never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Partita No. 3 in E major; Shunske Sato (violin), live, Netherlands (Haarlem), published 11/28/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday morning, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Listen,
how your heart beats inside me.—Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012, MCOTD Hall of Fame), from “Could Have,” translated from Polish by Stanislav Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh
two takes
“I Try” (M. Gray, J. Ruzumna, J. Lim, D. Wilder)
J Dilla (1974-2006), remix, 2006
***
Macy Gray, 1999
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
Threshold
by Rachel Hadas (1948-, Questions in the Vestibule)
The in-between is queasy,
but all is in between.
Midsummer green? Monotonous
when everything is green.
The sea? A glittering question
if everything is sea.
This vestibule? Unsettling.
I teeter first one way
and then the other. In
or out? I am a fool
to be so caught off balance.
All is vestibule.
sounds to get lost in
Jessica Pavone String Ensemble (JP, viola, composition; Joanna Matrey, viola; Erica Dicker, violin; Angela Morris, violin), “Hurtle and Flow,” published 9/4/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday morning, I-80 rest stop, Iowa (near Grinnell)
*****
reading table
big rainbig mooncicada in the pine—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue
mesmerizing
If I could move like this, I’d never stand still.
Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards (1976-), live, Stockholm, 2013
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
Topography displays no favorites; North’s as near as West.
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), from “The Map”
like nobody else
Nina Simone (1933-2003, vocals, piano), “Wild Is the Wind” (D. Tiomkin, N. Washington), live, New York, 1964
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
The challenge: balance. Keep it steady,
now sniffing daffodils’ aroma,
now Googling a rare sarcoma.—Rachel Hadas (1948-), from “Love and Dread” (New Yorker, 11/18/19)
sounds of Kinshasa
KOKOKO!, “Likolo,” “Tongos’a,” “Malembe,” live, Washington, D.C., 11/15/19
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Forest Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Many nights on the road
and not dead yet—
the end of autumn.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Robert Hass
sounds of New York
Why not begin the week with something new?
Jason Kao Hwang’s Sing House (JKH, violin, viola, compositions; Kalun Leung, trombone; Christopher Forbes, piano; Ken Filiano, bass; Andrew Drury, drums), live, New York, 9/29/19
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
not grown to a butterfly
this late in autumn
a caterpillar—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Makoto Ueda
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
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
what’s new
Big Thief, “Not,” live (TV show), 10/10/19
*****
Another take.
Recording, published 8/13/19
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Tread very gingerly; you’ve used up almost all the words.
—Lucie Brock-Broido (1956-2018), from “Lucid Interval”
music clip of the day 