passings
Glenn Branca, composer, guitarist, October 6, 1948-May 13, 2018
Live, Washington, D.C., 2012
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Live (Symphony No. 16 [Orgasm], First Mvt.), Paris, 2015
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lagniappe
reading table
That was fast.
I mean life.—Ron Padgett, “Haiku”
There are all kinds of gospel.
“I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” (S. O’Connor), Bettye LaVette, live, New York, 2012
*****
Here’s the original recording.
Sinead O’Connor, 1990
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lagniappe
random sights
last night, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Good night, because we must!
How intricate the Dust!—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 97 (Franklin; excerpt)
More beauty?
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), String Quartet in F major (1903); Sacconi Quartet, live, London, 2015
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lagniappe
reading table
The snow is melting
and the village is flooded
with children.—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by Robert Haas)
serendipity
Last night I bumped into these guys via a live webcast from Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio. As here, their performance had what a friend calls “gather.”
Aram Shelton (alto saxophone), Håkon Berre (drums), live, Copenhagen, 2017
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lagniappe
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cherry blossoms—
to my lowly sleeve
they cling—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
basement jukebox
Swan Silvertones, “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep,” 1958
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lagniappe
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Some, too fragile for winter winds
The thoughtful grave encloses –—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 91 (Franklin; excerpt)
more
Salif Keita, live, London, c. 2002
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lagniappe
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We humans—
squirming around
among the blossoming flowers.—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
back to church
“Until I Die,” Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C., 2001
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lagniappe
reading table
God’s Grandeur
by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)The world is charged with the grandeur of God.It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oilCrushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soilIs bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;And though the last lights off the black West wentOh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —Because the Holy Ghost over the bentWorld broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
*****
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
basement jukebox
Tyrone Davis (1938-2005), “Can I Change My Mind,” 1969
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill. (Oak Park Conservatory)
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reading table
Nature repeats itself, or almost does . . .
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), “North Haven”
How about two minutes of joy?
Felix Quartet (Michael Moore, alto saxophone; Wolter Weirbos, trombone; Wilbert de Joode, bass; Michael Vatcher, drums), live, 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
That gorgeous kite
rising
from the beggar’s shack.—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
timeless
Anton Webern (1883-1945), Variations, op. 27 (1936); Vincent Planès (piano), live, France (Pau), 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
Moon, plum blossoms,
this, that,
and the day goes.—Yosa Buson, 1716-1784 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
