sounds of Chicago
Willie Rogers, “When the Gates Swing Open” (T. A. Dorsey), live, 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
For all of life is really recoil and leap, leap and recoil.
—Lucy Ellman, Ducks, Newburyport
3n
John Escreet Trio (JS, piano, compositions; John Hébert, bass; Tyshawn Sorey, drums, vibraphone), live, Amsterdam, 2014
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Listen carefully,
Neither the Vedas
Nor the Qur’an
Will teach you this:
Put the bit in its mouth,
The saddle on its back,
Your foot in the stirrup,
And ride your wild runaway mind
All the way to heaven.—Kabir (15th century), translated from Hindi by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
what’s new
Big Thief, “Not,” live (TV show), 10/10/19
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Another take.
Recording, published 8/13/19
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Tread very gingerly; you’ve used up almost all the words.
—Lucie Brock-Broido (1956-2018), from “Lucid Interval”
From Buenos Aires to Helsinki.
Caterina Barbieri (modular synthesizer), live, Helsinki, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Reading is rapture (or if it isn’t, I put the book down meaning to go on with it later, and escape out the side door). A felicitously turned sentence can induce it. Or a description. Or unexpected behavior. Or ordinary behavior raised to the nth degree. Or intolerable suspense, as with the second half of Conrad’s Victory. Or the forward movement of prose that is bent only on saying what the writer has to say. Or dialogue that carries with it the unconscious flowering of character. Or, sometimes, a fact.
—William Maxwell (1908-2000), The Outermost Dream
sounds of Buenos Aires
Sol Ortega (DJ), live, Buenos Aires, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
sounds of Chicago
Howlin’ Wolf (AKA Chester Burnett, 1910-1976) with Hubert Sumlin (1931-2011, guitar), et al., live, Chicago, 1971
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
Why not begin the week with something beautiful?
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), O Frondens Virga; Chanticleer, live, Russia (St. Petersburg), 2014
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lagniappe
random sights
a while ago, Ireland (Dingle Peninsula)
back to church
Swanee Quintet, live, 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
In the summer of 1948, chance deposited my wife and me in the bleachers of a tiny one-ring circus playing under a tent on the outskirts of Florence.
—William Maxwell (1908-2000), The Outermost Dream
what’s new
Bob Dylan, “Not Dark Yet” (B. Dylan), live, published 10/12/19 (10/19 audio; old video footage)
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
sounds of Ukraine
When you live in a country where words seem to mean less and less, what a relief it can be to listen to a language you know not at all.
Alyona Alyona, live (acoustic session), Slovakia (Pohoda Festival), 2019
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day 