opted by the corporate forces they now oppose.

Whenever I desire change, I turn to the music that informed the activism of my youth, even as I understand that much of this music was engineered to cater to the spirit of the time with its lyrical emphasis on the role that recreational drug use played in altering entrenched attitudes. But it's the feeling that things can change that I have to hold on to, all these years later when—more than ever—dark forces seek to bankrupt the light. One of the predominant anthems of social change from the late '60s was "Crystal Blue Persuasion" by Tommy James & the Shondells and, listening to it this morning, the song struck me as one of those echoes that ripple out from one period of significant change to another. May the persuasive power of popular protest endure forever.

"Crystal Blue Persuasion" (1969)



"Crimson & Clover" (1968)



"I Think We're Alone Now" (1967)



"Gettin' Together" (1967)

TIMELESS SPIRAL: DIAMANDA GALÁS

"My World Is Empty Without You" (live in St. Johann/Tirol; 11/15/97)



"I'm Going to Live My Life" (live in St. Johann/Tirol; 11/15/97)



"Gloomy Sunday"



"Let My People Go" (Night Music live performance)



"I Put A Spell On You" (Live)



"You Must Be Certain of the Devil" (especially when it comes to male vanity, which is as diabolical as it gets!)



Recoil - Strange Hours (feat. Diamanda Galas)



"Exeloume: The Divine Punishment" (used in The Last King of England)



"Let's Not Chat About Despair" (Photo montage)



Diamanda Galás & John Paul Jones: "Do You Take This Man?"



Diamanda Galás & John Paul Jones: "At the Dark End of the Street" (mixed with scenes from Wong Kar-wai's In The Mood For Love)



Diamanda Galás & John Paul Jones: "Skótoseme" (live 1994, with a young Jon Stewart as host)



"Scream of Love"



"Judgment Day" (Live)



Jonh Zorn & Diamanda Galas-Metamorfosis (La classe operaia va in paradiso): from the album Big Gun of Jonh Zorn with a collaboration by Diamanda Galas. This includes scenes from the movie Begotten.

TIMELESS SPIRAL—"I'm Still Here" x 6

In the final act of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, the leading characters' emotional troubles are reflected as a string of vaudeville-style numbers before returning to the theatre for the end of the reunion party. The plum supporting role of Carlotta Campion, the seen-it-all ex-Follies girl who sings the showstopping "I'm Still Here," was created by Yvonne De Carlo in 1971, and has subsequently often been given to a celebrated veteran performer. What follows are some of my favorites.

Yvonne DeCarlo from the 1979 Follies television special:



Yvonne DeCarlo on David Frost:



Eartha Kitt at the Olivier Awards during her run in Follies in the late 1980s:



Eartha Kitt at a 1986 Canadian Concert, Redux and Even More Relevant:



Shirley MacLaine from Postcards From The Edge:



Carol Burnett at the 1985 Lincoln Center "Follies in Concert."

TIMELESS SPIRAL—"Sway" x 5

Dean Martin:



Perry Como:



Julie London:



Peter Cincotti:



Michael Buble:

TIMELESS SPIRAL—Mike Black Offers Three YouTube Favorites

Long-time bud Mike Black—with whom I have spun a vinyl or two—offers three YouTube oldie goldies. Thanks, Mike!

Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Up Above My Head



Millie Small: My Boy Lollipop



Bobby Vee: The Night Has A Thousand Eyes

TIMELESS SPIRAL—Five Flavors of Late Night Ice Cream

Fujiya & Miyagi—"Knickerbocker". Vanilla, strawberry, knickerbocker glory.

Fujiya and Miyagi - Knickerbocker


Friendly Fires—"On Board". Funky and cute and ready for the starting gun.



Firewater—"Borneo". You gotta love a group that out-and-out identifies President Bush as a monkey.



Devlin & Darko—DJ version of "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John, whose own animated video can be found on YouTube. If only I could whistle.



Datarock—"I Used To Dance With My Daddy" (by Parallax). I love Paris, don't you?

TIMELESS SPIRAL—Video Oatmeal For Breakfast

Think of these as four plump juicy raisins to brighten up your morning oatmeal. They got me boppin' around my kitchen.

The Black Ghosts: "Any Way You Choose To Give It"—Save your broken umbrellas; they might come in handy. This "romantic goth" group will be featured on the soundtrack for the upcoming film Twilight.



Born Ruffians: "I Need A Life." Three self-professed geeks with sweet chops.



Bondo do Role: "Office Boy"—Think B-52s bopping around to Portuguese gay slang.



Black Kids: "I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You." Face it: Why should I?

I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance with You

TIMELESS SPIRAL—The Buckinghams

"It's always time to die, but these discs with their timeless spiral hold an instant of eternity."—Julio Cortazar, Diary of Andrés Fava (Archipelago Books, New York, 2005:5).

Julio Cortazar was referencing Laurence Olivier's recording of Henry V when he authored that comment, and yet his equation of a record spinning on a turntable as a "timeless spiral" speaks to all recordings over time, extending—albeit somewhat anachronistically—into our modern digital age where the physical record and turntable (though rendered obsolete) still address the human need to capture time in the essence of music, and the human soul via the image of the ever continuous spiral. Late last night, insomniatic, I soothed myself with nostalgia. In my mid-50s, nostalgia has become the drug that I look to score, as I savor days gone by as readily as a late-night cup of hot tea. Between Bedazzled TV and YouTube, I got high on the garage rock of the '60s and for a few moments in the wee hours of the night felt all of 16 again; "an instant of eternity" indeed.

When I was a teenager, one of my favorite groups influenced by the British Invasion was The Buckinghams, out of Chicago. Their romantic pop pulsed through their lead singer Dennis Tufano, on whom I had a not-so-secret crush. Named after Chicago's infamous Buckingham Fountain, both The Buckinghams and Dennis Tufano are still around; the Buckinghams capitalizing on nostalgia and reaching back to the sound of their greatest hits, and Tufano channeling the lounge splashes of Bobby Darin. To initiate a sidebar here on The Evening Class that I'll call "Timeless Spiral", ladies and gentlemen I offer up: The Buckinghams!









At Last.Fm you can listen (for free) to "Susan", "Back In Love Again", "Mercy Mercy Mercy", "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", "I'll Go Crazy", "I Call Your Name", "I've Been Wrong Before", and "Where Did You Come From?"

"The Time Of My Life", "You Make Me Feel So Good", "You Misunderstand Me", and "I Don't Wanna Cry", though YouTube videos, are footage of records spinning, underscoring the essential experience of the timeless spiral, where by listening you'll just have to conjure up your own images, your own memories. Enjoy!