Boulangerie: A Pocket Guide to Paris's Famous Bakeries

Parisian Bakeries

Lord Love a Duck & To Live and Die in LA out on DVD

Perfect Sound Forever- always lots here, this time including a nice long piece on Elvis in Memphis 1969...

Today is the 25th anniversary of Bernadette Mayer's "Midwinter Day"-- (please excuse reformatting)

"...Sophia's mittens come off,
The disappearing scene from a dream I'd remember is lost
To comparisons of past exertion for the slight Main Street hill,
I blink at seeing, being seen a little
I wonder why we write at all
These trees have seen this all before
But they are glad of an encore"

Radio News December 1947 Aging rack for radio tubes

The Digital Snow Museum

dec47: "The final week of the month and of the year of 1947, leads off with the announcement that 'Peg 'O My Heart' by The Harmonicats for the small independent label Vitacoustics is the largest selling record in modern history for an independent. Sales figures are put at more than one and a half million. . . . . . Other recent million sellers are 'Near You' by Francis Craig for the indie label Bullet, and Frankie Laine's Mercury recording of 'That's My Desire'. . . . . . . best bets of the last week of the year are 'When You Come To The End Of The Day' by The Inkspots (Decca), 'The Best Things In Life Are Free' by Jo Stafford (Capitol), 'Unison Riff' by Stan Kenton (Capitol), 'I've Got A Feeling I'm Falling' by Perry Como (RCA), 'Sierra Madre' / 'Don't Call It Love' by Freddy Martin with Stuart Wade-voc (RCA), 'My Old Flame' by Spike Jones (RCA), and 'Two Loves Have I' by Guy Lombardo (Decca). . . . . .John Hammond is named vice president of Mercury Records . . . . . .Jack Owens Tower Records artist is known as 'the cruising crooner' on ABC radio's 'Breakfast Club' . . . . . .new on the best seller list at year's end are : 'How Soon' by Dinah Shore (Columbia), 'I Can't Give You Anything But Love' by Rose 'Chee Chee' Murphy (Majestic), 'Serenade Of The Bells' by Sammy Kay (RCA), 'How Soon' by Vaughn Monroe (RCA), 'I'll Dance At Your Wedding' by Buddy Clark and Ray Noble (Columbia), 'How Soon' by Jack Owens (Tower), 'I'm My Own Grandpa' by Guy Lombardo (Decca), 'Civilization' by Woody Herman (Capitol), and 'You Do' by Vaughn Monroe (RCA). . . . . two albums hit the top five this week - 'Good News' the original cast (MGM) and 'King Cole Trio - vol. 3' (Capitol). "

December 1947 Snowstorm in Stamford and the Bronx

Charlie Parker and Red Rodney

Charlie Parker Sessions: "December 21, 1947 (11 items, 18:51)
United Sound Studio, Detroit
Commercial for Savoy
Charlie Parker Quintet
Charlie Parker (as); Miles Davis (tpt); Irving 'Duke' Jordan (p); Tommy Potter (b); Max Roach (d)

Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 1 (inc))0:14
Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 2 (inc))0:44
Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 3 (inc))1:04
Another Hair-Do (C. Parker) (take 4 (master))2:37
Bluebird (C. Parker) (take 1)2:53
Bluebird (C. Parker) (take 2)0:03
Bluebird (C. Parker) (take 3 (master))2:49
Klaunstance (C. Parker) [The Way You Look Tonight]2:44
Bird Gets the Worm (C. Parker) (take 1) [Lover Come Back to Me]3:00
Bird Gets the Worm (C. Parker) (take 2 (inc)) [Lover Come Back to Me]0:09
Bird Gets the Worm (C. Parker) (take 3 (master)) [Lover Come Back to Me]"

desperado (animation)

new Peter Pan might be ok

graffiti archaeology

from the Testimony of Phillip Ochs in the Chicago Seven Trial
"MR. KUNSTLER: After you arrived in Chicago did you have any discussion with Jerry?
THE WITNESS: Yes, I did. We discussed the nomination of a pig for President.
MR. KUNSTLER: Would you state what you said and what Jerry said.
THE WITNESS: We discussed the details. We discussed going out to the countryside around Chicago and buying a pig from a farmer and bringing him into the city for the purposes of his nominating speech.
MR. KUNSTLER: Did you have any role yourself in that?
THE WITNESS: Yes, I helped select the pig, and I paid for him.
MR. KUNSTLER: Now, did you find a pig at once when you went out?
THE WITNESS: No, it was very difficult. We stopped at several farms and asked where the pigs were.
MR. KUNSTLER: None of the farmers referred you to the police station, did they?
THE WITNESS: No.
MR. FORAN: Objection.
THE COURT: I sustain the objection.
MR. KUNSTLER: Mr. Ochs, can you describe the pig which was finally bought?
MR. FORAN: Objection.
THE COURT., I sustain the objection.
MR. KUNSTLER: Would you state what, if anything, happened to the pig?
THE WITNESS: The pig was arrested with seven people.
MR. KUNSTLER: When did that take place?
THE WITNESS: This took place on the morning of August 23, at the Civic Center underneath the Picasso sculpture.
MR. KUNSTLER: Who were those seven people?
THE WITNESS: Jerry Rubin. Stew Albert, Wolfe Lowenthal, myself is four; I am not sure of the names of the other three.
MR. KUNSTLER: What were you doing when you were arrested?
THE WITNESS: We were arrested announcing the pig's candidacy for President. "

Phil Ochs remembered

Happy Birthday Phil Ochs

William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed



As I went out one evening to take the evening air
I was blessed by a blood-red moon,
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning.
I spied a fair young maiden and a flame was in her eyes
And on her face lay the steel blue skies
Of Lincoln Park, the dark was turning
Turning

They spread their sheets upon the ground just like a wandering tribe
And the wise men walked in their Robespierre robes,
Through Lincoln Park the dark was turning
The towers trapped and trembling, and the boats were tossed about
When the fog rolled in and the gas rolled out
From Lincoln Park the dark was turning
Turning

Like wild horses freed at last we took the streets of wine
But I searched in vain for she stayed behind
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning
I'll go back to the city where I can be alone
And tell my friend she lies in stone
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning
Turning

Phil Ochs

A writer's life: Anthony Lane: "The truth is, that if you're working on a piece at three in the morning, you're not Keats; you're just late. "

Law & Order Colouring Book

Todd Rundgren on RIAA : "The reason why the RIAA comes off as a gang of
ignorant thugs is because, well, how do I put this --
they are. I came into this business in an age of
entrepreneurial integrity. The legends of the golden
age of recorded music were still at the helm of most
labels -- the Erteguns, the Ostins, the Alperts and
Mosses by the dozens. Now we have four monolithic (in
every sense of the word) entities and a front
organization that crows about the fact that they have
solved their problems by leaning on a 12-year-old.
Thank God that mystical fascination with the world of
music has been stubbed out -- hopefully everyone will
get the message and get over the idea that the
musician actually meant for you to hear this."

Jason Gross's Favourite Scribings for 2003 long, very interesting list of music articles

Toll road built on pulped fiction: "Unsold copies of the books were shredded into a paste and added to a mixture of asphalt and Tarmac. It helps to bind the asphalt and the Tarmac, preventing the surface from splitting apart after heavy use."

amazing Stop Motion Studies thanks Reid!

What Have The Victorians Ever Done For Us?

What a Crappy Present - CD Gift Advice, Parents and Kids

Googling (I wrote "looking") for Williams' "To Ford Madox Ford in Heaven" to post for Ford's birthday--nowhere in sight of course--the modernist canon deep in copyright--I found this by a band I'd only heard the name of. Much more worked out than the "Gertrude Stein" song I performed in the late 70's, at least lyrically. But the Vacant Lot (later The Band Without Qualities) rocked pretty hard. Anyone heard the Ass Ponys?

"FORD MADOX FORD

sarah stood upon the bridge
on the railing, near the edge
the only thing that brought her in
was a book that she had read
the novel's name was long since lost
never mind the cost
the only thing she could recall
was that the author's name was ford

it was written in nineteen ten
you could never have met a finer man
worked a farm for fifteen years
just to see if he could
he lost his memory in the war
he forgot what he was fighting for
the only thing he knew for sure
his name was ford madox ford

ford madox ford
the fattest poet who ever lived
his name was ford madox ford

joseph conrad and henry james
were two of the many famous names
that fat boy ford could claim
to be his bosom friends
then one day conrad said to him
i may be climbing out upon a limb
but it would help you out my friend
if you would lose a little weight

ford madox ford
the fattest poet who ever lived
his name was ford madox ford"

100 aspects of the moon

The Ultimate on-the-fly Network: "'Up until now, a biologist from the 1920s could have dropped into today's world and understood everything we do.' He shakes his head. 'No longer.' The instruments that unobtrusively observe the petrels will unleash a stream of information biologists have craved for decades. When I ask what other tool has delivered a comparable advance in his field, Anderson's answer is succinct and telling: 'Binoculars.'"

Hey Ya!: "'Polaroid Canada thanks Canadians for making Polaroid One the country's number one instant camera, and for making 'Shake it like a Polaroid picture' the
country's number one instant party call,' said Jeff Carpenter, National Sales & Marketing Manager, Canada. 'From Andy Warhol to the D.I.Y home renovator, the world has embraced our products to capture one-of-a-kind moments. We congratulate OutKast for their imaginative use of the Polaroid brand and spirit.'"

Wagner vs. Tolkien

Valerie Dore "It's So Easy" is sheer ecstacy, Abba with a huge 4/4 whomp and slap bass. How can it be so easy?

Boogieing across the house to Sandy Marton's "People from Ibiza" for a refill I managed to spill cold coffee on myself. The guy on the next track (urging me not to cry) sounds like Geddy Lee's Italian cousin.

Neil Tennant in 1985 on Italo Disco (which I had to switch to): "...It used to be regarded as utterly tragic... that 'boom clap boom clap boom clap - clap clap', that's what I particularly like about eurodisco. And normally they have very good tunes as well. The other thing it that it's very sad. They have very sweet tunes, like Savage's 'Don't Cry Tonight'. A lot of the records we like are Italian. The other thing about eurodisco records it that they always sound like they're dead cheap. I think that's their appeal. They're a bit like punk records - they go in and get very excited by the most banal sounds. We're very attracted to banal sounds and rhythms. They'll quite often be a sound that is the sound of the moment, and every record will have that sound. At the moment, there's that vocal that goes 'oh woah oh'. This summer, on every italian record, there was at least one 'oh woah oh'. I think that's been the theme for 1985. RAFF's 'Self Control' started it, which of course was originally an italian disco record, and Laura Branigan covered it. And of course, Baltimora used it. That was the ultimate 'oh woah oh' record. It was very clever the way that was the foundation of 'Tarzan Boy'. Before that, the syndrum was a popular sound. But they're constantly changing, these euro records. And they normally have very good female vocalists, in the same way a lot of hi-NRG and Bobby O records do. The male vocal aren't usually very good. ... Often the lyrics are very banal, there's this great one called 'Capsicum' that's a green pepper isn't it. And the chorus goes 'Capsi capsicum oh woah oh'. That is brilliant. The banality of them often makes them strongely moving, somehow. I don't think a lot of people will appreciate things like this. The thing is, of course, that this music is terribly unhip in Europe. We go abroad and they think we're absolutely insane; they say "You do not like Simple Minds?" They can't believe we like "capsi capsicum". I think part of the delight of it in my case is liking something obscure that's obscure for the sake of it I think I genuinely like it, actually. I like it because it's obscure and also because it's fantastically unfashionable."

Joss Stone: The Soul Sessions

and Sam Cooke's SAR Records Story on the old victrola today.

Jesus hates it when you smoke

scary cats for Mina

from wood's lot--

PEDESTRIAN CULTURE THROUGH THE AGES: "In 1913 Wyneken proclaimed the ideas behind the Wandervögel by stating that the youth had the right to live according to their own ideas, outside the rules of society in which there were born involuntarily. Bored with the industrial artificiality of urban life, disgusted by the hypocrisy of life they fled into wild nature. they drifted for days, sometimes weeks on end through the woods. They lived on the food nature provided, in the evening the partook in excessive community singing around bonfires. The nights were dedicated to the first detours in the field of sexuality."

Sandy Denny--"Liege & Lief" on repeat at the manse today

Friends of the High Line

Hidden Glasgow

www.mnftiu.cc | get your war on | page twenty-eight

100 CANADIAN POP SONGS YOU OUGHTA KNOW

Millennium Actress

Thanks to MK for reminding me that it's the Hector Berlioz bicentenary--crank it up!

Happy Birthdays to Jacqueline Waters

Drew Gardner

Deanna Ferguson

& Dan Farrell

Robbie Burns Night, Malaspina U-C Discovery Room

Syllabub, boiled baby, white soup, etc.

Mysterious ice balls falling from heavens: "'I'm not worried that a block of ice may fall on your head,' said Jesus Martinez-Frias of the Center for Astrobiology in Madrid.
'I'm worried that great blocks of ice are forming where they shouldn't exist.'"

Feral Children

List of lists

A poem of mine from "Hammertown" is in the print version of the Literary Review of Canada.

PK's Web Rant and News Forum has good facts on the strike--

Being in a pen with a wounded bull.: "For instance, an American from San Diego is quoted saying: 'What bugs me about Canadians, if I may, is that they wear that damn patch on their bags, the Canadian flag patch. That way, they differentiate themselves from us.'"

Ferries on strike here, much typical hysteria in the media but here is the Marine Worker's Union site.

Pulpfiction Books has a mess of new books in for holiday browsing, and a new branch I didn't even know about!

Happy Birthday Olivier Messiaen--

“In my hours of gloom, when I am suddenly aware of my own futility, when every musical idiom – classical, Oriental, ancient, modern, and ultra-modern – appears to me as no more than admirable, painstaking experimentation, without any ultimate justification, what is left for me but to seek out the true, lost face of music somewhere off in the forest, in the fields, in the mountains, or on the seashore, among the birds.”

and Emily Dickinson--

The Birds reported from the South—
A News express to Me—
A spicy Charge, My little Posts—
But I am deaf—Today—

The Flowers—appealed—a timid Throng—
I reinforced the Door—
Go blossom for the Bees—I said—
And trouble Me—no More—

The Summer Grace, for Notice strove—
Remote—Her best Array—
The Heart—to stimulate the Eye
Refused too utterly—

At length, a Mourner, like Myself,
She drew away austere—
Her frosts to ponder—then it was
I recollected Her—

She suffered Me, for I had mourned—
I offered Her no word—
My Witness—was the Crape I bore—
Her—Witness—was Her Dead—

Thenceforward—We—together dwelt—
I never questioned Her—
Our Contract
A Wiser Sympathy

Continental Drift Cam

Ultra-Violence by Sterling Clover--somewhat confused review of new Vollman

Basho's World

AncientScripts.com: Writing Systems

via the mighty Plep--Aspects of the Victorian book

Canadian Poetry excellent historical resource

Horace, Ode 1.9 (adapted by Alan Ramsey):

"An Ode to Ph----

Look up to Pentland's tow'ring tap,
Buried beneath great wreaths of snaw,
O'er ilka cleugh, ilk scar, and slap,
As high as ony Roman wa'.

Driving their ba's frae whins or tee,
There's no nae gowfer to be seen,
Nor dousser fouk wysing a-jee
The byast bouls on Tamson's green.

Then fling on coals, and ripe the ribs,
And beek the house baith but and ben,
That mutchkin stoup it hauds but dribs,
Then let's get in the tappit hen.

Good claret best keeps out the cauld,
And drives away the winter soon;
It makes a man baith gash and bauld,
And heaves his saul beyond the moon.

Leave to the gods your ilka care,
If that they think us worth their while
They can a rowth of blessings spare,
Which will our fasheous fears beguile.

For what they have a mind to do,
That will they do, should we gang wud;
If they command the storms to blaw,
Then upo' sight the hailstanes thud.

But soon as e'er they cry -- 'Be quiet,'
The blatt'ring winds dare nae mair move,
But cour into their caves, and wait
The high command of supreme Jove.

Let neist day come as it thinks fit,
The present minute's only ours;
On pleasure let's employ our wit,
And laugh at fortune's feckless powers.

Be sure ye dinna quat the grip
Of ilka joy when ye are young,
Before auld age your vitals nip,
And lay ye twafald o'er a rung.

Sweet youth's a blyth and heartsome time;
Then, lads and lasses, while it's May,
Gae pou the gowan in its prime
Before it wither and decay.

Watch the saft minutes of delyte
When Jenny speaks beneath her breath,
And kisses, laying a' the wyte
On you, if she keap ony skaith.

"Haith, ye're ill-bred," she'll smiling say,
"Ye'll worry me, ye greedy rook;"
Syne frae your arms she'll rin away,
And hide hersell in some dark nook.

Her laugh will lead you to the place
Where lies the happiness you want,
And plainly tells you to your face
Nineteen nay says are ha'f a grant.

Now to her heaving bosom cling,
And sweetly toolie for a kiss,
Frae her fair finger whop a ring,
As taiken of a future bliss.

These bennisons, I'm very sure,
Are of the gods' indulgent grant;
Then, surly carles, whisht, -- forbear
To plague us with your whining cant. "

Happy Birthday Horace! (thanks Laurable)

BULLITT locations--starts in 10 minutes!!

Snowball fight (shockwave)

North Bay News : "'The program is kind of like the pantheon of pop culture and it's nice to see Project Grizzly, which has already achieved cult status, enter the larger popular cultural arena,' Lynch said.

'Being part of The Simpsons will give Project Grizzly more of a mythic status while also giving it currency.'

Lynch said Canadians are “passive consumers” of American culture and of myths that “glorify” American heroes and values.

'Troy and his men aren't simply watching Robocop or the Terminator trilogy; they're attempting to live it. The Simpsons has its finger on the pulse of zeitgeist pop culture. And it takes a classic like Project Grizzly and transforms it even further through mainstream mythic consciousness,' Lynch said".

ASHER BROWN DURAND research uncovers Halleck link--:
"In 1867, evidently in anticipation of making a grand gesture on his wedding anniversary, Field prevailed upon his friend Fitz-Greene Halleck to invent a second verse:

And that I am all the world to her,
It joys my breath to say, For her beating heart has told me so
For many a happy day. For many a happy day-
And her bonny lip and eye, Oh! my darling Floy Van Cortlandt,
'Tis for thee Id live and die.

Then, Field asked Durand to complete the three-way collaborative gift. It was not unusual for Durand to accept a landscape commission in which setting and various details were stipulated by the patron. He enhanced Field's memory image of thirty years by setting the courting couple, moon, clouds, and the shores of a winding I Hudson River into the type of landscape in vogue when both he and his patron were young men by reverting to the classical landscape formula of tile seventeenth-century French painter Claude Lorrain, on which he hid frequently relied thirty ' years earlier. During the 1860s, Durand occasionally created landscapes in which such older formulas reappear."

Slate test drives the dictionaries

David Hemmings

Dams: the beavers' dams: "I don't like calling beavers engineers. What humans engineer either works or doesn't work any more. Beavers have a more encompassing view of the environment than humans. Their 'work' fits more organically into the natural scheme of things. One 300 foot dam I patrol has good sized bushes growing out of it."

Language Log has these Beaver terms from the Carrier language of BC's interior:

"tsa--beaver
tsatsul--beaver of mid-sized variety
tsayaz--beaver of small variety
tsati--beaver of large variety
tsachenisboo'--beaver kit
tsata'--adult male beaver
tsa'at--female beaver
tsadiya--mother beaver
tsacho--male beaver that is the boss of a whole area
tsaken--beaver lodge
'utsut--runway from lodge of beaver or muskrat to land
lht'azutnai--pair of beaver lodges built close together behind one dam
'udats'un--beaver harpoon
tsambilh--beaver snare
'ulhtusti--trail over beaver dam
tsata'ti--beaver channel under the ice"

Luke Vibert video

________________iloveacid________________

fancy Poe site

Artspeak Reinvents the Art Book

Happy Birthday John Cale!

Never Mind the Dianetics, Here's the Kiddie Scientologists

Essential_Vermeer

Bemsha Swings with some lovely drummer photos

"Bobo" Fulford on Lost in Translation

Is Miles Davis really dead?: "McLaughlin's power-guitar solo that opens the track should be used to sort out the wheat from the chaff in the air guitar Olympics. Around bar 50 he begins to get ready to pass the lead to Davis and begins a climatic buildup from bar 60, a masterpiece of impromptu construction that climaxes with Davis's entry at bar 75. Davis makes the most of what he's been given. Just as Scarpia's entrance in Act 1 of Puccini's Tosca is one of the great, dramatic moments in opera, so Davis's commanding entry here is one of the great moments in jazz. "

news on the robot wisdom guy

PK's Web Rant and News Forum another Nanaimo Blog

Eartha Kitt

Lee Konitz

In the claws of the Raven

looks like robot wisdom weblog, the original "weblog" is no more...only this cache...

Happy Birthday Jack Sheldon!

Cinnamon: "'We were looking at the effects of common foods on blood sugar,' he told New Scientist. One was the American favourite, apple pie, which is usually spiced with cinnamon. 'We expected it to be bad. But it helped,' he says."

Cinammon

Giving cats a chance in life: "Behind him are several miniature dwellings that look like igloos. The cats sleep in the tiny huts, which the volunteers line with straw in the winter. 'They're like little subdivisions,' Shaw says. "

Dave Till's Toronto Photos - ghost signs

Dictionary of Victorian London

Referential Communication with an African Grey Parrot: "Alex has learned over 40 object labels: paper, key, nut, wood, wheat, truck, hide (rawhide chips), peg wood (clothes pins), grain, cork, corn, walnut, block, box, showah (shower), banana, pasta, gym, cracker, scraper (nail file), popcorn, chain, kiwi, shoulder, rock (a lava stone beak conditioner), carrot, gravel, cup, citrus, back, chair, chalk, water, nail, grape, grate, treat, cherry, wool, green bean, and banerry (apple). We have tentative evidence for labels such as bread and jacks. He has functional use of 'no', phrases such as 'come here', 'I want X', and 'Wanna go Y' where X and Y are appropriate labels for objects or locations."