On TV!

Check out the new episode of Art Beat featuring me talking about AUGUST with my friend, the show's host, Stacey Park!

AUGUST featured on St. Joe Live and Podcast

Check out the excellent article and listen here:&nbsp;<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://www.newspressnow.com/st-joe-live/29678077/detail.html#.TrPuQBBw3Oc.blogger">Listen local - St. Joe Live News Story - St. Joseph</a>&nbsp;.&nbsp;</span><br />
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For all flesh is as grass.

Becky and I finally got to go to the newly-opened Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in KC on Friday to see the KC Symphony do Brahms's A German Requiem. The building is stunning inside and out and, by itself, would be a great boon to arts in KC. I was pleasantly surprised by the forceful performance of the KC Symphony Chorus, and the two soloists were excellent. The Brahms is, of course epically, gorgeous, and it was led by Michael Stern with a stirring and soulful humility. A very good performance, though it could have perhaps used a bit more of the desperate, emotional heart-wrenching quality that sometimes gets toned down in favor of tastefulness and competence.

"One of the best albums of 2011."

So sayeth Dave Archibald, he of DaveArchie's Music Blog about mine August. Read the full story HERE.

Assembly Saxophone Quartet

I'm honored to have been commissioned by the Assembly Saxophone Quartet, a very fine ensemble based  around the east coast (more-or-less). They've asked me for a new piece to premiere at their performance this coming July at the World Saxophone Congress in St. Andrews Scotland. I'm hoping to get started soon!

Dock & Load

Dock and Load, my collaborative concert installation with my cousin Gideon, premiered last Wednesday at the Music in Architecture—Architecture in Music Symposium, and went amazingly well.  I can't thank enough our large and amazing crew and our extraordinary musicians led by trombonist, Steve Parker. Due in part to safety concerns, we had to do some serious reworking of the design and choreography in the days, nay hours, nay moments right before the performance, but the end result was a thrilling and magical presentation of sounds, lights, materials, and movement (bolstered by the infectious and enthusiastic energy of the unexpectedly huge crowd). I hope to get a video of up soon.

ART BEAT

Yesterday I taped a segment about AUGUST for Art Beat, the MWSU-produced show hosted by my friend Stacey Park. I showed her (and cinematographer Tara Stoll) my studio and we chatted about the process of making the album. It should air in a few weeks on a rotating basis. Watch for it in St. Joe and Kansas City on Channels 97 and 39, respectively, and on the website too!

New Piece Premiere at Electronic Music Midwest

As previously posted, I've been invited to premiere a new work at the KcEMA- curated concert this Friday evening at the Electronic Music Midwest Festival.

My new piece, Shuffle No. 1, is a short exploration of the Shuffle mode of listening to electronic tracks. Here are the program notes:

The Shuffle pieces take the sounds that surround us—music, landscape, noise—and use the randomizing shuffle mode, in both the construction and presentation of the pieces, to defamiliarize them and present them in new ways. The sounds are recorded and then divided into fragments as small as 1/8 of a second each. These segments are randomly sequenced back together and then shuffled in performance. The primary sounds in Shuffle No. 1 come from the gorgeous hymn, “O Salutaris Hostia” by Pierre de la Rue (1452—1518). The fragmenting and chance ordering of the normally fluid, continuous, and structured sounds creates a rich tapestry of its own. The use of the shuffle mode in playback makes each performance unique.

The concert begins at 8pm, this Friday (Sept. 30) at the Performing Arts Center at Kansas City Community College. It should be a fascinating show!

SLBM recommended to Krugman; interweb shakes with excitement

Nobel Prize-winning economist, NYTimes columnist, and Arcade Fire fan Paul Krugman recently solicited music recommendations from his readers. Apparently someone recommended yours truly and the recommendation was noted in this blog. Blogger Glenn Peoples of Billboard.biz writes:

The best recommendations - and there are many - offer some context to better explain why Krugman should listen to that band over the dozens of other bands suggested. Some contain a high degree of personalization. Describing The National's "Bloodbuzz Ohio" as a "good (loosely) economics themed song," or noting that Still Lost Bird Music is "a MacDowell fellow and a PhD in Composition from U Chicago" are probably good ways to get Krugman's attention. Other helpful suggestions included links to videos, which makes it easy to access the band's music.

Guest Appearance on Central Standard

I had a great time chatting with host Jabulani Leffall on this morning's Central Standard on KCUR 89.3 FM — Kansas City's NPR station. Hear it as a podcast HERE.

Monday on Central Standard

Monday morning (8/29) I'll be on Central Standard (KCUR 89.3 FM) playing a couple tunes from the new album (with my buddy Matt Corder) and chatting about love songs with host, Jabulani Leffall. Listen in!

Stream Still Lost Bird's August - album out today

AUGUST featured on PITCH, the KC independent culture magazine/blog.

Stream Still Lost Bird's August - album out today

And Keep St. Joe Weird!

AUGUST out Today!

As most of you know, the new album, August, by my rock music project, Still Lost Bird Music, hits the web today! It's available on iTunes and pretty much everywhere else on the internet. Check it out, let me know what you think, tell your fwends, and let me know if you know someone else whom I should let know about this. Here's some info on the album and the important links.


Still Lost Bird Music home page: www.stilllostbirdmusic.com
Preview the album here: http://stilllostbirdmusic.bandcamp.com/album/august?permalink
Buy the album here: iTunes link or Amazon link



About Still Lost Bird Music

Still Lost Bird Music is the pet project of Simon Fink. Its latest creation is August, a concept album of mostly acoustic songs based on poems by various authors, forthcoming on DashGo Records. Sargent Egyptian Girl, SLBM’s first album, was released in 2008 (also on DashGo). The single “Chocolate Heart” was featured on the app/game Tap Tap Revenge.


About AUGUST

August is a cycle of love songs that are based on poems by various authors from various eras including Dunbar, Pound, Teasdale, Wylie, and Yeats. In classical concert music composers do this kind of thing all the time—that is, take previously written poetry and set it to music for voice and accompaniment—and have for centuries. It felt natural to me to carry the practice into the context of the rock album and, in this case, into a sound world especially steeped in the traditions of American folk music. I chose these poems first because they really spoke to me, but also because they were in the public domain. Most of them are about love, the loss of it, and the memory of it. (Special thanks to Jeff Kerr for co-producing the album.)

—Simon Fink

Wild Peaches Vid

Check out the awesome new "Wild Peaches" video that Becky shot and edited for me! The country scenes were shot out at the Weston Red Barn Farm. The tart uses a David Lebovitz French dough recipe. Enjoy!

August, the new Still Lost Bird Music album, drops in two days, 8/23/11.

Pedro Squella in St. Joe Live

Pedro Squella, an amazing harmonic who plays on a track on my new album, is featured in this week's St. Joe Live. 

Our mighty maple took a hit Thursday night during the thunderstorm. A giant branch fell on our neighbor's house, and we were lucky that the damage seems to be limited to their gutters and power line. I've never seen so much lightning or heard such sustained thunder. 

On a more cheerful note, we've got these end-of-summer blooms going:

Duke of...???

All this speculation about the Duke of Earl has made me think of the song "Duke of Prunes" from Frank Zappa's 1967 Absolutely Free album. This song cracks me up every time. (The direct reference to "Duke of Earl" comes just after the 3 minute mark on the video below: "You'll be my doo-chess, my doo-chess of prunes.") Absolutely Free—a send-up of 1960s music and culture—is one of the most hilarious, satirical, and weird concept albums every made. I think Zappa was one of the few musicians to carry the doo-wop torch into the psychedelic era. His 1968 album Ruben and the Jets is an amazing resurrection of the genre that spawned "Duke of Earl," "Who Put the Bomp," and other vocally-based hits about innocent teenage love from the 50s and early 60s.

Austin Update

I've been composing up a storm and getting all the installation and choreographical logistics together for the architecture/music collaboration in Austin. Just had a lengthy email message from the kind folks at UT who have been in communication with campus security and the workers who run the loading dock where we will be performing. Upshot? Because of safety concerns, the musicians will have to sign a waiver to play the piece. Hardcore!

Has AUGUST leaked in Poland???

I got a Google Alert the other day directing me to a random Polish (at least I think it's Polish) video on youtube featuring a tune from the new Still Lost Bird Music album. Since the album's not due out until next week, I thought maybe it had leaked somewhere. Turns out my label has just got a jump-start on promotion by featuring the tunes on Youtube Editor. 

Here's the video in question. It sets the song "Intrigue" to a beautiful shot of the ocean.


I'm flattered to report that there are actually hundreds of SLBM fan vids using songs from the previous album. It's so fun to see people use my music in creative and funny ways. Here are a few of my current favs. (I'll have to post some more in the future too.)

This one uses "Wet Paint" to demo their trimmed brush invention.


This dance group choreographed "French Lessons"!


This girl "walks like an Egyptian" to "Sargent Egyptian Girl":


Finally, this video re-enacts "Nobody's There (Seed of Doubt)" with Bratz dolls:



The new Still Lost Bird Music album, August, comes out next week! Stay tuned.

New Fool's Gold Video

Lewis Pesacov, a friend of mine in LA, has an Afro-pop-inspired side project called Fool's Gold. They just made this cool new video. Lewis is the guitar player with the long hair — sort of looks like John Lennon circa '68. He's a classically trained composer whom I first met at a festival with Pierre Boulez in New York in the summer of 2001. We both had wide ranging musical interests, and got into conversations about everything from  the Ramones to Brian Ferneyhough. He has a unique sense of rhythm and always comes up with the coolest guitar parts. His main band is Foreign Born.

And the winner is...

Jeff won! (Next Food Network Star) Congrats, dude. Huge!

Jeff liked to sing a smokin version of this with the Interociter (my old band in Chicago):

Cool Crest Mini Golf

Just had my first Cool Crest experience (thanks to a couple of comp tix from my friend Anita — her family owns it). Awesome vintage mini golf experience on beautifully landscaped grounds with fun, creative hole designs. They have three different 18-hole courses. We did the one furthest back from the entrance. It has a sort of an old, southwest desert theme going on, complete with cactus gardens and mission ruins. A very unique place. And of course, we had to follow-up the golf game with a dip cone from Kris and Kate's just up the Belt!

 

New Old Photo

Old band photo of The Interociter; circa 2003, Chicago. I think this pretty much captures what we were all about.

Bloggie No Good

Sorry. Haven't been able to post much this week (or at all).

I'm currently doing double duty in the composition studio. In addition to my piece for t-bones, percussion, and electronics for Austin, KcEMA (Kansas City Electronic Music & Arts Alliance) has asked me to present an electronic work at a concert they're curating during September's Electronic Music Midwest Festival in Kansas City, KS! So I'm working on a new, short piece for 2-channel sound as well.

(So I've successfully managed to disguise a braggart post as an apology/bellyache.)

But I have a few things to post about, and hopefully will get back to it in the next few days!

Sneak preview of posts to come:
-My friend Jeff makes it to the finals of Next Food Network Star. Will he win the whole shebang?
-Has the forthcoming Still Lost Bird Music album gotten leaked in Poland?
-Becky and I got Season 1 of Joey on Netflix. Is it as bad as you think?
-And plenty of other craziness.

COUNTRY CUPBOARD Restaurant in Jamesport, MO

Becky and I ventured out to Jamesport, MO yesterday, just over an hour NE of us, out in the country. I first heard of the town when I saw a commercial for a nice-looking wine store there. We read that it was in deep Amish country and had some cute shops. The drive was lovely, with views of blue sky and expansive green pastures polka-dotted with hay bales.

The road sign for Jamesport says its population is in the 500's. Pretty small for a town with several touristy shops and at least 3 B&B's. They pipe bluegrass music out on the street, which gives the shopping area cool ambience. The antique stores are relatively good — decent prices, interesting stuff.  One of the shop owners recommended we eat at Country Cupboard, and said it as def the best place in town.

We were amazed to see a line of several people waiting to be seated at 11:45am on a Wednesday. It seemed to be a mix of regulars, workers, old folks, out-of-towners, and Mennonites. We didn't have to wait to long before we were seated at the large round table up front, which we shared with a couple and a couple singletons.

The reuben was featured on the menu (and I'd seen a good-looking one come out of the kitchen while we were waiting), so that's what I ordered. It was good. It was served on marble rye and had an extra slice of bread in the middle, club-style. The Thousand Island came on the side, and no slaw. Becky had a salad with grilled chicken served in a big bowl that wasn't bad either. Ice water came in mason jars.

The daily special was Tater-Tot Casserole! The guy next to me got it. It looked like tater-tots, ground beef, and cream of mushroom soup (perhaps?) mixed together into a big pile. Not my thing, but cool to see someone being creative with tater tots. Most people were ordering the tenderloin sandwich, the specialty of NW Missouri which I still have not tried!

Their cream pies looked great, but we were too full. After our experience, I would guess that Country Cupboard is indeed the best restaurant in Jamesport. Definitely good local ambience. If you go, know that they don't take credit cards (cash or check only) and that its located just out of the main commercial area, near the red caboose just as you get into town.

AUGUST Preview — A Garden by the Sea

This track has a killer harmonica solo at the end by my friend Pedro "Chili" Squella. Pedro lives here in St. Joe and plays blues with a few groups. I first saw him play at Magoon's with Bugsy Maugh's band — Bugsy was actually the guitar player in Janis Joplin's band when she played at Woodstock! — and I was blown away. I think his solo takes the track to a new level. I'm so glad he agreed to do it! (Pedro and his wife have completely rehabbed a historic brick home here in St. Joe, and Becky and I actually first met him when the home was on a house tour a little over a year ago. He has a room full of vintage mics and tube amps that he works on. He also fixed up a badass black Cadillac—his "bluesmobile.")


The song is another one about lost love, this time about going back out and seeking that love — out by that murmuring shore — the one past the purple hills of fragrant-less heather, way out there, to where the birds are silent and the flowers are colorless (or maybe contain all the colors at once). Seeking that unforgotten face (that unforgettable face). Seeking within the jaws of death and possibly ending up in the sea...

("A Garden by the Sea" will the the 9th track on the forthcoming Still Lost Bird Music album, August.)
 

poemstore

Last week at the Nelson-Atkins in KC, Becky and I saw a really fun installation, poemstore by Oakland artist Zach Houston. In a large room, surrounded by his drawings and poems, Zach sat at a typewriter and offered original poems made on the spot, your topic, your price. Seeking some inspiration for the sight-specific composition I'm working on for a loading dock, I asked if he could write a poem about a loading dock and slipped him a 10. This is what he came up with. I think it's pretty great, and very relevant to what my cousin and I are working on.  After his torrent of inspiration and typewriter noise, Zach explained that much of San Francisco has been built on top of waste that was thrown into the bay and built up over time to form solid ground (hence the SF reference at the end).

Hawthorne Image

Becky and I stopped by the Nelson Atkins a couple days ago and strolled through the American galleries upstairs. This beautiful painting by Charles Webster Hawthorne (1872—1930) caught our eyes. It's called Mother and Child. I love the rich colors and the look on the woman's face.

Remember the 90s?

Have you heard the new car ad that uses Collective Soul's "Shine"? This was one of my least favorite songs of the its era. My best friend Justin and I used to make fun of it all the time when we were 14. We mimicked the ridiculous guttural way the singer says "Yeah!" in the prechoruses. We thought he was trying to sound like Eddy Vedder. We postured in ridiculous rock poses and jammed on that guitar riff over and over again. We thought the riff was inane, but I guess it was pretty fun to play. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Soul Asylum were the bands we liked. Collective Soul, we thought, was a rip-off, a fake. Another band we liked, but who later became a favorite whipping boy of critics was Stone Temple Pilots. We heard a rumor that Collective Soul wasn't even a "real band," that it was actually just the creation of one producer who put everything together himself. How lame. As bad as we thought "Shine" was, it was far from CS's nadir. They seemed to get cheesier with each album. When overblown bands like Creed became popular in the early 2000s, I thought it sounded like the return of Collective Soul.

No, I won't actually post the "Shine" video here.

Fine.

Here it is, even more magisterial. I can only imagine the hours of laughs Justin and I would have gotten from this absurd performance had it been around back then. (Just wait til it gets to the guitar solo...)

Becky's New Photo Blog

Checky out!

Test.Foto

AUGUST Preview — Nightfall

"Nightfall" is about memory, fragility, and the night sky.

I loosely modeled this song on Schumann's "Allnächtlich im Traume" in which the singer describes having a dream that his love has returned and loves him again. Each verse quickens to its end, as he comes back to reality, realizing again and again that it was just a dream. Here's Fritz Wunderlich's 1966 recording:

Translation: I see you every night in dreams, and see you greet me friendly, and crying out loudly I throw myself at your sweet feet. You look at me sorrowfully and shake your fair head: from your eyes trickle the pearly tear-drops. You say a gentle word to me and give me a sprig of cypress: I awake, and there is no sprig, and I have forgotten what the word was.


In a similar way, each verse of "Nightfall" gets lost in a memory before evaporating into nothing when jolted awake by reality. Until the end, that is, when the stars come out again, magically twinkling as before, and things are again as they once were...

Just Kids

I just finished Patti Smith's Just Kids. The story of her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe is one of the most touching things I've ever read, and her account of his death of AIDS in 1989 is truly heartbreaking. 

The two meet when they are 19 years old. Both already have a strong, yet unfocused sense that they are artists, but neither has found the right medium yet. The book captures the rush of passionate feelings and energies that consume young, bohemian, creative people trying to create their world and themselves anew. While telling the story of their mutual growth as artists, Smith never indulges in the cliches or posturing of genius myth-making. The writing is always personal, heartfelt, and illuminating. I would definitely give this book to a young artist. 

There is a really exciting play-by-play of how Mapplethorpe came to take the photo that became the cover of Smith's first album, Horses. 

There's even a great story about how the plainly-styled Smith was scorned by the glam gods of Max's Kansas City and decides to give herself Keith Richards' haircut. When she comes back to the club, everyone is suddenly really interested in her and warmly welcomes her into the inner circle. (I wish I could find a haircut that could do that!)

Free Tim Riggins T-Shirt Now Available (the shirt's not free, wow that's gonna be confusing...)

 

 This fine apparel can now be ordered at the Teleharmonium Cafe Press Store! (Good idea Melissa!)

MINOR QUIBBLE — Duke of Earl

I've been watching some of The Tudors recently — Netflix is now streaming all 4 seasons — and all this talk about kings, dukes, and earls made me think of the 1962 Gene Chandler hit, "Duke of Earl." Did the writers of this song just randomly throw together two feudal titles to create the refrain? A duke is one guy, an earl is another. Why would there be a Duke of Earl? That's like calling someone "King of Prince" or "President of Secretary." Makes no sense. Oh, and don't watch the following video unless you're OK with "Duke of Earl" being stuck in your head for the next 49 years (if it isn't already).

(Does the crowd seem strangely morose and serious in this video? Perhaps that whole duke-and-earl issue was gnawing at them as well...)

MUSIC FOR SUNDAY MORNING

A few weeks ago, I posted about my friend Jake's new composition which included a setting of the Thomas Aquinas hymn, O Salutaris Hostia. Months ago, Jake introduced me to an unsurpassably beautiful setting of this text by the Renaissance composer, Pierre de la Rue (1452—1518). This version is the Netherlands Chamber Choir. No more words, just listen.

AUGUST Preview — Lament for the Makers

Poor Old Stobo. He never had a chance.

The first full-length track on August is a lament, a plea to Death himself, for people and poets past.

The refrain is Latin for, "The fear of death bewilders me." Not death itself, but the fear of it. The song's based on a poem by William Dunbar. He saw many of the greats die, having lived through the Black Plague and all, a time when 70% of Europe's population fell to boils and scabs.

As for the musical arrangement, anyone who doubts that Dunbar's descendant's settled in Appalachia hasn't heard Ralph Stanley sing "O Death"

AUGUST Preview — The Storm

Today I preview for you the lead-off track of the forthcoming Still Lost Bird Music album (out on the 23rd of next month): "The Storm".



It's a subtle thing that whispers with a dreamy, mysterious voice from beyond. The questions it raises about the songs that follow are: "Is the subject awake or asleep?" "Is this real or a dream?"

It's one of the most creatively produced tracks on the album (thanks to my friend Jeff who co-produced). For a short song (it clocks in at just less than a minute), the arrangement morphs several times: from a solo nylon string guitar, to an earth-trembling cloud of distortion, to echoing voices in the sky. It's about a feeling that's violent and hopeful and terrifying and comforting all at the same time. You were the wind. 

This Guy Funny

Star Wars Revisited

A couple weeks ago, while catching a few minutes of Star Wars on TV, my brother-in-law mentioned that he thinks the 3 Star Wars prequels (released 1999-2005) are superior to the original trilogy. His preference for the latter films (the prequels) is due, at least partly, to their more nuanced and complex plots and political situations. In the first three (the original trilogy...gawd this is so confusing to talk about!) it's basically good vs. evil, everything is black and white, and it's very obvious which is which. In the prequels, characters turn from good to evil, some are not what they seem, and the line of what is right and wrong is blurry.

As I'd only ever heard people of our generation deride the 3 prequels, his comment piqued my curiosity. I marathon-ed all 3 this weekend. In terms of plot interest, I'd have to agree (especially in II: Attack of the Clones and III: Revenge of the Sith) that these are more robust. However, I think the visionary aesthetic sense of the original trilogy is what makes it ultimately so powerful, and probably what drove its popularity in the first place. The prequels are somewhat of a technological relic of their times — a time when CGI was starting to do amazing things, but hadn't achieved realism. Nothing in the setting of these films has any weight, everything just sort of floats in a vacant perfection. In contrast, the original trilogy's imagery is unforgettable.

Much has been made of the visual components of those original films, but the sound design is also amazing. (The sound design is not the score, which is also iconic, but the sound effects that help bring the setting to life.) Think about just the sound of Darth Vader's breath. Unforgettable. The buzz of the light sabers, the beeps of R2D2, the wail of Chewbacca all easily come to mind too, and I haven't seen any of these movies in probably 10 years.

Awkward Classical Music Photos

Here is a hilarious blog.

Sample: Jupiter Trio.

New Favorite KC BBQ Joint —Oklahoma Joe's

Wow. Went to the Westwood location for lunch yesterday. Best beef brisket I've had since leaving Tejas. Fabulous ribs. And Becky really liked the pulled pork. (I liked it too, but being from NC, I have impossible standards.) Nice fries too! This place has found some kind of magic in the combination of the saltiness/smokiness of their meats and the sweetness of their sauce that makes you realize why these two things were meant to go together in the first place. (And its great sauce too — not too heavy, not too sweet.)

OK Joe's has cool ambience too. It's located in a gas station. When we arrived around 1, the line was almost out the door. Moved quick though, and we got a booth. (Guess we weren't the firsts to discover it ;)

-------------------------------------------------------------

Three caveats to statement above (about it being my new fav KC bbq):

1. I will always go back to Jack Stack as an alternative because of its more posh & comfy atmosphere (and great food too).

2. LC's burnt end sandwich might still be the single most mind-blowingly good item I've ever had as far as kc bbq. That place is such a dive though, I'd be more likely to go there for takeout at this point.

3. Goochy Goo's is still my favorite in the St. Joe area.

GENIUS IDEA: for a new word

Have you ever watched your car's windshield wipers in action and noticed that little crevice of space — sort of triangular in shape — that the wipers neglect? It's located at the bottom of the glass, slightly right of center, and every car has it, though the size and angularity of the wedge vary.

This space should have a name, but what should it be? I'm considering "peak". For example, "Your Subaru's peak is quite sharp and narrow compared to my Camry's." Or, "I didn't see the bicyclist, Officer. He must have been caught in my peak." "Peak" could work because of the space's mountainous shape. (It's also sort of like an upside-down widow's peak.) But is it catchy enough?

ALBUM UPDATE — AUGUST TO BE RELEASED 8/23

A few weeks ago, I made a post about my forthcoming album, August, on DashGo Records. We now have an official (and fitting) release date: August 23rd. In the next few weeks, leading up to the release, I'll preview some of the songs here and write about how the album was made, etc. Exciting!

Intrigue in St. Joe Cinema

(The title of this post may be a bit of an exaggeration.)

Screenland Cinemas has removed St. Joe's Plaza 8 Theater from their website. What could this mean?

Plaza 8 has always been the black sheep of Screeland's regional empire. It plays second-runs of the most mainstream Hollywood movies, while the Armour, Crossroads, Crown Center, and Grinders locations lean more towards artistic, indie fare.

About a year ago I had a conversation with the manager of Plaza 8, John Shipp. Figuring that they already have access to the reels of all those great movies they're showing in KC, I tried to convince him to bring special, limited screenings of more artistic indie films to Plaza 8. Great idea, no? They could probably even charge a few bucks above their normal rate of $2/ticket. They don't appear to have gone for it...

Plaza 8 is still an awesome place for an inexpensive date or a matinee. The popcorn is good, they charge a lot less for concessions than most places, it's never crowded, and the A/C is cranked! If you're lucky, you can even find a seat with both armrests still intact! ;)

GENIUS IDEA FOR NEW T-SHIRT

"Free Tim Riggins"

[Thing is, in order to get it you have to have just watched the episode of Friday Night Lights I just watched (5-10). Speaking of which, wouldn't Billy Riggins, or the actor who plays him, make a great George W. if they ever make another movie about him? On this note, a few weeks ago I posted about portrayals of academia on TV shows, and this season of FNL has a doozy. Tammy, visionary high school guidance counselor, is somewhat magically offered the job of Dean of Admissions at "prestigious" Braemore College (I kept thinking they were saying "Bryn Mawr" until I saw the crest) in upstate New York. I did think that the affable college president who offers her the position was pretty authentically portrayed, though...]

GENIUS IDEA FOR NEXT 4TH OF JULY

Get Vik Muniz to design the fireworks.

 He made a "cloud" out of an airplane's wake:

The Mona Lisa out of peanut butter and jelly:

 He recreated Guido Reni's Atalanta and Hippomenes with pieces of junk:

 And made this image out of sugar:

 Imagine what he'd do with flames, fire, rockets, and colored light...

R.I.P. Cy Twombly (1928—2011)

(Peonies)

Gratuitous Vacay Photos

 Natural Bridge in Eastern Kentucky

"The Squeeze" — a path up onto the bridge.

Our B&B in Savannah, GA

 Shop where SCAD students sell their work.

 

Images of a lovely weekend in Savannah, GA, one of the most charming American cities I've ever visited.

 

 Thousands of fiddler crabs in the  mud, named for their one large pincher. Pawleys Island, SC.

 Some barnacled shells we collected on the beach.

 Scream for ice cream. Georgetown, SC.

Hangin' out.

New Work by UChicago Composer Jacob Bancks

My dear friend Jake recently sent me his most recent composition, Litany of the Sacred Heart, for voices, clarinets, and strings. It's a devoted and imaginative setting of (mostly) sacred texts. I was struck by the soulful spareness of much of the piece—the overall tone if it reminded me of the gentle, understated quality in the chanting of Benedictine monks I recently observed at Conception Abbey in nearby Maryville.

Here are a couple intriguing excerpts from the premiere which featured, among other excellent musicians, Jake's lovely wife, Kara, masterfully on clarinet.


Repetitions of Cor Jesu (“Heart of Jesus”) and miserére nobis (“have mercy on us”) anchor this middle section as pizz vines around. The end of this excerpt begins a harrowing depiction of hell. 


The fragile beginning of a setting of the Thomas Aquinas hymn, O Salutaris Hostia.

GARAGE SALE

Unloading some choice merch at a yard sale today with our friends the Corders and Yusts. We'll be going again tomorrow from 8 to 3. Location: corner of 25th and Folsom. Sold a ton today, but still lots of good stuff left including a steal on a comfy beige couch. (Be sure to ask for the Teleharmonium discount! ;)

Here are some pics. If you see anything you gave us for sale here, please forgive. (You know how it is. ;)

Becky's jewelry board.

Parting, sadly, from the bass amp I got when I was 15 or 16. It's been a good ride, my friend. Hope you find a new home that plays you more and takes you out of the basement now and again. (And preferably one that can get down on some sweet jams from time to time.)

Books that didn't make the cut (or did).

Table with decorative items.

EXCELLENT SUMMER CHILL-OUT POETRY

Two amazing poems by the English Romantic, Algernon Charles Swinburne, both published in the same 1866 collection. The first, "August", I fell in love with over a year ago and made into a song for the forthcoming SLBM album. It's intoxicatingly mysterious. The second, "The Year of Love"—which I stumbled on a couple days ago—provides an illuminating counterpoint. 

In "August", the four continuously-referenced apples seem to represent something. In "The Year of Love", it's made explicit—four loves over four seasons. In "August", the wind "blew and breathed and blew/Too weak to alter it's one word", and I always wondered what that one word was. In "The Year of Love"—"eyes made strong and grave with sleep/And yet too weak to weep–"—it's crying (often code for sex in Romantic poetry, no?—but what isn't...). Many other delicious parallels. (Click on poems above to enlarge.) 

Gratuitous bizarre detail from the biography in the Swinburne Penguin edition:

1868:  Frequented a flagellation brothel...Read a French translation of the Mahabharata, with excessive enthusiasm...