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Day 89. Vivaldi, Getz/Gilberto, Pink Martini and Bach.

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

Tonight I came across a stack of CDs in my bedroom that I discovered while grabbing some freshly recharged AA batteries for my camera. There is a little magazine holder there that really is just holding a robe I never wear and, much to my surprise, a stack of discs. Included in this stack is the Anner Bylsma disc of Vivaldi Concertos that I had been missing (!) as well as Pink Martini’s second album, the Pierre Fournier Bach Cello Suites and the Getz/Gilberto classic. I happily brought the stack downstairs and immediately ripped the Vivaldi and put it on while the girls ate their dinner, and happily announced to Tamiko that I had found the disc. We played it a lot when I first shacked up with her in her apartment on Arch St. in Berkeley, and I mentioned how hearing the music reminded me of that time. She said that it reminded her of when Celia was being born, and that is when I realized that this was the stack of CDs that we took to the hospital with us for Celia and, three years later, with Mira. Not that we did much listening during Celia actually being born (I really only remember hearing Bach Cello Suites that day, early in the process… after that is mostly a blur until Celia was out and all of us had quiet moments here and there over the next couple of days). We had a couple days in the hospital after both girls were born, and the well-known music playing in the background helped prepare both of them, from day 1, for the house of music they would be moving back into.

When I had the Vivaldi on this morning, Celia did some ballet like dancing. She is just as elegant as the music is, and though she is making up almost everything there is doing, I already see a bit of virtuosity in her mind for body movement. Mira laughs as I sing along with Joao Gilberto, and I love that in their life times, my girls have heard music from five continents and over ten centuries. They have adapted it to their own, and can focus on it at times, and enjoy it in the background. The Arvo Pärt disc we also had at the hospital still puts Mira (who turns two in a week) to sleep every night, and Celia moves between Bach and Dowland.

People often ask me if when I am going to start the girls on music lessons. Often I get a shocked glance back when I say ‘when they ask’. They have their hands on instruments whenever they want to, from violins and upright grand pianos to flutes for the bathtub that you tune with water. There is a two octave kid accordion as well. They both dance, and they are both around music everyday. They sing. I’m not worried about forcing anything musical into my girls’ lives. They are already musical, and I cherish that there is so much joy in their lives because of it.

Tags: J.S. Bach, Joao Gilberto, Pink Martini, Stan Getz, Vivaldi
Posted in Celia, Classical, Jazz, Mira, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 85. U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police and The Clash.

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Today’s rips were a few CDs brought in from the car from recent car trips to Seattle. These included The Clash’s ‘London Calling’, ‘Mother’s Milk’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, ‘Achtung Baby’ by U2 and the ‘Every Breath You Take’ Police compilation. Let me start off by saying that I love the Police, especially the first few albums. Sting I hung with for a couple of albums, but by the time the 1986 remix of ‘Don’t stand So Close To Me’ came out I was rather disappointed. The original version is SO much better then the remix (which simply seemed to me to be a way to try and get new Sting fans to buy a Police record). But what surprised me on this recent listening to the compilation as well is that it is MOSTLY geared towards that audience. Where is ‘So Lonely’ and ‘Bring On The Night’? Well – that is the problem with compilations in general. Oh well.

And it is for those same reasons that, even though I have already ripped ‘Clash on Broadway’, I sure am glad to have ‘London Calling’ (and a few others) to rip as well. One of my earliest record cover memories is of ‘London Calling’ from when I was about 5. Or maybe I should rephrase that… it is one of my earliest memories of being struck by an album cover. I remember my first record (a copy of the Grateful Dead’s ‘Terrapin Station’ that I was given after putting a scratch into ‘Estimated Prophet’), and I remember seeing other covers that kind of scared me (David Grisman’s ‘Hot Dawg’, for some reason, terrified me as a little kid). But ‘London Calling’ was one that I remember staring at. I kept expecting the picture to move, and for the guitar to finally fall to the stage and shatter like glass (a vivid imagination… the result of smashing a bass onto a stage actually results in a rather clumsy situation) but on this cover there was so much potential for beautiful destruction. I can’t imagine that the moments after this picture was taken are in existence, and if they are I bet they aren’t as exciting as this one. And as I grew older and got into The Clash, this is also one of the albums (in it’s entirety) that I grew to like the most. How many double albums are in existence with such a high level of music on just about every track? I don’t really think there is a single throw-away or side filler on the record… and on top of that there is a GREAT hidden track! You get ‘London Calling’ all the way to ‘Revolution Rock’ which is a fabulous 18 songs… then there is ‘Train In Vain!’. Damn.

The copy of ‘Achtung Baby!’ I have is one of the first pressings, in the eco-friendly paper packaging. I’ll never forget a quote I heard by Bono shortly before the album came out. When asked about ‘the FLY’ (as it is printed on the CD track listing) he said ‘that’s the sound of four guys chopping down a Joshua Tree’. And if there is anything I respect the most about U2 up through and a bit past ‘Zooropa’, it was the fact that they weren’t afraid to strike out in new directions, even when popular trends would suggest doing the opposite. After the huge success of ‘Joshua Tree’ (and a little more of the same with ‘Rattle and Hum’, who would guess that the same band would come back with ‘Achtung Baby!’. And though ‘the FLY’ and ZOO station’ certainly seem to be a departure, ‘ONE’ certainly exists as a bridge between the two worlds, and ‘LOVE IS blindness’ with a little re-working certainly could have existed in that earlier world. But what I remember most about this album was the sense that it was pushing into some sort of unknown territory, and with that there could be excitement. Of course I later realized that the territory was well trod by others (and having Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno and Flood working on the production certainly helped with that).

Tamiko and I were able to get tickets to the Zoo TV tour. Cars hanging from the roof for spotlights, huge multi-screen television displays and all. It was great. The show was expected to sell out quickly, and I worked at Tower at the time, so I figured I had an in. I would show up at 6am (the earliest we usually allowed people to line up for tickets) and I would kick everyone out and grab a spot at the front of the line. Now in reality, this would have led to a pretty bad ass kicking for myself. Lucky for me, when I got to the store at 6am there was already a line of a few hundred people, and I wasn’t the first Tower employee to show up. All the store management was already there, and I went to stand in line like everyone else. I still got tickets (though not on the floor) and Tamiko and I saw a great concert (with the Pixies opening!!!). And in spite of the promise by the band to not play anything pre-‘Achtung Baby!’, we had some nice helpings of ‘Running To Stand Still’ (probably my favorite U2 song) as well as ‘Pride (In The Name Of Love)’ and ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ (complete with ‘Rattle and Hum’ like strobe effects for the beginning of the song).

Finally – ‘Mother’s Milk’. First heard some track off of it on a band trip, and Dave Lasley had it on his portable CD player. Oooh… how I wanted a portable CD player back then. As the bus was moving, I would hear 20 seconds of a song… skip … 20 or so more seconds… but in between was some bass playing that Dave really admired, and it blew me away. So I decided to try and by the CD the next week and had to back off when I saw the cover. No way my parents were going to let me walk up to the register with a naked women conveniently holding 4 guys across her mid section. The disc had to wait until I was working (at Dairy Queen) and I had my own car to get me back and forth to the record store. Still an album that was very much worth the wait. And damn it… now I can’t get ‘Magic Johnson’ out of my head again… ergh…

Tags: Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Clash, The Police, U2
Posted in Rock / Pop, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 84. Mozart.

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

Mira’s box-set fascination continues with the complete Mozart Piano Concertos (period instrument recordings with Malcom Bilson and John Eliot Gardiner). While Mozart’s symphonies are great pieces and are rightfully seen as a pillar in his oeuvre, along with his operas I see Mozart’s Piano Concertos as his most important works. Mostly because they are the most operatic of his purely instrumental works. The standards he helped set up and solidify for the classical concerto are on the same level as Haydn’s contribution to the sonata-allegro form. And the dramatic contrast of the soloist and the orchestra is developed to a very deep level. Since there is no text and they are more abstract then the operas, that these works have such strong dramatic form is even more impressive to me. And that the piano writing basically defines lyrical (for an instrument where the attack is so univocal) is even more impressive to me.

The first one I heard was on one of Tamiko’s Music History tapes (while I was still in high school and hadn’t heard much classical music yet). Number 20 in d minor is a pretty dark piece. Between that, what I had heard of the Requiem and snippets of the ‘Amadeus’ soundtrack, I though Mozart was one dark guy. Dark and intense! And while he does have those moments, that certainly isn’t the case for 95% of his music. So when he does write some dark music, it almost seems like he is saving it up. Mozart’s light is often quite pleasant, but when he gets dark he knew what he was doing.

I got the Bilson / Gardiner set after I knew Mozart’s work much better. I put on the disc with number 20 first and I was shocked at how different it sounded on the older instruments. The piano’s sound is thinner, and the thundering low octaves in parts of the first movement take on a different lyrical quality on the older instrument (where the octaves just help the line come out of the texture in a more balanced fashion. It was amazing to hear how much the same instruments (but in a much younger form) changed how a piece sounded. The music is intense in a different way. But with the older instruments the intensity actually works on a much more human level. Where on modern instruments it feels like the doom of the world, the older instruments make it feel like the doom of a man. The period instruments make the whole body of work more personal, and in some ways even more tragic. But it is also what makes the second movement even more beautiful. It is the voice of someone who has come through a storm. And it is strange to me that, at this more personal level, the works in general feel more universal.

Tags: Mozart
Posted in Classical, Mira, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 83. Corelli.

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Corelli’s music (mostly summed up in six 12 piece collections) has resonated with me for some reason since I first heard it. During my History of Western Music classes at UC Berkeley, he was introduced just after Purcell’s drony Fantasias. Then, after Corelli we were given another example of Purcell’s music after he came into contact with Corelli’s music. The change is startling, and the difference comes from the strong tonal (dominant-tonic) structures that show up so distinctly in Corelli’s music. The strong dissonances in his counterpoint also struck my ears, and I remember heading to the record store that same day to see what there was. Eight discs. Op 1. through Op. 6. … 48 sonatas for two violins and continuo, 12 sonatas for violin and continuo and 12 concerti grossi.

And while I remember pretty clearly the first time I heard Corelli in class, the strongest memory I have of Corelli’s music comes from a drive up the California coast on Hwy. 1. One Friday afternoon after class at Berkeley I picked Tamiko up at work with enough clothes for the weekend, and headed for I-80 and the Bay Bridge. Tamiko had until we got to US 101 to decide if we would turn left or right, and Tamiko chose right (north) and we headed off toward the Golden Gate bridge. Once on the other side I would head toward Highway 1 and we would head north until we found a place to stay for the night. As luck would have it, I accidentally missed the turn-off for Highway 1 and we would up in Mill Valley (where the next weekend Tamiko and I would head for since we found it so cute… and eventually we decided that is where we would get married!). I eventually found my way to Highway 1, and we were driving past Stinson Beach as the sun was setting. We kept driving and as Bodega Bay, Corelli’s C minor Concerto (Op. 6 no. 3) was on the cd player. The driving rhythms seemed to match up with the moon flickering through the trees and reflecting off the water. It was a beautiful moment at the beginning of a great trip. Tamiko and I finally found a place to stay in Jenner (where the Russian River and the Pacific meet up)… it was a cabin with a piano, hot tub and a kitchen. The trip would continue up the coast to Mendocino and we got back to our apartment in Albany by Sunday night. And whenever I hear that concerto know, my memory of that trip comes right into my mind.

Tags: Corelli
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Day 82. Anonymous 4, Dufay Collective, Ensemble Organum and Fretwork.

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

The past couple of weeks have been very busy. I’ve been working with Richard Karpen on a couple of projects that involve a different approach to composing that involves a much more oral transmission of musical ideas to performers rather then a written medium. The results become pieces in much the same way that written scores do. For instance, we have started to notice with his guitar and electronics piece ‘Strand Lines’ written for Stefan Östersjö that there is a correct way to play the work as well as the danger of making mistakes. One of the conclusions Richard has come to as a result of this process is, if there can be mistakes and if there IS a right way to play the piece, then there must be a piece (even without it being written down).

The ephemeral quality of music in general (even when it has been written down, it is over once the air ceases to vibrate) is one of the most magical aspects of the medium. And tonight’s rips (recordings of music that is hundreds of year’s old) made me connect Richard’s music to how we choose to perform ‘ancient’ music. And in many ways, any music at all. The first disc was a collection by the Dufay Collective called ‘Music for Alfonso the Wise’. Alfonso being an Iberian king from the 13th century, and this collection is a reflection of of the music that was performed in his court. Sometimes the composer isn’t known, and I imagine all the instruments used for the performances are recreations of original instruments. When I was playing it in the background the other night, Tamiko asked if it was music from India, and sure enough once she said that I could hear the influences very clearly (not that this was music that was influence by the subcontinent in the 1200s, but that they must have some common ancestor, probably from the Middle East??? I really don’t know but am guessing). I also thought the Portland group ‘3 Leg Torso’ must get quite a bit from this kind of music. The instruments are more nasal string instruments and buzzy winds, and often have some thumpy drums as accompaniment.

Obviously, we have absolutely NO way to know exactly what this music sounded like, and I imagine there are a number of levels of translation between the written notation that does exist and what the performers on the disc are used to perform from. But I also imagine that with some practice and informed knowledge, these players are presenting (with modern fingers for modern ears) what we probably think the music may have sounded like. But I don’t think there is a belief on anyone’s part that what we are hearing is exactly what Alfonso the Wise would have been hearing. The musicians are creating now from a set of instructions what they can produce. They have direction, and need to shape what they can from the materials that they have. And once I find that I can accept what these ideas, I of course see that, really, this is what all music is. Richard’s work from the past couple weeks, when someone plays Beethoven, when someone uses a recording of a Stockhausen piece as part of their research into how to perform something or when a garage band gets together and starts off playing ‘Louie Louie’. What a great tradition to be part of… no?

So the rest of tonight’s rips are in this mode… music so old that we can’t even ask someone with connections of a couple generations back to its performance what they heard. Not that it would really matter… ask me what a concert a week ago sounded like, then ask someone else at the same concert and I think you would get two different takes on the performance, but when we are dealing with music that is 500 years old, I doubt we can find anyone around who can say ‘ah, yes, my grandfather heard that performed at the premiere and this is what he said it sounded like’ (this being a phrase that is not out of the question for Stravinsky or Debussy). The other discs are Anonymous 4’s ‘1000: A Mass for the End of Time’ (or the music that would have been around when people were worrying about the y1k bug, ‘La Bele Marie: Songs to the Virgin from 13th-century France’. Fretwork’s disc of Ottaviano dei Petrucci’s “Harmonice Musices Odhecaton” and Ensemble Organum’s ‘Le Chant des Templiers XIIè siècle : Manuscrit du Saint-Sépu’.

Pretty amazing that I can simply grab a disc with 0s and 1s on it and hear music performed that has over a 1000 years of history. I can only imagine what will happen by the year 3000.

Tags: Anonymous 4, Dufay Collective, Ensemble Organum, Fretwork
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Day 75. Dowland.

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

I learned from my friend Don (who studied guitar as an undergraduate) that Downland’s lute works are quite popular with college guitar students since the English lute was a much more standardized instrument then the continental companion. Six strings, tuned like the modern guitar with one exception (the G string was on F-sharp). When I learned this I remember thinking ‘Ooooh! I bet I could play those!’ before realizing that it is this exact thought that all those undergraduates think too. Having long ago put the guitar down (except for the occasional jazz strumming and playing) I thought this might be a good way to get back into some playing. I thought this a year ago… and I DO still think I will get to it. But it is a bit saddening how hard it can be to just get going again sometimes. Time is short, and while I have the best intentions, when it comes down to it I just might not be a guitarist anymore. I’d rather spend the time with the kids, or relaxing with Tamiko, etc. I’m sure I’ll get back into it eventually, and when I do a decent classical guitar and Dowland will surely be a good place to start.

Today I imported the Complete Downland set on L’oiseau-Lyre. This is a 12 disc set with more ‘Lachrimae’ and Lute music then you can shake a stick at. Every known version of the ‘Lachrimae’ is on here, and there is something about it that reminds me of Chubby Checker doing multiple versions of ‘The Twist’ (then ‘Let’s Twist Again’ then ‘The Twist (1986)’ etc. etc. etc.). Downland may have beaten Pachelbel to the title of ‘First One Hit Wonder’ by a century or so in my book. And, like most one hit wonders, there is so much more when you dive in beyond that first piece. Pachelbel’s body of works are pretty great, and Dowland certainly does not disappoint either. I mentioned some time ago that the girls have pretty much fallen asleep to Arvo Pärt’s ‘Fur Alina’ since they were newborns, but with Mira I also would mix in Dowland’s Lute Music during her night time bottle (along with some late Beethoven quartets and Bach’s ‘Art of the Fugue’). She really liked Dowland though, and his body of lute music is fairly large (across 5 of these discs!) so I had a good amount of repertoire to become familiar with while also becoming familiar with the new baby girl. After some time, Celia also took to Dowland and asked to have a Dowland disc burned for her to play at night, and while I still get my nightly ‘Fur Alina’ from Mira’s sound monitor, ‘Can She Excuse’ and the ‘Queen’s Galliard’ stream out of Celia’s.I learned from my friend Don (who studied guitar as an undergraduate) that Downland’s lute works are quite popular with college guitar students since the English lute was a much more standardized instrument then the continental companion. Six strings, tuned like the modern guitar with one exception (the G string was on F-sharp). When I learned this I remember thinking ‘Ooooh! I bet I could play those!’ before realizing that it is this exact thought that all those undergraduates think too. Having long ago put the guitar down (except for the occasional jazz strumming and playing) I thought this might be a good way to get back into some playing. I thought this a year ago… and I DO still think I will get to it. But it is a bit saddening how hard it can be to just get going again sometimes. Time is short, and while I have the best intentions, when it comes down to it I just might not be a guitarist anymore. I’d rather spend the time with the kids, or relaxing with Tamiko, etc. I’m sure I’ll get back into it eventually, and when I do a decent classical guitar and Dowland will surely be a good place to start.

Tags: John Dowland
Posted in Celia, Classical, Mira, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 74. Pink Floyd.

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

So – quite a week. Hopefully can get BACK into the DAC routine, and also starting a new exercise one. Spring is here, and the dark months are behind us for now (in terms of both actual sunlight and some of Tamiko’s professional drama that seems to finally be wrapping up).

There is also darkness ahead here in Tacoma though… Roger Waters will be bringing ‘The Wall’ here this fall, so I went and dug out a few Pink Floyd discs for tonight. And being a teenager from Roseville in the 90s, I certainly remember hearing LOTS of Pink Floyd. Whole album sides on 93 Rock, my friend Josh singing out ‘Mother do you think they’re going…. to break… my balls???’, laser shows at the Crest and I could keep going. But – I think my biggest Pink Floyd memory / association comes through Tamiko. And not because Tamiko was the biggest Pink Floyd fan… her boyfriend Matt (who she dated before me) was. Matt and I had our lockers next to each other. Both the same year at Roseville High, and met during band camp the week before school started. He started dating Tamiko a few weeks into our freshman year, and I started dating a good friend of his around the same time. Matt was HEAVILY into Pink Floyd. Matt and Tamiko broke up during a band trip at the end of our freshman year, my breakup a few weeks after that, and it was Tamiko and I that were there for each other. Though I haven’t talked to Matt for a long time, we actually remained friends through high school (as did he and Tamiko to an extent).

So – 20 years after all this, almost half of that working in a record store where some form of Pink Floyd would come up every few weeks, what do I think about when I hear Pink Floyd? I still think about Matt. The laser shows, ‘Meddle’ blasting in the back room of Tower and classic album sides are certainly there, but they have faded with time as well… but I still think about this 14 year old kid who’s locker was next to mine, and who’s girlfriend I started dating (and eventually married) a few weeks after they broke up.

Posted in DAC Project, Rock / Pop, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 73. Beethoven and Bach.

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Though I just finished with the complete Bach box set, something that isn’t represented in that collection at all is the lute-harpsichord. Like it sounds, the instrument (pictured above) is basically a cross between the two instruments – a keyboard instrument with gut strings and the body of a HUGE lute. There is a good amount of research that suggests that Bach actually composed quite a bit on and for this instrument that basically disappeared by the late 1700s, and that his ‘Lute Suites’ were actually for this instrument (and not the more commonly found baroque lute). About a year ago I discovered a recording on eMusic of the lute suites performed on a replica lute-harpsichord and downloaded it, and was immediately struck by how different the instrument was from the harpsichord. It is a beautiful sound, more resonant then a lute (and able to sustain notes that would otherwise be deadened on a lute when a change of fret was needed) and less harsh then a harpsichord. The lute pieces on this recording (in Naxos with Elizabeth Farr) are beautiful. There are a handful of other recordings out there with the instrument (including a recording of the Goldberg Variations) that I hope to find someday soon.

This was also a recording I played quite a bit to help Mira sleep when she was still a newborn. She also liked Dowland quite a bit, as well as late Beethoven quartets. So as the little girl needed a little cuddle tonight (she’s is getting over a nasty croup cough) I put the late Beethoven quartets on (the A minor, op. 132) that I have on my computer (The Lindsays recording) and just held her for a bit. She’s so much bigger now… both her and Celia amaze me daily. And I’m glad that when they aren’t feeling well, that their daddy can still hold them for a bit with some Beethoven or Bach on in the background, and some imbedded memory helps remind them that everything is ok.

Last night Tamiko had a bit of hamster in her head as well… a video that Mira really like with Elmo and Ricky Gervais was running through her head, and the annoying parts of the song had Tamiko’s head spinning. I told her about how the late Beethoven quartets used to put Mira to sleep sometimes, ran downstairs to get my iPod and put them on… sure enough, Tamiko was out in about 5 minutes and I listened to the rest of the C-sharp minor quartet while holding her.

I’m so lucky.

Tags: Beethoven, J.S. Bach
Posted in Celia, Classical, Mira, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 60. Bach, The Clash and Cat Stevens.

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

I ripped both of the Cat Stevens greatest hits tonight as well as the ‘Clash on Broadway’ box set. A few weeks back I heard ‘If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out’ at Joe Bar cafe in Capital Hill, which of course made me think about ‘Harold & Maude’. Such a beautiful movie, and I think that as a result, I tend to associate rather ‘live life’ feelings with hearing Cat Stevens. He’s also someone that I know both Tamiko and I associate with our early childhoods. What surprised me a little tonight though was that I only had these two collections on CD. After a little looking around I realized that ‘Teaser And The Firecat’ and ‘Tea For The Tillerman’ are on vinyl. One of the things that sounds a little strange about the CDs is that this is music I really got to know on my dad’s record player (and I think I can even hear where the cracks and pops are supposed to be in ‘Moonshadow’). I don’t have any specific memories about Cat Stevens though… they all seem more distant and fuzzy to me. The almost seem like they are someone else’s memories in some ways (maybe because we are supposed to, at 35, be different people then we were at 5). But his music has been in my subconscious for probably most if not my whole life, and I tend to associate that feeling of being young (though not necessarily childish) with his music.

My Clash discs are definitely on the front part of my CD shelf, but it was the box-set that got picked for tonight. ‘Clash On Braodway’ is a great collection… and seeing this set is one of my first memories of working at the Tower in Roseville. We had a very small box-set section (for two reasons – first that box-sets weren’t a huge item yet, and second because we were a small store) and I remember seeing this set on the shelf, prominently facing out (one copy) the first week I was working there. Well – the first week I was working in the record store (new employees generally started out in the video side). It had come out just in time for Christmas and I was hoping to buy the set. But money was short. So I figured I would wait for a couple weeks. Then it sold. Then it came back in and I was broke again. Then I got some money for my birthday, and when I went to pick it up, it had sold again… and I think this went on in one way or another for close to two years. I finally got it in ’93 (I am pretty sure I got it for myself for high school graduation… but definitely had it for the summer). And I’m pretty sure the discs rotated through my old 77 Corolla until I moved to Berkeley. One bit of irony – ‘Police on My Back’ had just finished one night coming home from Tower on Watt (a couple nights before I moved to Berkeley). ‘The Magnificent Seven’ was on and I get pulled over for the light being out on my rear license plate. I am given a warning, and don’t think much more about it (what are the odds of getting pulled over again for this?). Well, two nights later (two nights before I move to Berkeley) I get pulled over again… same cop! And she remembers me! “Are you going to get that thing fixed?” she asked.

“I get paid tomorrow!”

“OK – just make sure you fix it” and all I get is another warning. I figure I’ll take care of it on my lunch break at work the next day and plan on walking over to an auto-parts store around the corner from Tower. I get to work (listening to The Clash again) and park… then have a few minutes before work is supposed to start, so I decide I’ll go get the light. I turn the ignition and hear a terrible crunch. I look under the car, and my starter is sitting on the ground. So I wind up walking to the auto parts store, get a light AND a starter, then fix both in the parking lot during my lunch break. I got the car fixed, but decided at that point that there would be no more Clash in the car until I got to the Bay Area with the car in one piece.

I also continued the Bach box today. Was able to finish ‘Volume 2’, the works for keyboard. Nice performance of the Goldberg Variations and I also listened to the Partitas. All good so far. I also started Volume 3 (the first part of the cantatas).

‘Where Do The Children Play?” was just playing on my computer and Tamiko just told me her memory of the song. In first or second grade she had an advanced reading class and they were given the lyrics to read and figure out. Another kid memory.

Will Celia or Mira hear Cat Stevens in elementary school? We’ll see… Tamiko and I just finished registering Celia for kindergarten… I wonder what songs she’ll hear.

Tags: Cat Stevens, J.S. Bach, The Clash
Posted in Celia, Classical, Mira, Rock / Pop, Tamiko | No Comments »

Day 58. Violent Femmes, Beethoven.

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

“Add It Up’ has got to be one of the best angry young man songs ever written. It is one of the few songs on the first Violent Femmes albums that has Gordon Gano playing some electric guitar, but it is still amazing how loud parts of this song are with just guitar, acoustic bass guitar and a single snare drum. I’m ripping four Violent Femmes CDs tonight, the first album, ‘Hallowed Ground’ (with some of the darkest music I think the Femmes ever made, plus some of the most out there – with some heavy thanks to John Zorn and his Horns of Dilemma), ‘Why Do Birds Sing’ and the ‘Add It Up’ compilation from ’93. I have a couple others in the back shelves of the book cases, but I’ll have to dig for those. The first album is – I really don’t know how to put it – every whiny teenage loser kids album of anthems? It certainly was there for me during my low points. What amazes me is how fun it is to listen to now since it makes me think ‘phew! I’m not there anymore’. And I get the sense that this is probably the case for the band as well. ‘Hallowed Ground’ is a solid album as well, but the Violent Femmes really were one of those bands who did their best and brightest on the first record. (Pink Martini, from last night, I think is also in that camp). And while ‘Blister In The Sun’ gets it’s fair share of radio play on ‘alternative’ stations still, ‘American Music’ from ten years later is really their big hit (though really no where near their best song… just more accessible I guess).

I got to see the Violent Femmes once at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and what a show that was. The group came to the stage THROUGH the middle of the audience playing snare drum, a trombone and a cymbals… hopped on stage and rocked out a great show. I’m still amazed how much these three guys were able to do together as a band (though at this point Victor DeLorenzo had been replaced on drum(s)… what a strange audition that must have been – ‘So, can you play a snare drum?’ ‘Sure’ ‘OK! You’re hired!’). Brian Ritchie played some pretty mean marimbas on ‘Gone Daddy Gone’ and it seemed like all three of them were picking up instruments here and there as needed. They looked like they were having lots of fun (to say the least). And opening that show was Carmaig DeForrest and his ‘Death Groove Love Party’… Carmaig only put out a handful of discs that were probably only available around shows in SF, but they sure were fun. Hmm… may need to rip that one in the next day or two.

There is something poetic though about how I wound up ripping the Violent Femmes tonight. Before bed, Celia came downstairs to pick out tonight’s rips and pulled out a couple of blank CD cases (because they were a pretty red), then she saw the first Violent Femmes record and said ‘Daddy! There’s a little girl on that one!’. So – Violent Femmes it was, because my daughter saw the little girl on the cover. The Violent Femmes – part of the soundtrack to my breakup with Tamiko (which, if it had stuck, would have meant no Celia in this world… WAAAHHHH!!!!). And it’s not like I can put it on for her tomorrow and say ‘Celia – here is the music with the girl on the cover!’… how do I explain ‘Kiss Off’? She’ll recognize that the man singing is counting, but why does he forget what 8 is for? Or ‘Gone Daddy Gone’ when one of her biggest fears is that I might leave in the middle of the night? (This as a result of a poorly planned trip on my part where I had to leave for the airport one time at 3am). No – I think Celia will just have to live in mystery of this disc for a bit of time.

I am beginning to suspect that part of my romanticization / longing for Berkeley must partly be a result of the strong, vivid memories that were formed there. Memories so strong and clear that I am actually surprised by them… am I still capable of these strong memories of what seem to be simple, small everyday details? I mean – I can still form them when the moment calls for it. I can still remember how both of our girls felt the first time they were in my arms for instance. But the memories that I am talking about are more about these moments that are NOT earth shattering life changing moments, but I can still recall the temperature in the air and the quality of the sound in a specific space. I described some of this a few days ago regarding Charlie Parker, and tonight is another one… this time around it is the first time I heard Beethoven’s String Trio, Op. 9 movement IV. Of course I didn’t know what it was (I was still acquiring mostly basic knowledge of classical repertoire) but I was walking (quickly) between the Tower in Berkeley to get to orchestra rehearsal. And as I walked past Henry’s on Durant, the little cafe at the street level (in the picture above, at the left edge of the frame) had the radio on over a couple of crappy in-ceiling speakers. And that is where I heard it… the last movement is fast and virtuosic and I stopped in my tracks and snuck a seat on the sidewalk. It was an early fall day, still warm with a little bite of cold in the air as the fog was getting ready to roll up to the Berkeley hills, the sun was about to set and there was a great golden color coming up the street, and I just sat there for about four minutes listening to the music hoping it was the radio and I could find out what it was. I was half expecting that if it WAS the radio someone would come up and ask if I was going to buy anything while the piece was named and I would miss it… but no. It ended and it was the Rostropovich / Anne Sophie Mutter recording of the Beethoven trio. It was Beethoven! So ‘classical’! I was so surprised (I really was expecting Haydn or Mozart or someone I hadn’t heard of before) since most of the Beethoven I knew up to this point were the moodier ‘hits’. Then I got up and headed off to orchestra rehearsal (Berlioz – ‘Symphonie Fantastique’) and found a recording the next day (as well as the score in the library).

Isn’t that a great story? I was able to walk down the street, hear classical music, sit down for a few minutes, listen and find out what it was in amazing surroundings! And like I said – I can still feel what that whole moment was like…

Tags: Beethoven, Violent Femmes
Posted in Celia, Classical, Rock / Pop, Tamiko | No Comments »

Archive for the ‘Tamiko’ Category

Day 89. Vivaldi, Getz/Gilberto, Pink Martini and Bach.

Day 85. U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police and The Clash.

Day 84. Mozart.

Day 83. Corelli.

Day 82. Anonymous 4, Dufay Collective, Ensemble Organum and Fretwork.

Day 75. Dowland.

Day 74. Pink Floyd.

Day 73. Beethoven and Bach.

Day 60. Bach, The Clash and Cat Stevens.

Day 58. Violent Femmes, Beethoven.

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