Arun with a View

Yes, I know I keep going on and on about this cat... I saw him live at the Mercury Lounge and loved it.

Read my ESSAY ABOUT BRENDAN'S SHOW AND MUSIC

I've blogged about singer-songwriter BRENDAN JAMES before. So how cool is it that he came here to Fox 5 this morning and performed on Good Day New York? Unfortunately, I work the evening shift, so I didn't meet him. He performed "Green" off his debut album,The Day Is Brave, which is fantastic.

Brendan is performing at the MERCURY LOUNGE at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 6.

>>BRENDAN PERFORMS 'GREEN' ON GOOD DAY

>>BRENDAN PERFORMS 'GREEN' IN CONCERT

I've raved about singer-songwriter BRENDAN JAMES whose debut album,The Day Is Brave, is simply fantastic. Brendan is originally from New Hampshire but now lives in Brooklyn (where all the cool kids hang out!)... He's on tour (I hope to make it to a show), and just the other day he appeared on the morning program of our sister station, KDFW/FOX 4 in Dallas. Check out this clip from MyFoxDFW:

>>BRENDAN JAMES PERFORMS 'GREEN'

Bon Jovi's free concert in Central Park is costing some fans big bucks. Looks like pro ticket brokers and regular fans are trying to unload tickets on eBay and elsewhere.

Read my article:

>>'FREE' BON JOVI CENTRAL PARK CONCERT... FOR $1,000?

Feel free to rant and rave and vent here... but remember it's basically legal... even if it's annoying. And I saw that the vast majority of the tickets being sold were going for around $50 for the pair -- not $1,000. In fact I doubt the guy selling tix for a grand will get it.

Bon Jovi will be performing a FREE concert in Central Park on Saturday, July 12. The concert is a part of the city's All-Star Game celebrations.

Although the concert is free, you will need to ticket to get access to the Great Lawn. The city will limit attendance to about 60,000 fans.

HERE'S HOW TO GET TICKETS

Starting Wednesday, you can get tickets IN PERSON by going to any of the four pro baseball parks in the city:

Yankee Stadium in the Bronx (will distribute the bulk of the tickets)

Shea Stadium in Queens

KeySpan Park on Coney Island (home of the Brooklyn Cyclones)

Richmond County Bank Ballpark on Staten Island (home of the Staten Island Yankees)

Tickets will also be available on MLB.COM and BONJOVI.COM.

And a reminder that the 2008 All-Star Game will be played at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, July 15.

You can watch the game on FOX 5.

Just when I think there's nothing new to discover in music, I'm proven wrong. I have fallen in love with the words and music of singer-songwriter Brendan James. He 'friend-requested' me on MySpace. I'm usually skeptical of those requests because more often than not the request is from some amateur wannabe whose music sucks. But I clicked on Brendan's link... and I'm so glad I did. Here are the lyrics to "All I Can See." I also love "Hero's Song."

Listen to his music at http://www.MySpace.com/BrendanJames.

ALL I CAN SEE
By Brendan James

I want to walk through this doorway
I want to open my mind
I want to pledge my allegiance to all I can find.
I want a car that will crash through the barriers
to a road no one knows.
I want to feel less control,
want to bend and I want to land far from home.

The revolution of the earth around the sun
is the perfect lesson of how it should be.
So if i cannot learn
to journey and return,
to never rest till I've seen all I can see...

I want to learn a completely new language,
one I don't understand.
I want to help someone lost, someone helpless,
with the strength of my hand.
I want to come to the base of a statue built
before they counted the years,
and there I'll fall with my face in my hands and cry
and feel their hope in my tears.

The revolution of the earth around the sun
is the perfect lesson of how it should be.
So if I cannot learn,
to journey and return,
to never rest till I've seen all I can see...

Train rides and pastures colliding...
colors and customs I've never seen...
I know I, yes I know I,
I know I will stumble
but time is precious my friend.

Those who journey can easily understand,
the more they see the more they'll learn,
the more that they will be.
So this I swear to you, and this I swear to me,
I'll never rest till I've seen all I can see.
No, I'll never rest till I've seen all i can see.

I want to know where the strength of a person lies,
in their past or their future.
Is it in the way that they hurt or they love themselves
or is it all an illusion?
I want to crawl from this skin that I'm painted in...
Body, please let it give.
I want to find the creator of all good things
and ask what it means to live.

http://www.MySpace.com/BrendanJames

I love Marc Cohn's new album, Join the Parade. It's in my car and I listen to it almost every time I drive. But I noticed that Marc uses a lot of imagery of ghosts and angels in many of his songs, dating back to his first album.

I saw Marc live in Westport, Conn., back in October 2006 and he actually joked about it, saying he was toying with calling the new album Songs from a Haunted Jew. That got great laughs from the audience! What's also interesting is that Marc has publicly said that he's "not very religious," whatever that means. So I think the angels and ghosts are really more about the images of mystery and beauty that they evoke than any overt religious theme.

Anyway, I had nothing better to do recently, so I sifted through all his lyrics and came up with this list of songs with "Ghost" and "Angel" lyrics.

Join the Parade alone has THREE "Ghost" songs (if you count the iTunes bonus track, "You're a Shadow") and TWO "Angel" songs. That makes sense in a way, considering that the theme of the album is death and life. He wrote many of the songs after getting shot in the head in Colorado almost three years ago (he was wounded only superficially) and also after watching the devastation of the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina.

GHOST IMAGERY

Ghost Train: "Riding on the ghost train/And she keeps on riding"

Giving Up the Ghost: "I'm giving up the ghost/Giving up the ghost"

Lost You in the Canyon: "Now all these things we leave unspoken/Seem to haunt me like a ghost"

The Calling: "He did not know that the ghost of Charlie Christian/Was riding to"

Three Steps Down: "The dead are dancing 'cross the room/Where candles burn and shadows loom"

Walking in Memphis: "Saw the ghost of Elvis/On Union Avenue/Followed him up to the gates of Graceland/Then I watched him walk right through"

You're a Shadow: "You're a shadow/You're a ghost"

ANGEL IMAGERY

Angelsong: "Old man said, 'What do you think an angel is?'"

Baby King: "But the angels whispered in his tiny little ear, 'Get ready for a baby king' "

Burning Bed: "I'm stumbling where angels fear to tread"

Fallen Angels: "We're just fallen angels/Straight from heaven"

From the Station: "I can see you with the angels/Flying off the tower"

If I Were an Angel: "If I were an angel/I would have earned my wings today"

Live Out the String: "Who knows if we got angels on our shoulders (move on)/Right now with the devil in the street"

Saving the Best for Last: "Said, They got mansions in heaven/Yeah the angels are building one for me right now"

She's Becoming Gold: "And she goes down to the end of the drive/With her friends on the phone/And her angels on guard"

True Companion: "Sometimes I'm an angel/And sometimes I'm cruel"

Turn to Me: "Fallen angel, come to me/Give me something to believe"

Walk Through the World: "I know the angels have seen us... seen us, baby"

I've been spending too much time in bars lately... but it has allowed me to ponder the issue of jukebox bands.

Every notice how there are certain bands that just sound great on a jukebox in a seedy bar? Sometimes the band isn't even that great, but they rock a jukebox!

Of course I pick some of my all-time favorite bands and songs to play, but sometimes I pick tunes from CDs I don't even own, but I just love to hear on the jukebox.

Here is the playlist I selected at O'Hanlon's in Astoria the other night:

1. AC/DC "HELL'S BELLS" (Scream it!)

2. THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND "RAMBLIN' MAN" (Southern rock at its best)

3. BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS "REDEMPTION SONG" (At least one tune from the Caribbean poet is a must)

4. BOSTON "MORE THAN A FEELING" (I've loved this song since seeing the "Air Band" episode of "Scrubs" -- check it out)

5. DEF LEPPARD "ROCK OF AGES" (Or any of the songs from "Pyromania")

6. DIRE STRAITS "BROTHERS IN ARMS" (This song prompted a stranger to hug me and proclaim his friendship by buying me a Johnny Walker Red Label on the rocks... Thanks, Hakim from Morocco!)

7. FOREIGNER "JUKE BOX HERO" (Well, duh!)

8. JOURNEY "DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'" (ARUN'S RULE: If a bar jukebox has this song... it WILL be played)

9. LIVE "WHITE, DISCUSSION" (Lyric: "Look where all this talking got us, baby!"

10. U2 "WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME" ("The Joshua Tree" is one of the top 10 rock albums of all time)

So what are your favorite juke box bands and songs? Comment away!

Marc Cohn is one of my favorite singer-songwriters. He has finally released a new studio album... after nine years... He's mostly known for his big 1991 hit "Walking in Memphis." Unfortunately he hasn't repeated that success... but through no fault of his own. I actually didn't become a fan until a few years ago when I heard Cher's cover version of the song on an episode of "The X-Files" believe it or not... I liked the song so I did a little research... I found Marc's first album, which I bought and loved.

I've seen Marc live in concert three times so far, and I'm seeing him again next month. Seeing him live is great because he plays in small, intimate venues and interacts a lot with the audience.

Anyway, the new album is called "Join the Parade" and it is heavy with themes of death and life (Marc was shot in the head a few years ago in an attempted carjacking). The album is quite strong; my favorite songs are "The Calling," "Dance Back from the Grave," "Join the Parade," "My Sanctuary," and "Let Me Be Your Witness."

Watch this short video released by Marc's record label:

Fox 5's Lisa Evers and 50 Cent go way back.

 

So when the rap superstar embarked on his five-borough tour to support his new album, Curtis, Lisa was there to chat. They sat down on a park bench and discussed 50's so-called rivalry with Kanye West and his pledge to quit rapping if Kanye's new CD outsells his own.

 

Well, don't believe it.

 

Lisa asked him point-blank, and 50 basically admitted The Pledge was a publicity stunt: "I know what to say to get people excited," he said.

 

Oh, and he also weighed in on Britney Spears' performance at the VMAs. 

Watch Lisa's entire interview, and feel free to blog about here.

 

Enjoy!