Moving slowly or slowly moving
#64 This title is irrelevant
Let me paint the picture of my writing tonight in case I actually finish it all in one sitting. I’ve just arrived home from a dinner of karaage, unagi crispy rice, and a yuzu-mezcal drink. While it’s considerably earlier than I normally begin work on a newsletter, Thursday night, I feel like writing. I’ve also poured myself a glass of whiskey, another rarity, put on some jazz, and lit some candles (both pretty common) to feel artistic(?)*. I chalk it up to the French philosophers** I’ve been reading, creating an aesthetic for anyone watching my version of The Truman Show. (This is simultaneously the dumbest and most pretentious thing I’ve ever said")
I know I'm not alone in this peculiar habit; there are many who partake in such self-indulgence faux-artistry more fervently than I do. You feel better when you do things in a more dressed up and deliberate way, as if for an audience, even though no one is watching… Something, something, intentionality….
*Maker’s Mark and John Coltrane if you’re curious
**Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre and The Plague by Albert Camus
Without further ado…
Wikipedia
Like many other weeks, a lot of the inspiration came from a podcast (Lex Friedman & Jimmy Wales). Listening to podcasts truly isn’t even something that I do very often these days, however, with 3+ hours of content, I have a penchant for listening to really long ones, I’m looking at you Hardcore History, something is always bound to kickstart me and thus it gets a shout out in this humble weekly brain dump. (Sorry about that long disjointed sentence)
While I could easily have picked a topic directly from the podcast, I figured I’d just go on Wikipedia, which I find myself reflecting that I haven’t looked at in a while, whereas I was a frequent visitor in the past. Let’s take a journey.
First off I scanned the front page, something you don’t get to do unless you go to Wikipedia purposeless and directly. Otherwise you’d probably enter directly to a page from Google. My cursor hovered over a recently deceased jazz artist named Peter Brötzmann (yes, I had to copy and paste his name since I don’t know how to create an umlaut on an English language keyboard.
I’m digging what I’m hearing so far and thus piques my interest in “free jazz” which I plan to explore. Just his intro alone gives me plenty of avenues to explore with artists I’m not familiar with.
So now I’m listening to him instead of John Coltrane for those of you following along***. I’ve switched, leaving me to multitask. Can I truly take it in and give it a fair listen while writing? I’m not sure. But I can feel the difference, even if there is no theoretical analysis of the music, not that I’m capable of that anyways.
For one reason or another, this jazz music reminds me of the painter Kandinsky. Some time in the past I may have encountered a jazz and color theory exhibit based on Kandinsky that might be causing this association but I’m not sure.
Ha! A little bit of searching tells me there is a free jazz group called The Kandinksy Effect that has an album titled Synesthesia. Point being, I’m not crazy! At least not where this connection is concerned. Not to be confused with the always entertaining, synth-y producer, Kavinsky.
For more on my personal connections between art and jazz see Weekly Appetizer #31 and probably others, but less pronounced. I simply did a search to find where I’ve mentioned Kandinsky before.
***Apparently Coltrane was a major influence, no surprise, but enough so that he’s on Peter’s wiki page. Love how these connections seemingly write themselves. Have you ever played the wikipedia races? Great fun. You can play alone on https://www.thewikipediagame.com/.
Free Jazz
I could spend a lot of time here. It’s a bit over my head at times and my jazz knowledge and even music theory knowledge which is slightly better is not prepared for this. For the sake of all you readers and my own time, I’m going to leave the tab open to explore another time and move on..
Piquing interest outside of music that I think I’d like to create a modern equivalent of a loft (and also a salon) that would have coffee, drinks, music, art, and much more. Heavily focused on local acts but also bringing in inspiration to those frequenting the establishment.
“Lofts were not an organization, nor a movement, nor an ideology, nor a genre, nor a neighborhood, nor a lineage of individuals. They were, instead, a meeting point, a locus for interaction."- Michael Heller
Many of us know the term, but I don’t know if many are fully aware of the depth of the term. I think of it as the genre’s version of warehouse/basement shows, which kind of represent an ideal during a specific time period for both electronic and hardcore music, though obviously spanned beyond strict genres.
If you know of good books that dramatize and explore these worlds, please let me know. The only I’ve ever come across was NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, GOODBYE.
While quite a bit bigger than a basement show, always fun to see bands still holding it down. Not a band I listen to much, but still a great video from Turnstile. (It starts at one of the most fun parts — good demonstration of a fun crowd — at least the front few rows).
More realistically the basements looked like this:
Random band (looks like they’re a bit big actually) but it’s hilarious. One dude even has boxing gloves on! On second glance it was a Halloween party, many other costumes there, though many not as useful as gloves for the pit. Note: If you were at this show, I hope you read the whiteboard saying not to park at the grocery store lest you get your car towed.
Sunami
The random band above was Sunami, and noticing we were getting away from Wikipedia, I’ve brought us back. I also started listening to them on Spotify — not the best vocals but good enough with fun heavy riffs.
They don’t have a wikipedia page, but Toonami does, which can largely be accredited with piquing my intrest in anime ftom an early age since they aired Dragon Ball Z.
Toonami was hosted by this guy, TOM, most notably in my era after taking over from a Space Ghost character. There was a lot of extra lore and side stories that I wasn’t privy to as a 12 year old but the Wikipedia explains and connects a lot of the dots I couldn’t see as a kid. I recommend exploring that Toonami page if you were watching Cartoon Network between 1999 and 2007.
To close the week and also stir up my childhood confusion, there is the show Space Ghost Coast to Coast
This was a talk show about characters that I guess many people knew, but I didn’t. I thought it was supposed to be funny, but I never got any jokes. It would later spin off The Brak Show and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, both additional shows where the humor is not intended for pre-teens and this was a show I desperately wanted to like but never got. Maybe I should give it another shot, or maybe it’s not worth it.
What do you think?
Ok one more aside, I never saw the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, but I’ve seen the opening a ton since Mastodon made the song and it’s hilarious.
Hope you didn’t have too much trouble following along on this eclectic journey.
Cheers.