Pussy Riot (Sunset)

Three members of Pussy Riot
14" x 11", oil on canvas, 2012

The background for this painting was done at the same day as the one of Cat Power that I attached  in the previous post. Cat Power's background was done in the AM and for this one I turned the easel 'round in the PM. All these landscapes are done plein-air but I'm not particularly proud of this Pussy Riot painting. I could point out several things that are wrong with it, and that is just on the technical part of it (I won't even get started to self-criticize the conceptual aspects). To top it off I took a less than accurate photograph of it (which actually helps a bit to cover up certain mistakes). I am proud however to have Pussy Riot a part of my Top 100 2012 list. Most of you probably heard of the band Pussy Riot but I bet very few of you actually listened to their music. Pussy Riot, of course, is that Russian riot grrl group that made the world news because of their arrest following a blasphemous performance in a Russian Orthodox Church in which they ridiculed the Church's support for president Vladimir Putin. The group consists of approximately 12 members and performs with balaclavas, face masks to hide their identity. The three members that were arrested (and sit out a two year jail sentence for hooliganism) are not anonymous any more as the trial was a daily hot news item all over the world. The three, that also depicted in the painting, are Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich. Two others whose identity is revealed have fled the country. After hearing about them in the news I immediately looked up their music to listen to it and behold, it is really good, one of the most exciting bands I've heard in a long time associated with that term Riot Grrrl. The Top 100 song is Putin Lights Up the Fires, it is their latest single sung in Russian that was released recently.

Sun (rise)

Backyard Sunrise
24" x 12", oil on canvas, 2012

Cat Power
24" x 12", oil on canvas, 2012

To continue the thread I was on a few days ago while discussing Sugaring Season by Beth Orton...  ...Unlike Beth Orton, Cat Power does come to Miami, she actually lives in Miami, and the first date of her new tour—to support her new album Sun—is in her hometown of Miami, Florida. For me it's easier to get to this concert at the Grand Central (October 11, f.y.i.) than it is going to Mexico City, Brussels, or Amsterdam—downtown Miami is only a three hour drive from where I live so I'm going to go. And unlike Beth Orton too, I have seen Cat Power perform before, four times as a matter of fact, evenly divided over the last 12 years. But because of Sun, and also because my wife really likes the album, we are going. Maria and I, we bought Sun just a few days after it was released, we bought it in Miami to listen to it , for the first time, on our three hour drive across Alligator Alley back home. We played the whole CD three times over, every time a bit louder, and every time we liked it better. It's a great CD, Sun, but at first I was a little disappointed that some of the songs I had expected weren't on there. Among other new songs that had popped up on YouTube over the last few years I had hoped, for example, to hear the song Oh Time to finally be released. Somehow I think Cat Power hasn't given up on some of those melodramatic jewels, and I expect them on her next album then. My favorite tune of Sun might well be Silent Machine, that is actually one of those songs I've heard before, as an unofficial recording (it was called She Loves You So Hard then), but I also like Cherokee, the single and opening track, a whole lot too. Cherokee is the first Cat Power song to enter the Top 100 2012.

*And just in case, very unlikely as it is... If you happen to read this Chan, would you please consider putting me on the back-stage guest list, as I would love to talk to you after the show, and after 12 years of being a fan. Thank you so dearly... I also would like to invite you to my exhibition of Top 100 paintings in the gallery of Pinecrest Gardens in Miami. Opening reception: November 2, 2012, artist's talk: December 9. Featured will at least two portraits of you, together with scores of other great musicians. Love you,
Sincerely,
Berry van Boekel

Something More Beautiful

Beth Orton
12" x 24"
oil on canvas, 2012

The wait is over—we have our new Cat Power CD called Sun, and Beth Orton's Sugaring Season is about to hit the markets. The opening track Cherokee from Sun entered the Top 100 2012 list last week and Beth Orton's Something More Beautiful did the same thing weeks ago–ever since it was released as a sneak preview for Sugaring Season–and breezed through the ranks all the way to top the list. It is such a beautiful song, I can't wait to hear the rest. It appears as if Something More Beautiful keeps Bet Orton at no. 1 following last year's Shopping Trolley from her previous Comfort of Strangers CD. I will be painting my next Cat Power soon but first here's my next Beth Orton painting. Together with Bob Dylan, Orton and Cat Power are the most painted musicians in my top 100 history over the past 5-6 years. Dylan too, came out with a new CD (Tempest) so he'll get another portrait painted too at some point in the next few months. I checked on Beth Orton's tour schedule to promote the new CD but the closest she scheduled to appear is Atlanta, Georgia. (So...if you happen to read this, Beth, please add a show in Miami, or Tampa, or St. Petersburg, or anywhere in South Florida to your schedule, because I would really like it to have the chance to see you perform live. Thank you, I will certainly reward it with some more paintings. Hope you'll like this one in the meantime—it already has the appropriate background to get you in the mood. Yours truly, Berry:)

Summer Winds

Meagan Alwood
(The Alwood Sisters)
12" x 24", oil on wood, 2012

One of a handful of repeats from last year's Top 100 is the song Summer Winds by the Alwood Sisters. I have now two versions of that song that is subtitled, or combined with, the song Our Time. It is featured on their CD Black Falcon & The Forest Spirit of 2010, the version that was in the top 10 last year, but new for me is an older demo version, simply titled Our Time, on a homemade CD titled Across the Lines with recordings from 2003-2006. Across the Lines is the result of home recordings done by Amy and Meagan Alwood Karcic, while Meagan was living in New York and Amy in Ohio. The recordings were sent back and forth between the sisters. If everything goes according to plan the Alwood Sisters will perform next year at my Top 100 2012 opening reception in Miami, Florida. Hope my plan will work out—I'll keep you updated about the progress. The Alwood Sisters consist of the sisters Amy and Meagan Alwood, and the brothers Milan and Jovan Karsic. The two sisters are married to the brothers making the band a family affair. They're from my previous hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever

And here's the list... You can find a watercolor for each in posts from the last 5 months.

1. John Coltrane – My Favorite Things                       
2. Cesar Franck – Piano Quintet in F-minor                                  
3. Captain Beefheart – Big Eyed Beans from Venus                   
4. Jimi Hendrix – Driving South                           
5. Pere Ubu – Thirty Sec. over Tokyo           
6. Bob Dylan - Tangled up in Blue                       
7. Yoko Ono – Don’t Worry Kyoko       
8. Velvet Underground – Heroin   
9. Robert Pete Williams – Prisoner’s Talking Blues                   
10. Townes Van Zandt – Nothin‘                       
11. Igor Strawinski – Le Sacre du Printemps                       
12. Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit   
13. Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Three for the Festival                    
14. Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze (plus Instr. Solo)               
15. Miles Davis – Call it Anything                       
16. Velvet Underground – Sister Ray                         
17. Bob Dylan – Just Like a Woman               
18. Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil                       
19. R.L. Burnside – Goin’ Down South                       
20. John Coltrane – Ogunde                           
21. Trelldom – Sonar Dreyri                                                            
22. Torres Strait Islands Death Wail             
23. The Fairport Convention – Who Knows Where the Time Goes   
24. Muddy Waters – I Can’t Be Satisfied (I Be’s Trouble)       
25. The Stooges – Search and Destroy               
26. Maria Callas – Casta Diva                       
27. Lucille Bogan – Shave ‘em Dry           
28. Robert Johnson – Hellhound on My Trail               
29. Baka Forest Pygmees – Water Drums   
30. Thelonious Monk – Round Midnight                         
31. Kurt Weill/Bertol Brecht – Moritat von Mackie Messer        
32. The Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK
33. Albert Ayler – Ghosts           
34. Bob Dylan – Like a Rolling Stone       
35. M.I.A. – Born Free           
36. Effisio Melis – Fiorassio           
37. Harmonica Frank – Rockin’ Chair Daddy   
38. Bozie Sturdivant – Ain’t no Grave can hold My Body Down            
39. Miles Davis – Great Expectations                       
40. Neil Young – Like a Hurricane                 
41. Yma Sumac – Chuncho                           
42. Captain Beefheart – Kandy Korn       
43. Geechie Wiley – Last Kind Words Blues                       
44. Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues               
45. Diamanda Galas – Deliver Me (from Mine Enemies)   
46. Joy Division – 24 Hours                                 
47. Iry Lejeune – Donnes Moi Mon Chapeau   
48. Alessandre Moreschi – Ave Maria                 
49. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put a Spell on You                     
50. John Coltrane – Ascension                       
51. Erik Satie – Gnossiennes                           
52. Daniel Johnston – Excuse Me                           
53. Jimi Hendrix Experience – Voodoo Chile                 
54. Roscoe Holcomb – Stingy Woman Blues               
55. John Cale –A Close Watch                             
56. Dr. John – I Walk on Guilded Splinters                       
57. Townes Van Zandt – Waiting Around to Die               
58. Mississippi Fred McDowell – Shake ‘em on Down               
59. Anon. Kipsigis (Kenya) – Chemirocha                         
60. Muchatera Mujuru – Nyamoropa Yevana Vava Muchonga
61. Rocket From the Tombs – Ain’t it Fun                                        
62. Van Morrison – I’ll be Your Lover too               
63. Tsjuder – Blasphemy                                  
64. Al Green – Simply Beautiful                             
65. Nico – Fairest of the Seasons                                                    
66. Edgar Varese – Ionization                               
67. Lucinda Williams – I Envy the Wind                                 
68. Frank Zappa – Trouble Comin’ Every Day       
69. Bikini Kill – Rebel Girl                               
70. Nina Simone – Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair           
71. Augustus Pablo – Rocker’s Dub                             
72. Harlem Hamfats – Weed Smokers Dream                   
73. Basque (Anon.): Ariñ-Ariñ                                                                               
74. Cat Power – Baby Doll       
75. The Raincoats – In Love                               
76. The Slits – A Boring Life                               
77. Giovanna Marini – Ulrike Meinhof                         
78. Chukchi Shamanic Ritual
79. Cat Power – Hate       
80. Brian Eno – Baby’s on Fire
81. Blooddawn – Nailed Fist           
82. Bob Marley – Mr. Brown                       
83. Beth Orton – Shopping Trolley
84. Zwabesho Sibisi – Angihambe   
85. Ni Lemon, dari Djangger – Lagoe Taboehgari   
86. Khan Shushinski – Shikestei Fars   
87. Nick Drake – Cello Song                             
88. Francis Bebey – Akwaaba                               
89. Daniel Johnston – Like a Monkey in a Zoo                   
90. Wanda Jackson – Funnel of Love                           
91. Peter Laughner – Cinderella Backstreet
92. Nick Cave – From Her to Eternity   
93. Cat Power – I Lost Someone   
94. Lou Reed – Berlin       
95. Laurie Anderson – O Superman                             
96. Don Drummond – Green Island
97. James Brown – It’s a Man’s, Man’s World                               
98. The Moldy Peaches – Anyone Else But You
99. Fairuz – Ya Ana Ya Ana
100. Steve Reigh – Tehillim                               

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 1–John Coltrane

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 2–Sviatoslav Richter

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 3-Captain Beefheart

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 4-Jimi Hendrix

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 5-Pere Ubu

The 100 Greatest Recordings Ever: 6 – Bob Dylan