Miscellaneous

Amusing piece on the flap over

Posted on October 28, 2008
Amusing piece on the flap over the "Deluxe" version of "Tell Tale Signs". Good check off on some of the more unusual live re-workings Dylan has officially released:"Over the years, concertgoers have been treated to, for example, reggae versions of ?Don?t Think Twice It's Alright? (1978 tour, officially available in Live at Budokan), a vicious rewrite of ?Lay Lady Lay,? where the titular lady?s wooing has degenerated into ?let?s go upstairs, who really cares? (1976 tour, Dylan was going through a difficult divorce at the time), and a stately, almost unrecognizable 7-minute-long ?Blowin? In the Wind? (2000 tour, officially available on a UK bonus disc with Best of, Vol...

It is interesting to think about

Posted on October 27, 2008
It is interesting to think about how the Obama campaign has worked, because it suggests that the same approach will be taken to governing the country. Obama has been a meticulous, careful planer, who consulted with legitimate experts, not just pols. He has been inclusive, campaigning everywhere, rather than targeted...

Sometimes you need a judge fast,

Posted on October 25, 2008
Sometimes you need a judge fast, and it doesn't always happen during business hours. There are, I've heard, judges who have made it known that they are available for emergency applications, and one could, I suppose, scour restaurants and country clubs until you find someone to sign your TRO, but now there is a better way...

I'm just shy of old enough to

Posted on October 24, 2008
I'm just shy of old enough to remember this poster, I think, but it is now officially my favorite thing about Joan Baez. Or Mimi Farina, for that matter. I like the update too. It is interesting that sex and sexuality have played such a big role in this election-- HRC, of course, and the Obama Girl...

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Worst Supreme Court decisions.

Posted on October 23, 2008
Worst Supreme Court decisions. Bush v. Gore is pretty bad for a number of reasons, starting with its outcome and all that flowed from it. What makes it really bad is that it is so clearly an outcome-determinative set of opinions. The justices would never have taken those positions, on both sides, if the dispute had been over anything else, and that's pretty disgraceful...

Ron Rosenbaum and friends muse

Posted on October 21, 2008
Ron Rosenbaum and friends muse over "Mississippi". I haven't popped for "Telltale Signs" yet, but I will. I'd thought about pre-ordering it, but got hung up on the various configurations. In the final analysis going for the "limited edition" three disk set is a chump move, and I am vexed by it its existence...

So Colin Powell has endorsed Obama.

Posted on October 20, 2008
So Colin Powell has endorsed Obama. I really don't see how this helps, and I can imagine it hurting. Powell's credibility was shot when he took his PowerPoint to the UN to lie deliver flawed intelligence as a ploy to justify the Iraq invasion. The satellite photos that he said were WMD manufacturing sites looked like the back of Wegmans to me, and wouldn't have fooled a Buffalo jury for a minute...

To The Cindy Blackman Quartet the

Posted on October 19, 2008
To The Cindy Blackman Quartet the opening show Bruce Eaton's Hunt Real Estate Art of Jazz series at the Albright Knox last night, a terrific set. About midway through, struck by Ms. Blackman's athletic rhythm and pinpoint control it occured to me that most jazz performances can be described to someone who wasn't there by referencing a specific period in Miles Davis' career...

Mad props to EGA, who turned in

Posted on October 18, 2008
Mad props to EGA, who turned in a snazzy 1:54:36.9 (08:44 a mile, 31st in her age group) at the Indianapolis Half Marathon. 13.1 is a lovely distance, and she reports that the weather was ideal. Hal Higdon got her there, but the real secret was training on the Bloomington hills...

I have been liberal enough with

Posted on October 15, 2008
I have been liberal enough with my criticism of Kings County Supreme Court in the past, so I think it is only fair to comment when I encounter something positive. When your case is on the calendar in Brooklyn it is called in a central jury part, where it is assigned for jury selection, and then sent out to an IAS judge...

Something I have long puzzled over

Posted on October 13, 2008
Something I have long puzzled over is how it is possible for Republicans to be in a majority. Over the course of my lifetime the GOP has always done the exact opposite of what its candidates promised. Nixon escalated the war, and instead of fighting crime appointed actual criminals to office...

To Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte

Posted on October 13, 2008
To Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at MassMoCA on Saturday. MassMoCA is a subject for another day, I think. The Trocks are a troupe of male dancers who perform classical ballet. It's played for laughs, of course, but what's really funny is that the level of technical proficiency is so high...

Jimmy Cobb is the last surviving

Posted on October 10, 2008
Jimmy Cobb is the last surviving musician from "Kind of Blue". Has been for quite a while, actually. Trane died in 67. Paul Chambers died in 1969, Wynton Kelly died in 1971. Cannonball died in 1975, Bill Evans in 1980. Miles died in 1991. Teo Macero, who deserves to be included on the list died just this year...

Let me be one of the first to admit

Posted on October 09, 2008
Let me be one of the first to admit that I am too isolated, too insular to have any idea who Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio is. I'm not proud of it. I had head of Dario Fo before he'd won The Prize, and I figured that Fo was the gold standard for obscure in these matters and that I was safe this year...

The Observer reports that "During

Posted on October 08, 2008
The Observer reports that "During the first presidential debate in Mississippi, [Mccain]persistently avoided eye contact with Mr. Obama despite the moderator?s entreaties for the candidates to engage directly with one another. Mr. McCain?s advisers said afterward that he had done so deliberately in order to avoid becoming enraged...

James Thurber used to tell a story

Posted on October 08, 2008
James Thurber used to tell a story about Harold Ross. Thurber was a Henry James aficionado. He'd written a story for The New Yorker called "The Beast in the Dingle" which was supposed to be written in the manner of James. Ross gave back to Thurber after he'd read it and said, "Too damn literary...

Whenever people talk about Woodstock

Posted on October 07, 2008
Whenever people talk about Woodstock as a defining cultural moment I remind myself that among the acts that performed there was Sha Na Na. What I didn't know until now was that the group was made up of Columbia undergrads. This article, about the invention of history, almost reads like a parody of a parody...

I've been saying it for a while,

Posted on October 06, 2008
I've been saying it for a while, and now Birch Bayh is saying it too. According to FiveThirtyEight.com Indiana could tilt this year. My hypothesis was based on a couple of things. First of all, although it hasn't tended to go to the Democratic candidate, its congressional delegation is evenly split...

Yesterday morning, from out of

Posted on October 02, 2008
Yesterday morning, from out of the blue, I got a call from an old friend I haven't heard from since undergrad days. Out of the blue was always his style, and it was a treat to hear from him. His sense of humor often seemed under-appreciated in that time and place, and it wouldn't surprise me to discover that it still is...

Michigan had me worried-- still

Posted on October 02, 2008
Michigan had me worried-- still does, really, but apparently McCain is pulling most of his operation there, and focusing on Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. I am surprised that Virginia is in play, but it is, and Indiana might be as well.

I am delighted to report that Michael

Posted on October 01, 2008
I am delighted to report that Michael Bérubé has reactivated his blog. Today he links to this excellent discussion on the cynicism of the Palin nomination, which captures precisely what I have been trying to articulate."The Palin pick was the most crassest, most bigoted decision that I've seen in national electoral politics, in my--admittedly short--lifetime...

I have argued for some time that

Posted on September 30, 2008
I have argued for some time that Bruce Springsteen long ago sank into irrelevance, but I was trying to be provocative. Now he's gone and proved it by signing on to play the Super Bowl Halftime show. Man, I feel old.

To Kathleen Edwards last night,

Posted on September 29, 2008
To Kathleen Edwards last night, at the Ninth Ward in Babeville. It is a smaller space than I would have anticipated, in the basement, and about the size of a basement rec room, but nicely done. The audience was mostly a mix of old hippies, Canadians and old Canadian hippies, and although I think of Kathleen Edwards as a personal discovery, these people felt far more proprietary...

To LCA's parent/teacher night the

Posted on September 27, 2008
To LCA's parent/teacher night the other evening. They say you know you are getting old when cops start looking young, and I think there must be a similar principle at work here: for the first time I was older than all of my kid's teachers. (Maybe not the Music Theory teacher...

It is difficult or me to imagine

Posted on September 26, 2008
It is difficult or me to imagine McCain being particularly coherent on the intricacies of the "bailout"-- I doubt that he has a very good grasp of the subject, and I suspect that he may well have blown it up as a deliberate ploy to avoid having to discuss it in anything more than soundbite depth...

The death of David Foster Wallace

Posted on September 23, 2008
The death of David Foster Wallace has meant that I have been reading obits of David Foster Wallace, and revisiting some things that I hadn't seen the first time through. GJA twigged me to "The Broom of the System" when it came out, but Wallace* was a prolific guy, so there is quite a bit (including "Infinite Jest") that has gotten by me...

This headline: "Run-D.M.C., Metallica

Posted on September 22, 2008
This headline: "Run-D.M.C., Metallica nominated for Rock HallThe Stooges, Chic, Jeff Beck, War also among possible inductees" very nicely captures why the whole idea of a rock hall of fame is stupid. To the extent that the contributions of particular artists are even sufficiently quantifiable to make such an award, how bizarre is it to see a sentence that lumps these artists together? And how nuts is it that Jeff Beck, indisputably among the greatest rock instrumentalists is relegated to the "also" sub-head?

Mad props to GJA, who completed

Posted on September 21, 2008
Mad props to GJA, who completed the Sydney Marathon in a family record 4:32.37.

Isn't it interesting that this

Posted on September 19, 2008
Isn't it interesting that this year the Presidential race has such a Western orientation? McCain, of course, even though he isn't really of Arizona (born in the Canal Zone, a military brat who went to Episcopal High School in Alexandria and Annapolis for college...

Shea Stadium is the second oldest

Posted on September 17, 2008
Shea Stadium is the second oldest ballpark in the National League. Just a fluke, really-- Wrigley is the oldest, of course, but the Nationals went on a building spree in the 60s and 70s. The Mets came into the league at the same time as the Houston Colt 45s, who played at Colt Stadium until the Astrodome was finished...

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