back to church
Swanee Quintet, live, 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
In the summer of 1948, chance deposited my wife and me in the bleachers of a tiny one-ring circus playing under a tent on the outskirts of Florence.
—William Maxwell (1908-2000), The Outermost Dream
sounds of Ukraine
When you live in a country where words seem to mean less and less, what a relief it can be to listen to a language you know not at all.
Alyona Alyona, live (acoustic session), Slovakia (Pohoda Festival), 2019
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
never enough
Bela Bartok (1881-1945), String Quartet No. 4 in C major (1928); Quatuor Ebène, live, France (Wissembourg), 2013
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Domestic as
an empty shopping cart
parked on a ledge
above a freeway.—Rae Armantrout (1947-), from “Hang On” (New Yorker, 10/21/19)
sounds of New York
Jason Kao Hwang (1957-), If We Live in Forgetfulness, We Die in a Dream (2011); Momenta Quartet, live, New York, 2012
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
If you have some photos of yourself when you were four or eight or twelve or fifteen, hold them up against the mirror. Are you the four-year-old, the eight-year-old, the fifteen-year-old, the twenty-five-year-old, or the one who is looking into the mirror, or all of them? If you are all of them, then by now you must be thousands of different people.
—Ayya Khema (1923-1997), Being Nobody, Going Nowhere: Meditations on the Buddhist Path (1987)
sounds of Jamaica
Koffee (2000-), “Haffi Make It,” “Under Pressure,” live, Germany (Cologne), 7/5/19
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lagniappe
reading table
at evening tide
clinging to the flotsam . . .
a katydid—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue
*****
random sights
other day, Chicago
sounds of the 14th century
Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377), Messe de Notre Dame (begins at 6:15; preceded by Introit [polyphonic chant]); Ensemble Gilles Binchois, live, France (Le Thoronet Abbey, Provence), published 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
Identity is made
of select experiences.***
If you are genuinely sick,
the leaves recedeand the flickering holes between them
come forward—not angels, but
unnamed objects—Rae Armantrout (1947-), from “Vultures” (Poetry, 10/19)
sounds of New York
Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die (JB, trumpet, compositions; Lester St. Louis, cello; Anton Hatwich, bass; Chad Taylor, drums), live, New York, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of Ukraine
day four
How about something quiet, delicate, beautiful?
Valentin Silvestrov (1937-), Post-scriptum (1990); Movses Pogossian (violin), Alexei Lubimov (piano), live, Los Angeles, 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
Floating on a Marsh
by Wang Wei (701-61), translated from Chinese by David Young
Autumn
the sky huge and clear
the marsh miles from farms and houses
overjoyed by the cranes
standing around the sandbars
the mountains above the clouds in the distance
this water
utterly still
in the dusk
the white moon overhead
I let my boat drift free tonight
I can’t go home.
back to church
Pastor Marlon Lock, “Heavenly Choir,” live (grandfather’s homegoing celebration)
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lagniappe
reading table
[H]ope has nothing to do with mood or objective facts, but is rather a form of hospitality offered by those who are tired to those who are exhausted.
—Teju Cole (1975-), website for Go Down Moses (photography exhibit curated by Cole and on display through September 29th at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago)
sounds of New York
day four
Nicolas Jaar (1990-, DJ), live, New York, 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
What is the language using us for?
—W. S. Graham (1918-1986), from the poem so titled
music clip of the day 