25 Radom Things

In response to the Facebook requests for this, and also, I am trying to convince a pre-pneumonial kid to settle down quietly on the couch by ignoring her

1. The new Luke Skywalker figure looks like he's about to break into song at all times.
2. I am over the idea of getting a scooter.
3. I want an iPhone, but the lack of a Rhapsody app for it is keeping me from it.
4. I wish I had more/better internet reading
5. I wish I had less total internet reading
6. Or rather, spent less time doing so.
   
7. I wish I read books faster. The Savage Detectives is good, but its taking me forever, and I have a copy of 2666 waiting for me when I finish
8. I can't even fathom how long it is going to take me to read all 800+ pages of 2666
9. Which is likely a moot concern, since I never finish any of those giant books (Gravity's Rainbow, Infinite Jest, Ulysses, etc)
   
10. I want to in spirit, but not in body.
11. Maybe if I got an iPhone and could get books put on there, I'd whiz through them.
12. An iPhone would thereby, make me a smarter person.
13. I actually do these kinds of internal justifications before buying anything - see any past arguments for a scooter.
    
14. I love 24 even though I recognize it is kinda garbage TV.
    
15. It is Wild Wild West revisited with a larger budget and no sense of humor.
16. I really like where I work now, for the first time in years
17. Except for those three years where I worked for myself. I liked where I worked then.
18. Beacause it was generally whereever I wanted.
19. It was the hours and the hustle that killed me.
20. Not really true, it was the lack of insurance and the constant pushing of my luck with regards to my health that ended that.
    
21. I have a hard time imagining that I actually did work for myself and managed to support a family doing so.
22. It is something I should remind myself in those moments of anxiety - you really can do it
23. I'd like to take a stab at fiction, but I think my story ideas are all pretty terrible
24. Not from a self-defeating standpoint, but a "how about this story idea?" perspective.
25. And also I have started projects to finish and yet, here I am answering facebook requests by talking about doing other things.
    

Proposed Moratoria for 2009

There are a couple holdovers from last year

• "I'm so tired of ____" - This complaint structure has come up a lot in the criticism and meta-criticism that forms much of the blog world in which I live.* One example: Recently I saw it in an impassioned give-and-take (which I can't find now) about the Oxford American music issue, that the OA gives "Southern" a rather liberal scope, particularly in regards to Neko Case's inclusion in the most recent music issue. I do have a dog in this hunt as a contributor to this same issue, writing about The Residents whose Southern ties are easily considered thin, and possibly even non-existent, but fair enough, it's a topic worth exploring, and I was following until I got to a comment that was "I get so tired of changing the parameters of Southern for their own purposes." Again, I can, to a degree, sympathize with the sentiment and wholly respect the accusations, but the "tired" part kills it for me. Are you required to accept these re-parameterizations? Do they burden you in that you are forcedto read each one that occurrs? I suspect the OA, beloved in some circle as it might be, is not required reading for anyone, and, in my experience as a writer for these contentious music issues, it in no way poses itself as definititve on the wobbly borders of "Southern" and maybe the reverence it is given sets it up for derision, and yeah, go for it, redefine Southern yourself then. I promise you the South is amorphous enough to fit your paradigm too, but if someone doing so makes you tired, you might need to upgrade your life to include some real problems. Being tired of someone's opinion who you are not forced to agree with or even acknowledge smacks of complaining that you are getting poor customer service from your cultural analysis providers and that you would like to speak to the manager. Well guess what, we're all the manager now.
  
• The word douche - when used as a derogatory descriptor of a person. This is a holdover from last year that still won't go away. Specifically, its the Nick Sabin is a Douche bumper sticker I see on this one car everyday at work that gets to me. You are still that upset about this? That an egomaniac rich guy backed out of an offhand promise for more money? Really?
  
• Really? - This handy little argument-ender is here is to remind me to quit using it so much. Like the first item, it should not be so incredulous to me that others feel differently about things, preposterous as their stupid opinions might be.
  
• Facebook junk - I really like Facebook on a philosophical basis (blogging as an expression of current physical, emotional status) and from an interface perspective, but man, I don't want any trees or teddy bears or zombie bites, nor do I want to join a group celebrating how much I hate Crocs (they are great for kids) or even the end of the Bush administration (I celebrate it through my dogged persistence). I am also annoyed when you get included on someone's group message, even if you don't respond, you get every reply to the thread ever.
  

* notice how I avoided the word blogosphere without putting it on the list. I am hoping that term dies out due to atrophy rather than direct attack, because pruning it would only cause it to be replaced with a worse term.

wood and strings

Punch Brothers - Punch (lala) - Baton Rouge and area people: Punch Brothers, the new band of former Nickel Creek mandolin prodigy Chris Thile is doing two nights at the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center this week, which is designed specifically for the enjoyment of expertly crafted acoustic music.
Marc Olson & Gary Louris - Ready for the Flood (lala) I was flipping through the "country" section of lala and this sprang forth. The meeting of the two principles of the Jayhawks is tantamount to the Beatles (or at least Uncle Tupelo) getting back together with some in my circle. This album presents all the pleasures and difficulties I had with the Jayhawks - songs sublimely wrought with slight but palpable eccentricity that beccome diffused as they go along, stretching just past the time I think they should wind down. This has a marked Jerry Garcia/ Dave Grishman feel to it, without the endless formless. Still though, it is gorgeous stuff. It's like complaining that you have too much homemade ice cream in your bowl.
Jerry Garcia/David Grishman (lala) - Just to establish a baseline for the above comparison, but though I am no big GD fan, I do have some fondness for Mr. Garcia's acoustic outings. I'll even risk saying I kind love The Pizza Tapes. And American Beauty for that matter. But it stops there, OK?

Legends of Springsteen

In answer to this post on WNYC's Soundcheck blog, I never want to listen to a new Bruce Springsteen album when it comes out. I just don't. I know its gonna be corny and overblown even if its great, because Springsteen is all of those things when he's at his best. But I just don't want to hear it, not yet. Which is no fault of Bruce's, he continues to do his thing on his own terms and people seem to like it and good for him, and probably for us all, He's a different man than he was in 1973 and it is a different world than Ashbury Park (lala) was then, so there is no reason to expect him to be the same guy, and maybe Working on a Dream (lala) is the nth resurrection of the true working class hero, but I still don't want to listen to it now. I'll get to it. I still haven't given The Ghost of Tom Joad (lala) the time it likely deserves.

It does make me want to go back to spend some long overdue time with the lean, squirrely Bruce panting in my ear about how hard it is to be a saint in the city, shrieking about wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide, blessing the bus driver's children, and for that, I'm thankful that he still keeps making records. Oh, and thanks for putting Obama in office. And for sweeping up after the inauguration.

The "Legends of Springsteen" skits from the old Ben Stller show

[225] Blue Note Turns 70

In the February 2009 issue of 225 Magazine

Of all the logos in the world, a reliable mark of quality is the little blue oval that has graced the cover of jazz albums on Blue Note Records for 70 years. Under the confident banner “The Finest in Jazz Since 1939,” Blue Note has served as the home base for Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Lee Morgan and nearly every other famous name associated with jazz.

This month the River City Jazz Coalition and the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge will fête the famed label’s birthday at the Manship Theatre with an all-star revue featuring Bill Charlap, Ravi Coltrane—yes, that Coltrane—Peter Bernstein, Nicholas Peyton, Steve Wilson, Peter Washington and Lewis Nash. This is a rare opportunity to witness jazz played by its top performers paying homage to those who came before them and paving the way for the next generation of great Blue Note artists. Venerable Baton Rouge jazz DJ and member of the coalition, Zia Tammami excitedly calls the event “the young lions of jazz coming to town.” Dick LaPalm, record promoter and former executive of Chess Records, even commended Tammami for his efforts and those of the local coalition. “The things you guys are doing in a city the size of Baton Rouge are remarkable.”

Two shows will be at the Manship Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Call 344-0334 or visit manshiptheatre.org for ticket information.

[225] Stirring the Agitprop Pot

In the February 2009 issue of 225 magazine

The Baton Rouge Gallery is usually a quiet oasis of contemplation. But for its 2009 Flatscape Video Series, the gallery is offering something a little more confrontational, promising “this year, the program begins with a bang—the bang of a bomb.”

Documentaries often spring from an artist’s need to tell an unflattering story, and the ensuing marginalization lends the work a sharp political edge. Flatscape opened Jan. 31 under the banner “Subversion: Anarchy Art and Activism,” and it continues this month with “Illegal Evidence: Art Against Authority” on Feb. 28. That screening includes Undeniable Evidence, which documents guerrilla artists and their public works ranging from creating a public billboard that gets wiped clean each day by the tide to protesters “in ill-fitting suits … vomiting the colors of the American flag.” Following that, Bringing It All to You explores the activities of ®™ark, an artists’ group that found infamy with their spot-on satires of Web sites for eToys.com and George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign. These films explore how artists subvert the accepted corporate channels of information to demonstrate how shaky those channels actually are.

March 28 sees “Statues of Liberty: Accusations of Activism” come to the gallery. This screening will feature the documentary Steve Kurtz Waiting. Kurtz creates artwork about and resembling biotechnology. After he called 911 for his ailing wife, paranoid authorities confiscated the contents of Kurtz’s apartment, fearing he was a terrorist. According to the Video Data Bank that provides much of the content for Flatscape, “Steve became the victim of this paranoia, and through the extended powers of the U.S. Patriot Act, he still awaits trial for mail fraud. If found guilty, he could face up to twenty years.” Also on the bill is Susan Youseef’s For the Least, about American Catholics marching on Guantanamo Bay, and Mohamed Yousry: A Life Stands Still, which documents a naturalized citizen wrongly arrested in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. These films offer more than a knee-jerk criticism of American society; they illuminate the places where the system has gone awry, and in some cases, what little is being done to correct it.

All Flatscape presentations begin at 8 p.m. and are free to gallery members. $5 for non-members. batonrougegallery.com

Clarksdale Road Trip Music

On the way there...

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited - Corny one to start with, I know, but going up the blues trail is a corny of an endeavor no matter how well intentioned. Plus this album always gets me going without fail. Take any three-second snippet of it and it sounds like a trainwreck but the whole of it is contained and revelatory.
Robert Cage - Can See What You're Doing (lala) Put this on when I hit his home town of Woodville, MS, just over the state line. This is the kind of wildness Bob Dylan was after, but his self-consciouness would not allow.
T-Model Ford - Jack Daniel Time - A largely acoustic affair thrown on when I got to the delta proper. Ford was actually playing at Red's, the club down the street from Ground Zero, and as things wound down there I sorta wanted to go, but also remembered falling asleep on a bench at the Maple Leaf at 3AM during his 40+ minute rendition of "Mannish Boy" only to perk up when he called the band to the stage to kick into the same song again. And it was freezing and raining outside. Fortunately, the Oxfordites in the party had borne witness to Ford many times to similar effect, so we skipped it and kicked it in one of the well-appointed rooms above the club.
Lucinda Williams - Little Honey (lala) I've been torn about this record. I like that it is a lot more raw and bar-band-ish than most of her records, and one has the feeling it is in smoky bars that her heart lies, but the downside was that it approached this aura with pained effort, see the roadhoused variant of AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top" that closes it. All these concerns are now dismissed. The only spot where the spell is broken is with Elvis Costello's buttinski croon on the duet "Tears of Joy" - it sounds like they are staging a Heartfelt-Off. But even that is still pretty good. Also, if I learned anything from the satellite radio on my last trip, it is you are thankful for AC/DC is always around when you need it.
Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon Blues (lala) - If I had to pick a classic delta blues record to be my favorite, this would be it, though Hurt's blues is a more intricate missing link in the chain instead of yet another train whistle/rumble on the tracks. This played when I stopped for gas in Vicksburg. I asked a guy in the gas station how far it was to Clarksdale and he said "Oh 60-70 miles. I ran that route for years." I was shocked; I thought I had at least three more hours to go. I checked the Goggle Maps on my phone when I got back to the car: 147 miles.
NPR's All Things Considered. Twice. on three different stations as the signal faded. Mississippi has an enviable public radio system.

When I got to the Ground Zero Club

Bobby Rush (lala) was on the stage addressing the gathered and then playing a song. I didn't get a chance to speak to him, but I did brush against him just as Joey Lauren Adams took up the spot right next to me by the pool table. I looked around wondering if the owner Morgan Freeman was going to pop up any second and buy me a drink.
Wiley and the Checkmates (lala) took the stage shortly after. I get some uneasy minstrel-show feelings about the current spate of vintage soul revues where an old black man in a great suit fronts a band of white musicians playing airtight soul music to a white audience in which I am an eager participant, but that concern, like the ones about Lucinda, are quickly dismissed by how fucking awesome they are.
The night, however, belonged to rockabilly legend Dale Hawkins whose "Suzy Q" both opened and closed his extended set. During the backwood onslaught from Hawkins, silvered and dentured to look like the area's top John Deere sales rep, I got my picture taken with former U.S. Senator Ben Jones (D-GA), better known as Cooter from "The Dukes of Hazzard."

Fun fact: had Jones defeated his rival Newt Gingrich in a 1994 run for the House - Jones got a respectable 35% of the vote - it would have prevented then Minority Whip Gingrich from becoming Speaker of the House and would have shot a flaming dynamite arrow into the heart of the Republican agenda and sent the Boss Hogg's of the Nineties muttering about them dang ole Duke boys...

On the way back...

The Isley Brothers - Funky Family - I was ready to let the journey fold back up in reversal of how it unfolded, but as a friend pointed out about their absurdly hott version of CSNY's "Ohio", the Isely brothers can sex up anything, even a slightly hungover morning start on a six-hour drive home.
It seems like there was something bridging the Isley Brothers to Steve Reich besides an understanding of the power potential in extended rhythms, but whatever it was escapes me now. I do know I was listening to this when I passed through Panther Burn, MS because I searched through my phone and was disappointed that I had taken the Tav Falco's Panther Burns record (lala) off, probably to fit this Steve Reich record on it. I'm thinking that was for the best, there was already enough forced analogy going on with this trip.
Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding - I had a bunch of Dylan on my phone. I was planning on interspersing Dylan's albums up through Nashville Skyline with albums by artists whose hometowns were on my trail to come at some great revelation about white people and the blues, but thankfully that plan fell aside, partly because, er, I don't really like John Wesley Harding all that much and can really take only so much blues in a sitting. I cycled through a bunch of other things on my phone until I got to Natchez, the 90-minutes left mark, and spent that block singing songs of my own creation to myself. One of the songs isn't half-bad, but each verse ends with the word "deafening" and while it makes sense in the logic of the song, it also totally ruins it for half of them. And I suspect the melody is a Camper van Beethoven song I cannot readily identify because in my mind's ear I sound like David Lowery when I sing it. Fortunately for you, I am aware of the difference between my mind's ear and yours.