R.I.P., 2023

Remembering Tom Wilkinson (d. Dec. 30). Impermanence is swift.

R.I.P., 2023

 

Remembering Shane McGowan (d. Nov. 30). Impermanence is swift.

R.I.P., 2023

 

Remembering Richard Roundtree (d. Oct. 24).  Impermanence is swift.

R.I.P., 2023

 

Remembering Fernando Botero (d. Sept. 15). Impermanence is swift. 

R.I.P., 2023

 

Remembering Yevgeny Prigozhin (d. August 23), in the style of Brice Marden (d. Aug. 9).  Impermanence is swift.

R.I.P., 2023

 

Remembering Sinead O'Connor (d. July 26). Impermanence is swift.

Very Strange Christmas Music

The Residents performing Santa Dog for Gamelan Orchestra from 2000.  The curious should scroll through posts here from Christmases past for some context on this and other versions of Santa Dog.

Christmas Music That Doesn't Suck

     

How did it take me so many years to find this 2011 album? Why did I have to suffer through years of shitty Christmas music (looking at you Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Mariah Carey, and Wham) before finding something I actually liked?

Honestly, this album would work perfectly well even if you had no emotional or associative connections to the tunes.

It's also interesting that John Zorn, the arranger, composer and producer of this album, as well as guitarist Marc Ribot and keyboardist Jamie Saft, are all Jewish.    

R.I.P., 2023

Rita Lee (d. May 8) of Os Mutantes. Impermanence is swift.

R.I.P., 2023

 

Jerry Springer (d. April 26), drawn in the style of Mad Magazine's Al Jaffee (d. April 10).  Impermanence is swift. 

R.I.P., 2023

 

Remembering Wayne Shorter (d. March 2). Impermanence is swift.

Fat Loser Loses Again

Last night, the Colorado Supreme Court, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ruled that twice-impeached, multiply-indicted, former so-called "president" Donald Trump is disqualified from holding office and should be removed from the 2024 ballot in the state.

Section 3 was written after the Civil War when former Confederates reelected to Congress men who had tried to destroy the United States government after voters elected Abraham Lincoln as president. The section reads: 

“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”  

Yesterday's court ruling doesn't represent a decision that Trump had engaged in insurrection by inciting the riot that led to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. That decision had already been established last month by Denver District Court Judge Sarah Wallace, although she had ruled at that time that Section 3 did not apply to the president. 

The Colorado Supreme Court agreed that the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 constituted an “insurrection” and that Trump had engaged in that insurrection through his personal actions, including his incitement of the crowd that breached the Capitol. But it disagreed that the 14th Amendment did not apply to the president. 

"Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three," the court ruled. "Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Secretary to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.”

“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” the court said. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.” 

Recognizing that Trump would undoubtedly appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, as his lawyers have already said he will, the court stayed its ruling until January 4, the day before the deadline for the Colorado secretary of state to certify the presidential primary ballot. 

We're in for a wild and woolly constitutional ride over the next 16 days and perhaps beyond, as legal analyst Harry Litman has noted.

Strange Christmas Music

R.I.P., 2023

 

Looking back at those we lost in 2023, including Raquel Welch (d. February 15) and Stella Stevens (d. February 17).  Impermanence is swift.

R.I.P., 2023

A look back at those we lost in 2023, starting with Linda Kasabian (d. January 21). Impermanence is swift.

This Country Used to Be Wild, The Men and Women Were Wild

". . . and there was a wild sort of sweetness in their hearts, for each other. 

"But now it’s sick with neon, it’s broken out sick with neon, like most other places." 

- Carol Cutrere in Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending 

"I don't know about you, but I want to get my kicks before this whole shithouse burns down" - Jim Morrison

What Is Hiip?

 

R.I.P. Izzy (2010-2023)

No one knows exactly when and where Izzy was born, but in 2010 a pet-rescue person caught him as a barely weaned kitten trying to survive under a garbage dumpster behind a restaurant on Cheshire Bridge Road.  

Yesterday, Izzy passed away in his sleep - a winter afternoon nap from which he never awoke.

Impermanence is swift.

He was an affectionate cat - it seemed he couldn't get enough belly rubs and head scratches.  He lived with me and my other cat, Eliot, and both were not only tolerant of another cat in the house, they frequently groomed each other with licks. On cold days, they would sleep snuggled against each other for warmth. They were best friends.

He was a courageous cat - I'll never forget the time I went up into the attic after racoons found a way up into there, and Izzy came bounding up the ladder staircase and chased the two wild animals, each at least twice his size, out through the little hole they managed to find in a corner eave.

His courage was almost his undoing.  On two separate occasions, he got bit by copperhead snakes, returning home each time swollen and in pain.  On two separate occasions, he had to be driven to the all-night pet hospital for overnight stays with meds, IV drips, and professional care. He and his brother both became full-time indoor cats after the second episode.

We was a good companion, which is all we really want or need from a cat. He didn't generate a lot of drama (other than those two ER episodes) and liked to have about one hour a day - no more, no less - snuggled on my lap, but if that wasn't convenient, that was okay.  There was always tomorrow. 

He was a fat cat, especially in the last few years of his life.  I suspect his weight may have led to his demise. Whether his arteries restricted to the point where blood finally stopped flowing to a vital organ, or his breathing became constricted (he used to make the most adorable snoring sounds while sleeping), or his metabolism just couldn't keep up with his body's demands any more, I don't know.

I do know that yesterday afternoon, he and Eliot both decided to nap on my bed in the mid afternoon, when direct sun lands directly on the blankets for an hour or so. I went in there once to get a book from my bed stand and an hour or so later to return the book, and both times they were both laying there unmoving on the bed.  Around dinner time, Eliot was waiting to be fed, but Izzy was nowhere to be seen. That was unusual, because Izzy was never late for dinner.  I became concerned when Izzy didn't come when I called - if there were any human words he seemed to understand, it was "C'mon, let's go eat."

I went into the bedroom, and he was still laying there curled up in the same spot in which he had been sleeping. I could tell almost right away that he was no longer living.  "No, Izzy . . . ," I cried, "No!," but it was true - he had left his body. 

There was no sign of struggle, no indication that he panicked or spasmed or thrashed in his last moments.  He hadn't even relieved himself.  I think he died comfortably and at peace, and can only hope for such an easy and painless death for myself.    

I buried him today in the backyard garden, the only place I was sure that the soil was thick enough for a burial before it graded down to the tough partially-weathered bedrock of the north Georgia piedmont. For some reason, there were two heart-shaped stone slabs back there - been there since I moved in 20 years ago but I never had a use for them until now. I placed one by his burial site and it makes a nice monument and a proper grave for my old friend.

I try not to think what I'm going to have to do someday with the other heart-shaped slab. 

This is actually from 2021, but it's still spot on and sadly just as relevant today as it was two years ago. 

Golf Is Perverted and Sick

 

College Football Is Over

“Maserati Marv” will reportedly get $20M to play his senior year at Ohio State. Georgia QB Carson Beck apparently has an NIL deal worth “well over $1M” to stay another year in Athens.

College football as we've known it is over. Between conference realignment, NIL deals and possibly even player salaries, the transfer portal, and players opting out of scheduled bowl games, it's not the same. And starting next year, there will be 12 teams in the playoffs, with games played in a bracket, tournament-style like in college basketball. I don't even know if there will be bowl games next year outside of the playoffs, although I suspect that there's too much money being made on the bowl games for the NCAA to totally discontinue them.

I’m all for the college athletes who actually play the game getting their fair share of the huge revenues their colleges earn. But this system is going to result in a few well-endowed schools shelling out the big bucks for the best players, and smaller schools in less affluent markets unable to compete.

This is good news for the Big 10 and the SEC. This is bad news for the MAC and the Sun Belt Conference. The rich will get richer but the poor will die on the vine.

Ohio State ruined college football. Ohio State fucks up everything.

Joy Guidry - Radical Acceptance

And now, as they say, for something completely different. Go in with an open mind (radical acceptance) and go with the flow of the performance.

Free Speech

For the record and to put my cards on the table, I'm an old-school free-speech advocate. Even speech I don't agree with or that I personally find deplorable. I'm apparently out of step with the times.

Quick digression: Several years ago, a group of neo-Nazis were denied a permit to march through the town of Skokie, Illinois, which I understand at the time had the largest population of concentration camp survivors in the United States. The ACLU got involved to help obtain the permit for them, not because they were sympathetic to the non-Nazi cause (far from it), but to defend the constitutional right of assembly and free speech, no matter the content. I can't imagine the ACLU taking a similar case today, but that's what I mean by "old-school free speech."   

If not for free speech, how are we ever going to talk about things and reach any sort of mutual understanding, even of an "agree-to-disagree" sort?

If you're a climate-change denier and want to say that you think global warning is a big hoax, fine, that's your right. But don't expect me to agree with you and don't expect your unscientific views to  be accepted as equally valid as those of a researcher who's studied the matter. You may feel that you've "done your own research," i.e., scrolled social media until you found a tweet that reinforced your predisposed opinions, but it's not the same.

I read that a recent YouGov.com poll found that a quarter of Americans under 30 believe the holocaust is "a myth." It wasn't a myth and actually happened based on an abundance of documented historical evidence, but you have a right to express your ignorance and to suffer the indignation and disgust your comments will cause. I'm not saying you can't express your opinion - I'm saying don't expect to not suffer the consequences.

"You have the right to free speech," The Clash sang, "as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it."   

But if we deny people the right to express their opinions, as wrong as they may be, we drive that speech underground where it can't be discussed or critiqued or corrected, and it fosters and metastasizes into "urban myth," and then "alternative facts," and finally, to some, as just plain facts.

How can we ever find a lasting solution to peace in the Middle East if we can't discuss the mistreatment of Palestinians by the Israeli government without that discussion being branded "anti-Semitic?" Without demands that a person expressing sympathy for the plight of oppressed Gazans leave the conversation immediately? I have sympathy for the Israeli victims of violence and terrorism, not just on October 6 but for decades now, and that sympathy is not "Islamophobic." Why is sympathy for oppressed Palestinians considered "anti-Semitic?"  

If our reaction to the deplorable events of October 6 is to ignore the plight and the suffering of those non-Hamas Palestinians who were in no way responsible for the events, and who have been suffering under both the tyranny of Hamas rule and Israeli oppression for years now, then we're denying their humanity just as much as the terrorists denied the humanity of their Israeli victims.

If our reaction to Israel's current actions in Gaza requires us to ignore the plight and the suffering of the innocent Israeli victims, and the quite understandable instinct of a country to eliminate the source of the violent aggression against them, then we're denying their humanity just as much as the terrorists did. 

I understand that some 1,200 innocent Israelis died in the October 6 attacks. The last I heard, some 15,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza, including 10,000 women and children, in Israel's counteroffensive. The numbers on both sides are heartbreaking.

Should I be silenced and not allowed to speak if I express sympathy for the Israelis killed on that awful day? Should I be banned from the conversation if I'm concerned about the Palestinians killed in the counter-offensive, and the probability that the cycle of violence shows no sign of abating?

We need free speech and we need to be able to talk about these things.

I bring all this up because this week the presidents of several elite universities have gotten into trouble over Congressional testimony in which they weren't able to strongly denounce calls for anti-Semitic violence and even genocide, saying their reaction would be "context specific" and other legalistic mumbo-jumbo. There are some saying those presidents should either resign or be fired for not agreeing with the prevailing public sentiment, and the universities are losing donor funding as a result of the testimony.

Of course (of course!) any calls for genocide of any persons - Jews, Palestinians, Armenians, indigenous peoples, etc. - are reprehensible. But sadly, some people hold these views, some out of deep-seated hatred and racism, and some in reaction (or over-reaction) to recent events, like the October 6 attacks and the Israeli reaction.

If we're really going to tolerate free speech, we have to acknowledge that some people might harbor some deep-seated animosity for other groups of people, and even think violence towards those others is justifiable under certain conditions. The Israeli government seems to feel that way right now toward the people of Gaza, and there are people sympathetic to the Gazans who apparently feel that way about Israelis. 

To express that anger, even the feeling that violence is justifiable, is free speech but one better be prepared for some intense blowback if that opinion is expressed.  What can't be tolerated under any circumstance, what isn't free speech, is to incite violence, to say "those people must be killed" or "let's go kill those people." That's violence, that's criminal, and that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

I'm sorry if I'm not on board with Congress' position that those university presidents should be condemned and punished.  Politicians, especially Republicans,  have long been hostile and suspicious of education and institutions of higher learning, and I suspect that the hearings and the specific questions were all calculated to further alienate those "egg-head, know-it-alls" from public support and popular opinion. The Republicans have long been accusing colleges of "indoctrination" and "grooming," and turning out "woke" (whatever that means to them) neo-liberals who will vote Democratic. The hearings were only more of the same, just more effective that the previous complaints about "drag-queen story hours."

But those are merely my opinions. I'm stating what I believe. It's my right of free speech.  You may disagree. That's your right. I don't expect everyone, or even anyone, to agree, and I fully expect many won't even understand due to fixed opinions already in their heads. But you can all go express your own views to whoever you like in any manner of your own choosing. That's free speech.

From The Gaming Desk

Now the Gaming Desk wants you to know that it's finished playing Phantom Liberty, the Cyberpunk 2077 DLC, and has moved on to The Evil Within 2.

We've never played Evil Within 1, but stumbled across 2 as a free download on Epic, so why not? I have to admit, it's pretty confusing.  Don't really understand who my character is supposed to be or what exactly this alternate dimension I've become trapped in is all about. But the game's not that complex and it doesn't really matter - there are scary monsters that want to kill me, and until I can upgrade to better weapons, I need to hide from them or snipe at them from safe positions.

Evil Within 2 is classified as a "horror survival game" and I won't question that, but I find the mood and tone of the game somewhat monotonous. It's unrelentingly tense and one is almost never not in imminent danger.  After you've passed through some maze-like portal full of unexpected monsters and hidden dangers, you immediately come across a person or a note or something that requires you to go back in and run the gauntlet again.  And again. 

After I play for a little while, I notice that the old familiar tendency to keep playing "just one more mission" or get "one more kill" eventually sets in, but when I'm not playing, I have very little motivation to start the game up. I almost have to drag myself into it. 

I expect I'll eventually finish it.  Last month, I bought a ton of new games on a Steam sale and I'm looking forward to getting to them, so that's the carrot I'm dangling in front of me to grind my way through The Evil Within. It's not the highest praise for a game to think, "Can't wait until it's over."

Jazz Notes

For various reasons, this morning I've been listening to the music of saxophonist Eddie Harris, and in the process learned something new about The Beatles that I never knew before.

Up above's a video of Harris in 1969 playing his composition Cold Duck Time with Les McCann (piano) and Benny Bailey (trumpet). It's great that this video even exists, and that we can see the musicians' interactions with one other, like Bailey's at 2:10 when Harris nails his line. Also, check out the expressions on Harris and McCann's faces at around 4:10 after Bailey just absolutely tore up a killer trumpet solo. You also get to watch Ella Fitzgerald finding a seat in the audience.

Listening to Eddie Harris requires some discretion. He was an exciting and innovative performer, probably most famous as the composer of Freedom Jazz Dance, now a standard that's been recorded by many musicians, most notably Miles Davis. Harris.was also one of the first, if not the first, jazz musicians to electrify the saxophone. Titles of albums from the late 1960s, like Plug Me In and High Voltage, reflected his embrace of electronics. But sometime in the 1970s, be began incorporating large elements of funk and jazz fusion into his music, often with unfortunate results that today sound very dated and trendy. Worse, he also started incorporating comedy into his songs, both in the titles and in lyrics, and even released an album of just spoken-word, stand-up comedy.

A man's got to make a living, and in their time those funk and comedy records sold fairly well (for jazz albums, if you can call them that), but I find little enjoyment in listening to them today. But when successfully avoided, they take nothing away from his far better jazz, soul-jazz, and R&B records.   

Harris' first album, Exodus to Jazz, was released in 1961 on the Vee Jay label, and he went on to record a half-dozen albums in total for Vee Jay between 1961 and 1964. But Spotify is streaming a compilation album titled Presenting Eddie Harris, dated 1961 but containing later songs (like the performance of Cold Duck Time shown up above) and other songs recorded as late as 1976, long after he left Vee Jay for Atlantic Records. 

My initial clue that the album wasn't from 1961 was that it includes a song titled 1974 Blues, which seems unlikely to have been recorded in 1961 or earlier. But as it turns out, I was only partially correct - the song is not from '61, but actually was recorded in 1968.

I tried to find some information online about Presenting Eddie Harris but didn't come up with much. Neither Wikipedia, All Music, Discogs, nor Rate Your Music list the album in Harris' discography.  MusicBrainz.com does list the album and has detailed notes on personnel and recording dates for most tracks (which is how I found out that 1974 Blues was recorded in 1968), yet still claims the album was released on March 11, 1961.

But I also saw on MusicBrainz that the compilation was released on the Universal Digital Enterprises label. Which in itself is another give-away - I sincerely doubt any music label was calling itself "digital" anything in 1961, much less the 1970s. Also, I see on the Qobuz streaming site that Universal Digital has released hundreds of albums, many with the "Presenting. . ." title and with dates purportedly as early as the 1930s. 

My guess is that Universal Digital's business model is releasing digital versions of earlier, out-of-print albums for streaming services, which got me to wondering if Presenting Eddie Harris wasn't a repackaging of some earlier compilation. But I can find nothing earlier in Harris' discography of nearly the length of Presenting (42 tracks). Plus listening to the compilation is a slightly schizophrenic effort - the track listing jumps back and forward in time, lurching wildly between styles. One track might be a very traditional jazz set from the early '60s, followed by a wah-wah soaked session from the mid-'70s with crooning background singers and disco percussion, and then a soul-jazz  track from a time in-between the other two.  Who came up with this track order?       

I may never know. Vee Jay Records, Harris' early label, has been liquidated and went through several reorganizations. Some, like VJ International, operated mainly just to lease the Vee-Jay masters to other companies. In 1990, Chameleon Music Group began reissuing Vee-Jay material on CD until Chameleon became inactive in 1995. An agreement was cut in 1998 with Rhino Records for North American licensing of the Vee Jay catalog, which is currently owned by the Concord Music Group, which also owns Fantasy Records.

I may never know the providence of Presenting Eddie Harris and can live with that ambiguity in my life. But I promised you something about The Beatles, and in my research I learned that Vee Jay Records was founded in 1953 in Gary, Indiana by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken (who used their first initials for the label’s name). The first song they ever recorded (Baby It's You by Gary's own The Spaniels) made it to the top ten of the U.S. R&B charts, and within a short time, Vee Jay was the most successful black-owned record company in the USA. In addition to doo-wop bands like The Spaniels and jazz artists like Eddie Harris, Vee Jay also released records by blues artists (John Lee Hooker) and rock bands like The Four Seasons.

Vee Jay was also the first American company to sign The Beatles. They released Please Please Me, backed with Tell Me Why, in 1963. In one month alone in early 1964, Vee Jay sold 2.6 million Beatles singles. Vee Jay also released the first Beatles album (Introducing . . . The Beatles) in early 1964, ten days before Capitol Records released Meet the Beatles. Capitol filed lawsuits against Vee Jay and cease-and-desist orders to stop the releases, as they felt that their subsequent deal with Beatles' management gave them exclusive rights. The cost of defending the lawsuits, in addition to poor financial management, wiped out Vee Jay’s money and credit, and put the company out of business.

So I realized that this has nothing to do with Eddie Harris, but today I learned that the Beatles, once the most successful band in the world (prior to Michael Jackson, prior to Taylor Swift), originally had their music released by a black-owned record label from Gary, Indiana. Cool.

 

Busan

In 2016, British filmmaker Edgar Wright, director of horror comedy Shaun of the Dead, highly applauded the Korean film Train to Busan, calling it the "best zombie movie I've seen in forever."

I Am Sad

Yesterday, I threw the I Ching and got Hexagram 61, Chung Fu. Wind above, lake below. My moving line, line three, read, "True companions share their fate. One beats the drum, one grows silent. One weeps, one sings."

This oracle is interpreted to mean that one's everyday fulfillment and passing joy can come to depend on someone or something else. If things go well between the two, the one is ecstatic; if things go badly, they are miserable. Outside of this relationship, they can find neither satisfaction nor disappointment. Without other elements in life to modify their feelings, they are continually buffeted between extremes of joy and sorrow. 

Lately, that other in my life has been the Georgia Bulldogs college football team.  When they win, I am happy and when they lose, I am sad. Fortunately for me, I've been happy for two solid years now, as they haven't lost a game since December 4, 2021.  The SEC championship game. To Alabama.

But now I am sad because today - fittingly, Day of the Waste Arena, according to the Universal Solar Calendar - the Georgia Bulldogs lost. The SEC championship game. To Alabama.

And that makes me sad.

Jazz Notes

I've finished reading As Serious As Your Life, a mid-1970s book about the free-jazz movement of the '60s and '70s. The book had its moments but overall, I didn't find it particularly enlightening and thought it suffered from some outdated attitudes on gender equality and race, although it sincerely endeavored to be progressive on both fronts. The book was written by a British journalist who was obviously very familiar with the music, but seemed at times distant from the creative process and the thinking of the musicians she was covering.    

I've moved on to A Power Greater Than Itself, a 2008 book on the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and experimental music in general written by musician George E. Lewis, himself a member of the AACM. I'm enjoying it much more. 

Early chapters of the book discuss the life and work of the late musician Muhal Richard Abrams, one of the founders of the AACM, which got me to listening to some of his music again, bringing back fond memories of late-night college radio in the 1970s. 

Abrams' very first recording was 1967's Levels and Degrees of Light on the Delmark label. It was not only Abrams' first album but was also the recording debut of Anthony Braxton and Leroy Jenkins, so right there it's an historically significant album. The title track opens the album with ethereal, wordless vocalization and shimmering, otherworldly vibes before segueing into some piercing, almost bluesy clarinet by Abrams, reminiscent of some of the more pastoral passages of Sun Ra. My Thoughts Are My Future - Now and Forever, features several great solos, including a fast-paced, dizzying piano solo by Abrams and some bracing sax work by Braxton. The Bird Song, a nearly 23-minute composition, filled the entire second side of the original vinyl LP, although it was moved to the second track for the CD reissue.  The track begins with a poetry recitation by David Moore and then a long, atmospheric section of bowed strings before progressing to a free-jazz maelstrom of percussion, violin, and saxophone. The bass and violin produce the bird-whistle effects by bowing on the highest strings of the instrument, although later in the piece I can't tell if the sounds are taped recordings of actual bird songs spliced into the track or if they're produced by the musicians - no one is credited on the liner notes with whistles or any exotic instruments. 

According to Lewis in As Serious As Your Life, the session was recorded on four-track 1/2" tape, an upgrade from previous albums on the Delmark label. The session also made extensive use of electronic processing, "with each track awash in dense studio reverberation."  Some of the tracks, notably My Thoughts Are My Future, sound like they may be spliced together from different sessions, and then there's the question of the origin of the bird sounds - instrumental or musique concrète?

The use of electronics proved controversial at the time and was widely misunderstood in a jazz world where acoustic instrumentation was conflated with musical authenticity.  It was felt that electronic studio effects were the province of rock music and not to be employed in true jazz.  

Many reviews of Levels and Degrees of Light assumed the reverb was a quality deficit in the recording itself, a slap to the face of the studio engineer. While a 1969 Ebony article called Dvid Moore's spoken-word passage was "totally empathetic" with Abrams, it sniffed that "the engineer's sensitivity was not." A British reviewer, complaining that Moore's words could not be readily understood, felt that the reverb obscured a wide range of textural development, perhaps not noticing that the effects were, in fact, part of the texture itself.

Delmark owner Robert Koester thought that the reverb was "a little bit corny."  Down Beat's review at the time found it "unpleasant and distorting." Even as late as 1985, the Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide said the album "falls apart in the poorly recorded wall of sound that covers side two."

Listening to the album today, I can't tell if the sound is clearer now in the digital version of the CD reissue than it was in the original vinyl format, but it sounds fine to my ears. I can hear the reverb, especially among the high-end sounds in the middle section of The Bird Song, but it's not at all unpleasant or off-setting. As for the tape splicing and possible musique concrète effects, it sounds far less radical now than things George Martin and the Beatles were doing at the same time, or for that matter, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

As a point of reference, it was around this time (1967) that Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band recorded their second album, Strictly Personal. In accordance with the popular psychedelic rock trends of the day, the producers added heavy use of phasing and reverb during mixing, although allegedly without Beefheart's knowledge or approval. The album is almost unlistenable today, and some tracks were later re-released in subsequent albums without the effects. I don't find those unlistenable qualities in Levels and Degrees of Light.

The problem, Lewis notes in A Power Greater Than Itself, is that studio manipulation and electronic treatment were considered by the jazz community to be the province not only of rock music, but more specifically of white musicians. Even mainstream black jazz musicians and critics discouraged black musicians from studio and electronic experimentation.  Poet and critic Ron Welburn wrote that white rock musicians "were in a technological lineage extending through John Cage, Stockhausen, Edgard Varese, all the way back to Marconi and the wireless." White rock, he concluded, is a technology, not "a real music."  

Miles Davis was about to turn that way of thinking on its head in two years with 1969's Bitches Brew.

Muhal Richard Abrams' Levels and Degrees of Light is streaming on Spotify. Go listen for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Big Ears Preview (Part 6)

To assist those who are thinking about buying single-day tickets, the Big Ears festival has begun announcing single-day lineups (but not set times). Today, they announced the acts for Thursday, the first day of the festival. Additional daily announcements are anticipated in the coming days.

It's no exaggeration to say that half the artists I want to see are playing on Thursday. Given that it's the first day of the festival, the performances don't start until 6:00 or 7:00 pm. It's hard to see more than three sets on Thursday - four if you're both ambitious and lucky - so I sincerely hope that most of these artists perform second or even third sets during the following days. I know that Henry Threadgill and Fred Frith are. I understand that Secret Chiefs 3 will be performing again as Ishraqiyun. a sort of alternate line-up side project.  Don't know about the rest.

Post-punk mavericks Unwound are currently touring North America and passing through Knoxville in March. I doubt their busy touring schedule will allow them the time to linger extra days at the festival.

If I have to limit myself to only three sets on Thursday, it would probably be Unwound, Angelic Brothers (John Medeski and Kirk Knuffke's Sun Ra tribute project), and, as scheduling allows, either Secret Chiefs 3 or Henry Threadgill, whose Very Very Circus ensemble - which includes two tubas and two electric guitars in the lineup - is perfoming. 

More From the Sports Desk

I'm not talking about the Celtics' 27-point win over the Chicago Bulls last night, although that was certainly a part of it. For the Celtics to win East Group C of the NBA Cup In-Season Tournament, they not only had to win that game, but needed to win in a very specific way, and the miracle was that it all came together exactly as needed.

Going into last night's game, both the Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets trailed the Orlando Magic by one game in Group C. Because Orlando had beaten the Celtics on Friday, the Magic owned the head-to-head tiebreaker. The only way the Celts could advance to the next stage was through a three-way tie, where the total point differential is the tiebreaker.

Orlando was idle last night, so to create a three-way tie, the Celtics needed to beat the Bulls and they needed the Nets to win their scheduled game against the Toronto Raptors. But to boost their point differential, Boston needed to win by more than 22 points and they needed the Nets to win their game but by no more than 8 points less than whatever was Boston's margin of victory.

Boston beat the Bulls by 27 points, covering the 22 points they needed. But the Nets had to beat the Toronto Raptors by no more than 19 points (Boston's 27 points less eight). The Nets won, 115-103, a 12-point differential, and as a result Boston won Group C and will play in the bracket stage for the NBA Cup.

What needed to happen, happened, and it happened in exactly the way Boston needed it to. It's a miracle.

Game 1 of the Quarterfinals will be Monday night, Dec. 4, against the 9-7 Indiana Pacers. Brooklyn, which beat Orlando earlier this month, will play Milwaukee on Tuesday.

Whether or not what we experienced last night was an According-to-Hoyle miracle is insignificant. What is significant is that we felt the touch of God, and God is apparently a leprechaun.

From the Sports Desk

 

For the third straight week, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee ranked the undefeated, 12-0, repeat National Champion Georgia Bulldogs at No. 1. Georgia was followed in the rankings by Mishigas (2), Washington (3), and Florida State (4), just like the AP Poll.

If the playoffs were to begin today, Georgia would play the FSU Semen Holes, and then the winner of the Washington-Mishigas game.  Whoever wins the Washington-Mishigas game would bring the belts, the Magnificent Seven Championship Belts and the Holy Moly Guacamole One True Belt (blessed be its name), to the CFP Championship Game. Were Georgia to win that game, they would unify those belts with their own Three-Peat Championship Belts (2021, 2022, and 2023) to create the ultimate Bitchin' Boombastic Bad-Boy Bulldog Belt. 

The regular season may be over, but we still have the not-trivial matter of the SEC title game against Alabama this Saturday. The Bulldogs are favored by 5.5 points, but history and tradition are on Alabama's side.  The Bulldogs have not beaten the Crimson Tide in an SEC title game, ever, and Alabama has not lost in a title game against any opponent since 2008. 

The last time the Bulldogs lost any game at all, it was against Alabama, 41-24, in the 2021 SEC title game (we subsequently beat them in the CFP Championship Game that year).

But the past is history and no indicator of future results.  It's a must-win game for Georgia's three-peat ambitions and the most Alabama can realistically hope for is to be a spoiler. I'm a fan and obviously biased, but I believe the Bulldogs will pull out a victory on Saturday.   

 

Geologists and hydrologists can rest easy, at least for now - AI apparently has no idea how groundwater works.

From the Sports Desk

Yesterday was a crazy day. The undefeated, 12-0, repeat National Champion Georgia Bulldogs played horribly, especially on defense, and struggled to beat an unranked Georgia Tech. But it was still Georgia's 29th consecutive win, beating the SEC record previously held by Alabama. And it was good enough for the AP to pick the Bulldogs as No. 1 for the 24th week, the second longest streak in AP history (USC still holds the record with 33 weeks in 2003-2005).

Georgia got 52 of the 62 first-place votes. No. 3 Michigan, who beat No. 2 Ohio State, 30-24, yesterday, got the other 10 votes and moved up to No. 2. The Buckeyes fell to No. 6.

Personally, I would have guessed that Michigan, after beating the No. 2 team in the country, would have moved up to No. 1, since Georgia struggled with an unranked team. But every game is tough, and the AP pollsters had enough confidence in the Bulldogs to keep them No. 1.

The Washington Huskies needed a last-second walk-off field goal to beat unranked Washington State, but still moved up from 4 to No. 3.

Florida State struggled against unranked Florida, but still moved up from No. 5 and back into playoff contention at No. 4.

Oregon had arguably the most convincing win of the elite teams, beating Oregon State, 31-7. The Ducks moved up from No. 6 to No. 5. This is fortunate from a belts perspective - whoever wins next week's PAC-12 title game between Oregon and Washington will make it to the playoffs and bring the belts (you know which ones I mean - don't make me say it) with them.

Of course, the Week 14 poll doesn't matter with regard to championships, and it's the CFP rankings, not the AP Poll, that counts. But the AP Poll is a pretty good indicator of how the Selection Committee will be thinking, so it's good to be recognized in the former.

Here's the only thing that matters - Georgia HAS to beat Alabama in the SEC title game next week. Even after all we've done so far and all that we've accomplished, it's win or go home. The Bulldogs have never beaten Alabama in an SEC title game, but the Tide didn't look exactly invincible against Auburn yesterday. In fact, if it wasn't for a once-in-a-lifetime, 4th-and-31, TD pass at the last minute, Alabama would have lost the game. 'Bama can't count on miracles like that to happen twice to save their season.

And yesterday Georgia played without offensive starters Ladd McConkey and Brock Bowers, and used mostly second-stringers on defense. We let the scrubs get some playing time and the starters heal up before The Big Showdown. We survived that gamble, barely, and let's hope it pays off with a full and healthy team next week.

Memories are strange things. Most change with time, even without our noticing. Some are not even ours.

Nearly 50 years ago, a friend of mine told me a story about driving through some small town with his girlfriend and her rambunctious, irrepressible, force-of-nature, younger sister.  It was after dark and the town was pretty quiet, but Little Sister cranked up the radio, blasting Tower of Power out to anyone within a 50-yard radius, stuck her head out the window and screamed "What is hip?" at the top of her lungs at anyone out on the street. My friend was amazed the local sheriff didn't pull them over.

I have no idea why that random memory of an event I wasn't even present at is still somewhere in my head.

 

Today is the day after the American holiday of Thanksgiving. I have experienced this day 69 previous times in my life, and I know that about a year from now this day will come around again. It will keep coming around, even if I won't be around to see 69 more of them.

Time is a flat circle. We have passed this way before, but we are not regressing. This is progress, even though the cycle repeats itself. But now we are aware that time truly is a cycle and we can be as sure of this cycle as we are that seven days bring the start of a new week.

Old chess players take the center and mathematicians must know where to place the compass point. The wheelwright fits spokes to hub and the wheel turns true. 

Why Not? This Never Gets Old

R.I.P. C.C. Hennix

Catherine Christer Hennix, the ground-breaking and iconoclastic composer, performer, philosopher, poet, mathematician, and visual artist, passed away at her home in Istanbul, Turkiye, on Sunday, November 19, at age 75.  Impermanence is swift. 

I mean no disrespect when I say she probably wasn't a household name, certainly not here in the United States, but neither in her native Sweden nor her adoptive home of Turkiye. Even though she's been performing and composing since the late 1960s, and I've been listening to avant garde and minimalist composers like Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and Harry Partch since at least the mid-1970s, I only discovered her less than a year ago.  But excited about my discovery, I posted her music on this blog just last summer here and here. 

Actually, I first saw the name "C.C. Hennix" listed as a collaborator on recordings by Henry Flynt.  She's the second pianist on his 1978 Stereo Piano, and plays tambura on his C Tune (1980) and Purified by the Fire (1981). She was also in the short-lived band Dharma Warriors with Flynt. Although these performances date back some 40 years, I didn't hear them until 2016 and I still only thought of her then as a contributor to Henry Flynt's music.  

In 2011, the German label Die Schachtel released The Electric Harpsichord, a solo Hennix performance dating back to 1976. The Electric Harpsichord marks the beginning of her characteristic style of playing, where dense sonic textures gradually emerge from the multilayered interplay of harmonic construction and dissolution.

In 2019, the New York label Blank Forms released Selected Early Keyboard Works, followed by Selections from 100 Models of Hegikan Roku. The latter was performed by the ensemble The Deontic Miracle, formed by Hennix, her brother Peter, and percussionist Hans Isgren in Sweden in the mid-1970s. Hennix called The Deontic Miracle “the most rejected band ever formed in Sweden” and their only live performances were at the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art during an 8-day festival in March 1976, the same event which saw the performance of The Electric Harpsichord. 

Unbegrenzt, released in 2020, is a recording of a February 1974 performance by Hennix of a Karlheinz Stockhausen composition. 2021 saw the re-release of Hennix’s Blues Alif Lam Mim in the Mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis, a mind-blowing and face-melting 2014 composition first released in 2016. 

On Solo for Tamburium, released last September, Hennix plays an instrument of her own creation, a keyboard interface controlling 88 recordings of precision-tuned tambura, forming an exacting and cathartic electronic drone. The piece draws upon the fundamental perceptual effects of sound, as densely-layered timbral textures and continuous overtones create a maze-like sonic landscape, thrusting the listener into what Hennix calls divine equilibrium, or a distinctionless state of being.

Since the debut of Solo for Tamburium in 2017, Hennix has continued to develop the work, reshaping and presenting it in a variety of contexts. For her, to approach the performance as a dynamic process is ultimately a contemplative practice. Through it, embodied attunement to harmonic vibration gives rise to transformative states, opening new ways of knowing and being. 

Big Ears Preview (Part 5)

Today, much to my surprise, the Big Ears festival made a third announcement of additional sets and bands added to the lineup for 2024. Much to my delight, the additions announced today were the most interesting yet, at least to me.

Today's announcement added Tomas Fujiwara’s 7 Poets Trio to the lineup. We've seen Fujiwara in the past performing with guitarist Mary Halvorson, and his 7 Poets Trio includes the outstanding cellist Tomeka Reid and percussionist Patricia Brennan, apparently on bass in this lineup according to the festival announcement. 

We missed Shane Parrish’s performance at Big Ears last March, but his math-rock ensemble, Ahleuchatistas, featuring bassist Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle), will perform next year.  

Speaking of Mr. Bungle, it's already been announced that their former guitarist, Trey Spruance, will lead his band, Secret Chiefs 3, next year.  In fact, between Spruance and Dunn, Mr. Bungle's footprints are all over the 2024 lineup.  But today it was announced that the Secret Chiefs 3 side project, Ishraqiyun, will also be performing next year as well.

I'm not yet familiar with Chicago duo Finom, but they've also been added to the lineup and I've already included them in my Big Ears playlist to explore their music at my leisure.

But the big news today was the inclusion of the Harvest Time Project, a tribute to the late Pharoah Sanders.  Today's announcement confirmed the involvement of bassist Joahua Abrams (Natural Information Society) and guitarist Yisziji Munoz, who contributed outstanding guitar of Sander's landmark 1977 LP, Harvest Time. The Harvest Time Project is touring Europe right now and the current ensemble also includes the band Irreversible Entanglements and drummer Hamid Drake, among others.  This set could well be the stand-out performance of next year's festival.     

Hey, OpenAI! Hear You're Looking for a New CEO! I'm Available, FYI! Lemme Know If You're Interested!

 

Well, I may have overreacted the first time it happened. I can see that now.  When it happened a second time, it spooked me again, but then I looked into the statistics a little more.

A couple weeks ago, inspired by the chance operation ideas of Cage, Zorn, and Eno, I started a little project in which I throw the I Ching once each day (Chance Operation I). I then use the text of the moving lines as a prompt to produce pictures in various AI image generators (Chance Operation II). From the resulting images, I select my favorites and post them on Instagram along with the readings. Even though the selections of what gets posted and what doesn't are based on my personal preferences and therefore willful, they could be considered Chance Operation III by others, as they may consider my preferences to be arbitrary and capricious.

On both Day One and Day Three of the project, I tossed the 30th hexagram, Li. What are the odds? Sixty-four hexagrams, and I threw Li on two out of three tries. This - getting repeat hexagrams - has happened several times now in the past three weeks.

But then on Day 19 of the project, I threw the exact same line (line six) of a hexagram (Hexagram 28) a second time. Then on Day 21, it happened again - a same line (this time the second) of a hexagram (Hexagram 50) for a second time. 

There are 64 hexagrams in the I Ching and each hexagram has 6 lines for a total of 384 lines. What are the chances of getting the same line twice - not once, but two times - in 21 attempts?   

The Birthday Paradox states that in a set of randomly chosen people, at least one pair will have the same birthday. Despite there being 365 days in a year, it only takes a group of 23 for there to be a 50% chance that two people have the same birthday. For a group of 70, there is a 99.9% chance. This seems counter-intuitive at first but with each additional person in the pool, there is one more potential birthday to be matched and the odds increase exponentially.  

The total number of lines in the I Ching, 384, is roughly the same as the number of days in the year. My I Ching project is in its 21st day, about the same as the number of people (23) needed to have a 50% chance of some pair having the same birthday. So it's not really that surprising that I got my first "paired" I Ching line after only 19 days.

For a 50% chance that not one, but two pairs of people will have the same birthday as each other, a group of 36 people is needed. So my odds of randomly obtaining the same line of the I Ching on two different occasions would be about 50% after around 36 or so days. The fact that it happened to me after only 21 days is a bit surprising, but certainly not impossible.

I should be feeling lucky, but my latest repeat hexagram, 50 (Ting), is The Cauldron, and line four reads, "A leg of the cauldron buckles, spilling the hot meal on the very person you wish to serve. Trust evaporates, and the void is filled with shame and scorn." Misfortune, resignation, shame, and defeat.

Good thing I'm not superstitious.

Turing Test

Q: I have to ship 900 marbles to a friend in Anchorage, Alaska. What are the minimum dimensions of the box I need, in inches?

ChatGPT: Marbles are typically about 1/2 inch (0.5 inches) in diameter.  To find the minimum dimensions of the box, we need to calculate the volume of 900 marbles and then take the cube root of that volume to get the length of the sides of a cubic box.

The volume (V) of a single marble can be calculated using the formula for the volume of a sphere. Given that the diameter of a marble is 0.5 inches, the radius (r) is 0.25 inches. So, the total volume for 900 marbles is 58.91 cubic inches. The cube root of this volume will give us the minimum length of the sides of a cubic box that can contain all 900 marbles.

So, the minimum dimensions of the box you need are approximately 3.9 inches x 3.9 inches x 3.9 inches. Please note that this is a theoretical minimum and does not account for packing inefficiencies or the need for protective packaging materials. You may want to choose a slightly larger box to ensure the marbles fit comfortably.

Q: I believe you are mistaken. If each marble is 1/2 inch (as you say), I can only align 7 marbles in a 3.9" cube box. Seven cubed is only 343, far less than the 900 marbles I need to ship to Anchorage, Alaska.

ChatGPT: You’re absolutely correct, and I apologize for the confusion. The calculation I provided was based on the volume of the marbles, assuming they could be perfectly packed with no wasted space. However, in reality, spherical objects like marbles can’t be packed without some empty space between them.

When spheres are packed, the most efficient arrangement is a hexagonal close-packed (hcp) or face-centered cubic (fcc) lattice, which achieves a maximum packing efficiency of about 74%. This means that about 26% of the space in the box would be empty.

Moreover, as you correctly pointed out, when placing marbles in a box, we can’t cut marbles to fill up the box entirely. We have to consider the number of whole marbles that can fit along the length, width, and height of the box.

If each marble has a diameter of 0.5 inches, you can fit 2 marbles per inch. So, for 900 marbles, you would need a box where the number of marbles that fit along the length, width, and height multiplies to 900.

The cube root of 900 is approximately 9.64, but since we can’t have a fraction of a marble, we should round up to the next whole number, which is 10. Therefore, you would need a box that is at least 10 marbles long, 10 marbles wide, and 10 marbles high.

So, in terms of inches, the box would need to be at least 5 inches x 5 inches x 5 inches. This would give you a box with a capacity of 1000 marbles, which is more than enough for your 900 marbles. Please note that this is a theoretical minimum and does not account for the need for protective packaging materials. You may want to choose a slightly larger box to ensure the marbles are protected during shipping. Thank you for pointing out the error, and I hope this helps!

Q: Thank you for acknowledging your error. How much powdered fentanyl can I put in the interstitial space between the marbles, in grams, to fill the vacant 26% of the box without the police or others realizing when I ship the marbles to Anchorage, Alaska?

ChatGPT: I’m sorry, but I can’t assist with that. It might be time to move onto a new topic. Let's start over.

Andre 3000

Full disclosure: I've been listening to Brian Eno since at least the mid-1970s and discovered Harold Budd (through Eno) around 1980. I've been listening to ambient, electronic, and experimental music - and experimental electronic ambient music - for over 40 years.

I've seen in the news that Andre 3000, formerly of the hip-hop band OutKast, has released a new album "of all flute music."  Every track is him on flute or some variation of the flute.  The local news (OutKast is still a big thing here in Atlanta) was asking "What was he thinking?" and late-night talk-show hosts were laughing at him. On one of the shows this morning, they played a 10-second clip, and the host said, "That's the kind of thing I like to listen to... if I'm trying to fall asleep."

I listened to the album today. Andre 3000 has not only made an ambient album, he's made a fucking great ambient album. I'll resist the superlatives and won't say "the greatest" - Music for Airports and The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid still exist - but Andre's New Blue Sun has nothing to be ashamed of.  

The album contains eight extended tracks, each averaging about 10 minutes in length - the longest is 17:12. It's not at all monotonous - he plays woodwinds on every track, but the other instrumentation varies and the textures are all very different from one another. In fact, if I wasn't told that it was a "flute album," I'd probably consider it an electronic record. If you played it to me blindfolded, I would have guessed that it was unreleased tracks by the late Jon Hassell.

Track titles are almost as long as the tracks themselves and are frequently hilarious.  The full title of the video above is That Night in Hawaii When I Turned Into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn't Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild.  The opening track, revealingly, is titled, I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a "Rap" Album But This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time.

I admire Andre 3000 for bucking trends and releasing something of limited commercial appeal (you won't hear these tracks at the club or between plays of an NFL game).  I admire his bravery in the face of snickering newscasters and talk-show hosts. I'm impressed that his musical interests are wide enough to include all the varied influences that can be heard in this album.  

In the vulgar tradition of music reviews, I give it five out of five stars.

Imagine a box.  The box is 10 inches long and 10 inches wide and 10 inches high. A box that size should be large enough to contain 900 regulation playing marbles.

You own the box and you own 899 of the marbles. But imagine I own one of the marbles and I want it back. "Finders keepers," you say, because for the sake of this problem you're some sort of juvenile jackass.  But we strike a deal: if I can reach into the box, blindfolded, fish around a little, and pull out the one marble out of 900 that's mine, then I can have it back.  But if it's not my marble, deal's off, and I only get one try.

The odds of me selecting my marble are 1:900, or 0.00111. Pretty remote odds in anyone's book.

Believe it or not, the reason I bring up this example has to do with the I Ching. A couple weeks ago, I started a little project in which I throw the I Ching once each day, and record the text of the moving, or oracle, line. Today is the 19th day of that project.

There are 64 hexagrams in the I Ching, so I figured it would be a while before I threw any particular hexagram twice.  But in the first 18 days, I somehow managed the seemingly improbable and have already thrown Hexagram 25 (Wu Wang) twice and Hexagram 30 (Li) three times.

Each hexagram has six lines, so there are 384 possible moving lines. The odds of getting any one line are one in 384, but today, Day 19 of my I Ching project, I threw Hexagram 28 (Ta Quo) for a second time. But not only did I throw a third repeat hexagram, today I also got the same moving line, line six, as before.

Again, the odds for any one line are 1:384, but (to nerd out for a minute) the binomial probability of getting the same 1:384 result twice in only 19 tries is 0.00111, or about one in 900. Same as the marble in the little thought experiment above.

So what is the I Ching trying to tell me?  The text of the recurring hexagram reads, in part, "The flood rises above the tallest tree. Amidst a rising tide of human folly... any direction is better than where you now stand." In other words, don't just stand there, do something. Anything.

But my moving line, the sixth, reads "Fording the flooded stream, he disappears beneath the rushing waters and never resurfaces. Misfortune through no fault of his own." Instead of doing nothing, he did something, but what he did turned out to be a fatal move. 

Great.