rostasi

Yeah, you want it? Oh! Look at that, it's still in print!

I wish them luck with the sequencing. The first two LPs together are slightly over 81 minutes in length. If they were to keep things chronological, there'd have to be some overlap on the discs. Still, I hope it happens!

OK, I've separated the Braxton Arista out and tried to present it chronologically as well. I'm leaving out the session with Ran Blake on Novus and the "Arista/Freedom" refs too: Total time is about 9hr:45min [585 minutes], so I would think it impossible for 7 discs and I'm not sure if 8 would do it either. Let me know if I've left anything out:

It should be interesting to see how they split things up. I would think that the two pieces, For Four Orchestras (Composition 82) (1hr:54min) and the Oppens/Rzewski recording of For Two Pianos (Composition 95) (49:53) would fit nicely on a 3 disc set with some other pieces filling out 4 more discs. I haven't yet done the math to see how all of the Arista sides add up.

Klaus Dinger was only on the first LP as a second drummer with Andreas Hohmann. Rother wasn't on any of the LPs tho he did play with them for a very brief time between the first two LPs.

What a shame... Was just reading again the interview with Rother in this month's Wire. A reunion was not really in the future. Apparently, Klaus and Michael tried to patch things up, but they had quite differing outlooks concerning music.

Ol' Bill is often around these parts in some fashion. Just watching Thee Films on Monday of last week and Junky/Junkie crops up in sound from time-to-time. In '74, I desperately wanted to attend Naropa after high school, to get more from the Buddha Beats but even tho my mom was supportive of the idea, in-state tuition was much cheaper and so I had to settle for North Texas instead. Still have those early catalogs tho. I'm not sure what's meant here by "The Machine", but I have to say that in '90, I bought a Gysin "Dream Machine" (a Burroughs favorite) from Genesis P-Orridge and thought that it was a massive rip-off for the money. Don't know if s/he's still hawking them or not. Under the impression at that time that they were limited, but a monkey with construction paper and scissors could make the same thing for a whole lot cheaper. As for the Scientology bit, it wasn't as pervasively popular in those days, but WSB had enough sense to recognize that the interesting bits were to keep without the hokum of the cult and so he jumped ship. Hell, I remember when they (and the Krishnas) came knocking, literally, at my East Dallas door in '78 and I went to investigate because I had interest in multiple choice questionnaires. Money up front for their books and general creepiness made me run tho... The line that's drawn from linear to experimental and back to linear with the wisdom of lateral thinking all steeped in a life that melded sound, text and visuals in a life of desperation - whether alone or with collaborators - had that unmistakable Burroughs stamp that even overrode Gysin's contribution to the artform of the cut-ups. Singularly important and aggressively individual in tone. It's amazing that he lived as long as he did...

They're incredible and pretty awe inspiring. Two things tho: 1) I wish he'd take the time to update them. He's at nearly 400 compositions and so only about 30% is documented in the writings. 2) I've been a bit ambivalent about the binding that's been used, but it does lay nicely flat if you need to study them in detail. I think that he's busier than he's ever been and for that I'm happy - I just wish...

Rod is a special customer. It helps if you buy all of the writings first...

Mine's on the way!

WOO HOO! My box from David just arrived and the packaging and care of the sets is terrific! Plastic wrap...followed by bubble wrap... with peanuts - popcorn (alas, no Cracker Jack) in a big secure box (and he even threw in the Sam Rivers boxset!) Those of you awaiting yer goodies should not be disappointed. Thanks again David! oh, the bit about the Sam Rivers box was an April Fools gotcha.

I'm not familiar with it. We certainly are having our communications problems... It's the "Thomas 'Snake' Johnson" moniker I was referring to.

I've known some folks who swore by Rich's Rogers set, but my one and only mother-of-pearl Slingerland set purchase was partially influenced by his presence and style on the Slingerland. It seemed that these were the "Apple" of drumsets in those days - a little more expensive, but amazing ability to withstand nearly anything thrown, sometimes literally, at them.

Stollman's Last.FM page: http://www.last.fm/user/EbeSstP/

I see nothing wrong with this idea. "I wrote Happiness out of frustration with my expectations really. I was finding that I was just experiencing what I expected. And that bothered me. For one thing, I think of myself as an experimental artist. So I thought maybe I'd better start experimenting. So I put myself in a lot of, let's say, odd and inappropriate situations in which I didn't know what to say or how to act. I couldn't fall back on any patterns. One of these "situations" was a job I took at McDonald's. I went into it with the usual cliches and opinions about the nastiness of mass fast food production, exploitation of workers, and so on. After working there for a while I realised I was having a wonderful time. I loved the team work, I thought the whole operation was extremely well run. We were proud of what we did. Obviously it's not the greatest food, but it is quite cheap. Most of the people I know go to Starbucks. We pay $6 for a grande mocchacino, and we sit around in the overstuffed armchairs and go on-line. Not terribly subtly we get the message that McDonald's is for poor people. And I think that's one of the reasons we're snobbish about it." - Laurie Anderson

The "doin' it to death" phrase that you got so worked up about was my phrase. Allen didn't say that Beefheart was "doin' it to death". It was a phrase that I was using to illustrate my attitude toward Anderson - that there could be a quality of "sameness" perceived in her work over the years. Maybe Allen feels that there's a "sameness" in Beefheart - I don't know, but he never said that Beefheart was "doin' it to death", so I'm saying that there's no reason to get on him about it. That's all.

David, they are my words.

Wait! Wait! These were my words! I'm reading Allen's comments as ones that are coming from a person who dislikes performers who've gotten in a rut stylistically. I don't agree that was the case with Beefheart, but Anderson's work, to me, reflects this. Again, I may be reading Allen's comments incorrectly, so don't blame him for something I'm saying. R~~

I saw her once in the 70's and 3 times in the 80's - the last two times were with girls with the intention of getting laid. Her shows became old and "samey" real quick and I really dislike "nudge-nudge" humor - I think Eric Idle skewered that expertly: (know what I mean...know what I mean, eh, eh?) I wasn't sure what Allen was going on about in the Beefheart thread until this thread came up and maybe I understand the doin'-it-to-death syndrome that exists here as a parallel to his earlier comment (tho I definitely don't agree when it comes to the Capt.). I managed a band that played for David Byrne's wedding reception and a very drunk Anderson was trying to pick up the band's leader who'd already been happily married for at least a decade.

I think I know what your saying here. I remember the days of talking with guys who were heavily into the jigsaw puzzle - the more intricate the better - even those 3-D jobbies! ...and you could really relate to all of it's intricacies, BUT then sometimes the picture, more often than not, turned into a boring seaside postcard scene (NOT with Rich tho) and after a few months, years, etc of being given boring puzzles, it was easy to dismiss ALL of them - even the "rich" ones - that you never really wanted to spend time with any of them or even back away to see the real picture.

Yeah! and it's got Greg Morris on trumpet!

The thing too about the listless employees... Today, I was speaking with the woman behind the counter who said that the coupons were a good way to buy boxsets when you've put off doing so at other times...which I agree - but then she said that she hardly ever buys any music anymore and that the last boxset that she ever bought was when Crossroads (!) first came out. Wasn't that nearly 20 years ago?

Yup, I don't see any either...or I see someone who looks like they may be in their 30's shopping like they're twice that age. Yes, of course on the Bird - I didn't realize that it was only a $40 boxset. I saw the 10 disc today at the Preston/Royal store.