More on Pierre Fournier and Bach

As promised, here's a YouTube page with lots of fun stuff, including a live clip of Fournier playing the Sarabande from suite No. 3....

Another thought I forgot to mention: I once read that Pablo Casals practiced the suites for thirty years before he felt ready to play them in public.  I still have yet to hear his recording (from, I think, about 1936).

Pretention alert! On my close friends J.S. and Pierre...

Some random thoughts about the Bach solo cello suites....apologies if this comes out pretentious....

Miles Davis said that hearing Paul Buckmaster practice them in the morning helped him finally understand Ornette Coleman.  Something about viewing a melody from all different angles.  Maybe like some sort of aural cubism?

Being a single line (with some double stops), the melody is untethered to rigorous harmony, introducing a wonderful ambiguity and surprise that is not in Bach's other music.  I could see how Miles could have this realization, because the effect of the suites to me is similar to Ornette's first quartet, which had no piano.  Without chords underneath, the soloist could play pure melody regardless of overruling harmony.  "Harmolodic" indeed!  Some months ago I saw Ornette live for the first time - basically what he does is stand and play beautiful melody, regardless of key.

Pierre Fournier's recordings from 1961 present Bach as living and breathing.  There's an obvious physicality to the sound, but there's also an energy and presence to it which I haven't heard elsewhere in most other Bach recordings (although I really haven't heard many, compared to many other people).  I remember thinking a long time ago that much of Bach was meant to be played the hell out of, to be rocked.  That's what one's got here - kind of amazing for a 50-year-old recording of 300-year-old music.  (It's a strong contrast to the only other version of all six I've heard all the way through, which is Yo-Yo Ma's ice-cold rendition).

BULLETIN: I just did a YouTube search for Fournier and Bach and much to my surprise a whole page of links appeared!  More thoughts after viewing....

Verbal constipation

I'd post more if I didn't mentally edit everything I write before I type it.  I'll also type something, realize I hate it, and never post it.  I probably type too slowly to let the words flow.  O, for the benefit of verbal diarrhea...

But I didn't quite express it correctly....

More Bad Poetry!

(Brace yourself)


There is a silver tooth
in the broken appendectomy of time -
waiting, waiting, waiting
o'er the canteen

Cry not for the tin ear
that hears not for the fear
or never good cheer
For many a year.

     yesterday I walked down ventura boulevard and saw
          lots of chewing gum wrappers
             in the gutter.  They don't make 'em like
     they used to.

There is a silver tooth
in the broken appendectomy of clothing -
laughing, laughing, laughing
At your shoes.

Bad Poetry

Sometimes to "loosen up" some creative activity, I'll write some intentionally bad poetry for fun.  So I thought it might be time.  Here's a real stinker I came up with tonight:

ODE TO BEER

O Yeast!
O Malt!
O Hops!
  May the froth
     (Red, Brown, Yellow, or Black)
  cascade, cascade
     into my thirsty glass
       Like the lover to his waiting mate

O Brewer!
  With great care you
     tend and intend
     The boil and the sweet fermentation
     Your touch is that of a wizard
       as you swirl that liquid ore

O Bottler!
O Tender to the Bar!
  Bring to me
     those effervescent jewels
     the gems of Holy Libation
     My tongue and throat,
       my ravenous palate: my lusting mouth

O Ale!
O Lager!
  My senses immersed.


As Dan Aykroyd, as Leonard Pinth-Garnell, would say, "That wasn't very good at all, now was it?"  Garrison Keillor is on the phone, he wants to anthologize it.  Hope you had a laugh.

Words of wisdom

This is simply the best page I have come upon in the last year.

A couple more modest proposals

From Fight Back News: (via Dangerous Minds)

St. Paul, MN – Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all.

On March 15, Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee testified in front of the House Health and Human Services Reform Committee on House File 171. Buechner told committee members, “We would like to address the provision that makes it illegal for MFIP [one of Minnesota’s welfare programs] families to withdraw cash from the cash portion of the MFIP grant - and in fact, appears to make it illegal for MFIP families to have any type of money at all in their pockets. How do you expect people to take care of business like paying bills such as lights, gas, water, trash and phone?”

House File 171 would make it so that families on MFIP - and disabled single adults on General Assistance and Minnesota Supplemental Aid - could not have their cash grants in cash or put into a checking account. Rather, they could only use a state-issued debit card at special terminals in certain businesses that are set up to accept the card.
The bill also calls for unconstitutional residency requirements, not allowing the debit card to be used across state lines and other provisions that the Welfare Rights Committee and others consider unacceptable.

Buechner testified, “We’ll leave you with this. It is not right to punish a whole group because of the supposed actions of a few. You in this room could have a pretty rough time if that was the case. It is not right to stigmatize and dehumanize women living the hard life of trying to raise children while living 60% below the poverty level. It is not right to use racist, bumper-sticker hate to inflict human misery for political gain.”

This good idea got me to thinking - maybe we should go a step or two further.

I'm thinking that instead of an EBT card, recipients should be tattooed with their registration numbers, making it impossible to defraud the system by using others' cards or even multiple cards.

And I also think we should ultimately round up poor people and put them into holding centers, where they can be centrally "cared for" and their actions can be easily monitored. The expense for constructing these centers can come out of existing funds that have already been minimized for welfare use. In this way we can designate urban areas unfit for "real" Americans' use, and select them as holding centers. This program will save most taxpayers around $.0003 per year, but for the true successful Americans the amount saved will be in the hundreds of thousands.

What do you think? 

Welcome to nothing

Yes, by unpopular demand, I've consented to attempt to maintain a blog.  You can look forward to various rants and hopefully a few laughs.  Suggestions and correspondence are welcome.  I hope it will be at least somewhat entertaining.

With a hard sell like that, one can't help but be enticed!