Third Day of the Hammer

 

After spending 120 hours listening to my complete and unabridged Big Ears playlist, the festival added four more acts this morning and now the playlist is 123 hours long. Working my way through the new additions even as I write this.

Early voting started here in Georgia on Tuesday, and on the first day over 300,000 people voted, shattering all previous early-voting records. The latest Quinnipiac poll gives the orange turd a 7-point lead over Vice President Harris in this state, but polls are often wrong. I have no idea what the early-voting turnout portends, but conventional wisdom says that Democrats are more likely to vote early than Republicans.  Georgia flipped blue in 2020 and may surprise the pollsters by doing it again in 2024.

One thing working in our favor is that the courts have dismissed a lot of those crazy election rules here that MAGA extremists on the Georgia Elections Board tried to install (e.g., all ballots must be hand counted, counties are empowered to conduct inquiries into the voting process before certifying the results, and they can request any information and documentation they deem necessary for their inquiries). The chances for a free and fair Georgia election went up considerably with the recent court decisions.

I swung by my local early-voting site yesterday but turned away due to the crowds. I didn't see any lines of people waiting to vote, but there were lines of cars waiting to get into the parking lot for the site, and people illegally parking on the side of a busy, four-lane street. There was a person using his phone to take pictures of the tags of the cars along the street, and I don't know if he was trying to report the illegal parking or to intimidate voters (he wasn't uniformed). In any event, I drove away and I'm going to wait until next week to cast my early vote after some on the initial enthusiasm has died down.

Second Day of the Hammer

I like living what I consider a sane and rational life, making decisions based on logic and, if not common sense, then what we'll call "uncommon sense." But sometimes, folks, sometimes I like to throw all caution to the wind and do something so irrational, so over-the-top OCD, that it calls my very sanity into question.

Today, I finished one if those illogical feats and completed a listen to all 119 hours and 42 minutes of my Big Ears 2024 Spotify playlist. 

Last month, the Big Ears organization announced its lineup for the 2025 festival. As per usual with these annual announcements, I was familiar with most of the headliners and a good number of the other performers, but there were also many of whom I had never heard. To assist my own musical education and so that I can make better decisions as to which sets to see next March, I made a playlist containing each and every performer.

There are several similar Big Ears playlists out there, but they usually select one or two "representative" songs by each artist. That has the distinct advantage of cutting down on the running time but, personally, I find that one or two songs isn't really representative of many of the eclectic and diverse jazz and experimental artists in the lineup. So instead, my playlist contains a whole album by each performer. Usually, it's the artist's most recent album, as that's where their head is at right now and probably what they're currently touring to support. But in some cases, following the set descriptions on the Big Ears website, I chose some other, previous album or collaboration. For example, for the performed Kate Soper, I didn't use her 2024 LP The Hunt, as the website clearly clearly states she will be performing 2018's Ipsa Dixit. The German musician Michael Rother has some dozen albums currently on Spotify dated 2014 to 2022, but the website says he will be performing the music of his seminal electronic bands Neu! and Harmonia, so my playlist includes Neu!'s 1972 self-titled album and Harmonia's Live 1974.

Also, the playlist is a living, malleable thing. I've made several changes to it since it was first created and expect to make more in the future. Since I created the playlist back in September, several of the artists released new albums from which I expect they will be playing during their March sets. For example, Immanuel Wilkins' Blues Blood and Jenny Scheinman's All Species Parade both dropped just last week. So where appropriate, I replaced what I had for those artists and included their newer music. 

In the case of jazz pianist Kris Davis, I had to include two albums - her most recent Run the Gauntlet (2024), and 2019's Diatom Ribbons, as the latter features several side musicians (Nels Cline, Esperanza Spalding) who will be playing at Big Ears 2025 and other Big Ears veterans (Ches Smith, Marc Ribot) from years past, any of whom might possibly join her on stage next March. 

Also, in some other cases, as I learned more about the artists, I've had to revise what I originally included in the playlist. For example, did you know that there are two separate bands that go by the name "tilt?"  When I first created the playlist, I included an album by the punk-pop band Tilt (with a capital "T"), but the actual artist slated for Big Ears 2025 is the experimental outfit tilt (lower-case "t"), led by trombonist Kalia Vandever, who's also separately performing at next year's festival under her own name. 

I've discovered a lot of great new music in this process, things I probably never would have heard otherwise. I also have to admit I heard some things I couldn't stand, but I played through anyway in the off chance that at some point I'd "get it" (that rarely happened). But as of today, I've heard - at least once - all 120 hours of the playlist. It's taken over a month to complete, and I don't think I'm going to get any kind of award or prize for my effort, other than the invaluable treasure of discovering adventurous new music.

Give the playlist a spin if you've got a month set aside with nothing else to do. Be patient: the playlist starts with all three discs and 3½ hours of Philip Glass' Music in 12 Parts, followed by Soper's avant-garde Ipsa Dixit, which may be an acquired taste. But if you like Ipsa Dixit, you might also want to check out The Far In, Far Out World of Shelley Hirsch (2002), although if the playlist is played in order, Hirsch won't come up until weeks later. Neither is my personal cup of tea, but to each their own and at least someone's doing with own, original, non-commercial stuff.

Of course, you can also play it on random, shuffle play, or select just those tracks that sound interesting to you. In that regard, here are a few recommendations to the casual scroller: the soulful gospel of Joy Guidry's Angels,  Mike Reed's funky One of Us, the spacey ambiance of Kramer's Lendrick Muir Bible Study Weekend, and the otherworldly harmonies of DahkaBrakha's Dostochka.

You'll need to have a subscription to Spotify to hear the whole tracks, and you'll also have to open the widget below in Spotify to hear all 1,322 songs (the widget only contains the first 100). 

Enjoy!            

Day of the Hammer

 

I walked yesterday (6.2 miles) to make up for the day I missed on Sunday, and then again today (5.6 miles) to get back to my normal every-other-day schedule. My weight dropped back down by over a pound after yesterday's walk, and my blood pressure similarly dropped back into the "normal" range (less than 120/80).

But I feel like the odometer on my iPhone is short-changing me, as I know my walk today was over 6 miles. On the same route last week, I recorded 6.6 miles and I didn't take any shortcuts today.

Despite the short-changing, my cumulative mileage now extends to the north from my Atlanta home to Milwaukee and to Philadelphia. Going south, the mileage takes in the entire Florida Keys all the way to Key West, and to March Harbor on Great Abaco island in the Bahamas.   

The Endlock Series

 Life's fragile balance: I broke with my diet routine at brunch yesterday, eating an omelet with home fries and a couple slices of buttered toast with the young-man-who-could-have-been-my-stepson. That was it all day, other than a few pieces of fruit and a couple handfuls of peanuts. Afterwards, I didn't take my walk even though it was a walk/hike day, but instead chilled on a suburban deck with my daughter and the young-man-etc. This morning, my weight was up by 1½ pounds and my blood pressure was 10 points higher than yesterday's, moving above 120 into the "elevated" range (123). 

Life's fragile balance: A broad area of low pressure is likely to form in the next several days over the southwestern Caribbean, the same area that spawned Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Development of the system is possible while it stays over water as it moves slowly northwestward towards northern Central America. Locally heavy rainfall is possible across portions of Central America later this week. Meanwhile, a separate storm producing showers and thunderstorms is currently located in the mid-Atlantic This system is forecast to move generally westward toward warmer waters, and a tropical depression could form as it moves west-northwest toward the Leeward Islands. On its current trajectory, it may not get deflected away from the North American coast by the Gulf Stream.

Life's tenuous balance: FEMA and other government officials in devastated portions of western North Carolina areas have had to contend with a barrage of online conspiracy theories and falsehoods, including unfounded rumors about government plans to bulldoze neighborhoods to make way for mining operations. Those unchecked rumors have consequences -  FEMA had to direct its employees to stop going door to door to help survivors amid various threats of violence, and several agencies were directed to evacuate Rutherford County due to threats received by the U.S. Forest Service. On Saturday, a North Carolina man was arrested and accused of threatening emergency responders. The man was arrested at a supermarket where a FEMA bus was parked, and had a handgun and a rifle in his possession.

Tenth Ocean

 

Life's unexpected turns: I had brunch today with a young man who, if life had turned out only slightly differently, would have been my step-son.  

The Final Knowledge

 

The Northern Lights - aurora borealis - were visible last night in parts of Georgia and are expected to be visible again tonight. I didn't see them - far too much urban light pollution here, much less the tree canopy that blocks most of the sky above my house. But isn't the fact that the lights are visible here in the Deep South just further evidence that the Dems are using the Jewish Space Lasers to control the weather?

I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I joke, I joke. Chemtrails are evidence of the JSLs, not the aurora. 

I had to turn the heat on last night - first time this season. Yesterday, I had to put on a flannel shirt. Winter is coming. The Earth crosses the tenth ocean for the endlock series before dropping the hammer of winter upon us. 

Under the Rose

 

And the 66th day of Fall shall be known as Under the Rose, and eight more shall be the remaining days before the hammer falls to mark the start of Hagwinter. Or as Ned Stark used to say, "Winter is coming."

I had to wear a long-sleeved flannel shirt this morning for the first in a long, long time.

I'm back on my every-other-day walking/hiking schedule, with meditation (90 minutes) on the days in between. I actually only missed one day in the routine, for some reason not walking last Monday, but it was the first day missed in over six months so it felt more momentous than it probably actually was. But I've  got my rhythm back now, so all is good. 

 

The Lines Displayed

Well, it seems Hurricane Milton somehow managed to miss Mar-a-Lago. Maybe next time.

Not that the storm wasn't without tragedy. Around a dozen of more people were killed, many by tornadoes that spawned far from the eye of the storm. Millions lost power, although it's already returning for many. The Florida governor says that his state dodged the worst possible outcomes of the storm.

Meanwhile, people up in western North Carolina are still recovering from Helene. Singer Taylor Swift has donated $5,000,000 to Feeding America, a nonprofit providing food and assistance to the storm victims there. On the other hand, Elon Musk, arguably the richest man in the world, is actively interfering with rescue efforts through disinformation and outright lies.

Day of the Blood Sun

In retrospect, I had a pretty idyllic childhood, at least until about the age of 13 or 14. After adolescence kicked in full force, things got a bit rockier, but this post isn't about that.

As a preadolescent, I felt I had everything I could want. My parents weren't rich. Far from it - they were just then entering the middle class, my father starting a career as a public-school teacher and my mom a stay-at-home mother.  But Dad managed to buy a house with a G.I. Bill, and I had a roof over my head, three meals a day, a warm bed, and a mother to tuck me in at night until I was old enough that I didn't want to be tucked in anymore.

We weren't rich, but I didn't know I was lacking anything. Every weekend from late spring until early autumn, my parents would take us kids to the beach, where I would play in the waves, bask in the sun, and watch girls in bikinis as they walked by. Heaven. What more could I want?

Mom and Dad somehow managed to find a tiny little house but with just enough bedroom for their four kids (provided we were willing to share rooms) in Head of the Harbor on Long Island. The town is now and was even back then a weekend and summer retreat for the wealthy of Manhattan, a hillier and less ostentatious alternative to the Hamptons. We were most decidedly not among that mansion-and-sailboat crowd. But some of my classmates were and I grew up a low- to mid-middle class child among a lot of income inequality.  

I hardly noticed. I had the beaches in summer, and woods and ponds full of turtles and frogs in the spring and autumn. In the winter there were hills to sleigh ride and ice for skating. While other parents gave their children high-end toys and amusements, my parents gave me the Atlantic Ocean. I grew up feeling I got the better deal.

Sometimes I'd bring friends along to the beach for our weekend trips, but honestly it was as much fun if not even more fun without them. I'd dive into the surf and get tumbled about by the big waves, I'd body surf the biggest crests back to shore, and when I was exhausted, I'd go back to the family's blanket-and-umbrella encampment where Mom would have ice-cold lemonade to wash the taste of salt out of my mouth.

Sometimes friends would invite me over to their homes and I'd notice the stark difference in house size. One girl in my class lived in an ultra-modern redwood-framed ranch with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the surrounding woods. Her father was always home playing at a grand piano - it was only later that I realized her Dad was jazz musician Mose Allison. But for all the cool sophistication of their home, I was happy for our humble and loving abode.

I didn't want for any of those things that I saw at my friends' homes. One kid had in his sleek, modern, stainless-steel kitchen about the coolest thing I had ever seen - a soda dispenser, that served Coca-Cola from a fountain instead of the one-liter plastic jug we kept in the fridge at home (and which would always go flat half-way through). I thought the Coke dispenser that always served effervescent, fully carbonated soda was just about the greatest thing one could ever have in their kitchen, but it never even occurred to me that we should also have one in our home. Humble as it may have been, our house was full of love and light, and was our launch pad for trips to the beach, to the woods.

Our television was black and white with rabbit-ear antennae on top. Other kids had wall-mounted color t.v.'s. I liked watching my friends' big color t.v.'s, but was content to sit on the floor in front of our b&w screen when I got back home. The father of one of my best friends built a large, above-ground swimming pool with an even larger deck around it in their back yard. I loved going over there and playing in the pool, but didn't feel that I had to have one in my own back yard. 

Today, I live as an urban monk in the upscale Buckhead section of Atlanta. I have a small, humble house, my pile of bricks on a hill, among larger, considerably pricier houses. My car is 15 years old but still drives fine, while my neighbors all drive around in recent-model BMWs, Mercedes, and other high-end vehicles. My furniture is comfy but shabby and no one would ever think that I had hired an interior designer for my home.  

But what need have I for this, what need have I for that? A cat keeps me company, I have my walks and hikes, and I have my own private zendo for sitting. I have a high-speed internet connection and access to books. I'm an urban monk, happy to spend my latter years in quiet contemplation and placid solitude, enjoying the entertainment of music, literature, cinema, video games, and sports between my daily meditation (zazen) and walks (kinhin). 

And for this gracious acceptance of things as they are, in fact this peaceful enjoyment of things as they are, I should thank my Mom and Dad.

Theft of the Stages

Is it wrong to wish Hurricane Milton would track a little bit further to the south and wipe Mar-a-Lago off the map once and for all and for good? 

The forecast for Palm Beach and Miami for tonight is cloudy with a 15% chance of rain. The "fun" stuff, high winds and thunderstorms, doesn't arrive until Wednesday afternoon. But the weather for this evening is good enough that the Florida Panthers are opening their NHL season with a home game tonight against the Boston Bruins. Miami International Airport remains open but many airline carriers have canceled or will cancel flights, and travelers are advised to contact their airline carrier to confirm flight information. It might be a bumpy ride home after the game for the Bruins, if they're not stranded in South Florida. 

Speaking of South Florida, my cumulative walking distance this year extends from my home in Atlanta all the way to the southernmost tip of the Peninsular Florida mainland. Any further south and you're on the Key bridges. 

Speaking of walking, I got yesterday's walk in today, 6.7 miles along the Cochran Shoals Trail along and near the Chattahoochee River. The weather here in Atlanta is delightful: sunny, dry, temps in the high 70, and it felt great to be outside and exercising. I regret not getting out yesterday and I'll walk again tomorrow to get back on schedule. 

The Channel of Distance

 

I didn't walk or hike today, and it was my designated day to do it. First day missed since last March.

No reason. I guess on some subconscious level, I just didn't want to do it. It was a beautiful day, practically begging me to be outdoors, but I kept finding distractions and diversions in the house. 

It's no cosmic sin and I'll make the miles up tomorrow. Nothing lasts forever, not even every-other-day walking schedules. Life goes on. Get over it. 

It seems Milton is turning into a real motherfucker. The eye of the hurricane is moving across the Gulf of Mexico toward the east and will approach the west coast of Florida Wednesday. Milton is a potentially catastrophic category 5 hurricane with sustained winds near 180 mph and even higher gusts. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 30 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles. I urge my Florida friends to take all cautions.

Day of the Legendary Duress

 

Tropical Storm Milton is now a hurricane and is expected to become a major hurricane tomorrow. Milton is forecast to move north of the Yucatan Peninsula and across the southern Gulf of Mexico Monday and Tuesday and approach the west coast of Florida by Wednesday. Maximum sustained winds are near 85 mph with higher gusts.  Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles.

While I have sympathy for the people of Florida, the forecast here in Atlanta is quite pleasant for the next 10 days - sunny, with highs in the mid-70s. Picture perfect autumn weather.  Might have to take another hike in the North Georgia mountains.

BTW, why do people here always say, "North Georgia mountains?" There are no South Georgia mountains, and almost all of North Georgia is mountainous. You'd get your point across perfectly well if you just said, "North Georgia," or "the Georgia mountains."

Speaking of Georgia, the No. 5-ranked Georgia Bulldogs won their game yesterday, beating the Auburn Tigers 31-13. Two of the teams above them in the AP rankings, No 1 Alabama and No. 4 Tennessee, lost their games yesterday, but Georgia didn't move any higher in today's AP Poll and is still No. 5.

Probably not the stuff of legends, but that's about the only duress I'm under today.