How long that wild rush lasted I have no means of judging. It may have been an hour, a day, or many days, for I was throughout in a state of suspended animation, but presently my senses began to return and with them a sensation of lessening speed, a grateful relief to a heavy pressure which had held my life crushed in its grasp, without destroying it completely. It was just that sort of sensation though more keen which, drowsy in his bunk, a traveller feels when he is aware, without special perception, harbour is reached and a voyage comes to an end. But in my case the slowing down was for a long time comparative. Yet the sensation served to revive my scattered senses, and just as I was awakening to a lively sense of amazement, an incredible doubt of my own emotions, and an eager desire to know what had happened, my strange conveyance oscillated once or twice, undulated lightly up and down, like a woodpecker flying from tree to tree, and then grounded, bows first, rolled over several times, then steadied again, and, coming at last to rest, the next minute the infernal rug opened, quivering along all its borders in its peculiar way, and humping up in the middle shot me five feet into the air like a cat tossed from a schoolboy’s blanket. – Gulliver of Mars

” The beep beep list. ”

01. Simone White – The Beep Beep Song
Ministry of Sound: Chilled Acoustic 2010 Disc 3 (2010)
02. Lali Puna – Move On
Our Inventions (Morr Music, 2010)
03. Pantha Du Prince – Abglanz
Black Noise (Rough Trade, 2010)
04. Brian Eno – Bone Jump
Small Craft on a Milk Sea (Warp Records, 2010)
05. kangding ray – apnee
automne fold (2008)
06. Bombay Bicycle Club – you already know [feat. kathryn williams]
Om Lounge (15 Year Anniversary Edition) (Om, 2009)

note: Experimental pop of sort. I made this last year actually, trying to make glitch tech more palatable and not so cryptically futuristic, more pop-ish while not being kitschy. I declare it a success and move on. It’s hard to do you know. Well, think of it as retro futuristic lounge for lazy day.

image: Rob Sheridan

On September 24, 1969, thirteen months after the riots that shocked America, the trial of the so-called “Chicago Eight” began in the oak-panelled, twenty-third-floor courtroom of Judge Julius Hoffman. The 300 members of the panel of potential jurors were overwhelmingly white, middle-class and middle-aged. They reminded author and trial observer J. Anthony Lukas of “the Rolling Meadows Bowling League lost on their way to the lanes.” Defense attorneys William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass submitted to Judge Hoffman a list of fifty-four proposed questions for potential jurors. They believed that the questions might aid them in their use of juror challenges by revealing cultural biases. Among the questions the defense attorneys wanted to ask jurors were: “Do you know who Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix are?”, “Would you let your son or daughter marry a Yippie?”, and “If your children are female, do they wear brassieres all the time?” Judge Hoffman rejected all but one of the proposed questions, asking the jurors only “Are you, or do you have any close friends or relatives who are employed by any law enforcement agencies?” (Later, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals would cite the judge’s refusal to allow inquiry into the potential cultural biases of jurors as a ground for reversing all convictions.) Three hours after voir dire began, a jury of two white men and ten women, two black and eight white, was seated. It was clearly not a good jury for the defense. (After the trial, one female juror commented that the defendants “should be convicted for their appearance, their language and their lifestyle.” Edward Kratzke, the jury foreman, also was angered by the defendants’ courtroom behavior: “These defendants wouldn’t even stand up when the judge walked in; when there is no more respect we might as well give up the United States.” A third juror expressed the view that the demonstrators “should have been shot down by the police.”) - The Chicago Seven Conspiracy Trial

” Short Soul List ”

01. Janis Joplin – Ball and Chain [Live]
18 Essential Songs (1995)
02. Irma Thomas – Take A Look
Straight From The Soul (Stateside, 2004)
03. Amy Winehouse – Some Unholy War
Back to Black [Deluxe Edition] (2006)
04. Michael Jackson – Ain’t no sunshine
Got to be there (1972)
05. Irma Thomas – Long After Tonight Is All Over
Straight From The Soul (Stateside, 2004)
06. Janis Joplin – Summertime
18 Essential Songs (1995)
07. Amy Winehouse – You Know I’m No Good
Back to Black [Deluxe Edition] (2006)

Note: I am not sure what’s going on out there right now, so I’ll do my own thing until I have time sorting out recent releases. In the meantime, the world is definitely having one of its fit. Unhappy people all over, protests, government going crazy, and economy going straight to the ditch. I want full throat soul to go with it. This is a short list with songs from three different eras doing exactly same style singing about same subject matter. One from golden age of soul, another from the height of psychelic rock, and two from recent hits doing retake of soul era. Maybe by listening to these, I can be assured that somehow now is just a re-imagining of before. There is nothing to worry, it’s all rehash. Like a good explosive rock, hearing voice so near the mic, one can feel the heat of amplifier transmitting the scream of burning soul. It’s desiring. Articulation of soul in sound.

image: Venus Oak
see also: Chicago Seven

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” Very Late Night. One day after Moka’s Birthday. “

01. Ruben Gonzalez – Pa’ gozar
Chanchullo (2000)
02. Ø + Noto – Los
Wohltemperiert (Raster-Norton, 2001)
03. Ø + Noto – Hain
Wohltemperiert (Raster-Norton, 2001)
04. Gidon Kremer – Soledad
Hommage a Piazzolla (1996)
05. Tchaikovsky – The Seasons, Selection (Sviatoslav Richter In 1983), June, Barcarolle
Great Pianists of the Century – vol 4 (2002)
06. Chopin - Mazurka No.51 in F minor Op.68 No.4
Chopin Maria Joao Pires (2009)
07. Chopin – Mazurka No.40 in F minor Op.63 No.2 – Lento
Chopin Maria Joao Pires (2009)
08. Debussy – Préludes – Livre 1 – 11. La Danse De Puck
Claude Debussy: Préludes, Vol. 1; Images (1978)
09. Satie - Gymnopédies – 2. Lent Et Triste
The Magic Of Satie : Jean-Yves Thibaudet (2002)

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Well, simple music becomes complicated very quickly when it comes to making a list for Moka. My brain turns right noodly, she does have her peculiar taste you know. So maybe this year I string up something delicate and extremely beautiful pieces instead of themes. It’s a Late night list, the kind one wants to hear the last thing before the day ends. Maybe she’ll be too tired to notice imperfect list and just enjoy the songs instead. heh. But they are some of the best interpreted pieces I found so far. (start from track 4. The first 3 is to annoys her. I can’t help it.) And Happy Birthday, Moka.

image: NIN, *nacnud*

“In the ponds, at all times, lotuses of various colors as large as chariot-wheels are in bloom. Blue flowers radiate blue light, brilliance and splendor; yellow ones radiate yellow light, brilliance and splendor; red ones radiate red light, brilliance and splendor; white ones radiate white light, brilliance and splendor; four-colored ones radiate four-colored light, brilliance and splendor. Shariputra, that Buddha-land is full of such glorious adornments of supreme qualities, which are most pleasing to the mind. For this reason, that land is called ‘Utmost Bliss.’ The Sutra on Praise of the Pure Land and Protection.

” Postrock. End of 2010. ”

01. Rovo - Sukhna
Tonic (Tzadik, 2002)
02. The Mercury Program – The Vortex East
From the Vapor of Gasoline (Tiger Style, 2000)
03. Alva Noto - Prototype 5
Prototypes (Efa Imports, 2000)
04. Hauschka - Kreuzung
The Prepared Piano (Karaoke Kalk, 2005)
05. Low - Rope
I Could Live in Hope (Vernon Yard Records, 1994)
06. Kammerflimmer Kollektief – Aoki Takamasa – After the Rain rmx
Kammerflimmer Kollektief Remixed (Staubgold Germany, 2006)

note: Here, I am. Sorry missing in action. I was busy stirring up trouble on the other side of internet. Trouble is, I am so back up with my music listening. I don’t think I have anything up date until few more days. Don’t even ask about end of year list. There isn’t going to be one from me. (maybe a quick impression, but nowhere near complete listening and arranging them nicely.) In the meantime, I have 3 lists that I prepared last November for a series of winter list, mostly long and programatic. This is second one, post rock. Think of it like a lotus flower in frozen winter lake, magically alive in the middle of desolate landscape with early 2000 post-rock texture. The Mercury Program is my old favorite.

image: jude hill

What was going on? Had decades of sucking down so much high-fructose corn syrup not only made Americans incredibly obese, but also messed with white brain chemistry to the point that some sort of tipping point had occurred?

Not a bad theory, but no, there’s a simpler explanation, with two parts: For the first time in their lives, baby boomers are hard up against it economically, and white boy is becoming outnumbered and it’s got his bowels chilled with fear.

“In an age of diminished resources, the United States may be heading for an intensifying confrontation between the gray and the brown,” writes Ronald Brownstein in his July National Journal article, “The Gray and the Brown: The Generational Mismatch.” That’s a polite and understated way of saying that older white folks are losing their shit as they’re being replaced by young brown and black kids while the economy is in the crapper. – Village voice.

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” Thursday afternoon Web surfing ”

01. Thee Oh Sees – I Was Denied
Warm Slime (2010, In the Red Records)
02. Wild Nothing – Chinatown
Gemini (2010)
03. Blonde Redhead – Here Sometimes
Penny Sparkle (2010)
04. Les Savy Fav – Lets Get Out Of Here
Root For Ruin (2010, French Kiss)
05. Women – Eyesore
Public Strain (2010, Jagjaguwar)

note: Thursday afternoon, cruising on the web reading random stuff online. I for one think Village voice is getting too predictable. How about just old skool explanation? In time of crisis and shrinking pond, all the creatures start biting each other heads off. The people who has the most, can afford scream the loudest. In other word, it’s just another day in paradise. The usual crazies pulling all the strings. So, yawn. The game is still the same … Maybe better background music will help the situation. Little thursday afternoon rock maybe?

PS. I don’t check email anymore. so just yell somewhere in here or post in the forum. Moka is busy being international business gal next week. So, you all are stuck with the rest of the crew. I don’t want to hear any whining and complaining, or I’ll post glitch-hop, noise and Shostakovich for a week. hah!

image: Terence McKenna