A stop at Barnes & Noble on the way back....somehow a copy of Arcana: Musicians on Music finds its way into my hands. The first essay I read is a total winner: Marc Ribot on the nature of distortion and feedback.
Later in the day I read Howard Owen's posting about the pleasures of vinyl...which reminds me that our own Mr. Olsen said I needed to give Saturday Night Fever a chance. I've got a nice LP copy so what the hey. It didn't make me long for my leisure suit (ok...never actually owned one) or anything but it was kinda fun. One thing I noticed was that even though disco was built on repetition, the actual execution of the music was so much more organic than much of today's ProTools-tweaked stuff.
Spoke to an old friend on the phone for a while. We talked about his soon-to-be-dadness, land in rural Maine, possible college majors for Stepson-The-Younger, neutrinos, books, history, and wireless routers. Eno's Ambient 1: Music For Airports played during the call. While you can sit up and pay close attention to that music, you certainly don't have to. I don't use much music as 'background', but this particular piece of music works.
Now late in the evening I listen to Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin' only because it happened to be near the top of a pile I was sifting through. Gees, that guy wrote some freakin' great lyrics.
Just about time to turn in. Gavin Bryars' The Sinking Of The Titanic has help me though the latter half of this essay.
(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)
(Also available on Stereo Cassette and 8 Track Tape)
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