more
Michel Portal (clarinets, accordion), Hamid Drake (drums), live, France (Le Mans), 2012
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lagniappe
reading table
Skylark
sings all day,
and day not long enough.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto
summer in the city
Moses Sumney, “Plastic,” live, Chicago (Pitchfork Music Festival), 7/15/16
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reading table: two takes
Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.
—Henry James (1843-1916)
There is a kind of sullenness that summer / alone possesses.
—Geoffrey Hill (1932-2016), “In Isley Church Lane (3)”
more
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor
Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997), live, Moscow, 1975
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lagniappe
reading table
Here in my house
a square of light—
moon through the window—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by David Young
never enough
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor
Jonathan Biss, live, New York, 2011
One of the things I admire about this performance is its immediacy: it feels not like recitation but spontaneous utterance.
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lagniappe
reading table
One insect
asleep on a leaf
can change your life—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by David Young
Close your eyes.
Listen—just listen.
If you don’t have time for this, what do you have time for?
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), From me flows what you call Time (1990); La Jolla Symphony (Steven Schick, cond.), live, San Diego, 2008
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lagniappe
reading table
Come, see
real flowers
of this painful world.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto
If I could dance like this, I’d never sit down.
Jimmy Slyde (1927-2008) and Bob Moses, dancing, playing, talking
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lagniappe
reading table
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.—Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), “One Art”
sounds of London
DJ EZ, live, London, 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
She went around pre-registered
for her own eventual absence.—Rae Armantrout, “Hoard”
sounds of Chicago
DJ Frankie Knuckles (1955-2014), live, New York, 2013
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
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reading table
9 killed on city’s deadliest day in 13 years
—Chicago Tribune, this morning
sounds of London
Four Tet (aka Kieran Hebden), live, London, 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
father and son
go their separate ways . . .
blossom viewing—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
music clip of the day 