February 28, 2007
THE GREATEST BAND EVER?
...bebop pop quiz: name all the musicians...
I spotted this picture at the bad plus blog yesterday, and while I consider myself fairly well-versed in the jazz photo/artifacts area, this particular photograph had escaped my gaze until now...where was it shot? minton's? could be--the piano player was the house pianist there for a spell during the 40s...you can probably name the sax player if you have any knowledge of jazz history whatsoever...and the bassist was pretty famous as well...but who's the drummer? hint: he's the only one in the picture who is still alive...
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February 27, 2007
LIZ
...in honor of her 75th birthday today...
...and in keeping with this week's theme of beautiful older women...
with a face like that, captions seem rather pointless...
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February 26, 2007
DEAR FASHIONISTA
...they've just figured this out NOW?...
I'm sorry, but if you've been taking breaths on this planet, have any appreciation for feminine beauty, and are just now figuring out that Helen Mirren could launch her own 1,000 ships, then you're, well, probably a poofter...
was I the only one who watched 'caligula' all the way through? did you completely miss out on 'the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover'? how about 'the madness of king george' ("good morning mrs. king")...? excalibur?
please explain how a woman of her natural gifts can completely bypass the hollywood meat grinder and now, at age 60-something, she is being suddenly worshiped as a sex symbol for portraying quite possibly the most uptight and sexless woman on the face of the earth? why? because she's british? because she's....what exactly?
my theory: because she's smart. nothing turns off american men more...allegedly...but of course, nothing is sexier...
this has been my third year straight that I skipped the telecast, and I highly recommend it to everyone. for one thing, if it's nice outside (and last night was beautiful, with a lightly falling snow), it is one of the quietest nights of the year, with nearly everyone glued to their sets. so, go take a walk. because let's face it--what are you missing out on? the movies are generally bad (not movies in general, just the ones that the oscars generally honor), the program is long and boring, and you can get all the highlights you want to see on youtube, minutes later, without having to sit through any dance routines or celine dion...
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February 24, 2007
I HAD TOO MUCH TO DREAM LAST NIGHT
...too much to dream...
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February 22, 2007
SUPERSWING
...like butter...
...last night was fun...thudstaff just bought one of these...and last night was time to pick it up at the newark new jersey fed ex depot...
...brand-new, right out of the box...a box which, incidentally, I was in charge of opening up with my dewalt cordless drill...
...and so the musical kitchen of the drunk bros just acquired a very substantial and toneful new component...we got it home, installed the bridge, and then I proceeded to sit back and listen while thudstaff threw down some standards and some blues...
I didn't even pick up a guitar, just listened and grinned...in fact, I find myself in sudden need of a big fat archtop guitar...guess I'll have to muddle along with what I have, for now...
but that bass? oh. so. shiny. blonde too, just like the pictures...
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February 21, 2007
ASHES TO ASHES
... avast, ye sinners! repent! ...
today's message: you're going to die.
hooray!
Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another. This immaturity is self-incurred if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and courage to use it without the guidance of another. The motto of enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own understanding!
Immanuel Kant
We might as well require a man to wear the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain forever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
Thomas Jefferson
I do not pray. . . . I do not expect God to single me out and grant me advantages over my fellow men. . . . Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility.
Zora Neale Hurston
The deliverance of the saints must take place some time before 1914.
Charles Taze Russell, founder of Jehovah's Witnesses, Studies in the Scripture, Volume 3, 1910 edition
The deliverance of the saints must take place some time after 1914.
Charles Taze Russell, founder of Jehovah's Witnesses, Studies in the Scripture, Volume 3, 1923 edition
Modern Darwinism makes it abundantly clear that many less ruthless traits, some not always admired by robber barons and Fuhrers - altruism, general intelligence, compassion - may be the key to survival.
Carl Sagan
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that. I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first -- rock 'n'roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.
John Lennon, London Evening Standard of March 4, 1966, repeated in Time magazine, Aug 12, 1966
My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance -- but for us, not for God.
Albert Einstein
Man must not check reason by tradition, but contrariwise, must check tradition by reason.
Leo Tolstoy
If 50 million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
Anatole France
The Church says that the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church.
Ferdinand Magellan
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Calvin, "Calvin & Hobbes"
Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.
Horace
Science has done more for the development of Western civilization in 100 years than Christianity did in 1,800 years.
John Burroughs
Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.
H. L. Mencken
The so-called godly man may be more likely to do serious wrong than a man who deeply questions himself. The 'godly man' often zealously follows religious precepts that, in the end, justify an unjust injury to others, while the questioning man, addressing his own conscience, may have the better chance to consider all the circumstances and come to the just decision.
Gerry Spence
The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being as His Father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.
Thomas Jefferson
I'm an atheist and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.
Katharine Hepburn
I do not feel obliged to believe that same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect had intended for us to forgo their use.
Galileo
How should I know anything about another world when I know so little of this?
Confucius
Religious believers of the world, you are free to continue to debate the simple, narrow question that divides you from atheists, but you have no right, in so doing, to treat the Humanists of the world with contempt. You owe them a deep debt of gratitude, for not only have they shed much light on a naturally dark world but they have very probably helped civilize your own specific religion.
Steve Allen
The Catholics have a pope. Protestants laugh at them, and yet the pope is capable of intellectual advancement. In addition to this, the pope is mortal, and the church cannot be afflicted with the same idiot forever. The Protestants have a book for a pope. The book cannot advance. Year after year, and century after century, the book remains as ignorant as ever.
Robert G. Ingersoll
In all the ages the Roman Church has owned slaves, bought and sold slaves, authorized and encouraged her children to trade in them. . . . There were the texts; there was no mistaking their meaning; . . . she was doing in all this thing what the Bible had mapped out for her to do. So unassailable was her position that in all the centuries she had no word to say against human slavery.
Mark Twain
At a conservative estimate, ten million witches were killed throughout Europe. . . . The decline of witch-belief was . . . entirely the product of religious skepticism. . . . The Catholic Church did not reform itself on this matter; it was forced by outside pressure to reform. To be sure, the Protestant churches were no better in this regard; it is simply that they had less time - only two or three centuries - to engage in the torching of witches. After all, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, stated quite correctly that disbelief in witches meant a disbelief in the Bible.
S. T. Joshi
Any organization could profit from a 10-year-old member with enough strength of character to refuse to swear falsely.
New York Times editorial, 12/12/93, on the Boy Scouts' refusing membership to Mark Welsh, who would not sign a religious oath
I pray every single second of my life; not on my knees but with my work. My prayer is to lift women to equality with men. Work and worship are one with me. I know there is no God of the universe made happy by my getting down on my knees and calling him 'great.'
Susan B. Anthony
The truth is . . . that the great artists of the world are never puritans, and seldom ever ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man - that is, virtuous in the YMCA sense - has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.
H. L. Mencken
I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them.
Bertrand Russell
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.
Isaac Asimov
Why should an atheist pay more taxes so that a church, which he despises, should pay no taxes? That's a fair question. How can the apologists for the church exemption answer it?
E. Haldeman-Julius
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
Shakespeare
The beginning of wisdom is the awareness that there is insufficient evidence that a god or gods have created us and the recognition that we are responsible in part for our own destiny. Human beings can achieve this good life, but it is by the cultivation of the virtues of intelligence and courage, not faith and obedience, that we will most likely be able to do so.
Paul Kurtz
Intellectual freedom is essential to human society. Freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorships.
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov
As the Church assumed leadership, activity in the fields of medicine, technology, science, education, history, art and commerce all but collapsed. Europe entered the Dark Ages.
Helen Ellerbe
I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies.
Thomas Jefferson
Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us.
Walt Whitman
Suppose we've chosen the wrong god? Every time we go to church, we're just making him madder and madder.
Homer Simpson
The only excuse for God is that he doesn't exist.
Friedrich Nietzsche
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February 19, 2007
THE GLORIOUS SOUND OF OLD MAGNETS
...visually impaired? click here...
one might suspect that a devoted guitar taker-aparter like me would have a few basics covered by the time I go about revisiting my oldest bestest axe with a top-down checkup...but aside from this one guitar it's been all fender-stylee for me, so I hadn't given proper attention to the fact that these pickups can be inserted backwards...and thus it was, for more than a dozen years, that this instrument had a "twangy" vibe to it, and was a bit noisy (again, why wasn't the hum being bucked?) until I touched a metal pickup cover with a finger. then: silence...I began to wonder this time around, which two contact points needed to be made to manufacture this same grounding that my finger provided? all connections were double-checked, and even a few extra leads were soldered (connecting ground to the metal cavity cover seemed a no-brainer)...
and just then good old dan early-wine said something about a pickup being put in backwards, and I stopped what I was doing. googled a few les pauls, and there it was--them screws were pointing backwards! duh. aren't they supposed to match? since it's two single coil pickups wrapped in opposite polarity by a bunch of wire wrappings, why does it matter?
I still don't know. but it does. and now it's a brand new, old guitar...the thin twang is gone, the hum is gone, and the tone of the bridge pickup is what it's always supposed to have been...and I am once again properly and rightly humbled...
next up:
replace pots on lap steel
replace tuners on ibanez semi-hollow
jazz bass neck refinish
procrastinate like hell and play that les paul...
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MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF HUMBUCKERS
NEW MP3 ACTION:
"bumrush" : what one might end up with by playing one long take of a riff over a looping track, then editing the information into clumsy random chunks, then doing a smear of new-old lespaul 80s-tone shred accidents over the top of that...plus a shallow dive into the loop archives...yoozcrazyalfalfa!
"o solo mijo" : another two-take bit over simple drum loop bed...octave effect is actually just a computer plugin...
in summary: 6th7th9th chords with humbuckers; right-click/save target as...
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SINEAD IS PISSED
...ok britney, now I want to nail you too...
somewhere in america right now, some little girl who loves britney is shaving her head...
and now another one is too...
and another....
and another...
and...
etc.
result: art.
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February 16, 2007
ALL GAMES SHOULD START THIS WAY
...he was the greatest...
thudstaff alerted me to the existence of this clip today. I wasn't aware that Marvin Gaye had even given this performance (not surprising, since it happened at an NBA All-Star Game), though I've read that this was Marvin's very last tv appearance before his untimely death...
if this doesn't make you feel simultaneously patriotic, funky, and downright sexybeautiful, you ought to check for a pulse...
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WHILE YOU WERE FIXATING ON ANNA NICOLE
...dannielynn's not the only little girl to lose her mommy...
Kayla Jeanke, age 9, follows pallbearers carrying the casket of her mother, Petty Officer 2nd Class Jaime Jaenke, at funeral services held in Iowa Falls, Iowa. Jaenke was killed by a roadside bomb in Anbar province, Iraq.
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February 14, 2007
HAVE SOME CHOCOLATES
...whole lotta love...
resting on the slab with a fresh set of strings...
< click above links for new pictures >
let me pull on your coat a little about this guitar...the first guitar I owned that had any quality or brand status was my 1974 fender strat, which was recently refinished and rebuilt....it was a crap instrument from the get-go, which is why I replaced every single component and refinished the body...but at the time it was my one and only guitar, aside from a vintage hagstrom which had its own set of limitations...enter George Bush the First, whose wouldn't-be-prudent adventures in Kuwait and Iraq inspired a young man from Buffalo to decide he must raise money to pay for a ticket to Washington DC so that he could march and protest...so he decides to let a friend of his take his les paul to NYC and find a buyer. about 10 seconds after our mutual friend showed it to me, I took the deal. A black 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom, in quasi-working order (I had to re-connect the neck pickup) for $500? even back in the early 90s, that was a steal...(and quite coincidentally, the guitar is stamped "may 1978" which lines up almost exactly with the calendar point when I took up the instrument--this guitar is as old as I've been playing...)
around that time, my late uncle steve needed someone to pick out pictures for one of the volumes of this 3-book bio of richard nixon...he asked me to help out, and after I did so, I received a check from him which quite generously compensated me for the hour I spent at worldwide photo, and which subsidized about 2/3 of the expense of this guitar. So I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the republican party for creating so many dastardly misadventures--your dark deeds indirectly put a top-notch instrument in my hands when I really needed it!
readers of this space know that I'm a fixer-upper and builder of solidbody electrics, so this instrument is noteworthy because it is totally 100% original, and up until recently it was totally stock. however, the switch was going bad, the pots needed replacing, and so I needed to refurbish the electronics with a fresh signal path. and believe it or not, it's still a little bit noisy. but it does play wonderfully, and the tone is quite unique...it's obvious calling card is the unusual maple fretboard--which does add some snap to the attack, in conjunction with pickups that are medium output at best...these two factors account for its unusually bright tone--very similar to the sound of mini-humbuckers in that respect.
but on a purely emotional level, it's was my main guitar for years--the one that I took out on many gigs and recording sessions (both during and between the wars) ... I know it's in's & out's as well as any single thing in my possession, and at this stage of my life, feel rather organically connected to each and every ding, scratch and imperfection...a slightly different experience than having this guy or that guy impart 'relic' aspects as a cosmetic treatment. those wear marks came from me, over many hours, many gigs...
I will say this--the gibson wiring scheme is entirely too complicated! wiring a fender is like setting a broken arm; wiring a gibson is like performing heart surgery...working on a les paul makes one appreciate, ever more, the simplicity and genius of the fender telecaster...
still, I'm overjoyed to have it back in the fold...and certifiably proud to re-introduce it to the world...straight ahead...
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February 13, 2007
GREAT MOMENTS IN AMERICAN CAREERISM
...nothing against andy reid personally...he's just one case...
On your journey up the ladder, giving your all to get that brass ring, consider the case of mr. andy reid, head coach of the philadelphia eagles. while he's been busy leading the eagles to six straight playoff appearances (including the super bowl), his sons have apparently been left to their own devices...
from today's NYT:
" Reid’s eldest son, Garrett, 23, tested positive for heroin after a Jan. 30 traffic accident in a suburb of Philadelphia. No charges have been filed, but the police said he could be charged with driving under the influence of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor.
On the same day, another son, 21-year-old Britt, was arraigned on drug and weapons charges. He is accused of pointing a handgun at another driver, and faces a felony charge of carrying a firearm without a license, as well as misdemeanor charges of lying to the authorities, simple assault, making terrorist threats, and possession of a controlled substance. "
So much there to be proud of. Mr. Reid, to his credit, is now taking a month's leave of absence. One hopes that he isn't too late.
When one considers that most C-level executives manage their responsibilities by carrying on this way--outsourcing their parental duties to various surrogates--in so doing, set the bar for their subordinates so high, that the only way to survive--not excel, but simply keep one's job--is to behave likewise, is this a surprise to anyone? I'm more astonished that there aren't more Garretts and Britts in this world, driving around, brandishing weapons and getting high. If I was thus ignored, I'd be doing the exact same thing...
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TODAY'S ASTUTE MUSICAL OBSERVATION (from a recent interview with Andy Partridge, genius songwriter and XTC frontman):
"I would want to write something better than the stuff that disgusts me. It's like country music. I don't really like country music, therefore I'd love to write some country songs just to beat out those crying-in-your-beer shit songs they keep mashing out. Actually, you watch the country-music awards that they show on the television over here, and you see country music has reached about 1985. It's all huge processed drum sounds and chiming chorus guitars and programmed synths bobbling along in the background. "
and Jesus.
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February 12, 2007
THE FENDER BASS GUITAR
...two strings is really all you need...
not fully done yet -- this has a neck from an older mexican jazz bass, installed temporarily while the new neck gets finished up...and still has some wiring/setup issues (which is why only two strings so far)...but pretty damn spiffy if I do say so...that's the reranch transparent orange dye (aerosol)...looks mighty fine on this one-piece swamp ash body...
fully annotated build inventory will be supplied once the instrument is all finished...but before I replace this neck with the new one, check out those cigarette burns! a veteran of many gigs....
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February 11, 2007
February 10, 2007
JORMA
...a fine hootenanny...
caught Jorma Kaukonen at the aging hippy joint this past week...a duo act with "Fucking Barry" Mitterhoff...some fine picking. I particularly enjoyed the duets with Barry on the tenor guitar--he had a mandolin, a banjo, a longer scale mandolin, and this gibson tenor guitar which sounded awesome.
Jorma has always been a blues cat, which is why, of all the bay area bands of that time period, his stuff was what I latched on to. a very enjoyable set it was indeed. I'll be on the lookout for his new record, coming out next month...and armed with my new observations of his approach (as compared to, say, my memory of the last time I saw him, solo acoustic in '81) revisiting some old favorites on my J-45....
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February 09, 2007
GOODBYE VICKIE LYNN
...dead sexy...
when I saw those Guess ads in the (?) early 90s, they stopped me dead in my tracks...what a beauty...the ensuing years became a bit of a circus, but I always remembered those pictures, and the sense of possibility they seemed to suggest...you mean a woman can look like THAT?
it is sad when something beautiful dies. she might not have been as beautiful a person, but man she was a sight to see...
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February 08, 2007
BRING BACK BERNIE
...Bernie is the Yankees. the Yankees are Bernie...
Let's fast-forward just six years and ask ourselves if Derek Jeter, with diminishing skills at shorstop, a slightly slower bat, and assuming there will be some promising young talent at his position, perhaps no longer an all-star...will he be tendered a courtesy invite to spring training? you bet your ass that he'll not only be on the roster, with a big "C" over his locker, but they'll send a limo to take him to work...
The success of the Yankees over the past decade has risen and fallen with the fortunes of Bernie Williams. When he was at his best, they were champions. When his skills waned, they had steadily decreased success in the postseason. Related? It's certainly not the only factor, but I would suggest that men like Bernie, in your locker room, bring a winning attitude, and at this skill level, attitude, determination and desire to win, make all the difference. The past few years have seen just a few too many guys who thought they were Reggie--the straw that stirred the drink (paging Mr. Sheffield)...and sometimes they were, but not as consistently and not when it counted, in October. I won't start clobbering Mr. Rodriguez herewith, since I've long held that the brunt of his criticism comes not so much from the numbers on his baseball card, as it does from the numbers on his paycheck. Still, count Bernie's clutch home runs, especially postseason (not to mention good ol' RBI's), against that of these celebrated superstars, and his performance stands up quite well thank you.
You're telling me that they could carry an injured Chili Davis, for months their non-swinging, aging DH, and there can't be a spot for Bernie? The honest truth here is that Torre has to somehow field another four winning starters--no matter what--and to do so he absolutely has to carry as many qualified arms as possible before he can sort it out (call it the "Pavano effect"). We all know that someone will get injured, or traded, and a backup role will emerge for Bernie. And unlike most players in his situation, he'd rather be part of this team--at that level--than go elsewhere for the money and small-town acclaim. That, my friends, is added value.
Also, Bernie is my favorite baseball player.
Get out your checkbook George. Make is so.
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February 07, 2007
ANNOUNCEMENT
I've added a second section of links in the right-hand column, called "Against the War."
I'm tired of hearing the warmongers demanding an instantly-workable, face-saving plan for achieving peace and getting our soldiers out with honor. I don't have one. I didn't start this mess, and I certainly would not have executed the mission this way. And therefore I don't have an instant answer to the problems they created. But I sincerely support the search for such an answer, and I've noticed a growing number of sites that are either trying to expose the secret doings of the Bush-Cheney war machine, or--even better--trying to forge consensus between disparate groups and find common ground.
I will admit that, in 2003, I was open to the idea of enforcing the UN resolutions via military maneuvers, when I was told that Iraq had WMD. It was not stated as a suspicion, or a hunch, but as fact. Then Colin Powell testified that this was the case, to the UN General Assembly. And now we know that these were all lies. I do not like being lied to. Not by my government. So, I'm giving what little space I have to sites that seem worthwhile. I'm not about changing the party composition of Congress. I'm about getting our young men and women home, and promoting peace via diplomacy, a concept that has been completely abandoned by the dilettantes in the Bush administration.
If you know of any sites that you think should be included, email me the link.
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THIS IF MY RIFLE THIS IS MY GUN
...what I'd meant to say...
I suppose that a verse of Browning is a whole lot more satisfying than this here scribble, but I found this pic yesterday with the intention of submitting an appreciation of this guitar I own--the Ibanez AS80 "artstar" model. Ibanez has since re-branded this line "artcore" for reasons unknown to me, but I'll lay odds its basically the same animal...
what's to like? the price: under $400, closer to three...the pickups: I had fully expected to replace these, but the "super 58" pickups are really good sounding. honest. I love aftermarket pickups, but I wouldn't think of tearing these ones out. the bridge pickup has plenty of bite and high-end clang, with the ability to get les paul-type crunch when overdriven, and the neck pickup is perfect for jazz, t-bone walker-style blues, and is lovely with the tone pot eased back a bit...the two together present lots of range, since the volume/tone controls are wired independently. tone-wise, I have no issues. the looks: when I got it, it was the only sunburst guitar I owned, and it's quite lovely...more of a straight red-to-black, flamed crimson/ebony vibe (as pictured above)...the playability: very easy to set it up for low playing action, and it stays intonated very well...the source: this guitar was a gift from mrs. stratcat, who quite literally picked it out for me. thanks baby...
the minus column: the tuners: they're just ok. I'm planning on replacing them with grovers. probably 90% of players wouldn't have any problem with the ones it came with, but they require a bit too much retuning than I'd like to have to deal with, especially if I start gigging with it. the frets: for a guitar that's obviously designed after a famous gibson model, the fretwork is distinctly fender-like. short/narrow. not my personal preference but they'll do. guitar center: this is the first, and I can definitely say the last instrument I'll ever buy at guitar center. their service is the worst.
the surprise: I've found that most good guitars do what you expect, but sometimes they do something else well that you hadn't planned for. this particular model is, without question, the best-sounding slide guitar I own. it has that duane allman-inspired humbucker tone, in spades. so whenever I'm jamming blues with it, I try to keep a bottleneck in arm's reach...
why bring this up? am I trying to single-handedly create demand for this model so that my own guitar will appreciate in value? yep, that's it. you got me dead to rights. actually, it's just that I'd originally bought this guitar to work on my jazz playing, and since I've been doing a lot of that lately, this has been the guitar I've been using. after two years of steady guitar building, I find myself spending most of my time playing a mass-produced, off the rack instrument of korean factory construction. and I'm digging it...
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February 05, 2007
IN THE FULL-FUGUED SONG OF THE UNIVERSE UNENDING
...mid visionless wilds of space with the voice that I heard...
With stammering lips and insufficient sound
I strive and struggle to deliver right
That music of my nature, day and night
With dream and thought and feeling interwound
And inly answering all the senses round
With octaves of a mystic depth and height
Which step out grandly to the infinite
From the dark edges of the sensual ground.
This song of soul I struggle to outbear
Through portals of the sense, sublime and whole,
And utter all myself into the air:
But if I did it,--as the thunder-roll
Breaks its own cloud, my flesh would perish there,
Before that dread apocalypse of soul.
-- "the soul's expression" by elizabeth barrett browning
(vs. excerpts from "the museum" by thomas hardy)
...
...the best halftime show in super bowl history, hands down...
He didn't just play a few of his hits, he also referenced Hendrix/Dylan ("all along the watchtower"), CCR/Tina Turner ("proud mary"...ya think maybe he was hat-tipping nola/katrina?), and Foo Fighters (so I'm told). but mainly he just played his ass off... what a treat to see that in some quarters, loud guitar is still valued as entertainment, and that lip-synching doesn't always have to be a given...
PRINCE RULES. (for about, oh, 10 minutes...)
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HUMBLE
..the edition I cut my teeth on...
In praise of EB White. This past weekend saw several firsts in my life, the most significant being the chaperone to my daughter’s first visit to an actual movie theater. The genius of Charlotte’s Web. I’ve known this story my whole life and I was still fighting back the tears (as I hugged and comforted a distraught 3-year-old) when Charlotte met her end. But it also occurred to me that this great linguist of the 20th century really had crafted a masterpiece, and that his values, chief of which was well-written English, crafted in a clear, succinct manner, were not only prevalent in this children’s story (his love of words: “radiant” … “some pig” … “humble”) but also that other masterpiece of his, Strunk & White’s “Elements of Style,” which was my right-hand reference through many a term paper back in the day…Mr. White would certainly be horrified by my continued abuse of the ellipse, but that’s a sin I plan on continuing to perpetrating on the internets…I ask this question openly—of all the many words at his disposal, why did he pick “humble?” I think it is that word that truly speaks to the measure of the man, a simple New England guy who preferred his place up north to the cocktail redoubts of The New Yorker and environs. It also has a powerful resonance with young minds -- the larger service he provides us is a very gentle entrée into the concept of death for the young and uninitiated. It’s a tough moment for the young person, but rather than the death of a beloved pet, grandmother or other loved one, it transpires in the heart's imagination. So thank goodness for those 514 baby spiders. To a little girl obsessed with her dolls and all things “baby,” the promise of little ones soon dispelled the loss of Charlotte and made clear that the life cycle of a small farm is of a piece with the one she is engaged in herself. I can't think of another artist or author at any level who influenced me as much when I was a child as when I grew to adulthood.
It is also a testament to the work that this film manages a cast that is heavy with star power…let’s see some casting director try and budget for a live action film that included a cast of Sam Shepard, John Cleese, Robert Redford, Kathy Bates, Steve Buscemi, Beau Bridges, and Julia Roberts…
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Alas, the little red Honda was pitted vs. a big jeep monster at the supermarket this weekend. The little red Honda did not die, but the ref is scoring it as a TKO. The back end needs some serious work. And the perp was some floozy in a giant SUV who has a friend in the PD. New Jersey is a hell where terrible drivers go to make phone calls. While driving. Thank goodness Mrs. Stratcat was not hurt.
Five days ago a pair of groundhogs in Pennsylvania and Staten Island predicted an early spring. Since then the mercury has dropped below zero several times. I think perhaps it’s time we all left the field rodents alone and revisited our weather vanes. And what’s with the top hats anyway?
SNL. Stick a fork in it. After the not-at-all-funny cupcake skit of last year, I gave up altogether on this beloved show of my youth. But these past two weeks I’ve revisited Saturday Night Live, in the hopes a one single tiny laugh. It was not to be. It is too bad that they can’t just cancel this show now. They have become The Rolling Stones of TV. Without Keith. I fear that it won’t be until Lorne Michaels is lost on his yacht off the coast of Venezuela that they will finally cut the cord, but they might as well now. It would seem that the departure of Tina Fey (who knew?) has rid the show of its last writer with any kind of comic sense. If Seth Myers is really the new head writer, the least they could do would be to fire him and get some new blood. I always thought that this was the obvious first stop for Harvard Lampoon types and the gold ring for Groundlings and Second City alums. Where’s the talent?
HDTV. Was invited over to a house for a Super Bowl viewing in HD. Pretty smoking. I love not having HD and then seeing it as a treat once in a while like this. Almost makes me want to buy one. If only I was a TV person…
Jazz=salvation. I’ve been scuffling with this or that project ever since I left the city and my ongoing low-profile indie rock career. It would now seem that I/we have found a place that is both challenging, fulfilling and infinitely musical. Am now in a full-time exploration of jazz self-tutelage and beginning the process of rehearsing a growing list of jazz standards with my musical buds. It’s a straight sheet music deal, and I’ve even found myself reading standard notation. After almost 30 years on my instrument, I finally feel like I’m ready to make some real music. And in this, Mr. EB White is again shining his light for me. How to approach this great swinging repertoire of beauty? Humble. Radiant.
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February 04, 2007
I DON'T CARE WHICH MILLIONAIRE WINS
...sports is stupid...
I don't care which millionaire wins
the millionaire pays for the billionaire's sins
the billionaire is working for gazzilionaire god
and god is running for president
he got killed in the NFL
the lion got loose in the rich man's hell
and they got paid before the box got laid
all went home alone
...was what I wrote
today,
today.
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February 02, 2007
MY KIND OF TOWN
...In 1653, New Amsterdam -- now New York City -- was incorporated...
Happy 354th Birthday to the greatest place on Earth.
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February 01, 2007
SHE WAS A PIP
...respect...
any writer of satire, spleen or advanced mockery must doff their cap and acknowledge the greatness of Molly Ivins' work. She will be missed.
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"... (Music) should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise. It's easy to rediscover part of yourself, but through art you can be shown part of yourself you never knew existed. That's the real mission of art. The artist has to find something within himself that's universal and which he can put into terms that are communicable to other people. the magic of it is that art can communicate to a person without his realizing it ... enrichment, that's the function of music."
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