thesobsister - Tumblr blog

[thesobsister]

Very good article in Humanities, the magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, by Barbara Will that looks at Getrude Stein’s enthusiastic support of Vichy collaborationist Philippe Pétain and his government both during and after the Nazi occupation of France. Stein exhibiting a combination of self-interested opportunism and genuine reactionary opposition to modernity—paradoxical for the arch-modernist.

“For Stein, Pétain’s National Revolution offered a blueprint for a new kind of revolution in the United States, one that would negate the decadence of the modern era and bring America back to its eighteenth-century values.”

[thesobsister]

undefined

The Sweethearts were a kicking ensemble, with great charts and great playing. So glad their performances are available for our enjoyment and appreciation.

Trumpeter Ernestine ‘Tiny’ Davis and saxophonist Willie Mae ‘Rabbit’ Wong traveling with the International Sweethearts on a European USO tour.

[thesobsister]

The full set of all of my LOTR pieces! they are currently available at Gallery Nucleus!

[thesobsister]

Marianne Faithfull and Roy Orbison photographed by Arthur Sidey, February 1965.

[thesobsister]

That I want thee, only thee—let my heart repeat without end...

Rabindranath Tagore, Only Thee

[thesobsister]

Francesca Woodman, from the Blueprint for a Temple series (1980)

Almost a Square, Francesca Woodman, c. 1977

Untitled, Francesca Woodman, c. 1977

[thesobsister]

Wordlebot is pretty comfortable negging the shit out of you.

[thesobsister]

Elton John, "Dirty Little Girl"

I was watching the televised Gershwin Prize (formally, The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song) presentation ceremony from Constitution Hall recently, in which Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin's songwriting were honored.

A number of luminaries performed, including last year's honoree, Joni Mitchell, along with Brandi Carlisle and, oddly enough, Metallica. Many encomia regarding Elton's music and Bernie's words were offered along with inspiring stories of how their songs propelled the performers along the path to their own creative self-realization.

Which is all well and good, but, you know, there's some stanky-ass music in the ElBer catalogue. And not good stanky-ass. I don't just mean bad songs, but songs that are straight-up offensive.

"Island Girl" is, perhaps, the most obvious example, with Elton, one of the whitest men ever to reach his rarefied levels of fame in the music industry, singing in a mock patois about a Jamaican man trying to convince a streetwalker to go back to JA.

But, turning to, perhaps, the archetypal Elton John album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, we find all sorts of unpleasantness. For example, another song about a sex worker ("Sweet Painted Lady") and a song ("All the Girls Love Alice") about a murdered teenage lesbian that treats the tragic subject respectfully, right? Well, only if one considers "It's like acting in a movie when you got the wrong part" and "And what do you expect from a sixteen year old yo-yo?" to be respectful or sensitive.

But the winner, from the same side of the GYBR LP as "Sweet…" and "Alice," has to be "Dirty Little Girl. Over a dirty Stones-ian groove, Elton sings this lovely chorus:

I'm gonna tell the world you're a dirty little girl Someone grab that bitch by the ears Rub her down, scrub her back, and turn her inside out 'Cause I bet hasn't had a bath in a year.

Surprisingly, or not at all, no-one covered this gem as part of the Gershwin Prize tribute.

There's a great single album buried in Goodbye Yellow Brick Road's two discs, once one prunes the filler ("Jamaica Jerk-Off"—yet another chance for Elton to explore his Black Jamaican side) and the clunky ("Candle in the Wind," a song that really didn't need to be written about either Marilyn Monroe or Lady Diana Spencer) tunes.

As we ask ourselves precisely wtf was wrong with Bernie Taupin, here's a palate cleanser:

[thesobsister]

The Rolling Stones, Black and Blue

(CW: misogynistic ad campaign; depicted violence against women)

The last of the Stones' three-album run that begins with Goats Head Soup and continues with It's Only Rock and Roll. The run is wedged between their late '60s/early '70s pinnacle and their mid-/late-'70s reinvigoration, finding the band in an odd place of misogyny, tax exile, and heroin haze, amid shifting musical styles and band members.

Recorded after the Stones lost ace guitarist Mick Taylor, the sessions saw a string of replacement candidates shuffle through, among them Harvey Mandel, whose snaky guitar features in leadoff cut "Hot Stuff"; Wayne Perkins, whose solo brightens "Hand of Fate"; and eventual selectee Ron Wood, featured in "Cherry Oh Baby."

The album reveals strong reggae and dance music influences and benefits from excellent keyboard from Billy Preston, who plays throughout—his standout cut, in my opinion, being "Melody," where his piano and organ carry the song, along with a lazy, swooping horn arrangement.

The band's weird vibe at the time extended to the album's ad campaign, which was misogynistic even for The Rolling Stones:

Protests by women's groups against the ad campaign saw it discontinued, but the publicity points had already been scored.

It's considered the band's "jam" album, and it does have that feel, with several of the songs more platform for playing (and, perhaps, auditioning the various guitarists) than song.

Some Girls would follow two years later and shift listeners' and critics' thinking on the Stones, leaving this three-album stretch to be mined for deep cuts and occasional gems.

[thesobsister]

It’s 4/20, and you know what that means…

Yes, people who either have committed or will commit an expatriating act will be having an online fapfest for Hitler’s birthday.

[thesobsister]

Sviatoslav Richter, Preludes and Fugues for Piano, Op. 87 - No. 15 in D flat (Shostakovich, D.)

A propulsive prelude and fugue from Shosty, persuasively played by Richter.

[thesobsister]

Untitled daguerreotype, likely Bruno Braquehais, c. 1852

A little later a thousand hungry eyes were bending over the peep-holes of the stereoscope, as though they were the attic-windows of the infinite. The love of pornography, which is no less deep-rooted in the natural heart of man than the love of himself, was not to let slip so fine an opportunity of self-satisfaction. 

– Charles Baudelaire, On Photography, 1859

[thesobsister]

Frankie Goes to Hollywood, "Relax"

Something suitable for a Sunday to get you right with the Lord.

And if you're ready for the deep dive…

[thesobsister]

"The Heart of Low" by Justin Taylor for The New Yorker.

A great profile of Alan Sparhawk of Low, the band's history, and the crucial role that his late wife, Mimi Parker, played in the band's success.

[thesobsister]

The Almanac Singers, "Round and Round Hitler's Grave"

These folks are telling it like it is, from back when Americans knew their mind about Nazis.

Sample verse: "I wish I had a bushel. Wish I had a peck. I wish I had ol' Hitler with a rope around his neck."

[thesobsister]

If you've ever thought, "I like Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians…but it's too darn tuneful!," then belly up to Michael Gordon's Timber.

A piece for six percussionists playing amplified 2x4s. It's quite compelling and great working music. Watching it leaves me in awe of musicians who have the focus, technique and endurance to play works such as this.

[thesobsister]

Remarkable footage that looks at least 30 years ahead of its time.