Saturday, July 31, 2010

There's So Many Opposites



Derf Scratch
Rest In Peace

​"Frederick Milner, better known as Derf Scratch, bass player for Fear from 1977-1982, passed away on July 28th after a long battle with an unspecified illness." ... Story continues here: R.I.P. Derf Scratch, Founding Member of Fear (OC Weekly)

Monday, July 26, 2010

Quote Of The Week

"You fight your superficiality, your shallowness, so as to try to come at people without unreal expectations, without an overload of bias or hope or arrogance, as untanklike as you can be, sans cannon and machine guns and steel plating half a foot thick; you come at them unmenacingly on your own ten toes instead of tearing up the turf with your caterpillar treads, take them on with an open mind, as equals, man to man, as we used to say, and yet you never fail to get them wrong. You might as well have the brain of a tank. You get them wrong before you meet them, while you're anticipating meeting them; you get them wrong while you're with them; and then you go home to tell somebody else about the meeting and you get them all wrong again. Since the same generally goes for them with you, the whole thing is really a dazzling illusion. The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that — well, lucky you."

Friday, July 23, 2010

He Faced The Nation


Daniel Schorr
Rest In Peace

"Daniel Schorr, whose aggressive reporting over 70 years as a respected broadcast and print journalist brought him into conflict with censors, the Nixon administration and network superiors, died Friday in Washington." ... Story continues here: Daniel Schorr, Journalist, Dies At 93 (NY Times)

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Song The MC5 Taught Us



"Ted Taylor unleashed his stratospheric, falsetto-driven voice on a wide variety of material during the '50s, '60s, and '70s, his gospel heritage never far from the surface. Taylor first entered the studio as a member of the Cadets and Jacks, a Los Angeles r&b vocal group with two names that recorded for Modern. By the late '50s, Taylor was signed to Ebb, and a myriad of other imprints soon followed. A car wreck claimed his life in 1987." [from AllMusic]

Buy: Ted Taylor - Okeh Uptown Soul 1962-1966

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Summer Song

Wanderer moon
smiling a
faintly ironical smile
at this
brilliant, dew-moistened
summer morning,—
a detached
sleepily indifferent
smile, a
wanderer's smile,—
if I should
buy a shirt
your color and
put on a necktie
sky-blue
where would they carry me?

Monday, July 19, 2010

Quote Of The Week

"Man is the cruelest animal. At tragedies, bullfights, and crucifixions he has so far felt best on earth; and when he invented hell for himself, behold, that was his very heaven."

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

A Night At Home


Photograph by Lee Greenfeld © 2010

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Good Thing Gone


Sugar Minott
Rest In Peace

"Foundation reggae and dancehall artiste, Lincoln 'Sugar' Minott passed away Saturday night at the University Hospital of the West Indies in St Andrew." ... Story continues here: Godfather of Dancehall, Sugar Minott, dead at 54 (Jamaican Observer)

Monday, July 12, 2010

Quote Of The Week

‎"Freedom is the possibility of a total and centered act of the personality... in which all the drives and influences which constitute the destiny of man are brought into the centered unity of a decision."

Thursday, July 8, 2010

On 52nd Street

Down sat Bud, raised his hands,
the Deuces silenced, the lights
lowered, and breath gathered
for the coming storm. Then nothing,
not a single note. Outside starlight
from heaven fell unseen, a quarter-
moon, promised, was no show,
ditto the rain. Late August of '50,
NYC, the long summer of abundance
and our new war. In the mirror behind
the bar, the spirits—imitating you—
stared at themselves. At the bar
the tenor player up from Philly, shut
his eyes and whispered to no one,
"Same thing last night." Everyone
been coming all week long
to hear this. The big brown bass
sighed and slumped against
the piano, the cymbals held
their dry cheeks and stopped
chicking and chucking. You went
back to drinking and ignored
the unignorable. When the door
swung open it was Pettiford
in work clothes, midnight suit,
starched shirt, narrow black tie,
spit shined shoes, as ready
as he'd ever be. Eyebrows
raised, the Irish bartender
shook his head, so Pettiford eased
himself down at an empty table,
closed up his Herald Tribune,
and shook his head. Did the TV
come on, did the jukebox bring us
Dinah Washington, did the stars
keep their appointments, did the moon
show, quartered or full, sprinkling
its soft light down? The night's
still there, just where it was, just
where it'll always be without
its music. You're still there too
holding your breath. Bud walked out.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Quote Of The Week

"Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event."