August News

The big music news around here (as far as I'm concerned), is that Richie Furay will be doing a concert next month, the day after my birthday, in fact. I never expected another chance to see the guy perform, as semi-retired (from recording) as he's been for the last 20+ years...

The BoDeans were supposed to do a rooftop concert Wednesday night, and some neighbors tried to squash it on account of the noise. Apparently they went ahead and did it anyway. 7 PM is an early enough start, what the heck. Gotta check the newspaper to see how that went down.

Finally, my car reached 250,000 miles Wednesday evening, on North Avenue south of Mayfair. Peter and I were on the way home from hitting a bucket of golf balls out Capitol Drive in Brookfield. I might buy the "Yo" some new brake pads to celebrate.

Marcello Carlin on the Bonzos

Ginger Geezer:

The Bonzo Dog Band ... simultaneously the most savagely unforgiving and most humane of pop bands - certainly the Brit equivalent of the Mothers of Invention, but crucially with a love of humanity replacing Zappa's cynical misanthropy, thus again reminding us of what the latter COULD have achieved with the subtraction of bad jazz-rock and the addition of a heart.

Still waiting for the next successor to Koons Really Does Think He's Michaelangelo, Church of Me, and The Naked Maja...

Copyright Infringement Fun

In 1998, University of Iowa professor Kembrew McLeod trademarked the phrase "Freedom of Expression" and created a zine with that title. He enlisted a friend, Brendan Love, to pose as the publisher of an imaginary punk rock magazine also called Freedom of Expression, whom he then pretended to sue. McLeod hired a lawyer and didn't let her in on the hoax. The lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to Love:

We represent Kembrew McLeod of Sunderland, Massachusetts, the owner of the federally registered trademark, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ... Your company has been using the mark Freedom of Expression ... Such use creates a likelihood of confusion in the market and also creates a substantial risk of harm to the reputation and goodwill of our client. This letter, therefore, constitutes formal notice of your infringement of our client’s trademark rights and a demand that you refrain from all further use of Freedom of Expression.:

Shortly thereafter, the Daily Hampshire Gazette ran an interview with McLeod. He played it straight, telling the paper, "I didn't go to the trouble, the expense and the time of trademarking Freedom of Expression just to have someone else come along and think they can use it whenever they want." Two years later, when McLeod asked to reprint the Gazette article in his book Owning Culture, the paper denied him permission.

(Reprinted without permission...)

Tim Blair - Continuing Crisis in The Bulletin

"The United Nations celebrates its 60th anniversary this month. Mark the occasion in appropriate style by appeasing any neighbourhood dictators, imposing damaging environmental restrictions on local employers, and entering into lucrative oil sales agreements with murderers."

The link to Tim's blog is on the left. Professor Bunyip writes another blog with Tasty Down Under Flavor... Another tube, Bruce!

4'33"

I recently found this site, which features recordings of John Cage's 4'33" available for download as both a zipped wav and as a MIDI file. The wav apparently didn't unzip correctly, however, and the MIDI file wants to download a sample it can't find, so I'm not sure I'm hearing it correctly. Anyhoo, I had the idea of converting it to a ringtone and promoting it widely, maybe even selling it on eBay. But since I don't own the copyright to that particular piece of music, I guess I'll just release this particular bright idea into the Public Domain. I still think I'll create my own mp3 file of the thing. I wonder what sort of variable bitrate will give the best fidelity...

"I have nothing to say
and I am saying it
and that is poetry
as I needed it"
-- John Cage

Bassoon & Poetry

"Kitchen-sink sackbutt" by a "master of freak-out free-medieval pervertamento bassoon" and "30 pages of hot gibberish" by polemicist Out To Lunch (aka Ben Watson).

A twin assault pack of scronching reeds and hyper-viper conscious anti-poetry ... OTL's texts written specially for the occasion met Becks's medieval snorks & other aromas from his idiosyncratic kitchen-sink sackbutt. Censorship by magazine editors, radio ethics and the authorial Ego were evaded in a real-time in-fest of automatic critico-poetic effusion ...

Very interesting texts, it's a pity there's no audio recordings. I wonder if I could talk Peter into blowing some bassoon improv into a microphone?

Robert Fripp on Colin Blunstone
(...and Paul Buckmaster?)

Monday 25th. January, 1999

Hooray! At long last Colin Bluntstone(sic)! His recent CBS compilation Some Years (from Colin's three solo albums) has seven tracks from One Year (1971). He is probably best known as the singer with The Zombies. I have been waiting to hear again 'Say You Don't Mind' for years (Paul Buckmaster the arranger?). And 'Misty Roses'!

Sometimes pop speaks to the place where we are all the same person; where a simplicity of form allows only sufficient time to say what has to be said, and say it directly. There is no room to miss the point, or lose focus. 'Say You Don't Mind' has now played repeatedly, and quite changed my state.

I bought this compilation last year, and have a similar fondness for it.

But All Music Guide says Chris Gunning is responsible for the string arrangements on the first LP. Tony Visconti is listed as an arranger, too. Hmm. Going back to the original sleeve seems called for. Buckmaster's impressive (if easily mistaken for "overblown" by those disinclined to soak them in) string arrangements did have a large part in making Elton John's eponymous breakthrough LP the unique classic that it remains.

Blunstone's first LP is acknowledged as the best of the three, but some fine tunes grace Ennismore and Journey as well. I'll admit to having an immediate negative reaction to the King's Singers backing vocals on the latter, but somehow, it really works on "Beginning"/"Keep The Curtains Closed Today". The madrigal-ish vocals wrap impressionistically around Blunstone's ethereal voice and a lone nylon string guitar, making a beautiful, wistful, romantic whole. For me, a major Guilty Pleasure on a par with the Moody Blues' Most Overblown Cosmic Romanticisms.

Anyway, continuing to cut 'n paste just cuz it's there:

John Payne of L.A. Weekly came to interview me at 14.00. He began by apologising for the description of Crimson as 'prog rock pond-scum set to bum you out' (announcing our three nights at the Beverly Wilshire in 1995). But how could anyone be offended by such a dopey moniker? We adopted it as our own, and raised it on flags. John is concerned with the current state of the mainstream record industry. This is a debate worth having in the media, but inevitably the interlocking nature of business in the US will provide its own problems when the debate becomes public. Like, mainstream companies don't tend to advertise in papers which criticise their fundamentally exploitive nature.

And exciting news from Crafty Patrick Shuleit, who works for Washburn guitars. He has persuaded a firm to manufacture the design of picks we use in Guitar Craft. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon I'll get to fondle the test batch, in the privacy of my hotel room.

I believe this quest for the Perfect Pick never did come out entirely satisfactorily. A unique shape, feel and variable flexibility is required, and, apparently, difficult to reproduce. For myself, I've been using the lighter gauges of Dunlop's nylon picks lately, switching to heavier gauges when cranking up the distortion. But, I mostly have need of cleaner tones these days, albeit disguised with chorus, flanger or phaser effects (70's Telecaster Custom through a Roland Cube 30)...

Poultry In Motion

I still get a comment from this October 2003 Blogcritics post about "Chicken Fat" e-mailed to me every now and then. If the refrain "Go, You Chicken Fat, Go" brings back fond (or horrific) memories from your childhood, you may want to follow the linkage for a Blast From The Past.

Lost And Found

Nth of Pril has returned to a new location. I should update my link before this post scrolls off. Should be easy to do, as seldom as I write anything here! Coincidentally, Deep Purple's cover of Cream's "I'm So Glad" just came up on the CD player...

Also, the final Wigu comic has been posted. I recommend you follow the link to the left and read the entire archive, then order copies of the books and whatever merchandise they got what strikes your fancy. Then, send me the books when you're done reading them. Thanks!

Piano Music CD's For Sale

I've made a public notice concerning my mother-in-law's piano music CD over at saintsteven's place. According to theory, linkage to and from this page will increase this information's visibility to certain search engines. We shall see.

My e-mail address is seen to the left under the Correspondence heading, in case you followed that link in order to contact me. Presumably, the CD can be ordered directly from CDBaby when they have stock on hand once again.

It occurs to me belatedly that I should mention the artist's name. Marjorie Bliese Gluckstein. CDBaby indicates you should go ahead and order a copy since CD's are "on the way", which roughly translates as lost somewhere between the receiving dock and the proper shelf in the warehouse.

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there usually is." - Robert Pease