Ever feel a hunger for less?
Jürg Frey (1953-), Ephemeral Constructions (2015-2016); Erik Carlson (violin), Jürg Frey (clarinet), Greg Stuart (percussion), University of South Carolina Experimental Music Workshop (Greg Stuart, director), 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
a solitary
crow on a bare branch—
autumn evening—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
sounds of New York
Jason Kao Hwang (1957-), If We Live in Forgetfulness, We Die in a Dream (2011); Momenta Quartet, live, New York, 2012
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
If you have some photos of yourself when you were four or eight or twelve or fifteen, hold them up against the mirror. Are you the four-year-old, the eight-year-old, the fifteen-year-old, the twenty-five-year-old, or the one who is looking into the mirror, or all of them? If you are all of them, then by now you must be thousands of different people.
—Ayya Khema (1923-1997), Being Nobody, Going Nowhere: Meditations on the Buddhist Path (1987)
Why not begin the week with something new?
Nathalie Joachim (vocals, flute, electronics) with the Spektral Quartet and a Haitian children’s choir (recorded), “Suite pou Dantan: Prelid” (Fanm d’Ayiti [Women of Haiti]), 10/8/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of Chicago
Mighty Clouds of Joy, live (TV show: Jubilee Showcase), Chicago, 1968
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
sounds of New York
James Brandon Lewis Unruly Quintet (JBL, tenor saxophone; Jaimie Branch, trumpet; Ava Mendoza, guitar; Luke Stewart, bass; Warren G. Crudup III, drums), live, New York, 5/16/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
sounds of Jamaica
Koffee (2000-), “Haffi Make It,” “Under Pressure,” live, Germany (Cologne), 7/5/19
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lagniappe
reading table
at evening tide
clinging to the flotsam . . .
a katydid—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue
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random sights
other day, Chicago
lucid, adj. clear, transparent, luminous. E.g., Víkingur Ólafsson playing Bach.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Aria variata (alla maniera italiana) in A minor; Víkingur Ólafsson (piano), live, Berlin, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
[B]y the latest count, there are 70 million persons displaced from their homes worldwide.
—J. M. Coetzee, “Australia’s Shame” (review of No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani), New York Review of Books, 9/26/19
sounds of New York
Jaimie Branch Trio (JB, trumpet; Luke Stewart, bass; Mike Pride, drums), live, New York, 9/29/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
This I could listen to for a long time—it breathes.
Tyshawn Sorey Quartet (TS, percussion, composition; Taylor Ho Bynum, cornet; Aaron Stewart, tenor saxophone; John Escreet, piano), “Acts,” live, Amsterdam, published 2010
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
Why not start the week with a trip to Beirut?
Habibi Funk (DJ), live, Beirut, 2017
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Remember record stores?
One of the strongest collections of Middle Eastern records in the world, Chico Records has been in business since 1964, surviving the country’s brutal Civil War and seismic regional unrest to become a destination for local and international collectors alike.
A record shop that bears the scars of the country’s civil war, Pick Of The Pops became Chico Records in 1976 when a bomb went off near the shop, destroying the original sign. Khatchik stayed put though and it was only in 2004 that the shop moved to its current location in the university district by the American University of Beirut.
Now run by Khatchik’s sons Paul and Diran, Chico Records stocks a formidable collection of music from the ’60s and ’70s, whether Kraut, prog, psych, folk and hard rock or jazz, funk, soul and disco. Its collection of Arabic music is considered one of the finest in the world, preserving now rare Lebanese titles that were damaged or destroyed during the civil war. The service, like the condition of its records, is immaculate.
With over 1,400 of these records now listed on Discogs, attracting buyers from as far away as Japan, Chico Records also offers a full in-store service including the sale and maintenance of classic turntables, an assortment of vinyl-related accessories, ultrasonic washing and, in due course, an electronic record flattener.
