As I pointed out in my last entry, I've been listening to a lot of Philip Glass's music lately. I can't seem to get enough of it, to tell the truth, and in the last 2 weeks I've also been able to view his film collaboration with Godfrey Reggio, The Qatsi Trilogy in it's entirety.
The Trilogy consists of three full-length motion pictures scored entirely by Glass, starting with Koyannisqatsi, proceeding on to Powaqqatsi and concluding with Naqoyqatsi. Each film is a cinematographic smorgasborg of diverse images that deal with the extent that technology has come to be such an accepted and integral part of modern society. There is no dialogue whatsoever in any of the films, and no story line per se. What might normally (in a more traditional movie) be considered "background" is pulled up to the forefront and the music is given the prominence usually reserved for plot and character development.
I'd seen Koyaanisqatsi several times before now, and have long considered it one of the best, most original films of all time.
But this was my first go-round with Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi. Though the second installment is brilliant, it didn't impact me as powerfully as Koyaanisqatsi did. It's probably because the music is so relatively different than what I've come to expect from Glass. But Naqoyqatsi, on the other hand, I found to be absolutely incredible. It may well be my favourite of all three, with it's trippy, psychedelic visual style and Yo-Yo Ma's impeccable cello playing weaving it's way through the film's 90 minutes running time.
I really want to get all three of these on DVD (I checked these out from the library, so alas, I cannot keep them), and I enthusiastically reccomend the whole Trilogy to anyone with a taste for the unusual, the thought-provoking and the awe-inspiring.
They are, no doubt, unlike anything else you've ever seen before...

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I don't think I've mentioned this, but I work with developmentally disabled adults in their home in a position referred to as "Habilitation Training Specialist" (HTS). Sounds pretty high-falutin' but trust me, it's not (it sho nuff doesn't PAY "high falutin'").
Anyway, one of the guys I see every week has generally only listened to hip-hop all his life...Nothing wrong with that, mind you, although at 42 I have to confess that the vast majority of hip-hop/rap does absolutely nothing for me (even if I do find Willie D's Goin' Out Like A Soldier to be a gut-busting hilarious CD).
Anyway, driving this guy around Tulsa I generally listen to the classic rock station and believe it or not I have actually helped broaden this guy's musical taste by doing so. He still doesn't like a lot of rock music, but there are a few songs that he enjoys enough to have asked me to burn a CD of them for him. This I plan to do tomorrow so I can get it to him on Friday (I don't even want to think about the consequences that could arise if I don't follow through with this...this guy, after all, has been diagnosed and is on medication for Intermittent Explosive Disorder).
Here's a list of the songs he insisted I get on the CD and the rest is left up to my judgement:
"The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band
"Fly Like An Eagle" by the Steve Miller Band
"In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins
"Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin
"School's Out" by Alice Cooper
"Smokin" by Boston
"Foreplay/Long Time" by Boston
"Life's Been Good" by Joe Walsh
"Cheap Sunglasses" by ZZ Top
...and that song by Supertramp from Breakfast In America that goes "Don't you look at my girlfriend/She's the only one I've got..."

Now I don't claim to be an expert or even a connisseur of what passes for country music these days...some of it (the more traditional sounding fare) sounds good to my ears, but the soft-rock-with-a-steel-guitar stuff does absolutely nothing for me. Still, over the years I have proven myself to be quite adept at being able to spot "the next big thing", as it were, on the musical horizon. What I mean to say is that I can generally hear a newcomer's song or see their video and accurately predict whether or not the artist is gonna flop or fly.
And maybe I'm not quite as "on the ball" with the C&W genre as I might be with other musical styles that I partake in more often, so I just might be telling the cowboys and cowgals something they already know, but I still gotta say it:
Get ready for it.
GRETCHEN WILSON is gonna be BIG!!!
And I say that even though I don't particularly care for her music. There's no denying she's a very attractive woman, but even that doesn't seal the deal for her.
Her ace in the hole is that the songs she's released so far are exactly what the C&W audience are salivating for. They want something different from what Nashville typically expects them to buy, but they also need to retain that "good old boy" feel and a lot of 'em are just slurpin' up the whole "white trash trailer park" ethos.
Don't get me wrong...I'm not callin' anybody "white trash" and I figure a trailer home keeps the rain off of one's head every bit as well as a mansion. But that's just what many C&W fans find endearing (witness the uncanny success of Kid Rock with country fans, or watch the audience laughing their arses off in a stand-up comedy video by Larry the Cable Guy and you'll see what I mean..."Git-R-Done"!)...
And Gretchen Wilson's first two singles play to that whole thing like Hendrix to a stoned hippie.
Seriously, watching a woman as vivacious as Wilson doing a song called "I'm Here For The Party"...well, if that doesn't smell of sweet success, I don't know what does.


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The last couple of days have been spent listening mainly to the works of Philip Glass and Steve Reich. I finally procured Akhnaten, the third installment of his opera trilogy that began with Einstein On The Beach and continued with the exceptional Satyagraha. The second has been my favourite until now, but I had never heard Akhnaten until yesterday. Maybe it will grow on me, but I still have a soft spot for Satyagraha.
And the Reich piece I've played at least 5 times all the way through is the 20th Anniversary 1998 re-recording of his seminal Music For Eighteen Musicians. This is the work that introduced me to this kind of avant-garde compositional style (I wouldn't dare call 18 "minimalist" after reading the liner notes, but that's kinda what I always considered it...silly me), and I vividly recall the first time I played it in 1982. As seems to be typical with Reich fans, I was working in a record store at the time...perhaps the constant barrage of music listening on the clock prepares the record store music geek to fully appreciate something as drastically different and unique as Music For Eighteen Musicians, but whatever the case may have been, I found it hypnotic, engrossing and utterly original. I hadn't heard it in at least 20 years when I picked up a copy of this CD Friday, and revisiting it brings back many memories of those adventerous days when I first began exploring other genres of music besides pop/rock.
There's something appealing about these mathematically precise, complex and challenging pieces. I know I'm far from truly appreciating them in the sense that someone with serious music theory training would, but nonetheless I still enjoy getting lost in the repitition along with the melodies and beats that emerge from it. It's the kind of music that you hear something different each time you listen that you missed the time before and miss the things you noticed the last time. If you really concentrate on the music, it's almost like a different piece every time, and that's really surprising, seeing how it can tend to seem awfully monotonous if you're just playing it in the background.
It's a similar effect I notice when listening to Autechre. So many layers and interaction between the instruments and notes that there's no way you'll hear everything there is to hear without wearing out the CD.
But by the same token, my brain can only handle so much of ANY of this stuff (Autechre included) until I have to throw on something a tad more "simple".

Listened to the majority of Red House Painters' first self-titled (aka Rollercoaster on the way to OKC today and was struck by the intensity and poetic quality of the lyrics. Few songwriters have such an evocative command of the language and the kind of voice that would make up for it even if he didn't.

Played music with some friends tonight, as I do about every other month or so. I play the acoustic guitar and sing and sometimes the join me guitar, keyboards, harmonica and backing vocals.
Now I'm not one to brag, but I played exceptionally well tonight...at least I was pleased, and I guess that's the main thing. I was making up songs on the spot with surprising ease and singing the heck out of the covers I did ("Wild Horses" by the Stones, "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan, "Ripple" by the Grateful Dead, "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain" by Willie Nelson, "Mistress" and "Glenn Tipton" by Mark Kozelek, "Long Black Veil" by Lefty Frizzell, "The River" by Bruce Springsteen and probably a few more. Big fun. Could have wowed 'em at a coffee house, and I often wonder what it is that keeps us from doing just that... I have no doubt we would succeed...
But then again, what do I know?

Got into an argument with a friend about the pros and cons of capitalism and communism. It all started when I found out he was a Kerry supporter, and the spirited debate was on like a pot of neckbones. Then this guy shows up spouting off about how the only church he'll support is the church of Satan, and then he bagan telling us this urban legend about how the Proctor & Gamble company used to send lots of money to Anton LaVey and the Satanic church, how their brand logo contained symbols of the occult, which proved it, and that they had said as much on several occassions when they appeared on the Phil Donahue talk show.
Now I've heard all this before, so I cut him off in mid-blab and said I knew all about it. The thing is, this dude really believed it. And he gave me other reasons to catch a bad vibe off of him as the night progressed. He seemed very hostile to Christianity amd Christians in general. Seemed like I felt some tension when I made a comment that could have implied that I was a Christian.
But he cooled out somewhat when me and my buds started playing music. He was the one who requested "Ripple" and I think he dug it. Otherwise, I doubt he and I will ever speak to each other after tonight or even see each other for that matter. And that suits me fine.

I was just checking out how many other bloggers are into my favourite musical artist, Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon), and was quite pleasantly surprised that there were so many (relative to the overall popularity of the artist/bands, that is).
That's cool!
I have been deep into Kozelek's music for the past 5 years, and I think his latest project, Sun Kil Moon, is very possibly the best he's ever put out (though my guess is that most RHP diehards would disagree). I wrote a rather lengthy (and decent, IMO) review of their album Ghosts of the Great Highway in a message board I sometimes frequent, and anyone interested is cordially invited to check it out at
http://rsjunior.proboards18.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=jac&num=1084852127&start=0
...just cut and paste into your browser, removing any spaces, as I don't yet know how to add a hyperlink in this particular format...

Today I have been in the mood for praise and worship music, and have been listening to Shout To The Lord: The Platinum Collection, which is one of those Hillsongs-type things with a lot of Darlene Zschech stuff on it. Actually it's a very good collection, without much repetition of the P&W songs I already have in my collection. Even the ones I do have are different arrangements, so it's been enjoyable and uplifting.
Someday I'll have to write a treatise on the subject of Praise and Worship music, but that day is not today...

HEY! I'm BACK!!!!!

Hard to believe it's been over a year and a half since I abandoned this blog after only 3 posts.
How's that for tenacity?
But seriously, I don't know why I gave it up. Probably had to do with all the posting I was doing at RollingStone.com at the time. There's a lot to be said about the gratification that comes from knowing that at least one person is reading what I write...
But the Stone's boards are gone (they say it's temporary, but they also said they would be back up "in the summer" and here it is the middle of August...) and I have become so frustrated with my failed attempts to erect a Geocities website that I've decided to return to the safe haven of Blogger.
Actually, I'm surprised that this blog still exists. The last time I set one up and left it to rot...well, it disappeared on me, I figured this one would be gone, too.
Apparently much has changed with the Blogger system, so I'll just have to get used to it as I go along.
So, you ask, what have I been listening to in the last year and a half?
Music. Every single day of the year. More than is probably good for me, and enough to have burned out less passionate ears.
Classical...jazz...rock...country...opera...electronic...contemporary Christian...choral...folk...you name it and I've probably listened to a decent representation of it in the last year and 1/2.
But not quite as loudly as I once did, having learned from an audiologist that I have severe nerve damage in both ears causing irrepairable hearing loss. Blame it on all the times I played in bands without hearing protection...Or you could blame it on all the times I passed out with the headphones blaring...Probably several culprits. I don't care to cast blame, I just wish the ringing would stop...
At any rate, lately I've been on a bit of a jazz kick. I recently procured CDs by the Dave Holland Quintet, Roy Haynes, Sonny Rollins, Chuck Mangione, Maynard Ferguson, Larry Carlton, Michael Brecker and John Klemmer. I dig all of them, but the Klemmer, Ferguson and Mangione albums are the ones that are taking me back in my memory to my late teens, when I was just discovering the genre.
I also picked up a disc by one of John McLaughlin's projects, Remember Shakti, called Saturday Night In Bombay, which is an intoxicating blend of jazz and classical Indian musics. That's to be expected from "Mahavishnu" McLaughlin, no doubt, but it's still a very unique and captivating set.
Currently listening to Tuatara's Breaking The Ethers CD from 1997, which doesn't exactly qualify for my "jazz kick", but is pretty doggone unconventional in it's own right. I admit I bought this CD back when I was still into REM on the strength of Peter Buck being in the group. But these days I think I'd rather listen to this than practically anything by REM...ya see, I'm seriously burned out on the stuff of theirs that I always liked, can't bring myself to re-investigate the stuff I was unimpressed with and definately don't want to give the loathesome Reveal yet another chance to make an impression...They really lost me with that one.
So Tuatara it is...No sign of that annoying Stipe dude, and that's what it's all about these days, as far as I'm concerned.
Random opinion:
Bruce Springsteen performing in "Vote For Change" rallies...Ah, Boss...say it ain't so. I was appalled to hear "No Surrender" played during John Kerry's introduction at the DNC, but I figured it was just a fluke. After all, Bruce made such a fuss about Reagan using "Born In The USA" back in the '80's I didn't think any politicians would even "go there" again. Alas, I'm hoping future hearings of "No Surrender" will not be tarnished by the association with the Flip-Flop King.
Anyhoo, correspondence is welcome at jackory69@yahoo.com. Notice that this is a different addy than the one I used last go 'round. So hey, shoot me an e-mail and let me know what you think. I can take it...