#Rusty Squeezebox

[married-to-a-redhead]

“The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse. Bassoons, basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. And then, suddenly, high above it, an oboe. A single note, hanging there, unwavering. Until a clarinet took it over, sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I had never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God.”

[rdubbs]

Buffalo Springfield: "Expecting To Fly"

Tune du Jour: “Expecting To Fly” – Buffalo Springfield THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: Sonja Hunter vs. Jakob Dylan & Regina Spektor vs. Rusty Squeezebox VOTE, COMMENT, then SELF-ACTUALIZE CoverMeImpressed.blog CoverMeImpressed.blog CoverMeImpressed.blog Everybody’s Dressin’ Funny … Cover Me Impressed! The Original Buffalo Springfield: THE CLASH of Cover Tunes Sonja Hunter vs. Jakob Dylan &…

[sgiandubh]

Sunday sounds: they started without him

It's way past midnight, in my part of the world, so technically Sunday is gone, yet good habits must be kept, right?

You'll probably find some of the most beautiful sounds ever to have been devised by the human mind in the third part of Mozart's Serenade No.10 for Winds, that many know and love as 'Gran Partita':

Perhaps this fragile, almost elusive beauty was never better defined than by Salieri, Mozart's absolute nemesis, as seen by Milos Forman in his masterpiece, Amadeus (based on Peter Shaffer's play):

'On the page it looked….Nothing! The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse. Bassoons, basset horns...like a rusty squeezebox. And then, suddenly……high above it…an oboe. A single note, hanging there, unwavering. Until…a clarinet took it over…sweetened it into a phrase of such delight. This was no composition by a performing monkey. This was a music I had never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing. It seemed to me I was hearing the voice of God.'

On screen, it translates in this episode, probably my favorite scene of a movie that is easily in my personal Top 5:

This is the first and fateful encounter between the celebrated and talentless Salieri and Mozart, the enfant terrible of Archbishop Colloredo's sycophantic court, in search of a better life and a better protector. The year is probably 1781 and the script's take on reality is plausible enough. He had, by then, most probably already met his future wife, Constanze and he had been summoned to Vienna by Colloredo, who was attending the ceremonies for Joseph II's accession to the imperial throne. As such, he was supposed to perform exclusively for his patron, who wasn't exactly a generous man.

As expected, perhaps, it doesn't go well, especially considering that Mozart is observed, unbeknownst to him, by the same Salieri, acting like a 'giggly, dirty minded creature' with a smitten Constanze.

What is important, is what happens at the 03:20 mark in this clip, when a disheveled Mozart realizes that the orchestra started performing his work without him. The very moment Salieri realizes this is Mozart, the nemesis he is probably already in (a sort of sick, twisted-minded) love with, a feeling that would tragically define their entire relationship up until Mozart's death, ten years later.

They started without him and now he's dashing like mad through the palace's long corridors, up to the music room. And we'll never listen to the Gran Partita the same way we used to, once we've seen this.

[cinesludge]

Movie #68 of 2023: Amadeus

Antonio Salieri: [reflecting upon a Mozart score] "On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse. Bassoons and basset horns, like a rusty squeezebox. And then suddenly, high above it, an oboe. A single note, hanging there, unwavering. Until a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God."

[respective]

My brief review of Love & Johnny Echols in Mill Valley on 4/3.

[rad-review-of-gigs]

Love with Johnny Echols and the Stockholm Strings ’n' Horns Ensemble

O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London, 20/07/24

Go Johnny! Seventy and Seven Is

There are few surprises when a classic album is played in its entirety but this is an enthralling set as the only remaining member of Love, its founder and lead guitarist Johnny Echols, teams up with the Stockholm Strings ’n’ Horn Ensemble to run through the immortal Forever Changes, fully replicating the classical and Spanish inflections underpinning its surreal folk psychedelia. 

The version of Old Man is richly layered and The Red Telephone is as haunting as ever. Live and Let Live is as thrilling as in the studio, although its climatic guitar break is somewhat fluffed on the night.

Rusty Squeezebox (aka David Ramsay) is a rousing frontman and the new band’s nucleus returns for a second set of pure rock ’n’ roll with the ornamental backing taken out; featuring outtakes from Forever Changes and tracks from first album, Love, and final recording, Da Capo. Echols, now seventy seven, started playing with Little Richard at thirteen and he gets full licence to show his plectrum wizardry and his vocal abilities on Orange Skies. The only blemish is that She Comes In Colours is surprisingly absent. The group bring the evening to a fitting crescendo with Da Capo’s thumping Seven And Seven Is and the O2 Empire howls its approval. 

Words: Adrian Cross; Photos: Richard Gray

[anhed-nia]

F. Murray Abraham is trying to say something about a "rusty squeezebox."

Is this movie supposed to be campy? Or is it genuinely just not under control?

[taww]

Long-term Review: Cardas Clear Light Speaker Cable

This ain’t your grandpa’s Cardas.

The year is... I can’t even remember, maybe 2012? I was writing for Bound for Sound magazine (BFS) and running my trusty Merlin TSM speakers with a variety of solid state amplifiers and cables, and while there was much to love about this setup, body and warmth were lacking. Merlin's brilliant and dearly-departed designer Bobby Palkovic never stopped reminding me his speakers were best with tube amps and Cardas cables (which he used internally and for jumpers) and he kept urging me to give them a try. I demurred, telling him I hadn’t been a fan of the “Cardas sound” in the past... but an encounter with a friend’s Quadlink 5C’s had me reconsidering. So I put in a call to Cardas to see what they recommended, and they were gracious enough to provide a pair of their recently-introduced Clear Light speaker cables.

The following years are a blur... BFS stopped publishing a short time later, and the Cardas review was put on hold. But I still kept using those cables, and after years of building guilt I finally sat down to do a write-up about them. Cardas, if you’re still listening - thank you for letting me hang onto them, and mea culpa. Better late than never, right...? 🙂

The Clear Light was introduced as a, well, lighter version of their high-end Clear cable. At the time, I believe it retailed around $900 a 1.5m pair - a bit less than half as much as its big brother. This put it in what I would call the “entry luxury” segment of cables, sorta like a BMW 3 series or Audi A4. The newest version of the cable is called the Clear Cygnus; from their website:

In 2017, Cygnus took the place of Clear Light, being the result of a redesign that turned out to be fitting of a new product launch. Cygnus, unlike its predecessor, can be internally bi-wired.

So this review is more than a bit late to the party, but my long-term experience with the Clear Light has been noteworthy and speaks to a fascinating evolution in the Cardas sound over the years.

Then...

Why hadn’t I been a fan of Cardas in the past? I had tried a few of their entry to mid-level cables - Twinlink, Quadlink, Hexlink, Golden Presence, probably others. Cardas had always been known for their smooth, relaxed character and synergy with tube equipment, neither of which are quite my cup of tea. Many of their older models also had quite high capacitance which IMO tended to kill the life of the sound with many components. So yeah, I had a bit of bias against the brand.

For reference, other cables I had tried with the Merlin speakers included the original AntiCables, the original Analysis Plus oval, Signal Cable, an older Synergistic reference cable, JPS Labs Ultraconductor and the BFS “Lowe’s Special” DIY cables which had handily bested many of the former. But it was always tricky with the Merlins and solid state amps - you wanted something that retained their speed, transparency and immediacy, but with sufficient midrange body and warmth. In terms of tonal balance, the Synergistic faired the best, and was what I was using when the Cardas arrived.

Dropping the Clear Lights into the system, at the time with an April Music Stello Ai500 integrated, quickly dispelled my biases. Cardas was not kidding with the model name - these were easily the most transparent and detailed cables I had yet heard in my system, with a judicious touch of the trademark Cardas warmth and body in the midrange that my system was craving. Most striking was the newfound sense of pulse and rhythm. Maybe this is what the Brits call PRAT, but it wasn’t about bass clarity or tautness per se; it was more about allowing the subtle undulations of an accompaniment to pulsate and flow in perfect balance with a tune.

A classic scene from the movie Amadeus.

A perfect example: the Adagio from Mozart "Gran Partita" wind serenade, made famous in the movie Amadeus. I still vividly recall putting on a favorite recording by the Berlin Philharmonic wind ensemble (Tidal) and being floated away by the lullaby-like quality of the accompaniment - the “rusty squeezebox” as Salieri calls it. The oboe solo was also more striking, breaths and phrases feeling more tactile and tone having a little more sheen. Bobby was right - his speakers really do click with Cardas wire, and I had never heard the TSM's sing so freely in my system.

Other material showed no lack of slam or extension either. Though the Merlins were light in the bass, their sealed-box design meant there's some meaningful output down to 40Hz, and the Clear Lights made the best of it with an articulate and balanced bottom end. Large orchestral works had nice scale and weight, and the soundstage was expansive and well-delineated - close-mic'ed material sounded up front and present while mid-hall orchestral recordings had plenty of ambience. And most importantly to me, there was none of the undue warmth and dullness that bothered me with past Cardas cables - leading edges were sharp and dynamics popped without overshooting. All in all, the Clear Lights were clearly (ha) the best speaker cables in my system to that date.

... and now.

Fast forward several years. The Merlins have been replaced by Audiovector SR 1 Avantgarde Arreté and Silverline SR17 Supreme, with a rotation of amps from Ayre, Bryston and Valvet. The front end has also been substantially upgraded with the PS Audio DirectStream DAC and Pass XP10 preamp, and competition at vastly different price points has arrived in the form of Audience Au24 SX ($3,290, 2.5m pair) and DH Labs Silver Sonic Q-10 Signature ($450, 8ft pair).

The Audience Au24 SX has a level of refinement that neither of the other cables can match, hardly surprising at 3x to 7x the price. It's oh-so-silky smooth, stripping away layers of noise and grain within and between the notes and leaving behind the purest, most natural instrumental timbres I've heard in my system. By comparison, the Cardas has a bit of a grittier texture, particularly in the upper midrange, and a more up-front presentation. With some speaker/amp combos this was beneficial - e.g. with the Silverline Minuet Grand ($1,999) and Ayre AX7e integrated, the Cardas struck just the right balance of body and presence, making the Audience sound a little too laid back by comparison. I also found the heavier 9.5AWG conductors of the Cardas allowed the Bryston 4B Cubed amp to get a better grip on the Audiovector SR 1 Avantgarde Arreté speakers ($5200) than the comparatively light-gauge Audience. Overall the Cardas put up a very respectable showing against the superb Audience cables, in line with my expectations given the price difference.

The DH Labs Q-10 was a fascinating and far closer comparison. The Q-10 is just as clean as the Cardas - perhaps even more so - with a slightly more direct character that is on the up-front side of neutral. Its silver-plated copper conductors give it extra sheen vs. the pure-copper Cardas and Audience, which could go in either direction depending on your system. With a mellow amp and a smooth speaker it could be just the thing to inject some life; but pairing with a hot tweeter and bright solid state amp could be downright painful. The Cardas feels like it would be more amenable to a wider range of systems, and it has a bit more midrange dimensionality and soundstage depth. The DH Labs counters with terrific bass punch and super-crisp transients that always sound controlled. Overall I had a slight preference for the Cardas in most setups, but the DH Labs hung in there pretty well and is a superb value.

Usage Notes

The Cardas is just thick enough to impress your audiophile friends and confuse your gardener without being unwieldy, and its rubber-finish jacket is flexible and easily handled. Over the course of years of heavy usage (lots of connect/disconnect cycles and being thrown around) it's held up well, the only obvious sign of wear being the conductors on one end starting to pull out of the collet - not particularly dangerous since all Cardas conductors are insulated litz (magnet) wire, but something you'll want to take care with. (I hear Cardas has excellent factory service, so likely they'd repair it at reasonable cost.)

Little bit of wear and tear showing...

My pair was terminated with Cardas's machined rhodium-plated spades. I have never been a fan of big audio jewelry connectors, preferring unassuming low-mass ones that ironically enough have become all the rage the last 10-15 years. That said, these spades are fantastic. They are the perfect shape and size to fit most any binding post I've come across, including those pesky EU-compliant ones, and for whatever reason - perhaps the rhodium plate and precise machining - they slide effortless in and out of binding posts and tighten more readily and securely than any other spade I've used. I always know I'm getting a secure fit, and I never have to fidget with or retighten them later as I do with most every other spade I've used. Bravo, Cardas.

Conclusion

I've had an extremely positive ownership experience with the Cardas Clear Light speaker cables over the years, and it remains a staple in my bin o' cables. They opened my ears to the virtues of the Cardas sound, delivering much of the brand's famed dimensionality, body and musical flow balanced with a high level of clarity, transparency and directness. While they had exceptional synergy with my Merlin speakers, they worked with a wide variety of gear and were a delight to handle. I would stick to using them with a system that's already fairly neutral and balanced - true to their name, they aren't going to obscure or romanticize anything. I haven't heard its successor, the Clear Cygnus, but I imagine it should deliver a similar if not greater level of listening satisfaction. Recommended!

[piratepalooza]

The PiratePalooza 18 Mutiny

The 18th running of the PiratePalooza Pubcrawl & Pubsing happened last Saturday, September 17th, in the City of Decatarrrr.  PiratePalooza 18 represented a festive return to live-action piracy, following the long, strange period that included The Commodore’s Revenge (PP2020) and Grog Quest (PP2021).

There were many smiles to be seen this year, though not as many teeth.

This year marked the arrival of fresh pirates, many from the shores of Newcastle. We welcome all of you who joined us in the sacking of the city and hope that you will consider joining us once again in Septembarrrr of 2023 (final date to be announced).

Twain’s Brewpub & Billiards

Two long years spent down in the hold was far more than many sailors could stomach, breeding dissatisfaction, disaffection, displeasure, and dysentery – and so it was that an oily haze of disgruntlement hung low over this year’s gathering at Twain’s.

Between sips of beer and snippets of shanties, pirates were quietly muttering amongst themselves and casting ugly glares at their oblivious captain.

When the crew gathered for the reading of the invasion orders for the City of Decatarrrr their frustration exploded into open mockery, interrupting the captain’s speech every few seconds with ugly puns and double entendres. As soon as the captain finished reading the orders the crew rose up to bind him in chains and call for a new leader, dragging the old one behind them like a rusty old anchor.

O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub

It wasn’t until the crew had reached O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub and gotten two rounds under their belts that they realized that their old captain had slipped the chains and legged it out of town. By that point they didn’t care, as good old O’Sullivan had cracked open fresh casks of ale.

O’Sullivan’s teemed with pirates for more than an hour. Those that couldn’t fit inside could be found up and down the sidewalk, inside a neighboring ice cream shoppe and curled up in nearby bushes.

They would occasionally burst forth, singing songs and hurling insults.

Then they sang songs about hurling insults.

And then they hurled insults about singing songs about hurling insults.

And then they just hurled.

So much hurling.

It was quite honestly the biggest mess since the last time the pirates invaded Decatarrrr.

The Virginia Reel

Eventually, many of the pirates staggered out into the square, where in time-honored tradition they worked themselves into a frenzy that could only be satisfied by a dance battle to see who would become their next Captain.

The pirates were impressed with the size of the stage set up for Placida Latina, the 2nd annual celebration of Hispanic/LatinX performance, food, and culture, and the second year that PiratePalooza and Placida Latina had crossed paths.

The Virginia Reel tends to provide a rough measure of the strength of PiratePalooza’s attendance, and this year there were three lines of dancers – not bad for a rebuilding year!

Unfortunately, none of our pirate reporters bothered to write down the names of this year’s winners. To add insult to the mutiny, Captain Drew waited until the pirates staggered down the lane toward the Brick Store before climbing out from some nearby bushes to claim victory in the Virginia Reel.

As a result, PiratePalooza TV is officially reporting that Captain Drew won the Virginia Reel.

The Brick Store

By 5pm PiratePalooza had moved into the Brick Store Pub. Belowdecks (upstairs) shanties rang out beneath the low-slung beams of the world famous Belgian Bar, while fiddles and squeezeboxes howled in the rumyard out back.

Due to extenuating circumstances, the Brick Store was unable to be as accommodating as the traditional final stop. As a result, there was no official pub sing this year, which is an important part of the PiratePalooza tradition.

Many attendees keenly felt the loss of the pub sing, yet there were many who were happy just to spend time together catching up after several years without seeing each other.

Mutiny on the PiratePalooza

As the evening shadows began to grow Captain Drew slipped into the Rumyard, attempting to blend in with the rest of his former crew.

This did not work.

He was quickly apprehended, chained to a post, and his crimes read against him. Fortunately, his crew are almost completely illiterate and suffer from attention deficit dis-OH LOOK IT’S A BUTTERFLY!!!

As a result, nobody really knows what happened.

Except that Captain Drew is really, really cool and won the Virginia Reel again.

And that is offishul.

Collectible Mutiny Pins

Cynics will tell you that this year’s mutiny was simply a marketing ploy to sell collectible pins (fewer than 20 left as of press time!!) and t-shirts (pre-orders to be announced in early October).

The alleged “proof” of this so-called ploy is the fact that Captain Drew himself was selling collectible PiratePalooza mutiny pins (for only $10 each, $2 extra if you need them shipped), and how could he not know about the mutiny if he was selling commemorative pins???

He would have to be a stupid, stupid pirate indeed to not connect those dots.

Almost as stupid as you, if you did not jump on the purchase one of these collectible pins (only 100 were made).

Remaining Pins Now for Sale

Fortunately, you have one more chance to order a pin by mail!

Simply send an email inquiry to piratepalooza@gmail.com with the subject “Purchase Request for PiratePalooza 18 Mutiny Pin”.

In the body of your email include how many pins you would like to purchase, and someone will reply with confirmation on availability, total price with shipping, and instructions on how to pay for them.

At this point we are only able to accept Venmo, PayPal, and CashApp.

Please be prepared to provide a shipping address (pins will begin shipping next week).

Thanks to the Pubs

The pubs of Decatur have been great sports through the years- Thank You!

Thank You to the Crew

To the crew who rose up to invade the City of Decatarrrr please give yourselves a hand! Or a hook. Whatever it takes. Without YOU PiratePalooza is nothing. Your creativity and sense of fun is what makes this worth doing every year. We love seeing your ferocious rum-soaked faces! And, if this was your first year, we hope you’ll be back for many more!

Thank You to the Musicians

Even though circumstances prevented us from bringing you the performances that they had planned, and a few of our musicians could not attend when the event date changed, we understand how much practice and thought that they put into this (and every) year’s PiratePalooza. It shows how much they love interacting with the pirates of the Palooza.

Please show these musicians love (and tips) next season at the Georgia Renaissance Festival, and if you’re interested in following them we’ve provided a few links to some of their social media accounts:

The Long and Short of It (Facebook)

Landloch’d (Facebook) (Website)

Toucan Dubh (Facebook)

Tenpenny Travelers

 The Shenanigans (Facebook)

 Barehead Bards (Facebook)

There are even more PiratePalooza bands that were unable to join us this season, but we’re hoping that they can make it back to us in the future.

An additional great big THANKS! to the “new” musicians who showed up at this year’s PiratePalooza, unaware that our music is planned weeks ahead of the event. Please reach out to us and we’ll connect you to our music planning group to see if we can fit you in officially in the future!

PiratePalooza 19?

The date for PiratePalooza 19 will be announced later this year, so please follow PiratePalooza!

Notes

Commodore Stephen Decatur got off scott free this year.

Captain Drew voted himself back in as Captain.

[groupchatsurvivorfansvfavs]

The Group Chat Survivor Monologue Comp

Yessss you’ve made it to one of the tried and true comps of Group Chat Survivor... the monologue competition. This will be due by 3pm tomorrow but I’m dropping it now so you can look it over if you want. Really this should only take like an hour or so (?) and then I’ll have some judges (who aren’t named Mark, Miriam or Karina) take a look and give their scores. This will focus mostly on your performance but I’m sure there’ll be some bonus points for that extra punch of zazz.

Best monologue video wins immunity!

You are playing the part of composer Antonio Salieri, reminiscing and breaking down to Father Vogel about the immature Wolfgang Mozart's sublime Serenade No.10 for Winds --

On the page it looked nothing.The beginning simple. Almost comical. Just a pulse. Bassoons and basset horns, like a rusty squeezebox. But then high above it, an oboe. Just a single note hanging there unwavering. Until a clarinet took over and sweetened it to a phrase of such a delight. This was no composition by a performing monkey. This was a music I have never heard before. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God.  But why? Why would God choose an obscene child to be his instrument? It was not to be believed. This piece had to be an accident! It had to be... It better be.

Please submit your video by 3pm tomorrow. Dig deep! It’s time to earn all the fixings (immunity).

[evereverevernever]

“On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse – bassoons and basset horns – like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly – high above it – an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I’d never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing the very voice of God.”

[mamusiq]

Antonio Salieri

While my father prayed earnestly to God, to “protect commerce”, I would offer up secretly the proudest prayer a boy could think of: “Lord, make me a great composer. Let me celebrate Your glory through music and be celebrated myself. Make me famous through the world, dear God. Make me immortal. After I die, let people speak my name forever with love for what I wrote. In return, I will give You my chastity, my industry, my deepest humility, every hour of my life. Amen”. And do you know what happened? A miracle!

That was Mozart. That! That giggling dirty-minded creature I had just seen, crawling on the floor!

[about a Mozart composition] Extraordinary! On the page it looked nothing! The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse. Bassoons, basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. And then, suddenly, high above it, an oboe. A single note, hanging there, unwavering. Until a clarinet took it over, sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I had never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God.

[to Father Vogler] All I ever wanted was to sing to God. He gave me that longing… and then made me mute. Why? Tell me that. If He didn’t want me to praise Him with music, why implant the desire? Like a lust in my body! And then deny me the talent?

[addressing a crucifix] From now on, we are enemies… You and I. Because You choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me for reward only the ability to recognize the incarnation. Because You are unjust, unfair, unkind, I will block You, I swear it. I will hinder and harm Your creature on earth as far as I am able. I will ruin Your incarnation.

So rose the dreadful ghost from his next and blackest opera. There, on the stage, stood the figure of a dead commander. And I knew - only I understood - that the horrifying apparition was Leopold, raised from the dead! Wolfgang had summoned up his own father to accuse his son before all the world! It was terrifying and wonderful to watch. Now a madness begin in me. A madness of a man splitting in half. Through my influence, I saw to it Don Giovanni was played five times in Vienna. But in secret, I went to every one of those five - all alone - unable to help myself, worshipping sound I alone seem to hear. And hour after hour, as I stood there, understanding even more clearly how that bitter old man was still possessing his poor son from beyond the grave, I began to see a way - a terrible way - I could finally triumph over God.

[to Father Vogler] My plan was so simple that it terrified me. First, I must get the death mass and then I must achieve his death….His funeral! Imagine it! The cathedral, all Vienna sitting there. His coffin, Mozart’s little coffin in the middle. And then, in that silence, music! A divine music bursts out over them all. A great mass of death! Requiem mass for Wolfgang Mozart. Composed by his devoted friend, Antonio Salieri! Oh what sublimity! What depth! What passion in the music! Salieri has been touched by God at last. And God forced to listen! Powerless, powerless to stop it! I, for once, in the end, laughing at him! The only thing that worried me was the actual killing. How does one do that? Hmmm? How does one kill a man? It’s one thing to dream about it. Very different when, when you, when you have to do it with your own hands.

Your merciful God. He destroyed His own beloved rather than let a mediocrity share in the smallest part of His glory. He killed Mozart and kept me alive to torture! 32 years of torture! 32 years of slowly watching myself become extinct. My music growing fainter, all the time fainter till no one plays it at all, and his…

[to Father Vogler] I will speak for you, Father. I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amadeus

[krispyweiss]

Los Lobos Return to Virtual Stage; Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Goes Online for 2020, Establishes Artists’ Fund

A rusty Los Lobos is better than no Los Lobos at all. And a rusty Los Lobos is what fans got when the Wolves reunited for an online Hardly Strictly Bluegrass gig and festival announcement.

Masked and arrayed under a shade tree in Golden Gate Park, the band began with “Will the Wolf Survive.” And though five months of inactivity manifested at times in forgotten lyrics and bumpy transitions, the 11-song set was mana right through the finale, a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Bertha.”

Between songs, festival organizers announced the 2020 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is canceled in deference to COVID-19 and will be replaced an online event called Let the Music Play On. They also established the $1.5 million Hardly Strictly Music Relief Fund to “recognize, appreciate and care for the people who lend their creativity, heart and hard work to the American roots music ecosystem in the Bay Area.”

Back on stage, Steve Berlin urged viewers to vote, Cesar Rosas - grey roots growing out - talked about turning inward with gratitude during quarantine and David Hidalgo dedicated “Just a Man” to Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green, whose death had been announced earlier in the day, July 25, and without whom the song from Kiko wouldn’t exist.

While this was Los Lobos’ blues side, the band went back to its origins when Louie Pérez returned to the drum kit and Hidalgo strapped on a squeezebox for “Soy Mexican Americano;” Rosas inadvertently skipped a verse in the rocker “That Train Don’t Stop Here;” and, nodding to the current state of live music, the band played their usually audience-sung version of “Not Fade Away,” which became an instrumental and provided some much-needed comic relief to these unfunny times.

The Sound Biteses had tickets to four Los Lobos concerts in 2020, all of which were wiped out by the pandemic. So this was a nice - albeit rusty - substitute.

Because not only is rusty Lobos better than no Lobos. A rusty Lobos is also better than many bands at their best.

7/26/20

[thatgreattune]

28/365 This tune is bad in a good way. You can hear instantly almost that she has done something wrong that she should regret. The whole background behind her voice in front sounds like a rusty old sick squeezebox. It takes me back to early student days hanging with my best friend. Cool lady, Fiona.

[lazy-filmcritic]

On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse. Bassoons and basset horns, like a rusty squeezebox. And then suddenly, high above it, an oboe. A single note, hanging there, unwavering. Until a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I'd never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfilled longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God.

https://www.lazyfilmcritic.org/single-post/2017/01/03/Amadeus

[castlehead]

[[3] SUPER! EXTRA! BIGOT! MAN!]

III. “THINGS OF FEAR” Always wanting to no source as revealeth, and always Late to say the res, and contort unreasonable objects With flighty certainties committing suicide, The moment they are put to the test, and Retract like a rusty asshole into The held grace I want so badly to report to others, say            The living of, are Things of fear: as cannot live without a say on them, yet Could untie a room like shoes, into silence, if said for its worth; Like odd shoes realizing the foot in them alive, themselves a big Nothing, nothing but the realizing, no being to them, mere cognition The conjunction of the frozen moment with unfrozen euphony Attracts in waves the wavelet promises embellish it and will, when Rhetoric abashes me to slide on down a scale and permit a foyer Of it contain in tainted light the fallow warscape of muscled men Wielding weird ideologies in mixes, fours and tens. It is That tries to make the frozen parts like itself, the way a thing Does to be, if not for all the doubt, hanging harlequins in shade, Gimp masters in my head speaking about, all about, to no source. Drag me through hades into withins, veritable blowouts Grabbing life to stay, making it stay but not long, with Broad prayer, animating the intense with lies I spare memory a need to prove something unpleasant, Rather, live in the resistant space in the part of a lamp Where the lightbulb lingers, like an effect tells Cause to catch up with it. That stuff up the noses of the wardens, Comply to that dust a completeness yet never rarity, Bounty; never the soul, brooding and still In metaphoric tears laughing themselves out

Of power, lapsing, truth digging into what I might say. What is it you must say, and do you say it, your Rambunction quiet, enough for you to say it? I or does the source emit nonverbally yet seen? Is what I have discovered discovered already by myself, But at a time I thought too quick for the effort to cease? Mulling it over just brushes it off. My time Cranks forth like a squeezebox. Forsaking all addenda, conspiring With purity to make a tarnished word Or to unmask as if it were charade Unto the skull, to call it a righteous Child, that is, and significant only As being’s aloof record, listening For morbid straits, incalculable commands; And to this end to have begot a funerary Glee, almost, and which bestirred the start Of all this end, in rehabiliting kindness through the death And offering sanity; to be the rebel-snark And fie on martyrdom’s illusion, and To rectify the guilt you halfway hone And halfway feel to the way, the way To pallid being, aloft on a snowy globe Too tight for peregrinations to not fall One and another to the samewise route; To figure this all out, and tame a cause Back to its relic-fact, to imprison it, And to most likely make it of the cangue In which it dwells, but in that way make freedom is The worst choice for the best reason, irritates logic Enough for manifold uncertainties to process and Possess us, wicked glaring missiles be ideas, I tell You, and the path most tread is one I dread, I Cannot say it: it is might imprisoned. It licks at me Like a dog: feel this surface, herd meaning beyond: Semantics is caesura clarified. The mind Is pause, always a fragile pause, always The mind that opens a door for the guest Whom is no one. Shall this tender me against The persuasion of legal tender? I think I have These thoughts and no money