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I did not recall when the first time I heard it, but I remembered it was introduced by my cousin. This song from Münchener Freiheit became one of the songs I listen a lot. The lyrics (see below) resonate stronger nowadays.

Keeping the Dream Alive (Single Version)

Cover by David Groeneveld:

Cover by Kim Wilde:

Lyrics:
Freiheit - Keeping The Dream Alive

Tonight the rain is falling
Full of memories of people and places
And while the past is calling
In my fantasy I remember their faces

The hopes we had were much too high
Way out of reach but we had to try
The game will never be over
Because we're keeping the dream alive

I hear myself recalling
Things you said to me
The night it all started
And still the rain is falling
Makes me feel the way
I felt when we parted

The hopes we had were much too high
Way out of reach but we have to try
No need to hide no need to run
'Cause all the answers come one by one
The game will never be over
Because we're keeping the dream alive

I need you
I love you

The game will never be over
Because we're keeping the dream alive

The hopes we had were much too high
Way out of reach but we had to try
No need to hide no need to run
'Cause all the answers come one by one

The hopes we had were much too high
Way out of reach but we had to try
No need to hide no need to run
'Cause all the answers come one by one

The game will never be over
Because we're keeping the dream alive
The game will never be over
Because we're keeping the dream alive

The game will never be over…

If my memory serves me right, I heard about this Walk on the Wild Side song (wikipedia) sometime during my college year in the 90s. Of course, the bass and guitar reef were the one that captured my attention right away. At that time, being an international student here in the US, I was totally oblivious with the lyrics and the references on it. When I finally understood what the lyrics are about, listening to the song makes more sense.

Here's the 1973 footage of the Walk on the Wild Side song (youtube)

But what prompted me to write this was started by the version that Amanda Palmer sang for Neil Gaiman. I was listening to her CD "Several attempts to cover songs by the Velvet Underground & Lou Reed for Neil Gaiman as his birthday approaches" and one of the songs was Walk on the Wild Side.

I like her rendition of the songs, which prompted me to find it on YouTube. Welp, that platform does not disappoint; it's a quite a nice piano rendition.

Of course, like any other platform that wants you to stay there, YouTube also listed various Walk on the Wild Side cover songs. One of them is from Alice Phoebe Lou a singer-songwriter. Her rendition using a guitar is also quite enjoyable (youtube) and now I have a new singer-songwriter to keep an eye on.

Among other videos that were listed on YouTube is the one that kinda blew my mind, Walk On The Wild Side - The story behind the classic bass intro featuring Herbie Flowers which explained that those are two basses layered on top of each other.

Man, what a nice thing to learn something new about this song. :-)

Read it from the Lazy Yogi

Read the whole poem

I just learned about the existence of the TV News Archive (covering news from 2009 until the day before today's date) containing news shows from US TV such as PBS, CBS, ABC, FOXNews, CNN, etc.

You can search by the captions.

They also have several curated collections like news clips regarding NSA or snippets or TV around the world

I think some of you might find this useful. Quite a nice collection, IMO.

Copyright law is messy, yo. We won't see a lot of notable and important works entering public domain here in the US until 2019.

Other countries, however, got to enjoy many of them first. Public Domain Reviews put a list of creators whose work are entering the public domain for Canada, European Union (EU), and many other countries (https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/class-of-2017/.) For those in EU, nice to see H.G. Wells name there (if UK do withdraw, this might end up not applicable to them. But, my knowledge about UK copyright law is zero, so, who knows.)

As usual, Center of Study for the Public Domain from Duke University put a list of some quite well-known works that are still under the extended copyright restriction: http://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2017/pre-1976. Those works would have been entered the public domain if we use the law that was applicable when they were published. I'm still baffled how current copyright hinders research done and published in 1960 to be made available freely. Greedy publishers…

So, thanks to that, USA doesn't get to enjoy many published works yet. "Yet" is the operative word here because we don't know what the incoming administration would do on this topic. Considering the next POTUS is a businessman, I fear the worst. I know: gloomy first of the year thought, but it is what it is.

On a cheerful side, check the list from John Mark Ockerbloom on his Online Books Project. It's quite an amazing project he's been working on.

Of course, there are also writings made available from HathiTrust and Gutenberg Project, among other things.

Here's to the next 365 days.

xoxo

read the full poem

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

More about Bertolt Brecht poem

Many people would probably think assistive technology (AT) are computer software, applications, or tools that are designed to help blind or deaf people. Typically, the first thing that one might have in mind was screen readers, braille display, screen magnifier app for desktop reading, or physical objects like hearing aid, wheel chair, or crutches,

A lot of people probably won't think glasses as an AT. Perhaps because glasses can be highly personalized to fit one's fashion style.