R.I.P. Louise Bourgeois

Eye Benches IV, Lafayette Square, New Orleans

NYT Obit

(doesn't work) vs. "works"

Charles Mingus (with Eric Dolphy), Cornell 1964 (2007, Rhapsody)
Albert Ayler, Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe (1969, Rhapsody)

I love Albert Ayler's improbable free jazz-pop crossover records. They don't really work, but they (don't work) in a beautiful way. This one blues number, "Drudgery," however, totally "works," sounding ironically ebullient and effortless against its name. It's the sound of the after-party for the battle of (doesn't work) vs. "works." It goes great with the empty cicada shell on the grooviness of the patio table.

♫ Albert Ayler, "Drudgery" (Rhapsody)

memorial day

Implied American flag in a barber shop window in Mamou, LA, 2010

star power

Bayou Country Superfest 2010

Steve Reich, Triple Quartet (2005, Rhapsody)
The Masada String Trio, Book of Angels, Vol. 2: Azazel (2005, Rhapsody)

Media Announcements: I have a piece innocently titled "Ode to a Summer Afternoon" on page 78 of the shiny new issue of the Oxford American, just 12 pages before the piece by Sharon Stone. That Sharon Stone. Don't laugh, it's a good little piece, as is, I think, mine. The OA is one of the last great magazines, my occasional presence in it notwithstanding. They are the Martin Scorsese of lit rags, getting the goods out of whoever is in the cast.

Also, my conversation about the nature of jazz (as well as the nature of jazz listeners) with renowned bassist Bill Grimes in the latest Country Roads in conjunction with the Hot Summer Nights and Cool Jazz program at the LSU School of Music.

Maya and I went to the Bayou Country Superfest here in Tiger Stadium, along with 44,998 other people to bear witness to the pan-downhomeness of Keith Urban and the weapons-grade cute-onium of Taylor Swift. Maya swears she saw her girl Selena on the jumbotron. More on that forthcoming, but here's another pic.


Maya at Bayou Country Superfest

When not humming that cursed "But she wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts" TSwift song, I am otherwise super locked-in to Steve Reich's Triple Quartet, particularly the Romantic, Middle-eastern-tinged second movement

♫ Steve Reich, Triple Quartet, Second Movement (Rhapsody)

as well as John Zorn's Masada songs as rendered by a crack string trio. They render it as string trio crack.

♫ The Masada Strings, "Symnay" (Rhapsody)

Speaking of star power, here is Sonic Youth in a rare acoustic moment doing one of their finest songs.

you look through crystal spectacles

Joe Bonomo, AC/DC's Highway to Hell (2010, Continuum)
Donovan, "Epistle to Dippy"
The Critters, Tracks (compiled 2008, Rhapsody)

The only sunset in town better than that viewed from the Whole Foods parking lot is that viewed from the pool.

The Critters were a New Jersey 60's pop group indebted stylistically to the Lovin' Spoonful, even scoring a hit with John Sebastian's "Younger Girl", of whom I've never heard, and to whom I only arrived via computer generated suggestions stemming from my seasonal need for Donovan's "Epistle to Dippy," for which I, were I the blog-naming type, would name this blog.

This may seem pointless to report and a flagrant abuse of prepositional phrasery but if, like Donovan, you look through crystal spectacles, you can see I'm having fun.

Here was the Critters #17 hit in 1966, the beautifully titled "Mr. Dieingly Sad," possibly (if the speculation in the comments are correct) from a show called "Where the Action Is." "Mr. Dieingly Sad" is also a great blog name. Great blog names are the new great band names.


The Critters, "Mr. Dieingly Sad"

I think these Critters sound an awful lot like Byrds up in this one...

♫ The Critters, “Little Girl” (Rhapsody)

...and the least convincing heartbreak victims ever on this excellent number. Wes Anderson needs to get hip to these cats if he isn't already.

♫ The Critters, “Heart of Love, Heart of Stone” (Rhapsody)

Really, I can listen to this song ten times in a row.


Robert Steinbrecher's What the Hell is This? featuring Donovon's "Epistle to Dippy"

action shots of writing

Steve Reich, Triple Quartet (2005, Rhapsody)
Terry Riley, Autodreamographical Tales (2010, Rhapsody)

I'm on a busy-busy minimalism jag today; Steve Reich might make the all-time greatest get-things-done music there is

♫ Steve Reich & Musicians, “Tokyo/Vermont Counterpoint” (Rhapsody)

while this new Terry Riley joint is stop-the-presses weird, like a Robert Wyatt record gone loose-er.

♫ Terry Riley, “The Miracle” (Rhapsody)

Earlier today I was interviewed for a student paper about a writing workshop I'm conducting in a couple a weeks, which was weird because I am usually on the other end of that process. I stayed true to interview subject form by missing the first appointed interview time and running late for the second. There is a very nice photographer taking "action shots" of me typing right as I type this. She wants action shots of writing. I highlighted some text for her.

I should have insisted they use one of the pics above, found while leafing through a book titled New Dimensions in Paper Craft (1969, Amazon).

a literal bowl of cherries.

Steve Reich & Musicians, From the Kitchen Archives No. 2: Steve Reich & Musicians, Live 1977 (2005, Rhapsody)

Media announcements: This week's column for for 225's The Record Crate blog urges my fellow Louisianans to take a good look at the good and the bad of the state of our state before we launch headstrong into the master embiggening effort that is Bayou Country Superfest this weekend.

Also, the "Best of the South" issue of the Oxford American is making its way to subscriber mailboxes and discerning consumer newsstands as I type, containing a story of mine of which I am openly proud. I'll most likely remind you about it again.

My life is a literal bowl of cherries, or was before I ate them for lunch. Actually, the cherries were in a bag and the bowl depicted above contained sliced tomatoes which I ate first and then was where I deposited the pits and stems, all while writing some memoir-ish things for a theoretical book and an actual chapter for my actual book, all the further while considering how deep you gotta go in the detail to get it right, further considering, like the young adult of the Clinton era that I was, what the real meaning of "it" and "right" are.

It all sounded a little like this while it was happening:

♫ Steve Reich & Musicians, “Music for Pieces of Wood” (Rhapsody)