Friday, April 24th
what’s new
Rolling Stones, “Living in a Ghost Town,” 4/23/20
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
*****
reading table
Ghost I house
In this flat—
Your outpost—
My aftermath—Samuel Menashe (1925-2011), “Here”
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: reading table
2020
2020
Thursday, April 23rd
what’s new
Susana Santos Silva (trumpet, electronics, etc.), live (Quarantine Concert presented by Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago), 4/18/20
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, outside Chicago (Salt Creek Trail)
*****
reading table
The whole country devastated,
only mountains and rivers remain.
In springtime, at the ruined castle.
the grass is always green.—Tu Fu (712-770), translated from Chinese by Sam Hamill
2020
Sunday, April 19th
back to church
“It’s Another Day’s Journey,” Mt. Tatum Primitive Baptist Church, Dryfork, Va., 2011
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
Spring and All
by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast—a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen
patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees
All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines—
Lifeless in appearance,
sluggish dazed spring approaches—
They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind—
Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined—
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf
But now the stark dignity of
entrance—Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken
2020
Friday, April 17th
what’s new
Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles, “In the Water,” live, Los Angeles, published 4/15/20
MVPs? No contest—bassist, drummer.
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Pity us
By the sea
On the sands
So briefly—Samuel Menashe (1925-2011)
2020
Thursday, April 16th
sounds of Kingston
Desmond Dekker & The Aces, “007 (Shanty Town)” (D. Dekker), official music video (shot in Kingston, Jamaica), 1967
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
We are survivors of immeasurable events,
Flung upon some reach of land,
Small, wet miracles without instructions,
Only the imperative of change.—Rebecca Elson (1960-1999), “Evolution”
2020
Monday, April 13th
what’s new
Andrea Bocelli (1958-, voice), Music for Hope (“Panis Angelicus” (from “Messe Solennelle” Op. 12, FWV 61), César Franck; “Ave Maria,” CG 89a (arr. from Johann Sebastian Bach, “Prelude” no. 1, BWV 846), Charles-François Gounod; “Sancta Maria” (arr. from “Cavalleria Rusticana”, Intermezzo), Pietro Mascagni; “Domine Deus” (from “Petite Messe Solennelle”), Gioachino Antonio Rossini; “Amazing Grace,” John Newton), live, Italy (Milan), 4/12/20
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
“Hope” is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—I’ve heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 314 (Franklin)
2020
Sunday, April 12th
back to church
Center Baptist Church Hymn Choir, “What a Time,” live, Gastonia, N.C., 2009
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Windowed I observe
The waning snow
As rain unearths
That raw clay—
Adam’s afterbirth—
No one escapes
I lie down, immerse
Myself in sleep
The windows weep—Samuel Menashe (1925-2011), “Downpour”
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 sunlightenters the dark woods;Again shiningon the green moss, above.
—Wang Wei (699-759), “Deer Park” (translated from Chinese by Gary Snyder)
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”
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
music clip of the day 