testify!
The Meditation Singers, “Don’t You Want to Go” (E. Rundless), live, 1960s
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
I dance, for the joy of surviving,
on the edge of the road.—Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006), from “An Old Cracked Tune”
testify!
“Mama,” “I Know the Lord,” live, c. 2007
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
basement jukebox
Brother Vernard Johnson (1948-, vocals, alto saxophone), “Soul Metamorphosis” (V. Johnson, D. Ward), c. late 1960s
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
Thus spring begins: old
stupidities repeated,
new errors invented—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
back to church
Mt. Do-Well Baptist Church Hymn Choir, “You’re Gonna Need a Friend,” live, McConnells, S.C., 1991
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
streaming
Today, at 3 p.m. (ET), Yo-Yo Ma will be performing all six of Bach’s suites for unaccompanied cello. I heard him play these pieces last summer at Chicago’s Millennium Park. One-word review: breathtaking.
back to church
“All I Do,” St. Paul Baptist Church Choir, McConnells, S.C. (Mt. Do Well Baptist Church), c. 2009
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
He walked in awe
In awe of light
At nightfall, not at dawn
Whatever he saw
Receding from sight
In the sky’s afterglow
Was what he wanted
To see, to know—Samuel Menashe (1925-2011), “Enlightenment”
passings
Little Richard (aka Richard Penniman), singer, pianist, songwriter, December 5, 1932–May 9, 2020
“Didn’t It Rain” (trad.), live, New York (Apollo Theater), 1985
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“Yes, God Is Real” (K. Morris), 1960
*****
“Peace in the Valley” (T. Dorsey), 1961
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
The hope that is left after all your hopes are gone—that is pure hope, rooted in the heart.
—Br. David Steindl-Rast (1926-), Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer (1984)
more sounds of Charlotte
The United House of Prayer Band, live, Charlotte, N.C., 2012
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Goodbye to forever now.
Hello to the empty present and.—Mary Jo Bang (1946-), from “No More” (Elegy, 2007)
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streaming
Bang on a Can Marathon: today, six hours, beginning at 3 p.m. (ET). Meredith Monk, Vijay Iyer, George Lewis, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams, Mary Halvorson, et al. If this turns out to be even half as good as it might be, it’ll be monumental. (In the department of delicious serendipity, I just learned about this, waiting for tea water to boil, here.)
sounds of Charlotte
The United House of Prayer Band, “The Blood!,” live, Charlotte, N.C., 2020
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, outside Chicago (Salt Creek Trail)
*****
reading table
A pot poured out
Fulfills its spout—Samuel Menashe (1925-2011)
back to church
“It’s Another Day’s Journey,” Mt. Tatum Primitive Baptist Church, Dryfork, Va., 2011
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
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
back to church
Center Baptist Church Hymn Choir, “What a Time,” live, Gastonia, N.C., 2009
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Windowed I observe
The waning snow
As rain unearths
That raw clay—
Adam’s afterbirth—
No one escapes
I lie down, immerse
Myself in sleep
The windows weep—Samuel Menashe (1925-2011), “Downpour”
music clip of the day 