Category: AJBlogs

Whoa: “An out-and-out plug on Rifftides is rare.” – Doug Ramsey

Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Charles Ives’s Symphony No. 2 are twin American cultural landmarks, comparable in method and achievement. They both transform a hallowed Old World genre — the novel, the symphony — through recourse to New World vernacular speech. – Joe Horowitz

Continuing its good tidings, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., just announced a special acquisition: Yayoi Kusama’s very first Infinity Room, called Phalli’s Field, which she made in 1965. – Judith H. Dobrzynski

I was surprised on Sunday when the NY Times ran a long front-page article about the status (or lack thereof) of the $450.3-million Leonardo da Vinci painting. I was even more surprised when I got a call from BBC Radio 5, which wanted to interview me about the painting’s stale trail on its live news show for insomniacs — Up All Night with Rhod Sharp. – Lee Rosenbaum

The New York Times apparently wants us all to be more productive, since it’s hammering away at the subject from many fronts. – Andrew Taylor

Yes, my recent car crash scared me terribly, and yes, I know how very lucky I was to escape without a scratch. Even so, that seems to have been the end of it. I haven’t had any flashbacks, or any bad dreams about car crashes. Unnerving though the immediate experience was, it appears to have passed through me without leaving a trace. – Terry Teachout

David Friesen, My Faith, My Life (Origin)
Friesen’s virtuosity brought him to prominence as a bassist nearly fifty years ago. This two-CD album presents him on the first disc playing his compositions on the Homage bass, an instrument he developed. – Doug Ramsey

Two new collections of Michael Butterworth’s early short stories – stories he thought lost for good – show his early days as a literary SF writer. – Jan Herman

A press release that touts a a composer who became famous nearly 100 years ago as “contemporary” has us smiling. – Greg Sandow

Logan Strosahl, Sure (Sunnyside)
Piping at the high end of the flute’s range, guttural near the tenor sax’s low end, sliding, slurring and sometimes punching notes on alto saxophone, Strosahl is intense and full of surprises with his trio. – Doug Ramsey