what’s new
Fantastic Negrito (aka Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz), “Virginia Soil” (X. Dphrepaulezz), live (studio), published 8/26/22
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
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reading table
My Teacher once said to me,
—become one with the knot itself
til it dissolves away.—Gary Snyder (1930-), from “Four Changes” (Collected Poems, 2022)
string festival
day one
Daniel Levin (1974-, cello) and Mat Maneri (1969-, viola), live, Columbia, South Carolina, 1/16/22
#1
#2
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
Daybreak—
—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from the Japanese by Lucien Stryk with the assistance of Noboru Fujiwara (The Dumpling Field: Haiku of Issa, 1991)
working as one,
two butterflies.
alone
Peter Evans (1981-, trumpet, composition), “Mirrors of Infinity,” live (studio), 2016
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lagniappe
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To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations.
—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), letter to Thomas Higginson, late 1872
more
James Brandon Lewis Trio (JBL [1983-, tenor saxophone, composition], et al.), “Raise Up Off Me,” live, New York, 3/9/22
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lagniappe
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I’m not lonely
because I have secrets;I’m lonely because words
can’t bring the past
into the present(which amounts to the same thing)
—Rae Armantrout (1947-), from “Pretty Little” (Conjure, 2020)
sounds of New York
Lukas Ligeti Quintet (LL, drums, percussion, compositions; Shoko Nagai, piano; Darren Johnston, trumpet; Travis Sullivan, alto saxophone; Michael Bates, bass), live, New York, 7/15/22
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lagniappe
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The pure products of America
go crazy——William Carlos Williams (1883-1963), from “To Elsie” (1923)
another take
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Goldberg Variations, excerpt (Aria); Peter Serkin (1947-2020, piano), live, Japan (Hiroshima), 2017
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lagniappe
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A butterfly
flutters past—my body feels
the dust of ages—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from the Japanese by Sam Hamill
sounds of Detroit
Floorplan (aka Robert Hood), “Never Grow Old” (Re-Plant), 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
He walked in awe
In awe of light
At nightfall, not at dawn
Whatever he saw
Receding from sight
In the sky’s afterglow
Was what he wanted
To see, to know—Samuel Menashe (1925-2011), “Enlightenment”
never enough
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor (Op. 31, No. 2; 1801-02; “The Tempest”); Maria João Pires (1944-, piano), live, published 2018
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lagniappe
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In this world
we walk on the roof of hell,
gazing at flowers.—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
back to church
White Hill Hymn Choir, “Ezekiel Prophesize,” live, Mt. DoWell Baptist Church, McConnells, South Carolina, 1987
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lagniappe
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Not once did I think
I’d throw these fresh spring blossoms
into this dense smoke
and stand back to watch it rise
and vanish into the sky—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from the Japanese by Sam Hamill
sounds of New York
Robert Dick (flutes, composition) with Resonant Refractions, Concerto for Flute, Bass Flute, Strings and Percussion, live, New York, 4/2/22
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lagniappe
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I have just had a long early-morning visit from Faustina who is still carrying on selling her “ticketys” (lottery tickets) bravely and walking miles every day with them, at the age of eighty-two. First she has to have a small drink of cognac, then she advises me about what number to buy this week—it’s 2—then she tells me lots of gossip, except that I can’t understand much of it; she speaks a sort of elementary gibberish of her own, part Spanish, part English. She is carrying all her tickets and money these days in a cardboard suit-case, brown wood-grained, with a red cross on one side, and “The Little Doctor” in large print. She was also carrying a large mirror, very tarnished, in a silver frame, that someone had given her. She is going to take out the mirror and use the frame for a photograph of, first—she said—her daughter, second thought, an improvement, the “Virgin Maria . . .”
—Elizabeth Bishop (Key West, Florida), letter to Robert Lowell, November 18, 1947 (Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell)
