Friday, November 15th
what’s new
Leonard Cohen (1934-2016), “Happens to the Heart” (L. Cohen), published 10/25/19
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Interview excerpt, published 11/8/19
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lagniappe
random sights
last night, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2019
Thursday, November 14th
what’s new
He’s one of a handful of DJs whose every mix I look forward to hearing.
Four Tet (AKA Kieran Hebden), live, New York, 11/12/19
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Wednesday, November 13th
next week in Chicago
She’s performing Monday at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Caterina Barbieri (modular synthesizer), live, Italy (Genoa), 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
a while ago, Ireland (Dingle Peninsula)
*****
reading table
I’ve always been aware of being an inconsistent personality. Of having a lot of contradictory voices knocking around my head. As a kid, I was ashamed of it. Other people seemed to feel strongly about themselves, to know exactly who they were. I was never like that. I could never shake the suspicion that everything about me was the consequence of a series of improbable accidents—not least of which was the 400 trillion–to-one accident of my birth. As I saw it, even my strongest feelings and convictions might easily be otherwise, had I been the child of the next family down the hall, or the child of another century, another country, another God.
—Zadie Smith, “Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction,” New York Review of Books, 10/24/19
2019
Tuesday, November 12th
sounds of Haiti and Chicago
Nathalie Joachim (vocals, electronics) with Spektral Quartet, “Papa Loco” (trad.), live (studio), New York, published 10/29/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
She cries. Oh no. Oh no no no.
—Eimear McBride, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing
2019
Monday, November 11th
This—more of this 12th-century composer—I could listen to all day.
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), O vis aeternitatis; Eleni-Lydia Stamellou, Aeterna Choir, Teodor Currentzis (director), live, Russia (Perm), 2016
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Saturday, November 8th
3n
John Escreet Trio (JS, piano, compositions; John Hébert, bass; Tyshawn Sorey, drums, vibraphone), live, Amsterdam, 2014
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Listen carefully,
Neither the Vedas
Nor the Qur’an
Will teach you this:
Put the bit in its mouth,
The saddle on its back,
Your foot in the stirrup,
And ride your wild runaway mind
All the way to heaven.—Kabir (15th century), translated from Hindi by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
2019
Thursday, November 7th
From Buenos Aires to Helsinki.
Caterina Barbieri (modular synthesizer), live, Helsinki, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Reading is rapture (or if it isn’t, I put the book down meaning to go on with it later, and escape out the side door). A felicitously turned sentence can induce it. Or a description. Or unexpected behavior. Or ordinary behavior raised to the nth degree. Or intolerable suspense, as with the second half of Conrad’s Victory. Or the forward movement of prose that is bent only on saying what the writer has to say. Or dialogue that carries with it the unconscious flowering of character. Or, sometimes, a fact.
—William Maxwell (1908-2000), The Outermost Dream
2019
Wednesday, November 6th
sounds of Buenos Aires
Sol Ortega (DJ), live, Buenos Aires, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
2019
Monday, November 4th
Why not begin the week with something beautiful?
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), O Frondens Virga; Chanticleer, live, Russia (St. Petersburg), 2014
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lagniappe
random sights
a while ago, Ireland (Dingle Peninsula)
2019
Saturday, November 2nd
what’s new
Bob Dylan, “Not Dark Yet” (B. Dylan), live, published 10/12/19 (10/19 audio; old video footage)
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
music clip of the day 