Now reading...

[JSngry]

I don't get the impression that he had no sense of humor, just that the one he had was rooted in Zen (both before and after he got into that), the "absurdity" of contradictions. Can't say he woulda' been a barrel of laughs at a party, though...

As far as it being "about" 4'33''...it plays a nifty, subject-appropriate trick by not really being about the piece itself nearly as much as it is about the people/place/things that surrounded it before/during/after. If the real purpose of 4'33" is about forcing an awareness of the music of our surroundings, then this book is "about" the "surroundings" that went into and came out of 4:33"...I'm not in any way an "expert" about any of those peoples, some, I've known only by name. This is a neat way to get more informed about all that and all them.

Again, the Ashley Kahn model is what sprung to mind for me, only done with more depth and therefore, ultimately, more rewarding. I think you could say the book is not so much "about" 4'33" as it is "built around" it.

[soulpope]

aka "The Hard Life" ....

[Larry Kart]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

I'm largely finished with this now, and have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It's like one of those Ashley Kahn "The Making Of..." books, only Gann is a lot more thorough in including backstories, influences, and antecedents. His writing style is a little "dry", but not harmfully so. And since he's talking about the "making of" a true event rather than a record...there's more meat on the bone to go into the soup. Mmmmm, SOUP!

He's also clearly advocating for Cage in general, and 4'33" in particular. I don't think there are any minds to be changed here, but I think he does an excellent job at laying out all the ways that the piece matters for those to whom it does matter.

Myself, I am very much an enjoyer of Cage's earlier works and find his later compositions to be inspiring as concepts, if not always in execution. Gann is very adept at pointing out how in Cage's world the concept is the music, in a really fundamental way. He makes his case quite convincingly, even if for me, it means that I don't have to actually hear it to hear it, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, no idea how this would rate in the realm of Cage scholarship, but it seems a very nicely turned general read. Recommended as such, without hesitation.

Al I can say, off the top of my head, is that  (for two) Cage's String Quartet and his Sonatas and Interludes work like crazy  for me in what might call the old-fashioned way -- as organizations of sound in time they are fascinating and beautiful. Later on, or eventually, I cleave more to Feldman, if comes down to that. Morty was an "ear" guy first last and always; Cage, after a while, seemingly was not or not so much.

[JSngry]

7 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Al I can say, off the top of my head, is that  (for two) Cage's String Quartet and his Sonatas and Interludes work like crazy  for me in what might call the old-fashioned way -- as organizations of sound in time they are fascinating and beautiful. Later on, or eventually, I cleave more to Feldman, if comes down to that. Morty was an "ear" guy first last and always; Cage, after a while, seemingly was not or not so much.

I concur...that "early" Cage music is just beautiful, by any standard of "concept". Like you say, it works like crazy.

[T.D.]

7 hours ago, JSngry said:

I concur...that "early" Cage music is just beautiful, by any standard of "concept". Like you say, it works like crazy.

I enjoy the String Quartet. My enjoyment of the Sonatas and Interludes palled after a certain number of hearings, and now they simply remind me of Schoenberg's famous verdict that Cage the student had no talent for harmony (granted it's probably unfair to judge the pieces by pianistic standards). I dig many of the "Number Pieces" - possibly (depending on realization) Feldman-like sound world, and the (somewhat limited) randomness works for me.

Re. Cage's sense of humor, this funny passage from Feldman's Give my regards to Eighth Street (essay within book of the same title):

John and I spent a lot of time playing cards. One afternoon my friend Daniel Stern came over with a pair of dice. John came down immediately, and we told him how the game was played. John made his first throw standing up and just dropping the dice to the floor. We explained the procedure was to bend your knees as far down as possible, then throw the dice. This he did. He also started to shake them (we hadn't told him to do that), and before letting them go he cried out, to our amazement, "Baby needs a new pair of shoes".

8 hours ago, soulpope said:

aka "The Hard Life" ....

 !!!

Big O'Brien fan here. I treasure the Everyman's Library edition of collected novels, though the late work The Dalkey Archive is not so good (possibly due to alcoholism). Have also read his short fiction and collected (under pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen) newspaper columns, though they're somewhat uneven.

Edited August 9, 2019 by T.D.

[JSngry]

16 minutes ago, T.D. said:

My enjoyment of the Sonatas and Interludes palled after a certain number of hearings...

for my money, the first recording (on Dial!!!, last on CRI) by Maro Ajemian is still the most satisfying. Later versions seem a bit "self-conscious" to me in a way that hers' does not. She doubles down on the "drum choir" concept and comes out a winner, baby got them new shoes, a whole closet of them!

[kinuta]

I'm enjoying this series about Bell Elkins, small town prosecutor.

Well written and atmospheric. This is the third book.

Edited August 9, 2019 by kinuta

[ejp626]

On 8/9/2019 at 8:05 AM, ejp626 said:

I'm now reading FKA USA by Reed King (a SF road novel taking place after the fragmentation of the US) and will read Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing after that.

I'm bailing on FKA USA, though I'll read it tonight on the train home, as I don't have anything else with me...

It's basically a cynical mash-up of The Wizard of Oz, The Road, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Ready, Player One, and it has just worn me down (the endless footnotes really grate after a while).  It definitely reads as if one eye was on the movie rights, and indeed, it has already been optioned...  While I had quite a few issues with Ready, Player One, that at least feels like it was written by someone who understood and loved video games/puzzle games/quests.  This feels like it was written by someone with only the most cursory understanding of or appreciation for dystopian SF as a genre.

While Thien's book is a bit of a downer, I still think it is more worthy of my time.

Not sure when I will actually get it in my hands, but I'm intrigued by the upcoming novel Quichotte by Salman Rushdie.  (Apparently, it comes out in Sept., and I'm pretty deep on the wait list...)  It sounds as if this would make a good pairing with his previous novel, The Golden House.  I do own that book, but I'll wait to read the two together this fall.

[kinuta]

[jlhoots]

Tea Obreht: Inland

[jazzbo]

Just ordered my Dad's latest book:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1083001590

Co-authored in '67 with his Amharic tutor Fisseha Demoze when he was an Assistant Director with the Peace Corps and we lived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The only known translation of numerous Amharic proverbs into English. Now both seniors my Dad and Fisseha worked together to get this polished up and published and it went on sale today.

I'm so proud of my Dad. He has published a biography of my great great great great great grandfather David Tannenberg, colonial organ builder, and four books on Civil War era figures, three of whom he was the first to research in depth, and two books on ministers and ministering. He has one massive biography still to publish, it's completed, but he hasn't yet found a publisher for the 800 page biography of Father Taylor of Boston.

I hope this last one does get published. He's 87 now and its his fondest wish. . . .

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by jazzbo

[danasgoodstuff]

https://www.amazon.com/Parachuting-into-Poland-1944-Retinger/dp/0786474602/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=parachuting+into+poland%2C+1944&qid=1566093577&s=books&sr=1-1

This memoir about my Friend Jan's father's 2nd mission to occupied Poland in WWII was translated by Jan, who is now working on the earlier story.  Fascinating.

[ejp626]

I spent a lot of time on trains yesterday (~9 hours), so I used that to read Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which is basically about the impact of China's Cultural Revolution on a group of musicians and then the impact of the events at Tienanmen Square in 1989 on them and their descendants.  Sad and moving, though also an overwhelming novel.  It did leave me a bit numb.

For a complete change of pace, I'm going to tackle Burroughs' Naked Lunch and Craig Nova's Wetware.  At some point after that Murakami's Men Without Women.

[Brad]

27 minutes ago, ejp626 said:

I spent a lot of time on trains yesterday (~9 hours), so I used that to read Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which is basically about the impact of China's Cultural Revolution on a group of musicians and then the impact of the events at Tienanmen Square in 1989 on them and their descendants.  Sad and moving, though also an overwhelming novel.  It did leave me a bit numb.

For a complete change of pace, I'm going to tackle Burroughs' Naked Lunch and Craig Nova's Wetware.  At some point after that Murakami's Men Without Women.

Are you overseas or traveling from one end of Canada to the other. 

[ejp626]

Just now, Brad said:

Are you overseas or traveling from one end of Canada to the other. 

No, I just went from Toronto to Ottawa and back in the same day.  (If the trains ran a bit better here, this should only be a 6 hour round trip...)

[Brad]

41 minutes ago, ejp626 said:

No, I just went from Toronto to Ottawa and back in the same day.  (If the trains ran a bit better here, this should only be a 6 hour round trip...)

That's a long day. 

[kinuta]

[kinuta]

[kinuta]

[erwbol]

I've been reading mostly non-fiction lately after a spring full of disappointing novels. I thought I'd re-read some fiction instead trying anything new for now.  

[erwbol]

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

Edited August 26, 2019 by erwbol

[Brad]

[ejp626]

I wrapped up Naked Lunch this weekend.  I wouldn't say I particularly enjoyed it, as it is fairly repetitive and maybe even a bit juvenile in its insistence in being shocking.

I'm about 50 pages into Craig Nova's Wetware, but am finding this to be a major disappointment.  Most reviews have said it is a slow burner, and that is true -- the pace is glacial for SF, but I don't find the main characters particularly interesting or even believable.  Worse, the ideas in the book (about the morality of infusing human consciousness into non-human artificial beings) are fairly pedestrian and have been recycled endlessly (well before Blade Runner).  I'll probably read another 25-50 pages but can't actually see finishing this book.  It's a shame, as I liked most of Nova's earlier novels.

Murakami's Men Without Women next.

[erwbol]

I read three of his books (Dutch unabridged translations) and think Murakami is a very overrated.

Edited August 26, 2019 by erwbol

[kinuta]

A surprisingly quick read. Scorsese's film follows the book very closely.

 

Edited August 28, 2019 by kinuta