staring right at me

MF Doom on the bathroom wall. La Monte Young in my ears. The near end of the manuscript on the library table, staring right at me.

La Monte Young on the Internet Archive

progress

The kind of helpful advice I give myself.

Elodie Lauten, Piano Works Revisited
Nico Muhly, Mothertongue
Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, In C Remixed 

It's the start of a rock party, editing-heavy, extended weekend. I took out two simulacrums but added a Gesamtkunstwerk. I can only believe that to be progress.

when I shot this Bobcat at rest

My old trusty iPhone 3G finally gave up the ghost so I updated to a 3Gs for $50 and it's such a leap forward. I know the 4 is the business and there's gonna be a 5 and yadda and yadda, only $200 and more yadda, but the camera quality alone is all I lay my burden down, which is what I thought of when I shot this Bobcat at rest this morning with it. Checking my calendar and Leoš Janáček-ing on Rhapsody at the same time while taking in a moment of lunchtime spring, I'm certain I peeped with glee.

Ok, it's not a bobcat, but instead a backhoe,  but I like the idea of "a bobcat at rest." And shooting one.

Trans Am, Thing, Sex Change, and Liberation
Vlach Quartet, Janáček: String Quartets 1 & 2, Youth Suite for Flute (Piccolo), Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon, and Bass Clarinet
Rachel's, Systems/Layers

Speaking of Glee, sort of, not really, I watched a whole episode American Idol for the first time last night because the wee Beatlemaniac needed to critique the oversinging of hits by her favorite band. I'm no TV elitist - lemme tellya which hoarder and prison shows are the best - but for real, people like American Idol that much? It's not one of those things the the Miss America pageant: still on because it no one has the heart to take it off? Weird.

There sitll isn't a decent Blogger app. Just sayin'.

go unions!

Lavender Mist happening right outside my office window. Or maybe Hero and Leander.

Pascal Comelade, L'argot du bruit and La Catedral d'Escuradents

I am way into this Pascal Comelade guy, one of the dudes behind Assemblage de pièces comeladiennes du plus bel effet from yesterday. Sorta ding-dong kitch tango, skating rink jazzzzz, make-a you want-a spicy a-meatball restaurant ska, sentimental ragtime from some lost hipster universe. Something. He throws in songs like Faust's "The Sad Skinhead" which take a second to register and then when they do, there is an actual typerwiter-sounding bell that brings you to the next line. I bet he smokes extra-smelly cheap French cigarettes and can explain dada in such a way that will make you call up and quit your job.



Speaking of jobs, and heroes and right outside your window - go unions! It's almost like unfettered predatory capitalism doesn't seem so appealing down at the watering hole when you realize you are the prey.


Here is Pascal giving Jonathan Richman's "Egyptian Reggae" the business.

Firebreather

Firebreather from the Krewe of Jupiter & Juno parade here in Baton Rouge last week.

Throbing Gristle, "20 Jazz Funk Greats" from 20 Jazz Funk Greats
Various Artists, Assemblage de pièces comeladiennes du plus bel effet
Various Artists, Terry Edwards Presents: Ontogeny (No Fish Is Too Weird For Her Aquarium Vol. II)
Pascal Comelade, Traffic D'abstraction
Ogurusu Norihide, Modern

"Assemblage de pieces comeladiennes" might be a band, or some form of collective. Or maybe just an event. Maybe we all are just an event. Whatever it is, it has a MySpace and is patiently tapping my button this morning, like the President might The Button. Just idly tapping, feel the embossing of the word "launch" on the ridges of his fingerprint. Not enough to really push it... And they have videos!


4 juillet 2009: Schizophonic cabaret (Autour de Pascal Comelade), organisé par Vert Pituite la belle aux voûtes (Paris)The skatalan logicofobism" (Pascal comelade) par My favorite sideburns Orchestra, Olivier brisson (batterie), Quentin Dubost (guitare), Benjamin Commault (guitare), Christophe Marais (basse) Soirée organisée pour la sortie du disque "Assemblage de pièces comeladiennes du plus bel effet" chez Musea/Gazül


This guy's solo stuff is the stuff. Pascal Comelade "Promenade des schizophrènes"


I also liked this shot of the marchers from the 501st aka "Vader's Fist".

"Beatles pancakes"

Elodie Lauten, Piano Works Revisited
T-Model Ford & GravelRoad, Taledragger
Todd Reynolds, Outerborough
Kurt Elling, The Gate
Lucinda Williams, Blessed (streaming at NPR)

Five quick things and I'm out:

1. Maya asked for "Beatles pancakes" at Louie's this weekend and Fred gave the order a conceptual twist. One day a smart contemporary gallery is going to pick him up and do a retrospective of his work. Remember the Enterprise?
2. On the way to Louie's we heard a snippet of Kurt Elling doing an idiosyncratic take on "Norwegian Wood" during an NPR interview about his new album "The Gate." It got quiet in the back seat with Maya and her friend until they shrieked in unison, "Oh. My. God. This is 'Norwegian Wood'! And it isn't the Beatles!" I said, "Yeah, it's a cover version. This guy's doing his own version of it." to which Maya replied, "Ewwwww. He shouldn't do that." Critics.
3. I popped into the ailing Compact Disc Store and completely blew my record store cool by purchasing the CD the clerk was playing on the sound system. It's up there with wearng the concert shirt to school the next day, which I would always do. Elodie Lauter not only crafted these breathtaking minimalist, jazz-touched piano works that hypnotized me so in the shop and completes my being, sliding thousand-sided pegs into thousand-sided holes, calming the bees with Charlemagne Palestine-meets-McCoy Tyner-meets-"Radiohead" cosmic density, but according to the liner notes, also wrote "Do the Dog" with her father, a song that later got swiped up by the Specials and brought them enough money to get her first synthesizer *. This is why record stores and liner notes are important.
4. T-Model Ford goes well with gardening. As does this spring weather.
5. Book finish line stuff. I started to say something and then cut myself off with "Just do it." So I am.

Elodie Lauten performs Sonate Modale live at Music Gallery in Toronto, Canada in 1985.

* OK, this story seemed a little off. I remember now that "Do the Dog" is an old Rufus Thomas tune ska'd up by the Specials, and this account has Allen Ginsberg buying her a farfisa organ as the seminal moment, so who knows. Elodie Lauten, if you are out there and want to set the story straight, holla. I love your piano music whether you ever did the dog or not or where that organ came from.

Paul Desmond, everybody!

Y'all, this plate from Zeeland Street Market... I haven't been there in a while because of monetary and dietary budgeting concerns and it welcomed me back with open catfish arms. It should be noted that they have a jazz pianist playing there at lunch.

Keith Jarrett, The Survivor's Suite
Paul Desmond, Skylark

That Rick Moody quote hit so close to home that I put it on the sidebar under my bio.


Paul Desmond, everybody! With the incomparable Bob James and Gabor Csabo