tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83149992398535160082024-03-05T13:50:49.399-08:00Dove Nested TowersONE WRITER'S LIFE – AND WORK.Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.comBlogger143125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-66417034908453318282019-11-01T07:38:00.000-07:002019-11-01T07:38:05.659-07:00Four Thoughts on NaNoWriMo
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Since 1999, November has been National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), in which p</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">articipants attempt to write a 50,000-word manuscript between November 1 and November 30.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> My first novel, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Tales-Newly-Jason-Rubin-ebook/dp/B07PNCBW2D/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=ancient+tales+newly+told&qid=1572619001&sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Grave and the Gay</a></i>, which was published in 2012, was
begun—though not finished—during NaNoWriMo 2006. If you are taking part in this endeavor for the first time, here’s some of what I learned from my
experience.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing
Month. I wish it was National Novel <i>Starting</i> Month (NaNoStarMo). The
point is to motivate aspiring authors, but the goal of actually starting and
completing a novel in just one 30-day month is both stress-inducing and
difficult to achieve, and may even be counter-productive. How many great novels
were written in just one month? Novels typically take years to write. I would prefer
an emphasis on <i>starting</i> the novel in November, rather than <i>completing</i>
it in November.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->NaNoWriMo writers always focus on word counts—how
much they’ve written per day. A day in which 2,500 words are written is
considered very successful, a day in which 500 words are written is considered
bad. Yet how many of those words will actually survive the rewriting process?
It could well be that Monday’s 500 words are much better than Tuesday’s 2,500
words. Quantity is good, you want to get words on paper, but don’t judge your
progress by quantity alone. My first novel took me three years to write, and
three years to rewrite. A lot of words—even the good ones—didn’t make the cut.
As Hemingway said, “The only kind of writing is rewriting.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->A truism that I was told and didn’t want to
believe was: Throw away your first three chapters, and then you’ll have the
true beginning of your story. Writers tend to want to work like film directors,
spending a lot of time on scene-setting. Directors will begin their movies with
aerial views of the countryside and sweeping panoramas of the landscape,
gradually honing in on the house and then the character, and it may be a couple
more minutes before the character actually speaks. That’s how I originally
started my first novel. It was beautiful, cinematic prose describing in lush
detail the environment in which my story took place. I was told, “Get to the
action sooner.” Readers are impatient and so novels these days tend to begin
with the main characters doing or saying something right away. You can fill in
the scene-setting details later. <o:p></o:p></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Have fun. This is not a competition. This is a
personal challenge and it doesn’t define you. Use the month to pick up good
habits in terms of making time to write. But also make time to take walks. Good
writers are observant, they eavesdrop on conversations to learn the rhythms of
how people speak. Don’t be a hermit. Make writing part of your life, not a
break from it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Good luck!<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-22710109672485932902018-07-12T19:28:00.000-07:002018-07-13T07:52:24.560-07:00The Rabbi Goes West: Why you might want to follow<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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My favorite anecdote about George Harrison is one that I’ve
heard told by a few members of Monty Python. The comedy troupe was desperate
for funds after a key backer of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Life
of Brian</i> backed out, afraid to be associated with what was certain to be a
controversial movie. Harrison was friends with the Pythons and offered to put
up the money himself. When asked later by an interviewer why he agreed to fund
the project, Harrison replied, “Because I wanted to see it.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It may well have been the most expensive ticket sold for
that classic film, but in a very real sense Harrison’s motive is the key to
today’s trend towards crowdfunding. A leading exponent of crowdfunding is
Kickstarter, which provides a platform by which artists can solicit funds in
exchange for various benefits after the work in question has been produced.
That could mean an autographed CD or DVD, a poster, t-shirt, private concert,
face-to-face meeting, credits in the film or CD booklet, etc. The key to
crowdfunding is to convince the crowd that they want the finished product so
badly that they will pony up and contribute to the costs of production.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The Kickstarter website claims that “Over 10 million people,
from every continent on earth, have backed a Kickstarter project,” so
apparently a lot of people are happy to plunk down their money in advance.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I myself have contributed to Kickstarter campaigns, and for the
very reason mentioned above: I want the ultimate product. The most recent
example was for a documentary with the compelling title, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Rabbi Goes West</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>The restless rabbi</b></div>
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The work in progress of two Boston-area filmmakers, Gerald
Peary and Amy Geller, the film focuses on an odd character: Rabbi Chaim Bruk, a
devout Hasidic Jew who leaves the familiar but cramped environs of Brooklyn,
New York, for Bozeman, Montana, a state 14 times the size of Israel with only
1,300 Jewish families. His mission: to place a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezuzah">mezuzah</a> on the doorpost of
every Montana Jew.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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To no Jew’s surprise, the biggest objections to Rabbi Bruk’s
efforts (in a sneak preview scene I was able to view, he refers to himself as a
salesman who is selling Judaism) come from fellow Jews: reform and conservative
rabbis who feel he is treading on their territory and not giving them their
theological propers, and those who for various reasons may not want to “come
out” as Jewish in Montana.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Along the way, we will meet his wife (who comes from the
same Orthodox upbringing as Rabbi Bruk but insists she is a feminist) and their
five adopted children (not that Bruk needs any other ways of being conspicuous,
but one of his children is African-American). Oh, and like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sound of Music</i>, the
fun gets broken up by Nazis.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We're Jews: we ask questions</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ultimately, the film explores religious and political diversity,
both in-group and among diverse belief systems, and the sense of “otherness” as
experienced by the Bruks, who are strangers in a strange land. The filmmakers
are asking an important and timely question: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">In today's ideologically
fractured world, how can empathy and compassion find a place?</span></i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Personally, I’d like to engage with that question through
this movie, which is why I have supported it via Kickstarter. While most of the
filming has been done, there is more to shoot, plus editing, scoring, and other
necessities of film production. Peary and Geller are looking to raise $40,000
by August 10, 2018. Consider doing the mitzvah of kicking in a little
something.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1619731692/the-rabbi-goes-west-a-documentary-about-religious?ref=29diw7">The
Rabbi Goes West Kickstarter Page</a></div>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-11719403757980746962015-11-24T13:22:00.002-08:002015-11-24T13:24:34.860-08:00My Thanksgiving Mount Rushmore<div class="MsoNormal">
Thanksgiving time again. My favorite holiday, bringing
together my favorite things: food, family, and football. Not to mention
friends, family, and a few fingers of fermented grain mash (aka whiskey). In my
family, Thanksgiving is a beloved tradition and something I always eagerly
await. This year, I’ve decided to express my love of the holiday by compiling
my personal Thanksgiving Mount Rushmore: a four-headed tribute to the people I
think of each and every year at this time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the outset, I suppose it behooves me to acknowledge that
even referring to Mount Rushmore is problematic, given the cultural genesis of
the holiday being the peaceful and cooperative interactions of the Pilgrims and
the Native Americans of Plymouth. After all, Rushmore is carved into the Black
Hills of South Dakota, which are sacred to the Lakota Sioux. An 1868 treaty
between the U.S. government and the Sioux gave the latter permanent rights to
territory that included the Black Hills. But as early as 1874, General George
A. Custer led an expedition of miners who found gold in them thar Black Hills. The
U.S. government then forced the Sioux to give back that portion of their
reservation (who’s the “Indian giver” now?); the dispute led to Custer’s Last Stand
two years later and continues to this day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So given that disclaimer, let me say that the first head on
my Thanksgiving Mount Rushmore would be Squanto (a nickname; to his own people
he was known as Tisquantum). When I was young, I took a book out of my
elementary school library called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Squanto:
Friend of the Pilgrims</i>. I’m not sure why, but I fell in love with it. I
guess I just felt so bad for the guy. The Patuxet was captured and brought to
England in 1605, where he learned English. He continued to go back and forth
from the Old World to the New World, usually against his will. When he finally
made it back to his homeland in 1619, he learned that his people had been wiped
out by an epidemic the year before. When the Pilgrims arrived, he was indeed a help
to them, though other Native Americans were suspicious of his friendship with
the white settlers. Some reports claim that his death in 1622 was due to
poisoning by the Wampanoag.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
The next head is on Rushmore already: Abraham Lincoln. It
was his Thanksgiving Proclamation of October 3, 1863, in which he asked his
countrymen to “set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a
day of thanksgiving,” that led most directly to the current holiday. Lincoln
was not the first president to declare a day of thanksgiving (Washington
declared one in 1789) but its annual observance on the last Thursday of
November stuck, right up until 1939. In that year, the last Thursday also
happened to be the last day of the month, and retailers were worried about a shortened
Christmas shopping season. Responding to their entreaties, Franklin Roosevelt
moved up Thanksgiving by one week, to the fourth Thursday, and in 1941,
Congress made it official and binding. But Lincoln is still considered the
father of the American Thanksgiving holiday.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4Ez_Q6LSrWonfeNvDgd8YVBDI9EmJkC_vcH5zVm_mItrSUiMV9KwI3a0BJW_1vX-8DXe0-s6HGhaXe2DBQhz_xFz2jP99veI5-RR9ioudcoyr-gv9Tgsf1zHCYlmn58nN1R3rfxRGvZe/s1600/Thanksgiving_MiaLove_AbeLincoln.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4Ez_Q6LSrWonfeNvDgd8YVBDI9EmJkC_vcH5zVm_mItrSUiMV9KwI3a0BJW_1vX-8DXe0-s6HGhaXe2DBQhz_xFz2jP99veI5-RR9ioudcoyr-gv9Tgsf1zHCYlmn58nN1R3rfxRGvZe/s320/Thanksgiving_MiaLove_AbeLincoln.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The third head (and by the way, I’m going in chronological
order by birth year) would belong to my mother. This was her day to shine, and
she never disappointed. For years, my mother made the entire meal: turkey,
stuffing, vegetables, salad, lemon meringue pies, and her famous apple pies (as
many as six of those). She always made the crusts by hand, from scratch. She
peeled and sliced Cortland apples, then she would mix the sugar and cinnamon in
a bowl. As she did this, she would walk up and down the hall, stirring and
smelling, and adjusting the quantities of one or the other until it was just
right to her expert nose. When the pies were in the oven, she would listen to
them. Somehow, they told her when they done because she used no other method to
gauge their progress.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would go to sleep the night before Thanksgiving with the
scent of fresh baked apple pie in the house, excited about the big day of
feasting that would come soon. Despite my excitement, it was nice to sleep late
the next morning, to be awakened by the smell of a turkey in the oven. I would
get dressed, go downstairs, and watch the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. My
sisters and I would hang around my father when he carved the turkey, and when
he was done, we would start picking at the carcass until we’d eaten every last
bit of meat off the bone. Before the meal, my father would say a few words of
welcome and then we would dig in. There was always a ton of food, no matter how
many guests we had. And when the apple pies came out, people just flipped.
Everyone would shower my mother with compliments. After meal was over, we would
sit and digest, my mother would begin cleaning and we would help – but from
beginning to end my mother did the most work.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fourth and final head on my Thanksgiving Mount Rushmore
belongs to none other than Arlo Guthrie, because listening to “Alice’s
Restaurant” has been a Thanksgiving tradition for me for as long as I can
remember. Actually, though commonly referred to by that title, the song is actually
called “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alice’s
Restaurant</i> is the name of the album. The song tells the true story of a
Thanksgiving meal Arlo had on November 25, 1965, thanks to the generosity of
his friend Alice; to pay her back, he offered to take the post-meal trash out
to the dump. Finding it closed, he dumped it illegally. He was subsequently
arrested and, in a delightfully ironic twist, it was due to that arrest on his
record that he was declared unfit for military service during the Vietnam War.
Every year, along with all my blessings, I am thankful that I can get anything
I want at Alice’s Restaurant.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m57gzA2JCcM" width="420"></iframe></div>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-65223281148747385162015-07-30T19:44:00.000-07:002015-07-30T20:04:02.831-07:00Where is my outrage?<div class="MsoNormal">
In the wake of the illegal murder of Cecil, the Zimbabwe
lion who now has greater worldwide name recognition than Taylor Swift or anyone
running for U.S. president, I have seen postings on social media wondering why
the killing of an animal far, far away has caused more outrage than the murder
of Sandra Bland, the latest (one of the latest is more accurate, since another
incident happened last week in Cincinnati) unarmed African American person to
be killed by police or in police custody. She was found dead on July 13 in a
Texas jail cell she probably had no cause to be in after a routine traffic
stop. There certainly was outrage from the American public about yet another
police-related death, yet less than two weeks later, Cecil’s death was all
anyone could talk about.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have sympathy for those who are suggesting that racism or
perhaps just apathy are to blame for the fact that Cecil is outpolling Sandra.
After all, what is happening between police and black people in America these
days is scary and indicative of a larger pattern of police brutality. According
to a recent study by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Guardian</i>
newspaper:<o:p></o:p></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">U.S. police fatally shot
more people in the first 24 days of 2015 than England and Wales police
have in the last 24 years, combined.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">In Australia, there were
94 fatal police shootings between 1992 and 2011. In the U.S., there were
97 fatal police shootings in March 2015.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Black Americans are more
than twice as likely to be unarmed when killed during encounters with
police as white people.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Some 140 black Americans
have been killed by police this year.<o:p></o:p></li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCThLgYfi1sXAkCOAgab1Tqng14oqx46SzgfDOmdPxyAoyXZsnMHR3DSzibdOcPhcP9k_TSbHwJeM0AcY-kJqqzTKSjxkfPqdG4H9XPTmFi160YLFjoGZcfHg_DMR2lAGBeCaMCPTZX2P5/s1600/11822780_1446430145685634_539667056547416907_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCThLgYfi1sXAkCOAgab1Tqng14oqx46SzgfDOmdPxyAoyXZsnMHR3DSzibdOcPhcP9k_TSbHwJeM0AcY-kJqqzTKSjxkfPqdG4H9XPTmFi160YLFjoGZcfHg_DMR2lAGBeCaMCPTZX2P5/s320/11822780_1446430145685634_539667056547416907_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Obviously this is abhorrent. And yet I would also suggest
that the sheer volume of black lives not mattering to police is part of the
problem. After awhile, news fatigue sets in. Who can remember the names of all
the victims, aside from those most widely covered, such as Michael Brown, Eric
Garner, and Walter Scott? We as a public accept that there is a problem but we
have become numbed to it. There is no more shock value; we perhaps even come to
expect it. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if there aren’t one or two
more black victims before this summer ends.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Furthermore, the media is always in search of a new story,
especially a new shocking story (you can’t read an article about Cecil without
being reminded that he was decapitated and skinned), and, of course, everyone
likes a good animal story, right? I count myself among those who are outraged
by Cecil’s murder. I also count myself among those who are outraged that our
police are executing Americans in numbers one would only expect in some
dystopian science fiction society – and particularly that African Americans
still are targeted by and vulnerable to the white American power structures.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So where is my outrage? It’s in both places, and not for
dissimilar reasons. There’s too much gun violence and too little respect for
life. And it’s not just happening here, and so my outrage is not confined to
these two matters. Just yesterday, an Ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed six people
marching in a Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem (which, incidentally – or
ironically – means “city of peace”). As a Jew, I am outraged that the
supposedly most pious of my religion could act in such a way that is so counter
to the “Jewish values” that were drummed into me in Sunday School.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For that matter, I have long been outraged by the Israeli
government, especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who arrogantly
continues to build settlements in disputed areas and throws obstacle upon
obstacle on the road to peace. China with its endless human rights abuses has
always outraged me. Closer to home, Donald Trump outrages me, as does just
about every Republican office holder in the country, all of whom are hateful
obstructionists, most of whom are horribly racist, and none of whom give a shit
about women.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The IRS outrages me. I’m sure I get many more notices from
them than does, say, Apple Computer, which pays next to nothing in taxes,
despite earning quite a few more billion dollars per year than I do. Reality
television outrages me. Last winter outraged me. Roger Goodell outrages me. In
fact, I’m going to repeat that last one. Roger Fucking Goodell outrages me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, none of the last few outrages are on the same level as
poaching a protected animal or murdering unarmed black people, but for those
who wonder where our outrage is, it’s everywhere. There’s so much to be pissed
off about. We can’t be outraged about one thing; even if it’s a horrific thing,
it’s one of many horrific things going on in our neighborhoods, our country,
and our world. This very evening, my ex-wife, a social worker who works in the
labor and delivery department of a local hospital, told me that a barefoot woman
walked in, six centimeters dilated, ready to give birth, and she couldn’t tell
people where she lived, how she got there, who the father was, and whether or
not this was her first pregnancy. Eventually, she was able to give her name but
still much is not known. She had scabies but gave birth to a healthy boy – a baby
that is likely going straight into the system.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One could be outraged at this woman, but this woman is a
victim of the system as well. Where were the mental health services she needed?
The obstetric services? Has she been living on the street? Can you imagine a
homeless pregnant woman fending for herself in the richest country on earth? If
that doesn’t make you outraged, I don’t know what will.<br />
<br />
So yes, I am outraged. I’m outraged at all of it. And
frankly, the thing I’m probably most outraged about is that I don’t know what to do
about it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-69047593846577070922015-06-14T20:25:00.001-07:002015-06-15T06:54:25.264-07:00Movie Review: Love & Mercy<div class="MsoNormal">
Brian Wilson’s production masterpiece, “Good Vibrations,”
was the apex of his popular success, topping the charts and selling more than a
million copies. Released in October 1966, it was a psychedelic harbinger of
1967’s so-called Summer of Love, providing both a sound and a lexicon for
nascent hippiedom everywhere.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Much could be – and has been – written about what makes
“Good Vibrations” so innovative, but perhaps the most distinctive element is
its modular construction. Rather than a through-composed and performed song,
“Good Vibrations” is a mosaic, pieced together from months of recording
sessions and untold numbers of musical segments that on their own seem quite
unrelated to each other. Brian’s genius was in his overarching vision for the
track and the workmanship involved in assembling the collage of sounds into a
cohesive, compelling, and insanely catchy whole.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
It was a new way of recording popular music, and the next
evolution was obvious: applying this modular process to an entire album. That
was what he attempted with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smile</i>,
aborted at the time and only completed under his own name in 2004. With <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smile</i>, specific sections of songs would
be treated classically in a theme and variations mode, surfacing in slightly
altered ways in other songs throughout the album. It was a daunting challenge,
and with resistance from certain members of the Beach Boys and from Capitol
Records, along with growing paranoia and self-medicating drug use, the project
fell apart and was abandoned by its ambitious creator – who slipped gradually
into a reclusive life of sporadic musical activity and ultimately an enveloping
shroud of fear, pain, and undiagnosed mental illness.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In directing the new Brian Wilson biopic, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love & Mercy</i>, Bill Pohlad
effectively employs Brian’s modular approach. At the highest level, Pohlad
slices Brian’s life into segments from the 1960s, where he is enjoying his
creative peak with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pet Sounds</i>, “Good
Vibrations,” and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smile</i>; and the 1980s,
where he is under the unethical care of a doctor who after saving his patient’s
life is now angling to siphon his fortune. But then Pohlad goes further, dicing
his subject’s life into daring – and often scary – cubes that take us inside
Brian’s head (at one point through his mostly deaf right ear) to hear the inner
voices that plague him to this day; inside the eyes of his girlfriend and
eventual second wife, Melinda, as she tries to break the legal and
pharmaceutical hold that the doctor has on him; and inside Brian’s bedroom,
where a prismatic, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">2001: A</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Space Odyssey</i>-like sequence shows us
Brian in triplicate: as a struggling child, a struggling artist, and a
struggling survivor, all observing each other lying near-catatonic in bed
(where the Brian in the 1970s – a fascinating period alluded to but not covered
in the film – spent the better part of three years under the covers, ballooning
in weight and occasionally being pushed, and ultimately miscast, on stage with
the Beach Boys, with seriocomic consequences).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a certifiable Brian Wilson nut, I saw the movie three
times in its opening week. It has been widely reviewed, and nearly unanimously
raved, far and wide. My goal is not to review it as such, but to explore
questions it raises for me. Chief among them is this: How is my experience of
the movie different from that of a viewer who knows something or nothing about
the history of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys? Part of what thrills me about
the movie is that it seems to have been created for the choir, the brotherhood,
the initiates; there is a distinct lack of context, explication, and connective
tissue that would help a Brian novice follow along. I know the background and
significance of certain scenes and don’t need Pohlad or the scriptwriters to
awkwardly explain them to me (though this does happen from time to time, how
else to introduce who Tony Asher and Van Dyke Parks are – two names that
certainly separate the Brian nuts from the Brian novices).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Without providing spoilers, here are a few examples.<o:p></o:p></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1;">Brian’s father, Murry
Wilson, informs us in nearly every appearance that he was fired by his son.
It is never specifically stated that Murry was the band’s manager in their
earlier years and Brian, in a rare display of backbone in family matters,
dismissed him of his duties because of his meddling and bad vibrations.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1;">While recording the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pet Sounds</i> vocal tracks, Mike Love
complains about the lyrics to a song called “Hang On to Your Ego.” (Mike’s
balking at the lyrics and music for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pet
Sounds</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smile</i> is both
historically accurate and part of the battering Brian’s fragile psyche
took during this period.) The actual instrumental track is heard clearly.
If someone seeing this movie didn’t already own <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pet Sounds</i> and decided to buy it (a win in every respect),
that person would not find a song by that title. That’s because Brian
relented and allowed Mike to write new lyrics. The song as released is
called “I Know There’s an Answer.” That part is not mentioned in the film.
(Interestingly, Frank Black of the Pixies recorded a cover of “Hang On to
Your Ego” on his first solo album in 1993.)<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1;">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smile</i> sessions are represented largely through a single
sequence involving two songs performed in different contexts: Brian playing
“Surf’s Up” by himself at the piano in his house; and “Fire” (also known
as “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow”) in the studio with the Wrecking Crew (the ace
session players he employed). Both of these songs are of monumental
importance to the Brian story; yet neither are identified by name, nor is
their respective significance shown or explained. <span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="circle">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level2 lfo1;">The “Surf’s Up” bit is
clearly a recreation of a solo performance that Brian taped for a 1967
CBS TV special about pop music hosted by Leonard Bernstein in the midst
of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smile</i> chaos. In the
special, the song was summed up thusly: “<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">There is a new song, too complex to get all of first time around.
It could come only out of the ferment that characterizes today's pop
music scene. Brian Wilson, leader of the famous Beach Boys, and one of
today's most important pop musicians, sings his own ‘Surf’s Up.’ ... Poetic, beautiful
even in its obscurity, ‘Surf’s Up’ is one aspect of new things happening
in pop music today. As such, it is a symbol of the change many of these
young musicians see in our future.”<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level2 lfo1;"><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">As for “Fire,” the track is an instrumental that brilliantly uses
strings, whistles, and percussion to emulate the sound of a raging
inferno. Brian insisted that all the musicians wear plastic fire helmets,
and he created a small wood fire in a trash can in the studio to get
everyone in the mood. This is recreated faithfully in the movie, except
that Brian is shown holding smoldering sticks and running through the
studio. What is not mentioned is that while recording “Fire,” a building
across the street from the studio actually did catch fire. Brian, in his
growing paranoia, believed that he had somehow been responsible for it;
thus, this haunted track has become considered “another brick in the wall”
of Brian’s ultimate breakdown.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sTifX3mpnV4" width="560"></iframe></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Personally, I do not consider these to be devastating omissions
because I can fill in the blanks and connect the dots; in other words, Pohlad
is speaking to me in shorthand and I get it because I know the shorthand. The
fact that others do not, however, could result in a different, perhaps less
pleasing, experience for them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are at least two consolations. First of all, viewers
should be assured that no matter how strange or confusing or even unrealistic
certain scenes might be, this movie is highly factual. As with all movies based
in fact, the chronologies are sometimes altered for clarity and more fluid storytelling.
For example, the movie portrays <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pet
Sounds</i> as having been the first album he produced after he retired from the
road following his nervous breakdown/anxiety attack aboard an airplane. In
reality, that event occurred in December 1964 and he produced three albums from
then until <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pet Sounds</i>. But aside from
such directorial conveniences, there is a high degree of veracity throughout
the movie.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other consolation is that the viewer is supposed to feel
disoriented. The constant sudden shifts between the 1960s and 1980s, the
disturbing aural collages that simulate the voices Brian hears in his head, the jerkiness
of the hand-held cameras, are all a way through which we can empathize with Brian's splintering
mental and emotional states. If things might seem confusing for the viewer, be
assured they were confusing for Brian as he was living them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I do have a few quibbles with the movie, things that, again,
a Brian nut would notice and take exception to that likely would be uncontested
by a Brian novice:<o:p></o:p></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;">Aside from chief antagonist
Mike Love, the rest of the Beach Boys are not well cast and their lines
(those who have them) are hardly worth recording. The actor playing Carl
Wilson is too thin and is seen very often holding a beer bottle (he had a
problem with alcohol later but it wasn’t a long-lasting situation; his
Wiki page doesn’t even include the word “alcohol”). The actor playing Al
Jardine is too tall. Dennis Wilson’s lines are about nothing but sex (not
far from the truth, but certainly not accurate; by 1970, Dennis had proven
himself a talented and sensitive artist in his own right).<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;">Brian’s first wife,
Marilyn, is shown to be young and dippy, which she probably was to an
extent, but it’s hardly a fair portrait. Melinda is certainly a stronger
personality than Marilyn Wilson, but Marilyn had to live with Brian at his
worst, and she deserves more compassion.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;">Brian’s drug friends in
the movie are dumb, generic stereotypes; his real drug friends were more
interesting and accomplished people.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;">Mentioned earlier, Tony
Asher (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pet Sounds</i>) and Van Dyke
Parks (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smile</i>) were Brian’s
primary lyricists of the time period. They enjoyed close creative
collaborations with Brian and produced excellent work; they deserve more and
better attention in the movie.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;">There is a scene after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smile</i> is abandoned that shows a
fat, stoned, unresponsive Brian sitting by the pool, with Marilyn calling
out from inside the house that their baby (Carnie Wilson, though
unidentified) just smiled. “Look at her smile,” Marilyn shouts. “She has
your smile.” Yes, we get it. Brian has no <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smile</i>.<o:p></o:p></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Aside from these minor complaints, though, the cast is
extraordinary. Paul Dano is particularly impressive and could well receive an
Oscar nod. As the 1960s Brian, he gained 35 pounds, took piano lessons, and does
a great job actually playing and singing in the movie. He portrays the ecstasy
and agony of Brian’s art and life equally effectively. John Cusack as the 1980s
Brian has less of an acting challenge (mainly tics, fatigue, and social
awkwardness) but he embodies Brian’s innate warmth and humor in his portrayal, and the way in which he delivers the line where he tells Melinda that he hears
voices but didn’t want to tell her because he didn’t want to scare her off
(shown in trailers) is very powerful because Cusack shows that Brian is so
clearly vulnerable and scared himself. Elizabeth Banks as Melinda is
exceptionally good with uncanny facial expressions that respond perfectly to
the craziness she witnesses; she also is absolutely gorgeous in every scene.
Paul Giamatti as the doctor (as you can tell by now, I don’t wish to honor the
character’s one-time existence on this mortal coil by mentioning his name) is spine-tinglingly
creepy. One reviewer astutely pointed that that while Murry Wilson and the doctor
did not look anything alike in real life, the actors playing them in the movie
have a great deal of physical resemblance to each other, emphasizing their
dual-villain status.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So to sum up, if you are a Brian nut, the movie is a
must-see. If you are a Brian novice, what kind of movie is it for you? As a
biopic, it is about as good as the genre produces. You really will learn things
about Brian and the Beach Boys, things that two previous TV movies on the band
completely and perhaps deliberately got wrong (one was produced by John Stamos,
a friend of Mike Love’s, and it’s laughably biased in favor of the man in whose
“honor” a thriving Facebook group is named Mike Love Is a Douchebag). If you
just plain like the music and want to be entertained, you will be and the music
is there in all its glory. If <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jurassic
World</i> is sold out, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love &
Mercy</i> is the only movie you haven’t seen yet, go ahead. Two hours with
Brian Wilson is a lifetime with anyone else. You will be touched by the story
of a man who made the music he had to make despite the cost – which was nearly
his life.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-15075218091510021352015-01-28T19:31:00.000-08:002015-01-28T19:32:58.951-08:00CD Review: The Waterboys, Modern Blues<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Waterboys</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Modern Blues<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Harlequin And Clown,
CLOWNE1 (2015)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Bob Dylan has long admitted to being a fan of Scottish bard
Robert Burns and has also stated that “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” was based on
old Scottish ballad. Perhaps then it’s not surprising that he has had an
enduring influence on modern-day Scottish singer-songwriters. Perhaps the first
was Donovan, who endured criticism (not least from Dylan himself) that he was a
Dylan wannabe. Certainly “Catch the Wind” owed a clear debt to Dylan’s lyrical
and musical style of the time (1965), but poor Donovan certainly wasn’t the
first, last, or only to be so charged.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
In the 1970s, the next Scottish singer to carry Bob’s torch
was Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople. Pressed into service as the lead singer, he
all but mimicked Dylan’s drawling delivery on Mott’s first album. Thereafter,
the influence came out more in his introspective lyrics; to this day, Hunter
remains a fan. In a 2012 interview, he said, “<span style="background: white; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">If I listen to anybody these days it would be Bob
Dylan because he’s the yardstick. You write a song like ‘Jokerman’ or ‘Every
Grain of Sand’ it’s hard to get anywhere near the same league. That’s the only
guy I would listen to today because I think he’s amazing.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Edinburgh-born Mike Scott came to modest fame in the early
to mid 1980s as the leader of the Waterboys. Poetic, spiritual, and frequently
changing his band’s musical style, he is much like Dylan, except less oblique
about revealing himself to his fans. He has also hailed Dylan’s influence and
has covered several Dylan songs over the years. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The point of all this is really just to say that I hear a
lot of Dylan in the brand new Waterboys album, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Modern Blues</i>. It’s more of a hard rock album than Dylan would do,
and that itself is reflective of Dylan’s own changeling nature. After all, the
previous Waterboys album comprised a set of Yeats poems and writings that Scott
set to music. Over the course of 11 studio albums, the Waterboys evolved from a
horn-driven, highly literate, post-punk soul band (biggest hit, “The Whole of
the Moon” from 1985’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This Is The Sea</i>)
to a roots-oriented band with emphasis on fiddle and mandolin (biggest hit, the
title track to 1988’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fisherman’s Blues</i>),
to a guitar-driven band singing of spiritual ecstasy and romantic despair (no
hits to speak of).<o:p></o:p></div>
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In recent years, Scott has been bouncing Neil Young-like
from one extreme to the next, from 2003’s haunting and meditative <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Universal Hall</i> to 2007’s rip-roaring <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Book of Lightning</i>, to 2011’s
psychedeliterate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Appointment With Mr.
Yeats</i>, to the current disc. If there’s a problem with this, it’s that
Scott’s second banana, Irish fiddler Steve Wickham, a fan favorite, sometimes
has not much to do. Wickham came on to the scene at the end of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This Is The Sea</i> sessions, and was a key
factor of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fisherman’s Blues</i> era
(in fact, he co-wrote the title track with Scott). When Scott decided to bring
electric guitar to the fore, Wickham left, not to return until more than a
decade had passed. In concert, he is to Scott what Richards is to Jagger, what
Perry is to Tyler, what Page was to Plant; yet on the recent albums, he seems
not to have a lot to do. On the current album, he plays “fuzz fiddle,” turning
in a fiery solo on the opening track that I originally thought was electric
guitar. Beyond that, I don’t hear him. It seems like his role is to fulfill the
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fisherman’s Blues</i>-era songs in
concert and otherwise to fit in by playing loud and electric. He has much more
than that to offer, but knowing Scott, it’s likely that his compass will at
some point shift again to a position more welcoming to acoustic fiddle.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As for the album itself, two songs were previewed on the
band’s last concert tour: “Still a Freak” and “I Can See Elvis.” Ironically,
they are the two I care for least, not because they are bad or familiar, but
because they seem tossed off in comparison to the depth of thought and feeling
that is apparent in the other songs. The former is the defiant crow of an aging
rocker, insisting “Things disappear but I’m still here” and “I ain’t been
gagged/I’m still flying the flag.” The latter is a fantasy about Elvis partying
in heaven with other dead rockers and famous figures from history. Had he not
mined this idea already with “The Return of Jimi Hendrix” in 1993, I would be
more forgiving of it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The rest of the nine-song, 51-minute album, however, is pure
gold, the kind of songs you wish they’d play on the radio but you know they
never will. Inspiring my Dylan thesis, many of the songs are lyrically dense,
long, and rich. The opening song, “Destinies Entwined,” is not only a powerful
rocker, the lyrics scan almost perfectly with Dylan’s “Up to Me,” a beautiful
outtake from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blood On The Tracks</i>, and
the story they tell is not too dissimilar from “Isis,” which appeared on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Desire</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Her point of view was radical, more than just a change of plan<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She sold me her proposal which I did not understand<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She said the secret’s in the road, I tried to decode the signs<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And followed her for seven years, all eyes and ears<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Our destinies entwined<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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The following track, “November Tale,” is another
relationship song, where Scott meets a woman from his past and her religious
orthodoxy and his more organic spirituality clash. Scott’s vocal delivery, more
spoken than sung, is reminiscent of Dylan’s but with better articulation. “The
Girl Who Slept for Scotland” is beautifully written and compelling, but I have
to be honest I have no idea what it’s about. Still, it’s a wonderful listen,
even as Scott gets uncharacteristically sexual:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yet I remember a day by a river wild<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When she clung to me hard like a darling child<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And a night in the sheets of a Dublin bed<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When she moaned like a woman and gave sweet head<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Similarly obscure, in “Rosalind (You Married the Wrong
Guy)”, Scott sings (apparently) to the heroine of Shakespeare’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">As You Like It</i>, casting aspersions on
her marriage to Orlando. A bluesy pub rocker with fierce Hammond organ by
Waterboy newbie Paul Brown, the song kicks butt and that’s good enough for me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The most radio-friendly song is “Beautiful Now,” featuring a
poppy melody and a happy lyric (“You were beautiful then, sweet angel/You’re
way more beautiful now”). That’s followed by the more mournful “Nearest Thing
to Hip,” in which Scott laments the passing of a café where jazz played on the
box, an old record store that went out of business, and a bar and a bookstore
that no longer stand. It’s actually rather reminiscent of Ian Hunter, who in
his later years has turned his keen sunglass-covered eyes on the things we and
he have lost.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The album closes with “Long Strange Golden Road,” a
10-minute, 10-verse epic poem on the scale of “Desolation Row” or “Sad Old Lady
of the Lowlands,” but with that chugging electric guitar (this is the only song
on which Scott takes a solo, though two other lead guitarists ably drive six
other tunes). The song is preceded by an excerpt of an old scratchy recording
of Jack Kerouac (another Dylan reference) reading from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On The Road</i>, and the lyrics tell of Scott’s desire to hit the road
himself, inspired by Kerouac’s words and voice.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I was longing to be wooed, I was ready to be humbled<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">By the words that you had written, by the syllables you mumbled<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yeah, I was ready in my heart to have my heart invaded<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">By the fervor of your passion, yes I came to be persuaded<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But when I heard your ragged voice something switched in my perception<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And I knew I was the victim of a beautiful deception<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All my once exact beliefs like tangled threads unraveled<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I walked out stunned and liberated and so began my travels<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
For the most part, Steve Wickham excepted, “The Waterboys”
is Mike Scott and whomever he hires to play with him. On <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Modern Blues</i>, recorded mostly in Nashville, most of the band have
no more Waterboy experience than the last U.S. tour (drummer Ralph Salmins
dates back to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Appointment With Mr.
Yeats</i>). Yet the recording does feature the all-star presence of bassist
David Hood of Muscle Shoals fame, who keeps it nice and funky.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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All in all, I have to say that as a Waterboys fan, this is
yet another winner from Mike Scott. Which is to say it will sink like a stone.
But I hope I’m wrong about that because more people should know about the
Waterboys and more Waterboys fans should embrace their new recordings. Because
to paraphrase something Dylan sang 50 years ago, there’s something happening
here and not enough people know what it is. And that’s a damn shame.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-78541108364011244102014-11-30T19:18:00.001-08:002014-11-30T19:21:10.721-08:00Dual CD Review: Dewa Budjana, Surya Namaskar; Tohpati, Tribal Dance<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dewa Budjana, with
Jimmy Johnson & Vinnie Colaiuta<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Surya Namaskar<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">MoonJune Records
MJRO63 (2014)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tohpati, featuring
Jimmy Haslip & Chad Wackerman<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tribal Dance<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">MoonJune Records
MJRO64 (2014)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It sounds like an intriguing musical combination. Take an
Indonesian guitarist, well-versed in Western progressive and fusion music yet
not forsaking the structures and sonorities of his native land; and pair him with
a rhythm section comprising a bassist who has played with Allan Holdsworth and
a drummer who has played with Frank Zappa. A rare concoction, right? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not if you are Leonardo Pavkovic, whose MoonJune label
specializes in prog and jazz fusion with ethnic flavors and a flair for the
unusual. In 2014, he managed to release CDs from not one but two different trios
of the same ethnic and musical combination described above. That’s two extraordinarily
talented Indonesian guitarists fronting incredible trios.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Surya Namaskar</i>
features guitarist Dewa Budjana, bassist Jimmy Johnson, and drummer Vinnie
Colaiuta. It was recorded in Los Angeles in September 2013. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tribal Dance</i> features Tohpati (as he’s
billed) on guitar, Jimmy Haslip on bass, and Chad Wackerman on drums. It was
recorded in January and October 2013. In Los Angeles (except for one track
recorded in Jakarta earlier this year). For a city sitting on top of so many
fault lines, it was very risky having both these dynamic trios recording in
L.A. in the same year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According to Pavkovic, “<span style="background: white; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Tohpati has a very big profile in Indonesia, mostly
in the pop world as a top session player, composer, and arranger for many pop
stars. But Dewa Budjana is huge in Indonesia, his band, called GIGI, is one of
the most famous in the country. What I am able to capture of them on MoonJune
is maybe 0.5% of what they do in their careers.”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii30V0TIA5HMi0L5qDytC6DJToBgelI4zdY5XydjF5YQWkIMTE5bgAc36h_9iD9XQejLguAb0Z4NN6C6T46wzn-LDNNtst-VXZM6w3luKPWAa75iP_G8Hhe4c3eHJL05o8ujkZIQIW3MR1/s1600/index-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii30V0TIA5HMi0L5qDytC6DJToBgelI4zdY5XydjF5YQWkIMTE5bgAc36h_9iD9XQejLguAb0Z4NN6C6T46wzn-LDNNtst-VXZM6w3luKPWAa75iP_G8Hhe4c3eHJL05o8ujkZIQIW3MR1/s1600/index-1.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of the two CDs, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Surya
Namaskar</i> is the more progressive-sounding, very muscular and daring with
the unexpected twists and turns one expects from a prog recording. Fully
instrumental (except for a vocal on the largely improvised “Kalingga,” which
also features Sundanese violin and harp), the album’s sound is fleshed out with
important contributions from such notable musicians as Gary Husband
(synthesizer on the King Crimson-esque opener, “Fifty”) and Michael Landau
(guitar solos on “Campuhan Hill,” which Dewa composed after his first meeting
with Holdsworth). The music is impressive and relentlessly energetic. In spite
of their power and ability, Johnson and Colaiuta show great restraint; each is
fully capable of taking over a tune or a session with their virtuosity (which
nevertheless is on display throughout, especially for Colaiuta on “Lamboya”
where he becomes a cyclone under Dewa’s restatement of the theme), but the
spotlight is firmly on Dewa throughout the CD and he shines.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFA8hfpVeJTc98XNQXKYLzFHGzbxH-dS4NG5K1yoBoNntqfQkvfU2eOaT7A3xOx1cDQ1xtuREk6NwVYTbFnZYe7QvgCrL2fuwESiuOmoPj_DwvedR3xu0LCGJ8Jiv1FPR6rQBI9yWG2oKl/s1600/index.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFA8hfpVeJTc98XNQXKYLzFHGzbxH-dS4NG5K1yoBoNntqfQkvfU2eOaT7A3xOx1cDQ1xtuREk6NwVYTbFnZYe7QvgCrL2fuwESiuOmoPj_DwvedR3xu0LCGJ8Jiv1FPR6rQBI9yWG2oKl/s1600/index.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tribal Dance</i>, in
contrast, is more of an East-meets-West affair, largely in the realm of jazz
fusion with ethnic influences. This trio is a bit more democratic, with Haslip
and Wackerman getting a few spotlights of their own; in particular, Haslip takes
a nice solo on “Run” and Wackerman turns up the heat at the end of the title
track, the middle of the following tune, “Red Mask,” and “Supernatural.”
Several of the songs open with exotic chants or percussion before leading into
the composition proper, as if Indonesia was setting the table for the American
musical feast to follow. The one exception is the closer, “Midnight Rain,”
which stays largely in the East (in fact, it is the only track recorded in
Indonesia). Tohpati is a very fluid and nimble player who uses effects
sparingly but effectively. One can detect traces of Di Meola and Scofield in
his playing, but he is very much his own artist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If these CDs are any indication of the talent that exists in
Indonesia (the fourth most populous country in the world), more Western
musicians and labels should be heading out that way to mine the apparently very
rich veins of musical ability to be found. If they do go there, they will find
that Pavkovic has had a head start.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">“There
is great talent in Indonesia,” he says, “but also great diversity. For example,
Tohpati is ethnic Javanese, from Java, so he has certain influences, both
genetic and musical, that might be different from Dewa, who is ethnic Balinese,
which is a minority in Indonesia. I am also working with Dwiki Dharmawan, a
well-known pianist and keyboardist; guitarist Reza Ryan from I Know You Well
Miss Clara, who has more European influences, such as Terje Rypdal, Jan
Akkerman, and Phil Manzanera; and two other guitarists, Agam Hamzah and Tesla
Manaf Effendi. They are all very different from each other.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As for these two recordings, it is always nice to see the
trio format utilized; it is, in my opinion, the structure that requires the
most awareness, instinct, and communication among the musicians. In the jazz
world, some of the greatest recordings of all time have been made by trios, and
these two releases add considerable luster to the form. Both guitarists are
well worth watching out for.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-22333711988052138512014-11-16T11:54:00.000-08:002014-11-16T11:54:44.785-08:00CD Review: Heliopolis, City of the Sun<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Heliopolis<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">City of the Sun<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">10t Records, 10T10078
(2014)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in 1989, I was certain that progressive rock was dead.
I had a fairly decent view of the landscape back then, as I was publishing a
monthly newsletter on the genre entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On
Reflection</i>. Though it wasn’t the reason I started the venture, one of the
biggest perks was that labels and bands sent me their wares to review.
Unfortunately, it was the quality of those wares that led me to believe that
prog had indeed fossilized into the dinosaur remains predicted more than 10
years earlier when punk took hold. Simply put, most of the recordings were
awful.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It wasn’t so much that the musicians didn’t have chops,
manly of them were quite talented. The problem was that they were not
progressive. They didn’t just wear their influences on their sleeves, they
draped them over three-piece suits. There were bands that sounded just like
Genesis, or just like Yes, or just like Emerson, Lake & Palmer. If a band
had the courage to attempt to sound just like more complex outfits like Gentle
Giant and King Crimson, I would give them points for effort, but they were
justifiably few in number. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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It got so bad that I eventually shut down the newsletter and
plunged myself into the healing waters of jazz, where the musicianship was even
more impressive, the idea of blatantly copying another musician or group was
anathema, and the music was heartfelt and honest – with no Taurus bass pedals,
no ridiculous lyrics, and no capes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the ensuing years, I have continued to enjoy the prog
that I always liked and have been downright suspicious of any modern attempts
to wave the banner. I have written features and CD reviews for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Progression</i> magazine (which,
incidentally, was originally launched as a continuation of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Reflection</i> by one of my subscribers, with my blessing and
assistance) since 2010, and while no 21<sup>st</sup>-century progressive band
has joined my personal Mount Progmore, I do realize that there are artists
doing interesting things with the tools and technologies now available, who
have a couple more decades of influences to absorb, and who are facing an even
more hostile recording industry.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So perhaps my heart has softened, perhaps I have become more
sentimental and nostalgic, perhaps I have left my guard down, but I do now acknowledge
that prog has a pulse left. Even so, nothing could prepare me for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">City of the Sun</i>, the debut album of Los
Angeles-based Heliopolis, which I have to say is freaking awesome!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the outset, they have all the trappings of prog-chic: a
cosmic name; a five-piece lineup with wailing lead vocalist and hot-shot
guitarist, keyboardist, bass, and drummer; and suite-like songs in excess of 10
minutes in length. A Theremin even appears, played by Probyn Gregory of the
Wondermints and Brian Wilson’s band (in the latter group it is he who plays the
Theremin – actually a Tannerin – on “Good Vibrations”).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhihEXzkCkJBCfSPLJoziYg8aOle5c-eQYKnYOkNqPSEY2kNQM40656xABA8aoJCmYRj4uoMHyimYbTJvX5ZW437AqnGeJzHemQydq_FzI102QMgRJVgos3Q5nH1aZCigyQA0b_OnAAnogn/s1600/3e568a_ce9f2e54ba8343ed9cc761677b87d630.jpg_srz_p_573_383_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhihEXzkCkJBCfSPLJoziYg8aOle5c-eQYKnYOkNqPSEY2kNQM40656xABA8aoJCmYRj4uoMHyimYbTJvX5ZW437AqnGeJzHemQydq_FzI102QMgRJVgos3Q5nH1aZCigyQA0b_OnAAnogn/s1600/3e568a_ce9f2e54ba8343ed9cc761677b87d630.jpg_srz_p_573_383_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
As for the music, well, it’s classic prog as well, and while
influences are discernible (the opening suite, “New Frontier,” in addition to
sharing a title with a Donald Fagen composition, starts off with Crimson-esque
crunch and cacophony, and once the vocals appear the composition ends up
sounding like it could have borne the credits of Lee, Lifeson, Peart), there
are no slavish imitations of anything that came before. Rather, there is a rich
diversity of moods, tempos, and arrangements, where pop overtones and reflective
balladry meld smoothly with jazz fusion and hard rock. For example, the
six-minute “Elegy,” dedicated to the late singer/drummer Shaun Guerin, is not
in the least bit funereal, unless you’re talking about a Viking funeral. This
track has energy and passion to spare.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As for the players themselves, the high tenor vocals of
Scott Jones are more Steve Hogarth than Greg Lake, and his articulation and
emotion make the words worth listening to. With drummer Jerry Beller,
keyboardist Matt Brown, and bassist Kerry Chicoine supplying harmony vocals,
the voice component of the musical mix is thoughtfully and effectively deployed
throughout.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On multiple keyboards, Brown supplies a wide range of
compelling sounds and textures. With a focus on evocative musical expression,
he is not one to supply aimless synth washes or death-ray flares; rather, he
uses interesting voicings to complement what I would call “real” playing, as on
his funky/jazzy solo on “Elegy” or his spacy but substantial solo on the
14-minute closer, “Love and Inspiration.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The “rhythm section” is typically more a topic for
discussion in jazz than in prog, where in many cases the bassist and the
drummer act as competing soloists rather than as collaborating cogs in a unified
rhythmic system. Chicoine and Beller defy that characterization, deftly
executing sudden tempo shifts and providing exactly what the complex music
requires to keep from falling apart – along with ample opportunities to add
exciting filigrees.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Guitarist Matier eschews the prog stereotypes of pretzel
fingers and faux classical renderings, preferring to wring a mix of intensity
and lyricism from his instruments, playing metal power chords one moment and
soaring, melodic solos that get under your skin and drill intro your brain the
next. On the short, Rundgren-esque Mr. Wishbone, Matier plays all the
instruments except drums.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/aYMXIQQjxJ0" width="560"></iframe></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My personal favorite track on the album (with five tracks in
all, the CD clocks in at a respectable 42:48) is the second, the
nearly-nine-minute “Take a Moment.” Musical and lyrical drama and intrigue are
built through an ascending vocal line, frequently shifting tempos and dynamics,
and powerful solos from Brown and Matier. The lyrics includes the following
lines: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Life’s but a journey<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Never ending, Just
unfolding<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Always happening the
way that it should be<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Grudgingly, I have to admit that the same could apply to progressive
rock, even in 2014. I guess I have Heliopolis to thank (or blame) for that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-82515456208503310652014-11-02T11:24:00.001-08:002014-11-02T11:24:22.681-08:00CD Review: Marbin, The Third Set<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Marbin<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Third Set<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">MoonJune Records,
MJR065 (2014)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Third Set</i> is
the fourth recording from this Chicago-based band founded by two extraordinary
Israeli musicians. It is their first live album and because their talents and
energy are best realized in live performance, this might be the one to get if
you have yet to experience the musical dynamo that Marbin is.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Founded by Dani Rabin (guitar) and Danny Markovitch
(saxophone), Marbin was formed in 2007; they released their first, eponymously
titled album as a duet in 2009. By the time of their second album, 2011’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Breaking the Cycle</i>, their first for
Leonardo Pavkovic’s MoonJune label, they had expanded to a quartet, with the
album featuring the all-star rhythm section of Paul Wertico on drums and Steve
Rodby on bass, both on loan from the Pat Metheny Group. For the touring group
and subsequent recordings, Dani and Danny have been ably supported by drummer
Justyn Lawrence and bassist Jae Gentile, making for a uniquely configured
black-Jewish foursome.<o:p></o:p></div>
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MoonJune is a label specializing in prog and jazz fusion
with ethnic influences and left-of-center musical tendencies. Marbin fits
perfectly in its roster and all of the band’s diverse styles and sounds are in
full display on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Third Set</i>, recorded
in America’s breadbasket in early spring 2013. For example, the opener,
“Special Olympics,” is a prog-metal burner, with Rabin playing the role of Captain
Speedfingers. That’s followed by a funk tune, “The Depot,” in which Markovitch
takes the lead. After that is the bluesy “Crystal Bells” and the jazzy
“Redline.” And yet all of it makes sense together, as the musicians bring not
only great chops but also empathy and sensitivity to group dynamics. Though
tempos are generally fast, except on the ballad “Northern Odyssey,” there are
often dramatic and sudden shifts in tempo, dynamics, and rhythm. Like a race
car with great brakes, they can surprise you with their ability to rev up, then
stop on a dime and change direction.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Gentile is strong and steady throughout, and Lawrence gets a
chance to strut his stuff in a call and response with Markovitch at the end of
“Rabak.” On both the opener and the closer, “Volta,” Rabin and Markovitch play
in unison at breakneck tempo, with the blended timbres of their instruments
resembling an electric violin. There are comparisons that could be made to
Mahavishnu Orchestra or Weather Report, or even bands such as Brand X, but
Marbin is truly an entity unto itself. While the previous two studio albums
featured additional guest musicians and vocalists, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Third Set</i> shows that Mssrs. Rabin, Markovitch, Lawrence, and
Gentile are more than sufficient to make Marbin a supremely powerful and highly
satisfying musical experience.<o:p></o:p></div>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-71709295062346096202014-11-01T18:52:00.002-07:002014-11-01T18:52:52.637-07:00Concert review: Esperanza Spalding, Boston, MA<a href="http://artsfuse.org/115619/fuse-jazz-review-jazz-superstar-esperanza-spalding-thanks-october/" target="_blank">My review of Esperanza Spalding appeared in the Arts Fuse</a><br />Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-33829178795635190122014-11-01T18:35:00.003-07:002014-11-03T09:52:10.392-08:00CD Review: John Mayall - A Special Life<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>John Mayall</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>A Special Life</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Forty Below Records, FBR 006 (</b><b>2014)</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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By the end of this month, legendary British blues icon John
Mayall will be 81 years old. Over the last 50 years he’s put out 60 or so
albums. His bands have launched or legitimized the careers of many notable
musicians, such as guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, and
Robben Ford; bassists Jack Bruce and John McVie; drummers Aynsley Dunbar, Keef
Hartley, Jon Hiseman, and Mick Fleetwood; and harmonica player Paul
Butterfield. Clearly, the man has nothing left to prove. And yet he may also
have nothing better to do, because he’s released another excellent album this
year. If it’s not destined to be as influential as the best of his earlier
work, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Special Life</i> is nonetheless a
strong collection of originals and covers, sung with conviction and played by a
crack band of musicians barely old enough to be his grandchildren.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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From top to bottom, the 11 songs on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Special Life</i> are rendered consistently tuneful and energetic
thanks to Mayall and his band. Rocky Athas occupies the historically significant
lead guitar role in the band with clear confidence and exceptional Texas chops.
On the Albert King song, “Floodin’ in California,” my favorite on the album,
Athas constructs a terrific solo that starts out easygoing and melodic, is
interrupted by a short organ solo by Mayall, then returns and builds
in intensity. He cranks it to 11 on Sonny Landreth’s “Speak of the Devil” and does
the aching slow burn on the late Jimmy McCracklin’s “I Just Got to Know.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tYePsJFL3Qg" width="420"></iframe></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The rhythm section on the album is Greg Rzab (Otis Rush,
Buddy Guy, Black Crowes) on bass and potent drummer Jay Davenport, who counts
as his influences Art Blakey, Billy Cobham, and Steve Gadd. Rzab contributed one composition to the album, a powerful blues lament called “Like a Fool.”
Davenport is crisp and inventive, driving the band to higher heights and deeper
depths.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Zydeco legend C.J. Chenier appears on two tracks, his
accordion gracing the set’s opener, “Why Did You Go Last Night.” But
ultimately, the cat who impresses most is none other than Mayall himself.
Contributing four original compositions, singing every song, and playing piano,
organ, harmonica, clavinet, and lead guitar, Mayall performs at a high level
across the board. While giving his band ample opportunity to show why this incredible
convener of talent has not lost his touch (or his ears), Mayall’s playing and
soloing is tasteful and warm throughout, and his voice is full of vigor and
character. With titles like “World Gone Crazy,” “A Special Life,” “Heartache,”
and “Just a Memory,” his songs are the most personal on the album, and his
beautiful piano solo on the latter, the album’s six-and-a-half-minute closer, speaks
volumes after the lyrics have all been sung.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I saw Mayall perform live a couple of months ago and though
he only performed three songs from this album, his pride in his band was evident
and they covered several periods of his long career with reverence – but not
too much, as this group had its own things to say on such classics as “Chicago
Line,” “Parchman Farm,” and even Mayall’s harp showcase, “Room to Move.” One
thing the concert and the new album had in common was the astounding fact of
John Mayall’s enduring abilities; it’s not that he’s been rejuvenated, it’s
more like he’s never aged. <i>A Special Life</i>
was released in 2014, but it sounds like it could have come out at any time in
Mayall’s career. And that’s about as high a praise as you can give a blues
recording.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-87625095688980489772014-09-27T13:22:00.000-07:002014-09-27T13:27:23.611-07:00Rebooting the Blog: Introduction/King Crimson Concert Review<div class="MsoNormal">
Have you ever looked up the definition of a word that you
already know what it means, just to see what the actual definition is? I just
did that with “reboot” and the definition was “boot again.” I guess it serves
me right. After all, my life philosophy is “You don’t need a weatherman to know
which way the wind blows” (a line by Bob Dylan), which to me has always meant,
“have faith in your own instincts and intelligence, you don’t need an authority
to tell you what’s clearly obvious to you.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So why did I bother in the first place? Because I am
rebooting my blog and I thought it would be fun to do it dictionary-style. I
was wrong. And I may be wrong about rebooting my blog but since most of my
readers are probably people who found it by accident, it doesn’t really matter.
But to me and to anyone who has actually popped by with any regularity over the
last few years, it does matter, or it should.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From the get-go, my blog was intended to be one way of
building what the dying publishing industry calls a “platform” – an established
area of expertise one has, along with a built-in following who might be
interested in purchasing one’s books. The platform I chose – perhaps more
accurately, it chose me – is music. After all, my first novel, <i>The Grave & The Gay*</i>, was based on a 17<sup>th</sup>-century
English folk ballad, while the second one I am currently struggling mightily
with was inspired by a song by jazz singer Cassandra Wilson.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maintaining a blog is no easy deal, as I soon found out, and
I have frequently written posts that have nothing to do with music. That may
prove to be true as well in the future, but to help invigorate my blog and
infuse it with meaning, I have decided to reboot it primarily as a concert and
CD review site. I have plenty of both to get me started, but <b>if you are reading
this and you have a CD you’d like me to review, please contact me via my
website – <a href="http://jasonmrubin.com/">http://jasonmrubin.com</a> – and I will tell you how to send it to me.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should note that I have a particular interest in prog and
jazz, but am a fan of rock, pop, soul, and folk, as well as ethnic/world music
and anything that doesn’t fit neatly in the dying music industry’s various
marketing labels. I also write CD reviews and features for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Progression</i> magazine, and reviews and articles for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arts Fuse</i> online magazine and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Musicovation</i> blog, so I’m not a complete
dodo.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before I launch into my first review, I want to
remind/inform my readers (intentional or accidental, you both are welcome here)
the meaning behind the blog’s title, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dove
Nested Towers</i>. It is a typically inventive phrase by Van Dyke Parks that is
part of the lyrics to the Brian Wilson masterpiece composition “Surf’s Up.” Originally
written in 1966 for the Beach Boys’ aborted <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smile</i>
album, the song eventually appeared in 1971 as the title track of the band’s LP
offering that year. Brian did his own version in 2004 on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE</i>, and five different versions appear on
the 2011 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smile Sessions</i> boxed set. It
is my favorite song.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Grave-Gay-Jason-M-Rubin/dp/098496309X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411849518&sr=8-1&keywords=the+grave+and+the+gay">http://www.amazon.com/Grave-Gay-Jason-M-Rubin/dp/098496309X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411849518&sr=8-1&keywords=the+grave+and+the+gay</a><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Concert review: King
Crimson, September 16, 2014, Boston, Massachusetts, USA<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Any band still going that started out in the late '60s by now
will have experienced any number of lineup changes. Typically these are due to
death or the intentionally vague “musical differences” and they tend to involve
a single player. King Crimson is anything but a typical band. When they have a
lineup change, it usually means everyone but the guitarist has been let go.
Indeed, Robert Fripp, the seated lead guitarist who dresses and appears as
composed as an accountant but plays like a zombie slayer, has been the one and
only constant in what has now been eight different lineups since 1969.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These lineups have included a trio, quartet, quintet, and a
double trio composed of two drummers, two guitarists, and two bass/Stick
players. The eighth lineup may be the oddest one yet: seven musicians,
including no fewer than three drummers who are set up in the front of the stage
(Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin, and Pat Mastelotto), with two guitarists (Fripp
and Jakko Jakszyk), bassist/Stick master Tony Levin, and sax/flute guru Mel
Collins comprising the second line. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One reason for the many lineup changes (the band has
accommodated a total of 21 full-time musicians in its history) is that it
periodically breaks up and reforms. The first hiatus was from 1974-1981. By
1974, the band had endured three lineup changes in five years. The 1981 lineup
had a successful three-year stint before ceasing operations until 1993, when
the double trio was introduced. Two more hiatuses take us to the present day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With each tour, Fripp takes pains to warn fans not to arrive
at the venue with expectations that anything from prior lineups will be played.
Typically, some older songs are included in the set lists, but the idea of a
“greatest hits” repertoire is anathema to Fripp, who regards Crimson as “a way
of doing things” rather than as an ongoing jukebox.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So it was that I arrived at the Emerson Colonial Theatre in
Boston to experience how King Crimson would be “doing things” after 45 years of
stops and starts. In spite of Fripp’s warnings, lineup #8 did seem to suggest
that a retrospective approach to song election was possible. After all, Harrison
was with the band in 2008; Jakszyk performed in a Crimson alumni band and has
collaborated with Fripp, Collins, and Harrison; Mastelotto and Levin have done
a few stints with Crimson together and apart, and Collins goes as far back as
1970.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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What transpired was beyond all my expectations and, dare I
say, fantasies. It should be noted that my favorite era of King Crimson was
1973-74; that three-album span featured my favorite rock-oriented drummer, Bill
Bruford, as well as bassist/vocalist John Wetton, a brilliant player who seemed
ever to be in search of fame and finally found it in 1983 in the band Asia.
That era was particularly well-represented, and in fact the set’s opener (“Larks’
Tongues in Aspic, Part One”) and closer (“Starless”) came from those albums,
along with four other songs (“Red,”, “One More Red Nightmare,” “The Talking
Drum,” and “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part Two”). That, for me, was well worth
the price of admission.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The rarely acknowledged <i>Islands</i> album from 1972 (the last of
three that Collins appeared on) surprisingly offered two songs, “The Letters” and
the jazz-metal instrumental workout, “Sailor’s Tale.” Collins was also proud
representative of the 1970 tune “Pictures of a City,” blaring on sax with the
force of a Peter Brotzmann (look him up). Collins, whom I saw on Roger Waters’
first solo tour in 1984, was one of four MVPs of this show, playing soprano,
alto, tenor, and baritone sax in addition to flute.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of the eight remaining songs, six date from after Bruford
left the band, at which time I took my own hiatus from Crimson’s
only-constant-is-change gyrations. As such, I was not familiar with them,
though the level of musicianship was consistently amazing throughout the show.
As a final encore, the band rocked through the touchstone tune, the opener on
Crimson’s 1969 debut album, “21<sup>st</sup> Century Schizoid Man,” which
featured an astounding drum solo by Harrison, who was another MVP, as was Tony Levin, who played three different basses and Chapman Stick and had the
unenviable responsibility of anchoring the heavy, complex playing of this
seven-legged sea monster.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The final MVP I would give to Fripp himself, who says
nothing on stage and yet says all there needs to be said on his guitar. It
could well be said that Robert Fripp is also a way of doing things, and like the band
he has carried on through thick and thin, there is no one who does it anything
like he does. As for the three drummers, I feel that Harrison could have done
the job himself (as, indeed, Bruford could have done, and maybe would have if
he and Fripp were not currently as close as Ray and Dave Davies).<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is inevitable that this lineup will cease to exist and
another hiatus will begin. But Fripp is 68 now and one has to wonder how much
more of this he can take. One night was powerful enough for me; imagine being
in the midst of it night after night. He has finally plumbed the depths of the
King Crimson catalogue and past lineups so if there is a ninth lineup, it will
be a challenge to make it a surprising one. But setting up and facing challenges
is ultimately what King Crimson is all about; indeed, it is what it does best.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-64619064608670904622014-05-31T16:09:00.000-07:002014-05-31T16:11:56.806-07:00From a 50-Something Perspective, The Big Chill Has Grown Tepid<div class="MsoNormal">
Late last night, while my younger daughter slept and my
older daughter commandeered the computer, I turned on the television to span
some time and bring on the sleepies. To my amusement, I found <i>The Big Chill</i>, that endearing ensemble
piece from 1983 that presented the existential angst of a group of narcissistic
30-something boomers to a kick-ass classic rock soundtrack. I couldn’t resist,
yet there was something very strange, very different about this particular
viewing; though I’ve seen the movie many times in the past, as a
now-50-something adult I am appalled that I ever thought these characters were
cool.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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When the movie was first released, I was a 20-something, in
fact I was 20 on the dot. Born in 1963, I am considered a late-boomer, not the
core part of the generation born in the immediate post-World War II era. I was
in college at the time but when I first saw the movie I began looking forward
to my 10-year reunion, when I would presumably have a past I could romanticize
and ruminate on. Kind of like how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Animal
House</i> came out when I was still in high school and it made me impatient to
go to college, where food fights would be an everyday occurrence.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Though only six when Woodstock happened, I grew up idealizing
the hippies and envied them their causes. How amazing to be able to protest war
and segregation while having endless sex and drugs – and, again, all that great
music. There were no hippies left when I became a teenager in 1976; the only
thing my friends and I could reasonably protest was disco music. But my heart,
I felt (and still do), was in the right place: war is bad, human rights are
good, love is better than hate, tolerance trumps ignorance. And so I felt
aligned with my elder boomers and initially was inspired by the pasts that the
characters in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Chill</i> had
lived, and felt sympathy for the rude awakening they felt when a friend’s
suicide brought them back together and in the reflective light of their peers
saw how far from their ideals they had fallen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoot23TMZ1M_xLhmNMzVZGqF1GbnTy7N88qKGAN_1nQpHTGF7M0Nf3ewD23VGhf9LfCMojDNI2spM-uiNAKSZKlMFekCO207osQRV2IdqcEELUYoPJzjBwsA6x33HYl7nZCY1ElP0jD6wZ/s1600/the-big-chill-soundtrack---10963916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoot23TMZ1M_xLhmNMzVZGqF1GbnTy7N88qKGAN_1nQpHTGF7M0Nf3ewD23VGhf9LfCMojDNI2spM-uiNAKSZKlMFekCO207osQRV2IdqcEELUYoPJzjBwsA6x33HYl7nZCY1ElP0jD6wZ/s1600/the-big-chill-soundtrack---10963916.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Music and memories<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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As I missed the hippie years, by definition I also missed
the yuppie years, which is where the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big
Chill</i> characters are in the movie. With their expensive cars, clothes,
lifestyles, hairstyles, and habits, they don’t much resemble the people they
remember themselves to be. In fact, beyond their endless self-pitying
prattling, the only apparent connective tissue to the past is the music itself.
The movie’s soundtrack was fairly revolutionary for the time, an album of rock
and soul tunes from the ‘60s that became a hit in the New Wave ‘80s. Suddenly
people were hearing it through the grapevine again, remembering what good
lovin’ was like, feeling like a natural woman, not being too proud to beg, and turning
a whiter shade of pale as they realized they (still) can’t always get what they
want.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The music proved stronger than the characters, more faithful
to its roots and ideals, and it sounded as fresh again in 1983 as it still does
today. By contrast, the characters, recognizable then, seem downright
reprehensible now. And, I guess, though I didn’t think so at the time, they
were probably pretty unbearable then, too. The musicians of the ‘80s had no
sympathy for the previous generation. Joe Jackson, on his 1986 album, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big World</i>, sang:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And all the record
stores<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Are filled with pretty
boys and their material girls<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And even students vote
for actors<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Then they tell you
it’s a safer world<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And all the hippies
work for IBM or take control<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Of faster ways to sell
you food that isn’t really whole<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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Of course, music and musicians aren’t immune to the changing
times. I guess when Bob Dylan does Super Bowl commercials all bets are off. What
doesn’t change, for me anyway, is that music is not just entertainment, it’s
conscience, too. Many of the artists I like best have a worldview that I share
and I look to them for inspiration. Others I appreciate simply for their
artistry. Yet songs are also memory-markers, and the tunes featured on the
soundtrack have a remarkable ability to take you back to places and people in
your life that you haven’t seen in a while. But taking you back and getting
stuck there are two different things, and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big Chill</i> characters seem to be trying to have it both ways.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The unusual suspects<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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If you need a reminder of who the characters are and what
the source of their angst is, here’s a quick rundown:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Harold Cooper (Kevin Kline), a “revolutionary” who owns a
successful running shoe company and is about to become very much richer once a
big competitor acquires it, actually seems very comfortable with his wealth,
enjoys his big, plantation-like property, and seems to be what his friend Meg
calls the “perfect man” – except that his wife Sarah had an affair with Alex,
the friend who killed himself on their big, plantation-like property.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Sarah Cooper (Glenn Close) is a mess through much of the
movie, very morose about Alex’s death, even seen crying naked in the shower,
though after dinner she shakes her ass for the camera as these people with
housekeepers and maids have an inordinate amount of fun cleaning up. Sarah
actually puts the existential angst into focus in the movie by wondering if
their “commitment” (presumably to ending the war, removing Nixon, teaching
ghetto kids, and caring for the environment) was just “fashion.” I physically
gagged when she said that, as if they had all taken a vow of poverty and chastity
back in the day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Sam Weber (Tom Berenger) is a prime-time TV actor, the
dashing J.T. Lancer. He seems a decent enough fellow but he’s upset about
something throughout the movie and we never know quite what it is. Sure he’s
sad about Alex and he seems to understand he’s a hollow caricature much like
the character he plays on TV, but he has no issues with shtupping his married
friend Karen, whose sole purpose in the movie, it seems, is to be shtupped by
Sam.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Karen Bowens (JoBeth Williams) arrives at the funeral with
her husband Dick, who, when all is said and done, emerges as the most
reasonable and sympathetic character in the movie, though he is positioned as a
square who leaves early so his wife, who tossed her diaphragm on top of a copy
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Us</i> magazine featuring Sam on the
cover, can presumably finally experience a vaginal orgasm. She has little of
her own past to share so I deduce that she spent her college years trying
primarily to get laid.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Michael Gold (Jeff Goldblum) plays Jeff Goldblum, in that
every character Jeff Goldblum plays is inherently Jeff Goldblum in different
clothes and called by different names. But he has a Christopher Walken quality
to him in that he seems to know he’s weird and even when he’s not playing a
scene for laughs he gets them and so it’s always fun when he’s around. Michael
is a writer for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">People</i> magazine who
wants to open a club. As he himself points out in the film, he had no morals or
ideals to lose; if anything, he’s the very personification of what everyone
else fears is happening to them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Meg Jones (Mary Kay Place) is a chain-smoking former public
defender now practicing real estate law. As if that isn’t boring enough, she
wants to have a child on her own. And she wants one of her friends to
impregnate her. We never know if she was successful (after Meg struck out with
the other, more available men in the film, Sarah donated Harold, presumably
helping to clear her conscience of her own adulterous affair with Alex), but if
she was, I pity her child.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Finally, Nick Carlton (William Hurt) is the token Vietnam
vet who came home from the war less than whole (it’s never explained in detail
but it seems he may have had his dick shot off). What he was doing in the war
in the first place, considering his peer group, is not explained either. He is
now a drug dealer who generously samples from his own supply. He is both the
least and most cynical character, not buying into the Lost Ideals narrative and
yet seems to have lost the most faith. He does, however, have my favorite line;
in an argument with a maudlin Sam (just before he goes outside to bang Karen
standing up), Nick shoots a hole in the entire nostalgic bubble the group has
erected around itself:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Wrong, a long time
ago we knew each for a short period of time; you don't know anything about me.
It was easy back then. No one had a cushier berth than we did. It’s not
surprising our friendship could survive that. It’s only there in the real world
that it gets tough.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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I happen to find that a very true and powerful piece of dialogue.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/O19k-YtwXTg" width="420"></iframe></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A chilling effect<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The rest of the writing, though, is pretty annoying,
especially, as I say, in the ears of a 50-something. After all, these guys are
so young to be so regretful. Some of these actors are favorites of mine but
they were just starting out in 1983. Tom Berenger today looks like he really
has had some hard years under his (somewhat larger) belt. Even the typically
fresh-faced Kevin Kline is showing his age. Seeing these actors ruminate on the
old days, when their own days were still preciously few, is almost laughable.
Sure, among them there’s a divorce, a war injury, a dead friend. Those are
serious things but for the most part, everyone is rich, successful, and
attractive; and, just to point a finer point on it, everyone is very, very
white. Did none of these revolutionaries have a commitment to having black
friends?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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There are perhaps as many as three separate references to
teaching in Harlem (or “the ghetto”), as if there’s no higher calling for a
white liberal than to bring the power of white privilege to bear for poor black
kids. As if the problem of wealth distribution in this country was something
they cared to do something about – other than becoming part of it, that is.
Perhaps indicative of how their past commitment was as artificial as their
current weepiness over it, we learn that Michael and Meg had sex during the
March on Washington. It’s like how Marvin Gaye could do both “What’s Going On”
and “Let’s Get It On,” except that Marvin was black and unencumbered by irony.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Of course, I necessarily am bringing my own experiences and
biases to bear. I had a close group of friends growing up; there were additions
and deletions in high school, and additions and deletions in college.
Post-divorce, there were other additions and deletions. Today, my best friends
are my oldest friends. Two are gone, both to illness, both way before their
time. Both funerals afforded my friends and I opportunities to take stock of
our lives and our bonds. But I don’t know that any of us subjected ourselves to
the narcissistic caterwauling that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big
Chill</i> characters went through.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Looking ahead, not
backwards<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The fact is, after all these years, we really haven’t
changed that much. What made us laugh then makes us laugh now. What upset us
then upsets us know. We’ve gotten older, gone through changes, we are certainly
wiser. I’ll speak for myself that I have innumerable regrets of opportunities
lost or nor taken through the years, but we also live in the real world and we
don’t have time to wonder for whom the bells are tolling. I think we’re all
trying to be the best friends, parents, and people we can be, period. And when
we get together – and we do, as frequently as possible – it’s all about
enjoying each other’s company, not wondering what the hell happened to us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If I could meet my 30-something self or my teenage self, I
could certainly impart advice. Study more. Grow a pair and ask her out. Save
some money. Do an internship. Limit your salt intake, flavor ain’t worth kidney
stones. But every mistake I made in my past made me who I am today and to
question them is to cast doubt on my own value and stature. I’m not rich, I’m
not married anymore, I’m not living in a big house, not driving a car from this
century – all the things I hoped would happen for me when I reached my 50s. But,
and this is a point the movie neatly leaves out, I’m not done yet. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big Chill</i>
characters were in college, they believed you couldn’t trust anyone over 30.
And that’s the age they are in the movie. So they don’t trust themselves and therefore
have no compass for their futures. They just look in the mirror and see their
own pretty faces, with a ghost image of their hippie selves hovering nearby. We
can hope that when they left Harold and Sarah’s home at the end of the movie
that they went back to their lives wiser and more committed – not to some
artificial standard of self-righteous, feel-good service, but simply to living
a life you can stand.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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That’s what I can do. My life isn’t perfect, it may not even
be great, but there are great parts to it, and most important, I can stand it.
I won’t be like Alex. I won’t be like any of the characters. I don’t even like
having sex standing up. I’m just going to keep on doing what I like to do, doing
what I need to do, and being who I am, because that’s what I know, that’s what
I’m good at. Whether or not I’m a success is not something I worry about; my
two kids will decide that simply by how they live their lives. So it’s not in
my hands. I guess that’s the one thing I would tell the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big Chill </i>characters if they were with me right now: let it go. If
it works for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frozen</i>, it should work
for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Chill</i>, too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-6306924762121107752014-03-23T19:21:00.000-07:002014-04-01T10:21:07.358-07:00Circe Link (with Christian Nesmith) at Atwoods Tavern, Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 23, 2014Some shows are a little harder to encapsulate than others, so here are five perspectives on a highly satisfying musical experience I enjoyed today.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. There’s a country music subculture in Boston’s club
scene, but this wasn’t part of it. This was a crowd of urban eldernerds excited
at the prospect of seeing a second-generation Monkee and his hot squeeze light
up a tiny taproom in Cambridge on a Sunday afternoon as March Madness raged on
everywhere else.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. Physically, Circe Link is an irresistibly compelling
collage of classic ‘60s beauty. Clad in black form-fitting clothes (the pants
so low-rise that the hip-hugging belt could have done double duty as a chastity
preserver), she resembled Diana Rigg from <i>The Avengers</i>; like Twiggy, she was
impossibly skinny; and her hair was as long, blond, and straight as Joni
Mitchell’s on her first day in Laurel Canyon. </div>
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<br /></div>
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3. Christian Nesmith, the aforementioned prime-time progeny,
is the oldest of Michael Nesmith’s children and, yes, like his father he does
play his own instrument, as well as composes, produces, engineers, and,
interestingly enough, sublimates his own extensive contributions to the act by
remaining unbilled. Though he and Circe are a team in life and in music, the
tour, the show, and the swag for sale were all Circe’s.</div>
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<br /></div>
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4. Without any help from you or I, or big record companies, or
famous friends and relations, Circe Link has recorded eight albums in a style
she calls Cowboy Jazz. This implies that it’s country and yet not, and that is
accurate enough. It’s not particularly rife with improvisation, but given that
Michael Nesmith’s pioneering country-rock was decidedly left of center both in
the realms of country and rock, one should not expect labels to mean much here.
Probably the keenest point of reference would be a Prozacked Patsy Cline, whose
“I Fall To Pieces” was recorded by the elder Nesmith in 1970.</div>
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<br /></div>
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5. The tiny stage barely accommodated the five dedicated artists.
Except for electric bass, all was acoustic: two guitars and a percussionist who
sat on a small bass drum that he played with a brush as if it were a bodhran. Two
generous sets were offered, all original material except for a cover of Michael
Nesmith’s “Calico Girlfriend” from, again, that magical year 1970. Circe’s
voice was warm and engaging; like Karen Carpenter, the bottom end of her range
is very strong and they both could use a sandwich. Christian took many of the
acoustic guitar solos, proving himself to be a fluid player with, OK, maybe a
tinge of jazz among the cowboy.</div>
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<br /></div>
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If a summary is thought necessary, it is this: I pray they make it back to Boston again because both Circe and Christian are very talented, friendly folks who, in the grand Nesmith tradition, take their music more seriously than they take themselves. They are precisely the kind of artists you want to give your money to because they seem so comfortable in their semi-obscurity you almost forget you don't know them personally. In many ways, they're just like your friends - just more talented.<br />
<br />
First set opener:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/rU1S5AuKp0A" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
Newest tune:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/MhEEYWCSZ6c" width="640"></iframe> </div>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-28330855460438595702013-10-03T17:58:00.003-07:002013-10-03T18:00:30.014-07:00King Crimson Returns From the Dead – Again<style>
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--><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The King is dead. Long live the King.
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When the king in question is progressive rock legends King
Crimson, this is not news. Practically alone among all contemporary music
ensembles, King Crimson has made a habit of being active for a few years before
splitting up, then reforming a few years later – typically with a radically
different lineup and sonic palette. Just last week, leader, guitarist, and lone
mainstay Robert Fripp announced that the group, moribund since 2008, would be
“returning to active service” as of September 2014. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Predictably, the lineup (Crimson’s eighth since 1969) is new
and highly unorthodox. The group’s foundation comprises no fewer than three
drummers: previous members Gavin Harrison (on loan from latter-day proggers
Porcupine Tree) and Pat Mastelotto, and Bill Reiflin (REM). On-again, off-again
member Tony Levin (bass and Chapman Stick) is on again. Saxophonist Mel
Collins, who last played with Crimson in 1974, returns, while newcomer Jakko
Jakszyk (who played in a Crimson cover band as well as a trio with Fripp and
Collins) joins Fripp on guitar duties.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As notable as who is in the band is who is not. Guitarist
Adrian Belew, who endured through three lineup changes over the past three
decades, was not asked to participate. On his Facebook page, Belew noted, “<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Robert informed me in an
email that he was starting a 7-piece version of the band. He said I would not
be right for what the band is doing.” Drummer Bill Bruford, widely considered
to be Crimson’s (and the progressive rock genre’s) all-time best drummer,
retired in 2009 after penning his autobiography, which details the increasingly
prickly relationship he had with Fripp at the end of their 20-year association.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fripp
has often said that studio recordings are like love letters while live
performances are hot dates. In a break from group history, the new incarnation
of Crimson has no plans for making a studio recording (the last Crimson album
of new material was released in 2003) and instead is compiling a concert tour
focusing on the U.S., during which the band will perform new renditions of
classic material.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Though
the active-inactive-reactive pattern has long been established, Fripp’s news
has shocked the progressive rock community, largely because Fripp himself
announced his own retirement from performance in an interview with <i>The
Financial Times</i> in August 2012. The original King Crimson went through three
lineups from 1969-1974 before Fripp announced that the band had “ceased to
exist.” It did not reappear until 1981, when Fripp and Bruford reformed with
Americans Belew and Levin. That lineup made three albums in three years and
broke up in 1985, only to reform in 1994 as a “double trio” with two guitarists
(Fripp and Belew), two Stick players (Levin and Trey Gunn), and two drummers
(Bruford and Mastelotto).</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today,
with an eighth lineup after four hiatuses, King Crimson is again, in Fripp’s
words in “Go! mode”. About the only conclusions one can draw from this is that
there is likely in the future to be yet another hiatus with perhaps yet another
lineup – that, and the fact that whatever music this new King Crimson makes, it
will be highly adventurous, unusual, and heavy. In every incarnation, the band
has been a musical pioneer, whether with the Mellotron in the late 60s and
early 70s, group improvisation of the highest order in the mid-70s, intricate
electronic interplay in the 80s, and bombastic noise in the 90s and 00s. In an
era when old bands routinely reform for money rather than from inspiration, it
is refreshing that a consistently noncommercial group like King Crimson feels
it still has useful work to do. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Apparently
Mel Brooks was right. It is good to be the King.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-23658843155956765212013-03-31T07:45:00.001-07:002013-03-31T07:45:13.913-07:00Easter-themed excerpts from "The Grave & The Gay"<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
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--></style><b>My novel, <i>The Grave & The Gay</i>, takes place during Easter time in 17th-century Lancashire, England. Here are two Easter-themed excerpts. You can learn more about the book at <a href="http://jasonmrubin.com/">http://jasonmrubin.com</a>.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
It had been a
brutally hard winter – dozens in the county had died of exposure or illness – and
this much-anticipated sign of change was as welcome to the weary Lancastrians
as the sight of a branch in the beak of Noah’s dove must have been to the
survivors of the Great Deluge. Together with the increased chatter of returning
birds and the reappearance of tight green buds on vines and shrubs, these
heralds of the new season inspired a restless euphoria in all. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Never mind that
one’s breath was still clearly visible at dawn and in the evenings, or that
fires as much for warmth as for cooking still burned in people’s hearths. No,
impatience prevailed and folks were already out and about, preparing for the
Eastertime celebrations to come.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Mind you, in
spring impatience is indeed a virtue. It is the impatience of the crocus
pushing through the damp, softening soil that calls nature again to life. It is
the impatience of the sun, no longer intent to give way to darkness so soon
after supper, that gives light and thus encouragement to all human and natural
pursuits. And it is the impatience of time itself that stands not a day longer
in a single season than it must, because tomorrow is never inevitable and each
day, each season, is a gift to the earth and all who live upon it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
That the advent of
spring and the festival of Easter coincided was Divine inspiration, so it
seemed to Lady Barnard. For the very stakes that her father used to support his
nascent tomatoes and peas in spring reminded her of the cross in her church
upon which the wooden sculpture of Jesus was nailed, awaiting his own ripening
in heaven. Even the Lord’s nickname, the Lamb of God, reminded her of the fresh
lamb that her father killed and her mother cooked and that graced their
festival table on Easter afternoon.</div>
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In this season
rich with tradition, small bands of enterprising young men gathered in taverns,
on porches, in fields, and even in the rear pews on Sunday mornings, enlisting
like-minded merry-makers to join their pace-egging troupes. “Pace”, of course,
is from the Latin <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pacha</i>, or spring.
And eggs are the season’s most common symbol of rebirth. In this part of the
country, the pace-eggers journey from town to town each Easter Sunday in wild
costumes and with a song of entreaty, requesting favors – usually eggs boiled
in onionskin or coins of any value – which they repay with a farcical play.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dramatis personae</i> of this play includes
such rich characters as the Lady Gay, the Soldier Brave, and the notorious Old
Tosspot, whose coal-blackened face gapes and guffaws above the basket he waves
to hold the aforementioned favors. In his other hand, the stronger one in fact,
he holds a straw tail stuffed with pins, which he swings madly towards those
who either are slow in paying into the basket or who have the temerity to try
and steal its precious contents. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Following the play
– not the Passion narrative as such, although a comical death and a magical
rebirth of sorts usually transpires – Old Tosspot again bullies the crowd for
favors. When the audience disperses for their own feasts, the eggs are eaten
(and shells crushed, lest witches use them as boats to spread their spells and
unholy mischief to other locales, so the legend goes) and the coins shared and
pocketed, or else tendered in exchange for mugs of ale. The pace-eggers then
make their way to another village and the entire act plays out again. By the
end of the holiday, the pace-eggers would have consumed enough eggs and ale to
keep them in their beds well into the following day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Yet even as the
men were organizing their bands; even as the women were cleaning their houses
and making room in their kitchens for the game they would pluck and cook, and
the pies and cakes they would bake; even as children dreaded the clean, newly
knit clothes they had to wear to church, and the switch they knew would be
taken to them if they misbehaved during the service, even with all this
activity, this anticipation, at high pitch – still Easter was half a fortnight
away.</div>
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Perhaps a milder
winter would not have inspired such relentless desire of spring and all its
vernal wonders. Yet rarely is spring met with indifference, especially here in
Lancashire, still a Catholic stronghold, where the faithful greet this time of
year with hope, for all have the capacity to change, to grow. And if the sun
finds us and we strengthen in the warmth of its light, we, too, may be reborn
in an eternal spring, a perfected flower in God’s vast, loving garden.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
.............</div>
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<br /></div>
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As soon as they
reached the front porch, Lady Barnard could see the citizenry gathering in the
street. She was eager to join them and all but pulled Darnell down the front
steps with her. As they walked into town, Lady Barnard was entranced by the
sight of so many people arrayed in their finery – or what passed for it, as few
had the means to bedeck themselves in the elegant fabrics and jewels she had
donned – and talking and laughing gaily in the morning sun. </div>
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They seemed to her
like a bouquet of butterflies flitting and fluttering about. And when she
passed through a throng, they scattered aside, not only in respect to her
ladyship, but also in awe of her clothing and overall appearance. It reminded
her of how she would run through a flock of birds as a child and delight in how
they would flee from her waving arms and stomping feet, then she would beckon
them back to her by spreading handfuls of her father’s grain on the ground.</div>
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This was what she
had yearned for and needed. She was among the people, she had their attention,
and they were both pleasantly surprised and soundly impressed by her beauty. Of
course, this satisfied Darnell’s wishes as well, and in spite of the pain and
nausea that wracked his insides he held his chin high with rare feelings of pride
and self-satisfaction. </div>
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For Lady Barnard,
however, this was just the beginning of satisfaction. Her true desire was not
to be above the crowd – separate from it, as she had been before – but truly to
be part of it. And so she tried, a bit awkwardly at first, to converse with
them, to wish them a good holiday, to compliment the better of the bonnets and
dresses that she saw.</div>
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The result was
more than she could have anticipated. The townspeople, sufficiently delighted
at merely the rare sighting of her, were positively entranced to learn that she
was open, kind, and curious. More of them crowded around her, slowing her
progress to the church. Not a few noted that her demeanor, so different from
past years, was all the more engaging now without the presence of her husband,
a man many respected but for whom few felt affection – or even really knew.
Their indifference to him had never quite been directed with the same fervor at
Lady Barnard, partly out of pity for her, partly because not enough was known
of her to form an opinion.</div>
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In truth, no one
in the town had much direct contact with her, if any at all. The man on her arm
this day, Darnell the house servant, was for all intents and purposes her agent
in the village. He ran almost all of her errands, and communicated her requests
to various vendors. The people did not think much of the fact that Darnell was
her escort to church – most knew Lord Barnard was out of town (though none knew
he had prohibited his wife from leaving the house) and, after all, a servant does
what a servant is commanded to do – though Darnell imagined that his stock
among the people with whom he dealt daily rose significantly by virtue of his
being seen with her in public.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Though she was
impatient to actually get to the church for Easter Mass, she was only too happy
to indulge her newfound admirers and she radiated pure pleasure at their close
company. Darnell, however, took it as his responsibility to ensure that the
presumed objective was achieved, and begged the crowd to move along so that all
may begin the holiday commemoration. Thus, their pace accelerated, and soon the
church, from steeple to steps, rose into view.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
The church was set
up on an elevation flanked by a dense grove of pine trees. The ornate mahogany
doors and stained glass windows were imported from Italy (through connections
of Lord Barnard’s father, who also contributed a significant share of their
cost), but the parishioners were proud to have done most of the construction
themselves. The elder Barnard, in fact, had fashioned a number of the pews
himself using the adjacent supply of pine.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
The front lawn of
the church was of a sufficiently low grade that it was easy to walk up to the
entrance from the street. Lush green and clear of the towering trees that
brought shade to the other sides of the structure, the grounds were a popular
site for picnics and games. And if Reverend Collins noticed that there were
more than a few who came often for recreation and rarely or never for spiritual
reflection, he was heartened that they at least had come to pass their time on
sacred ground.</div>
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When Darnell and
Lady Barnard entered the church, they continued to attract the stares of the
congregation. Swiftly, they walked towards the front pew. As they approached
it, a man sitting on the end arose and offered the lady and her escort his
seat. It was Matty, and he smiled and bowed at Lady Barnard with his most
affecting expression. Her heart fell out of its rhythm momentarily and she
nearly gasped at finally seeing from less than an arm’s length away the man
about whom she had fantasized. Recovering her composure, she nodded to Matty
and proceeded forward into the pew. Darnell, at her side, came after, greeting
Matty with a thinly veiled sneer. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When was the last time Matty came to church
on time</i>, he wondered, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and when had he
ever sat so close to the Virgin (or any virgin)?</i> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Indeed, having
sacrificed his seat, Matty moved to the rear of the church. Lady Barnard turned
to watch him walk away. Without removing her eyes from his departing backside,
she leaned towards Darnell and inquired, “What is that man’s name?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
“That is Matthew
Musgrave, who minds Lord Barnard’s horses,” he replied, not without a trace of derision
in his voice. “He is called Matty. I hope he has not tracked in straw that may
soil your clothing.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Lady Barnard
nodded with a wisp of a smile upon her lips. She might have turned back to
steal another look at the object of her longing, but the choir launched into a
hymn she only faintly heard as her attention turned inward to the theatre of
her imagination, where the curtains were slowly opening. </div>
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<br /></div>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-80701558727205696902013-03-22T21:48:00.000-07:002013-03-22T21:48:50.866-07:00After 40 Years, King Crimson's Larks' Tongues in Aspic Is Still a Delicacy
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One of my favorite albums of all time is one that I bought
in error. One summer, I had served an apprenticeship of sorts. It was 1978, I
was 15 years old, and I was working at a summer camp where I became friends
with a guy named David Kaplan. He was a few years older than me and a very good
guitarist, shy but also very funny. And he had exceptional taste in music:
jazz, fusion, progressive rock. I expressed interest and he was happy to school
me. It is thanks to him that I am a fanatic about Gentle Giant. It was through
him that I first heard the music of Chick Corea. And it was because of him that
I became introduced to King Crimson.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If memory serves, he only had one King Crimson album, but it
was one that I liked very much. The album was called <i>Starless and Bible Black</i>
and it had been released in 1974, back when I was listening to the Monkees, the
Osmond Brothers, and the Jackson Five. What struck me most was the first song,
a barnstormer called “The Great Deceiver,” which began with the startling couplet,
“Health food faggot with a bartered bride/Likes to comb his hair with a dipper
ride.” I found it funny but the music itself was relentlessly exciting,
aggressive, and surprising. I didn’t know it at the time, but much of it was
improvised and recorded live in concert, though the applause had been edited
out so it appeared to be a studio-recorded album.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The musicians were Robert Fripp on guitar, John Wetton on
bass and vocals, David Cross on violin, and Bill Bruford on drums. David told
me that if I liked this album, then I might like the debut album by a new group
called U.K., which featured both Wetton and Bruford. This would prove a pattern
for me. As I became more sophisticated about music, I would be drawn to bands
already defunct or decaying and ignore the music scene that existed around me
currently. In 1978, I was ignorant of the emerging New Wave, except for local
heroes The Cars. But I couldn’t be bothered because I had nearly a decade of
prog history to catch up on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When camp was over, I went on a shopping spree. I bought
Gentle Giant’s <i>Free Hand</i> and U.K.’s eponymous album. Next, I went searching for
the King Crimson album with the funny lyric and ferocious music. Trouble was, I
couldn’t remember the name of the album or even the cover image. I could,
however, for whatever reason, recall the typography (it would be a full decade
before I found myself actually working for a digital font company). In one
store’s rack, I scoured the King Crimson section and found what I thought was
what I was looking for. I bought it, took it home, unsealed it, and put it on
my turntable. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Immediately, I knew I had purchased the wrong album. Where
<i>Starless and Bible Black</i> had opened with a bang, this one opened with a
kalimba, an African thumb piano. Soft percussion builds over the first minute
until a violin enters and then fades, reappearing at the three-minute mark,
where soon it is joined by Fripp’s guitar. Violin dominates until about 4:30,
when all hell breaks loose, and for the first time I am assured that even if I
had the album wrong, at least I got the group right.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The album I purchased was <i>Larks’ Tongues in Aspic</i>, released
40 years ago today, on March 23, 1973. It was the first edition of the group to
feature the lineup I detailed earlier, and in fact included an additional
musician, percussionist Jamie Muir, who left shortly after the album was
recorded to join a monastery. The lineup was responsible for the two albums
already mentioned, as well as 1974’s <i>Red</i> (the follow-up studio release to
<i>Starless and Bible Black</i>, which featured the much-reduced presence of violinist
Cross), and a live album, <i>USA</i>, released in 1975 but recorded prior to <i>Red</i>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdPfDPtlXt5m2MPbo80uoeS3U7jIKJd3UtIAj52o1Z4anZxj-lfb_OcZmjf8MouNUXetQ07lB6zP2xT1MmEJv0An6CIAXDIZ2W5G9mSn9SVuu-hw9npqZXU8ddgWNqxWOk0BQoELW_0yNh/s1600/Larks-Tongues-in-Aspic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdPfDPtlXt5m2MPbo80uoeS3U7jIKJd3UtIAj52o1Z4anZxj-lfb_OcZmjf8MouNUXetQ07lB6zP2xT1MmEJv0An6CIAXDIZ2W5G9mSn9SVuu-hw9npqZXU8ddgWNqxWOk0BQoELW_0yNh/s320/Larks-Tongues-in-Aspic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the next 46-and-a-half minutes, <i>Larks’ Tongues in Aspic</i>
beat me into submission. It was an overwhelming experience. It began, I
suppose, with the cover, a striking sun/moon image that had no words on it at
all. The 13:36 opener, “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part 1,” went through various
sections, alternately fast and slow, incorporating at one point dialogue from a
television drama. In later years, when I first heard Arvo Pärt’s “Miserere,” I
likened it to this track as it repeatedly goes from hushed tones to
full-throttle chaos in an instant.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The opening track is followed by a short but lovely ballad.
“Book of Saturday” clocks in at just under three minutes and features guitar,
bass, and violin, along with a nice vocal. It is as calming as the previous
track was unnerving. Side 1 ends with “Exiles,” another vocal number; that and
the three songs on Side 2 all range between just over seven and just under
eight minutes long. “Exiles” is a mostly gentle song featuring the full band, a
minor mellow epic that seems to suggest that the opening track was an
aberration; that the tunes, short or long, are ambitious but soothing. The
opening to Side 2 quickly dispels this notion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Easy Money,” the Side 2 opener, brings back the dark
dissonance in another multi-part piece that has no trouble balancing a near-a
capella opening verse with full-band, full-throttle musical mania. Bruford is a
master at repelling any attempt on the listener’s part to tap their foot along
with the beat. Just when it seems you have it, it changes and as much as it may
initially seem that he’s hitting his snare at random intervals, you realize
there’s a logic to it and that he’s in complete control at all times, sometimes
making his statement with a crack of the snare and sometimes making it with
utter silence. The song ends with the rather frightening sound of a laugh box.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is followed by a mesmerizing instrumental called “The
Talking Drum,” which very slowly and gradually builds from a barely audible
groove to a revving turbo charge of energy that must soon be ready to release –
yet it doesn’t. It stops on a dime with the metallic opening riff of the
album’s closer, “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part 2.” Very unlike “Part 1,” this
one is a straight hard blast of immense electric power, a roiling instrumental
that takes no prisoners and shows no mercy.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOJphv-rB2GBB_YrEu6MAlOaVue8JpuQWrUvApgsXk9TCS-PZRe_eqLlcQpJZmt1iQZGKtfJQpBrtZFdZQyMwi9O2leJv04YD5aRtp2E5dlaqYyM__bV8aAN3kaqMIxS9B82xxR8zPnrQ/s1600/king_crimson_-_starless_and_bible_black.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOJphv-rB2GBB_YrEu6MAlOaVue8JpuQWrUvApgsXk9TCS-PZRe_eqLlcQpJZmt1iQZGKtfJQpBrtZFdZQyMwi9O2leJv04YD5aRtp2E5dlaqYyM__bV8aAN3kaqMIxS9B82xxR8zPnrQ/s320/king_crimson_-_starless_and_bible_black.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Thus it was that I ended up instantly loving this album that
I bought in error, which only served to propel me back to a different store to
find <i>Starless and Bible Black</i> and explore the King Crimson catalogue
thoroughly, just as I began to do with the prog and fusion artists mentioned
earlier and others that I and my friends were yet to discover. Forty years
after <i>Larks’ Tongues in Aspic</i> was released, 35 after I first heard it, it
remains a remarkable work that is always in power rotation on my home stereo.</div>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-17793876764035048712013-02-03T08:12:00.000-08:002013-02-03T08:12:15.534-08:00Super Bowl MVP: Jethro Tull
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I’m sitting in my apartment this Super Bowl Sunday morning
watching a light snow fall outside my window. I’m listening to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jethro Tull’s Live – Bursting Out</i>, a
two-CD set that faithfully recreates the original two-LP set I remember buying
decades ago at King’s department store in Dedham, Massachusetts. King’s became
Zayre, which became Ames, which left about 10 years ago. I don’t know what’s
there now.</div>
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For me, purchasing music at a department store was an
unusual occurrence. I preferred to patronize record stores, new or used, where
immersing in the culture and camaraderie was half the fun of shopping. I did
once buy another two-LP set at Bradlee’s (another long since defunct department
store), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Focus 3</i>, but I recall that
being a happy accident; I wasn’t there to buy music but curiosity motioned me
towards the paltry record department where I found the treasured record with
the lenticular cover.</div>
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Of course, none of this has anything to do with the Super
Bowl, but it does serve to demonstrate that nine days shy of my 50<sup>th</sup>
birthday my hippocampus still retains some memories.</div>
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As a kid I was fervent fan of the Boston, then New England,
Patriots. I had a t-shirt with the old Pat Patriot logo on the front and the
legend, “I gave the Pats a pat on the back” on the reverse. They were never a
great team but their uniforms featured my favorite color, red, and they were,
after all, the hometown team. When they moved into their own stadium for the
first time in 1971, my father bought season tickets and I went to most home games
for most of the decade. I still have two commemorative plastic coins from the
inaugural regular season game at Schaefer Stadium, which was held on September
19, 1971, a contest between the Patriots and the Oakland Raiders, which the
good guys, led by first-round draft pick Jim Plunkett, the previous year’s
Heisman Trophy winner from Stanford, won, 20-6.</div>
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Despite their lack of success most year, I loved the team.
The idea that they might one day be a model franchise and annual powerhouse in
the NFL couldn’t have been further from reality back then. I went to the one
and only home playoff game that Stadium hosted, against the Houston Oilers in
1978, which they lost badly. I recall the ticket for the game had on it a
picture of tight end Russ Francis, my favorite player at the time. </div>
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In 1985, the Patriots went on an improbable run through the
playoffs, finding themselves horribly overmatched in Super Bowl XX against the
Chicago Bears. The score at halftime was 23-3 and seemed worse than that. My
friends and I stopped watching at that point. The Patriots ended up losing what
I assumed would be their only Super Bowl appearance 46-10.</div>
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Amazingly, the Patriots made it back to the Super Bowl in
1997, although again their unlikely rise to the AFC championship made the loss
to the Green Bay Packers also inevitable as of halftime, though the Patriots
were a bit more competitive.</div>
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Then came the Bill Belichick era and the ascendancy to
football’s Mt. Olympus of Tom Brady. Still, that first Super Bowl victory over
the St. Louis Rams on February 3, 2002, 11 years ago to the day, was a real
shocker and remains the best Super Bowl victory of the Patriots’ trifecta.
Since then, any Patriots season that doesn’t end with a ring and a Duck Boat
parade is treated in these parts as a crushing disappointment. I don’t share
that view. Having endured mediocrity for so long, I thrill at every great play
and every great game throughout the regular season, and there have been many
over the last decade. Sure, I regret the two Super Bowl losses to the New York
Giants in 2008 and 2012, but my cherished team has been to the big show seven
times and that means I’ve been lucky enough to see a shitload of great football.</div>
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Tonight, the San Francisco 49ers will be playing the
Baltimore Ravens. While I obviously wish the Patriots were vying for another
championship, I have been so relaxed the last two weeks and will have a good
time tonight no matter what the result. If the Patriots were playing, I would
have been an anxiety-ridden mess and would have watched the game tonight
standing up and pacing as I have for the Patriots’ last four Super Bowl
appearances.</div>
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I remember back in college days and shortly thereafter, the
Super Bowl was the second order of business of the day. The undercard was the
Boston Celtics game. A couple of years, my friends and I went to a restaurant
called the Ground Round and set up shop at the bar all day long, enjoying
pitchers of Bloody Marys and plates of nachos while watching the Larry Bird Celtics
annihilate their opponent, moving on to pitchers of beers and burgers during
the Super Bowl, each of us taking turns to go out to the car and take a few
hits of a communal joint.</div>
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Today, the .500 Celtics will be playing the first-place Los
Angeles Clippers, a reversal of fortune that doesn’t much excite me. But at
night, I will again be in the company of friends for a game that even non-football
fans tune in for. I have no dog in this race, but the fact that I’m still
hanging with my old school friends and listening to Jethro Tull is in its own way a meaningful victory in
and of itself.</div>
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Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-596337638950412272013-01-09T17:45:00.000-08:002013-01-09T17:45:00.529-08:00Dr. Justinlove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BiebOn 9/11, I learned an important lesson: that I can’t protect
my children from terrorists. Even before that, however, I learned that I
couldn’t protect them from popular culture. Sometimes, I wonder which is worse.<br />
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My older daughter, Hannah, was almost five on 9/11. I had
tried hard to keep bad influences from her. The worst of the bad influences, to
my way of thinking, were Raffi, the singer of insipid children’s songs, and
Barney, the dinosaur most in need of extinction. Musically, I raised her on a
diet of Peter, Paul & Mary, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles: music that
wasn’t jarring but yet was fulfilling. I sang her to sleep with gentle,
kid-friendly songs by legitimate writers, such as Kenny Loggins’ “House at Pooh
Corner”, Paul Williams’ “Rainbow Connection”, and Bob Thiele’s “What a
Wonderful World”. On nights when she outlasted my usual repertoire, I sang a
<i>lentissimo</i> version of Boston’s “More Than a Feeling.”</div>
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But there was only so much I could do. At school, she
learned Raffi’s “Baby Beluga”; from classmates, she found out about Barney.
Though as she grew older we shared a love of singing soundtracks from musicals
such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grease</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wicked</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hairspray</i>, as
a teenager she has become an avid listener of top 40 stations, and the strains
of Rihanna, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Brittney Spears, Pink, Bruno Mars, et al,
comprise the sum total of her listening interests.</div>
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Unintentionally but perhaps not without reason, I had a
second daughter, Stella, 10 years after Hannah was born. Once again, I tried to
manage her exposure to popular culture. But just as Hannah grew up faster than
did girls of my generation, Stella is growing up even faster than Hannah. I
never even got to the Beatles with Stella. She wants to listen to what her
sister listens to. And so she has become, at the tender age of
six, a fan of Justin Bieber. </div>
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Though she hasn’t asked for a Justin Bieber backpack, she
has pointed out with some degree of envy a classmate decked out in full
Bieberphile gear. And on a recent trip to the library, Stella insisted we
borrow the Bieber documentary <i>Never Say Never</i>. I insisted she watch it with
headphones on. She insisted I watch it with her. Because I love my daughter, I
didn’t refuse her. But now I wish I had, though not for the reason you might
think.</div>
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I remember years ago when Marilyn Manson was all the rage –
and I do mean rage. Everywhere he performed, there were protests. Many of his
shows were cancelled because local parents and authorities thought there would
be violence or some kind of satanic ritual. I hadn’t heard Manson’s music and
being apathetic to the whole situation, I tended to side with the censors, assuming
there was nothing particularly worthwhile with his music anyway. Then I
happened to catch a newsmagazine show in which the Manson mania was being
investigated. I saw him, heard him, saw clips of his performance, and said,
“Oh, he’s just updating the Alice Cooper thing. Completely harmless
entertainment. Those parents and authorities are idiots.”</div>
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The same sort of thing attended any thoughts I may
previously have had about Justin Bieber. That his music is not made for me is
obvious, but his type – the young white teenybopper playing bubble gum love
songs to young girls on the cusp of puberty – is something that comes along
every generation. In my own youth, the role had been filled by the likes of
David Cassidy, Donny Osmond, Leif Garrett, Andy Gibb, and Shaun Cassidy. At the
worst, these teen idols were responsible for some exceedingly disposable pop
music (and, I must admit, the occasional guilty pleasure, such as the Partridge
Family’s “Echo Valley 2-6809”).</div>
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At their best, however, I always thought such music was a
gateway drug of sorts. Before young girls got fascinated by the teen idols,
they probably had little interest in music, little awareness for how a song can
touch you and speak to you, little understanding that a musician can add
meaning to your entire existence. People always outgrow their teen idols. But
they don’t outgrow their passion for music. Having heard it plenty lately, I
now realize that there’s not such a great gulf between Bieber’s “U Smile” and
Journey’s “Lights”. A sappy ballad transcends ages and genres.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/a0Z2MqFstkA" width="480"></iframe> </div>
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So I sat and watched <i>Never Say Never</i> with Stella. I’m glad
it was more documentary than concert film, as I learned a lot about him. He
seems to have had a natural talent for music, learning drums, guitar, and piano
at a young age. He also seems to have always been extraordinarily charismatic,
with no fear of standing out in a crowd and expressing himself. His truly
meteoric success is not the result of an obnoxious, pressuring mother but his
own deeply felt calling to be a performer. I can respect all that.</div>
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As a superstar, he seems pretty down to earth, still wanting
to do the things that kids his age do. His entourage is quite diverse in terms
of race, age, and gender, and he appears to have close relationships with
everyone around him. His voice is still too young not to grate on my nearly
half-century-old ears, and his music is indeed as lightweight when listening
closely to it as it seems when trying to ignore it. But he’s very likable and
there’s very little apparent pretense. The enormity of his success is as
staggering as the fact that he’s really just a cute kid who can sing and dance
a bit. He doesn’t pretend to be more than that and he’s not marketed as being
much more than that.</div>
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To my great embarrassment, there is a sequence in the film
that moves me to tears. It begins with his agent and manager walking around
towns on show dates, looking for where young girls are congregating. They
approach and say they’re with the Bieber tour, asking if they’re going to the
show. When they find real fans with no tickets, they give them some. And not
just teens and tweens; a disappointed mother who feels she let down her
daughter explodes in teary gratitude when handed the ducats. I don’t exactly
know why this should make <i>me</i> cry, but I think it’s something about my feelings
of inadequacy, based on my income and life situation, in providing for my
children the special things they deserve and desire.</div>
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These scenes are followed by a song called “One Less Lonely
Girl” that becomes an interesting experience in concert. When he begins the
song, Bieber’s people go out in the crowd and select a suitably cute and
emotional girl to be the title character. Towards the end of the song, the girl
is brought out to sit on a stool at center stage. Bieber comes out from the
side of the stage, singing. He is handed a bouquet of long-stem red roses,
which he presents to the girl and proceeds to circle her, singing only to her,
occasionally touching her face and stroking her arm as she sobs into her hand.
Rather than being jealous, the crowd eats this up and when the girls return to their
seats, their friends hug them tightly. One girl all but screamed through her
tears, “I just love him so much!”</div>
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Again, I’m not sure why it makes <i>me</i> cry, but it does make me
realize just what Justin Bieber is: he’s a dream-maker. He’s made his own dreams
come true, and he does the same for his audience. To me, that’s what being an
artist is all about. His music may fall well short of any moderate aesthetic
standards, and he may not have the depth of spirit of an artist, but he’s doing
his job which is the job of the artist: to inspire, to heal, to enable the
listener or the viewer to transcend the immediate reality and be propelled into
the world of dreams. Now, I can’t do everything for my children, but I’ll be
damned if I’ll jeer from the sidelines when someone is doing that for them,
whether it’s Justin Bieber or even a dumb-ass purple dinosaur.</div>
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Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-28703887534950135632012-11-04T19:26:00.000-08:002012-11-04T19:28:21.905-08:00Knowing when to clapThis past weekend, I went to a jazz concert featuring a large ensemble playing the music of John Coltrane, and a chamber music concert of works by 19th and 20th century composers. A couple of months ago, I went to see a ukulele trio at a folk club and with some luck I might soon be able to see The Who during its 54th farewell tour. I like having “big ears” and enjoy the fact that many different kinds of music move me. Like many people, I believe seeing music performed live is the ultimate experience – if only ticket prices were lower or my salary higher, I would see live music every week.
<p>
<p>Seeing jazz and classical music in the same weekend was aurally very exciting but I had to remain mindful of a key distinction between the two genres: when to clap. At jazz concerts, every soloist gets applause at the conclusion of their solo and a single tune could have five or more solos. In classical music, even when a piece has three or four parts or movements, applause must be held until the very end. I find that frustrating, since within a given movement, there are many times when a musician will play some very difficult and thrilling passages and I feel compelled to show my respect and appreciation. But out of decorum, I remain silent.
<p>
<p>The hardest thing is at the end of a movement. The silence is more deafening, it’s downright uncomfortable. The only sounds one hears are the musicians adjusting their music or doing minor maintenance to their instruments (in the case of a French horn player I saw today, that included turning it over so his spit could drain out). It’s critically important to keep track of the movements so you know which is the final one. Of the three pieces I heard today, the first and third had three movements and the second had four. I have to admit I got confused and almost clapped at the of the second piece’s third movement.
<p>
<p>The other important thing to remember about clapping at a classical concert is that at the conclusion of a piece, and at the end of the concert proper, the players will bow once or twice, then leave the stage. You must, however, keep clapping because they will return to acknowledge all the applause the audience has been struggling to contain throughout the performance. Then they go off stage again. If the performance was particularly bravura-riffic, like at the end of an opera, they may do this several times. Regardless of how many times they are brought back, however, they will not do an encore. They just want the applause.
<p>
<p>It can be challenging at a jazz concert, too, because the culture of clapping at every solo can sometimes be a little much. After all, not every solo is stellar and deserving of special applause. Also, sometimes one player’s solo leads directly to another player’s solo and applause for the first player will make it difficult to hear the start of the second player’s solo. Do you disrespect the first player in order to show respect to the second player, or respect the first player at the expense of the second player’s chance to shine?
<p>
<p>In between numbers, there isn’t much noise. The musicians don’t talk much and the audience quietly awaits the next tune. This is very different from a rock concert, where the artists are yelling at the audience, egging them on, and the audience responds with constant shouts and screams, and hoots and hollers. Particularly well-lubricated yahoos yell during quiet moments, and steadfastly clap in 4/4 even when the band is playing in 6/8. At the end of a rock performance, the audience, hungry for an encore – often simply to delay the inevitable crush trying to get out of the venue – may be left clapping for as much as 10 minutes until the band, redrugged and refreshed, comes out for a hit song or two that they deliberately omitted from the set list to ensure they would get an encore. Then they leave the stage again and the audience will hope that their clapping inspires the houselights to remain off. If so, the band has earned a legitimate encore.
<p>
<p>Folk audiences are probably the most patient of all, because every folk song has some kind of story behind it that the folk singer feels compelled to explain. So they listen quietly and attentively to the story of the song, then to the song itself. Then they clap and wait for the next story, and the next song. Folk audiences are small so they tend to clap all the more loudly to make up for their paltry numbers.
<p>
<p>Sometimes, an appreciative artist will applaud the audience. I’ve always wondered why. I suppose it’s because we clapped at the right times. Still, I’ve never earned an encore so I guess there’s room for improvement.
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-90278750058850747532012-10-24T09:12:00.000-07:002012-11-04T19:28:02.602-08:00The Not-So-Great DebatesFrench philosopher Joseph de Maistre is credited with originating the adage, “Every nation has the government it deserves.” He used it in a letter in 1811, and it has been adopted by many a political cynic ever since. It applies as well in the current day and particularly at the conclusion of the three Presidential debates between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. For if Americans can agree on one thing, it might be that the legacy of the Lincoln-Douglas debates as a model of intelligent argument is in no danger of being supplanted; at the same time, we indeed got the debates we deserved.
<p>To review, here is what we got: three moderated, televised encounters of 90 minutes each; the focus of each debate, and in some cases the very questions themselves, were known to each candidate in advance. What transpired, then, was a well-rehearsed recitation of stances and accusations, with an assortment of pre-composed snappy zingers designed to serve as the ultimate takeaways.
<p>Of the three moderators, the first, Jim Lehrer, was highly ineffective, letting the candidates run roughshod over the format and rules; the second, Candy Crowley, was more assertive, even parental, in keeping her charges in order; and the third, Bob Schieffer, basically ran the debate as a regular installment of <i>Face the Nation</i>.
<p>Of the three debates, while partisans keep their own scorecards most agree that Romney outperformed a seemingly unprepared Obama in the first; the second, in a more comfortable “town meeting” format, was probably a draw; and the third, which focused on foreign policy, was won by Obama, who could point to real accomplishments and specific policies whereas Romney could only lament that more radical changes in the geopolitical map hadn’t resulted from the previous four years.
<p><b>Winners and Losers</b><br>
As I mentioned, partisans scored each debate differently, but all seemed to use a common set of criteria, in which performance was more important than substance. To the latter point, the population learned there was a subculture of “fact checkers” in the country who jockeyed among each other to have the last word as to which statements by which candidate had at least the ring of truth to them. Like a recount, the truth-to-lies ratios wouldn’t be digested until a day or two after each debate, but it’s clear that the public reaction to the performance of each candidate himself was the truest arbiter of success.
<p>As a partisan liberal, I watched the first debate and had to admit that Romney performed better. On the other hand, I didn’t agree with the content of his opinions – even those few that traversed the fact-checker apparatus unscathed. In terms of content, when I could discern it from Obama’s naturally halting style of delivery, I sided with the President consistently. Romney said the wrong things more forcefully, which resulted in him winning the debate; even though Obama was far more truthful, he took a hit in public opinion polls across the country.
<p>In the second debate, Obama was more energized, more assertive, more likely to hit back at Romney’s jabs. He didn’t score a knockout but given that his candidacy could have been considered over if he had repeated his lackluster performance in the first debate, it was considered a moral victory and helped to halt his slide in the polls.
<p>By the third debate, any of the mythical undecided voters that remained most likely either knew whom they were voting for or decided not to vote at all. Or maybe they’ll vote for Jill Stein, who was excluded from the mainstream of the Presidential race even though she will appear on the ballot. But given the focus on foreign policy and the fact that Obama had the death of Osama bin Laden on his resume and Romney had only a mistake-prone international trip to recommend him, it’s no surprise that Obama won on both style and substance.
<p>Between 66 and 67 million people watched the first two debates; viewership of the third was expected to be smaller because it was the final one and because it went up against Monday Night Football. Compare those figures to numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, verified on February 6, 2012, which show that more than 206 million Americans are eligible to vote, and more than 146 million were at that time registered to vote. Just over 131 million voted in the 2008 Presidential election. Most people, then, either ignored the debates or were content to consume second-hand highlights on the news, Twitter, Facebook, and other media.
<p><b>Learning From the Past</b><br>
Compare all this with the Lincoln-Douglas debates. At the outset, it’s important to note that the seven one-on-one confrontations that took place from August to October, 1858, were part of the Illinois Senatorial race. There was no national audience – at least not initially. The two would compete for the Presidency in 1860 but in accordance with the practice of the day, none of the four candidates for President that year campaigned for themselves.
<p>The format for the debates was akin to the common practice of stump speaking. None of the debates were moderated. Either Stephen A. Douglas, the incumbent, or Abraham Lincoln, the challenger, would open with a speech that typically ran an hour in length. The other would then speak for at least as long, followed by a 30-minute rebuttal from whomever spoke first. And keep in mind, they were talking at such length largely about a single subject: slavery in the territories.
<p>So each debate ran about two-and-a-half to three hours. More often than not, the audience of as many as 10,000-15,000 people stood and listened. While the speeches were mostly directed to the audience, the candidates typically posed questions to each other, to be answered in rebuttal or in the next debate. Transcripts were printed in newspapers throughout the state. No winner was ruled in any of the debates; the proof of the pudding was in the statewide election, which Douglas won. Nonetheless, the well-organized and clearly expressed content of Lincoln’s highly logical arguments made him a rising star of the state’s fledgling Republican party and helped him capture the Presidential nomination for the 1860 contest.
<p>Lincoln’s strong content, which history has shown espoused the morally correct position, stood somewhat in contrast to his actual performance. Lincoln, at six feet four inches – as freakishly tall in his day as an NBA center is in ours – towered over Douglas, who was a full foot shorter. Physically, Lincoln was gangly and awkward. An observer noted that when he spoke, Lincoln would “bend his knees so they would almost touch the platform, and then … shoot himself to full height, emphasizing his utterances in a very forcible manner.”
<p>Though he had and retains a well-earned reputation as an engaging storyteller, his voice was best suited to small groups at a general store. For such a large and powerful man, he had a rather high-pitched voice, and his frontier drawl and odd pronunciation of certain words probably played less well in front of a large audience. He was ridiculed mercilessly in newspapers and magazines around the world in his own lifetime; it is fortunate that he lived before television and its unceasing influence on our own image-driven age.
<p>Richard Nixon was not as lucky. A century after Lincoln’s first successful campaign for President, John F. Kennedy took on Nixon in the nation’s first televised debates. While there were four debates, people only remember and talk about the first one, in which Nixon looked haggard and unkempt next to Kennedy’s youthful glow. It is commonly thought that radio listeners believed Nixon won the first debate though television viewers gave the night overwhelmingly to Kennedy. A subsequent study suggests that this is a political myth, but the first debate stands as such a classic referendum on style over substance that no one remembers Nixon’s much stronger performances over the next three debates or the fact that the race was one of the closest ever, with Kennedy capturing 49.72% of the popular vote to Nixon’s 49.55%.
<p><b>We the People</b><br>
The fact is, though many of us bemoan the negative ads, the preemption of our favorite shows as multiple networks carried the debates, and the assumption that all politicians are dishonest, we the people have the government, the debates, and the political process we deserve.
<p>Who among us would watch three hours of political rhetoric in a single sitting (or standing)? Who among us would read speech transcripts, wrestle with complex policy distinctions instead of snappy one-liners, and place greater value over a candidate’s words and ideas instead of his or her physical appearance and comportment? We like to think we would but that’s not how we’re wired and it’s not how the media wants to serve us. Instead, the campaign for the most powerful office in the world is run like a reality show with instant and constant popularity polls, secret alliances, and a flexible definition of “reality.”
<p>Behind it all is the nefarious issue of money and I won’t even address that here. Suffice to say, the Oval Office is for sale to the highest bidder. And that won’t change until and unless we can force our elected officials to change it – but then we’d be asking them to change a system that supports their very careers. That’s democracy, you might say. But I would disagree. WE are democracy and to get the government we deserve, we need to be more deserving of the government we desire.
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-17932948737855082262012-09-10T10:31:00.001-07:002012-09-10T10:39:10.620-07:00Published at last!It was four years ago, on <a href="http://dovenestedtowers.blogspot.com/2008/07/current-projects-ii-novel.html">July 1, 2008</a>, that I first blogged about my then-in-progress first novel, <i>The Grave and the Gay</i>. It's been a long road since then, filled with many rejection notices from agents and small publishers - not to mention a divorce and a totaled car - but I am pleased and proud to announce that my book has finally been published by Indianapolis-based VantagePoint Media. It is currently available on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/098496309X">Amazon.com</a> and <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-grave-and-the-gay-jason-m-rubin/1112743900?ean=9780984963096">BarnesandNoble.com</a> at a very fair price.
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Concurrent with the book being published, I have launched my own website: <a href="http://jasonmrubin.com">Jason M. Rubin/A Writer's Pad</a>. I invite readers to check it out and learn more about my background and work.Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-84798172177882040882012-09-07T09:48:00.000-07:002012-09-07T09:50:35.249-07:00The Waterboys - Fisherman's BluesAbout a year or so ago, a series of small album-themed books called 33-1/3 was bought by a new publisher, which then decided to request proposals for new books in the series. I seized the opportunity to submit a proposal to write a book about the Waterboys album, <i>Fisherman's Blues</i>. Unfortunately, the opportunity did not seize me: my proposal was rejected. Part of the proposal involved writing a sample chapter. So that my effort is not fully wasted, I have decided to publish the chapter here. This was to have been the introduction to the book.
<p>
<p><b>Introduction</b>
<p>When the Waterboys fourth album, <i>Fisherman’s Blues</i>, appeared in record shops in October 1988, it had been more than three years since its predecessor, This Is the Sea, had been released. The latter had been a success (at least by Waterboys standards), the album posting in the Top Forty UK chart, and a single, “The Whole of the Moon,” peaking at number twenty-eight. It may have done better had Mike Scott, founder, leader, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and frontman of the group, not refused to promote it on the Top of the Pops television program due to an aversion to lip-syncing. (When reissued in 1990, the song reached number three and was honored with the Ivor Novello Award the following year.)
<p>
<p>A three-year absence in the pop music marketplace is crime enough; <i>Fisherman’s Blues</i> added insult to injury by shifting radically from the “Big Music” of the Waterboys’ first three albums – marked by blaring horns, roaring guitars, layers of electric keyboards, and thudding drums – to a more acoustic format melding Celtic fiddle tunes with influences from folk and American country music.
<p>
<p>By any accounting of the situation, it would appear that the album was both commercial heresy and career suicide. There wasn’t much demand from MTV for Celtic fiddle tunes, and no self-respecting fan would wait three years for the follow-up to a hit single, especially when the subject matter had turned from moon to fish (though, of course, both “The Whole of the Moon” and “Fisherman’s Blues” were relationship songs).
<p>
<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DxtpRXGpWmw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><p>And yet, something strange happened. Somehow, <i>Fisherman’s Blues</i> became The Waterboys’ best-selling album – not just to date, but of all time – and has since come to be regarded as the band’s high-water mark. Subsequent Waterboys releases, those cut from the same musical cloth and those pursuing an entirely different aesthetic, have typically been unfairly – and unfavorably – compared to it. Though the album reached no higher than thirteen on the UK chart, and the title track peaked at thirty-two as a single, <i>Fisherman’s Blues</i> continues to loom high in the history of the band and in the reputation of head Waterboy Mike Scott. After just one more album exploring Celtic/folk music, he broke up the band and released a pair of solo albums before bringing back the Waterboys name (though not the players) for a series of albums with more of a guitar and synthesizer-based rock sound.
<p>
<p>How did this happen? From whence did this musical magic come? Certainly not even Scott himself could have predicted that his 180-degree turn from mulleted ’80s rock performer to earthy roots music explorer would so drastically raise his profile and lead to the rewards of commercial success. The song “Fisherman’s Blues” has appeared in the soundtracks to the American movie <i>Good Will Hunting</i> (about math), the Irish film <i>Waking Ned Devine</i> (about death), and in the pilot episode of the American television series <i>Lights Out</i> (about boxing). Such broad appeal seems unusual for a project originally intended to trod the road less traveled.
<p>
<p>The highly literate Scott puts it best himself in the liner notes to the 2006 deluxe remaster of the album, as he describes the context in which he began to move away from what the Waterboys had done to date:
<blockquote>“This journey began with a confluence of events in late 1985. At that point I’d taken the broad, symphonic sound of the first three Waterboys albums … as far as I could. Frustrated that I couldn’t reproduce the sound on stage, and seeking new musical roads to travel, I’d started to listen to country, folk and old-style gospel music, envying their simplicity and purity.
<p>
<p>“I was excited by the possibilities of writing and playing these different kinds of music, and by the liberating prospect of departing from the repeat-formula-for-success script that managers, agents, record companies, journalists and even fans were devising for me.”</blockquote>
<p>In retrospect, long-time Waterboys fans see this metamorphosis as nothing particularly out of character for Scott. Thirty years on, one can see that he has regularly showed disdain for pure commerciality for its own sake, displayed a restless creativity that prevents him from repeating himself or treading water in any one pond for too long a time, and consistently honored his muse in realms both musical and spiritual with honesty and without apology.
<p>
<p>This is a man, after all, who followed up his most electronic and at times harrowing-sounding album (2000’s <i>A Rock in the Weary Land</i>) with the pin-drop stillness and religiosity of 2003’s <i>Universal Hall</i>, only to bounce back to hard rock with 2007’s <i>Book of Lightning</i> and then take a complete left turn with 2011’s <i>An Appointment with Mr. Yeats</i>, in which he sets a number of the poet’s works to music. That all these works are all aesthetically successful to a greater or lesser extent is besides the point; after all, regardless of their diversity of execution they spring from the same fount: the mind, heart, and soul of Mike Scott.
<p>
<p>No, the point is that nothing would surprise a Waterboys fan more than to see a Vol. 2 of any of these works. The prolific Scott seems often ready to move on to another rail while the train he rides is still in motion. The only expectation one can have at this juncture of his career is that he will do the reverse of what he last accomplished. And yet each Waterboys album is unmistakably a Waterboys album, united as they are by his expansive vision and his distinctive voice.
<p>
<p>In 1988, however, such a perspective did not exist. Each of the first three Waterboys albums seemed to build on its predecessor, and the only rational expectation was that the fourth Waterboys album would represent an extension of the third. That was not the case. As it turned out, Scott and his conspirators would spend more than two years and countless miles of recording tape going as far from expectation as possible, moving not to the frontier of musical and recording technology where so many others were staking claims, but rather looking backward at simpler times, more basic forms, and more timeless themes.
<p>
<p>That Scott found an audience willing to go there with him was to his good fortune. That he found such sympathetic players willing to help create this bold vision and make it such a remarkable reality is our good fortune. A quarter-century later, <i>Fisherman’s Blues</i> has indeed stood the test of time. To hardcore fans, it is an apex of achievement; to more casual fans, it might be the one and only Waterboys recording in their collection. Regardless, it remains an essential album, the history of which – as this book will attempt to demonstrate – is as unexpected and delightful as the music itself.
<p>
<p>I’ll let Mike Scott have one more word before we begin our journey. Here again, from the liner notes to the 2006 remaster, Scott sums up what this album represented to him and to the world, at that time and for all time:
<blockquote>“[W]hile we were completing ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ in Galway, I felt it was an act of power to stand in one’s own heritage; not with a fundamentalist my-culture’s-the-only-way attitude, but by being open to the shared global culture, with all its interactive creative possibilities, while being centred in one’s own. And that it was perfectly cool – in fact it is very excellent – to inhabit my Celtic genes. For the Celt is a warrior, a mystic, a trickster, a shaman, a dreamer, a mischief- and magic-maker.
<p>
<p>“So if ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ has a message to impart other than the pure expression of the music itself, it is this:
<li>music is music, and no musician or band need be limited to any genre; all are fair territory for the questing musical explorer.
<li>British and Irish music need not be divorced from its own roots to be relevant; if it is in tune with its own deep sense of identity, music can have – and can transmit – more power and more cultural, mythical and practical resonance.
<p>
<p>“In this spirit, ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ and all the Waterboys music that has followed it admits of no barrier or categorisation, and is built on the mighty foundation rock of the Celtic soul.”</blockquote>
Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-33071961711633168352012-07-27T09:11:00.001-07:002012-07-27T18:37:38.712-07:00Remembering the Murdered Israeli Athletes, Forty Years LaterJune 1973. I was 10 years old, attending an overnight camp for the first time. It was a rainy day, so registration was done inside the mess hall. Despite friendly smiles from the director and staff, my eyes were transfixed to a board leaning against the wall. The board bore 11 8x10 photos, black and white and grainy of burly, foreign-looking men. It was a scary site. But not unfamiliar.
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<p>
I recognized the faces because I had seen them on the news several months before. They were the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 summer Olympic games in Munich, Germany. As a young, sports-crazed kid, I always looked forward to the Olympics. The games were about two weeks in when in the early morning of September 5, 1972, a group of Palestinians from the terrorist organization Black September entered the Olympic Village, killed two Israeli athletes, and took nine others hostage. Following a bungled rescue attempt by inept German police forces, the nine hostages were massacred.
<p>
My family watched news of this event nonstop. The masked gunman was an indelible image. It was just plain scary. It was, in fact, the first act of terrorism I was aware of. Mark Spitz, bedecked in medals, left Munich. The Games were soured. After a while, the images and the feelings they stirred in me faded from memory. Until that day the following summer when the athletes’ doomed faces again stared at me at camp.
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<p>
Jay was the Education Director at the camp. Three years later he would be my counselor, my favorite-ever counselor, and a lifelong friend. But in 1973, he was the guy pushing these bad memories back in my pre-adolescent face. Four decades later, I asked him why.
<p>
“The bottom line lesson was that when Jews put their fate into other hands, we are fucked,” he told me. “Unlike at Entebbe, when we told the world to screw, and went in ourselves. At Munich, the fucking scumbags would not allow the Israelis to interfere.”
<p>
Of course, this wasn’t how he presented it to us kids. He focused on the fact that the murdered Israelis were athletes, which we as young Jewish boys could identify with. And yes, that Jews and Israel have enemies. This was hammered home that very fall when the Yom Kippur War broke out. On October 6, 1973, a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel on the holiest day in Judaism. I got it. Jay had taught me something that was immediately true and relevant.
<p>
It is now 40 forty years since the massacre. And in response to widespread calls for a moment of silence in honor of the murdered Israeli athletes, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge has added insult to injury.
<p>
According to a recent article in the <i>Los Angeles Times</i>, “Rogge is president of an International Olympic Committee that steadfastly has refused to allow the memory of the massacred Munich 11 to be part of the opening ceremony. Not once since that September day in 1972 has the IOC given the massacre’s survivors the honor or comfort of even one second of solemnity during the important and symbolic opening night.”
<p>
Even at the time, then-IOC president Avery Brundage refused to cancel the remainder of the Olympics (he did, however, hold a day of mourning, pushing back all events for 24 hours).
<p>
Now, 40 years later, Rogge claims that the Olympics are not a “fit” setting for recognizing the atrocity that occurred in Munich. And it was an atrocity. Here is a description from Wikipedia of how the terrorists murdered the Israeli hostages in the face of the Germans’ ineptness:
<p>
<blockquote>The Germans had not arranged for armored personnel carriers ahead of time and only at this point were they called in to break the deadlock. Since the roads to the airport had not been cleared, the carriers became stuck in traffic and finally arrived around midnight. With their appearance, the kidnappers felt the shift in the status quo, and possibly panicked at the thought of the failure of their operation. At four minutes past midnight of 6 September, one of them (likely Issa) [Luttif Afif, the leader] turned on the hostages in the eastern helicopter and fired at them with a Kalashnikov assault rifle from point-blank range. Springer, Halfin and Friedman were killed instantly; Berger, shot twice in the leg, is believed to have survived the initial onslaught. His autopsy later found that he had died of smoke inhalation. The attacker then pulled the pin on a hand grenade and tossed it into the cockpit; the ensuing explosion destroyed the helicopter and incinerated the bound Israelis inside.
<p>
Issa then dashed across the tarmac and began firing at the police, who killed him with return fire. Another, Khalid Jawad, attempted to escape and was gunned down by one of the snipers. What happened to the remaining hostages is still a matter of dispute. A German police investigation indicated that one of their snipers and a few of the hostages may have been shot inadvertently by the police. However, a Time Magazine reconstruction of the long-suppressed Bavarian prosecutor's report indicates that a third kidnapper (Reeve identifies Adnan Al-Gashey) stood at the door of the western helicopter and raked the remaining five hostages with machine gun fire; Gutfreund, Shorr, Slavin, Spitzer and Shapira were shot an average of four times each. Of the four hostages in the eastern helicopter, only Ze’ev Friedman’s body was relatively intact; he had been blown clear of the helicopter by the explosion. In some cases, the exact cause of death for the hostages in the eastern helicopter was difficult to establish because the rest of the corpses were burned almost beyond recognition in the explosion and subsequent fire.
</blockquote>
Five of the eight terrorists were killed by police during the failed rescue attempt. The three surviving assassins were captured but later released by West Germany following the hijacking by Black September of a Lufthansa airplane. Thank you, Germany, for everything.
<p>
No doubt Rogge is afraid of upsetting Arab nations by recognizing the tragedy. At the time, King Hussein of Jordan was the only Arab leader to denounce the act; he’d had his own conflict with Black September two years earlier. So instead of offending the living, the Olympics will insult the dead – those faces I have never been able to get out of my mind.
<p>
These are memories that are resurfacing for me today, as the 2012 summer Olympics begins. I will not watch. I will not forget.Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314999239853516008.post-59649522769198758312012-07-23T15:06:00.001-07:002012-07-23T15:06:59.801-07:00Jazz DJ Steve Schwartz Signs Off… But Swings OnMy recent interview with ex-WGBH jazz jock Steve Schwartz, originally posted on The Arts Fuse blog.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://artsfuse.org/65444/fuse-interview-jazz-dj-steve-schwartz-signs-off-but-swings-on/">Fuse Interview: Jazz DJ Steve Schwartz Signs Off… But Swings On</a>Jason M. Rubinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18239568347024335740noreply@blogger.com0