Monday, October 31, 2005

Hey the radio thing is over and out. Have moved blog to http://www.moontravellerherald.blogspot.com. Cant say will be there that long. It has flaws of the technical order too. But it does not have the same flaws that tire me here. Hard to upload and synch. A site where question marks have replaced apostrophes going back three years. I voiced my complaints [on synch arch] to Radio HQ. But interaction is not human. Its mechanical mouse machine missives. Looking back on Radio Weblog: Some decent stuff. But scattered. Scattered notes in desk drawers was what I hoped to better. This is only slightly more neat. Got complaints from my readers about too much computer stuff. But what the hell else can I write about? So may fork into two sites in future. Good news is RSS and XML are here and the Web is ready to explode again. Short Google! Remember the words of Manny Ramierez: "I dont believe in no curses. You make your own destination." 8:45:48 PM    comment []

Monday, April 18, 2005

Atlantic slinks out of town The Atlantic Magazine announced it is moving to Washington. D.C., and this has sent a fiery javelin into the mufti camps of Boston arts and letters. Alex Beam, the best writer in town, lampooned the move by creating a few working analogies and stretching them. His ludicrous vignettes include Harvard moving to Nebraska. He's right. If the New York Times were to move to New Jersey, nay, [as the Gints did that], to Indiana, the effect could not be more telling. This is sure the end of the road of something just like the closing of Chess records -  or the move of Motown [or the Dodgers] to L.A. The Atlantic would be better off throwing in the towel, one feels. This place could be a center, certainly for politics, science, technology, and art. Beats anyplace I've been from these points of view. But Massachusetts has taken a lot as Texas has ascended. Boston was once the Hub of the Universe. No less, in its mind at least. It was the brains and [mostly Puritan] moral compass for America, as New York was really about commerce [well the kind of commerce where the money would break a sweat]. You probably heard the joke describing U.S. newspapers: The Washington Post is read by the people that run the country, the New York Times is read by the people who think they run the country. The Boston Globe is run by the people who used to run the country. Guess ustabe is better than never was. Boston defined American culture .. but now, maybe, it is most defined as a sports town.  And save haven for Senators red-nosed Kennedy and pouty Kerry. Anyway, today was Patriot's Day, a true state holiday. Unlike Evacuation Day, which is only Boston only.  Eat your heart out world, these are our days. On both, the boys of Mission Hill start early. I always like Harpers better than the Atlantic. But I got a feeling that its offices were there on the edge of the Public Garden. Still, those offices moved a while ago. Never got accepted by Atlantic. But once Jeff Hull asked for some of my poetry [Phantom jets flew constantly over the city], which he cut up and applied to his wilderbeast grey-black-and-white oil paintings, and those were hung in the Atlantic antechamber. Hail, Atlantic! 8:38:35 PM    comment []

Sunday, October 03, 2004

Apologies to friends and colleagues .. I took some excerpts from recent personal emails to populate this page. Strategies for blogging are still experimental. I've been searching Seems like there has been a tremendous amount of activity in the 'search' world all of a sudden. I have had an interesting time working with Amazon's A9 site and MyJeeves. Also, the commentaries about these efforts have been of interest. "Searchblog" [http://battellemedia.com/] is especially deep with info. It was new to me .. but there is a lot there about publishers' uses of search. Not all is new, of course; some of this reminds one of Northern Light circa 1998. Related Searchblog A9 myjeeves vivisimo clusty LookSmart buys Furl -ZDNet, Sept 24, 2004 Waterman Recently shook hands with Dick Waterman who managed Muddy, Bonnie Raitt, Skip James, Son House, many others… Carrie Bell was playing good stuff … It was the Boston Blues Fest …. So, Dick Waterman’s got cool book out based on his experiences [see link below]. We linked to Smithsonian stuff before from this site. From Herald piece, Waterman talking on Son House performing: "He hypnotized himself to another time and place. When the song was over, he'd bow his head, nod, bring his eyes up, refocus. It was mesmerizing. I knew I had a majestic responsibility to make sure this man's greatness was seen and heard." Am listening today to John Hurt, Son House, Skip James… reading same [via Erick Sacheim], and Corso and Su Shih … also discovered Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant. Related Waterman photos put legends in focus -- Boston Herald, Sept 23, 2004 Dick Waterman site Google search on Ray Charles http://www.bobdylan.com/index.html Chronicles You! Can you believe Dylan actually wrote a book about his life? And cryptic curtains will part? It's daunting so far to read [Newsweek excerpt] as he points to how fans messed up his attempts at happy home.. and I know we as young youths panthered after him, and were not adverse to entering his alley, just like the dweebs of Aquarius he describes. Sorry! I was so much younger then! Related Bobdylan.com Excerpt - Newsweek, Sept 29, 2004 Quoted: "A record seemed like a magical artifact -- somehng that came fom America." -Sting, Lennon's Jukebox, PBS Noted Toutatis asteroid gets real close - BBC, Sept 29, 2004 IBM supercomputer sets world speed record - NYT Sept 28, 2004 Spector of Phil - NME, Sept 28, 2004 Lowell celebrates Kerouac 2004 Tommorowland DVD is coming NPR 7:56:48 PM    comment []

Sunday, September 19, 2004

HOUND DOG’S HOWLIN AMPS HUMMIN’ The handful of Hound Dog Taylor records have seemed so far to suffice to paint a picture of the Chicago Blues guitarist. He spun a very concise and intense sound, like his lineal antecedents Elmore James and JB Hutto. We only had a few records, but they were pure, and might be enough. If you’d seen him play, you could flesh it out. Yet, it turns out, a bunch of live stuff was in the can – festering, because the production quality of the sound seemed deficient. And this stuff comes out now and IT MUST BE HEARD. The recording is called: “Release the Hound” and it derives mostly from performances in 1974 and 1975 in Cleveland, Evanston, Cambridge and Sydney.   The stuff was sitting around because it sounded rough – but the world – witness the obits last week for Johnny Ramone has become a place more use to the rough sound. With Hound Dog and his House Rockers, the amps were on 11 and the buzz was palpable. But, like Elmore James before him, amplification I was not there just to amplify, it was a means to discover new harmonics.   Hot tracks: What I say? Wild about you, baby, She’s gone, It hurts me too, Things don’t work out right. It hurts me too, if you compare it to Tampa Red’s, then Elmore’s, then Hound Dog’ version, provides an instant lesson in the evolution of abstraction in this blues form. And the direction was always toward higher abstract representation of a feeling.   The House Rockers were a stripped down ensemble on the order of today’s White Stripes. Hound Dog on guitar, Brewer Phillips on guitar, Ted Harvey on drums.You’re your missing a classic piece or two. Don’t worry about the line up they say…go for the sound. Brewer Phillips played a second guitar, but mostly used it for bass parts. But often Brewer used it, something like Jimmie Rogers did in the original Muddy Waters ensemble - for something else altogether.  The fourth member of the band at times was those amps, violently humming. But this guitar and blues vocal approach of Hound Dog is what makes it vastly compelling. Related Hound Dog - on amazon Johnny Ramone, 55 - NYT [reg req], Sept 17, 2004 Noted Back in Korea - NYT, Sept 18, 2004 Sky Capt Reviewed - NYT, Sept 17, 2004 Cacophony of India - NYT, Sept 17, 2004         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Listening to Hound Dog today conjured up a blues:   Maudie Calling, calling In the night Calling, calling In the night Let’s go riding Where the moon is shining bright   Come with me Leave the child at home Come with me Leave the child at home I want to ride with you On the 41 road   Off the highway We turn the bright lights off Off the highway Turn the bright lights off  Turn on the radio Hear the music from the north.   All night Counting nothing but the stars Counting Counting nothing but the stars Following amber old chief Pontiac Ornamenting this old car. 1:54:11 PM    comment []

Sunday, August 29, 2004

Making copies Copying is the engine of civilization excerpt. When C was 10 his favorite posession was a toy typewriter. Later he worked in a pirnt shop and publised Amateur Chemists' Press - he was impressed by the amount of labor involved in getting something into print. - Smithsonian. Aug 2004 Unrelated The myth of unskilled labor - SF Chronicle, August 29, 2004 Poet Czeslaw Milosz, passes -IHT, Aug 27, 2004 Army chiefs of staff readings lists, or wherefor art thou, seven pillars of wisdom? Persepolis II Graphic novel followup a letter to a friend of correct proportion Hubble we hear you! 8:52:22 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2005 Jack Vaughan.