now spinning

Grant Green's final studio album for Blue Note...Visions from 1972....
this session is normally slighted and trivialized because the repertoire on it is pretty schmaltzy adult contemporary-ish stuff.... the carpenters "we've only just begun"; chicago's "does anyone really know what time it is", and the jackson 5's "never can say goodbye"..that kind of stuff.. but to me grant green never played a truly bad date.. i just enjoy his style of guitar no matter what he's tackling .. and he's pretty sharp on this set... .i like the cover too.....he looks cool as cool .... this session has yet to be released on cd which is pretty amazing when you think of how every other session, including many that had been unreleased in his lifetime, have made it to cd.. anyways i picked this up at dc's newest and finest record store cellar records on 14th street next to saint ex.. i paid $8.99....unfortunately its got some surface noise and the cover is pretty beat up with large seam splits but what'chagonna do? i never been able to lay off that grant green... even on the schmaltz he sounds real funky to me...i take note this record belonged to a mrs. joan b williams who lived at 2700 9th st s.e. or so the sticker on the cover tells me.. she had good taste! my favorite track is probably cantaloupe woman which is funkier than the rest of the album.. i also take note that funky drummer idris muhammad is on this....

Happy 80th birthday Chuck Berry! you're THE man!

(reproduced from email i sent a few friends)

clink a glass for chuck berry!... he turns 80 this wednesday!!!!!!!...

obviously i love the man very much (with all his many many kinks foibles and pecadillos) and i think wednesday should be a national holiday..i really do....the ideal day would be preceded by chuck berry throwing the ceremonial first pitch at the cardinals mets championship series baseball game tuesday night in st louis..obviously there would be a 10 minute standing ovation.. then on his birthday wednesday during prime time a simulcast would broadcast from blueberry hill (bar chuck still plays once a month) in st. louis as the rolling stones, ac dc, bruce, bob and just about everyone else sang him happy birthday...chuck would take a few bows...the president of the United States would call and thank chuck for his invaluable contributions to the nation (he could apologize for some of the ridiculous shit that went down over the years but lets say a call is enough)... .chuck would say a few words (knowing chuck he'd probably spoil it all by saying "show me the money!" or proceed to rip angus young a new one for not playing his song correctly or punch out keith richards yet again but thats life)... then chuck would get the party started with a few guitar riffs.......preferably his first song would be maybellene which would then be justifiably proclaimed the first rock and roll song....his backing band would be bruce and the e street band reprising something they did in the early to mid 70s when they backed him in a show at cole field house just down the road in college park (bruce's telling of this event is the hands down highlight of the movie hail hail rock'n'roll and one of my favorites rock n roll stories.....see it if you havent)..

as things stand i'll give a few of my original chuck berry lps (chess black label) a spin, and top if off with some rolling stones and ac dc before heading over to the irish times to cheer on his hometown st louis cardinals against the new york mets. join me if you feel like or celebrate in your own special way...above all spread the word.. chuck's alive and lets celebrate him while he's here and not via some hollywood biopic when he's gone..

from all music guide:

Of all the early breakthrough rock & roll artists, none is more important to the development of the music than Chuck Berry. He is its greatest songwriter, the main shaper of its instrumental voice, one of its greatest guitarists, and one of its greatest performers. Quite simply, without him, there would be no Beatles, Rolling Stones , Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, nor a myriad others. There would be no standard "Chuck Berry guitar intro," the instrument's clarion call to get the joint rockin' in any setting. The clippety-clop rhythms of rockabilly would not have been mainstreamed into the now standard 4/4 rock & roll beat. There would be no obsessive wordplay by modern-day tunesmiths; in fact, the whole history (and artistic level) of rock & roll songwriting would have been much poorer without him. Like Brian Wilson said, he wrote "all of the great songs and came up with all the rock'n'roll beats." Those who do not claim him as a seminal influence or profess a liking for his music and showmanship show their ignorance of rock's development as well as his place as the music's first great creator. Elvis may have fueled rock & roll's imagery, but Chuck Berry was its heartbeat and original mindset.

By Bill McClellan
This article originally appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Oct. 9, 2006

We got a new statue last month. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark have now set up shop down by the Eads Bridge. It's a very nice statue, but when I look at it, I can't help but mutter, "Roll over Meriwether and tell William Clark the news."

Chuck Berry turns 80 next week. Where's his statue?

He is probably the most famous St. Louisan of all time. Oh sure, lots of people know Stan Musial, but his fame is pretty much limited to countries in which people play baseball. A friend of mine was in Croatia recently. People were drinking and dancing, and she did the duck walk. "Chuck Berry!" somebody said. Everybody nodded. Most of these people did not speak English. They probably knew nothing about baseball. I say this not to denigrate Stan Musial - I'm happy he has a statue and I wish it were a better likeness - but to point out that Berry's fame is international. Actually, it's intergalactic. In 1977, a recording of Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" was placed aboard the Voyager space probe and fired out into the cosmos. Johnny B. Goode forever.

There is something else about Berry that merits a mention. He lives here. He raised his kids here, and they still live here.

"I could not imagine my parents or my sisters living anywhere else in the country," said Charles Berry Jr. "My father went to Sumner High School and knows the city like the back of his hand. He has roots here so well in the ground I don't think he could leave. He's seen most of North America, South America, Asia and Europe. They all have a great deal to offer, but there's nothing like St. Louis when you've grown up here."

Think of all the famous people who grew up here and then left, lured away by brighter lights or better weather. From Tennessee Williams to Yogi Berra to Dick Gephardt. Then there are the people who've made a mark here but have never wanted to live here. Tony LaRussa and Mark McGwire come to mind. But Chuck Berry, who could live anywhere, chose to stay here.

It isn't as if St. Louis has always embraced him, either. Quite the contrary. He was born in California in 1926 and came here as a young child. This was very much a southern city back then, especially in its racial attitudes. Berry sang in the Sunday school choir at Antioch Baptist Church, but he was not always a compliant young man. He was rebellious. He got in trouble. He went to prison.

His early musical career was also an upstream effort, very much against the current of the times. He was a crossover when crossing over was not allowed. In those days, he was never far from trouble, and if some of the trouble was rooted in the times, some of it was surely his own doing.

But he persevered. He hit it big when he was 30 with "Maybellene."

Eventually, he became an icon. For his 60th birthday, rock and roll stars such as Keith Richards and Eric Clapton came to St. Louis for a concert-movie called "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll."

But the most amazing thing about Berry is that he still plays a monthly gig at Blueberry Hill in the Delmar Loop. It has to be one of the coolest things in the country. Imagine going over to a friend's basement to hear the founding father of rock 'n' roll. It's a family affair, too. Berry's son and one of his daughters, Ingrid, are part of the band. While Ingrid is a full-time musician, Charles Berry Jr. is a computer guy who owns an IT consulting firm.

These shows at Blueberry Hill attract a wide audience. There were two BBC crews at last month's show. Also, Paul Muldoon, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Irish poet and professor at Princeton. Mostly, though, it's just regular St. Louisans who come out because it's a good thing to do. Which is probably why hundreds of St. Louisans showed up at the riverfront when Lewis and Clark returned. It's always appropriate to salute people who have accomplished much.

Which is why when I look at the new statue, I think, "Roll over Meriwether, and tell William Clark the news."

"there's nothing else but me..."

playing this morning: jesus and the mary chain's 1985 debut psycho candy... what a great album! let me name the reasons... ok maybe not.. but this album is a classic that somehow remains a cult....the shoegazer movement really begins here, the pixies sound got a lot from this... this album embodies the best of music: melody, cool, experimental... what you get here are narcissistic songs about growing up combined with ramones/beachboys melodies refracted via velvet underground white noise all underpinned by that dark echo and the bunnymen vibe..... looking at the pictures of the reid brothers they in fact look like ian mcullough more than say robert smith.... bobby gillespie who would go on to more fame when he started up the primal scream after i guess deciding he would never be more than a second banana to the reid brothers' egos..well bobby plays the drums on this.... what to say bout the lp sonics? having i believe only heard this on cd til now - and i have not heard the recent rhino reissue (hard to believe this album was out of print domestically..we're talking the best album of 1985 and one of the touchstones of college rock)- i have to say the lp is dirtier , fuzzier yes grungier.... ultimately however i have to say a word about the songs.. there are some feedback showcases here but they are surrounded by some classic pop songs that the supremes or better yet ronnettes could have sung.. the feedback guitar wall has often been compared with the phil spector wall of sound and perhaps there is some truth to that.... the album's first track "just like honey" was featured to great effect by sofia coppola in "lost in translations" pivotal closing sense..it gave me goosebumps when i saw it.. not usually a big fan of using music to arouse emotion.. let the actors do the acting i say... but in this case coppola's use really hit a home run... anyways, this jesus and the mary chain album never gets old for me.. more like when i dig it out i'm always shocked as to how fresh and alive it sounds.

Meet Ginger Bernichon!

Our newest household member Ginger came to us a few months ago and has adjusted just fine to life in the household.. admittedly sparks did fly with her new brother ari but things are settling down.... Ginger loves to hang out in the bathroom and is known to give the ocassional friendly head-butt..she also insists on taking her strolls in the corridors of the apartment building...she's a 3-4 year old good looking shorthair (these cats are known for having strong personalities and ginger is no exception) which is not surprising given her pedigree (her brother who lives in southwest dc is a well known model in the area).. ginger seems to particularly enjoy hanging out on her boogiemat and the recently purchased scratchmat...but the clawing of the purple couch and taking down of the curtain must stop!

now playing: wes

Wes Montgomery's "The Incredible Jazz Guitar" on Riverside lp 12-320... not a huge fan of wes... i tend to prefer grant green....tend to? who am i kidding.. i much prefer grant green..its not even close..but i always wanted to give this record a listen and now that i found a really banged up lp for $1 i can.. the cover (pictured) was in pretty good shape.. but the record has its problems..still....its not an easy or cheap record to come by....

Congratulations to Muhammad Yunnus!

Finally a Nobel Peace Prize winner that is fully deserving of the honor! I am very excited about the win by Yunnus and the Grameen Bank microcredit institution he set up.. I hope this recognition of the power and effectiveness of microcredit as a poverty fighting tool will mean the World Bank devotes increasing resources to microcredit!

Bush and Bin Laden

this interview of bill clinton by wallace is fascinating stuff.. find it here: http://thinkprogress.org/clinton-interview
there's a video of the interview too...

My conclusion has to be that President George W. Bush has little interest in finding Osama Bin Laden. Otherwise his actions make no sense. Primarily of course the diversion of resources from Afghanistan to Irak. We know Bin Laden is not in Irak. My conclusion crystallized during the President's last press conference (a week or two ago) when he was asked if the United States would send troops/forces/whatever (can't remember exact word) to Pakistan if the United States knew Bin Laden was hiding there. Bush responded that we couuld not because Pakistan was a sovereign country. This answer was particularly striking because only minutes earlier the President had criticized the United Nations for not sending troops to Darfur even if the Sudanese government, presumably sovereign, objected.

Why do I think this was an important answer by Bush? Becuase I believe he said what he truly believed without giving it too much thought to what he was actually saying. It is not shocking that he said what is perfectly obvious. After all it has been five years since September 11 and have we made any progress in finding Bin Laden??..By all accounts the trailer is colder than a witches tit. By all accounts we find ourselves further than ever from finding him!!!!!! It is obvious that very quickly after the War in Afghanistan the President began a campaign with single minded focus and tenacity of tying Saddam Hussein to evil while downplaying Osama. At times we have even observed the President, unwittingly, give his hand away when he has mistakenly referred to Osama Bin Laden as Saddam Hussein. Lets face it people: the focus since late 2002 has been Irak. Therefore, what is shocking is not what he said but that he said it at all!!!!!

A few days ago the President was asked about this matter again and this time he replied that of course the US would send forces into Pakistan to get Bin Laden if it counted with intelligence that he was in Pakistan. I believe this was a lie. I believe his advisors said to him after the press conference "Mr. President, whether true or not that is simply NOT the correct answer. Next time say that we willl go in and for God's sake man say it like you mean it!"

I don't get the sense the press has reported too much on this story. I remind the reader that this amounts to what the President says on finding the man that we are told is responsible for killing thousands of americans, the man responsible for turning the world upside down, evil incarnate, etc. Well , what he says about that is hardly news. The AP coverage of the press conference had his incredible revelation somewhat buried in the middle of the story. It did, however, point out the Sudan statement without spelling out the obvious inconsistency.

If i was the editor of a newspaper I would have thought the President's confession would be the cover story!


But its not a cover story. Its not really a story at all is it? The story is that Venezuela's President Chavez called Bush the devil or the story is about what specifically amounts to torture (something I think is incredibly obvious! we all know what would be torture if were being tortured, don't we?)...something like that..we are apparently condemned to debate what is torture and what is interrogation for the next fifty years..what a patently absurd waste of time! we know perfectly well that if the US decides to torture it will torture..end of story..the national security interest of the United States, as determined by whoever is president and his appointees and their employees, will not play second fiddle to some arbitrary definition of what constitutes interrogation and what constitutes torture and whats permissible under the geneva convention and what is not... does anyone seriously believe that? yet the press continues to report on this story and bush seems content to let the story live....one has to wonder whats going on there but its not what i wish to focus on here..

i learn that bush met with Pakistan's leader Pervez Musharaff today (a man who became leader via a military coup)..our "friend" pervez apparently recently negotiated some sort of deal where he leaves the tribes in the northern border of his country alone... of course one can assume this is where bin laden would be hiding..the nature of the deal is not entirely clear.. some say its basically a deal by musharraf not to mess with bin laden/taliban in his country..musharaff claims its the opposite.. and bush said today one of his classic phrases "i looked into his eyes and i believed him.." or some such..( a variation on his statement about putin back in 2001 in a pre-september 11 world if you recall.. putin of whom he said "i looked into this man's eyes and saw a man america could do business with.." or some such...the same putin who recently railed about america being "..the wolf.." etc.. the same putin who by all accounts is quite the autocrat etc..the same putin who does not seem to be america's friend... but i digress......

of course bush is going to say that about musharaff.. after all he's perfectly content with the way things are.. if bush really wanted to find bin laden and by all accounts bin laden is somewhere near the pakistani/afghani border..well if he really wanted to find him wouldn't he say something like "its been five years..we are not happy he has not been found.. we expect more results from our pakistani allies..we would like to take a more agressive role in the hunt for this cold blooded killer"...????? but if he did not want to find him.. if he did not care then i think bush would say just what he said which amounts to "the pakistanis are people we can trust.. musharraf is doing what he can..... thank you"...

i mean by all accounts the US is neglecting afghanistan vis a vis irak... by all accounts the US displaced an enemy of bin laden's.. yes saddam hussein.. one hopes the american people begin to wonder about what is going on.. but with a complicit US press it seems difficult.... recently a richard cohen piece in the washington post (september 12) .. a piece aptly titled "Bin Laden Won" made some very asute observations about how the US was doing exactly what was most convenient for Bin Laden.. i don't think the piece got too much play.... the bushies have been very succesful- unbelievably so- in turning bin laden into yesterday's news and tying him to bill clinton... as if when they arrived the problem already existed and they are not responsible for september 11 happening under their watch and they are not responsible for their failure to find him and punish him....

if i did not see it i would not believe it.

check out this three panel inner gatefold fold out from Dr John's In the Right Place album! the album paintings are by James Flournoy Holmes.. reminds me a bit of one of those Japanese screens... The Meters are supernatural on this album! its really a meters album with dr john as vocalist... the meters were Leo "Breeze" Nocentelli on lead guitar, Arthur "Red" Neville on organ, George "Freak Man" Porter on bass and Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste on drums... Porter and Modeliste are just everything a rhythm section should be.. Modeliste, who although I was a bit familiar with from his stuff with the Meters did not realize was sooo good, shines on this LP

This album from Dr John "In the Right Place" on Atco 7019 is a downright masterpiece. I was more familiar with Dr. John's Gumbo but this one is GREAT! A five star album and my album of the month....

Now playing! Lately I just love the Allen Toussaint/Meters sound and if you're into that you have to check out Dr. John's "in the right place" from 1973 (my most played/grooved to/enjoyed album these past few weeks) and its so called Part 2 "Desitively Bonnaroo" (from which Bonnaroo Festival got its name).. this stuff is fabulous and highlights that very special funky meters sound.. the drummer for the Meters , Modeliste, is to my mind the perfect drummer.. and the bassist is in the pocket all the time...

warming up to the new vegas lounge

heading to the new vegas lounge for the first time in like years...

wonder if they still have the uptown blues band or whatever they're called..

warming up with james brown "sex machine"..previously listened to clarence carter's "patches" atlantic lp from 1970 ..one can tell by 70 soul was a bit played out...

by 72 you had the o'jays "blackstabber" (with love train) setting the pace.... thats pre-disco (gamble and huff) for those of you not familiar.. so you see a big evolution from aretha in say 68 to the philly soul sound (which bowie used as his main influence for young americans lp in 75)

black music is so dynamic..

too bad i lost the tread with modern hip hop...

but james brown..man that mutha could blow the place down!

Moxilla here i come baby!

switched from internet explorer to moxilla firefox and lo and behold its faster cruising around the internet..shockingly so..

not sure why but so far so good..

i've been unhappy with internet explorer for a while what with all its updates and security flaws etc.....explorer seems like a disastrous outdated program but as its the standards people continue to use it....

so spread the new gospel: MOXILLA!

the point passed long ago..

where i could handle discussing politics say at a party.... not sure when it happened exactly..probably in early 2004 when howard dean was villified by the press.... but lately it seems that i have to put up with too much .. i mean last friday someone went off on michael moore and i lost it..tonight someone was actually arguing, brace yourself, that bush has done very well to wean the US from its oil dependence... i, again, lost it.... whats worse is say one has had a few drinks and the inhibitions are lowered.. next thing you know i hear this type of innane banter and i just can't help but get angry... not sure what the solution is but jumping down people's throats probably isn't it...

few people in the rest of the world would posit that michael moore weakened the democrats efforts to reclaim the presidency in 2004 or focus on wether fahrenheit 911 is 100% accurate when we are governed by a presidency of daily mistruths and falsehoods..or that bush is a pro-environment pro-conservation president when his record speaks for itself.... but here in the US thats the sort of thing you have to put up with whether from a bourgeois member of the leisure class who subscribes to the theory that the irak war is necessary to keep the troops sharp so as to rule over the "empire".. or someone who works at the dept of health and human services and must, truth be told, be a political appointee...

now playing

flamin groovies "flamingo"...

thanks enrique for the vote of confidence in these guys.... the lp sounds fabulous... i love the frenetic tempo.. definetly a chuck berry vibe runs through it.. the first side is wonderful.. they do hit a misstep on "childhood's end", "jailbait" and "she's falling apart" though...a big misstep which keeps the album from being the classic it could have been... however, never knock a band who covers little richards "i hear you knockin'"!

the art of being a good host at parties

surely the trick must be to "get things done" so smoothly and efortlessly that it goes unnoticed ....certainly, in an ideal world, no one would notice the host was gone for long spells of time.. this is a hard task to achieve, however, when the party is on the roof deck and your apartment on the sixth floor....

mental note: next year move key apt items to roof deck.

Chloe moves on

picture is obviously of chloe trying to get to the bathroom...

chloe passed away yesterday at around 5:30 pm... we are really broken up over here.. she had a ton of personality! we will really miss her but her suffering is over...

been listening to AC DC a lot... why more bands don't play their mix of raw back to the roots rock'n'roll i cannot understand..this album is just fabulous.. kick ass fun raunchy... "let there be rock" from 1977.... the title tracks tells the story of rock and even pays tribute to chuck berry..these guys had it going on!!!! and what can you say about the better known album tracks such as bad boy boogie, problem child, hell ain't a bad place to be, and whole LOTTA rosie! classics... how modern rock could get so messed up as it is currently is beyond me.. what a boring tripe compared to Bon Scott AC DC.. where is the fun in modern music i ask you?

mmmmmmmmmmhh..yum yum

these converse chuck taylor's ...

i just got are so comfy... YAHHHHHHHH!

last night in buenos aires andres calamaro hoists the gardel prize (argentine grammy) he won for best album for his el regreso live album!