Another overdue posting of something from the Winter series. This is Winter 4 - the Rosemary's Baby remix.
So sit back, fix yourself a vodka blush, and dig if you will the most unhallowed two and a half minutes of music. Ever.
There was another installment of the Dark Side of the Dinnerparty on saturday.
the music:
the group can now play side one. next time we will attempt side one plus Money.
the players:
tracie ~ viola
topher ~ percussives and voice
mark ~ electric guitar
wanda ~ melodica and voice
L ~ cello, thereminator and voice
sabitathica ~ acoustic guitar, moog and voice
the fare:
my current favorite: L's curried chicken, taken from one of Luba G's old bistro recipes.
We here at the sabitathiblog show our true colours and capitulate to popular demand by offering
A long overdue posting of a work from the winter series. This is winter II.
Enjoy it, or else.
There were good times saturday evening, as L and I were in virtual attendance at the quarterly stakeholders meeting of the Now Today Society.
The evening's schedule included a viewing of a 1986 performance by the Groove Factor. After more than 20 years of litigation, the Vatican's lawyers have finally settled out of court and this gem is now finally available to the viewing public for the first time.
Highlights included:
the heat is back on in the Nunnery, though my office was heatless this morning.
The heat is out at the Nunnery again. This is the second time in two weeks, and it's been getting down to the mid-20's at night. Last night was cold and tonight looks to be even colder.
Tracie was over last night for a swell dinnerparty and a rough runthrough of dark side of the moon. Tracie is unfamiliar with the material, but she handled the steep learning curve well.
The first theme of the evening was recursion-induced insanity. The second theme of the evening was recursion-induced insanity. The third theme was good times.
The theme of recursion led to several recapitulations/re-enactments of the evening's activities. In fact, here's the map:
we're back. atherton flux and Mr. phi came by during the break. they haven't left yet, so we're four now. which is fitting because we're about to listen to side four of the Wall. coincidence? i don't think so.
we open with harmonies courtesy of the new west coast boys americana glee club choir. but proto-metal promises nothing very cheerful.
what kind of world is this, where you can't even go see your favorite fascist stadium cock-rock riot-inciting band play without getting fucking harassed? this sucks. but the one with the spots deserved it. that guy was a douche.
shadow the cat is here, curled up with L on the windowseat. Mr. phi is talking very fast. atherton flux is pacing. i would like the record to hurry up and end so i can ask them to leave.
the strict militarism of run like hell is a breath of fresh air after all this limpwristed wussy music.
more harmonies, more square beats. these worms sound suspiciously like those pigs from animals. roger crescendos a shrill political rant.
side four is like a long duet between roger's voice and nick's kick drum, accompanied by dave and sometimes rick.
side one and two belong together in my mind, as though cut from the same cloth. side three is of a different cloth, and side four from a third. side four has the least music to my ear, though watching roger stretch is a ton of fun.
the emptiness of the recent tough-yet-boring songs is put on trial. the orchestra returns for the theatrics I recall being promised earlier.
the trial begins. men with canes and top hats dance; dave rolls his eyes.
the record climaxes with the judge's decision: Satan is his father, not guy! Tear down the wall!
omg, they're gonna do it. they're gonna tear down the - o shit. they blew it up.
L is imagining herr director in conversation with the demolition crew foreman. "yeah, that was okay, it was okay. it was sort of a 'blowing up' though. Not so much of a tearing down thing, which is what i think we're really going for here." and eventually "that's okay. no it's alright, we'll just... i'll just see if i can't get the chorus back in here to sing blow. up. the wall. aw, bloody hell."
but one way or another it's down, no doubt about that. woo hoo! the fucking wall is down! high five. yeah, wow. this is so cool. it feels like forever. omg. fucking awesome...
but wait. this is good right? we did want the wall to come down, didn't we? because, then why did that judge sound so angry earlier when he was talking about it? i don't really get that. maybe he's just an asshole.
a lemon squeezebox - the same one that begins side one - is here along with that woodwind instrument at the end of side four. isn't this where we came in?
the wall is down. we're free to go, at least for now. free to rebuild, and hopefully something that's not another wall. we need to be careful about that. i don't want to go through all this again, the strain on my system is too great, and i'm sure you don't too. right?
we've listened to four walls of madness, and we're done. the completion of a cycle puts one at peace.
so ends the transmission. Mr. phi has raided the fridge. atherton flux is sitting, staring. the cat left the room about twenty minutes ago (i could explain why, but it's complicated). L is moving forward to address our growing hunger. I'm writing to you.
join us next time when we liveblog our exclusive hang with king Friday. long live the king!
As a cozy protest against a winter that won't end, and also against February in general, L and I are going to liveblog the hell out of the remaining half of the Wall. Let's meet our bloggers:
Sabitathica: hello.
L: lounging on the windowseat to my left.
Mr. Phi: will hopefully not make an appearance tonight.
Side Three, go.
arpeggiation, a liquid harpsichord, a bass solo. dave harmonizing with himself. Wagnerian death rock, omg. dave plays the bass solos. ringo gets a gold star.
can lorca ride? is there anybody a little out there?
Q: what's stranger than roger's voice?
A: roger's voice plus delay.
roger has amazing powers of observation. enter the Hendrix Perm Orchestra.
L questions why anyone would eat with a silver spoon anyway, by way of pointing out the arbitrariness of the assignment of monetary value. she's talking about mass hypnosis. she thinks value should be assigned according to a thing's beneficence (or otherwise) to the wellbeing of all living things. or maybe i'm not really understanding. she would rather eat with a stainless steel spork than a silver spoon anyday. silver is apparently dangerous for some reason. worse than lead paint, because you're less likely to ingest lead paint. she's accusing me of just typing and not listening to her. she's clearly beginning to lose her mind.
Vera is the saddest song roger ever sang, except for all the songs on the final cut. does anybody else in here want to be anybody else in here? what became of you Vera?
let us bring the boys back home and then we'll recapitulate.
a lifetime of lacksadaisy has been thrown. things don't look so good.
is anybody in there very out there? comfortably numb is the wall's emotional peak. the images, the guitar solo in the clouds. but the gorgeous orchestrations are nautical, so you may feel a little sick.
side three begins and ends with dave. roger operates the whirlpool in between.
So now you know. Let's take a break, come back, and listen to side four.
I received a threatening email from an unstable prospective music student this afternoon. This prospective music student has failed his three previous auditions. He wants to be allowed to audition again this Monday, March 1st, but he applied three weeks after the deadline and unfortunately won't be able to. [This is not a big deal. Normally when this happens, the applicant accepts responsibility for missing the deadline and I try to arrange a special audition for them later in the semester. No loss. For whatever reason, this young man chose a different approach.] What follows is an excerpt from his aggressive email, the first contact (written or verbal) I've had with him.
[...] respond to this email within the next 24 hrs, if not I will re-send it to you. I will continue do so until March 5th which is a more than reasonable time for you to respond. If I do not receive any feedback between now and March 5th, I will have no choice but to seek action which includes filing a formal complaint with university, notifying my lawyer to seek possible legal action and notifying local news outlets to raise awareness of my situation as well as any other unjust actions that are being and/or have been committed against students in similar situations. Again, my goal is to seek a simple solution to this problem and avoid a big legal debacle or cause any kind unwanted trouble. We are all adults here I believe we can discuss this matter as such.An avoider of trouble and seeker of simple solutions if ever I've met one. True, as long as trouble = "not getting what I want" and simple = "inappropriately forceful". I've been the target of a few crazy people before and it's not pleasant.
Current and ongoing musical projects:
* the winter series;
* Wanda has asked me to put music to a rather devastating new poem she has written. I'm a little behind the 8-ball on this one;
* Mark continues to write new songs and I continue to contextualize them. So far so good;
* L & I are learning to play the entirety of Dark Side of the Moon together and we're inviting friends to play along. Mark is learning it, and Tracie is scheduled for a good-times runthrough this weekend. And if Tim & Justin can ever stop playing ColecoVision long enough to visit their old music-prison warden, they'll be playing it too;
* And speaking of learning entire Pink Floyd records, I'm working up a good-times version of the most dismal awesome record ever made - The Final Cut - in case the Now Today Ensemble decides to adopt it as their "song" this year. Whatever this year's repertoire, it does seem as though the NTE is up for a challenge worthy of its epic potential. Long live the NTE!
A few days ago, five overhead lights went out at the Nunnery at once:
1. the kitchen
2. the lavatory
3. the sacistry/vestry
4. the nave
5. the calefactory/scriptorium
No sooner were the lights fixed than the heat went out. The heat has been something of an issue in the Nunnery these last two winters - a sign of something, to be sure.
a front porch view of last night's snow:
the back porch, looking up
and this morning,
before breakfast...
