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Category: reading table

2020

Monday, March 30th

like nobody else 

How about time-traveling to 1961 Paris?

Blossom Dearie (1924-2009, vocals, piano), “C’est le Printemps” (“It Might as Well Be Spring,” R. Rodgers, O. Hammerstein II; adaptation, J. Sablon), “Plus je t’embrasse” (“Heart of My Heart,” B. Ryan; adaptation, Max François), live, Paris, 1961

 

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lagniappe

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

Isa Genzken (1948-), Rose II (2007)

*****

reading table

The youth walks up to the white horse, to put its halter on
and the horse looks at him in silence.
They are so silent they are in another world.

—D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930), “The White Horse.”

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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)

*****

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

Saturday, March 21st

sounds of Jamaica

Buju Banton (1973-), live (studio), Jamaica (Kingston), 3/20/20

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

reading table

We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.

—Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh (1926-)

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2020

Friday, March 20th

How about something quiet, and delicate, and beautiful?

Ballaké Sissoko (1968-, kora), live, Paris, 2017

 

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

reading table

Quick the world rushed out like waters.

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

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2020

Monday, March 16th

Want to be swept away?

Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915), Etude in D-sharp minor, Op. 8, No. 12 (1894); Daniil Trifonov (1991-, piano), live, Berlin, 2019

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

reading table

And I Was Alive
by Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938),
translated from Russian by Christian Wiman

And I was alive in the blizzard of the blossoming pear,
Myself I stood in the storm of the bird-cherry tree,
It was all leaflike and star shower, unerring, self-shattering power,
And it was all aimed at me.

What is this dire delight flowering fleeing always earth?
What is being? What is truth?

Blossoms rupture and rapture the air,
All hover and hammer,
Time intensified and time intolerable, sweetness raveling rot.
It is now. It is not.

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2020

Sunday, March 15th

timeless

Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, Alabama, “I’m Bound for Canaan Land,” recorded in Chicago, 1947

 

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

reading table

Where did my life come from?
Where will it go?

—Ryōkan (1758-1831), from an untitled poem (translated from classical Chinese by Ryūichi Abé and Peter Haskel)

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2020

Saturday, March 14th

never enough

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor, Violin Partita No. 1 in B minor; Rachel Podger (1968-, violin), live (performance begins at 2:00), London, 11/24/19

 

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lagniappe

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

Claude Monet (1840-1926), Water Lilies (1914-1926), detail

*****

reading table

Playing ball
With the children in this village
Spring day, never let the shadows fall!

—Ryōkan (1758-1831), translated from Japanese by Ryūichi Abé and Peter Haskel

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