Green

Matisse, questioned about green flesh: I am not painting a woman. I am painting a picture. (David Markson, Reader's Block, 1996)

Playlist, Week of 2016-06-12

1979 it was, and I was there, and I recorded it on my old condenser-microphone hand-held Sony. The cassettes have been sitting in my card catalog cabinet for years, but I hadn't gotten around to burning it yet (kinda got sidetracked with all the old Tad Thaddock and UYA tapes, but that's another story). Then an old friend, Clay, asked me if I still had my cassette--his had been stolen from his car. So I was happy to dig it out and digitize it for him, and I'm so glad I did. The sound was pretty damn good, and the performance was outstanding. Pip Pyle's one of my favorite drummers: jazz chops with a rock sensibility, and the ability to navigate extremely tricky time signatures and complex arrangements with ease, dexterity, and fun, making it all sound easy. Trying to play along with old Hatfield and National Health records has proven to me that it's not! He was brilliant, really one-of-a-kind.

Playlist 2016-06-13:

*Beethoven: The “Late Period” String Quartets (Alban Berg Quartet) No. 12
*Various artists: Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music #7: Seventh and Last a-Chronology 1930-2012
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1980-04-30 Konstanz, Germany (CDR)
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1980-07-19 Den Haag, Netherlands (CDR)
*Rodger Coleman: recent studio selections (2016) (wav/mp3)
*John Coltrane: 1965-09-30 Seattle (CDR)
*John Coltrane: Live at the Village Vanguard Again!
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Treasury Shows, Vol. 4 (disc 2)
*Ingrid Laubrock & Liam Noble: Let’s Call This...
*Ingrid Laubrock with Liam Noble & Tom Rainey: Sleepthief
*Ingrid Laubrock Quintet: 2014-01-22 Brooklyn NY (CDR)
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: Buoyancy
*Charles Mingus: A Modern Jazz Symposium Of Music And Poetry
*Evan Parker & AMM: Title Goes Here
*Sun Ra: What’s New (side 1)
*Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Research Arkestra: The Invisible Shield (2014 remaster)
*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Out There a Minute
*Sun Ra: Unreleased test pressing tracks, NYC, 1965 (CDR)
*Henry Threadgill & Make a Move: Where’s Your Cup?
*Claypool Lennon Delirium: Monolith of Phobos
*Meters: Funkify Your Life (disc 1)
*National Health: Missing Pieces
*National Health: 1977-11-16 Kingston upon Hull, England (CDR)
*National Health: 1979-11-28 Washington DC (CDR)
*Amy Winehouse: Frank

Reading List, Week of 2016-06-12

I've always enjoyed reading criticism, so this book had some appeal. Like any good critic, Scott can dissect his views from many different and conflicting angles. He examines criticism from a stance grounded in Aristotle, Kant, Mencken, Henry James, and Sontag, easily threading through those thickets of thought and presenting them as clear, walkable paths. In the end he's not very conclusive, but that's part of the point. I did like this passage:

Let's say that a critic is a person whose interest can help to activate the interest of others. ... For that to work, what the critic writes or says has to be interesting in itself. And, of course, it can only really succeed in that way if the critic's own interest is genuine. (p. 256)

To be overly simplistic, for me the best criticism is that which sends you back to the work itself, either for a deeper appreciation or for a reexamination based on further evidence.

Reading List 2016-06-13:

*Erikson, Steven. Forge of Darkness (reread/started)
*Scott, A. O. Better Living Through Criticism (finished)
*Barthelme, Donald. The Teachings of Don B. (in progress)
*Hinds, Andrew. Acting Shakespeare’s Language (in progress)

Why Write?

William Gaddis, New Yorker 2012-02-17

It was also said of him [Samuel Butler] that he wrote in order to have something to read in his old age and I've always rather liked that too. (William Gaddis, interview, Review of Contemporary Fiction, vol. 2.2, summer 1982)

Playlist, Week of 2016-06-05

Playlist 2016-06-06:

*Various artists: Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music #6: Sixth a-chronology 1957-2010
*Rodger Coleman & Sam Byrd: Aphelion
*Kris Davis Infrasound: Save Your Breath
*Coleman Hawkins: Classic Coleman Hawkins Sessions 1922-1947 (disc 6)
*Billie Holiday: Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933–1944 (disc 5)
*Ingrid Laubrock: Ubatuba
*Charles Mingus: East Coasting
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2016-02-29 “Leap at the Wheel” (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2016-05-02 “Convo for Rent” (wav)
*Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra: Angels and Demons at Play
*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Bad and Beautiful
*Lennie Tristano & Warne Marsh: Intuition
*Weasel Walter/Mary Halvorson/Peter Evans: Electric Fruit
*David Bowie: Nothing Has Changed (disc 1)
*Fela Ransome Kuti and His Koola Lobitos: Highlife-Jazz And Afro-Soul (disc 2)
*Various artists: Doughboys, Playboys, and Cowboys: The Golden Years of Western Swing (discs 1, 4)

Reading List, Week of 2016-06-05

Reading List 2016-06-06:

*Hinds, Andrew. Acting Shakespeare’s Language (started)
*Scott, A. O. Better Living Through Criticism (started)
*Hornby, Nick. Funny Girl (started/finished)
*Sturm, James, and Guy Davis. Unstable Molecules (started/finished)
*Morgan, Chris. The Comic Galaxy of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (finished)
*Barthelme, Donald. The Teachings of Don B. (in progress)

Value of Critics

 ...a thoughtful criticism of a work is not a report, but is, in part, a proposal opening up fruitful and rewarding ways of experiencing the text. We need critics precisely because we sense that the more rewarding experiences are often not immediately accessible. (Tzachi Zamir, "Philosophy," in Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare, p. 635)