02009-03-10 | Uncategorized
Today I read this article on Joseph Beuys in the Guardian. The author writes:
But, to my mind, Homogeneous Infiltration for Piano (((from 1966))) is his best piece, a truly great work of art; one that I revisit whenever I have the chance. Like Mark Rothko’s giant black canvases, it draws you in and calms you down. And in doing so achieves one of Beuys’s aims – to change the status quo. I love it all the more for introducing me to the weird and wonderful world of Joseph Beuys. A world of myth, ideas, obsessions and hope. A world where facts and fiction are indistinguishable. Jeremy Paxman can have University Challenge; Beuysworld is my kind of place, where questions don’t have answers, but just offer up more questions.
Where questions don’t have answers, but just offer up more questions. Maybe, if a question does not birth another question, we have misundertood it or we not looking deep enough. A good question is like one of those Russian Dolls – it’s Turtles all the way down.
Where questions don’t have answers, but just offer up more questions.
Or, where a question is a hand beckoning, a door half-opened…
..to our moon nature by ochazuke:
A haiku is not a poem,
it is not literature;
it is a hand beckoning,
a door half-opened,
a mirror wiped clean.
– R.H. Blythe
The mirror wiped clean… The character of a shiny surface is to show grime and dirt. You wipe, it gets dirty, you wipe, it gets dirty. It’s wiped clean for seconds, minutes, hours, before it appears dirty again. Delusion is as inherent as enlightenment, and clinging to either is futile.
Where questions don’t have answers, but just offer up more questions.
I do like Homogeneous Infiltration for Piano very much. Now, what would that piano sound like…
02009-02-25 | Uncategorized
Why Iggy’s not covered
But why not insure Iggy? “It’s a very common to take occupation into account when assessing risk,” says Tina Shortle, marketing director at Swiftcover. “We won’t insure people in the entertainment industry, because historically the cost of [injury] claims is much higher among that group.” Other exclusions include models, professional sports people, gamblers, bailiffs and bodyguards.
(Via Guardian Unlimited Music)
02009-02-10 | Music
Remembering Buena Vista Social Club’s Orlando Cachaito Lopez | Music | guardian.co.uk
People marvelled at why Orlando Cachaito Lopez, the legendary bassist of Cuba’s Buena Vista Social Club, who died yesterday, carried on touring when his body had obviously become frail. But to me it was obvious. While he needed to be led on stage, as soon as his hands were clasped round his bass his musical memory would shift straight into gear, his hands moving fluently. The fact was he had spent more time performing than doing anything else in his life, maybe even sleeping. And as he told me in 2000 when I was helping him prepare his biography for his first solo album: “Your fingers stiffen if you stop.”
I bought his album Cachaito (mp3 version) in 2002 and it is still one of my favorite albums of all time. Vibrant, modern with traditional roots, experience combined with youthfulness. A great album.
The article ends with this wonderful quote:
When I saw him last year on a UK tour (playing one gig every night for a month, naturally) he hugged me and said: “I’m still having the time of my life.”
02009-01-28 | Uncategorized
The People at the heart of the Meltdown
*That’s a nice list, but I think the British are flattering themselves here. Britain’s not a global economic heart any more, so its financial practitioners are more in the aorta, the liver or maybe even the kidneys of the Meltdown.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/26/road-ruin-recession-individuals-economy
(Via Beyond the Beyond)
02009-01-14 | Music, News
Email received:
Hello, I came across your speed merengue version of ‘Barcelona Nights’ and was intrigued by this new form of merengue. I understand you coined the term. I have seen many people using it recently. Is it a new trend?
I write about music scenes for the Guardian and would like to write about this.
Do you plan to make any more speed merengue?
No, not exactly a new trend. The email is signed John McDonnell, who does appear to write for the Guardian. Barcelona Nights, the Speed-Merengue version was released on the Rumba Collection in 1997. (((click on the link and then the green triangle to hear the song)))
When I discovered this type of very fast Merengue in the Summer of 1996, while playing guitar on Nestor Torres’ album Burning Whispers in Miami, this trend was likely already a few years old. That type of fast Merengue has interesting similarities to Drum ‘n’ Bass… double-time drums + half-time bass.
