• Santorum – C.U.M.

  Music 25.01.2012 No Comments

  

  Rick Santorum: Conservatives Unite Moneybomb

  The Jonathan Ramsey Institute’s department of We Couldn’t Make This S**te Up has uncovered another precious nugget. In an Andy Kaufman-esque commitment to character, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has begun a campaign that is its own parody, Conservatives Unite Moneybomb (that’s right, C.U.M.). Perhaps, Santorum hopes to succeed Stephen Colbert, or even Jon Stewart. Maybe it’s like K.A.O.S., or the Man From U.N.C.L.E.

  Perhaps, if I’d watched pro wrestling as a kid, Santorum’s kayfabe with Dan Savage would be easier for me to understand. Or is it less?

  Check it out at RickSantorum.com, before his handlers wake up and take it down.

  

• U2′s “One”: Important Turning Point for The Band

  Music 22.12.2011 No Comments

  

  Just read American Songwriter’s “Behind the Song” article on U2′s introspective, and vulnerable, One from the album Achtung Baby. This is a great story of a huge fork in the road for the band, especially for Bono and the Edge.

  I greatly love this passage:

  On an album filled with irony, sex and self-deprecation, “One” cuts through to the heart of a relationship. Each verse poses new questions – Is it getting better? Did I disappoint you? Have you come here for forgiveness? – without offering any answers in return. Keeping things deliberately vague, Bono lobs his inquiries into thin air, aiming them at his band, his spouse, the Edge’s estranged wife, or maybe even none of the above. The addressees don’t matter. “One” isn’t about love, after all; it’s about resignation.

  .

  Check out the whole article at Behind The Song: “One” on American Songwriter.com.

  By the way, Achtung Baby is available on Amazon MP3 for only $4.99, right now! Check is out on Amazon MP3

  

  Tags: bono, ireland, rock, u2

• Advent of Jonathan Ramsey: Irish Christmas & Holiday Songs for 2011

  Music 16.12.2011 No Comments

  

  Irish Christmas - 'Advent of Jonathan Ramsey: Irish Christmas & Holiday Songs for 2011'

  If you’re not keen on Christmas/Holiday/Xmas/Exmas Music, you might like my current project, “Advent of Jonathan Ramsey: Irish Christmas & Holiday Songs”. Don’t get me wrong, it has started off with pre-Baby-Boomer Holiday classics, “Hey Ho, Nobody Home”, and an Irish tenor banjo and mandolin version of “Un flambeau, Jeannette Isabella”. Between now and Boxing Day, though, I plan to release the rest of the EP, though, including more instrumentals (I put the “mental” in “instrumental”), and tongue-in-cheek blows at a holiday favourite, Ugly Christmas Sweaters. In 2012, expect a live Ugly Christmas Sweater Show. I hope you’ll be a little surprised, and not too disturbed, by the result.

  This project slowed to a halt, when two back-to-back weekends of theatrical productions –one my youngest daughter’s, the other, my entire family’s- and the respective dress reheasals took over. Jungle Book, and A Christmas Carol behind us, I’m back in the studio, finishing up more selections to dish out.

  Check them out on my Bandcamp page, and let me know what you think! Leave comments here, or on my facebook page. While there, be sure to “Like” me, if you like me.

  Cheers!

  

  Tags: christmas music, irish christmas music, Irish Music, recordings

• Music 15.11.2011 No Comments

  

  Kerry Cottage - serving Saint Louis' Irish Community

  Irish Saint Louis! Help Saint Vincent de Paul help fragile members of the Saint Louis community by shopping at Kerry Cottage the weekend after Thanksgiving. For your purchases, 10% of the total will go to Saint Vincent de Paul.

  Check out the cool Irish gifts at Kerry Cottage! I fancy the Guinness Rugby, Baby, but something brighter would be good too.

   

  Go to Kerry Cottage’s website or check out some photos after the break…
  Read more …

  

  Tags: homeless, irish gifts, Irish Music, kerry cottage, Saint Louis, shelter

• 11-11-11 End of World/New Peace/Whatever Cancelled for Y2K Violations

  Music 11.11.2011 No Comments

  11-11-11, this day whose numeric abbreviation is the same date for North Americans, Europeans, islanders, and other continentals everywhere, has been cancelled. The world ended, or whatever, 2000 years ago today. Stay tuned…

  

  Tags: 11, 11-11-11, armageddon, eleven, end of the world, nirvana

• John Hodgman Takes Saint Louis: The Shocking Aftermath

  Music 04.11.2011 No Comments

  

  John Hodgman, John Roderick of Long Winters, and Jonathan Ramsey and his lame attempt at looking serious

  John Hodgman seized the stage at Mad Art Gallery last night to the thrill of 250+ Saint Louis fans, who now all own fresh copies of his new book “That Is All”. The Art Deco building, a one-time police station to the denizens of Soulard, was full of song and story for two hours. Of course, Hodgman only took the stage after my opening song, and introduction, only to be usurped by John Roderick, who aptly laid down the ground rules for the ensuing hours of literary and musical enlightenment.

  More photos, after the fold… Read more …

  

• The End Is Coming and I Get to Sing of It with Its Herald, Deranged Millionaire John Hodgman

  Saint Louis, Shows 02.11.2011 No Comments

  THAT IS ALL from John Hodgman

  Come. Sit down. It’s finalized. The master plan to include; as illustrious and, more than that, appropriately bathed, feathered, and coiffed, troubadours; both Mr. John Roderick and myself… as troubadours for John Hodgman. Mr. Hodgman, as some may know him, has just yesterday released into the wild millions of copies of the final book of his trilogy of COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE, That Is All.

  Tickets for $25 include a hardback copy of That Is All. Hodgman will be signing, as well as embellishing orally upon the truths within the book during the evening. John Roderick and I will perform songs selected in super-secret meetings with colourful world figures during the evening, as well.

  THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3 @ 7PM
  MAD ART GALLERY the former police station in Soulard
  2727 South 12th Street, St Louis MO
  TICKETS are $25 for ONE PERSON, and $30 for TWO PEOPLE and include ONE COPY of the book THAT IS ALL, courtesy SUBTERRANEAN BOOKS.
  TICKETS available HERE.

  

  Tags: end is nigh, end of the world, john hodgman, john roderick, mad art gallery, Music, that is all

• Kermit the Frog: Tis Not Easy Wearing O’ the Green

  Mania that Pervades Jonathan's Soul 01.11.2011 No Comments

  

  Check out this shirt I ran across in my “archive” (photo gallery, not like Rachel Zoe’s inimitable archive.)

  

  Tags: kermit the frog, muppet, t-shirt

• Oiche Shamhna Shona! Happy Halloween 2011!

  Irish Culture 31.10.2011 No Comments

  

  Jack-O-Lantern Turnip says, "Oiche Shamhna Shona!"

  Happy Halloween to you all! Dr. Loomis [Donald Pleasance] called it “Sam Hane” in Halloween. Recently, I heard Dr. Spencer Reid [Matthew Gray Gubler] pronounce it that way on Criminal Minds. In True Blood, this summer, the witches pronounced it like “Sam Hah-een”. Not closer, but good try. The upshot seems to be, production staff are avid readers of lesser known otherworldly cultural facts to sprinkle into dialogue, but it’s not worth the time to ask how it’s pronounced, just in case.

  Sadly for them, the Irish language has sound changes that require using Latin letters in ways that English doesn’t use them. English has plenty of its own letter usages that bewitch (see what I did there?) non-English speakers who try to pronounce many English words. That “h” in “th” can alter the sound of letter “t” to render a theta (as in “thin”) or edh (voiced theta, like in “the”) sound is no less weird than the fact that “h” in Irish changes “m” to what a “w” sounds like in English, when it shows up in the word samhain.

  So, kids, pronounce it like you would if it were spelt “sah-wen” or “sow-en” (rhymes with “cow-en”).

  Enjoy your candy!

  

  Tags: dr loomis, gaeilge, halloween, irish, samhain, true blood

• Songwriting, Treachery, and Frigid Baseball Weather

  Mania that Pervades Jonathan's Soul, Saint Louis 27.10.2011 No Comments

  

  Songwriting Tools of the Trade

  Saint Louis, of course, is teeming with Cardinal Fever, right now. No matter where I am, I have to admit, the next two games and their respective outcomes might weigh heavy against my songwriting efforts. I cannot imagine what it would be like if the Cards were now up against the Royals, instead. The ensuing mayhem, and my inner battle of my now two cross-state hometowns… Oi!

  Fear not, though. I still have new stuff to post soon, if only in a rough first-mix form.

  

  Tags: baseball, cardinals, Irish Music, Music, recording, songwriting

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