ARSCy BRSKy
“A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.” ― Marshall McLuhan
I am gearing up for a hell of a lot of driving over the next few days…to Yosemite to grab Kaya from camp to Los Angeles to see my niece get married….all by tomorrow night…so I am going to make this brief before I gather a bunch of CDs and hit the road.
I have been a member of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections for years….maybe 25 years? For music fans such as myself, it is an incredible organization playing host to people who oversee audio archives…and there are hundreds of them housed in colleges, personal collections, institutions…as well as enthusiasts and ethnomusicologists. If you are interested in recorded sounds—have a specific interest area—there is probably a member who oversees a collection associated with it or has a deep knowledge of it.
The first article below showcases one attribute of the org: doing a survey of reseas
The finalists here make up an incredible list of music writing from the past year…many of which went by without my noticing. From many music disciplines, for anyone interested into digging into the greatest musical stories or geeking out am deep deep research dives: your summer reading list is here at last.
I find this case to be so fascinating, just as I found the cases brought from side-men (side-persons) of big music artists around authorship of iconic songs, which started a few years (or more) back. In this case, however, the “side-persons” lost. But knoing people who help artists create their art, this line between mastermind and assistant, in the artistic process, is so interesting to ponder.
Delfonics lead singer William 'Poogie' Hart dead at 77
“William “Poogie” Hart, a founder of the Grammy-winning trio the Delfonics who helped write and sang a soft lead tenor on such classic “Sound of Philadelphia” ballads as “La-La (Means I Love You)” and “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)," has died.”
How Picasso’s Great Anti-war Mural Flopped
A great biography on the painting, Guernica: “The Spanish and Basque governments hated the mural. President José Antonio Aguirre snubbed Picasso’s offer to give the work to the Basque people; Ucelay, the Basque painter, called it ‘one of the poorest things ever produced in the world,’ adding that Picasso was just ‘shitting on Gernika.’ Several Spanish officials suggested taking it down and replacing it with a different work altogether. Buñuel, a notorious radical in his own right, found it so unpleasant that he said he ‘would be delighted to blow up the painting.’”
Reclaim your rights! A New Post-Roe Strategy
Rebecca Gomperts, a pioneer in the women’s rights world, has launched a new campaign to battle the Supreme Court’s decision to shoot down Roe.
Robert Burns Ellisland Farm open day, July 31
Thinking about poet Robert Burns, on this day, 226 years after his death? Wondering what you could plan to honor his memory…find a place to read a poem aloud? You could go to his statue in Golden Gate Park any day of the week…or you could venture to the farm he built himself in the parish of Dunscore, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland on July 31st and enjoy some strawberry tea and “music by young musicians from Spectrum….”
Forgetfulness
By: Hart Crane
Forgetfulness is like a song
That, freed from beat and measure, wanders.
Forgetfulness is like a bird whose wings are reconciled,
Outspread and motionless, --
A bird that coasts the wind unwearyingly.
Forgetfulness is rain at night,
Or an old house in a forest, -- or a child.
Forgetfulness is white, -- white as a blasted tree,
And it may stun the sybil into prophecy,
Or bury the Gods.
I can remember much forgetfulness.
