New Salem Witch Hunters

Notes From The Other Side.

Set List - July 26, 2010

Hancock, Herbie - Toys - Live at NDR Studios - August 4, 1971 - Boot
Hancock, Herbie - You'll Know When You Get There - V.S.O.P. - Columbia
Smith, Jimmy - By The Time I Get to Phoenix - Groove Drops - Verve
Wilson, Reuben - Ronnie's Bonnie - Blue Breakbeats - Blue Note
Kimbrough, Junior - Feel So Bad - First Recordings - Big Legal Mess
Kimbrough, Junior - Lonesome Road - Meet Me in the City - Fat Possum
Kimbrough, Junior - Slow Lightning - All Night Long - Fat Possum
Kimbrough, Junior - Sad Days Lonely Nights - Sad Days Lonely Nights - Fat Possum
The Jam - Absolute Beginners - EP - Polydor
Amy, Curtis - Shaker Heights - Mustang - Verve

Black Spring - Henry Miller

Continuing on with Henry Miller in chronological order. It was a weekend where I had a lot of time to read. "Black Spring" was written between the two Tropic books and is nowhere near as good. It's mostly Henry Miller spieling about whatever with no real story except for some stuff about growing up in Brooklyn and working for his dad - stories that he repeated frequently.

There were, of course, some good ones in this book. Including:

"A Coney Island of the Mind." p. 129

"Nothing has changed since I came down into the street to take a look at life on my own account. What I have learned since is false and of no use. And now that I have put away the false, the face of the earth is even more cruel to me than it was at the beginning. In this vomit I was born and in this vomit I shall die. No escape. No Paradise to which I can flee." p. 166

"Burroughs Adding Machine." p. 188

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

I thought I read this book just after high school, but I did not. I read "Bright Lights, Big City" instead. The problem was that I saw the "Less Than Zero" movie but, go figure, never saw "Bright Lights, Big City." I remember when "American Psycho" came out, people were up in arms or at least commenting on how graphic it was. I'm not sure where that was coming from as this book is pretty graphic. I would have expected it out of Mr. Ellis. Also, this book was pointless, which I guess is the point.

Fun fact: I bought this book used and the person who owned the book before me put notes in the margins. Really dumb notes for a book that is not that hard to get. They stop after a couple at the beginning of the book. I wonder if the person finished the book or if it was just to0 much to get through.

The Beats - A Graphic History by Harvey Pekar (and many others)

I had no idea that Harvey Pekar wrote this book until after he had died. It was a longer comic book about the Beats. The only thing that I would like to note is that I'm envious of the idea that the Beat Generation writers spent a lot of time hanging out and talking with each other about what they were doing.

Set List - July 19, 2010

Davis, Miles - Little Church - Live-Evil - Columbia
Davis, Miles - Wili (Part 2) - Dark Magus: Live at Carnegie Hall - Columbia
Davis, Miles - Spanish Key/The Theme - Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West - Columbia
Davis, Miles - Bitches Brew/The Theme - At Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East - Columbia
Davis, Miles - Ife - In Concert: Live at the Philharmonic Hall - Columbia

Henry Miller Did It First

As part of my early mid life crisis, I am re-reading Henry Miller in chronological order. I just finished Tropic of Cancer. What is striking about reading it right after finishing Crazy Cock and Moloch is how good it is compared to those two first books, which were not very good at all. Henry Miller was trying to sound smart and the writing is very deliberate in how he was trying to portray himself. Tropic of Cancer, on the other hand, is very good. Twenty years later, I liked different stuff about it than I did the first time around. Also, I am left with the impression that my thoughts are not my own.

"Maybe grief makes one more lecherous, I don't know." p. 213

"Somehow in all this anguish and excitement, all the grief and histrionics, only whetted my appetite." p. 215

Henry Miller thought of this stuff first.

Amon Düül - Paradieswärts Düül (Ohr Records, 1970)

Untitled

Things were kind of slow
On the internet
Sitting in the waiting room
During surgery slow
The same results
Were the same results
Of the same Google search
Performed
However many months ago

Technology
Changing everything
All around him
Not quite

RIP Harvey Pekar (October 8, 1939 – July 12, 2010)

Image by RonK (I think).

Set List - July 12, 2010

Cherry, Don - Eternal Rhythm Pt. 1 - Eternal Rhythm - MPS
Cherry, Don - Karmapa Chenno - Hear & Now - Atlantic
Hubbard, Freddie - Little Sunflower - Backlash - Atlantic
Hubbard, Freddie - For B.P. - High Blues Pressure - Atlantic
Hubbard, Freddie - South Street Stroll - A Soul Experiment - Atlantic
Hubbard, Freddie - Blues for Duane - The Hub of Hubbard - MPS
Hubbard, Freddie - Spacetrack - The Black Angel - Atlantic
Tjader, Cal - Curacao - Aqua Dulce - Fantasy
Tjader, Cal - Gimme Shelter - Aqua Dulce - Fantasy
Tjader, Cal - Gringo City - Primo - Fantasy
Tjader, Cal - Cal's Bluedo - The Prophet - Verve
Tjader, Cal - Get out of My Way - Plugs In - Skye

Set List - July 5, 2010

Young, Neil - On the Beach - On the Beach - Reprise
Patton, Charlie - Oh Death - King of the Death - Yazoo
Johnson, Robert - Me and the Devil Blues - The Complete Recordings - Columbia
Wells, Junior - I'm a Stranger - Calling All Blues - Fuel 2000
Guy, Buddy and Junior Wells - A Poor Man's Plea - Play the Blues - Atco
Guy, Buddy - Ten Years Ago - I Was Walking Through the Woods - Chess
Mayall, John and the Bluesbreakers - A Hard Road - A Hard Road - Deram
Hopkins, Lightnin - Got Her Letter This Morning - Freeform Patterns - Fuel 2000
Seals, Son - Going Home Tomorrow - The Son Seals Blues Band - Alligator
Rush, Otis - Cut You Loose - Cold Day in Hell - Delmark
Rush, Otis - Reap What You Sow - Mourning in the Morning - Atlantic
King, Albert - The Hunter - Born Under a Bad Sign - Stax
Stack Waddy - Love Story - Stack Waddy - Dandelion
Waters, Muddy - Rock Me - Trouble No More - Chess
Hooker, John Lee - Shake It Baby - It Serves You Right To Suffer - Impulse!
The Ansley Dunbar Retaliation - Memory of Pain - The Ansley Dunbar Retaliation - Blue Thumb
Hutto, J.B. - Too Late - Slidewinder - Delmark
Hutto, J.B. - That's the Truth - Chicago/The Blues/Today! - Vanguard
Boulder - Blow Up the Fire - The Rage of it All - River On Fire
The New Salem Witch Hunters - Notes from the Other Side - More Tape and Hiss - Garfield's Windmill