Saturday, 1/15/11
Some music conjures a world so benign you don’t want to leave.
William Duckworth, Gymel (1973)/Southern Illinois University Percussion Ensemble, live, 2008
Vodpod videos no longer available.music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2011
Friday, 1/14/11
what’s new
(an occasional series)
Here’s some stuff my older (23-year-old) son Alex, who heads back to school Sunday, shared with me the other night.
Zoo Kid (AKA Archy Marshall [16 years old, lives in London]), “Out Getting Ribs,” 2010
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Destroyer, “Kaputt,” 2011
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
M.I.A., “Bad Girls,” 2010
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
reading table
If humor loosens the grip of logic, and poetry does too, how come there isn’t more humor in poetry?
David Kirby, “The Search for Baby Combover,” Atlanta, 2007
Vodpod videos no longer available.2011
Wednesday, 1/12/11
Subtlety has its place; but so does noise.
Whoopie Pie with guest Marc Ribot (guitar), live, New York, 2009
Vodpod videos no longer available.More Marc Ribot? Here.
**********
lagniappe
reading table
It might be thought the height of poor taste to ascribe good fortune to a healthy man with a young family struck down at the age of sixty by an incurable degenerative disorder from which he must shortly die. But there is more than one sort of luck. To fall prey to a motor neuron disease is surely to have offended the Gods at some point, and there is nothing more to be said. But if you must suffer thus, better to have a well-stocked head.
—Tony Judt, The Memory Chalet (2010)
*****
radio
Simone Dinnerstein, featured here a couple weeks ago, was on NPR’s All Things Considered the other day.
2011
Tuesday, 1/11/11
[D]ance first and think afterwards . . . . It’s the natural order.
—Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (English-language premiere, 1955)
Al Minns & Leon James, New York (Savoy Ballroom, Harlem), 1950s
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt, New York, c. 1940
2011
Saturday, 1/8/11
Don’t try this at home.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, live, Detroit, 1971
Vodpod videos no longer available.More? Here.
2011
Thursday, 1/6/11
street music
The brass band goes uptown.
Asphalt Orchestra, live, New York
#1 (2009)
***
#2 (2010)
2011
Wednesday, 1/5/11
1, 2, 3 strings—that’s all
Maalem Ben Aissa, AKA Maalem Benaissa (gumbri [aka gimbri]), live, Algieria (Algiers), 2007
#1
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
#2
Vodpod videos no longer available.Want more? Here.
2011
Monday, 1/3/11
Perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived . . .
—Brian Eno
Tony Allen
Live, “New Morning”
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Secret Agent, 2010
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
When I sit down there [at the drums], that’s what I’ve been waiting for . . .
—Tony Allen
*****
reading table
The time to make up your mind about people is never!
—Tracy Lord, The Philadelphia Story
***
You get to decide what to worship.
Zadie Smith, Changing My Mind (2009), epigraphs
2010
Thursday, 12/30/10
When people hear I’m a criminal defense lawyer, they often ask: “How come there aren’t more songs about serial killers?”
Eddie Noack, “Psycho,” 1968
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
In response to yesterday’s post, a reader writes:
Vodpod videos no longer available.Ever wonder what it would be like if Neil Young circa 1971 Heart of Gold and Bruce Springsteen circa his 1975 Time magazine cover performed “Whip My Hair”?
Here’s your answer.
2010
Saturday, 12/18/10
Captain Beefheart (AKA Don Van Vliet), January 5, 1941–December 17, 2010
replay: a clip too good for just one day
For some people, going their own way seems to be the only way they could possibly go.
Captain Beefheart (AKA Don Van Vliet)
The Artist Formerly Known As Captain Beefheart (BBC Documentary, 1997)
Part 1
*****
Part 2
*****
Part 3
*****
Part 4
*****
Part 5
*****
Part 6
**********
lagniappe
Don’t you think that somebody like Stravinsky . . . it would annoy him if somebody bent a note the wrong way?
—Captain Beefheart
*****
About the seventh or eighth time [I listened to Trout Mask Replica], I thought it was the greatest album ever made—and I still do.
—Matt Groening
*****
art beat
Paintings by Don Van Vliet
**********
**********
(Originally posted 3/6/10.)
Having posted this, I’m going to return to the break I mentioned the other day—back soon.
music clip of the day 