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Category: hard-to-peg

2020

Wednesday, April 8th

passings

John Prine, singer, songwriter, October 10, 1946–April 7, 2020

Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs. I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. All that stuff about “Sam Stone” the soldier junky daddy and “Donald and Lydia,” where people make love from ten miles away. Nobody but Prine could write like that. If I had to pick one song of his, it might be “Lake Marie.” I don’t remember what album that’s on.

—Bob Dylan, 2009 interview

“Lake Marie” (J. Prine), live (TV show), New York, 2000

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

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2020

Tuesday, April 7th

what’s new

Fantastic Negrito, “Chocolate Samurai,” 3/28/20

 

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)

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2020

Saturday, April 4th

Some sounds offer solace.

Jürg Frey (1953-), Extended Circular Music No. 7 (2011/2014); Singularity, live, New York, 2018

 

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lagniappe

reading table

Empty mountains:
            no one to be seen.
Yet—hear—
            human sounds and echoes.
Returning sunlight
            enters the dark woods;
Again shining

            on the green moss, above.

—Wang Wei (699-759), “Deer Park” (translated from Chinese by Gary Snyder)

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2020

Thursday, April 2nd

alone

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou (b. 1923 [Ethiopia], piano), live, Jerusalem (where she moved in 1984), c. 2014

 

*****

More.

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

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2020

Saturday, March 28th

alone

Mat Maneri (1969-, viola), “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” (trad.), live, Paris, 2020

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

reading table

A leaf, one of the last, parts from a maple branch:
it is spinning in the transparent air of October, falls
on a heap of others, stops, fades. No one
admired its entrancing struggle with the wind,
followed its flight, no one will distinguish it now
as it lies among the other leaves, no one saw what I did. I am
the only one.

—Bronisław Maj (1953-), “A Leaf,” translated from Polish by Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass

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2020

Friday, March 27th

sounds of Nashville

Marty Stuart (1958-, vocals, mandolin, guitar), Vince Gill (1957-, vocals, guitar), Brad Paisley (1972-, vocals, guitar), live, Nashville (Grand Ole Opry), 3/21/20

 

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, outside Chicago (Prairie Path, Bellwood)

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reading table

That’s being lonely. Lying here. Head and feet not knowing where they’ve come to.

—Eimear McBride (1976-), A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing

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2020

Thursday, March 26th

sounds of Buenos Aires

Juana Molina (1961-, compositions, vocals, guitar), live (studio), Seattle, 2017

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

reading table

A cicada shell;
it sang itself
utterly away.

—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Robert Hass

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2020

Wednesday, March 25th

MCOTD Hall of Fame

Morton Feldman (1927-1986, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Rothko Chapel (1971); Markus Creed (cond.), SWR Vokalensemble (Vocal Ensemble), et al., live, Germany (Cathedral of Speyer, Schwetzinger), 2017

 

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lagniappe

art beat: other day, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Henri Matisse (1869-1954), The Red Studio (1911), detail

*****

reading table

Coolness—
the sound of the bell
as it leaves the bell.

—Yosa Buson (1716-1784), translated from Japanese by Robert Hass

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2020

Tuesday, March 24th

three takes

“Spring Is Here” (R. Rogers, L. Hart), 1938

Audra McDonald (1970-), live

 

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Frank Sinatra (1915-1998), 1958

 

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Bill Evans Trio (BE, 1929-1980, piano; Scott LaFaro, 1936-1961, bass; Paul Motian, 1931-2011, drums), 1959

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

streaming

NPR Music: “A List of Live Virtual Concerts to Watch During the Coronavirus Shutdown.”

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2020

Monday, March 23rd

like nobody else

His sound-world seems just right for these strange times—beautiful and solemn in equal measure.

Arvo Pärt (1935-), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (Tõnu Kaljuste, cond.), live (Fratres, 1:30-; Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, 13:49-; Adam’s Lament, 22:10-; Salve Regina, 45:40-; Te Deum, 59:30-), Germany (Hamburg), 2/18/20*

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

*ECM Records founder/producer Manfred Eicher (1943-), who has long championed Pärt’s music, joins the others onstage at the end.

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