Currently listening: Bill Evans, The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 (Live) ♫. Of the many glorious performances on this record, perhaps the most glorious is “I Loves You, Porgy.” Heartbreakingly beautiful … and all the time the tiny audience is chattering away in the background. I don’t blame them — there was no way for them to know that one of the definitive recordings in jazz history was being made right before them — but I just want to teleport into the room to scream “SHUT UUUUUUPPPP.”
After you listen to “I Loves You, Porgy” a few times, go back one more time and listen just to the bassist, Scott LaFaro. He was a great genius, and would die in a car accident eleven days later, at the age of twenty-five.
Frank Auerbach — who died last week — “Albert Street II”, 2010
On a foggy morning, this streetlight in my neighborhood offers a gentle alien-invasion vibe.
Weather forecasts in central Texas:
- Five days out: 90% chance of rain
- Four days out: 80% chance of rain
- Three days out: 60% chance of rain
- Two days out: 40% chance of rain
- One day out: 20% chance of rain
On the day: No rain
A brilliant essay on orphans and robots from Adam Roberts. An idea-filled essay that’s generative of further ideas.
I am somewhat compensated for the non-arrival of Fall by continuing blooms (thanks to the gardening work of my beloved).
Barney Ronay on the likelihood of Saudi Arabia hosting the World Cup: “This will stand as surely the most wretched, bloody, damaging act in the history of global organised sport. If not causing death were your starting point, your one non-negotiable, Saudi Arabia wouldn’t even be on the table. And yet Infantino appears to have actively sought this outcome, aligning his Fifa with the world’s most ruthlessly ambitious carbon power; and as a consequence taking choices that will, it can be assumed, cause demonstrable death and suffering.”
An exhibition of trade catalogs! This is so down my alley.
Ian Leslie: “Once you start thinking about the distinction between charisma and charm you see it everywhere.” It’s true!
It’s true what they say: I would make a darn good Archbishop of Canterbury. But I have too much on my plate right now to take on another job. Sorry.