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Thursday, June 21st, 2007
My brother's book, Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making, is published and available on Amazon.
posted afternoon of June 21st, 2007: Respond
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Sunday, June 17th, 2007
Today I started reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH with Sylvia. I found it really gratifying to see how into the book she is; I remember having a similarly strong reaction to it as a kid.
posted evening of June 17th, 2007: Respond
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Sunday, June 10th, 2007
I jammed with Bob and Janis and Gregory tonight and it was really nice. Several songs came off almost flawlessly and we were just exactly in time with each other in a way that characterizes the best of our playing, for almost the entire session. The set list (constructed from memory afterward and not complete) was: - Wild Horses -- I had given Janis the recording of Old & In The Way singing it and wanted to get us doing it.
- Knights in White Satin, more as a joke than anything -- none of us really knows it.
- Pallette on Your Floor
- Willow Garden
- Love in Vain
- May the Circle be Unbroken
- Death Don't Have No Mercy
- Some Dark Hollow
- St. James Infirmary
- I Know You Rider
- The Star-Spangled Banner (by this point we were sort of done for the night -- the last couple of songs were not great.)
- The Night They Tore Old Dixie Down
- Truckin'
- Loser
Everything between about Love in Vain and St. James Infirmary was in "best we've ever played" territory.
posted afternoon of June 10th, 2007: Respond
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Thursday, June 7th, 2007
I just found this page at the Library of Congress' "American Memory" web site -- it links to field recordings of fiddler Henry Reed and sheet music transcriptions of his pieces -- this is just excellent.
posted evening of June 7th, 2007: Respond
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Wednesday, June 6th, 2007
Today in history: 1993, the proprietor of this blog and his wife became one in the eyes of the law.
posted morning of June 6th, 2007: Respond
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Sunday, June third, 2007
I finally learned a bit of how to use the digital camera Ellen got recently, and in so doing posted some new photographs to our family album, the first in a while. I took a bunch of pictures of our garden, which I've been spending a lot of time enjoying lately; also some of Sylvia; and Sylvia has been taking some pictures of her own, mostly of our dogs.
posted evening of June third, 2007: Respond
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Friday, June first, 2007
Last night I downloaded and listened to Robyn Hitchcock's Games for May concert from last week -- the first set was a recreation of Pink Floyd's Games for May concert of 40 years ago, the second set was mostly Syd Barrett's solo tunes. It blew my mind. The opening number "Matilda Mother" was a little weak and unsure, but the band quickly got it together. Nearly every song is a keeper. You can download it from archive.org -- bear in mind that the FTP download, using Filezilla or some such client, is much faster than using your browser or media player to get the songs. My own favorite from the first set is probably "Arnold Layne" and from the second set (and the concert as a whole) the combination of "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Lucifer Sam" was just transcendentally beautiful. But -- I liked the Barrett solo tunes from the second set a lot too. "Terrapin" was great. It was really interesting listening to "Love You" and hearing Robyn and the female vocalist (who does not appear to be credited?) get their shit together after flailing for a verse or two. By the end of the song they were really in the groove. Hitchcock's between-song patter was as always, "eccentric" and "quirky", but more than that, fun and frequently insightful.
posted morning of June first, 2007: Respond
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Sunday, May 20th, 2007
The most laid-back of the songs on Moss Elixir is "Alright Yeah". It is a beautiful way to finish the record -- he's sorry to be going but he's sure we'll meet up again -- the lines "I've gotta split/ It's a quaint old-fashioned way/ to say good-bye.../ good-bye..." reliably crack me up, especially because of the beauty of the chord change at the end there, from Bsus4 to E (chords transcribed here). Here is how Mr. Hitchcock introduces the song in Storefront Hitchcock (he has just finished playing "Freeze", from Queen Elvis): I'll remove the third cone, and there's Captain Keegan and the tomato.Totally exterior [not sure this is transcribed correctly], and why not? Um, this is a really comfortable song. It's, it's, it's a musical equivalent of a sofa or a contour-fitted chair. It's unable to cause you any pain whatsoever. I mean, I mean unless actually hearing the harmonics of this kind of thing is painful, but it's designed not to upset you in the least, it's, it's not even bland. You know, you couldn't say "this is annoyingly comfortable." It's like, I was in a lobby once in Minneapolis, and -- the fact is, there was a whole hotel on top of it as well -- and I was in the lobby, and it was icy outside -- there were people with icepicks just hauling themselves along the surface, like they do when, you know, when they turn the screen horizontal. And they were inching their way along Nicollet Mall, and there was a howling blizzard, and inside it was just, there was this Muzak playing in the lobby, and I had a hangover. And I was carrying a meat cleaver, and I went up to the desk, and I said, um, "Could you turn the Muzak down please", and they said "I'm sorry sir, we can't", and... I took my cleaver out... and I said "Why not?" And they said, "because it's pleasing." Okay... if you start, then I'll follow you. After Hitchcock and Keegan play "Alright Yeah" -- the performance is if anything even better than on Moss Elixir -- come the credits, along a split-screen shot of Robyn playing "I Don't Remember Guilford". You know when you think you're right about things, that can make you very -- bitter. And if the rest of the world hasn't happened to go along with your...way of seeing things... and if the rest of the world includes someone you've been close to, then you feel worse. I don't understand the song but it is a lovely impressionistic piece.
posted evening of May 20th, 2007: Respond
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Friday, May 18th, 2007
Today I am 37 -- cool, a prime! I will try and come home early and fix us a barbecue for dinner.
posted morning of May 18th, 2007: Respond
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Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
A bunch of records that I had ordered from various places showed up in the mail yesterday, which I'm happy about. They include Mossy Liquor, an alternate cut of Moss Elixir, which I am meaning to give the same treatment I gave Perpex Island -- it is equally great an album. Also two records by Deni Bonet, who playes violin on Moss Elixir and who toured with Hitchcock for a while in the late 90's. And Volume 4 of the Suzuki method -- I have decided to try re-learning the Seitz concertos therein. Deni Bonet has put up some videos of herself with other musicians on YouTube. Audio and video quality is a little spotty; but I particularly liked Driving Aloud and Arms of Love, with Robyn Hitchcock, and Phillip Larkin, with Kimberly Rew. And if her web site is up to date, she is broadcasting a "Duets with Deni" show every Sunday at 10 pm, at Manhattan Neighborhood Network (Channel 56).
posted afternoon of May 8th, 2007: Respond
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