Schwarz
View current page
...more recent posts
wtc in the noose
something of a shanty town quality to the port authority's plan for a shopping area at the foot of the freedom tower. no architect credited. is it me or is this cruddy looking and not appearing to belong to any master plan.
The Delta Blues’ deepest roots lay in the music of Africa. The music made its way to North America through the culture of the 15 to 20 million slaves brought during the 300 years of the slave trade. The majority of the slaves entering the Mississippi Delta were from West African tribes: Bantu, Yoruba, Ewe, and Akan. The music of these people is different, but do have recurring themes in all of them. The music is participative in call and response, drenched in oral history and tradition, and rhythmic pitch-tone fluctuations. While the vocal theme and methodology is primarily West African, the majority of the instrumentation has its beginnings in the savanna and Sahel zones of the Western Sudan. The main instrument of the West African coastal tribes was the drum, but the use of drums was outlawed during the early days of North American slavery, so the adaptation of savanna-derived string instruments came into prominence. The instruments were easily adaptable to English and Scot folk music, since all three relied on stringed instruments. These instruments were mainly two-string bowed and plucked lutes, griots, bania/halam, beta, and earth bow. Melodic lines are plucked by finger with these, in varying speeds and tone, to simulate the accompanying story being sung or chanted. The instruments crafted from local wood, and the string made from the gut of animals. This allowed for the relatively easy translation of instrumentation into early slave life. String instruments, at least of a certain type, were easy to make from local materials.
The tone and timbre of African music also reflects a great influence on the early blues. These aspects of the music centered on the playing style and accompaniment articles. Flattened notes and fluctuated tone, played to an upward drive in accordance with the drum rhythms, sound strikingly similar to pentatonic and heptatonic scales.
wildwood nj - appearing in a preservation magazines story. recently saw a good documentary on 13 titled "wildwood days." wildwood benefited from proximity to philly doo wop and then dick clarks bandstand rock and roll scene. in the summers it all moved to the shore with little beach-side rock palaces where major acts of the day performed a couple of hits in big review fashion. now they are knocking down the googie motels that remain.
heres a golden nugget / from this wildwood thread at lotta livin'
Few people in Congress are openly threatening to block money for reconstruction. More typical are sotto voce mumblings about whether federal money will be squandered through incompetence or graft by Louisiana officials. And some lawmakers have openly wondered whether each neighborhood in New Orleans needs to be rebuilt and protected with expensive floodwalls.
He is not romantic about human nature, however. When he talks about progress, he is careful to separate technological advance from, say, "ethics", which he says, smiling wryly, show no signs of improving. He was not surprised by the riots in the suburbs of Paris and he relates them to a misconception politicians have about the function of cities and their peripheries, which he believes have been vilely neglected by the planning authorities.renzo piano
After Paris, what can be done to improve the suburbs? This, he says, is the key question. "The big topic of today, and of the next 20 years, will be peripheries. How you can transform peripheries into a town. What is happening today in Paris is happening everywhere. It is mad, mad, and the insensitivity of people and politicians . . . They create ghettos. In Paris it is particularly bad. Now people are starting to understand that the real challenge of the next 30 years is to turn peripheries into cities. The peripheries are the cities that will be. Or not. Or will never be."
nyc gets its architectural act together
latest batch of emailed digital photos from jim louis in new orleans's 4th ward
(pics)this rumor was floating around the last couple of days but i waited for confirmation. i remember him from the 73-74 era band tuff darts which co-starred bobby (pre robert) gordon. a maxes KC band (which is to say pre cbgbs) that ushered in the neo-rockabilly phenom / any way he played guitar the way i liked to hear it. more proof that R and R isnt over when you turn 30 as some have put forward. he rocked till he died at age 76. rip.
Rock legend Link Wray dead to 76
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Guitar player Link Wray, who invented the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists, has died. He was 76.
A native of Dunn, North Carolina, Wray’s style is considered the blueprint for heavy metal and punk music. Wray’s is best known for his 1958 instrumental Rumble, 1959s “Rawhide” and 1963’s “Jack the Ripper.” His music has appeared in movies like “Pulp Fiction,” “Independence Day” and “Desperado.” His style is said to have inspired many other rock musicians, including Pete Townsend of the Who, but also David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Steve Van Zandt and Bruce Springsteen have been quoted as saying that Wray and Rumble inspired them to become musicians. “He is the king; if it hadn’t been for Link Wray and ‘Rumble,’ I would have never picked up a guitar,” Townsend wrote on one of Wray’s albums. Neil Young once said: “If I could go back in time and see any band, it would be Link Wray and the Raymen.” The date of Wray’s death was not known. He lived in Copenhagen. Wray is survived by his wife and son.
from here
and you know record brother is on this with mp3s (including an oh so sweet "begin the beguine" sounding very much like a funeral march)