Earlier this year, I posted a bit on the music used in the teaser trailer for Marie-Antoinette which made its debut to huge boos at Cannes. Thank you Blake for this review of the movie and the boos.

This mix is dedicated in part to my brother Ben, who this weekend is graduating from college.

1) Merry Clayton - Yes
2) Howard Jones - Everlasting Love
3) Howard Jones - No One is to Blame
4) Howard Jones - Things Can Only Get Better
5) Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride
6) Boy Meets Girl - Waiting for a Star to Fall
7) Paul Young - I Want to Know What Love Is
8) Eric Carmen - Hungry Eyes
9) Eric Carmen - Make Me Lose Control
10) The Raspberries - Go All the Way
11) Badfinger - No Matter What
12) Badfinger - Baby Blue
13) Badfinger - Day After Day
14) Corey Hart - Never Surrender
15) Corey Hart - I Wear My Sunglasses at Night
16) Animotion - Room to Move
17) Animotion - Obsession
18) Go West - King of Wishful Thinking
19) Go West - Faithful
This happens to me all the time. I find my musical fixes are based on seasonal needs. That is, with weather changes, as my mind shifts gears, my musical taste morphs. This time last year, I was really getting into one of the songs in this mix, Howard Jones' "No One is to Blame." Here it is, spring again, and my HoJo fix grows. The best way to describe this week's collection of songs is as more of a historical list than a beginning to end cohesive playlist.

After Dirty Dancing alone in my shoebox apartment for much of last week, I watched Dirty Dancing Live in Concert, a live performance of the music from the film which toured in 1988, and I found myself on the edge of my couch. The footage was so dated, so silly, and it showed what a phenomenon D Squared had become in this country.

I vividly remember the car trips to Wichita, Kansas that year with my brother, the perpetual backseat DJ, asking dad to "Weewind! 'Hungwy Eyes!'"

You see, my chubby, chubby, little brother was under the impression that Eric Carmen's massively successful single "Hungry Eyes," was about a man obessesed with sweets, as he was; a chocoholic from a young age, my brother'd stuff any sugary concoction into his ruddy cheeks with sweeping fistfuls, his babyfat arms like crescents blithely swinging through bags of Hershey's Kisses or Nestle Tollhouse Morsels.

I've tangented from the oh so wonderful Dirty Dancing Live in Concert. In it, Mr. Carmen, ever the diva, fits the role well. It's clear he's looking past the fact he is a burnt out former frontman for a respected pack of rockers, The Raspberries. It's clear he's upset he'll be known as much for crafting a song from a movie as he would one that could stand on its own, like his other massive solo hit, "All By Myself." What isn't clear is why he looks like a bloated, valium-addicted, Long Island housewife. For some reason, he opted for blown out bottle blond lion's mane, smoky eye shadow, burgundy blush, and the tiger print gold lame' evening jacket. His blanched tapered jeans, black leotard, skinny suspenders, and what look like white lace-up Keds, all fitting about two sizes too small, make him look more like Streisand than Springsteen.

His look so startled me that I found myself researching the man as only I can. I learned about his breaking into music with his Mentor, Ohio buddies, helming the steering wheel on the crash-friendly Raspberries. His move to California to become one of the early eighties best songwriters (mostly known for his soundtrack help; see Footloose and Dirty Dancing).

And then I expanded, looking for sounds that immitated Carmen, contemporaries, finding the following music suited a certain nostalgia I had for heavily produced songs of the latter day new wave saints. Badfinger made its way in becoming one of the Raspberries major chart competitors. Badfinger was the only successful band to come out of the Apple Records debaucle them Beatles put together.

As for Boy Meets Girl, let's just say, they rule. Without them, there'd be no Whitney Houston. That's right. No Whitney. And without "Waiting for a Star to Fall" there'd be no title sequence to Three Men and a Little Lady, at least not one I'd remember.

Animotion was fronted in its final days by Cynthia Rhodes, the blonde dancer/actress in Double D who played Penny Johnson, the would be dancer extraordinaire if not for her fated run-in with Robbie "I Get My Thing Stuck in Other Things" Gould. Oh yeah, and she's Mrs. Richard Marx. Chicagoans just call her Mrs. Dick Marx.

This mix was solidified when, while shaving at school, we in the men's lounge had an impromptu dance party to "Never Surrender" complete with fist pumping and towel snaps. My Quebecois amigo, Conrad, confirmed that Corey Hart, Canada's pride and joy, now lives in the Bahamas with his wife and kids. Rough life you Canadians lead.

Oh yeah, and there's Matthew Wilder AKA Matthew Weiner, the one time consumate ladies' man and now he who lays claim to unearthing the talent of No Doubt. Love. Angel. Music. Baby.
We all know.

For 100 points and the game, what two films mentioned here are related by director? What is his name? For the Big Ben Jammin' bonus point: How did he die?

A rare move for me, I'm posting this mix before I've had a chance to listen to it from beginning to end. I had to remove Bill Withers' cover of "Let It Be" due to length constraints, but this mix is relatively representative of the kind of time I've been having lately. It's all over the place.

1) James Taylor - Oh Baby, Don't You Loose Your Lip on Me
2) The Hollies - Jesus Was a Crossmaker
3) Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun
4) Mickey & Sylvia - Love is Strange
5) Otis Redding - Try a Little Tenderness
6) John Prine - Angel from Montgomery
7) Neil Young & The Band - Helpless (Live at the Last Waltz)
8) Townes Van Zandt - My Proud Mountains
9) Kathleen Edwards - Away
10) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - It'll All Work Out
11) Hem - Night Like a River
12) Low - Nowhere Man
13) Josh Ritter - Kathleen
14) Josh Ritter - Snow is Gone
15) The Marshall Tucker Band - Can't You See
16) I Nine - Same in Any Language
17) Jon Brion - Strings That Tie to You (It's in there. Trust me.)
18) Leonard Cohen - Sisters of Mercy
19) Solomon Burke - Cry to Me
20) Rachael Yamagata - Jesus Was a Crossmaker
21) Elton John - Ballad of a Well-Known Gun

I suppose it's impossible to miss that my mixes take their inspiration from films, friends, and funk (Don't ask about that last one).

This week, I'd like to thank two pretty terrible movies: Elizabethtown and Dirty Dancing. Don't get me wrong: I love D Squared. I love it only for its soundtrack and imagery. Elizabethtown's only redeeming quality is the ten or so seconds of the lush landscape of the heartland which steal away from the over-indulgent amount of screen time given to the face of Mr. Orlando Bloom, a Kentucky native, I believe. Oh that, and the twelve dozen or so "Dad Rock" songs Cameron Crowe manages to elbow into each of his films. I'm a sucker for dad rock, and this film which tries to be about fathers and sons - apparently, among other things - delves deep into many of the dad rock trappings: Tom Petty, early Elton John, and of course The Concretes.

I'm kidding, of course, but then again, so is this movie. Right? This was just some silly inside joke on the part of Crowe and his cronies as if to say, "Watch this.... No really! Ha, ha! We're going to convince you guys this is actually our second sub-par follow-up to Almost Famous, and you're going to buy tickets. And the movie will blow chunks, and then we'll all sit around, drinking Ale 8 One, and have a hard, heartful laugh." I'm still waitin' on the beverage, Crowe. You owe me.

As for my friends: Erin and Mike are to thank for a few of these selections. Both are a constant source of amusement. Erin seems to think that Mandy Moore and I have similar taste in music. Admittedly, I check the iTunes "Celebrity Playlists" every Tuesday. I was impressed with Miss Moore's selections. She seems to be rather level-headed lately, considering.... As for Michael, some people just have good taste. Monsieur Tres Simple is one such person. Merci, Mike.

Until next time, a bien tot.

Stream Neil Young's new album, "Living with War."

Sufjan Stevens

I've culled some hard-to-find tracks of Mr. Stevens from Mike's blog. His does with one what I try to do with two.

Enjoy. And thanks, Mike.

Sufjan Stevens - Dear Mr. Supercomputer
Sufjan Stevens - The Star-Spangled Banner (Live at the Bluebird Theatre)
Sufjan Stevens - Adlai Stevenson
Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (Acoustic)
Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day