from "The Hindu": "If I were to relinquish my passport, I would do so in favour of a country that I found superior to India. But while there is much to be admired in places like Denmark and England, there is also much to be ashamed of. The heart of whiteness is lit with lamps of blood.
And today the heart of whiteness is closing its arteries. It is doing to people with the wrong colour (of passport?) what it tried to do to its own poor in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Even the discourse sounds familiar: undeserving poor, accountability, violence, criminality, free market, etc, we have heard all this before. But this time the struggle will be longer and more bitter as the poor cannot be deported and settled in 'newly-discovered' continents, where they can get rich by their own sweat or the blood of the aborigines and slaves. Today the poor of the world can only be attracted like moths to the rich heart of whiteness. And hence the arteries of Europe and U.S. are being closed with new rules and regulations. "
Thursday, January 08, 2004
The Journals of Lewis And Clark: "This traffic on the part of the whites consists in vending guns (principally old British or American muskets), powder, balls and shot, copper and brass kettles, brass teakettles and coffeepots, blankets from two to three points, scarlet and blue cloth (coarse), plates and strips of sheet copper and brass, large brass wire, knives, beads, and tobacco, with fishing hooks, buttons, and some other small articles. Also a considerable quantity of sailors' clothes, as hats, coats, trousers, and shirts. For these they receive in return from the natives dressed and undressed elk skins, skins of the seaotter, common otter, beaver, common fox, spuck, and tiger cat; also dried and pounded salmon in baskets, and a kind of biscuit which the natives make of roots, called by them shappellel. "
The Whale: "Lewis, at least, seems to have swallowed it with relish. 'It was white & not unlike the fat of Poark,' he judged,'tho' the texture was more spongey and somewhat coarser. I had a part of it cooked and found it very pallitable and tender, it resembled the beaver or the dog in flavour.' "
Cannon Beach: "The Kilamox although they possesed large quantities of this blubber and oil were so prenurious that they disposed of it with great reluctiance and in small quantities only; insomuch that my utmost exertion aided by the party with the Small Stock of merchandise I had taken with me were not able to precure more blubber than about 300 lb. and a few gallons of oil;
Small as this stock is I prise it highly; and thank providence for directing the whale to us; and think him much more kind to us than he was to jonah, having Sent this Monster to be Swallowed by us in Sted of Swallowing of us as jonah's did. "
Small as this stock is I prise it highly; and thank providence for directing the whale to us; and think him much more kind to us than he was to jonah, having Sent this Monster to be Swallowed by us in Sted of Swallowing of us as jonah's did. "
Sacagawea |: "[T]he Indian woman was very impo[r]tunate to be permited to go, and was therefore indulged; she observed that she had traveled a long way with us to see the great waters, and that now that monstrous fish was also to be seen, she thought it very hard she could not be permitted to see either."
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
FBI: Potential Terrorist Use of Almanacs: "Almanacs, available both in print and online, provide comprehensive information on a variety of topics, including government, geography, vital statistics, the economy, health matters, science and technology, weather trends, and tourism. Information commonly found in almanacs that may be exploited for terrorist use includes profiles of U.S. cities and states and information on geographic and structural features such as waterways, bridges, dams, reservoirs, tunnels, buildings, and landmarks. This information is often accompanied by photographs and maps."
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Joyce--"The Dead""A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
from Robert Pogue Harrison's new "The Names of the Dead"-- his 1992 "Forests: The Shadow of Civilisation" one of my favorites: "One's initial impression of the memorial wall from a distance is that of its dramatic horizontal extension, yet as one descends along the pathway toward the highest part of the wall the anxiety of the vertical gradually wins out over that of the horizontal stretch to infinity. Joyce's image of the snow, by contrast, works the other way around. The verticality of the snow's descent gives way, by the end of the last paragraph of The Dead, to a more sublime impression of its vast horizontal extension over all of Ireland. Yet the effect in both cases is similar. The tense relationship between extension and descension gives both symbols their sublime epic reach....The epic's vocation, as well as its burden, is to contain such excess in its narrative, ideological drive toward synthesis. We have seen, if only briefly and in passing, what moral strains and pressures this put on Virgil as well as Dante when it came to representing or accounting for the fates of history's plethora of victims. In the case of the memorial wall, the excess of names is uncontainable, not because the wall cannot accommodate them--it does--but because in its mute memory of the Vietnam War, it proclaims, or seems to, that each one of its inscriptions is one too many. The excess lies in the moral doubt raised in and by each and every name. The wall, in its conception and its material presence, is pervaded with the pathos of an early, sacrificial death reminiscent of Virgil's infernal scene of "high-hearted heroes stripped of life, and boys / and unwed girls, and young men set upon / the pyre of death before their fathers' eyes." Yet Rome--that "eternal idea in the mind of God" which would honor or redeem these deaths--is missing."
Mirages in Finland: " On the open sea, low waves may reach into the mirage-producing air layer, where they become vertically stretched into high columns: this produces a vision of dancing columns far out to sea. "
there's lots of Grackles (the "parking lot bird" says Daph) enjoying my uncooked flaxseed oatmeal in the snow
Monday, January 05, 2004
PressThink: Horse Race Now! Horse Race Tomorrow! Horse Race Forever!: "
The origins of the term 'inside baseball' are in one writer's view of sports reporting during the 1980s. He's Bill James, now a famous scholar of baseball. The arguments he made then explain why the term migrated so easily to politics. The inside, said James, is a hall of mirrors."
The origins of the term 'inside baseball' are in one writer's view of sports reporting during the 1980s. He's Bill James, now a famous scholar of baseball. The arguments he made then explain why the term migrated so easily to politics. The inside, said James, is a hall of mirrors."
Coffee, Tea or Handcuffs?: "“Oh, you’re a journalist,” he noted. “What are you here for?”
“I’m interviewing Olivia Newton-John,” Smethurst replied.
“That’s nice,” the official said, impressed. “What’s the article about?”
“Breast cancer.”
When Smethurst tells me this, she pauses and adds, “I thought that last question was a little odd, but figured everything’s different now in America and it was fine.” What she didn’t know was that her assignment and travel plans, along with the chicken soup and stroll through Central Park, had been terminated the moment she confirmed she was a journalist. Fourteen hours later, she was escorted by three armed guards onto the 11 p.m. Qantas flight home."
“I’m interviewing Olivia Newton-John,” Smethurst replied.
“That’s nice,” the official said, impressed. “What’s the article about?”
“Breast cancer.”
When Smethurst tells me this, she pauses and adds, “I thought that last question was a little odd, but figured everything’s different now in America and it was fine.” What she didn’t know was that her assignment and travel plans, along with the chicken soup and stroll through Central Park, had been terminated the moment she confirmed she was a journalist. Fourteen hours later, she was escorted by three armed guards onto the 11 p.m. Qantas flight home."
Sunday, January 04, 2004
the vaughn lounge nice Robert Vaughn site. Enjoyed him with Steve McQueen in both "Bullitt" and "The Magnificent Seven" lately.
Saturday, January 03, 2004
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Monday, December 29, 2003
Sunday, December 28, 2003
Reading & Writing: " I discovered Lenny Bruce in my late twenties--just out of grad school & dirt-poor in Seattle, I read How to Talk Dirty & Influence People with a growing realization that Bruce was my century's Whitman, a poet who took democracy seriously. I've since had the opportunity to listen to recordings of Bruce in performance & my initial reaction is confirmed: Lenny Bruce was our first performance poet. He's ahead of David Antin & Patti Smith. Whitman broke through, Bruce broke through. Neither spared himself embarrassment. I think, for myself, after a decade of intimidation by language poets on one side & new freaking formalists on the other, I may have found my way forward in this particular lineage. I won't call it a tradition. There is a radical middle in American poetry (& politics, by the way) that often is confused with middle-of-the-road, but the confusion is a symptom of sloppy thinking (& political manipulation): pray you avoid it. The dominant culture is busy turning the radical--or its images--into the mainstream; it has to be the business of artists to resist the process & to reinvent the images when they have been drained of their juice & pulse. What Whitman called urge. What Lenny Bruce called truth."
Gwynne Dyer: "The Bush administration is probably wishing quite hard by now that Saddam had waited a little longer and been killed in his hole. While others debate where he should be tried and by whom, and whether he should face the death penalty or not, President Bush's people will be realizing just about now that they can't afford to give him a fair trial at all"
Saturday, December 27, 2003
Signage: "In what honor and dignity this art was anciently held amongst the Greeks and Romans, the old authors sufficiently testify; though afterwards all but lost, while it lay hid for more than a thousand years. It has now at length, only within the last two hundred years, by some Italians been brought again to light. For it is the easiest thing in the world for the Arts to be lost and perish; but only with difficulty, and after long time and pains are they resuscitated."
Friday, December 26, 2003
Ride Off Any Horizon
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall
where it may-
on the hot wheat,
on the dark yellow fields
of wild mustard, the fields
of bad farmers, on the river,
on the dirty river full
of boys and on the throbbing
powerhouse and the low dam
of cheap cement and rocks
boiling with white water,
and on the cows and their powerful
bulls, the heavy tracks
filling with liquid at the edge
of the narrow prairie
river running steadily away.
*
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall
where it may-
among the piles of bones
that dot the prairie
in vision and history
(the buffalo and deer,
dead indians, dead settlers
the frames of lost houses
left behind in the dust
of the depression,
dry and profound, that
will come again in the land
and in the spirit, the land
shifting and the minds
blown dry and empty-
I have not seen it! except
in pictures and talk-
but there is the fence
covered with dust, laden,
the wrecked house stupidly empty)-
here is a picture for your wallet,
of the beaten farmer and his wife
leaning toward each other-
sadly smiling, and emptied of desire.
*
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall
where it may-
off the edge
of the black prairie
as you thought you could fall,
a boy at sunset
not watching the sun
set but watching the black earth,
never-ending they said in school,
round: but you saw it ending,
finished, definite, precise-
visible only miles away.
*
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall
where it may-
on a hot night the town
is in the streets-
the boys and girls
are practising against
each other, the men
talk and eye the girls-
the women talk and
eye each other, the indians
play pool: eye on the ball.
*
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall
where it may-
and damn the troops, the horsemen
are wheeling in the sunshine,
the cree, practising
for their deaths: mr poundmaker,
gentle sweet mr big bear,
it is not unfortunately
quite enough to be innocent,
it is not enough merely
not to offend-
at times to be born
is enough, to be
in the way is too much-
some colonel otter, some
major-general middleton will
get you, you-
indian. It is no good to say,
I would rather die
at once than be in that place-
though you love that land more,
you will go where they take you.
*
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall-
where it may;
it doesn't have to be
the prairie. It could be
the cold soul of the cities
blown empty by commerce
and desiring commerce
to fill up the emptiness
The streets are full of people.
It is night, the lights
are on; the wind
blows as far as it may. The streets
are dark and full of people.
Their eyes are fixed as far as
they can see beyond each other-
to the concrete horizon, definite,
tall against the mountains,
stopping vision visibly.
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall
where it may-
on the hot wheat,
on the dark yellow fields
of wild mustard, the fields
of bad farmers, on the river,
on the dirty river full
of boys and on the throbbing
powerhouse and the low dam
of cheap cement and rocks
boiling with white water,
and on the cows and their powerful
bulls, the heavy tracks
filling with liquid at the edge
of the narrow prairie
river running steadily away.
*
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall
where it may-
among the piles of bones
that dot the prairie
in vision and history
(the buffalo and deer,
dead indians, dead settlers
the frames of lost houses
left behind in the dust
of the depression,
dry and profound, that
will come again in the land
and in the spirit, the land
shifting and the minds
blown dry and empty-
I have not seen it! except
in pictures and talk-
but there is the fence
covered with dust, laden,
the wrecked house stupidly empty)-
here is a picture for your wallet,
of the beaten farmer and his wife
leaning toward each other-
sadly smiling, and emptied of desire.
*
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall
where it may-
off the edge
of the black prairie
as you thought you could fall,
a boy at sunset
not watching the sun
set but watching the black earth,
never-ending they said in school,
round: but you saw it ending,
finished, definite, precise-
visible only miles away.
*
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall
where it may-
on a hot night the town
is in the streets-
the boys and girls
are practising against
each other, the men
talk and eye the girls-
the women talk and
eye each other, the indians
play pool: eye on the ball.
*
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall
where it may-
and damn the troops, the horsemen
are wheeling in the sunshine,
the cree, practising
for their deaths: mr poundmaker,
gentle sweet mr big bear,
it is not unfortunately
quite enough to be innocent,
it is not enough merely
not to offend-
at times to be born
is enough, to be
in the way is too much-
some colonel otter, some
major-general middleton will
get you, you-
indian. It is no good to say,
I would rather die
at once than be in that place-
though you love that land more,
you will go where they take you.
*
Ride off any horizon
and let the measure fall-
where it may;
it doesn't have to be
the prairie. It could be
the cold soul of the cities
blown empty by commerce
and desiring commerce
to fill up the emptiness
The streets are full of people.
It is night, the lights
are on; the wind
blows as far as it may. The streets
are dark and full of people.
Their eyes are fixed as far as
they can see beyond each other-
to the concrete horizon, definite,
tall against the mountains,
stopping vision visibly.
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Sold Amazing Sea Monkeys, X-Ray Specs in comic books: "But von Braunhut's piece de resistance was Sea Monkeys -- which come from dried-up lake bottoms, not the sea, and are not monkeys but brine shrimp. His extravagant claims for the crustaceans -- for example, that they come back from the dead and that they can be trained and hypnotized -- are convincing because they are sort of true. "
Monday, December 22, 2003
Perfect Sound Forever- always lots here, this time including a nice long piece on Elvis in Memphis 1969...
Today is the 25th anniversary of Bernadette Mayer's "Midwinter Day"-- (please excuse reformatting)
"...Sophia's mittens come off,
The disappearing scene from a dream I'd remember is lost
To comparisons of past exertion for the slight Main Street hill,
I blink at seeing, being seen a little
I wonder why we write at all
These trees have seen this all before
But they are glad of an encore"
"...Sophia's mittens come off,
The disappearing scene from a dream I'd remember is lost
To comparisons of past exertion for the slight Main Street hill,
I blink at seeing, being seen a little
I wonder why we write at all
These trees have seen this all before
But they are glad of an encore"
Sunday, December 21, 2003
dec47: "The final week of the month and of the year of 1947, leads off with the announcement that 'Peg 'O My Heart' by The Harmonicats for the small independent label Vitacoustics is the largest selling record in modern history for an independent. Sales figures are put at more than one and a half million. . . . . . Other recent million sellers are 'Near You' by Francis Craig for the indie label Bullet, and Frankie Laine's Mercury recording of 'That's My Desire'. . . . . . . best bets of the last week of the year are 'When You Come To The End Of The Day' by The Inkspots (Decca), 'The Best Things In Life Are Free' by Jo Stafford (Capitol), 'Unison Riff' by Stan Kenton (Capitol), 'I've Got A Feeling I'm Falling' by Perry Como (RCA), 'Sierra Madre' / 'Don't Call It Love' by Freddy Martin with Stuart Wade-voc (RCA), 'My Old Flame' by Spike Jones (RCA), and 'Two Loves Have I' by Guy Lombardo (Decca). . . . . .John Hammond is named vice president of Mercury Records . . . . . .Jack Owens Tower Records artist is known as 'the cruising crooner' on ABC radio's 'Breakfast Club' . . . . . .new on the best seller list at year's end are : 'How Soon' by Dinah Shore (Columbia), 'I Can't Give You Anything But Love' by Rose 'Chee Chee' Murphy (Majestic), 'Serenade Of The Bells' by Sammy Kay (RCA), 'How Soon' by Vaughn Monroe (RCA), 'I'll Dance At Your Wedding' by Buddy Clark and Ray Noble (Columbia), 'How Soon' by Jack Owens (Tower), 'I'm My Own Grandpa' by Guy Lombardo (Decca), 'Civilization' by Woody Herman (Capitol), and 'You Do' by Vaughn Monroe (RCA). . . . . two albums hit the top five this week - 'Good News' the original cast (MGM) and 'King Cole Trio - vol. 3' (Capitol). "
Charlie Parker Sessions: "December 21, 1947 (11 items, 18:51)
United Sound Studio, Detroit
Commercial for Savoy
Charlie Parker Quintet
Charlie Parker (as); Miles Davis (tpt); Irving 'Duke' Jordan (p); Tommy Potter (b); Max Roach (d)
Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 1 (inc))0:14
Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 2 (inc))0:44
Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 3 (inc))1:04
Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 4 (master))2:37
Bluebird (C. Parker) (take 1)2:53
Bluebird (C. Parker) (take 2)0:03
Bluebird (C. Parker) (take 3 (master))2:49
Klaunstance (C. Parker) [The Way You Look Tonight]2:44
Bird Gets the Worm (C. Parker) (take 1) [Lover Come Back to Me]3:00
Bird Gets the Worm (C. Parker) (take 2 (inc)) [Lover Come Back to Me]0:09
Bird Gets the Worm (C. Parker) (take 3 (master)) [Lover Come Back to Me]"
United Sound Studio, Detroit
Commercial for Savoy
Charlie Parker Quintet
Charlie Parker (as); Miles Davis (tpt); Irving 'Duke' Jordan (p); Tommy Potter (b); Max Roach (d)
Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 1 (inc))0:14
Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 2 (inc))0:44
Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 3 (inc))1:04
Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 4 (master))2:37
Bluebird (C. Parker) (take 1)2:53
Bluebird (C. Parker) (take 2)0:03
Bluebird (C. Parker) (take 3 (master))2:49
Klaunstance (C. Parker) [The Way You Look Tonight]2:44
Bird Gets the Worm (C. Parker) (take 1) [Lover Come Back to Me]3:00
Bird Gets the Worm (C. Parker) (take 2 (inc)) [Lover Come Back to Me]0:09
Bird Gets the Worm (C. Parker) (take 3 (master)) [Lover Come Back to Me]"
Friday, December 19, 2003
from the Testimony of Phillip Ochs in the Chicago Seven Trial
"MR. KUNSTLER: After you arrived in Chicago did you have any discussion with Jerry?
THE WITNESS: Yes, I did. We discussed the nomination of a pig for President.
MR. KUNSTLER: Would you state what you said and what Jerry said.
THE WITNESS: We discussed the details. We discussed going out to the countryside around Chicago and buying a pig from a farmer and bringing him into the city for the purposes of his nominating speech.
MR. KUNSTLER: Did you have any role yourself in that?
THE WITNESS: Yes, I helped select the pig, and I paid for him.
MR. KUNSTLER: Now, did you find a pig at once when you went out?
THE WITNESS: No, it was very difficult. We stopped at several farms and asked where the pigs were.
MR. KUNSTLER: None of the farmers referred you to the police station, did they?
THE WITNESS: No.
MR. FORAN: Objection.
THE COURT: I sustain the objection.
MR. KUNSTLER: Mr. Ochs, can you describe the pig which was finally bought?
MR. FORAN: Objection.
THE COURT., I sustain the objection.
MR. KUNSTLER: Would you state what, if anything, happened to the pig?
THE WITNESS: The pig was arrested with seven people.
MR. KUNSTLER: When did that take place?
THE WITNESS: This took place on the morning of August 23, at the Civic Center underneath the Picasso sculpture.
MR. KUNSTLER: Who were those seven people?
THE WITNESS: Jerry Rubin. Stew Albert, Wolfe Lowenthal, myself is four; I am not sure of the names of the other three.
MR. KUNSTLER: What were you doing when you were arrested?
THE WITNESS: We were arrested announcing the pig's candidacy for President. "
"MR. KUNSTLER: After you arrived in Chicago did you have any discussion with Jerry?
THE WITNESS: Yes, I did. We discussed the nomination of a pig for President.
MR. KUNSTLER: Would you state what you said and what Jerry said.
THE WITNESS: We discussed the details. We discussed going out to the countryside around Chicago and buying a pig from a farmer and bringing him into the city for the purposes of his nominating speech.
MR. KUNSTLER: Did you have any role yourself in that?
THE WITNESS: Yes, I helped select the pig, and I paid for him.
MR. KUNSTLER: Now, did you find a pig at once when you went out?
THE WITNESS: No, it was very difficult. We stopped at several farms and asked where the pigs were.
MR. KUNSTLER: None of the farmers referred you to the police station, did they?
THE WITNESS: No.
MR. FORAN: Objection.
THE COURT: I sustain the objection.
MR. KUNSTLER: Mr. Ochs, can you describe the pig which was finally bought?
MR. FORAN: Objection.
THE COURT., I sustain the objection.
MR. KUNSTLER: Would you state what, if anything, happened to the pig?
THE WITNESS: The pig was arrested with seven people.
MR. KUNSTLER: When did that take place?
THE WITNESS: This took place on the morning of August 23, at the Civic Center underneath the Picasso sculpture.
MR. KUNSTLER: Who were those seven people?
THE WITNESS: Jerry Rubin. Stew Albert, Wolfe Lowenthal, myself is four; I am not sure of the names of the other three.
MR. KUNSTLER: What were you doing when you were arrested?
THE WITNESS: We were arrested announcing the pig's candidacy for President. "
Happy Birthday Phil Ochs
William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed
As I went out one evening to take the evening air
I was blessed by a blood-red moon,
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning.
I spied a fair young maiden and a flame was in her eyes
And on her face lay the steel blue skies
Of Lincoln Park, the dark was turning
Turning
They spread their sheets upon the ground just like a wandering tribe
And the wise men walked in their Robespierre robes,
Through Lincoln Park the dark was turning
The towers trapped and trembling, and the boats were tossed about
When the fog rolled in and the gas rolled out
From Lincoln Park the dark was turning
Turning
Like wild horses freed at last we took the streets of wine
But I searched in vain for she stayed behind
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning
I'll go back to the city where I can be alone
And tell my friend she lies in stone
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning
Turning
William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed
As I went out one evening to take the evening air
I was blessed by a blood-red moon,
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning.
I spied a fair young maiden and a flame was in her eyes
And on her face lay the steel blue skies
Of Lincoln Park, the dark was turning
Turning
They spread their sheets upon the ground just like a wandering tribe
And the wise men walked in their Robespierre robes,
Through Lincoln Park the dark was turning
The towers trapped and trembling, and the boats were tossed about
When the fog rolled in and the gas rolled out
From Lincoln Park the dark was turning
Turning
Like wild horses freed at last we took the streets of wine
But I searched in vain for she stayed behind
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning
I'll go back to the city where I can be alone
And tell my friend she lies in stone
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning
Turning
A writer's life: Anthony Lane: "The truth is, that if you're working on a piece at three in the morning, you're not Keats; you're just late. "
Todd Rundgren on RIAA : "The reason why the RIAA comes off as a gang of
ignorant thugs is because, well, how do I put this --
they are. I came into this business in an age of
entrepreneurial integrity. The legends of the golden
age of recorded music were still at the helm of most
labels -- the Erteguns, the Ostins, the Alperts and
Mosses by the dozens. Now we have four monolithic (in
every sense of the word) entities and a front
organization that crows about the fact that they have
solved their problems by leaning on a 12-year-old.
Thank God that mystical fascination with the world of
music has been stubbed out -- hopefully everyone will
get the message and get over the idea that the
musician actually meant for you to hear this."
ignorant thugs is because, well, how do I put this --
they are. I came into this business in an age of
entrepreneurial integrity. The legends of the golden
age of recorded music were still at the helm of most
labels -- the Erteguns, the Ostins, the Alperts and
Mosses by the dozens. Now we have four monolithic (in
every sense of the word) entities and a front
organization that crows about the fact that they have
solved their problems by leaning on a 12-year-old.
Thank God that mystical fascination with the world of
music has been stubbed out -- hopefully everyone will
get the message and get over the idea that the
musician actually meant for you to hear this."
Thursday, December 18, 2003
Toll road built on pulped fiction: "Unsold copies of the books were shredded into a paste and added to a mixture of asphalt and Tarmac. It helps to bind the asphalt and the Tarmac, preventing the surface from splitting apart after heavy use."
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Googling (I wrote "looking") for Williams' "To Ford Madox Ford in Heaven" to post for Ford's birthday--nowhere in sight of course--the modernist canon deep in copyright--I found this by a band I'd only heard the name of. Much more worked out than the "Gertrude Stein" song I performed in the late 70's, at least lyrically. But the Vacant Lot (later The Band Without Qualities) rocked pretty hard. Anyone heard the Ass Ponys?
"FORD MADOX FORD
sarah stood upon the bridge
on the railing, near the edge
the only thing that brought her in
was a book that she had read
the novel's name was long since lost
never mind the cost
the only thing she could recall
was that the author's name was ford
it was written in nineteen ten
you could never have met a finer man
worked a farm for fifteen years
just to see if he could
he lost his memory in the war
he forgot what he was fighting for
the only thing he knew for sure
his name was ford madox ford
ford madox ford
the fattest poet who ever lived
his name was ford madox ford
joseph conrad and henry james
were two of the many famous names
that fat boy ford could claim
to be his bosom friends
then one day conrad said to him
i may be climbing out upon a limb
but it would help you out my friend
if you would lose a little weight
ford madox ford
the fattest poet who ever lived
his name was ford madox ford"
"FORD MADOX FORD
sarah stood upon the bridge
on the railing, near the edge
the only thing that brought her in
was a book that she had read
the novel's name was long since lost
never mind the cost
the only thing she could recall
was that the author's name was ford
it was written in nineteen ten
you could never have met a finer man
worked a farm for fifteen years
just to see if he could
he lost his memory in the war
he forgot what he was fighting for
the only thing he knew for sure
his name was ford madox ford
ford madox ford
the fattest poet who ever lived
his name was ford madox ford
joseph conrad and henry james
were two of the many famous names
that fat boy ford could claim
to be his bosom friends
then one day conrad said to him
i may be climbing out upon a limb
but it would help you out my friend
if you would lose a little weight
ford madox ford
the fattest poet who ever lived
his name was ford madox ford"
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
The Ultimate on-the-fly Network: "'Up until now, a biologist from the 1920s could have dropped into today's world and understood everything we do.' He shakes his head. 'No longer.' The instruments that unobtrusively observe the petrels will unleash a stream of information biologists have craved for decades. When I ask what other tool has delivered a comparable advance in his field, Anderson's answer is succinct and telling: 'Binoculars.'"
Hey Ya!: "'Polaroid Canada thanks Canadians for making Polaroid One the country's number one instant camera, and for making 'Shake it like a Polaroid picture' the
country's number one instant party call,' said Jeff Carpenter, National Sales & Marketing Manager, Canada. 'From Andy Warhol to the D.I.Y home renovator, the world has embraced our products to capture one-of-a-kind moments. We congratulate OutKast for their imaginative use of the Polaroid brand and spirit.'"
country's number one instant party call,' said Jeff Carpenter, National Sales & Marketing Manager, Canada. 'From Andy Warhol to the D.I.Y home renovator, the world has embraced our products to capture one-of-a-kind moments. We congratulate OutKast for their imaginative use of the Polaroid brand and spirit.'"
Monday, December 15, 2003
Valerie Dore "It's So Easy" is sheer ecstacy, Abba with a huge 4/4 whomp and slap bass. How can it be so easy?
Neil Tennant in 1985 on Italo Disco (which I had to switch to): "...It used to be regarded as utterly tragic... that 'boom clap boom clap boom clap - clap clap', that's what I particularly like about eurodisco. And normally they have very good tunes as well. The other thing it that it's very sad. They have very sweet tunes, like Savage's 'Don't Cry Tonight'. A lot of the records we like are Italian. The other thing about eurodisco records it that they always sound like they're dead cheap. I think that's their appeal. They're a bit like punk records - they go in and get very excited by the most banal sounds. We're very attracted to banal sounds and rhythms. They'll quite often be a sound that is the sound of the moment, and every record will have that sound. At the moment, there's that vocal that goes 'oh woah oh'. This summer, on every italian record, there was at least one 'oh woah oh'. I think that's been the theme for 1985. RAFF's 'Self Control' started it, which of course was originally an italian disco record, and Laura Branigan covered it. And of course, Baltimora used it. That was the ultimate 'oh woah oh' record. It was very clever the way that was the foundation of 'Tarzan Boy'. Before that, the syndrum was a popular sound. But they're constantly changing, these euro records. And they normally have very good female vocalists, in the same way a lot of hi-NRG and Bobby O records do. The male vocal aren't usually very good. ... Often the lyrics are very banal, there's this great one called 'Capsicum' that's a green pepper isn't it. And the chorus goes 'Capsi capsicum oh woah oh'. That is brilliant. The banality of them often makes them strongely moving, somehow. I don't think a lot of people will appreciate things like this. The thing is, of course, that this music is terribly unhip in Europe. We go abroad and they think we're absolutely insane; they say "You do not like Simple Minds?" They can't believe we like "capsi capsicum". I think part of the delight of it in my case is liking something obscure that's obscure for the sake of it I think I genuinely like it, actually. I like it because it's obscure and also because it's fantastically unfashionable."
Sunday, December 14, 2003
PEDESTRIAN CULTURE THROUGH THE AGES: "In 1913 Wyneken proclaimed the ideas behind the Wandervögel by stating that the youth had the right to live according to their own ideas, outside the rules of society in which there were born involuntarily. Bored with the industrial artificiality of urban life, disgusted by the hypocrisy of life they fled into wild nature. they drifted for days, sometimes weeks on end through the woods. They lived on the food nature provided, in the evening the partook in excessive community singing around bonfires. The nights were dedicated to the first detours in the field of sexuality."
Saturday, December 13, 2003
Friday, December 12, 2003
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