Dylan Tweney: Broken trust. The problem is that Palladium requires users to place a huge amount of trust in Microsoft. You don't get to decide what runs on your computer -- Microsoft does. You can't even open files unless you've been authorized by Microsoft, or by a third party. [Tomalak's Realm] [Steve's No Direction Home Page]

I've been seeing references to this technology for awhile now, but for some reason I just hadn't bothered to read about it.  Okay, now I have.  Holy shit!

Say What? [] 12:41:50 PM  Permalink  

Deep In The Dreams Of Chet Baker

A haunting, creepy excerpt from James Gavin's Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker. (Gadfly)

Say What? [] 4:53:57 PM  Permalink  

John Entwistle, 1944-2002    Stephanie Zacharek has written a really fine piece on Entwhistle for Salon.

Say What? [] 1:03:44 PM  Permalink  

 John Entwistle, Bass Player for the Who, Dies at 57. John Alec Entwistle, whose precisely articulated bass lines provided the unswerving foundation of the Who, died on Thursday in Las Vegas. By Jon Pareles. [New York Times: Arts]

I've never been a big Who fan, except for the obvious list of early singles, but Entwistle was a kickass player and apparently a pretty nice guy. RIP.

 

Say What? [] 10:43:59 PM  Permalink  

Summer loving
Los Lobos find a seasonal groove (Boston Phoenix)

I completely agree - "Los Lobos are the best American band of the last quarter century." For incontrovertible evidence, take a trip through El Cancionero Más y Más -  one of the two or three box sets in my collection that I return to on a regular basis.

Say What? [] 12:57:48 PM  Permalink  

Nellie Monk, 80, Wife of a Jazz Legend, Dies. Nellie Monk, who as the wife of the jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk was the prime supporter and muse of a troubled genius, died on June 25 in Manhattan. By Ben Ratliff. [New York Times: Arts]

Man, if there's anyone who deserves to rest in peace more than her, I don't know....

Say What? [] 12:11:44 PM  Permalink  

Multiple sclerosis - smoked sausage link examined [Reuters Health eLine]

Damn - what's next - peanut butter and jelly?

Say What? [] 8:47:14 PM  Permalink  

Lord Buckley rides again!. The new biography of the Hip Messiah gives us a quintessentially American character worthy of a Mark Twain novel. [Salon.com]

Cats and Kitties, knock him your lobes. If you've never heard him riff, try to get a copy of "His Royal Hippness." And, as Tom will affirm, a copy of "Hiparama of the Classics" is required (and out of print).

Say What? [] 12:31:06 PM  Permalink  

Rejoice! After a heart breaking 17 year abscence, Linda Thompson has returned.

Say What? [] 11:34:06 AM  Permalink  

Down The Road And On The Tracks - Van Morrison and Steve Earle by Peter Stone Brown (Gadfly)

Say What? [] 2:10:58 PM  Permalink  

FBI Begins Visiting Libraries (washingtonpost.com) [Daypop Top 40]

Alright kids - the shit's goin' down.  America this is quite serious.

Say What? [] 11:40:50 AM  Permalink  

More Songs About Buildings and Food. Salon has a tribute to Talking Heads' second album, "More Songs About Buildings and Food." I ripped that CD to MP3 the last time I was in Toronto (where all my music is, more or less) and so I put it on while I read this. The article's bang-on right about this album; it's brilliant. The album's juxtapositions can make you laugh. In "Warning Sign," Byrne poses a funny/pathetic/scary seduction that sounds like Arnold Horshack copping "Love Boat" come-ons. "Take it easy, baby, take it easy/ It's a natural thing and you have to relax/ I've got money now, I've got money now/ C'mon baby, C'mon baby!" He makes his move like a sweaty question mark. You can imagine the target of his desire backing toward the door thinking, "Oh ... my ... God."

While all that's going on, the music sounds as though it's being sucked into a jet engine. It's one of many Brian Eno moments. The intrepid producer and electronic-music pioneer, in his first collaboration with the Heads, blows an otherworldly breeze, playing with time and space, everything zooming backwards and forwards, coming together and flying apart. The partnership between Byrne and Eno which began here would continue through the Heads album "Remain in Light" as well as the Byrne-Eno side project "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," the music sinking deeper and deeper into pure, pseudo-tribal rhythm. [bOing bOing]

Summer of '78 - and I was yet to get into the Heads. That would happen soon enough with "Remain In Light." By the way, in case  anyone cares about the maturation of great artists, even a quick listen to Byrne's "Look Into The Eyeball" will provide deep groove satisfaction. His humor is still there too, only more subtle.

Say What? [] 12:36:27 PM  Permalink  

'Can't Be Satisfied': Love That Muddy Water. Robert Gordon has written a biography of Muddy Waters, one of the founders of Chicago's electric blues music. By Michael Lydon. [New York Times: Books]

this music is burned in my soul, in the marrow of my bones.  still, it's always good to review the details of the story.

Say What? [] 1:29:31 PM  Permalink  

"freshblogs.com" [Daypop Top 40]

interesting. radio aggregator users may yawn, but if no feed exists this might be a good alternate system.

Say What? [] 1:09:14 PM  Permalink  

Progress Is Reported on Parkinson's Disease. Scientists working with human embryonic stem cells have shown that an embryonic stem cell equivalent in mice alleviate Parkinson's disease-like symptoms in rodents. By Nicholas Wade. [New York Times: Health]
Say What? [] 8:12:06 AM  Permalink  

PEOPLE - Blogs are cool. The topic is blogs, a type of website so abundant and diverse, you can't read just one. [Lockergnome Bytes]
Say What? [] 8:06:19 AM  Permalink  

Giving jazz the business  (Boston Phoenix)

An alarming, urgent article with a distinct "so what else is new?" odor about it.

 

Say What? [] 2:29:14 PM  Permalink  

Lab Successes Revive Hopes for Stem-Cell Transplants. Scientists today announced stem-cell advances in rats that have potential for humans: an adult stem cell not derived from an embryo. By Agence France-presse. [New York Times: Health]

It's too late for me, but I'm excited to see this kind of work going on.  The current law in this country regarding stem cell research is not only idiotic, it's fucking evil.

Say What? [] 11:44:34 AM  Permalink  

Townes Without Pity: The Battle for Townes Van Zandt's legacy (The Austin Chronical)

This excellent piece by Andy Langer documents a situation that's as sad as --- well, as sad as a Townes Van Zandt song.

photo by Martha Grenon

Say What? [] 1:59:08 PM  Permalink  

2002 Webbies. Though I've seen many of these, there are a lot I haven't checked out yet. [Steve's No Direction Home Page]

Terrific resource.

Say What? [] 12:07:40 PM  Permalink  

Link of the moment: Arts & Letters Daily

 

Say What? [] 11:15:18 AM  Permalink  

ESALEN BARES ITS SOUL
The Big Sur oasis of enlightenment turns 40 (sfgate)
Say What? [] 7:27:42 PM  Permalink  

Kesey Wisdom. "The answer is never the answer. What’s really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you’ll always be seeking. I’ve never seen anybody really find the answer—they think they have, so they stop thinking. But the job is to seek the mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer." [RobotWisdom] [Steve's No Direction Home Page]

Thanks for passing that along, Steve.

Say What? [] 12:52:59 PM  Permalink  

In case you haven't heard, the Boston Phoenix web site has made the disturbing editorial decision to place a direct link to the Daniel Pearl murder video on this week's home page. A storm of opinion about the decision rages like wildfire throughout the net. I'm not ready to comment at this time. So far, I've decided to refrain.

Say What? [] 4:58:58 PM  Permalink  

please bear with me as i get the comments feature fixed. unless it's working and i don't know it. is it?

as for this extremley minimalistic look - it's probably transitional - who knows?

and finally, for now, Peter Stone Brown writes beautifully, as usual, this time about Doc Watson and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. (Gadfly)

Say What? [] 5:29:35 PM  Permalink  

The ghost of pop (Salon)

I've been totally in love with the music of Sam Phillips for close to fifteen years. If, like damn near everyone else in the world, you missed last year's mysterious, minimal beauty - "Fan Dance", it's a fine place to start. Then I'd jump back to "The Indescribable Wow."

Say What? [] 11:23:15 PM  Permalink  

Guilty Pleasure Dept:

Making a killing on murder cases Dominick Dunne reinvents himself (SFGate)

If, like me, you had even a passing interest in the O.J. Case, then you probably know who Dominick Dunne is. This looks like a load of fun. Oh know! I feel addiction rising in my bones.

Say What? [] 1:03:04 PM  Permalink  

Segovia Achieves Something He Couldn't in His Lifetime (New York Times)

Boy, this is something. I just remembered how much I loved watching The Segovia Master Class series on TV in '68. Did anyone else see that? At the time, I was in the woodshed with the likes of Doc Watson, Hendrix, B.B. King, and Kenny Burrell - yet still, these thirteen episodes were absolutely captivating. Anyway, it's a good thing that Amazon doesn't have this. I can't afford it, no way, but might have hit that evil One Click Ordering button anyway.

Say What? [] 1:29:17 AM  Permalink  

'A New Kind of Science': You Know That Space-Time Thing? Never Mind

Many thanks to Tom Petruso, our man in Copenhagen, for sending in this link. It leads to what's easily the trippiest piece I've ever seen in The New York Times.

Stephen Wolfram, a theoretical physicist, says that he has discovered ''the beginning of a crack in the very foundations of existing science'', and that throughout his massive 1263 page tome will change the way we see the world. Hey, I'm up for that. Now, if I only had the strength to lift the damn book...

Say What? [] 12:00:10 PM  Permalink  

An excerpt from:

Tomorrow Never Knows:
Rock and Psychedelics in the 1960s
Nick Bromell (University of Chicago Press) [via Expecting Rain]

I've never been inclined to read much about the intense experiences of my youth. This cat, however, seems to have gotten it right.

Say What? [] 11:08:00 AM  Permalink  

Medical marijuana backers stage protests across US [Reuters Health eLine]

Before I got my pump, grass was the only thing under the sun that eased my relentless, painful spasticity. The DEA pricks can go fuck themselves.

Say What? [] 5:05:49 PM  Permalink  

   The June issue of PureMusic.com has a review of "loom's desire", a new two CD set of Laura Nyro's final Christmas concerts at the Bottom Line in New York - '93 and '94. These were performed solo - Nyro on piano plus her exquisite harmony group.

When I came upon this in a store a couple of weeks ago, I was shocked into remembrance. A kind of soaring, doo wap state of grace. Give yourself a gift. Don't forget this beautiful artist.

Say What? [] 1:56:45 PM  Permalink  

Post-War Jazz: An Arbitrary Road Map

Gary Giddins presents a personal road map to post-war jazz, introducing 57 of his most cherished tracks from 1945 to 2001. (Village Voice)

Say What? [] 7:58:41 PM  Permalink  

Crippled logic. Who was she to kill herself? If anyone deserved that bullet, I did -- a bitter fool in a wheelchair. [Salon.com]
Say What? [] 5:27:05 PM  Permalink  

I've just discovered that the article from Reuters, (see previous post), has a link to the most in-depth and up to date info on multiple sclerosis in one place that I know of. It's very long, but if you have questions, you might find it here.
Say What? [] 4:52:32 PM  Permalink  

Cytokines hold promise as MS therapy [Reuters Health eLine]

Hope springs eternal.

 

Say What? [] 2:27:59 PM  Permalink  

Tom Petruso was first to give me a heads up on this by e-mail, subject: "Idiocy Of The Day." Here it comes again ---

New York State: English Lit considered harmful.

The NY State school-board has been sanitizing its tests, removing all references to age, race, hate, religion, and, it seems, acrimony in the excerpted reading-portions on its standardized English exams. It wants to make sure that students aren't made "uncomfortable" by the readings. The living authors whose works are excerpted are understandably livid, as are parents and everyone who gives a damn about good writing (which lets out NY State's educational bureaucracy, I'm afraid):
Certain revisions bordered on the absurd. In a speech by Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, in addition to deletions about the United States' unpaid debt to the United Nations, any mention of wine and drinking was removed. Instead of praising "fine California wine and seafood," he ends up praising "fine California seafood." In Carol Saline's "Mothers and Daughters" a daughter no longer says she "went out to a bar" with her mother; on the Regents, they simply "went out."
In an excerpt from "Barrio Boy," by Ernesto Galarza (whose name was misspelled on the exam as Gallarzo), a "gringo lady" becomes an "American lady." A boy described as "skinny" became "thin," while another boy who was "fat" became "heavy," adjectives the state deemed less insulting.

(New York Times)  [via bOing bOing]

Say What? [] 1:55:45 PM  Permalink  

HEADS UP DEPT. - New Los Lobos out this week. "Good Morning Aztlan."
Say What? [] 2:20:48 PM  Permalink  

Sunday morning listening: I'm revisiting Neil Young's  "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere", "After The Goldrush", and "Harvest." Released in '70, '71, and '72 respectively, they coincide with my first extended stay in California (which began in a dying Haight, Summer of '69).

These were the Atascadero years. Andrew was born in Berkely - 5/20/70. Marian and I split up in mid '71 and, eventually, I headed to Boston where I met Ann. Over time, I hope to explore all this in depth. It's quite a story, actually.

But getting back to Young, this music is so deeply ingrained in my soul, so intertwined with memories, it has the power to transport me right back. Big Sur, Santa Cruz, LA, San Louis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, Bakersfield, Death Valley, Oakland.

If it's been awhile for you, give "After The Goldrush" a listen. Neil's version of Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me" is bittersweet beyond measure.

Say What? [] 2:18:23 PM  Permalink