Celebrate that

Feufollet at Lakeview Beach & Park, Eunice, LA. August 2010

Tarwater, Silur
Earth, Hibernaculum
Ogurusu Norihide, Humor
John Zorn, Femina
Olivia Tremor Control, Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1
The Residents, Meet the Residents

• I dunno, should I switch to Spotify for this? I really like the way Rhapsody does its thing but I suppose there is a public alienation that comes with the sign-in wall when/if you click on one of those links.  That's what was so nice about our fallen companion lala.com. It lent itself to linkage at its core. This question really hinges on: why post these links anyway. Does anybody follow them? Am I throwing linkage at a content problem? (taps) Is this thing on?
  
  
• I'm getting an unexpectedly nice reaction off a story about Bayou Goula's Stray Record studio featured in the latest Country Roads. I mean, it's a good piece; it's just its getting more notice than a lot of stories like it. It happens that way. Also, I have a review of Au Ras Au Ras' eponymous debut and a profile on Wye Oak in this month's OffBeat, two acts deserving every micron of attention they can muster.
  
  
• First rule about blogging is don't talk about blogging. Second rule about blogging is don't reference Fight Club. Third, is be funny.  This #digitalbrands class has put these three rules to the test, proving their ultimate flimsiness, which is a good thing. If you can't teach yourself out of having a rule, why do it? Otherwise, you could just lay out the rules and walk away.
  
  
• David "Honeyboy" Edwards has passed after 95 blues-heavy years. Chicago Tribune obit. I never did get to see Honeyboy play, but his records are the bomb and I understand he was a motherfucker live up through his last ramble.
  
  
  David "Honeyboy" Edwards, "Gamblin' Man" from the 2004 film Lightning in a Bottle
  
  
• Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations in Cajun Country: It was a beautiful episode and it made me happy to see him hanging out in my favorite location covered in my book, Lakeview Park and Beach in Eunice. Here's the story that I did about it for Country Roads about a year ago. It really is one of those place that, when you visit, you feel like you made some weird, fortunate turn in your life to get you there.
  
  The other key is something Lolis Eric Elie said in that episode while tromping around Treme, paraphrased: I know they ate something in Ohio before McDonald's showed up. Celebrate that. Right there is the point of culture writing; not to revel in sepia of history but in the vibrant prism refraction of the present. That's the message...
  
  
  ...and the going there is the medium.