You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2007.
The last few weeks have been crazy busy: moving furniture, planning class, starting a new medicine. I probably won’t be posting much for a while until things settle down into a pattern.
Follow up on “Sinus Woes”–they looked and didn’t find any sinus obstruction, so I was sent to a neurologist to get treatment for my migraines. It seems to be helping to prevent and tame my headaches, so hopefully this will be a positive thing for me. Being on a regular prescription kind of freaks me out though.
A side observation: Spike TV has begun running the credits for one movie at the bottom of the screen while the next movie begins above, all for a little more ad revenue. The end must be near.
By accident last year I stumbled across an album that literally blew my mind. The first collaboration between Iyer and Ladd, In What Laguage, was on one level a political statement against the extreme measures taken on the part of airports and
the government to ramp up security after September 11th. It went far beyond a simple statement of protest though; the blend of jazz, electronica, spoken word poetry, world music, etc., was flawlessly woven together, and the lyrics ranged from intellectual statements of theory and history to personal narratives from an Iraqi businessman being searched and detained at an airport.
So, when I was at Von’s the other day and saw a new album from this same collaboration, I knew I’d be buying something worth paying $17 for. I was not disappointed. This album makes claims to be just as serious (if not more so) than the last. From the liner notes:
STILL LIFE WITH COMMENTATOR is an oratorio about our virtual surroundings: the information landscape of modern news, the consumer technologies that connect us to it, and the effects of these technologies on our intimate selves.
This time their focus is on the intersection of information and art. The album’s title points to an art project called arts fine art for sale at intoxarts.org. [NOTE and SPOILER ALERT: When you go to the link, don't worry that you've been redirected to a page of advertisements: that's what it's supposed to look like.] And again there is poetry, spoken over everything from programmed beats to 12-tone piano riffs. This time you can add opera and contemporary R&B, among others, to the list of genres at their disposal.
So if you’re interested in music (calling it jazz just doesn’t seem accurate to me) that is highly literate, thoughtful and mind-bendingly good, get this. Ever since I heard In What Language I’ve been keeping my eye out for anything with Mike Ladd in it. He doesn’t disappoint.
I woke up this morning to NPR as always. I usually get out of bed when I get angry at the first bit of news that is either wrong or misleading or couched in ignorant, decontextualized rhetoric. It usually doesn’t take too long for that to happen. That’s not the best way to start a day out, either, I know.
This morning, though, the local WBAA news announced that the Dalai Lama will be visiting Purdue for a speech during his brief stay in Bloomington, IN at the Tibetan Cultural Center. Unfortunately, he will not be delivering any three day teachings at our esteemed university, and I will not be able to go to Indiana University in the middle of a school week. Then again, maybe ….
Tickets go on sale for the Purdue speech on August 10th for students ($20) and faculty, and then it opens to the public on the 11th, so get one as soon as you can.
Anyone else up for free jazz in Grant Park over Labor Day Weekend? I’m strongly considering attending this year’s Jazz Festival. I’ve been there twice, and it’s always a good time, and downtown Chicago is great, too.
This year they’ve got a great lineup. The Herbie Hancock Quartet will be at the CSO Thursday evening to kick off the festival. Headliners this year on the big stage (Petrillo Music Stage) are Medeski, Martin & Wood (good jams) Friday, Charlie Haden and the Liberation Music Orchestra (amazing!) Saturday, and the Mingus Big Band (how could it be anything but amazing) Sunday.
This is looking like it will be a great festival this year. If I only had to choose one night to go, it would be Saturday for Charlie Haden and LMO. I’ve seen Herbie before (and I would again if I could) and I’ve seen MMW two times (or three?), and I’ve been a fan of Haden for years.
And hey, the Art Institute is right there, too. Sounds like a perfect Saturday to me.
I just found this excellent online store that you should definitely go check out, every day if you’ve got the time. Woot: One Day, One Deal, as the title makes clear, sells a new item beginning at 12Am every day. Only one item, and only on sale for that day (or until they run out). I’ve seen some pretty cool shit at a fairly low price on this site over the last week or so, although my budget does not allow for any such purchases at the moment. It’s well worth your time.
