max abelson's super groovy music video spectacular

the gerry mulligan page on the website brainy quote is the horse...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:33:00 -0500

the gerry mulligan page on the website brainy quote is the horse e books of jazz. “new york is still where i live most of the time,” gerry mulligan once said, it claims. “i’ve appeared on some other people’s albums,” he reportedly stated another time.

because gerry mulligan played the baritone saxophone like an ice pick, an ice pick made out of ice (especially on mainstream of jazz), one can only assume he had much profounder things to say. in fact—after writing that sentence i’ve found a recording of his oral autobiography about being a scratch-your-eyes-out drug addict, on the library of congress’ website. it’s about the “one time when we gave artificial respiration for about eight hours straight to keep a guy going,” and when “after gail and i split up, i started to get back into my old habits with heroin. not ever to the extent that i had been involved in new york, but still enough that it was an ongoing thing, and it was time-consuming and constant.”

in other words, gerry mulligan’s period after splitting up with whomever gail was of constant heroin use was somehow not as horrible as another period in new york city. to imagine what could possibly have made that other period worse provides a small peak into the misery of the word “habits.”

update: and so does the story about whitney houston’s death on the cover of the times.

#901: wilco (jeff tweedy and jay bennett) - james alley...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:03:00 -0500

#901: wilco (jeff tweedy and jay bennett) - james alley blues (1999, austin)

songs from wilco’s mid-to-late-90s catalogue that the obama 2012 campaign could have chosen instead of the titularly problematic i got you (at the end of the century): pick up the change, via chicago, what’s the world got in store, someday soon, in a future age, dreamer in my dreams and definitely one by one. james alley blues wouldn’t have been any better but it would have really locked up the harry smith anthology vote. and songs from wilco’s mid-to-late-90s catalogue which, if chosen, would’ve made the new-mellenial imperfections of i got you (at the end of the century) look not really all that bad include that’s not the issue, i must be high, red-eyed and blue and another man’s done gone. but especially christ for president.

photographs almost certainly misidentified by google’s...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:29:00 -0500

photographs almost certainly misidentified by google’s life magazine archives as “arnold schwarzenegger/linda ronstadt,” no. 4

photographs almost certainly misidentified by...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:25:00 -0500

photographs almost certainly misidentified by google’s life magazine archives as “arnold schwarzenegger/linda ronstadt,” no. 3. (this one is closer)

photographs almost certainly misidentified by...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:23:54 -0500

photographs almost certainly misidentified by google’s life magazine archives as “arnold schwarzenegger/linda ronstadt,” no. 2. (or is this one really her!)

photographs almost certainly misidentified by...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:21:00 -0500

photographs almost certainly misidentified by google’s life magazine archives as “arnold schwarzenegger/linda ronstadt,” no. 1

#900: randy newman, ry cooder and linda rondstadt - rider in the...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0500

#900: randy newman, ry cooder and linda rondstadt - rider in the rain (1983)

friends, thank you so much for making it to music video #900. randy, linda, ry and i would like to remind you that we’re all riders in rain. and we’re on the prairie together.

#899: ry cooder - tattler (live at the record plant, 1974) this...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:27:00 -0500

#899: ry cooder - tattler (live at the record plant, 1974)

this year, i’m thinking of making a series of sentimental ry cooder-themed valentine’s day cards. “true love can be such sweet harmony… if you do the best that you can!” the first one will say, underneath a drawing of ryland in his mid-70s hawaiian shirt and ponytail. the kids will love that! it’s my ticket out of this godforsaken town, i can feel it. all kidding aside, ry cooder’s guitar playing can beat up yours.

#898: ry cooder - tattler (or, you can’t stop the tattler)...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:11:00 -0500

#898: ry cooder - tattler (or, you can’t stop the tattler) (live, 1973)

ry c.’s the only man on earth who could make david foster wallace look like a bad bandana wearer, while at the same time giving the distinct impression that lowell george and keith richards and everyone else didn’t really know much about slide guitar. he was and is just that perfect, even when playing a relatively tuneless early acoustic version of an anti-polygamy pop number.

#897: merle haggard - swinging doors (1967, hillbillys in a...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:58:43 -0500

#897: merle haggard - swinging doors (1967, hillbillys in a haunted house)

the reason you know this is from a movie and not good old reality, besides merle’s charmingly poor ability to mouth the words to his own beautiful song, is that he’s introduced not only as “one of my favorite singers” but also “one of my favorite people” by the gentlemen in an ascot. merle haggard, by all accounts, was nobody’s favorite person in his younger days, and nobody wearing an ascot. he escaped from californian juvenile prison, started playing music in bars, was found, sent back, released, got physical during a burglery, was sent back, was released, and discovered by lefty frizzell, all before merle haggard was sent at age 19 to san quentin for three years. “i wasn’t really that bad a guy,” he’s said. “they just couldn’t hold me anywhere else.”

a few weeks away from his 75th birthday, merle haggard, according to his official website, is said to be “recovering from 3 stomach ulcers, the removal of 8 polyps from his colon and diverticulitis in his esophagus. he will be back up and running in 30 days.”

hillbillys in a haunted house: not merely the best titular...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:43:00 -0500

hillbillys in a haunted house: not merely the best titular pluralization in major motion picture history, but merle haggard’s first film appearance, and sir basil rathbone’s last.

(click for a huge poster image, unless you’re “a chicken come with plenty of feathers.”)

don, don’s tie, and james brown’s fingers (from...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:24:37 -0500

don, don’s tie, and james brown’s fingers (from wciu)

#896: run d.m.c. - hit and run & don cornelius interview...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:16:00 -0500

#896: run d.m.c. - hit and run & don cornelius interview (1986)

the way the tinman in the soul train audience pointed his metallic gloves at don—our don, mr. don, the don—is everything there is to say about the man, except that he could stand next to run d.m.c. in their prime, just like he stood next to al green in his, and the glow emanating from his white suit was brighter than the one from the rappers in their gold, or even the tin man’s sparkle. “it’s called,” he says to them in his fireside baritone, “popularity.“

sometimes when no one’s around and i’m feeling...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:45:40 -0500

sometimes when no one’s around and i’m feeling optimistic i whisper, “you can get an original you can get it if you really want trojan pressing if you really want” over and over.

this week i spent $4 on desmond dekker’s very aptly named...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:33:00 -0500

this week i spent $4 on desmond dekker’s very aptly named trojan records two-lp double dekker. not only is the first track 007 shanty town, which is incredibly not about james bond, but the second is israelites, history’s best song about israel—except for that “light one candle for the maccabee children” hanukkah song, which is the greatest! i got double dekker at my favorite store in new york city, good records. i almost hesitate to mention that name because it’s so nice and quiet, and the owner johnny is such a sweet guy, with $1 rolling stones albums and $80 west african ’60s albums that i like to ogle with my mouth open. bless desmond dekker and bless good records.

#895: bob dylan and van morrison - crazy love (1991) now that...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:59:00 -0500

#895: bob dylan and van morrison - crazy love (1991)

now that seven and a half years have gone by, is it alright to declare that chronicles volume one is one of the best books ever written? “the moon was rising behind the chrysler building, it was late in the day, street lighting coming on, the low rumble of heavy cars inching along in the narrow streets below—sleet tapping against the office window” is the first line of the final chapter. and is there going to be a chronicles volume two and even three or what?

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:50:00 -0500

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours

part 5 of 5

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:49:00 -0500

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours

part 4 of 5

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:48:00 -0500

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours

part 3 of 5

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:47:00 -0500

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours

part 2 of 5