Mr. Charlie's on our case

I awoke this morning with Mr. Charlie on my mind. I had an image of Barak Obama, draped in robes of justice, with a basketball in one hand and a shotgun and whip in the other. Mr. Charlie told him what to do. Mr. Charlie told The Supreme Court what to do. Mr. Charlie told Congress what to do. Told the CIA, FBI, NSA what to do.
  We thought after Barak Obama's elections that we were rid of Mr. Charlie - Mr. Charlie (Mr. Cheney?) had split. No, Mr. Charlie remained in power. President Obama, speechmaker-baller ("He got game!"), propagandist for the GOP, war-hawk convert, Wall Street pupet serves Mr. Charlie far better than Mr. Bush.
  Deadheads know what I'm talkin' 'bout:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTMk_LBSVzw

Subdivision Cares & Sunday in the Park

Today in Columbus, Ohio it's raining. During the past couple of weeks I've been refurbishing my deck, replacing 131 boards - I'm half done. Today is actually a fine day for extracting nails from cedar planks, for the most part eight nails per plank. The present deck project is actually phase two. Phase one (the easy part) was completed a few years ago. My motivation in commencing phase two was exercise. My wife and I live in a subdivision. I find it quite boring to walk in my subdivision for exercise. I love walking; but there has to be an interesting terminus to my walking efforts - a book store, a record (CD) store, a café. When I was growing up in Highland Park, Michigan, on Saturday mornings I would walk up to Sears department store. In those days, Sears had a vinyl record department (even appliance stores had record sections). Stan Getz's Jazz Interpretations # 2 was purchased at an appliance store on Victor Ave.. Oscar Pettiford's Bohemia After Dark was purchased at Sam's department store in downtown Detroit. Elizabeth Anscome's book Intention was purchased at J. L. Hudson's department store. Essays on Frege was purchased at the terminus of a Sunday walk from Wayne State University's student housing to Paperbacks Unlimited in Highland Park. The exercise opportunities - mental and physical - pre-Amazon were robust.
  I appreciate now John Cheever's story about the guy who was bent on swimming in each of the swimming pools in his neighborhood. Subdivisions sans cultural necessities are apt settings for cases of hysteria. 

Pierrot Lunaire and The Higher Jazz

Douglas Walton in his 1998 New York Times 'review' of Edmund Wilson's The Higher Jazz remarks that Wilson's book is (to the reviewer) "all of it mildly engaging, but never very captivating." I found Wilson's The Higher Jazz both engaging and captivating - not very, very nor mildly; just engaging and captivating. I've always admired Edmund Wilson. I read his Axel's Castle and Memoirs of Hecate County many years ago. These works along with the Wilson-Nabokov exchange (argument) in the New York Review of Books were foundational for me in terms of my literary growing up. I admired Wilson because his love of literature was evident in his writing. More importantly, he made his reader - this reader - love literature too. Sven Birkerts exerts a similar Wilsonian effect on me also. Birkert's admiration of Eric Dolphy's music also scores points with me.
  Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire prompted me once again to attend to Edmund Wilson's The Higher Jazz. On Saturday, May 18 the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, Michigan presented performances of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Stravinsky's L'Histoire Du Soldat. Pierrot Lunaire plays a significant part in Wilson's unfinished novel. The Ann Arbor musicians performed both works expertly. The soprano Jennifer Goltz was especially impressive in the Schoenberg.
  Cleo Laine, back in the vinyl-day, made a recording of Pierrot Lunaire performing its vocal parts in English. Laine's vinyl recording is out of print. Fortunately there is a fine recent compact disc of Pierrot Lunaire by soprano Lucy Shelton performed in German and English. Shelton also performs Schoenberg's opus 20, Herzgewächse, written for soprano, harmonium, celesta, and harp - a very charming predecessor to Pierrot.
  David Schiff in his The Ellington Century connects Schoenberg and Ellington for us. His book opened my ears. Ellington and Schoenberg, The Higher Jazz.