Cecil Taylor

Here's a clip of Cecil Taylor playing an amazing piece of improvised music. There is something so intense, yet cohesive about the way he welds together fierce clusters of notes with more spiderweb-like bits. I love this.

Everybody Dance

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I have taken to carrying my little Nikon with me everywhere I go and do my best to shoot interesting video. Sometimes the clips have no particular theme. Here is a compilation synched to the music.

Music is Domingo Cura, Percusion Part I.

A Note For Michael Richards

The way I see it, Seinfeld is a show with deep existential themes. Not necessarily about 'nothing,' the show is about selfish, greedy people who are damned by their own insensitivity. Their world is meaningless, offers little spiritual fulfillment, so the characters are cast adrift, filling their lives with drivel about shirt collar buttons and a girlfriend who eats her peas one-by-one.

Moreover, the characters are people who seek to satisfy their basest desires without considering the impact their pursuit might have on the other human beings around them.

On a variation of Satre's dictum, hell for the Seinfeld crew is not other people; hell lurks within their own tortured minds. Jerry, Elaine, George and, yes, even Kramer, are clearly anxiety-ridden, despairing souls. The brilliance of this conceit is that, despite this bleak world-view, it is a pretty darn funny TV show.

But reality...reality isn't quite so funny, is it Mr. Richards?

The Hardcore Show #8

After a brief hiatus of a couple of weeks I finally got it together and posted a new Hardcore Show. I don't have anything to write about this one that I didn't say in the intro, so if you really want to know the truth, I'd advise listening to the show. And if you've never heard Mickey Katz before, do youself a favor and click on the link.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan and Chris Barber – I Wanna Go Home
Dave Miller and Jeremy Wakefield – Steel Crazy
Dizzy Gillespie – Lady Be Good
Slim and Slam – Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen
Uri Caine – Cohen Owes Me Ninety-seven Dollars
Mickey Katz – Bagel Call Rag
Charlie Parker – Night in Tunisia
Charlie Chesterman – Goodbye To You
Betty Carter – Heart and Soul
Tin Hat Trio (w/ Willie Nelson) – Willow Weep for Me

New York Night

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Ah, New York, you are beautiful at night. I only wish this little Nikon had a faster lens. That's the price you pay for portability I guess.

Music in this edition is 'Mantra' by The Year Of.

New Version Of Blogger

Well, Blogger seems to have updated their interface and added some functionality. Hope this makes it more reliable.

Through a Glass

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Waiting for my wife to come back, I shot this clip through one of the vases in the window of the W hotel in NYC's Union Square.

Music by Six Synaptics (Kyle Bruckman, Scott Rosenberg, and Michael Zerang).

A Saturday in November

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This weekend we went for a long walk around Manhattan. We saw and did many things and I tried to capture some of the feel of the day in these clips.

Music is by the Tin Hat Trio.

A Clown and a Foot Massage

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I can't explain this. So I won't.

Music is 'Blues Dream' by Bill Frisell with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones.

Updates to the Photo Gallery

Nine new pictures in the gallery. There should be more. I've been lax. For those of you who are counting, that makes 141.

To Old to Rock and Roll

Business and rock and roll should have nothing to do with each other, even if that business is a web enterprise, staffed by ostensily hip engineers and finger-on-the-pulse marketers.

This is something that you'd think uber-cool rockster Lou Reed would be well aware of. Here's a man who once jokingly released an double LP of guitar feedback to fulfill a contract obligation. So you'd think that Mr. Reed would know how to flip the bird at coporate types if they asked him to be the entertainment at one of their (decidedly un-rock and roll) conferences.

But, sadly, that didn't happen.

Just yesterday, Mr. Reed was trotted out as the entertainment at AOL's Web 2.0 conference. It was likely a favor he was doing for a friend, his "kung fu brother," who introduced him to a lackluster reception. According to this review much of the "buttoned-up" audience ignored him and talked loudly during his performance, inciting the performer.

“You can keep on talking, I’ve only got 20 minutes," he berates the audience, "Or I can turn up the music. I can turn it up so loud it will hurt. Do you want me to turn it up? Do you want me to make it hurt?”

At some point during his performance, it must strike Mr. Reed how ridiculous all this is. Here he is, a former rock star, a rebel, a minion of the underwold, transformed into a corporate shill for friendship and money. “Who would have thought it would come to this," he is quoted as saying, "[that] I’d be playing at a cyberspace conference, brought here by AOL, introduced by my kung-fu brother.”

Of Democrats and Revolution

Well, the way I look at it, the Democratic takeover of congress will bring us more of the same crap that the Republican congress gave us, corruption and corporate indulgences. Even if the Senate goes Blue, the fat cats will continue to get fatter and the majority of those on the lower rungs of the American economic ladder will remain where they are, with one foot planted firmly on the ground.

It's very depressing that this is what amounts to a revolution in American politics, trading one batch of rich people for another batch of rich people, neither of which will challenge the fundemental problems that this country faces because it might threaten their stautus as rich people.

Alex is Not a Champagne Man

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On Friday night we went to our friend Marla's house for a birthday celebration. Alex, seated to my immediate right kept insisting that normally he wasn't a champagne man, but the one we were drinking that evening was exceptionally good. I asked him to say "Welcome to Brooklyn Kitchen" into the camera (again, the little Nikon) and that reminded him of a story.

Monday Hike with Dad

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Last week I was in California to visit my parents. On Monday I took a hike with my dad. It was one of his pre-planned hikes that he organized for his church's hiking group. This one consisted of a bunch of photographs of the trail that guided your way along the paths. In order to follow the route you had to examine the photographs for visual clues. Even though he was with me, my dad gave me no clues. I was able to navigate us along the correct path, even though the original photos were taken 2 years previous.

Here's a video. Shot it with my Nikon still camera on movie mode. I love this camera's portability. Music by Howlin' Wolf.

Dreaming California

For those of you who want to know, over the last couple of days I was in Brea, California visiting my parents where I didn't have the time or a fast enough Internet connection to put together a new hardcore show or post a new video.

I wanted to do it for you, really I did, but it just didn't happen. I did get to shoot some video of a hike I went on with my dad, and also put together a little video of my nephews using some of my mom's photos and clips I shot of the kids on Saturday. Though it might be a great deal like family vacation footage, I am editing one of these into the next Brooklyn Kitchen video.

I also visited the Brea Tower Records (only a Toyota Tacoma's throw from my parent's house) where the jazz section was less picked over than in NYC. I only bought a boxed set of Charlie Parker recordings ($25.00), something I've been meaning to do for a long time. As a result, this Sunday's Hardcore Show may include a large chunk of Bird's early sides.