Bud Powell - Kitchen Listening

The Best of Bud Powell: The Blue Note Years

Bud Powell is another one of my favorite jazz pianist. He was also another victim of systemic racism in America. He was a jazz music genius who suffered from long term mental problems and a drug habit triggered by the racial discrimination he experienced every day in the 40's and 50's America put him in mental institutions. He later moved to Paris to escape the racism but sadly died at the age of 41. A tragic loss for jazz and American music.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The Book List 1970 - 2020

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey, 1962.

I read first read this book in the summer of 1974 about a year before the movie came out. It was a very powerful book and the first time reading Kesey. I would read Sometimes a Great Notion in 1978.

I read this book again last month. It was just as good the second time. Maybe better.

This story would also be one of my favorite movies. The 1975 film of the novel starring Jack Nicholson. 

There's a lot to be said about that movie...  IMDb

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, 1975

No Wow

No Wow. We were scheduled to host a weekly Parkside neighborhood Wine on Wednesday this evening but of course it's not happening. This picture is from our WOW last year where over 40 people were in our backyard over the course of the evening. We're going to miss having that kind of fun again tonight. And it's a beautiful night too.

The Parkside Wine on Wednesdays (WOW) are weekly summer gatherings of friends and neighbors that have been happening in backyards for seventeen years. The host provides snacks and each guest brings a bottle of wine and a glass. 

The WOWs have all be cancelled this year so far but hopefully maybe a few will be held later in the summer or early fall... with social distancing of course. We'll host another one next year.

No Wow... the song.

Waterfront Social Distancing

Today Becky and I went down to the waterfront. It was a beautiful day... except for the other people. We started out at the Erie Basin Marina, walked through the Naval Park, past the Liberty Hound and on to Canalside. Everywhere were went there were people obviously not maintaining adequate social distancing. There were not many people wearing face masks. We had ours but took them off when nobody was around. However, when walking along the paths we were constantly having to dodge people who walked right at us or who came walking up behind us very closely.

We had one incident where we were sitting in the shade under a tree in a couple of Adirondack chairs. A woman came along and dragged a nearby chair to a spot under the tree a few feet behind us. OMG, less than three feet away. We got up and walked away and as we looked back we could see her sitting in the chair I just vacated. Did she do that just to get us to move from our prime spot? What is wrong with people? The Pandemic must be making everybody crazy.

Fear and Loathing

The What When Book List 1970 - 2020

Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson, 1973. Read this in Spring 1984. Replay and throw in a plague too.

I had read some of Thompson's work prior in magazine articles prior to this and was not particularly a big fan of his gonzo style of alternative journalism in the 70's but certainly did want to hear what he had to say.

I read this during the 1984 presidential campaign between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale which Reagan in a landslide despite the already growing signs of his Alzheimer's disease which including confusion and forgetful behavior.

Over the next couple of years in the mid 80's I would also read his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas from 1971 and Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga from 1966.

None of that has prepared me for the Fear and Loathing on the 2020 campaign trail yet to come.

Happy Obama Day

June 14th

Trump's birthday and all of social media is flooded with pictures of President Obama

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

The What When Book List 1970 - 2020

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, 1970

I read this book in June 1976 after a long conservation with several Native American activist from the Midwest who were in Philadelphia to take part in demonstrations and protest associated with the ongoing Bicentennial activities throughout the city in the Spring of 1976.

At the time Becky was living around the corner from my house. Across the street from her was a house full of radical students who were hosting the members of A.I.M. (American Indian Movement). Since they were friends with some of the people in Becky's house they asked if a couple of the Native American activist could stay there too which is how I met the group. One of the people there was a cousin of AIM activist leader Dennis Banks.

So after my conversations with members of the AIM group I read this book. The whole experience was a real eye opener. I also wrote a research paper for a class on the media coverage of the American Indian Movement and the Bicentennial celebrations issues the following semester. 

The book was very intense and heartbreaking.  I have always been interested in reading history and the author certainly did his homework gathering the facts which included the systematic slaughter of the native population. 

Side A / Side B

I've recently become an admin member of a new Facebook group called Side A / Side B that is devoted to the art of making mixes and is made up mostly of former members of the Art of the Mix website mix trading collective and in particular the Splitters offshoot group.

The photo here is from my third floor box of old mixes and is being used as the photo header for the group.

Here is the About section of the group:

"This group is for sharing the love of the mix - via tape, cdr, playlist, thumb drive, or 3-d printed vinyl (do they have that yet?). Please share your mixes here."

"We are also about discussing the joy of making the mix, the process and tools, the motivation, the resources, the sharing of ideas and of course the themes."

"We ask three things: 1: Try to give some context for your mix in the post (mix title, format, intention, history, albums sourced if available). 2: Try not to post a new mix more than once a week (in order to share the air). 3: Try to be kind to each other and be accepting of different points of view. Feel free to invite friends to this group, and we don’t want to get into issues of exclusivity. Perhaps we can build a group with diversity in mind."

"What kinds of mixes to post? Alternating DJ mixes, thematic mixes, whatever suits you.
Spotify mixes are fine, mix length is open, but we’re going for intentional sequencing in the venerable tradition of the mix tape, not data dumps. Also feel free to post mix challenges or collaboration ideas."

Another group was also recently formed Facebook with essentially the same people is now called AOTM Spotify Edition. Apparently some people in the first group didn't want to have anything to do with Spotify so a second group was spun off where folks can post Spotify mixes available to listen by anyone.  However, members of the Side A / Side B are also posting Spotify mixes so I guess it really doesn't matter.