READIN

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

🦋 Réquiem

I've gotten a little bogged down in the translation process for Réquiem -- I thought I would try writing out some summary data as a way of helping myself get a handle on the story:

Slavko (to be precise, his narrator Felipe; having no information to the contrary I am identifying the author pretty closely with the narrator) discovers on June 14, 1986 (he is 16 years old, like I was that year) a strange power: by stealing a book from the shop of his family's friend Fernández and reading the book, he can cause the book's author to perish. The first to go is Borges (as you can see from the date) -- you have to be able to forgive this as an accident, after all he could not have known beforehand what his theft would entail -- and a few days later a local author, a young dentist whose name is never given named Benjamín Castro; Felipe stole his book of poetry seeking to confirm whether Borges' death had been his fault. Then in awe of his power, he does not exercise it for several years. But one thing leads to another...

Slavko kills Bioy Casares, by stealing a copy of Morel's Invention on March 8th, 1999. This precipitates the end of his relationship with Susana M (who he believes was already interested in the faculty dean anyways).

The next to go is José Ángel Valente, on July 18th, 2000, after Felipe steals a collection of his poetry. Here we see Felipe going off the deep end -- he embarks on a career of murdering authors just before he publishes an essay about the author -- Juan José Arreola dies on December 3, 2001; Arturo Úslar Pietri (February 26, 2001), Camilo José Cela (January 17, 2002), "and the majority of the authors whom we've seen disappear in the last few years" (not clear on the precise date of the story -- it was published in Piedepágina in 2008 but may well have been written, and set, a few years before that) -- people begin to notice the sequence of coincidences, the head of his department eventually calls him out. The ending is a nice twist that I don't want to give away...

This story interests me a bit by the way it draws on and amplifies the theme of the recent Latin American issue of Zoetrope (which is where I found out about Zupcic), the passing of an older generation of Latin American authors and the coming into their own of new authors with new voices and styles.

posted afternoon of June 17th, 2010: 2 responses
➳ More posts about Slavko Zupcic

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

🦋 Chimpin' the Blues

A few years old, but new for me: in September 2004, R. Crumb and Jerry Zolten produced a one-hour show on Penn State's wpsu-fm, spinning and chattering and nit-picking Crumb's collection of old blues and gospel records. Lots of great music and talk.

I haven't been able to find the mp3 of the show online anywhere but prx.org -- I'm not sure what the nature of that site is, they make you sign up for a free account if you want to listen, it seems benign enough though...

Track listing below the fold.

Track listing:

1. Cecil Scott and his Bright Boys, "Lawd Lawd" -- played over the title announcement
2. "Texas & Pacific Blues" by Frenchy's String Band. The melody I know from "Richland Woman Blues".
3. Macon Ed and Tampa Joe (a fiddler who might be Peg Leg Howell -- happy coincidence that yesterday's shuffle has Howell on it), "Warm Wipe Stomp"
4. Eddie Head and his family, "Down on Me"
5. Rev. J.C. Burnett & congregation, "I’ll Stand & Wring My Hands & Cry"
6. The Need More Band (Bobby Leecan and Robert Cooksey), "Washboard Cut Out"
7. "Humming Blues" -- ukulele blues by Red-Onion Joe (Joe Linthecome)
8. Lottie Kimbrough, "Rolling Log Blues" (with one or both of the Pruitt Twins on guitar)
9. Louie Lasky, "How Do You Want Your Rolling Done?"
10. Cheikha Tetma -- did not catch the song title
11. Cannon's Jug Stompers, "Walk Right In"
12. Geeshie Wiley, "Last Kind Word Blues"
13. Mississippi Jook Band, "Skippy Whippy" -- played over closing announcements

↻...done

posted evening of June 16th, 2010: 2 responses
➳ More posts about The Blues

🦋 Happy Bloom's Day!

On this date in 1904...

posted morning of June 16th, 2010: Respond
➳ More posts about Ulysses

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

🦋 Tuesday Random 10

(Hoping the posting of random playlists does not wear on my readers' patience...) Tonight's shuffle went very nicely indeed:

1. "Cryin' Holy Unto the Lord", The Charles River Valley Boys
2. "Dead Cats on the Line", Vassar Clements (This is originally by Tampa Red.)
3. Dialog of patter between Robyn and Grant Lee, about "the rubber thing". At the end of this interlude, Robyn counts in "1, 2, 3, 4--" to the next song they are going to play, and the playlist moves to
4. "The Dozen" by Big Bill Broonzy, in exactly the rhythm and tempo that Robyn had counted out. This is one of the most pleasant things that has happened to my ears all day.
5. "Señor Blues", Taj Mahal
6. "A Globe of Frogs" -- live performance, off of Give it to the Thoth Boys
7. "Beaver Slide Rag", Peg Leg Howell and his Gang
8. "The Truth", Kimberley Rew -- shades of "The Man With the Lightbulb Head"!
9. "Grooving on an Inner Plane"
10. "I'm Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes", the Nitty-Gritty Dirt Band with Mother Maybelle.

posted evening of June 15th, 2010: 4 responses
➳ More posts about random tunes

🦋 Borges the storyteller (part III of...)

I was thinking there might be a good argument for starting off with any of:

• "Tlön, Ukbar, Orbis Tertius" -- Donald Taylor mentioned in that thread that he had not yet read the story of "The Library of Babel" but he appreciated the puzzle of it -- I think Tlön and Babel and the other stories in Garden of Forking Paths (part I of Ficciones) are a great starting point if you are primarily interested (or even "strongly interested") in the intellectual-puzzles aspect of Borges' work.
• "Funes, His Memory" -- this was the first thing I thought of, because I had read it quite recently and been really taken with the quality of Borges' voice and of his narrative. This is the first story in Artifices, which is part II of Ficciones and postdates part I by three years. Drawing of character is much stronger here than in any of his earlier stories.
• "The Immortal" -- This is the first story in The Aleph, published 5 years after Ficciones. A wonderful, wonderful story and a good introduction to the role of time and of infinity in Borges' fictions.

(Of course I am hoping the person I am recommending these stories to will feel moved to read much more of his work -- these three stories seem sort of like good vehicles for figuring out if you are interested in reading more, I don't by any means think that these three stories in isolation would be particularly enlightening.)

posted evening of June 15th, 2010: 4 responses
➳ More posts about Ficciones

Monday, June 14th, 2010

🦋 What does that song sound like?...

John and I had a great practice session last night, recorded a bunch of practice takes of tunes -- including a new take of "The Ballad of Hollis Brown", which I have put into the Hitchcock-heavy mix in place of the messy old take of that song. (And the mix is no longer "random"... oh well...)

Big news is, our band has a name now! We are Mountain Station, named after the train station near my house. (As John said, cool -- now all we need is a banjo player and a bass...) Here are some other cuts from the practice last night:

• Medley of "Windfall" and "California Stars" (Purely spur-of-the-moment -- I kept thinking "Windfall" sounded like some other song I knew... At first I was thinking "Broke-Down Palace"; turned out to be "California Stars".)
• "Bill Cheatham"
• "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"

posted morning of June 14th, 2010: 2 responses
➳ More posts about Jamming with friends

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

🦋 Creativity

Two more pieces from Bocas del tiempo:

One Body

Leaning on their white walking sticks, buoyed up by a slug of booze, they made their way somehow or other through the streets of Tlaquepaque.

It looked like they were on the brink of falling over, but no: when she stumbled, he held her up; when he staggered, she straightened him out. The two walked together; the two sang together. They always stopped in the same place, in the shadow of the gate, and sang in their broken voices, old Mexican airs of love and of war. They were playing some instrument, maybe a guitar, I can't remember, it helped them stay near the key. Between songs, they would shake the dish where they were collecting coins from the respectable public.

Later on they left. Their walking sticks in front of them, they passed through the crowd under the sun and lost themselves in the distance, ragged and torn, arm in arm, supporting each other in the torrent of the world.

The Kiss

Antonio Pujía chose at random one of the blocks of Carrara marble which he had collected over the course of the years.

It was a tombstone. It had come from some grave, who knows from where; he had not the slightest idea of how it had come to his workshop.

Antonio lay the stone on a stand, and went to work on it. He had some rough idea of what he would sculpt; or perhaps he had none. He began by wiping clean the inscription: a man's name, his year of birth, the year of his passing.

Next, his chisel bit into the marble. Antonio found a surprise, what he had been hoping to find inside the stone: a vein in the shape of two faces touching one another, like two profiles touching at the foreheads, nose touching nose, lips touching lips.

The sculptor obeyed the stone. He went on excavating, gradually, until he completed the relief contained in that stone.

The next day, his work was done. And then when he raised the sculpture up, he saw what he had not seen previously. On the back of the stone was a second inscription: A woman's name, her year of birth, the year of her passing.

posted evening of June 13th, 2010: Respond
➳ More posts about Bocas del tiempo

🦋 Overneck

...Speaking of music everybody should listen to, check out this ridiculous overneck fingering from Ronnie Moipolai in Botswana:

posted afternoon of June 13th, 2010: Respond
➳ More posts about Guitar

🦋 Redneck

The Apostropher's recent Holler mix tape includes Ray Wylie Hubbard's cover of "Choctaw Bingo" -- this is maybe the most affecting song on the tape, the strongest; it is a violent song, feels like getting punched in the gut.

Something else from Hubbard, here he is talking about "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother":

↻...done

posted afternoon of June 13th, 2010: 4 responses
➳ More posts about Mix tapes

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

🦋 Hitchcock-heavy random 10

Nice music for listening to while translating (if that verb is not going too far). The rare kind of random selection of tunes that makes you think it ought to be saved as a playlist and distributed as a mix tape.

1. "The Ballad of Hollis Brown" performed in practice by me and John. I think this would be a really good song to cut a recording of. (edit:) We recorded a better take of Hollis Brown, a medley with "Alabama Bound" -- I have included this in the mix.
2. (edit:) I am adding a track here, though it was not in the shuffle, Ray Wylie Hubbard's version of "Choctaw Bingo".
3. Weird and entertaining dialog between Robyn Hitchcock and Grant Lee Phillips as part of their Elixirs & Remedies record, about getting Grant a bloody drink.
4. A guest appearance by Robyn on Departure Lounge's Win them back (which is almost exactly "Heart of Gold").
5. "I'm only you" from Storefront Hitchcock. Ahhh....
6. "All around the watertank" by Old and in the Way (song that belongs on the fiddle mix)
7. "(A Man's Got to Know His Limitations,) Briggs" from Obliteration Pie
8. "Wang Wang Blues" by Fletcher Henderson's orchestra.
9. Kim Rew, "The Radio Played 'Good Vibrations'"
10. "I Miss You More" by local band 13 Scotland Rd., who are totally deserving of wider attention -- check out their web site.
11. Venus 3!!! playing "Red Locust Frenzy".

Here are the files: Hitchcock-heavy random 10. Artists represented:

• Me and John (who still need a band name) (Update: We have a name! We are Mountain Station.)
• Robyn Hitchcock in various configurations
• Old and In The Way
• Fletcher Henderson and his orchestra
• Kimberley Rew (who is almost a various configuration of Robyn Hitchcock in my limited understanding)
• 13 Scotland Rd.
• (added) Ray Wiley Hubbard.

Nice!

(Realizing that the greatness of this mix tape depends on the listener not minding that almost all of the songs are by Robyn Hitchcock -- to me this seems more like a selling point than a hit against it.)

Most of the Hitchcock music represented here can be had by purchasing Olé Tarantula and Storefront Hitchcock (either of which purchases is easily justifiable on the merits).

I think a better take of "Hollis Brown" should happen this afternoon -- God willing, it will replace the one that's currently in the mix. (Done!) Another change that needs to be made to the pure random-10-ness of this mix is, "Choctaw Bingo" should be inserted between the first and second tracks.

The combination of this mix and the fiddle mix is making me think shuffling recordings of songs I am playing in with songs I am listening to, could be a really productive way to go about making music...

↻...done

posted evening of June 12th, 2010: Respond
➳ More posts about Music

Previous posts
Archives