Why not begin the week with something beautiful?
John Cage (1912-1992), In a Landscape (1948); Stephen Drury (piano), 1994
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
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No one home.
Fallen pine needles
scattered at the door.—Ryokan (1758-1831), translated from Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi
more
Hamid Drake (drums, percussion; MCOTD Hall of Fame), Michael Zerang (drums, percussion), Joshua Abrams (bass, gumbri), Ayako Kato (movement), live, Chicago (Constellation), last night
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
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Don’t say my hut has nothing to offer:
come and I will share with you
the cool breeze that fills my window.—Ryokan (1758-1831), translated from Japanese by John Stevens
two takes
“Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” (aka “Mary Don’t You Weep,” trad.)
Huntsville Police Department Blue Notes, live, Huntsville, Ala., 2008
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Swan Silvertones (feat. Claude Jeter), 1958
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random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
My travels haven’t changed me a bit
My eyeballs are still where they were before—
right beneath my eyebrows—Ryokan, 1758-1831 (translated from Chinese by Ryuichi Abe and Peter Haskell, Great Fool: Zen Master Ryokan)
timeless
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (AB, drums; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; Lee Morgan, trumpet; John Hicks, piano; Victor Sproles, bass), live (music starts at 4:25), Paris, 1965
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
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If I had known
how sorrowful this world is,
I would have become
grass or a tree
in a deep mountain!—Ryokan (1758-1831), translated from Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi
sounds of Jamaica
Bob Marley and the Wailers, live (“Catch A Fire,” “Trenchtown Rock,” “Concrete Jungle,” “Midnight Ravers,” “Talkin´ Blues,” “Rebel Music,” “I Shot the Sheriff,” “Natty Dread”), Chicago (Quiet Knight), 6/10/75
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Happy—70th!—Birthday to my brother Don, with whom I’ve heard more music, in and around Chicago, than I could ever possibly recall. Most recently there was Ry Cooder at Thalia Hall; but before that—way before that—there was, let’s see, Bob Marley and the Wailers at the Quiet Knight (today’s clip), and the MC5 in Lincoln Park (during the infamous 1968 Democratic Convention), and the Velvet Underground at the Kinetic Playground (after which, on our way back to the car, we were stopped by Chicago police, in an unmarked car, who took us back to the station—curfew bust), and the Beatles at Comiskey Park, and Peter, Paul, and Mary, the Kingston Trio, the Smothers Brothers, and the Beach Boys at Arie Crown Theater (with Dad), and Johnny Tillotson, Gene Pitney, and Bobby Rydell on the basement jukebox, and . . . the list goes on, and on, and on.
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Reflecting over seventy years,
I am tired of judging right from wrong.
Faint traces of a path trodden in deep night snow.
A stick of incense under the rickety window.—Ryokan (1758-1831), translated from Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi
alone
Torbjön Zetterberg (1976-, bass), live (Quarantine Concert presented by Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago), Zengården Monastery, Sweden, 4/18/20
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
As long as I don’t aim,
I won’t miss.
With the catalpa bow,
I shoot an arrow
toward the open sky.—Ryokan (1758-1831), translated from Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi
only rock ‘n’ roll
PJ Harvey, live, London, 2004
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)
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Falling blossoms.
Blossoms in bloom are also
falling blossoms.—Ryokan (1758-1831), translated from Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi
sounds of New York
Reverend Gary Davis (1896-1972), “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” live
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
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reading table
Clear skies ring with the honk of wild geese
On deserted hills, leaves whirl in the wind
Twilight on a smoky village road
Carrying an empty begging bowl and walking home alone—Ryōkan (1758-1831), translated from classical Chinese by Ryūichi Abé and Peter Haskel
timeless
Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, Alabama, “I’m Bound for Canaan Land,” recorded in Chicago, 1947
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
Where did my life come from?
Where will it go?—Ryōkan (1758-1831), from an untitled poem (translated from classical Chinese by Ryūichi Abé and Peter Haskel)
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor, Violin Partita No. 1 in B minor; Rachel Podger (1968-, violin), live (performance begins at 2:00), London, 11/24/19
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Water Lilies (1914-1926), detail
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Playing ball
With the children in this village
Spring day, never let the shadows fall!—Ryōkan (1758-1831), translated from Japanese by Ryūichi Abé and Peter Haskel
music clip of the day 