The Human World Youssef Chahine
The loss — of land, of food, of tradition — is due to who controls modernity, not from ignorance on the part of traditional society.
Best Old Music of 2023
Time has marched on from year-end review season. I did think, briefly, to write a top-ten post but soon realized that I no longer really know what’s new, old, re-issued, re-hashed, re-recorded. Spotify says my top two artists are Alejandro Escovedo and Jean Sibelius. Only one is alive and neither had new music in 2023.…
St. John Lutheran Church Centennial (1967)
St. John Lutheran Church in Forest Park, IL was established in 1867 in what was then known as Harlem. In 1967 they held a Centennial service. The service was pressed into an LP. You can listen to it below (keep scrolling) and follow along in the bulletin. Here are the mp3 files of the LP.…
But is it art?
An artificial intelligence creating authentic art in 19th Century England. Image by Dall-E on Bing. (yeah, bing, OK?)
Best New Music 2022
I’m not a list guy or, if I can help it, even a calendar guy or, given my druthers, even a “passing of time’ guy. As Arlo Guthrie once said, “What care I for time?” You just go inch by inch, row by row until you get a zucchini. Though I aspire to be outside…
The Pandemic Proved Graeber’s BS Argument
I wish David Graeber were around to update his book Bullshit Jobs. From “essential worker” to “quiet quitting,” mainstream culture has found a way to underscore his thesis: a large percentage of jobs are bullshit, and the people performing them are aware of this fact (much to their psychic detriment). Essential workers are non-BS jobs.…
The Ray (and Dave) Davies Songbook — a kovers playlist with komment
I’ve got too many things to do — work piling up, plans to hatch, work to revise, children to raise, dogs to walk, etc. all that stuff plus I have to tend my garden and keep the house from falling apart. So, yeah, perfect time to spend a day making a Spotify playlist of Kinks…
Continue readingThe Ray (and Dave) Davies Songbook — a kovers playlist with komment
Best New Music of 2021
All of my ones of readers wonder what new music I dug in 2021. To which I say, self, do you not know that linear time has been suspended? And self retorts, sure for everything but lists. We must have yearly lists. One of the (few) fun online concert-things I endured in high-pandemic, pre-vaccine days…
The (further) logbooks of Andrew Cheyne
This post is the current home of my transcription of the logbook “Naiad” by Capt. Andrew Cheyne, transcribed at the Shetland Museum Archives (where it is housed) in 2018.
Rififi
My first time back in a movie theater, as a fully-vaccinated cinephile, was to watch Rififi (1955) at the Music Box Theater. I loved the movie and get why the central safe-cracking / robbery scene has been referenced / ripped off since its inception. The look, the feel, the characters, the plot are absolutely gangbusters…