THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
“Strange as it may seem, horror loses its power to frighten when repeated too often.” ― Michael Ende
Today is the birthday of the great blues guitar player and singer: Bukka White, one of the progenitors of the Hill Country Blues sound. Unlike Delta Blues, which is known for its complicated finger picking and chord structures, the Hill Country Blues sound is simpler, more perfectly monotonous (think the blues’ version of the Velvet Underground)…more of a groove that you can lock into and sway for a while…often with some slllliiiiiiddeeee guitar action that more often than not adds to the slip-sliding-away feel. Bukka was from Aberdeen, Mississippi and cut some seminal pre-war blues recordings in the 20s and 30s and became a very prolific recording artist in the 60s.
Some might say he was rediscovered in the 60s during the wave of rediscovery that brought Son House, Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James back in to the public light (among others). But Jim Dickinson would say he never left…he just kept playing on Beale Street (pre-face lift) while people just walked on by. I wish I was walking by…shakin’ it on down a spell with Bukka White. I put a play list together of my favorite of his recordings a while back, to dig into when I need to get lost in sound. While I love his classic recordings, it is the long, drawn out improvisational numbers that just kill me…where he hangs onto a chord for a spell and tells you a story…stuff that only the likes of RL Boyce can pull off these days. Happy 114th Birthday Bukka. It would be so nice to be house rocking with you lighting the fire.
Racism on the Road: The Oral History of Black Artists Touring in the Segregated South
This article is stunning, one of the best of the year…looking into a dark period of our history as being told by the legends who lived it: Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, Booker T Jones, Irma Thomas, members of: The Platters, The Four Tops, The Coasters, and more. All talking about touring in the South during the 60s. I could read an entire book with these artists narrating, and this story in particular needs to be told. Just sensational.
Amazing work Steve Knopper and Billboard magazine. A must read.
Reviewed: The Golden Age of British Short Stories
“Philip Hensher must have found some strange extension of daily hours to find time to write fiction, as he has read surely hundreds of short stories to reach selections for five volumes, the latest of which has just arrived, covering a particularly rich period in the history of the British short story, the years 1890-1914.”
A new exhibition is showcasing a retrospective of a large chunk of the incredible and diverse career of artist Kim Lun. I knew some of her work, but this article, which has an in-depth focus akin to journalism in The New York Review Of Books, wonderfully places Kim Lim in art history as well as discussing the many motivations and foci of her artistic vision….as well as containing a lot of pictures of her work.
The Waking
By Theodore Roethke
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.