Spotted on Del.icio.us, a Chicago Tribune story: It seemed like a good idea at the time. Bolster Chicago’s underused Blue Bag recycling program by tying it to the tradition of feeding Christmas trees into the wood chipper. Get a year’s worth of blue bags along with some mulch. But trust Rob Sherman, a local activist [...]
Through the Wire
"Hey, I'm just happy to be here…"
December 29th, 2004
WNUR Jazz Show, 23 December 2004
Last week’s show featured just a couple of holiday songs; I thought there might be a few more, but it just didn’t flow that way. I’m in the midst of a biography of Charles Mingus (which is available as a cut-out at Jazz Record Mart and a lot of remainder book shops). I had just [...]
December 29th, 2004
WNUR Jazz Show, 16 December 2004
Whoops. With the holidays and all, I’m way behind on posting playlists. This weeks most pleasant of the random discoveries were the Oscar Pettiford tracks (especially “Oscalypso”). I’m continuing to enjoy highlighting music from Michael Zerang’s wonderful soundtracks to Redmoon Theater productions. Artist Track Album Label Rudresh Mahanthappa Telugu Mother Tongue Pi Triage 2187 American [...]
December 15th, 2004
An MP3 Blog is Born
Announcing the first posting of the Akwaaba Sound System, a new group MP3 blog. A few years ago, my friends Chris and Pieter and I (with a few other folks) were DJing some parties at the Elastic Revolution Productions space (the organization which evolved into the Elastic Arts Foundation). “Akwaaba Sound System” is the name [...]
December 15th, 2004
WNUR Jazz Show, 9 December 2004
For some reason, today’s show was not very inspired. I didn’t have a bunch of music I came in planning to play, and I wasn’t hitting on a bunch of exciting discoveries in the library. I did get a chance to play an odd and interesting little track that’s been recurring on my iPod lately, [...]
December 14th, 2004
The Gristly Truth
I’m looking forward to seeing the new Jean-Pierre Jeunet film, A Very Long Engagement. I’m a little bit nervous, though, after reading the blurb on Fandango Fandango: A woman searches for the gristly truth behind the apparent death of her fianc. I was reminded of the impending release of this film by an email from [...]
December 5th, 2004
“Check, Please” on the radio
Found via Gapers’ Block, last Thursday’s Eight Forty-Eight intervied David Manilow, the creator and executive producer of Check, Please!. It’s a pleasant enough interview, but the real highlight is some audio clips of an unaired pilot episode featuring then-State-Senator Barack Obama raving about Dixie Kitchen. Here’s a direct link to the RealAudio for that segment. [...]
December 2nd, 2004
WNUR Jazz Show, 2 December 2004
I started today with the final segment of the “Raga for the Rainy Season” I mentioned recently. I would have liked to play the whole thing, but there’s too much other music to play. It’s so good, though. I usually try to avoid repeating tracks I’ve played before, even though when you think about how [...]