testify!
Vernard Johnson (1948-, alto saxophone), “I Won’t Complain,” live, Kansas City, Mo. (58th Women’s International Convention, Church of God in Christ), 2008
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
The Locust Tree in Flower (second version)
by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)Among
of
greenstiff
old
brightbroken
branch
comewhite
sweet
Mayagain
timeless
Clara Ward Singers (feat. Vermettya Royster), “Travelin’ Shoes,” live, France (Antibes), 1962
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of New Orleans
Doreen Ketchens (clarinet, voice), et al., “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” (trad.), live, New Orleans, 2010
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of Chicago
Chicago Community Choir (with Rev. Milton Brunson [1929-1997, direction, vocals], Jessy Dixon [1938-2011, vocals, piano], et al.), “I’ll Tell It,” live (TV show [Jubilee Showcase]), 1966
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lagniappe
reading table
Music avoids impossibility.
—Louis Zukofsky (1904-1978), from “Anew” (section 2)
sounds of Chicago
Progressive Church of God in Christ Radio Choir (Maywood, Ill.), live (TV show [Jubilee Showcase]), 1975
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Spring and All
by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast—a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen
patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees
All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines—
Lifeless in appearance,
sluggish dazed spring approaches—
They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind—
Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined—
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf
But now the stark dignity of
entrance—Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken
sounds of Chicago
Jimmy Jones, “Farther Along,” live (TV show [Jubilee Showcase]), Chicago, 1974
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
back to church
Hood Memorial Hymn Choir, “Until I Die,” live, Center Baptist Church, Gastonia, North Carolina, 1988
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, outside Chicago
back to church
“Until I Die,” Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 2001
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
On the first day, we hid in the Mins’ka metro station with our dog, Zlata. The entire platform was covered with people. We found a little gap next to a large family with lots of children and a sick grandad who was getting sicker and sicker. Their cat kept peeing from fear and the smell was everywhere. Some people were better prepared than others: they had brought fold-up chairs, blankets, flasks of hot tea. We came with nothing, though I had started packing a bag as soon as the sound of explosions woke me up. I couldn’t solve the puzzle of what exactly you’re supposed to take with you if you might never go back to your home, or if you might die at any moment. I tried to pack my things several times, but in the end we left with our hands almost empty.
—Sofia Andrukhovych (translated by Uilleam Blacker), from “Day 5, Day 9, Day 16 / Responses to the Invasion of Ukraine,” London Review of Books (3/24/22)
basement jukebox
Harmonizing Four (feat. Jimmy Jones), “In Jerusalem” (J. Williams), 1959
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
like nobody else
Shirley Caesar (1938-), live (“It’s Alright, It’s Ok,” “I Remember Mama,” “Armor of God,” “Take Your Knee off My Neck”), published 2/25/22
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lagniappe
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day 