I recently got this set up in my living room after my room mate bought a 1200 on eBay and I scored the used Vestax mixer. A more difficult than neccessary trip to Ikea resulted in the perfect table to house it all. The stereo is directly opposite with the chair on the right pretty close to the sweet spot. The other chair, which allows access to the mixer and decks has been dubbed the “Captain’s Chair”.
Finally had a chance to check out the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago over the weekend. I only spent about an hour inside, but so far I’m more impressed than I thought I’d be. The first couple galleries on the Contemporary Art since 1960 floor caused me to say to myself “holy shit, they have that!” more than once.
Highlights so far: the giant Richard Serra piece (don’t remember the name and they don’t have an image of it online yet), Peter Doig’s Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre, Ed Paschke’s Mid American and the Gerhard Richter room.
Biggest gyp: the bridge. Walking across it on a nice day is kind of a pleasant experience, but having to take take an escalator back down to the ground floor to enter the building is more than annoying.
Overall I can’t wait until I have some more time to explore.
These are almost as good as my Lol Chuckz (I should post those). These are just the backgrounds from various viral videos. I figured out about half of them. Unfortunately they don’t provide a key at to what’s what. Totally wish I’d thought of this.
Stopped by Dusty Groove on my way to Corbett vs. Dempsey for the Albert Oehlen opening (the show is excellent, check it out if you’re in town) for a little end of the semester reward and ended up with some of my best finds so far. I was doing well keeping the prices down until the last two which I couldn’t pass up. Conveniently both have exclamation points in their titles to match my excitement.
Deodato: Prelude - Continuing my recent discovery/fascination with CTI (the story on Creed Taylor in this month’s Wax Poetics adding fuel). This album was the label’s huge hit because of the funky cover of Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) that Phish ended up covering which I guess means that Phish covered a cover.
Herbie Mann: Push Push- We’d been discussing this album earlier in the day during lunch at Hot Doug’s. The cover is sublimely ridiculous and best experienced in person. Oh, and Duane Allman sits in and proves he can hang with the jazz cats.
Hubert Laws: Crying Song - More CTI, but this time with covers from Pink Floyd’s Soundtrack for the Film More. I’ve been looking for this for awhile.
Merl Sunders: Fire Up - With Jerry Garcia and Tom Fogerty. I haven’t heard this in ages. The reissue that combined this with Heavy Turbulence served as the template to the first band I gigged with.
Ramsey Lewis: Sun Goddess - Another one I haven’t heard in a long time. Filling in some gaps from the past.
Brother Jack McDuff: Down Home Style - I’ve been a huge fan of this album since first hearing on CD as part of Blue Note’s “Rare Groove” reissue series from about 10 years ago. Don’t think I’ve ever seen it on vinyl. This copy is a little banged up, but it was pretty cheap.
Curtis Mayfield: Curtis/Live! - Uncovered this original pressing in the just arrived bin. Almost didn’t buy it then thought better of it right before checking out. The vinyl is in great shape and sounds amazing.
Jimmy Smith: The Sermon!- Another old, old favorite I’ve had on CD for a long time. Track listing of the original vinyl is slightly different, but it’s the title track that’s really the stand out. I don’t think mine’s an original pressing, but I’m pretty sure it’s from before United Artists bought Blue Note in the 70’s.
I’ve been pretty slack about posting for the last month or so. Hopefully in the next couple days (and for at least the rest of the summer) I’ll be able to rectify that. I’ll be retroactively posting this week things I’ve meant to post. Hopefully my semi-regular posting will resume next week. Until then here’s a cool interview with Jeff Koons from his NYC studio.
In the spirit of my topic, I am presenting this paper on the internet as part of my blog. It was written, revised and edited exclusively in WordPress’s text editor and will be maintained, in some form, by me for as long as I host this website. By making it publicly accessible I am opening it to other forms of digital archiving and realize it may have a life beyond this website. Nothing on the internet ever really goes away. -jdc
“They speak (I know) of the ‘feverish Library whose chance volumes are constantly in danger of changing into others and affirm, negate and confuse everything like a delirious divinity.’ ”
-The Library of Babel, Jorge Louis Borges
Earlier this year I participated in a show at Roots and Culture curated by Eric Fleischauer called “The End of Analog.” The thesis of the show was to celebrate/call attention to/examine/question/what have you the government mandated switch from analog to digital television broadcast signals. Much of the work employed various analog and outdated technologies to evoke memories and nostalgia for a soon to be bygone time. Accompanying the show was a book [pdf, 796 KB] of essay’s ruminating on the implications of the evolution of technology and its effects on culture at this particular moment in time.
A couple friends had been talking this record fair up for quite a while. When it finally came around last weekend my expectations were high and it didn’t disappoint. Things were mostly skewed towards rock so that’s what I concentrated on for the most part. Most people seemed willing to cut deals or throw in freebies which was nice. I think I only paid full price at one table, but all I bought was a $4 copy of Crazy Horse’s record without Neil. Plus I got turned on to a couple shops and vendors who I’ll hit up later on. Here’s the breakdown:
Caravan: In the Land of Grey and Pink - The first seven records all came from the first table I looked at. I could have spent all the money I’d budgeted for the entire fair but wisely showed some restraint. For some dumb reason I didn’t get a card. Plus his jazz records were generally in better shape most other jazz stuff I saw. This Caravan record is something I’ve been keeping an eye out for. Not really sure why other than a curiousity about the late 60’s Canterbury scene beyond The Soft Machine. I’ve only given it one spin but this one might take some work to really get into.
The Incredible String Band: U - Another gamble and this time a loss. I don’t know anything about ISB other than The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter which I really like. This one seems to have all the worst of their idiosyncracies and very little of the what makes The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter so good, namely quality songs.
The Electric Flag: The Trip OST - A British reissue. I’ve seen the first twenty minutes of The Trip but don’t remember the soundtrack. Still, it doesn’t seem to work on it’s own without the film which is a bit of a bummer.
It’s a Beautiful Day: It’s a Beautiful Day - This one mostly redeems the first three. I’ve had mp3’s of this for some time and really dig it. It’s a good album, but not great.
Herbie Mann: Live at the Whisky A Go Go - Herbie Mann gets a bad rap from serious jazz lovers but I usually really like his records. He always has some weird combination of players who really shake up what could be some really middle of the road lite jazz and this is no exception. Roy Ayers, who I always like, is on this, as is Sonny Sharrock who is even more out here than he is on Memphis Underground.
Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa: Pink Floyd Meets Frank Zappa - I’ve seen this show up on Dime but never downloaded it. There was another guy looking at it (he ended up getting the picture disc version) and since I’m a huge fan of both Zappa and Floyd I went for it. Frank jams on Interstellar Overdrive and it’s pretty awesome. From a Belgian festival in ‘71.
Miles Davis: In Concert - Found this at one of the only tables that had an extensive jazz selection. Wasn’t sure if I already had it (I didn’t). One step closer to having all of the electric Miles records. No track listing or musician credits, what an ego!
Crazy Horse: Crazy Horse - Mentioned above. Bought from a vendor who had stuff in categories like “Good While Stoned”. His business card read Saucerful of Secrets yet he had no Floyd.
Talking Heads: More Songs About Buildings and Food - The next five I found at 2nd Hand Tunes‘ table. They’re up in Evanston. While they didn’t have anything really unusual, everything they had was really good, in good shape and reasonably priced. Filled in some holes and found a couple of gems.
Pink Floyd: A Nice Pair - This will have to do until I find another copy of Saucerful of Secrets to replace to POS copy I bought off eBay a couple years ago.
Pink Floyd: The Final Cut - Another hole filled and a much better record than most people give it credit for being.
Little Richard: Little Richard is Back - I’m still trying to track down release information on this one because I’m finding it hard to believe I found an original pressing of this for $10. Released in 1965 after Little Richard had ‘retired’ from rock and roll in response to The Beatles stealling his schtick on ‘Twist and Shout’. Also notable for the presence of James Marshall Hendricks on guitar.
Lee Morgan: The Sidewinder - The vinyl is a bit banged up, but the cover is in great shape. Not be an original pressing, but from the 70’s when Blue Note was owned by United Artists. Still a rad find.
Slint: EP - The last thing I bought of the day. Picked it up at the Touch and Go table. Given the news of their recent drastic downsizing and my longtime love for the stuff they put out I felt I should do a little something to help out.
Afterwards I stopped by the Reckless in Wicker Park because it was Record Store day but didn’t buy anything. All in all I’d say I had a pretty good day.
I went up to Milwaukee over the weekend to check out the Milwaukee Art Museum. Given that Milwaukee is only about a 90 minute drive from Chicago I’m a little surprised I hadn’t made the trek sooner. In addition to having a generally pretty excellent collection of post-1960 American, the MAM also has a ton of great outsider/folk art and one of the dumbest additions to any building I’ve ever experienced.
I hit up Dusty Groove a couple weeks ago during a break in class (which was happening in the gallery upstairs at Corbett vs. Dempsey). In fifteen minutes I managed to find some cool stuff.
Then a week later I swung by Jazz Record Mart for the first time in about a year. I told myself I was only going to buy one record and ended up with three:
Herbie Hancock: Blow-Up OST - For anyone who ever wondered where the bassline on “Groove is in the Heart” came from.
various artists: Nigeria 70 Lagos Jump - Sequel to what, for me, is still the best afrobeat/afrofunk compilation ever assembled and the one which turned me into a fiend for all things Nigerian from the 70’s. I downloaded this from emusic awhile back and tried looking online for it on vinyl at the time with no luck so I was surprised to stumble across this. !K7 has taken over Strut and I’m really hoping they’re gonna get the entire catalog back in print.
