AllenLowe

I remember a weird night at Bradley's, a club on the east side of NYC, maybe 1977 or 1978 - I went to hear Al Haig and he had cancelled; in his place was a trio - Sonny Greer, Brooks Kerr, and Scott Hamilton - I thought I had stepped into a time warp; Hamilton had this little 1930s mustache; Greer played well but still sounded like 1935; Brooks was Brooks -

it's funny if you read the ebay blurb; Robert Klein used to have a routine, making fun of those late-night tv recording offers: "and now: "EVERY RECORD EVER RECORDED - LITHUAINIAN LANGUAGE RECORDS 'ESU-YES ESU-YES'....

the jackets actually make very good insulation -

and by the way, Berigan, my politically and historically challenged friend - Robbe Grillet was a right-winger in his political views - he was also the most important literary theoretican of the last 50 years, in my opinion.

Bev, you are confusing the reality with the ideal, as though the reality is the ideal; as Sartre said, "there are always those who confuse disillusionment with truth." Just because the intellectual life has become a nearly un-affordable luxury (for me, as well, btw; I have yet in my 54 years to make even a small living from my musical/intellectuall endeavors) doesn't mean it should be characterized as a bourgeouieis luxury. This is a dangerous sort of anti-intellectualism that plays into a certain vulgar Marxist perspective. More important is to reject the academic ideal of the intellectual life, as something that is apart from day-to-day reality; this is something that has scarred a lot of academic work in all areas from music to musicology; "only the middle (and upper) classes can afford the luxury of having their sons and daughters studying things just because they are fascinating. " This is silly and likley to become somethng of a self-fulfilling prophecy if you're not careful; it's also dangerously snobbish, as though saying "those people are too stuck on day-to-day life to really underdstand the nice things in the world." In the tradition I come from (I'm Jewish) the intellectuals were the working class, which, in places like Stalinist Russia, got them killed; so please don't try to out-proletariat me.

good point - and I have heard some Marsalis performances "blind" (as in on the radio and I didn't know who he was) and was quite impressed - thing about Wynton, and I know this has been said already (maybe by Larry Kart?) is that his playing impresses but does not MOVE me - Chuck's beer farts, on the other hand, are major works of 21st century post-expressionist, neo-minimialist, school-of-edc, post-bop masterpieces - and BTW, I know I shouldn't talk, but I think some of us are being a mite harsh with bluenote82 -

damn - I'm in agreement but didn't know about this - I have two items on there this week -

Jim - was that you? Larry? Chuck? Chris? My settings are stuck on IGNORE - I'm so lonely.........

"more and more a subject of negotiation from one generation to the next. I think it's likely that what's useless to the younger generations will more quickly be deemed arcane knowledge." but the names I mentioned were largely before my youth - Harrington, Howe, Henry Wallace - and that's to the point . I've always rejected the very middle class idea of history/tradition being "good for you" and thus necessary - to me the old stuff is important because it's so worthy and fascinating and because it feeds me - enough of "relevance" - give me Beckett and Brecht and Buchner and Teddy Weatherford and Jelly Roll Morton - in addition to the Bad Plus -

Alain Robbe Grillet died yesterday - everyone know who he was? find out -

just decided - I'm going to write a book on cultural frames of reference - the things and names everyone should know - willing to take suggestions -

what gets to me is how few points of cultural reference there are - I find that even very aware, socially, culturally and politically astute younger people do not know things they should know - just to give a lesser example; I meet a guy who plays "new music" in Portland, Maine; an accordionist, into, he tells, me, improvised music, the Knitting Factory, etc etc -so we start talking - he's never heard of Julius Hemphill or Roswell Rudd; yikes, I'm ready to go crazy - I'm polite but appalled - and it's politics too - who was Henry Wallace? Irving Howe? Michael Harrington? Allard Lowenstein? anyone here who has trouble with any of these names needs to hit google AND the library - sorry - this is a sore spot for me -

where'd everybody go? allright, the only one who's not on my ignore list is CHEWY

well, everybody knows about the chirping reed -

ahhh, Sugar Lips...................

shades of Valerie Solanis -

night also be a good time to take my meds and see if I can do anything about this multiple personality I seem to have - gotta keep the evil Al, the bar-brawling, serial-killing, tire-slashing, night-stalker at bay - I feel so all alone...........................................................................

well, I'm using the ignore fuction, problem is, I have everybody on it so my screen's a big blank - so I'll use this opportunity to say I feel like that guy from the old Twilight Zone episode who's the only survivor of WW III. Awfully quiet in here - guess I'll just have to read a book - kinda nice not having to argue with anybody -

also: chetbakerfatsnavarrodavedouglaslouisarmstrongbobbystarkleecollinsjacksheldondoug mettomebunnyberiganalhirt I guess that's just one big word - whatsamatter, you got a problem with Al Hirt?

I have just two words for bluenote82- Randy Sandke - now there's a trumpet player -

it's those damned animal rights activists -

and I don't know what all the trouble is here - personally I love Veal Marsala -

look it's a free country except for saying nice things about Oscar Peterson - for that I will submit a notice to the FBI and IRS and make sure you are audited, and that your bird is murdered -

Chewy misses the good old days of the Reichstag fire - beautiful big breasted fraulein roasting marshmallows beneath the Berlin moon; the smell of burning books in the morning; happy youth with their heads held high in the Aryan wind - hell, I miss those days myself -

Tea for Two and I Ain't Got Nobody are definitely on my LP -