heritage

a couple nights ago my grandfather, over in europe, stopped breathing. he's now in the hospital. he was out for a while, but today he walked around a bit. hopefully it's just the beginning of him being revived.

someone bought a ticket for my dad to fly to europe this weekend. he'll be there for two weeks. i wish i could go too, but, 1) no money, 2) no passport. two sturdy reasons.

anyhow, that's that. nothing else to say.

Peter, Paul and...

Mary just died.

Here's a lovely snippet Susan Wise Bauer wrote:

"Two years ago, Peter, Paul and Mary came through southeastern Virginia on their final tour, and we bought tickets and took the whole family to see them. I figured then that this would be our last chance. My youngest child was six; she sat up on the back of her seat and yelled, “Puff, the Magic Dragon!” when they started singing. Mary was still recovering from her latest round of chemotherapy. She told us that she had just gone through a bone marrow transplant from a donor who had elected to remain anonymous until the treatment was finished. “Suddenly I thought to myself,” she said, “what if my donor is…a Republican??” (Huge shout of amusement from all the once-upon-a-time hippies in the audience.) “And then I met her. And she was! And she was lovely! And we got to be good friends!” And then she leaned forward and laughed at herself. And then they sang Where Have All the Flowers Gone, and we all sang along."

Fail Blog Submission

I submitted something to failblog. Vote on it here.

I thought it was funny.

Song of the Week: "Motion Picture Soundtrack"

Christopher O'Riley's cover of Radiohead's album closer on Kid A.



Listen. I know there's nothing to watch. But press play. It's so touching.

"True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead". Probably the next album I buy - when I FINALLY have disposable income.

one day.

More Blood, More Sweat, More Tears

So, you may very well know that Blood, Sweat and Tears is my favorite band. I have about 20 hours of music in my BST collection. (DANG!!) And, it's about to increase. I joined a BST email group that I used to be in back in the day (2000) through which I've found two SUPER rare albums I'll be getting in the next week or two.

First is "The Owl and the Pussycat Soundtrack". Never heard anything from this record. It's a soundtrack of original unique material. It came out during the classic lineup. And I'm guessing it's instrumental - this is good, because I've grown weary of the lead singer during this era.

Second is a live concert of the first lineup, back when Al Kooper was lead singer. This is REALLY exciting, because I had heard there were no live recordings of this lineup. This includes three songs from the second album!

I realize this is a technical, and probably uninteresting, post.

But, hey. Enjoy the video! It's snazzy.

The Apical Aesthetic

Tonight I reached the pinnacle of artistic intake. It hit while I was reading an analysis of The Wasteland by Eliot, and I could hear Patrick listening to Sondre Lerche. I couldn't finish reading. My mind is blown. I need to step back... maybe just for the night, while I sleep.

I'll share some of the things I've been taking in.

This morning, on a Procol Harum high, I listened to their first two albums again, and a bit from their live w/ orchestra album (namely, their 18 minute "In Held Twas In I" suite). Then I had to stop. Too much melancholy.

Tonight I went to the Seattle Art Museum, which is open for free every first Thursday of the month. There were many pieces of art that weren't too impressive, until I got to the Titus Kaphar exhibit.

I was in excited awe to see someone so groundbreaking in their visual art. The balance of new and old, quoting older pieces, the ironic mashup of creation and destruction, the depth of meaning and reason behind the art, and the thoughts you're left with. ah.



This piece is packed with history and concern for the days of future passed, but for brevity's sake, I won't get into it.

Reading about all the allusions Eliot makes in The Wasteland is inspiring.

I've returned to the book of Daniel for another in-depth study. The greatest book ever written. When you get into the subtleties in structure, all that it infers between the lines, you can't believe someone said so much so strongly in so few pages. I could now talk about the first page of Daniel for an hour, just unpacking the subtleties. Good grief!

That being said, I have all these thoughts I'm processing on ancient Mesopotamian etymology, the neo-Babylonian dynasty, and the almost unnoticeable resistance that four teenage Jews had against a pagan priestly-king. It all makes me want to dive back into The Golden Bough, The History of the Ancient World and The Power of Myth simultaneously. This has also been urged by the realization that John Eldredge's book Wild at Heart is just the now defunct Mythopoetic Man's Movement of the early 90s baptized into Christianity like a St Peter statue of Pluto. It's valuable to understand an idea's heritage.

SO, reading about Eliot alluding to the Aenied, Dante's Inferno, The Tempest, The Upanishads, Greek myth and paintings and tarot cards and sex and death and chess.

blaaaaaaaaaaaaah. too much. Especially with "Phantom Punch" playing.

okay. I'm done processing. Time to listen to "The Crane Wife 1, 2 and 3" and MAYBE read a little bit more from Patriarchs and Prophets. But probably not. A psalm or two for me.

[update: also blown away by my many artistic friends, including ben, hollin and eric, ana, paul, malachi and keiko, etc. also, having heard tony kevin's new EP yesterday... good grief. who knew it would be THAT good?)

Still There'll Be More

One more. This one shows how flippin good BJ Wilson was on the drums. Jimmy Page asked him to play drums for Zeppelin, but he turned him down because he was already in Procol Harum. He was Page's first choice for the band. And you can see why in this video. Definitely better than John Bonham.

Repent Walpurgis

Procol Harum still blows me away. Not enough people combine blues and classical.

Enjoy the lengthened Bach quote in the middle.