sovay | Touch the spark, sound the tone

Current Music: "The Proposal/The Night Was Alive," Titanic: The Musical

Touch the spark, sound the tone

1. I was just supposed to meet

derspatchel for lunch at Christopher's. We left Porter Square Books something like five hours later. It's not like I never meet people to whom I do not have to explain Anna Russell, but it's still strangely cheering when it happens.

2. Tomorrow I leave for D.C., to spend the weekend with a combination of

rushthatspeaks, B.,

strange_selkie,

darthrami, and my god-daughter whose second birthday is being celebrated on Saturday. The one downside: I am going to miss Mission of Burma at the Brighton Music Hall, which I'd been planning on before I saw how the dates lined up. I haven't heard them live since 2010. They had better start playing a lot more local shows.

3. I haven't heard that it's traveling to Boston, so I really don't want to miss the International Center for Photography's Weegee: Murder Is My Business, especially after seeing The Naked City (1948) in the fall. It doesn't seem impossible that I should be able to get to New York before September, though.

4. I imagine most of you have seen this already, but it is still extremely cool: "What would the trunk of a tree sound like if a cross section of it were played like an LP?"

5. There are about a dozen essay-ish posts I want to make on various things I have read or watched, but I don't think any of them are getting written this weekend. The rest of this sentence fell over into self-recrimination, so I think I'm going to bed.

It's finally snowing. It's rather lovely. Why does it have to be the day I fly somewhere?

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Travel well!

Nine

Travel well!

Security tried neither to scan me nor pat me down, which is already an improvement on the last time I flew anywhere.

If you'd like company for that Weegee show, do let me know. I love his work.

If you'd like company for that Weegee show, do let me know. I love his work.

Absolutely. Let me figure out when, how, and possibly with whom else—I know I don't want to miss the Marvell Rep's Professor Bernhardi or The Threepenny Opera, so I'll have to be in New York before the end of February. I have this sudden sense I should construct a calendar when I'm awake.

Excellent! Yayfor calendars.

Ach! Well, there's no way we could drive up to D.C. this weekend, but maybe next time, with a little more advance warning...? ;-)

If you want to pencil it down for next year, the birthday in question is January 18, and

sovay is a pretty hardcore godmother. Down to the Wittgenstein.

I'll go ahead and say, since there are no vintage elevators around, that there's always room for one more.

Well, there's no way we could drive up to D.C. this weekend, but maybe next time, with a little more advance warning...?

I don't believe my godchild is going anywhere in the near future: I think we could make it work!

Most excellent!

I had *not* heard the trunk-LP! That's rather wonderful.

It's finally snowing. It's rather lovely. Why does it have to be the day I fly somewhere?
Murphy's Law?
Anyway, travel well!

That's rather wonderful.

Glad to have introduced you, then!

Anyway, travel well!

Thank you! It is bright and slightly resembles winter outside!

I am chagrined for the effect of global warming and the lack of Mission to Burma, but I am so pleased that you'll be able to see us and

rushthatspeaks. Yay!

I am chagrined for the effect of global warming and the lack of Mission to Burma, but I am so pleased that you'll be able to see us and rushthatspeaks. Yay!

See you very soon!

The tree-trunk record is fascinating!

The tree-trunk record is fascinating!

I like that people think of this sort of thing.

I thought at first it was a variant on the "if a tree falls and nobody hears it..." question.

Good travels, many happy returns.

Good travels, many happy returns.

Thank you.

The tree-trunk LP machine is incredible. But why did they choose a piano? Given that a tree trunk's rings are continuous bands rather than points, I would have gravitated more towards instruments capable of a more solid and controllable sustain, like bowed strings or an organ. I wonder if they did try different instruments, and, if so, what the results were.

Given that a tree trunk's rings are continuous bands rather than points, I would have gravitated more towards instruments capable of a more solid and controllable sustain, like bowed strings or an organ.

If you get the tech to try this, please let me know. I love the idea of a tree playing time like a violin.

I wonder if they did try different instruments, and, if so, what the results were.

I couldn't find a lot of information on the project offhand on the internet, but there must be a more detailed writeup somewhere.

I would have gravitated more towards instruments capable of a more solid and controllable sustain, like bowed strings or an organ.

I'd agree. I suspect cello or organ would have been evocative in a way the piano couldn't match.

Safe travels! I hope you have a lovely time in D.C.* Sorry you're having to miss the Mission of Burma show; I'm sure it will work out eventually that you can see them.**

I hope you can make the Weegee exhibit. I'm thinking I'll have to try to get there, myself.

4. I imagine most of you have seen this already, but it is still extremely cool: "What would the trunk of a tree sound like if a cross section of it were played like an LP?"

That's the first I've seen it. Thank you! It's fascinatingly odd. Or oddly fascinating. Something like that.

It's finally snowing. It's rather lovely. Why does it have to be the day I fly somewhere?

I hope all goes well. It's supposed to snow here tomorrow. My mother's got tickets for the livecast from the Metropolitan Opera. I really hope it doesn't work out the way it did when she went to see Wagner's Siegfried and the pre-Halloween Noreaster hit.

*I'm sure you will. More importantly, I hope you have no problem getting there.
**There was a year or more when every time one of my friends was gigging anywhere in range, I had to be somewhere else; at one festival, the band he was playing with were on the main stage at exactly the same time as the one I was playing with were on the cultural stage.

That's the first I've seen it. Thank you! It's fascinatingly odd. Or oddly fascinating. Something like that.

It's probably not the most interesting musical news I've seen recently, but it's incredibly evocative.

Have fun in DC! We'll have to catch up when you return.

(I love Porter Square Books; haven't been there in ages, though!)

Have fun in DC! We'll have to catch up when you return.

Thank you and definitely!

(I love Porter Square Books; haven't been there in ages, though!)

Well, would you like to meet there? They serve about the only chai I can drink without getting a migraine. (Herbal. I get migraines from caffeine. I know it's the other way round for everyone else.)

Sounds good by me! Just drop me an email when you get back, and we can plan.

Mission of B. thats m m m My generation... unfortunately i never got to see them. i think they broke up for the first time when i was first out in about in club/band land. But i went an untold number of Human sexual response/ Zulus shows back in the day.
Naked City is on my list. just haven't gotten to it yet. Is there a character based on Weegee in the film? or is the look of it "Weegee like"? A photography teacher i had was the first to thoroughly introduce me to his photo's...
The other day i saw a lovely scene of snow flurries in the sunshine at thorndike field area near Alewife station. reminded me of a 15th century dutch landscape painting somehow - but damn i did not have my camera with me...
good day

But i went an untold number of Human sexual response/ Zulus shows back in the day.

Lucky. I have only the recordings. (Now I'm going to have "Marone Offering" stuck in my head for the rest of the day.)

I never saw Mission of Burma in their first incarnation: they broke up when I was two. I discovered them in the summer of 2007 with "Spider's Web" and "2wice" and then connected with someone who was both a long-time fan and a friend of theirs, so I saw quite a lot of them onstage until this past year, when circumstances and finances prevented.

Naked City is on my list. just haven't gotten to it yet.

I finally caught it on TCM in September, after hearing about it for years. It's an odd mix of genres and styles, both in terms of acting and cinematography—it's not that it can't decide whether it wants to be a documentary, a police procedural, or a film noir, each with its own atmosphere and morality, but it doesn't change up when the viewer expects it to—but it completely deserves its reputation.

Is there a character based on Weegee in the film? or is the look of it "Weegee like"?

The visual style is based heavily on Weegee's photography and the title is taken from his 1945 book. I don't know his work nearly as well as I'd like to.

The other day i saw a lovely scene of snow flurries in the sunshine at thorndike field area near Alewife station. reminded me of a 15th century dutch landscape painting somehow - but damn i did not have my camera with me...

We had that here on Thursday: snow from a near-clear sky. It was beautiful and I didn't photograph it, either.

Just to clarify. Human Sexual Response was little before my time. i saw their incarnation: The Zulu's (late 80's) - i'm getting up there, but not ancient ...yet. now i have "land of the glass pinecones" stuck in my head.
http://youtu.be/swXqa_jkfvs
thanks for the film info. I can pick up "Naked City" dvd at the Arlington library.

i saw their incarnation: The Zulu's (late 80's) - i'm getting up there, but not ancient ...yet.

I never have any idea how old anyone is on the internet.

now i have "land of the glass pinecones" stuck in my head.

Live version! I haven't got that. Thank you.

I can pick up "Naked City" dvd at the Arlington library.

Enjoy! I get a lot of movies from them . . .

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Touch the spark, sound the tone

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