sounds of Paris
Why not begin the week with something unlike anything else?
Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris and Ensemble Intercontemporain (Matthias Pintscher, direction; Paul Fitzsimon, direction; Bruno Mantovani, direction), live, Paris, 2016: Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007), Gruppen for three orchestras (1955-1957)
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday, Art Institute of Chicago
Claude Monet, 1840-1926, Luncheon under the Tent, Giverny, c. 1883-86, detail (Monet in Chicago, through 6/14/21)
sounds of New York
Joel Ross Quartet (JR, vibraphone; Immanuel Wilkins, saxophone; Rashaan Carter, bass; Marcus Gilmore, drums), live, New York, 12/9/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (office, Monadnock Building, painting by Gerard Fortuné)
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reading table
cartography is the strangest science today
as morning alters the fittings of the hour to form
shapes wholly new.–Xiao Yue Shan, from “in love as in tourism” (Poetry, 4/21)
Suppose that, for the rest of your life, you could listen to only one piece of music. What would you choose? For me it might be this.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987; MCOTD Hall of Fame), Piano and String Quartet (1985); Kronos Quartet with Aki Takahashi (piano), 1993
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Number 17A, 1948 (detail)
sounds of Chicago
Gospel Songbirds (featuring Otis Clay [1942-2016], 1:55-), “Help Me Run This Race,” live (TV show [Jubilee Showcase]), Chicago, 1964
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Grapes, Lemons, Pears, and Apples, 1887 (detail)
*****
reading table
He walks on, northwards, toward the snow
and things unseen, unknown.
Slowly the imperfect cities’ sounds grow still,
only streams hold forth chaotically
while white clouds play at nothingness.
He hears an oriole’s song, delicate,
uncertain, like a prayer, like weeping.—Adam Zagajewski (1945-), from “The Great Poet Basho Begins His Journey,” translated from Polish by Clare Cavanagh (The Threepenny Review, Spring, 2021)
Why not begin the week with something beautiful?
Claude Debussy (1862-1918), String Quartet in G minor (1893); Parker Quartet, live, Cambridge, Mass., 2019
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Dish, Hellenistic or early Roman; eastern Mediterranean; mid-2nd/early 1st century BC; glass, mosaic glass technique (detail)