“Should the street be considered as one of the fine arts?”

(Fernand Léger, 1928)

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Found collage 

(Chausée de Boondael)

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Having just watched Spinal Tap for the umpteenth time - but the first with the younger Wafflette - I’m left wondering whether Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel) is, in fact, related to Barbara Guest?

I met Stuart Calton some years ago in Liege during a Zappa conference. He very kindly gave me a copy of his Pence Eleven CD - How The Nimrods Stopped Me From Sinning. (It’s brilliant by the way.)

I chanced upon it again this afternoon while rearranging stuff upstairs & intend giving it another spin. Wondering what he was up to these days I found his ‘official’ site as T H F Drenching  at:

https://thfdrenching.bandcamp.com/

I absolutely love this stuff. The Zappa I cherish most (Lumpy Gravy, Uncle Meat) lives on in these recordings.

For those with ears (& other hairy organs) to hear.

He spent his days sipping weak tea in his kitchen as he wrote his journals and mused on ballerinas

Practice the precept : find without seeking (Robert Bresson)

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Wishing anyone who still drops by a Happy New Year ... 

... I'll skip the usual (empty) promises to post more consistently. 

Here is a Top Ten list of ear food - the kind of music I have been enjoying during the past year:

• Pacal Dusapin (String Quartets & Item in particular)
• John Lurie/ Lounge Lizards (anything I could get my hands on)
• Philip Glass (the Olafsson Piano Etudes recording)
• Frank Zappa (Crux of the Biscuit plus early vinyl reissues)
• Beatrice Rana (that Bach Goldberg recording) 
• Mahler (starting to listen again with fresh ears - Symphony No.2 conducted by Solti is sheer joy)
• Ron Miles (I Am A Man) 
• Hans Abrahamsen (String Quartets) 
• Thomas Demenga (his new recording of the Bach Cello Suites)
• Haydn (the op. 76 String Quartets - thanks to a lucky find of Hans Keller's book in a Camberley charity shop)

Then ... Monday evening ...

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Dweezil Zappa at the Bozar

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A really impressive performance - two hours straight through closing with a superb version of Inca Roads. Then a twenty minute encore rounding off with I Am The Walrus. Dweezil said they'd be out the front after a breather to talk & sign T-shirts. 

My respect for the man had soared & if anyone is securing the legacy of FZ it is his eldest son - court proceedings notwithstanding. 

This coming to you via the spiffy new platform allowing me to type & upload pictures.

To bring you up to date ... two weekends ago in Le Crotoy ...

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long distance messages 

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what happens when you trust auto translate machines

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zen & the art of beach combing

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rrh'isOIV  ... a wasp just buzzed in through the Velux & went scrabbling across the desk & keyboard ... now up & off into the blue above my head. 

This morning's enthusiasm: Beatrice Rana's recording of the Goldberg Variations. You grow up being told the significance of this work, you go out & buy the first & then second Glenn Gould records. You listen & admire. You then begin to explore other versions - the Igor Levit, for example - & they confirm that GG was not the final word. & then you sit down & listen to Beatrice Rana's interpretation & you find admiration turning into something else - sheer delight. Honestly, I have never heard these variations played with such emotional delicacy (yes, that's the phrase). Beautiful.

Suffice to say, I went on line & downloaded the score for the first variation & then sat at the piano. Painfully I plonked my way through. Who cares? The house is empty. I have no audience. My woeful inadequacy aside, what I hear through my fingers is a distant & deformed echo of Rana's playing & Bach's composition - but the thrill at bar 11 touching that left hand E & the right hand arpeggio of G-B-E-G. 

(& it's just occurred to me: G-o-l-d-B-E-r-G). 

Utter joy. 

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An unashamed plug for the wonderful CD store a mere 20 minutes up the road from where I am writing - Mark Sound in Kraainem - with its outstanding selection of jazz & classical (including contemporary composition). 

I had a delightful conversation with Mr Mark which revealed our shared taste for punk jazz (Lounge Lizards, Zorn) & obsession with Frank Zappa. Enough said. From now on my music buying will be redirected via this veritable oasis. 

Why was I there? My online searches had drawn a blank for an affordable copy of Pascal Dusapin's earlier String Quartets with the Arditti Quartet. However, an exchange of emails with Mr Mark & the 2 CD set was set aside for me to collect. Perfect. I listened right through to disc one yesterday afternoon (Quartets III, IV & V) and it confirmed my suspicions that these would be fascinating compositions. 

Item is a collection of Dusapin's works for cello in various combinations. I haven't yet had time to listen to these pieces. However there is absolutely no need to hurry. In an interview, Dusapin talks about his own listening habits, explaining how he can spend days in preparation before making the commitment to a piece of music. Reading, too, forms a crucial part of his working process. 

Acts of attention.