tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post3808915994408597873..comments2024-02-12T23:25:09.583-08:00Comments on Overweening Generalist: Books: Notes on My Better Reading Experiences in 2015michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-86003275532743334132016-01-21T18:36:07.207-08:002016-01-21T18:36:07.207-08:00OG-
I love that you are blogging again! I need t...OG- <br /><br />I love that you are blogging again! I need to read that Donald Fagen book. <br /><br />CharlieUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03986501503484202538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-90120305531085675012016-01-06T12:31:27.693-08:002016-01-06T12:31:27.693-08:00I used to have a bias towards "improvisation ...I used to have a bias towards "improvisation as THE GOAL". In recent years I mostly want to tune in to the Bach-Mozart-Beethoven continuum.<br /><br />I enjoyed the Sapolsky link. Thank you.Eric Wagnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04312033917401203598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-28530421173053612272016-01-05T07:51:24.423-08:002016-01-05T07:51:24.423-08:00You are Welcome! Someone told me the same over the...You are Welcome! Someone told me the same over the holidays and I felt like paying it forward. It felt good. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-77549800192623584392016-01-05T00:58:58.936-08:002016-01-05T00:58:58.936-08:00@ Ben Turpin-
Cashin Delaney will not be silenced...@ Ben Turpin-<br /><br />Cashin Delaney will not be silenced! <br /><br />And my gawd yer right: I need to learn to cut. <br /><br />All good vibes rebound back, enter your pineal gland, and get stored in the Eternal Karma Sex Bang, to which you have a FREE LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP (void where prohibited)<br /><br />Happy New Year to you to - all yous guys - and Turpin? Thanks for saying I don't suck! michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-85900244812634197502016-01-05T00:48:27.415-08:002016-01-05T00:48:27.415-08:00@ Eric: I've misplaced a lot of notes - like t...@ Eric: I've misplaced a lot of notes - like the ones when reading Rafi - apparently. I should just re-read the novel. I think around page 200 I realized I wanted to "bone up" (a term that brings out the Beavis and/or Butthead in me) on Gurdjieff. <br /><br />The relative informality of teaching a one-on-one lesson for an hour with a rock guitarist of some persuasion, ages 13-60-something seems substantially qualitatively different from teaching an entire class...or what I remember as an undergrad Music major. This seems intensified because I'm very biased and vocal toward improvisation as The Goal. Even further out?: after so many years of doing this, I realize most "relative" beginners really do want to learn their favorite songs, so I have to learn tons of songs, mostly by artists/bands I'm not totally in love with. But I do emphasize the theory behind each song and try to do improv ideas off favorite songs. When asked about improv - not often enough - I think I might tend to sound like an eccentric-mystic to people under 40. Who do I have on my side? I'll just take Bach and Coltrane and that's enough for me. Imagination! Dizzying individual/interior freedom! Are many flights and forays dead-ends? Yes, but who cares? Play on! <br /><br />re: good news about research in early 21st c: yep. This seems almost criminally neglected by the Official Informers. Did you see Robert Sapolsky's response to this year's Edge Q? <br /><br />It's here:<br />https://edge.org/response-detail/26693<br /><br />Just think about how rapidly we came up with a vaccine for Ebola, considering what we were up against. That is AMAZING. (In my opinion)michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-38649559688389605322016-01-04T23:55:51.691-08:002016-01-04T23:55:51.691-08:00Michael,
You are a hero to me. Truly. Keep bloggi...Michael,<br /><br />You are a hero to me. Truly. Keep blogging, and teaching. Yeah, RAW is a lot cooler than you and less verbose but you are in the right vein, prospector. You can play guitar!<br /><br />RAW would have liked to be able to play Star-Spangled Banner. I imagine.<br /><br />My satire is greasy shit. But it floats. Locally. Nationally. <br />I got a mention in The Walrus. Cashin Delaney, remember, I sent you a hush-mail about him?<br /><br />Poor Cashin was included in a rant about comment-trolling:<br /><br />"At one point, I became so enraged that I suggested our newspaper create an alter-ego for me (“The Angry Moderator”) who would call out the most idiotic commenters. My boss said no, and was correct to do so. In effect, I was asking to become the ringleader of the anonymous circus."<br /><br />https://thewalrus.ca/me-against-the-troll-army/<br /><br /><br />Poor Cashin got second billing to "Pizza Tongs".<br />Oh Well. Better than a brick through my window!<br />(My windows are old. Insurance...???)<br />Or a shit-bag tied to the door knob. Who wants to read this...Canadians...from SouthPark: The Movie?<br /><br />Anyway, I know how it is to have a reading addiction. At least you are on good shit.<br />I understand and respect your active critical awareness while reading and your need to communicate it to those who can benefit. You have a style. Learn to cut. Keep going.<br />Tom Jackson really enjoys you as much as I do.<br /><br />I am sure we would have a blast together in person. Or argue. Either way. Happy New Year.<br />Thanks for blogging. You don't suck.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-2776892773818396922016-01-04T12:37:35.025-08:002016-01-04T12:37:35.025-08:00Terrific post as usual. I find it interesting that...Terrific post as usual. I find it interesting that both of us make our living teaching music theory (along with other teaching) these days. "Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience" as Mr. Melville said. I used to work as a clerk at bookstores and video stores.<br /><br />I hope you find your notes on I, Wabenzi one of these days.<br /><br />I found your comments about the good news about research in the early 21st century interesting.<br /><br />Have you seen "Experimenter"? I found its picture of academic life interesting. David Thomson wrote a great piece on it: http://www.filmcomment.com/article/stanley-milgram-experimenter-michael-almereyda/Eric Wagnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04312033917401203598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-77051445642434654922016-01-03T15:31:52.959-08:002016-01-03T15:31:52.959-08:00@Tom-
I read Michael S. Rosenwald's piece in ...@Tom-<br /><br />I read Michael S. Rosenwald's piece in the WAPo recently about used bookstore resurgence. I thought the bit about being in a diverse community of readers and the 4 Ds (Divorce/Downsizing/Death/Departure) being the engine was really interesting. <br /><br />Here's Scott Timberg's 2003 piece on classical music clerk extraordinaire, Eric Warwick. I later had a brief conversation with Warwick. He was amazing and I hope he's thriving now in whatever he's doing:<br /><br />http://articles.latimes.com/2003/aug/25/entertainment/et-timberg25<br /><br />Before I forget: a kindly reader of the OG named "Scott" emailed me: He'd found Th. Metzger's "Destroy All Goo-Goos" by using Brewster Kahle's Wayback Machine. (Why didn't I look there?). Here it is, but take a few deep breaths before reading it:: <br /><br />https://web.archive.org/web/20120207010254/http://www.loompanics.com/Articles/DestroyAllGooGoos.htmmichaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-37637114458466984752016-01-03T15:16:41.154-08:002016-01-03T15:16:41.154-08:00@ Tony Smyth: The choice vibes are much appreciate...@ Tony Smyth: The choice vibes are much appreciated, man.<br /><br /> Jeff "Skunk" Baxter was yet another studio guitar wiz that Becker and Fagen picked. Most people know his solo from "Rikki Don't Lose That Number." He later got top security clearance from the Pentagon to work on missile defense. Not only did he play bass for Jimi Hendrix in Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, and guitar for the Doobie Bros, he's a "Senior Thinker and Raconteur" for the Florida Machine and Human Cognition. He's quite the conservative, but another rocker "brain" like Tom Scholz of Boston and Brian May of Queen.michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-34159738227252850212016-01-03T07:02:39.926-08:002016-01-03T07:02:39.926-08:00Darned if I don't want to read all of these bo...Darned if I don't want to read all of these books now! And I always read every word of your postings.<br /><br />"And how some record store and bookstore clerks had been minor cultural heroes themselves, with tiny cult followings, simply because they knew so much and were tremendous sources for people who are into Their Thing. These clerks and weirdo-experts go away too, when it's all Amazon from here on out."<br /><br />Ann Patchett, a novelist who opened a bookstore in Nashville, wrote a piece in the Saturday Wall Street Journal about how independent bookstores are coming back, so maybe it's not all Amazon from here on out. And I do miss those clerks, such as the guy at the classical music store in Tulsa, no longer open, who corrected my pronunciation of "Pierre Boulez." I wish I could talk to him now, when I'm listening to more classical music than I did in my younger years.<br /><br />But maybe some of those clerks are blogging? Here is my favorite classical music blog: <br /><br />"http://boomboomsky.blogspot.com/<br /><br />And I have to admit, I've learned some things from the long reviews that Amazon customers on recordings of some of the more obscure Russian composers I like. Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-25631275345019194892016-01-03T04:58:18.212-08:002016-01-03T04:58:18.212-08:00Na ... more people read OG than you think Michael ...Na ... more people read OG than you think Michael I'm sure. Its ALWAYS really stimulating. Thanks for the book recommends. Will check out Acid Test and Galileos Finger. <br /><br />Not a great Steely Dan fan myself, but always thought Skunk Baksters (spell?)solo on the intro to Parkers Band, with its brilliant sense of acceleration into the main tune, was very very tasty. tony smythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17771763749137149585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-65282778581620806012016-01-02T14:34:38.789-08:002016-01-02T14:34:38.789-08:00Hey thanks!
I'm writing for at least two peop...Hey thanks!<br /><br />I'm writing for at least two people. That's something.<br /><br />Except for the fact I'd written down the TV quote from Fagen, all of these books had ben checked out at the public library and read over 4 months ago, so they were all recollected from memory. I've since acquired my own used copy of _Blood and Volts_. <br /><br />Metzger wrote a piece that I've been looking for and can't find. "Destroy All Goo-Goos" was in a Loompanics catalog one year, and was about how psychotically unhinged American troops were when they invaded the Philippines and just slaughtered and beheaded indiscriminately, with very deep racism and profound stupidity: good ol' Murrkin soldiers of fortune, given carte blanche to let out their murderous Ids. michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-51211315628138190072016-01-02T08:20:56.174-08:002016-01-02T08:20:56.174-08:00I read every post, many of them I return to re-rea...I read every post, many of them I return to re-read and keep up with comments. Please keep it up, for me, if not for anyone else.phodecidushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15180270013030833624noreply@blogger.com