Joe Christmas

"No meeting the band for the first time in the studio, if indeed ever! Just some friends and accquaintences getting together for a few hours to party and make a darn good record, one with more than a few high points and no REAL lulls." Weird, Jim! Much as I love these musicians, I had this vision of the involved shaking their heads, take after take, pointing fingers (as friends often do)... ultimately resigning themselves to a workable, however half-assed, recording. My daughter likes this one though, so it's not like it doesn't have a purpose around here.

http://www.seanbaby.com/super.htm warning: there are a couple of fairly explicit porn site banners at the bottom of the page. The content of the link is clean, though.

Right on, guys. THE LONG MARCH and one of the McCullers are going on the short list. This morning I got my Snopes on and began rereading THE HAMLET. Anyone else care to join me for a play-by-play every 50 pages or so?

Steve Lacy - The Forest and the Zoo Joe McPhee - As Serious As Your Life Harry Partch - Petals Fall in Petaluma (Gate 5 Ensemble) James Clay/Fathead Newman - The Sound of Wide Open Spaces

Erm... Blood Meridian and All the Pretty Horses! Lon also said what I didn't want to say, so as not to start any unnecessary Mason-Dixon strife. Why do you feel that Pynchon/Beckett relate so closely to Faulkner? Their unique use of language is one thing, but quite disconnected in structure. What else am I missing?

Someone has a copy of Cookin at the Continental up for trade here: http://webpages.charter.net/ezzthetic/trad.../johnfesler.htm

Recognize!

Mnytime, the Pen/Faulkner Award owes in part to Faulkner's spirit and is not a measure how closely another American writer can emulate him. Re: McCarthy, his early books are all based in Tennessee (where he grew up if I remember correctly). It was only with Blood Meridian and the Border Trilogy that he began focusing heavier on Texas/Mexico/Native Americana. Conn, a good friend of mine, another Faulkner enthusiast, swears by Styron's work and has tried and tried again to get me into his work because of our shared interests. I attempted This House On Fire a few times and for the life of me could not get with it. Any recommendations? Joe Milazzo loves Eudora Welty. I read "A Worn Path" my freshman year in college and really enjoyed it. Picked up some of her short stories about 10 years ago but have since only read her sparingly. Another writer who always comes to mind on this topic is Ambrose Bierce for his Civil War shorts. I've always wondered if he was any sort of inspiration to Faulkner. One can't help but notice the similarities in the tone of the latter's more mainstream stories with something like "Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge."

Read my question again. to answer yours, McCarthy relates to Faulkner in: -content -character development -subject matter -fascination with suffering as humanity -Southern settings as a "living" element to their stories -tendencies to make heroes out of everymen with subpar intelligence but an amazing understanding of humanity/mortality -their books are almost consistently tragic McCarthy is to Faulkner as Thoreau is to Emerson, in my book. Pynchon and (maybe) Beckett were postmodernists, like Faulkner. That's about it, IMO. Although you could ascribe several of the bullets above to either of these authors but nowhere on a level as Faulkner and McCarthy relate to one another.

What didn't you like about it? I think it rarely gets mentioned because the story stays outside the regional elements and setting so often identified with his writing. Kenny, Cormac McCarthy's writing is easily the closest cousin to Faulkner's.

Tony- I'd recommend Light in August to anyone as an intro to Faulkner. It has a manageable amount of depth for someone previously unfamiliar with his style. It's both challenging and rewarding, and the intertwining of its own stories and themes is like no other. The story is still incredibly modern in the way it deals with age-old conflicts. I have a new favorite character every time I read it. And while the writing is infused with many of Faulkner's unique quirks...stream-of-conscious prose with anyone's guess as to who is doing the talking/thinking...twisted, yet totally logical restructure of common English grammar... It is still very readable. You'll want to reach in and strangle Lucas burch. Hope that helps.

Really? I could have sworn that we had a few conversations about it when we were working in Connecticut. Then, 3 years later in Washington you tell me you finally got off your ass and picked up LIA. But like so many other things, I could be totally mistaken. Maybe it was Cormac? FWIW, I sort of feel that a primer would be very useful to someone before reading Sound/Fury. Shit, I never would have made it through Ulysses if it weren't for the honey I was trying to impress by reading it in the first place. She was reading it for college lit. I said, "cool." She said, "Oh, read it with me then!! That would be fun!" I fumbled through it, she picked me up by regurgitating the class discussions on each chapter. It was pretty pathetic, but she was turned on by my unrelenting need for understanding the book, hehe. Joyce would have vomited at the thought of all that.

On the note that this thread is supposed to be for people who read (and are fans of) Faulkner, well, I hope that is not so. Someone made the generalization that most people avoid Faulkner unless they have to read him... Sounds like the intellectual garbage that sometimes goes hand in hand with many jazz listeners. I've turned many people onto his work (including shrugs) just by talking about a great story I just read of his, or simply treating his writing as some truly special to me. Conn500, as one of my friends says about music, my favorite Faulkner is whichever story I'm reading at the moment. I've become so absorbed into so many elements to his writing that it becomes pointless for me to differentiate on grounds of better, worse, inspired, lazy, whatever. As I Lay Dying, for instance, is a book I get along with swimmingly just for the twisted nature of it. You may dislike AILD, but you can't recall another plot (hehe) like it, can you? For its simplicity, there is tons of humanity to that story, greed (Darl) and heart (Vardaman) being the respective ends of the emotional spectrum, and yet Faulkner defines those two terms on his own and embodies them within those characters. I like Kenny's question about the music. I catch myself sometimes using music as an accessory to things I am doing, like doing 4 chapters of integral calculus homework one year before I realized that I was listening to Anthony Braxton each time I cracked open the text. I've thought about music for Faulkner's work too. There was a rumor going around for a while that Sean Penn or BB Thornton was going to produce and direct AILD. What music? What composer? Uncle Tupelo and Neko Case would make some great modern musical counterparts to Faulkner.

Ah, those are hardly key points to the book anyway. More like spicy little things that happened on last night's Melrose Place. Much more to it than castration, I think.

Get yer Snopes on! Can't say much right now. The wife and I have another episode of 6 Feet Under cued in the DVD player. I'll be returning here often though. To respond to what you've said so far, get on with Absalom. That book's a cakewalk compared to The Sound and the Fury, which you indicated you've read before. Where TSATF is wonderfully complicated, Absalom is contextually deeper, in terms of the characters and the evolution of a story that, stripped down, could be considered formulaic. You'd have to whittle it pretty far down to make it simple though. GREAT book. The other Faulkner freak here is shrugs, and Absalom is his favorite if I recall correctly. He's reading Blotner's Faukner bio right now so hopefully he'll chime in with some fresh insight.

Radiohead - Hail to the Thief Freedom of the City - Large Groups Bailey/Holland - Improvisations for Guitar and Cello

In the last years of his life, Clay's playing was as lively and spirited as it ever had been. He was a guy that did his share for the Dallas circuit; not a man who would go out of his way for bookings, but was able to stay busy for his laid-back persona and INTENSE, extended solos, though his stature on stage was anything but energetic. I feel fortunate to have been able to call him a friend. And he is the root cause of my fascination with this music. When Dallas' Sambuca opened in 1991, the house band, and associated combinations, consisted of some exceptionally talented players, including Clay, Marchel Ivery, Roger Boykin, Claude Johnson, W.A. Richardson, Shelly Carrol, and a BADASS young trumpeter by the name of Whitney Russell. What ever happened to Russell, anyway?? Joe? Jim? All of the music was in the bop lineage and one couldn't help to be completely absorbed whenever these guys were blowing. As an employee at the club, I participated in many intermission and after hours discussions with Clay about his music. He didn't have any sort of spiritual connection with his music, but more of a sense that what he was doing was "it". He had a fondness for Joe Henderson and could play all hell out of "Recorda Me." Thus, PAGE ONE was the first jazz record I ever went out of my way to purchase. I have some old tapes and photos of those Sambuca performances that, if I can find them, I will be happy to post. What I'd really love to hear are any existing tapes of his early playing with Ornette, Cherry & co. Anyone know if he ever played with John Carter?

Howdy folks. Blackhawk all the way. I've spun those discs probably 20 times since picking them up last week. Compare with the five (tops) times I've spun Carnegie in the two years I've owned it. Tony shares my frustration in that the music is pretty darned shrill, especially when Evans' boys are at it.

haha, honestly I wasn't trying to make it more painful for you. The only explanation I can come up with is that the airfares go a little crazy on the West Coast. And the drive can be a bitch, if not scenic. Again, it might just be a matter of having the right people (you and Adam Hill, even) do their share to promote and organize an extension of a pre-existing tour. Other than that, I'm stumped.

Where are you again, L.A.? I can't tell you how many musicians I've spoken with who would like to extend their tours from here in Seattle down your way. In the past 8 or so months we've had: Prévost Susie Ibarra Craig Taborn Paul Rutherford Schlipp & Co. Otomo Yoshihide Daniel Carter Wolfgang Fuchs Leimgruber/Demierre/Barre Phillips Rob Blakeslee Joe Giardullo Jeb Bishop Torsten Mueller Rudi Mahall Paul Lovens Frank Gratkowski Francois Houle Hugh Davies Frode Gjerstad Paal Nilssen-Love Marilyn Crispell tons of Europeans in that list who I know are dying to play through California. Most of those tours didn't even see the East Coast, but only went as far as Chicago (normally launching from there). Only two or three of those performers listed above played in conjunction with a festival (Empty Bottle & Vancouver Int'l). In most cases these shows are not door gigs either, but flat fees paid from non-profit orgs like Earshot & Creative Music Guild. Do any of the big California cities have such an organization that you guys are aware of? All it takes is a little coordination with guys like John Orysik in Vancouver and the boys in Seattle, Portland and Eugene, and you guys would probably have more live music to choose from. I suggest this though, not knowing a damned thing about the music climate out there. Nice to read everyone's thoughts on the V5 performance. You've got me giddy now for Sunday night. Especially to see if Rempis can outplay Mars Williams, easily the finest composer and one of the more energetic improvisers of all those young Chicago cats. Part of me wishes he was still with the 5. Maybe the future will bring a 6!

Hank Mobley - A Caddy for Daddy Tubby Hayes - Night and Day Eddie Prévost Trio - The Virtue in If Thomas Lehn/ Raymond Strid - Here/There

Listened last night. Once in the car and then at home on the good gear. I'm with John. Blah. Though I like the Shorter tune. Some of those three horn harmonies are pretty awful and even painfully out of tune in parts. Fuller is the culprit for most instances of the latter. Higgins boils though, if there is any saving grace. Sorry to be such a downer.

Mny, the Tentet played in Vancouver a few years back, but that was the most I think they've seen of the West Coast. There is interest around these parts about having them play Bumbershoot or the Seattle's Earshot Festival. No reason a West Coast tour couldn't be organized from there. You can be damned sure that CMG in Portland would support. Plus Vandermark's got that handy MacArthur bankroll to subsidize, right? Glad you got the chance to hear this group, as I remember you don't get many performers of the freer varieties where you're at. They're playing out here on Sunday and I plan to attend. Last time I saw Vandermark was last year at Tonic with the Tentet, so it'll be nice to hear him (and Bishop!!!) in a smaller setting, especially in one of the groups that gives me kicks. When the 5's on, they're on superbig.

I bought this set from Roscoe Mitchell at an AEC show last year. After listening to the first disc on the way home I asked for the day off the following day to absorb the rest. Most of the music is absolutely fantastic, though there are some frivolous moments I find difficult to enjoy; exercises that don't go much beyond, well, exercise. The concert was the first time I'd heard a note from the AEC. Since then I've obtained most of the recordings up to 1976 or so, each of which has its own distinct personality and surreal moods. Rumor has it that Jarman has rejoined the group and that they will tour in the future. Can anyone verify?

Hose me down!