angels
Marion Williams and the Stars of Faith, “Mean Old World,” live, Netherlands (Utrecht), 1962
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lagniappe
art beat: more from Friday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), Untitled (Forgotten Game), c. 1949
reading table
Superiority to Fate
Is difficult to gain
‘Tis not conferred of any
But possible to earnA pittance at a time
Until to Her surprise
The Soul with strict economy
Subsist till Paradise.—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #1043 (Franklin)
Need a jolt?
Ballet mecanique (1924) by Fernand Leger and Dudley Murphy (cinematography by Man Ray), with original score by George Anthiel (1900-1959), as performed in 1989 by the New Palais Royale Orchestra and Percussion Ensemble (Maurice Peress, cond.)
This I bumped into Friday at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it’s playing, continuously, in the exhibit Shatter Rupture Break, which runs through May 3rd.
If your appetite for new music is insatiable, what better time to be alive?
Tyshawn Sorey (1980-), Quartet for Butch Morris (2012); International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), featuring Erik Carlson (violin); Joshua Rubin (bass clarinet), Eric Lamb (flute), Cory Smythe (piano); live, New York, 2012
Six decades of listening and, until yesterday, I’d never heard this particular combination of instruments. You?
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
James Ensor (1860-1949), Rooftops of Ostend, 1884 (Temptation: The Demons of James Ensor, through January 25th)
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reading table
Nature, the sky above us, is conducting no mean politics when it presents beauty to all, without discrimination, and nothing old and defective, but fresh and most tasty.
—Robert Walser (1878-1956), “Snowdrops,” excerpt (translated from German by Tom Whalen and Trudi Anderegg)
sounds of Chicago (day two)
Sometimes encountering a new piece of music can turn your whole day around, which is what happened to me the other day when I bumped into this.
Georg Friedrich Haas (1953-), In Vain (2000)
Ensemble Dal Niente, live, Chicago, 2013
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Cliff Walk at Pourville (1882)
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Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Seascape (1879)
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random thoughts
Eyes taste paintings no less than mouths taste food.