more
Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945), “Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed” (trad.), 1928
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
Mingling with the wind
the snow comes falling;
mingling with the snow
the wind comes blowing;
by banked coals
I stretch my legs,
idle, idle,
in this grass hut
a shut-in,
and counting, find
that the second month too
like a dream
has come and gone—Ryokan (1758-1831), translated from Japanese by Burton Watson
timeless
Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945), “God Don’t Never Change” (W. Johnson), 1929
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Midnight frost—
I’d borrow
the scarecrow’s shirt.—Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
more
Dorothy Love Coates (1928-2002, MCOTD Hall of Fame) and the Original Gospel Harmonettes, “Come and Go With Me” (D. Coates), live (TV show [Jubilee Showcase]), Chicago (with commentary from DLC and others)
**********
lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago
more
Dorothy Love Coates (1928-2002, MCOTD Hall of Fame) and the Original Gospel Harmonettes, “They Won’t Believe” (D. Coates), live (TV show)
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)
sounds of Chicago
Dorothy Love Coates (1928-2002, MCOTD Hall of Fame) and the Original Gospel Harmonettes, “I Won’t Let Go” (D. Coates), live (TV show [Jubilee Showcase, 1963-1984]), Chicago
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
more
Rev. Al Green, “Jesus Will Fix It,” live, Tokyo, 1987
**********
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
testify!
Rev. Al Green, “The Lord Will Make a Way” (T. A. Dorsey), live, Memphis (Full Gospel Tabernacle Church), 1983
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Commonplace miracle:
that so many commonplace miracles happen.An ordinary miracle:
in the dead of night
the barking of invisible dogs.One miracle out of many:
a small, airy cloud
yet it can block a large and heavy moon.Several miracles in one:
an alder tree reflected in the water,
and that it’s backwards left to right
and that it grows there, crown down
and never reaches the bottom,
even though the water is shallow.An everyday miracle:
winds weak to moderate
turning gusty in storms.First among equal miracles:
cows are cows.Second to none:
just this orchard
from just that seed.A miracle without a cape and top hat:
scattering white doves.A miracle, for what else could you call it:
today the sun rose at three-fourteen
and will set at eight-o-one.A miracle, less surprising than it should be:
even though the hand has fewer than six fingers,
it still has more than four.A miracle, just take a look around:
the world is everywhere.An additional miracle, as everything is additional:
the unthinkable
is thinkable.—Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012; MCOTD Hall of Fame), “Miracle Fair,” translated from Polish by Joanna Trzeciak
sounds of Chicago
Pastor DeAndre Patterson, “To God Be the Glory,” live (Rev. Clay Evans’ funeral), Chicago, 12/7/19
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
testify!
United House of Prayer Shout Bands, live, published 2011
**********
lagniappe
random sights
a while ago, Ireland (Dingle Peninsula)
*****
reading table
Do you sometimes imagine that you’re getting used to the emergency? I think I can guarantee that you’re not, burdened by states of mind that will be comprehensible only retrospectively, when they no longer pertain. The world going on nonetheless, as the world will, feels bizarrely conditional, subject in thought and action to a blanketing subjunctive mood: things as we wish they were. We are waiting this out with nostalgia for lost freedoms, fear and empathy in the present, and, perhaps, vague anticipation of eventual survivor’s guilt. Never has social privilege seemed more unfair while being clung to so tenaciously. Some of us—artists—are undergoing the siege in ways that can alert us to the subjective dimensions of an objective calamity. We should want those people to keep it up as best they can.
—Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art World: The Melancholy Gestalt of Isolation” (reviewing 100 Drawings from Now, Drawing Center, New York), New Yorker, website (12/14/20), 12/21/20 issue (“The Fix We’re In”)
*****
streaming
Tomorrow, 6:30 a.m. (CST): the 30th annual winter solstice concert by Chicago-based percussionists Michael Zerang and Hamid Drake (MCOTD Hall of Fame).
another take
“Mary Don’t You Weep” (trad.), Caravans (feat. Inez Andrews), 1958
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
The Star’s whole secret – in the Lake –
Eyes were not meant to know.—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), from 450 (Franklin)
