The Burn is Upon Us
“The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.”― William Saroyan
Happy first day of school (for us)…which went off without a hitch. With the kids in school, a tad more normalcy descends on the house…
A quick one for the hump day. There is a new Afghan Whigs record coming out…and that is an exciting thing. Yes, their lead singer Greg Dulli is one of my closest friends…and yes, I love John Curley and the rest of the band as well….but I only know them because I loved their music first. So I have the right to say that this new record, How Do You Burn? is really good (and yes, I have heard the whole damn thing). Without the cliched “it’s their best ever” let me just say it is an incredible experience….from the first slam of the torrential opening track I’ll Make You See God til the final moments of the last song, In Flames (that can be heard next week on the 9th when the record comes out).
More about it next week, and if you are looking to hear a few tracks now, there is a video for the single, The Getaway as well as the more recent pre-released track, Line of Shots. Both tracks demonstrate the innovative expertise of the production and arrangements that the record boasts…taking the band’s sound to a whole new level, as when the colors around you get more vibrant when the turn on turns on.
The record features inspired yet bittersweet contributions from Mark Lanegan, Greg’s long-time co-conspirator and the person who named the record. It is always great to hear them together…sad it is for the last time.
And one more item: Tomorrow is Don Waller’s birthday. He would have been 71 and I wish I could call him and laugh about how old he was. Don had such an incredible way of writing about music, coming closer to anyone I know at allowing you to hear his music through his words. Here is a piece he wrote about the Electric Prunes for Mojo and here is Don performing This Ain’t The Summer Of Love with his proto-punk band The Imperial Dogs (covered by Blue Oyster Cult and released as their single BEFORE Don’t Fear The Reaper).
“‘No! it's not about creating cute little beauty pieces’ Ai Weiwei tells The Art Newspaper from his home in Lisbon. He’s referring to his monumental glass work The Human Comedy—one of the largest suspended Murano glass sculpture ever created. It is the centerpiece of a new show of 32 new and recent sculptures by the Chinese dissident artist, staged in a 16th-century church on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore.”
Goats Head Soup Never Had a Chance to Be a Good Rolling Stones Album
Today in 1973 The Rolling Stones released Goats Head Soup and this week, two years ago this week, my friend Alan Light trashed in in Esquire Magazine. Ok….trashing is a little bit harsh…but even the title lets you in on his thoughts right away. Yes, there were too many drugs and rock annihilation going on. But truth be told…I like Goats Head Soup. I LOVE parts of it, and like the rest. 100 Years Ago? Silver Train? Winter? I love those songs! Angie? I total guilty pleasure and Heartbreaker (Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo)…at the right time, in the right place…it slays. So yeah: it’s not Sticky Fingers. How the hell could it be? What do YOU think of Alan’s perspective? You are probably more right than I….
When the Black Panthers filmed the Congolese revolution
Connecticut College Prof. Matt Swagler tells an incredible story of Eldridge Cleaver’s time in the Congo after Huey Newton had kicked him out of the Black Panthers…when he decided, along with his wife, to make a film about the Congolese revolution. As the article discusses, the resultant film, called Congo Oyé, gives a rare glance into this horrid history of the region, interviewing revolutionary leaders that are killed shortly after (with the film showcasing the only known footage of many of them). This article is a serious deep dive, but tells an incredible chapter in Cleaver’s life…the final chapter before things really began to change for him in unexpected ways (and also, today is his birthday).
Winners of the Black and White Photo Awards 2022 are pretty spectacular
“The Black and White Photo Awards 2022 is a newly-created international photography contest designed to recognize and reward talent in the fields of Black and White Photography. This year's inaugural edition of the competition has now concluded, with an image of a cheetah and cubs claiming the top spot.”
Vegan biomaterials could replace chemicals in crop management
“New vegan-based biomaterials could be used instead of chemical products and pesticides to help farmers manage their crops in a more eco-friendly and sustainable way, according to new research. Scientists from India and LJMU have published a study in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology which shows that their green approach, involving the use of rhamnolipid biosurfactant in combination with fungal chitosan nanoparticles, can control bacterial and fungal plant pathogens associated with citrus, wheat, and sugarcane.”
Plague Of Dead Sharks
by Alan Dugan
Who knows whether the sea heals or corrodes?
The wading, wintered pack-beasts of the feet
slough off, in spring, the dead rind of the shoes'
leather detention, the big toe's yellow horn
shines with a natural polish, and the whole
person seems to profit. The opposite appears
when dead sharks wash up along the beach
for no known reason. What is more built
for winning than the swept-back teeth,
water-finished fins, and pure bad eyes
these old, efficient forms of appetite
are dressed in? Yet it looks as if the sea
digested what it wished of them with viral ease
and threw up what was left to stink and dry.
If this shows how the sea approaches life
in its propensity to feed as animal entire,
then sharks are comforts, feet are terrified,
but they vacation in the mystery and why not?
Who knows whether the sea heals or corrodes?:
what the sun burns up of it, the moon puts back.
*This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Michael Glassberg. May he rest in peace.