Fighting Mass Incarceration

So this weekend sucked something fierce. Literal Nazis figuratively trolling the nation, at the cost of at least three lives and putting at risk whatever dignity America has left. Taking ideals of justice and equality and pissing on them in the glow of burning crosses and tiki torches picked up in the garden supply department on their way to the white hood convention.

Not that anyone paying attention has a tremendous amount of faith left in the ‘justice’ system in this great land of ours.

My response [other than to tumble in to the Fbook rabbit hole for a minute and do some howling at the TV and at the walls of the apartment] was to go to Secret Project Robot on Saturday afternoon-into-evening for their benefit for JustLeadershipUSA under the name “Music Against Mass Incarceration.”

Think of it as a blow against the empire. Or at least the prison industrial complex.

Amazing set from Sunwatchers

My new favorite band, 75 Dollar Bill.  

Incredible performance from Brandon Lopez Trio (Nate Wooley on trumpet, Gerald Cleaver percussion)


Chris Forsythe & Solar Motel Band

Gold Dime

You don't need me to rattle off the stats - the prison system is out of control and in danger of spiraling even worse; it targets the poor and people of color, arguably by design.  That day, rather than get sucked in and take the bait of the King of the Trolls and his Address to the Nation - absolutely enraging though it was - I showed up, paid my admission, and engaged with some actual, living, positive creation.  For what it's worth, I recommend it.

Saturday afternoon, Hoboken, NJ

Chill afternoon doing some around-the-apartment stuff; mostly routine, with the extra addition of disconnecting the cable box in the penultimate step in my cable company cord-cutting.  

Ideas for the new slogan for the cable TV division of Optimum/Cablevision:

"Staggeringly poor service for stunningly rich prices!"

"Our team is perfectly friendly, just not actually helpful."

Used the time to do some reading & writing, and have a listening session for a couple new acquisitions:

Amazing.  You have no idea.

Celebrate

Brooklyn, that is.  Not Brexit.  That's a whole other box of wine.

Last weekend we went to our 2nd Celebrate Brooklyn show so far this season [the first was the amazing Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.]  The opener was the formidable Kristin Hersh, sans Muses, but fully loaded with guitar and growl.

Next up were the Violent Femmes in all their glory.  I managed my expectations pretty strictly, having last seen them way back when in Madison, (practically a home town gig for a Milwaukee band) at something like their height.  I was just a kid, but it was on the short list of highest energy shows I had seen, and the crowd responded in kind.  Gordon Gano told the (extremely) college-centric audience at the Civic Center something along the lines of "You guys are making us feel like we made it to the Final Four."

Might have been a line he used everywhere.

This show was a lot less collegiate, and the middle-aged family folk in the chairs up front kept their prospects parked in their seats almost until the end of the set, but Gano and Brian Richie put out plenty of wattage across a fabulous range of instruments along with John Sparrow on a variety of percussion including-but-not-limited to Webber grill, Blaise Garza on that gigantic contrabass sax among other things, and the mighty Horns of Dilemma.

All hail summer at the bandshell.

Now please excuse me while I have a cup of coffee and a Brexit Burrito and figure out what the hell we should do next.

This just in: According to the Times "Google reported a spike in (UK-based) searches for "What happens if we leave the E.U." And the question "What is the E.U.?" was the second most popular question in Britain"  In Britain.  If you're a little queasy, you're not alone.

Reading Replacements

Last Saturday night we went to an event at Little City Books in Hoboken - a combination book release/signing, discussion, and concert, all in celebration of Bob Mehr's Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements.

The 'Mats are one of the all-time great bands as far as I'm concerned, and the I-haven't-finished-it-yet-but-so-far-it's-more-than-worth-the-effort book has drawn attention from some pretty fab people.

Michael Hill, who helped the band navigate Warner Brothers.  Or tried to.

The interlocutor was Bob Mehr himself, writer and raconteur extraordinaire.

Glenn Morrow's Cry for Help

Jennifer O'Connor

Freedy Johnson with Dave Schramm.  Take that in for a second.  Dave also answered Morrow's Cry for Help from the sidelines.

More Freedy

The Dead Wicks.

It's not a big place (true to form) but we packed it pretty good.

From what I could tell, they sold all the copies they had of the book, and gave away all the Replacements gear (in exchange for donations to the bands) too.  It was a superfun night; happy to have done it in Hoboken rather than the Strand - though it did mean we had to miss the 75 Dollar Bill/Little Black Egg show.  You can't do everything.

Yo La Lucier

Continuing adventures in music.

The Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Hall.

Yo La Tengo performing the music of Alvin Lucier.  Bringing it to the molecular level, taking microphones to the scale of microscopes.

Georgia on the triangle. Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra. Who knew so little would yield so much?

James on the balloon.  Actually all three of them did this piece, Heavier Than Air, joined by Lucier himself! It involved them speaking memories into the balloons, which acted as a sonic lens focusing the sound, so it was clearer when aimed in your direction, and more diffuse when aimed somewhere else. (According to the program the balloons were filled with heavier-than-air carbon dioxide, which I'm guessing is a fancy way to say people inflated the balloons by blowing into them.)

Ira on the guitar, calling an audible.

I didn't get a pic of him playing the teapot. Take my word for it.  Nothing is Real.

There was a dual guitar microtone duel, and they did some YLT songs too.  They played, we listened. Damn good. 

Of course, that's just my opinion.

Light and Shadow

PALAU DE LA MÚSICA CATALANA

Metaphor is for Kids

Listening to the new Neil Young album, because of course I am.  It has taken a certain amount of heat in the critical community for being maybe a wee bit unsubtle, perhaps unartful in its lyricism.  And whatever, maybe they have a point.  But there’s something that downright tickles me about this particular crotchety grungy grumpy Old Man deciding to make a record themed around abuses in agribusiness and rampant capital and then come right out and name it “The Monsanto Years.” Whilst rocking as hard as he ever did.  Just sayin’.



In related news, Donald Trump continues to be a dipshit.

[And in related news of a different kind, I'm wondering if Southern Man has been getting a little more play lately...]

Monty Hall

Not the deal-making TV personality, but the rockin' teen venue wherein we saw The Above and Ex Hex, preceded by a few pints at the Iron Monkey.

And the beat goes on...

No Way Out

Not that I'm looking for one.  Just taking it slow.

Some nights you go out to a show, or another, or another, or maybe you catch J.D. McPherson at Music Hall of Williamsburg after a birthday dinner for a friend.  

Those are usually pretty good nights.

Went to bed after that show feeling great - McPherson & Co. were amazing - but I woke up with a sore throat and no energy and I've been trying to rally back ever since.

So... some nights you just stay in trying to shake a cold, reading, listening to Chocolate Watch Band, watching a documentary about Geraldine Ferraro, and trying to figure out what to order in for dinner.  

And sometimes you might feel like you do need a way out, when things are so unbelievably backward in Wisconsin and Alabama that it gets confusing which state is which.  But you stay with it, you celebrate Women's History Month with Beth Henley and Wendy Wasserstein and Geraldine Ferraro, and you know the only way out is through.

The Sounds of Saturday

Not unpredictable to spend a cold-but-not-quite-as-COLD-as-it-has-been Saturday mostly indoors.

What it sounds like is: opera on the radio + the "let-me-out-of-here" hiss and gurgle of the steam from the last few drops of coffee in the thermos + the "what-the-shit-is-going-on?" rattle clank and hiss of the radiator racketing valiantly against the weather.

Snow just starting to fall.  Again.  Cory taking a nap trying to shake the head-throat-and-chest cold that came along with the stupid-cold temperatures.  I've been going back and forth between the paper, magazines, a book, and the multitude of screens.

Squeezing shows in wherever we can.  Did a BMI reading on Wednesday.  Last night was a Bud Light- (for the performers) and Murphy's- (for me) -soaked Hank V, with nary a Hank Cinq joke to be heard, as part of Sherin & JP's going away extravaganza in honor of their imminent West Coast relocation. Tonight is the Gob Squad at Skirball.  Tomorrow Cory presumably will rally for a seminar she needs to attend; I may hit a matinee, and then the Oscars tomorrow night.

Anecdote from this morning:

Cory asked about the music I'd put on.

Oh, it's a compilation Fast Folk put out in the late 80s.

"Have you played this before?"

No, I just found it a little while ago.  Frank used to read & listen to the Fast Folk stuff a lot - I just found all these streaming versions of their releases. I was looking for a dulcimer player we used to listen to.

"Of course you were."

Photo K. Devine for SpeakEasy Musicians' Cooperative

Hold Steady

Homecoming show at Music Hall of Williamsburg last week.

 

 

LOUD show (ears took a couple days to recover), tons of energy, amazing material. Lots of bro energy, and the rowdiest pit I've seen at a straight up rock show in a long time, but such a good show!  You cannot go wrong stuck between stations with these guys. Opener So So Glos even louder than the Minneapolis-by-way-of-Brooklyn main event.  

Still bummed that I missed the Replacements show this summer where The Hold Steady opened (but at least I missed it for the exceptionally good reason that I had a show of my own). The Music Hall show was a good way to remind us to keep on rockin' in the New Year.

Rock and Roll Week

Not my normal speed, but we caught 4 nights of live music shows last week. Which adds up to awesome.

Night 1

Yo La Tengo 30th Anniversary show at Town Hall.  Antietam opened.  Here they are joined by many of the people they've worked and played with over the years.  Superfab.

Night 2

Second night of Yo La Tengo's anniversary residency.  Here are the Feelies in their opening set.  They all joined YLT as well at various times throughout the evening.  Megafab.

Oh, and these nights gave Cory a good chance to expand her collection of Yo La Tengo and Feelies setlists.  They're filling up the better part of the hearth at this point...

Night 3

Lucius, doing their New York homecoming at Terminal 5.  Not my favorite venue, but one of my current favorite acts.  They came out into the crowd for the encore, as is their wont.

Night 4

Beep opened the show at Music Hall of Williamsburg - they were great, but I didn't get any photos

Cibo Matto - Amazing.

Tune-Yards - Incredible.

So - now we're kind of in recovery mode.  Kind of.  I had a shoot on Sunday (tucked in between Lucius and Tune-Yards, if you're keeping score) and of course we've both been working regular hours this whole while.  Plans every night this week (but mainly mellower plans - that's what makes it recovery mode, I guess) and both days this weekend too.  

Like the man said, you'll sleep when you're dead.

Thankful

I am thankful for a lot (overwhelming evidence from all quarters to the contrary).  So, while we can't and shouldn't ignore the reality (as opposed to the cartoon pageant version) of the Pilgrims or the rest of the European occupation of this continent and the one to the south, we can still make use of a national opportunity to express gratitude.

Small dinner, as Thanksgivings go, with Bruce and Caroline from the building, and Caroline's brother and his girlfriend.  Lentil soup, mussels, turkey roulade, roasted root veggies, mashed potatoes, green beans, brussels sprouts, sweet potato pie & pine nut tart for dessert.  We shared the cooking tasks, and it turns out that the brother is a wine distributor, so there was a bunch of that flowing.  Much to be thankful for.

Put together a thanks-themed disc for the hosts.  Didn't think they'd cue it up for the event, but toward the end of the night they did play it. If you want to play along at home, this year's offering worked out to be:

Vince Guaraldi - Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Theme
Nancy Marano - Thanks A Million
The Silos - A Few Hundred Thank You's
Led Zeppelin - Thank You
M.T. Thomas/CSO - Thanksgiving and Forefather's Day movement from Charles Ives' Holidays Symphony
The Beatles - Thank You Girl
Sinéad O'Connor - Thank You for Hearing Me
Johnny Cash - Thanks A Lot
The Books - Thankyoubranch
Alan Titus/Norman Scribner Choir - Gloria/Trope: "Thank You" from Bernstein's Mass
Talking Heads - Thank You for Sending Me An Angel
Big Star - Thank You Friends
Bonnie Raitt - Thank You
Sly & The Family Stone - Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
My Morning Jacket - Thank You Too!

money never changed a thing

We heard the Sermon on the Mount and I knew it was too complex
It didn't amount to anything more than the broken glass reflects

When you bite off more than you can chew you pay the penalty
Somebody's got to tell the tale, I guess it must be up to me

Not Bad for a Sunday Night

Sylvan Esso and Tune-Yards at Webster Hall.

No justice being done here to Sylvan Esso - too far away and WAY too dark (I hear they fixed the lighting for the second night), but you can almost get a sense of Amelia's platform high tops and her moves.  Be assured: Amelia and Nick brought it.  Brought. It.

  

Tune-Yards with special guests Roomful of Teeth.  There was much rejoicing in the land.

Bob Mould at City Winery.

Nights in the Museum

Did a reading at MASS MoCA (which venue, in the larger sense, I've mentioned here many, many times) a couple Thursdays ago.  The American Premiere of The Interview, by Guillaume Leblon and Thomas Boutoux, to go along with Leblon's exhibition at the museum.

Photo by James Voorhies as far as I can tell

Photo by Art Evans

The experience provided me with a crash self-taught course in contemporary art, at the very least.  I sometimes feel like I know what I'm talking about when it comes to such things, then I'll run across a script like this one and realize that I don't know shit.  It was a great experience for me working on the piece with the artist, his wife, the other actor (plus the very game film intern we roped into being part of the show), and all the amazing, fantastic people at MoCA.

As if that weren't enough, we made a weekend out of it; I visited the museum exhibitions - most of them multiple times.  They're always good, you should go.  The Izhar Patkin work in the big room was especially moving, to me.

And we got to catch the residency/work-in-progress The Colorado, (also referred to as "Water Songs: Ha Tay G'am") a film and music project exploring the heartbreaking developments in the Colorado River Basin, and by extension the environmental catastrophes facing, umm, the entire planet.  Amazing.  Murat Eyuboglo is making the films; William deBuys is consulting on the science; a number of composers (Brittelle, Adams, Prestini, Worden, possibly others when all is said and done) scoring the music performed by the brilliant Roomful of Teeth; they all worked fast to put together the show we saw last Saturday.  I'm talking fast: they all showed up on Monday to talk, look at footage, write, and edit; the musicians arrived on Thursday morning; and the presentation was Saturday night.  The project won't be finished until 2015 (I think), keep an eye out for it.

Moving on from MoCA, I just want to mention the Cynthia Hopkins show A Living Documentary that happened at New York Live Arts this past Thursday.  Cynthia's one-woman theater/music piece about creating performance and trying to make a living (or even stay alive) doing it, in a universe where all the funds seem to go to production equipment and architectural 'improvements,' while shockingly little goes to the artists (arguably because the artists continue to give it away, or sell it cheap).  Lot going on there - funny, moving, creative, upsetting, exciting, inspiring, enraging.  It only played for a few days in that incarnation, glad I was able to catch it.

Serpentine Perspectives

In the wake of this weekends' amazing Neutral Milk Hotel show at BAM, and the fantastic Visual Aids Postcards from the Edge exhibition, which Cory has gone to the last few years, and which I experienced for the first time yesterday - really interesting, a combination of work that is moving, fun, poignant, provocative, and timely - here are a few shots from the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, new edition, circa All Saints Day, 2013.

Another day, I'll post some photos from the very good Adrián Villar Rojas show we saw in the gallery, but for now, these images of the Zaha Hadid structure.

And this, from the interior.

Hope you had a good weekend.  Enjoy the Grammys, if that's your thing.  [I may find a way to write the thousands of words warranted by the NMH and PfTE shows, but that won't happen tonight.]