Pandora's Box

Journo-lisms: Cause and effect

''Just a couple of hours before the earthquake hammered poor Haiti, I was reorganising my bookshelves at home. In the Haiti section...''

Andy Kershaw, The Independent

Do you have a Haiti section? Any section at all? Why not?

Pandora's Box

Journo-lisms: for openers,

''The multimilliondollar question, the one that follows Jimmy Page around like relentless feedback from an amp...''

James Jackson, The Times

When Tinnitus goes to Eleven.

(And when did it become a multi million dollar question? Picky, I know, but I remember when it was just $64k.)

blues meditation

Mr. Natural by Mr. Crumb, and Mess o' blues by Messrs. Mississippi Sheiks. Nice.

Crumbs

Chicks Don't Dig Collectors

Ah-ha. Interestingly, he makes the case for connoisseurs over mere collectors. I think this probably just indicates a wealthier bunch of collectors and the difference between mindless and madness.

Previously...

armenian navy band

For minimalism.

far more drums

Btw,

Q: What do you call a musician who hangs out with three guys?

A: Joe Morello.



Full Story

a personal journey to world music

Some years after Ron Ely's Tarzan series' Afro-Californian bongo scenes my World Music education continued.

reformed collector

Rod Liddle once wrote a piece for The Times opining how singers and bands really have only one great album in them; precious few have two, and only the rarest of geniuses could produce three.

Phil Spector said, a decade or two earlier, why he didn't like albums. To him they too often comprised two hit singles and ten bits of crap.

These days I listen to a lot of internet radio shows, down at the ''serious'' end of the spectrum. Really without exception they still push the latest album releases and yet, like any other show, will only feature repeat plays of one or occasionally two songs from any album. For a long time I thought this was down to legal obligations born out of business prudence, but now I'm not buying it. Also it seems odd that the greatly hailed albums of January are only good until the end of February by which time we've moved on and another record joins our expanding unplayed collections. Rod and Phil are probably right. Record collecting is beginning to look like nothing more than a good example of mindless consumerism.

Getting back to the internet radio, there is more music than it is possible to hear in one lifetime. Combine this with the delights found on youtube, lastfm, myspace etc., I find my life overwhelmed with fabulous music. So who still thinks rooms clad in dusty, yellowing plastic is right? Not me.

I am not a happy bunny

The telephone rang. A charming woman's voice told me the oil painting class won't be happening this term. There wasn't enough interest.

I'm especially put out as I have knives and canvasses ready and waiting.

But I find I'm still happy. I enrolled for life drawing as well.

time out

Hey, I watched this great documentary on jazz; 1959, The Year That Changed Jazz. Sorry, but you've missed it (and I only just caught it thanks to BBC's 7 day Play It Again feature). I only mention it now because if it ever comes around again be sure to see it. Apart from the beautiful music and its history, the programme contains some wonderful footage and photos of 50s America. When the time machine is working again this period will be my first call.

I've cottoned on to the pleasures of jazz only recently - pretty late actually. Of the four records spotlighted, I already enjoy three; Kind Of Blue, Time Out, and Mingus Ah Um. The fourth which I don't own, Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come, scares me a little. It's still sounds somewhere else despite its age. I'll have to think a bit more about that one...

Don't forget to look out for the programme.

request stop

Why is it you don't see a bass for ages and then four come along at once?

helping hand

Xia Taptara's blog title sounds like a lascivious confession but is instead really a delightful place.

I like this tutorial on how to draw female hands. It has a doodling quality about it, as if visualised by an invisible eye, and his voice fits perfectly with the process. A tranquil influence. I often find doodling calming, and most of my doodles are created in a state of calmness or in the direction of calmness. Hands are something I might doodle, absent-mindedly, in a corner of a page, like the one on the right reaching for the button.

resolutions

The only way to avoid failure is an all or nothing approach. The more resolutions you make the more chance some will prevail, or don't bother with it. I like resolutions. It doesn't worry me that they won't amount to anything; there's happiness in their making.

Happy New Year.