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"When Morty Met John : John Cage, Morton Feldman and New York in the 1950's." Including Margaret Leng Tan performance of Cage's "Suite for Toy Piano" (1948) @ Carnagie Hall, reviewed by Tommasini for NYT
"I made this jar...."
-Dave
"Along the banks of the Savannah River, Native Americans some 4500 years ago discovered that fire could harden clay to a stone-like consistency. These unknown people mixed Spanish moss or palmetto fibers with the clay to make the earliest known pottery vessels in North America.
The Edgefield area is endowed with rich clay resources including massive deposits of kaolin, sands, feldspars, and pine trees, all necessary for making pottery.
The Old Edgefield District birthed a stoneware tradition based on Chinese technology using English traditional methods making vessels
with African slave labor. This area has been dubbed the crossroads of clay because of this international mix.
Beginning shortly after 1800, the Landrum family started true pottery manufactories to supply the S.C. backcountry with necessary
everyday utensils. Basically, kitchen and smokehouse utensils were made, but rarely were items made for the table.
This tradition grew to a height circa 1850 when, according to the U.S. census, five potteries employing 35 people produced over 100,000
gallons of pottery. Three out of the five factories were related to the Landrum family. Numerous factories operating over a period of time
at a dozen sites produced a variety of wares, including molding wares.
The heart of the Edgefield stoneware tradition involved manufacture of ware using what is termed today "alkaline" glaze, believed to have
been derived from information passed to the west by French Jesuit priests living in the orient in the early 18th century describing. Chinese
methods for making porcelain. Edgefield potters took similar materials, basically feldspar, wood ashes, lime, and sand-grinding and
blending it to make a crude celadon glaze. Most typically formed were storage jars from one-half to 30 gallons commonly used for
pickling, sating meat, storing lard, etc. Also, jugs for holding vinegars, wines, and spirituous liquors, pitchers, pans, and bowls for the
kitchen; plus pipes and marbles for the simple pleasure of life.
As competition increased, potters, around the early 1840's-began to slip decorate their wares using iron slips and kaolin-based white slips
resulting in objects that are today avidly sought and esteemed by scholars and collectors as some of the best folk art in the south. The
Edgefield tradition produced many jars and vessels in the swag and tassel design neoclassical inspired and adapted from moldings in Charleston town houses. More rarely, they depicted men on horseback, southern belles in hoop skirts, African-Americans toasting each other, chickens, snakes, crows, and pigs-everyday life around them. Beautifully illustrated in slip are the Rhodes Factory pieces with thistles and tulip designs.
Some of the most interesting and sought-after vessels are those by Dave Pottery-a literate slave trained to set type for Dr. Abner Landrum's Pottersville newspaper. Dave commonly signed and dated his ware, and less often wrote simple verseson his sometimes massive 20 and 30 gallon jars and jugs. Some speak of food, religion, shoes, lions, volcanoes, and money.
Also of African origin are pots termed "face vessels"--usually jugs, but sometimes cups, crocks, or pitchers with a face modeled into the object using white kaolin clay for eyes and teeth. These small objects are powerful expressions reminiscent of African sculpture.
The tradition declined about the time of the Civil War, but still continued to produced similar wares for the agrarian economy, with the tradition finally winding down in the 1930's with the production of flower pots. Edgefield proved a training ground for potters who moved with the westward expansion of America to Georgia, western North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. Potters that had actually worked in Edgefield wound up in Texas using traditional Edgefield technologies and making similar objects.
Time brought many changes. The death knell of many potters across the country came with the invention of the Mason screwtop jar in 1858. Combined with the move from the farm to the city, the breakup of the plantations, and the slave economy after the Civil War the tradition died in South Carolina."
Composer Xenakis dead @ 78
"Like other of his works, "Metastasis" and "Pithoprakta" were regulated by Poisson's Law of
Large Numbers, which implies that the more numerous the phenomena, the more they tend toward a determinate end — as in flipping a coin. "I have tried to inject determinism into what we call chance," said Mr. Xenakis, who used the scientific word "stochastic" to give a name to this idea of probability in music."
......and he lived to tell the story.
I guess this is net kitch, hunh ?
Mugsy (Capt. Fork) from the old
Uncle Floyd Show keeps the fire burning for Floyd Vivino, master humorist.
More Terry Riley links from the
Cortical Foundation , interview and add' links @ qaswa, and some other links from music search
Terry Riley has been putting a bunch of new old stuff out lately. Latest I've heard was a late 60's piece commissioned for a disco. He puts mean loops and reverb on the soul 45 "Your no good" and it runs 20 min's or so.
Best of all is "Music for the Gift" where he puts the hurt on wild Chet Baker riffs / another piece on the same disc includes a radio narator talking over the entire begining of a live stage performance "...and we can see from here someone is placing objects on the strings of the piano, ......ping..plink...bling.bling...skrunk....
excuse me, I belive that the performance is already underway, so we return you now to the stage where........"
NYC text artist Kenneth Goldsmith also has a radio show on fmu where he features art as music and music as art (concrete poetry/music concrete, etc) here are his *avante* links and these are his playlists (archived for your listening pleasure / and yes, kenny loves Marianne Nowottny).
from the grass-roots news desk :
Doug's Action Alert #1 UPDATE: Oppose John Ashcroft
There is a lot of good news to report. An unprecedented coalition
of 20 progressive activist groups has banded together to lead the charge
against Ashcroft's nomination. They include Alliance for Justice, Handgun
Control, Human Rights Campaign, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights,
NARAL, NAACP, People for the American Way and the Sierra Club. They have
set up a website HERE which contains all kinds
of valuable information on Ashcroft's record and how to proceed with our
grassroots effort. Additionally, the Million Mom March has set up a website HERE and People for the American Way has set up a
website HERE which includes an on-line petition
you can sign. I heartily recommend that you visit all these sites, take in
as much info as you can, and then follow their action recommendations.
A new Newsweek poll taken this weekend found more Americans against
Ashcroft's confirmation than for it, even though they generally support
Bush's other nominees. See: Here for more
details. This is exciting news because it shows we are not shouting in the
dark. This issue has touched a nerve with a lot of people. Senator Barbara
Boxer of California became the first U.S. Senator last week to announce that
she would, indeed, oppose the Ashcroft nomination. And many other
Democratic Senators are indicating they are leaning against him, including
Joe Biden of Delaware and Charles Schumer of New York. Democrats had strong
words against Ashcroft on the weekend talk shows like Face the Nation,
indicating that they're tuning in to the American people's hostility to this
right-wing extremist.
So, what's next? THIS WEEK IS THE BIG WEEK, my friends. Ashcroft's
nomination proceedings start tomorrow. He is expected to make a long
opening statement promising that he will faithfully uphold laws he formerly
opposed. He has been receiving coaching all weekend long over at
Bush-Cheney Transition Headquarters. Trent Lott and the right-wingers are
turning up the heat by forming a coalition of right-wing activists IN FAVOR
of Ashcroft, and they are just beginning their grass-roots effort. What
does that mean? IT MEANS CALL, CALL, CALL! And sign the on-line petition
at opposeashcroft.com. And, if you haven't sent out your handwritten
letters yet, GET THEM OUT TONIGHT! All U.S. Senators' offices will be
closely tracking the volume of mail, email and calls they receive both for
and against Ashcroft this week. THE STRENGTH OF OUR GRASS-ROOTS EFFORT IS
KEY to putting Senators on notice that we do not take this nomination
lightly and we will not stand by while Bush tries to eradicate our civil and
human rights with right-wing nominees. Write, email and call. This week,
it's all a question of volume. The more times you call and the more people
you can get to call, the better.
The Ashcroft nomination is shaping up to be the first real political battle
of the Bush White House. The strength of our opposition will send a strong
signal to Bush how much he can expect to get away with over these next four
years. It is up to us to tell the Democrats and the Republicans that we
expect them to hold true to Bush's promise of a non-partisan, non-divisive
administration. It is up to us to tell the Democrats and the Republicans
that the American people expect moderate nominees and that we will not
accept radicals on the courts or in the Justice Department.
Finally, if you still have questions about the role of the U.S. Attorney
General, I would like to suggest an article from MSN which describes just
how important the position is: HERE
Please feel free to pass this message along to any of your friends if you
think they might be interested. For those of you who would like to send me
comments or questions, feel free to respond.
Sincerely,
DOUG HAXALL
Blue Note crowd sees the downside of James Brown.
Legendary soul man James Brown provided a New Year's Eve fireworks show of
his own.
His bizarre behavior stunned a highbrow crowd at the Blue Note jazz club with
actions that included: an on-stage rant in a bathrobe; going into the crowd
to confiscate a front-row showgoer's camcorder, angrily throwing a patron's
chair ala Bobby Knight and saying he had been communicating with the pope.
Dozens of showgoers, including a local TV reporter, were seen lining up for
refunds during the show.
"Never seen anything like it in my life," said one perturbed reveler who
clearly did not share the spirit demonstrated by The Godfather of Soul in his
signature hit "I Feel Good."
Things started going badly early. Revelers were told to arrive at 6 p.m., but
the doors didn't open until 7:15. At 9:15, Brown in a bathrobe was spotted
engaging in a heated debate with management off to the side of the stage.
A few minutes later, Brown was seen having words with two women at a table
near the front of the stage. When the two women got up and left, Brown went
to their table, tossed one chair and kicked the other. Then, with his arm, he
swept everything off their table: beverage glasses, party favors, etc.
At 10:15, he returned to the stage in his bathrobe, demanded management turn
down the sound and told the crowd that they had probably noticed he was
"pretty agitated because these people are trying to take advantage of me." He
mentioned that he had been paid $30 million for the performance but that he
had given back "all the money."
When he eventually came on stage in a suit, he dressed down his drummer at
one point, and raised more eyebrows when he said the pope had contacted him
and said he -- the pope -- was no longer going to hold audiences with people
because he couldn't attract the number of people "that James Brown could."
Calls to the Blue Note's local and New York corporate offices for a response
were not returned.
Wednesday, January 03, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
COLUMN: NORM!
"Music is far older than our species."
What is it about "form following function" that architect Frank Gehry doesn't get !? All those Titanium tiles used for Bilboa's external skin required silicon based fire-proofing ! Some got spilled, now it looks like hell. What an asshole and how defensive can you get ! It takes a design this problematic to fuck up a Titanium sheathing system ! Brings to mind the Statue of Liberty incident wherein restoration workers pee'd right on her shoulder and it wound up making an oxide statement Warhol could die for.
Czech Milan Hlansa founder of Plastic People of the Universe, dead from cancer @ 49
"Rock 'n' roll is the medium to express the situation of man in this world and the world to come,"
"We don't do the music just for the sake of the music. You must be the author of your own life."
-M.H.
The hair of one of Hungary's most popular pop stars has been stolen from the
hospital where he died earlier this week, it has been reported.
Jimmy Zambo, 42, known by his fans as the "King", died on Tuesday after
accidentally shooting himself in the head at home with a pistol.
Zambo's long hair was shaved off before surgeons could operate on his brain,
although they failed to save him.
The hair has now disappeared, the Hungarian daily newspaper Blikk said,
quoting hospital officials.
Singer of the year
Zambo's fans have said they would pay large amounts of money for the star's
hair.
According to police reports, Zambo fatally wounded himself in the head at
his home in Budapest in the early hours of the morning.
He had fired his 9mm Beretta out of a window but failed to realise a bullet
was still in the chamber when pulling the trigger a second time.
Zambo was voted Hungary's singer of the year in 1993 and had won awards for
the best record of the year on several occasions.
His 2000 album Christmas With Jimmy has been Hungary's top-selling record
for many weeks.
Platinum
Since March 2000, Zambo had also hosted his own popular show on commercial
TV station RTL-Klub.
"He was one of the most professional showmen with whom it was always a
pleasure to work," commented Imre Szabo Stein, RTL-Klub's director of
communications.
The singer, whose real first name was Imre, had won the hearts of many
Hungarians since coming to prominence.
He started his singing career in the State Radio Children's Choir.
>From 1982-86 he moved to the US to try his luck on the club circuit before
returning to Hungary. All his albums since have gone platinum.
Zambo is survived by his wife and three sons.
Here lies Dick Shawn .
flic vids
flic factoids
Skull and Bones
more bones...
what more bones.....
dem bones......
Further, toward the Black Mountain College.
BMC
60's poets
project
"Garbolagist AJ Weberman has done it again ! This time looting super star Chan Marshell's (aka: CATPOWER) garbage can. Seems he found two noteworthy documents, a set list from a recent show and a page from her agenda. We share the wealth as follows. "
-b
Set List :
Quit Looking At Me
I'm Sorry
Maybe I should Wear a Veil
I'm Sorry
Shouting About Repression
I'm Sorry
Whoops
Life As An Oral Report
I'm Sorry
How To Get A Lot Of Attention While
Acting As Though It's The Black Plague
I'm Sorry
There's Nothing To Me. Yet The World Hangs
On My Every Complex Moove - I Love It
I'm Sorry
How To Assemble A Credible Band
I'm Sorry
Famous Drummers
I'm Sorry
Matador Pays for My Shrink
I'm Sorry
Matador Paid For My Drum Machine
I'm Sorry
Tomorrows Interview Schedule :
10:00 am - MAGNET (make sure to mention southern upbringing)
11:30 am - RAYGUN
12:30 pm - Close eyes, run finger down a list of hip Free-Jazz Musicians, stop, open eyes, form new band
3:00 pm - PUNCTURE MAGAZINE (act uninterested, devalue self, daydream, end w/ a profound statement).
4:00 pm - Examine Inner Self on the air at WFMU
6:00 pm - Dinner w/ SPIN (dont forget to pick at food)
7:00 pm - SPIN Photo Shoot )dont forget to apply fake cold sore)
9:00 pm - Attend Rave at the MATADOR Offices
complete text stolen from : THE CIMARRON WEEKED #0006 (music zine) w/o permision (po box 820206, memphis tn 38182)
I'd like to send a shoutout to our local NYC goddesses over at Temple of the Goddess
NYC artist JZ8 gave up art to run his Middel-Finger corperate empire.
Nested somewhere inbetween mark pauline and the mit gizzmoe olympics (worse than both but on tv twice a week) is battlebots
. Any one catch the "junkyard wars" marathon over thanksgiving ?
Future location of the next Dick Shawn tribute site. !
"Hello everyone,
My movie "Until the Day I Die" has won the popular vote at Pioneer Theater
short film festival and they will be showing it 5 times a day for 6 days!!
It is starting this Friday through next Thursday. I hope you can check it
out.
Pioneer Theater
155 E. 3rd St. (at Avenue A)
Tel:212-254-3300
Call for schedule.
Friday the 15th - 21st."
rock god Samoa
ltd edition chicken mcnugette in the shape of.....
They've been calling it Groundhogs Day since the election but last night Greenfield on cnn mentioned another one going around, "The Sienfeld election", you know the election about nothing. But he was actually able to trace it down to a single episode. The one where Georges family celebrates Festifus (sp?). Festifus, celebrated in the holiday season culminates with the anual, "Airing of the Grievences"....he went on to run down the two very familiar D an R lists.