My wife has left me for an older woman. I can hardly blame her. She is a sophisticated, landed lady who collects books, dotes on her dogs, and wields soft power all around her neighborhood. She’s surprisingly modern for being 411 years old. For the next couple of weeks, my wife will be doing detective work at Harvard’s Houghton Library on her friend Frances Wolfreston, a lady book collector of the seventeenth century, which leaves me here alone manning the pumps. The hounds are being predictably bad. Spencer took a spill in the mud yesterday, so we had to have a bath after our walk. Echo’s separation anxiety compels her to shred one piece of junk mail if I am gone for too long. I guess it could be worse.
When your spouse is out of town, that is a good time to blast your old Beastie Boys albums at all hours. I remember contemporary critics being a little sniffy about this one. It’s maybe a little long, but still a banger. It sat comfortably in the bin of hip-hop albums that white college kids loved along with The Low End Theory and Three Feet High and Rising. It’s friendly and breakbeat-y. It’s respectful of music history (i.e. your parent’s record collection). It’s knowingly self-referential, and gets asses shaking on the dancefloor. White people love that shit!
Around the time this album was released I spent a summer living by the now demolished Robert Taylor Homes. I heard lots of R&B, contemporary and “dusties,” blasting from cars and open windows in the breezy Chicago summer. Never once did I hear someone rapping. I found that interesting.
Republicans would happily stomp out any and all music education to the communities that gave us national treasures beyond value: jazz, rock and roll, and hip hop. Let’s stop em. Here is the fund that’s split between all eventual
Democratic nominees in House districts currently held by Republicans.
Corner Stone
It took me a second to determine the first She in the third sentence was not actually your wife. I was wondering who she could have possibly found older than her to leave you over?
Corner Stone
Otherwise, sounds like a fantastic opportunity! If you’re in to that kind of thing.
I find when I have the house to myself I generally turn everything off and will sit for a while.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Corner Stone: your mom
AnderJ
Never knew the Beastie boy song about eating pannenkoeken in the Netherlands. And I though all knowledge about pannenkoeken would come natural to a local…
danielx
Got that right. Ordinarily I have to listen to headphones, but when by myself it’s time to crank up the aging Cerwin-Vegas. Can’t justify newer speakers, as little as I get to listen to them at high volume.
Corner Stone
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I est mort.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
The only such artists Republicans want to keep are Kenny G, buttrockers, and Post Malone + G-Eazy
Though honestly, Wynton Marsalis’ style is beige as fuck
poleaxedbyboatwork
No buried lede for you! Bookishly disinterrested, tho, but exhumed with panache.
Batching it has found its poet.
raven
Some white people love that shit!
schrodingers_cat
I find myself my drawn to devotional music from India, both the Hindu and Muslim. Monday it was Sanskrit prayers, in particular different versions of the Shiva Tandava today it is Sufi music. Soothes my soul.
Maula Sun Re from Madras Cafe, set against the background of the Tamil insurgency in Sri Lanka in the 80s and 90s. John Abraham is sight for sore eyes. *swoon*
Betty Cracker
The only thing I liked about the Beastie Boys was their name — it’s a cool name! Not a fan of the hippity-hop in general, but every now and then I’ll hear a song that hits me. Can’t think of one at the moment, but it has happened!
TenguPhule
Holy shit. Jeff Sessions is threatening the State of California with his “powers” and saying out loud “There is no secession.”
delk
Intergalactic and The Move remind me of the HIV+ Cocktail Party Thursdays at Berlin. Good memories.
SiubhanDuinne
Is your wife writing something — a book or learnèd paper — on Frances Wolfreston? The lady sounds like a fascinating research subject.
Jewish Steel
@Corner Stone: That’s totally unclear! I see that now.
I have done a bit of quiet sitting too.
@AnderJ: I think it is their most preposterous rhyme in a career filled with preposterousness.
@danielx: I’ve got some JBLs from the late 80s. Nothing special. If I ever have a pile of cash lying around I might get some window rattling floor standers.
Jewish Steel
@raven: Are you going to stand there with a straight face and tell me you don’t like Buggin Out?
joel hanes
When I’m in Holland, I eat the rijstaafel
And the brodtje (van kodtje)
And the delicious continental breakfast at the BnB.
Jewish Steel
@schrodingers_cat: This half hour Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan jam is on my all-time favorite list. Yaad-e-Nabi Ka Gulshan Mehka Mehka Lagta Hai
@Betty Cracker: They’re playing the slow game with you. You’ll be wearing hightops and a Kangol hat before it’s all over.
Mnemosyne
If I had to guess, I would say that was because the cars and stereo equipment were owned by the parents and grandparents, who probably were not on the rap bandwagon yet.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Come at us, bro.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@TenguPhule:
This is all easily explained. Jeffasuhn BOregard Secessions the Thoid is trappt inna time warp; he reckons it’s 1851 n the issue in dispute is the Fugitive Slave Law.
Jewish Steel
@SiubhanDuinne: Yes, she is! All of the above. If you’re on Twitter you can follow her progress here — @wolfrestonward.
Or at the link above in the post. That is her blog.
She is a great believer in plain language scholarship and her first degree was in creative writing, so her stuff is very accessible.
Jewish Steel
@Mnemosyne: This was the late ’90s. Hip-hop was over 20 years old at that point and pretty mainstreamed. There were at least two full-time hip hop stations in Chicago. But you may well be right!
Aleta
Some video clips of students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (Boston) holding a silent protest, etc. walk out for gun control laws
Calouste
@TenguPhule: Always projection with these mofo’s.
Pseudonym
Where is that first picture from?
Rand Careaga
@Pseudonym: What Pseudonym said. I’ve already passed it on, and somebody is bound to ask me.
Old Dan and Little Anne
I’ve been listening to the Beatie Boys since 1985. Whenever I go down the youtube chromecast rabbit hole they always make an appearance. And fuck drumph.
VeniceRiley
@TenguPhule:
Kamala gonna grill him in his next committee appearance like the order was for a charred rare steak.
Gin & Tonic
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
Ain’t that the truth. Preternaturally talented horn player. Boring musician.
Jewish Steel
@Pseudonym: Dunno! Just something my wife sent me. I included the shelf-mark in the caption if you want to hunt it down.
Corner Stone
Way OT but:
Eagles to acquire Michael Bennett from Seahawks
For those who do not follow, Bennett is a very outspoken activist and community supporter. He has a long history of standing with distressed communities. The Seahawks were tired of his activism.
Jewish Steel
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
@Gin & Tonic: Is that right? I know next to nothing about jazz. Very interesting. I remember there were complaints that his POV was over-represented in Ken Burns Jazz. If I’ve got the right Marsalis.
schrodingers_cat
@Jewish Steel: Thanks, I will check it out.
I love his nephew Rahat Fateh Ali Khan too. My favorite living Hindustani classical vocalist, has to be Rashid Khan. He doesn’t sing much for Hindi movies, I only know of 3 instances.
Here he is singing, Allah hi Reham*, from My Name is Khan music composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, written by Niranjan Iyengar.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jewish Steel:
That’s very cool indeed! I had clicked on the link but somehow failed to realize it was your wife’s blog. I’m not on twitter but know how to follow certain tweeters even with no account of my own, so shall check in from time to time.
Betty Cracker
@Corner Stone: Rumor has it Richard Sherman is leaving Seattle too!
Ruckus
@danielx:
How old is aging? My C-Vs are 20ish and if I crank them the neighbors will call the cops.
Might be because of the music I play though.
Ian G.
On the topic of “Three Feet High and Rising”, it doesn’t appear to be in print any longer (or can someone direct me to someplace where I can buy it in CD form or download it? Amazon doesn’t have it).
As a stereotypical Really White Person Who Votes Democrat, I have a whole bunch of Tribe Called Quest and Beastie Boys in my music collection (plus some Run-DMC, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, etc) but I’m missing out on De La Soul’s magnum opus and it bothers me.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Pseudonym:
An Olde Mans Lesson, Nicholas Breton, 1605. The cat and dog quote is near the bottom of this text.
Rand Careaga
@Steeplejack (phone): We are much obliged to you.
TenguPhule
@VeniceRiley:
Short and high heat?
Grill him like a Trump steak instead.
Corner Stone
@Betty Cracker: One could make the argument that both are rolling past their prime and not worth a major investment. However, specifically in Bennett’s case and I suspect somewhat in Sherman’s, it’s the NFL owners trying to force players to knuckle under and stay quiet on the issues.
Which makes me wonder why Seattle would trade for Duane Brown from the Texans after he got booted by pig fucking racist bigot Texans owner McNair.
ETA, The Iggles are a perfect landing spot for Bennett and my guess is he has double digit sacks and other voluminous stats.
Corner Stone
@VeniceRiley: Sessions is trying to play the “immigrants kill cops” angle. And CA is putting our law enforcement people at risk.
schrodingers_cat
How old does the Balloon Juice audience skew? There are anti-smart phone people and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan fans here. NFA died in 1997. He was the guy my parents’ age adored. They are around 70. So is that the average BJ demographic.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: I would say a plurality is 55+. At least among the commenters.
Aimai
Your wife sounds cool. I am harvard adjacent. If she gets lonely in the archives or has an emergency she/you can reach me at aimaiami at comcast dot net. I’m frequently at widener or the square and I’d love to meet her. Cool project
trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
There is literally no locker room nor head coach in the NFL more tolerant than Seattle.
There is, however, an intolerance for losing, a very high value placed on youth and rookie contracts, and some daunting cap space issues.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
Then I’m well below the mean and median.
Corner Stone
@TenguPhule:
What about mood? Hip Hop, Jazz or Sufi?
Steve in the SFO
@Ian G.: @Old Dan and Little Anne: @Betty Cracker: I saw the Beastie Boys on their first tour, when “fight for your right” came out. They were young and drunk as shit. More memorable than their performance was the giant penis they had arise from the stage. The headliners, Run-DMC, were fantastic. They weren’t illin’ at all, as the kids say.
Better than the show is being able to tell people I saw Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys in Paris.
Steve in the SFO
@schrodingers_cat:
As usual, I am below average. Yes!
efgoldman
@Ruckus:
Opera your jam?
Corner Stone
@trollhattan: Head coach, sure. Bennett’s $8M salary plus bonus is not nothing but it’s not a bank buster for this talent :” 8.5 sacks and 24 quarterback hits in 16 games” and making his third straight pro bowl as well as being nominated for the Walter Peyton award.
If they are rebuilding there are a number of DBs in this years draft with speed and size. I was unimpressed with edge rushers at LB and DE, overall and did not find it a very deep field.
MisterForkbeard
@Steve in the SFO: Are you in SF again? Welcome back to the Golden State. You just lowered the average age of CA commenters to maybe… 53.
Also, if you end up a little further down the peninsula, I know a place filled with good belgian beer and fantastic pastrami. Go look up “The Refuge” in San Carlos – it’s worth the detour.
Corner Stone
@Steve in the SFO:
Why not? They couldn’t get a license to?
VeniceRiley
@Corner Stone: Yeah, but not many people here buy his special brand of immigrant bashing. Even Republicans suffering the return of the Pete Wilson debacle fallout don’t want more raining down upon them. Trump & Sessions are going to make Republicans here not only unelectable … but toxic on a level unseen before.
Steve in the SFO
@Corner Stone: well played
Yutsano
@MisterForkbeard:
BRB buying plane tickets…
Mike J
@Corner Stone: The license isn’t that big a problem, but getting insurance to cover illin’ is prohibitively expensive.
Steeplejack
@Jewish Steel:
Wynton Marsalis—yes, you got the right one—is a bit of a mixed blessing on Ken Burns’s Jazz. He knows a hell of a lot about jazz history, theory and technique, but he has a slight streak of something—pomposity?—that starts to wear on you. And it becomes clear that he likes what he likes and doesn’t really want to talk about what he doesn’t like. You don’t see that directly, but there are some odd omissions that lead the viewer to that conclusion.
Jazz is an excellent documentary, one of my favorites by Burns and one for which his trademark technique is well suited. I consider myself a pretty serious fan, if not a student, of jazz, and I learned a hell of a lot in every episode, especially the early ones. It’s particularly good on Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. It retrieves the latter from “that eccentric old guy mopping himself with a hankie and singing ‘Hello, Dolly’* on Ed Sullivan” to his true superstar status.
Jazz is great up until the early ’60s, when the whole genre got swamped by the explosion of rock music and fragmented in many directions. Lots of great audio and film clips, of course.
—————
* One of Armstrong’s band members tells a great story about “Hello, Dolly.” While on tour in the ’60s, the band would occasionally dash back to New York to record a set or two of songs for an album. Back on tour, at some point audiences in Corn Town, Iowa, and Nowhere, Missouri, started clamoring for “Hello, Dolly.” Armstrong and the band were like “Whut?” until one of them remembered it must be one of the songs they had recorded on their last trip to New York. They had to send for sheet music so they could remember the song and put it in the act.
Jewish Steel
@Ian G.: I think you can download it for free somewhere?
@Steeplejack (phone): You’re a sleuth!
@schrodingers_cat: My sense is that most of the commenters are a little bit older than me and I was born in the late 60’s. I always got on with the older kids at school. Nothing’s changed.
MisterForkbeard
@Yutsano: This place is seriously awesome. Look at this: https://www.refugesc.com/
Honestly, even the Pastrami Salad is ludicrously good. I mean, it’s a salad with a huge chunk of diced pastrami on it. Or the goofy fries (fries with a cheese sauce and chopped pastrami). Etc.
cleek
@Ian G.:
Amazon has it used.
but the reason you can’t find a new copy is because of issues over sampling.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37020559
@Steeplejack:
Jazz was indeed great. but it’s so focused on Armstrong and Ellington that i wonder how well it serves people who don’t already know the genre. i’ve been mining the records of the 50’s for 25 years now and have yet to grow tired of it. but it seems like Burns (or maybe Marsalis) wasn’t very interested in that era (except to tell us how Armstrong and Ellington were doing).
danielx
@Ruckus:
Twenty-five, probably. And yes, mine will still rattle the glass.
ETA:
Hey, some things were made loud to be played loud.
Steve in the SFO
@MisterForkbeard: one of my bargaining team guys lives in Redwood City–maybe we’ll have an offsite strategy session down there for his convenience!
And in my experience (didn’t we discuss this at the Hungry Twink?), Belgian beer is the best. Better even than German.
trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
Black Santa will be missed–very popular player. Headed to the defending SB champion so he’s got that.
cleek
@Jewish Steel:
jazz is such a huge genre. there’s probably something in there that you’d like.
Steeplejack
@Jewish Steel:
The Google is a loaded gun in the hands of a bibliophile and antiquarian. And in mine, too.
Jewish Steel
@Aimai: That is so kind! I will let her know. She is going to get to experience her first Nor’easter. We love the snow so she’s pretty excited about that.
@Steeplejack: Yeah! I really enjoyed that series too but I didn’t know if any of it was credible. Glad to hear that I learned some good stuff. For myself, Monk and Mingus is really all the jazz I need. I don’t have enough headspace to cram anymore music in, I fear.
Jewish Steel
@cleek: Definitely. See above. I like whoever did Ramblin’ too.
Steeplejack
Huh. Checked on YouTube, and it appears that some, if not all, episodes of Jazz are posted there. (I think there were 10 in all.) Here’s the first one, if you want to get a taste.
(I don’t feel too bad about posting this, because I think Jazz is officially out of print. I was moved by seeing a rerun of it on PBS to buy a copy, which I had to get from one of the dreaded third-party sellers on Amazon.)
Jager
@Ruckus: I’ve got a big old pair of JBLs (late 70’s) I played “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin” by the Stones at 11 for my grandsons and ripped their faces off and they’d never had the gut punch you get from big woofers. Their mom came into the room and requested her childhood fav, “Roundabout” by Yes. We topped the evening off with Queen’s “Live at Wembley”. My youngest grandson (14) told me he’s never going to be satisfied with his earbuds again .
Gin & Tonic
@danielx: I saw Scorsese’s The Last Waltz in its original run in a movie palace, and remember as it was starting, a screen saying “This Movie Should be Played Loud.”
trollhattan
What in the everloving fuck, Texas?
Gin & Tonic
@Jewish Steel:
Pretty damn good choices for someone who professes to know next to nothing about jazz.
Corner Stone
@trollhattan: What? Is that wrong?
Steeplejack
@Jager:
That’s a great story! Things we take/took for granted revealed as a marvel to the yoots. And it’s great to bank at least one instance where you’re not just that clueless old guy they’re related to.
Yutsano
@trollhattan: JFC…
His lawyer better make it a condition that belt doesn’t come anywhere near him when he’s in court. Hell that’s almost something where he could sue because of torture.
Jager
@Steeplejack: Both my daughters spent hours dancing in front of big speakers, when they got in their early teens, the older one was a rocker, loved AC/DC and her sister was a dance music queen…they had audio wars with their Sony Compact units.
Steeplejack
@cleek:
The series does taper off a bit toward the end. Jazz was already splintering into factions in the ’50s, and, as I said, Marsalis seems to like what he likes and not like what he doesn’t like. I got the impression (perhaps false) that Ken Burns didn’t know much about jazz music but was coming at it as this towering American institution, so he relied on his panel of experts. Marsalis is very good on the early stuff, and some of his other commenters are amazing. Can’t remember any names, of course.
I’m still exploring the vast geography of jazz and discovering things that I can’t figure out how I missed them before. Last example I can remember is Tina Brooks. “True Blue.”
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Steeplejack: Miles Davis and David Axelrod come most readily to mind regarding the rock influence.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
This part implies that using the shock belts is common in Texas. Seriously, WTF?
Anyone want to guess what the skin tone is of the defendants most likely to be judged to be “violent” and need a few shocks?
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: That is, in the fullness of time, a heartbreaking record. Freddie Hubbard is fantastic, and that effectively launched his Blue Note career while leaving Brooks, as Bob Weir would say, dead by the side of the road. Nevertheless, let us salute Rudy van Gelder and, perhaps more importantly, Michael Cuscuna.
ruemara
I really like the Beastie Boys. Including this album. Sorry I was never able to see them perform in concert.
VeniceRiley
Not that anyone asked me, but I dislike a vast amount of instrumental jazz noodly doodling. Now, give me Shirley Horn (Saw her live at 80 years old in the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Outstanding!) or Diana Krall and I’m there.
Old School Black Eyed Peas for the rap.
A little Linkin Park for the guy’s like it music.
Most days I am thrilled to be a lesbian with a lesbian roommate and I never have to listen to what guys like.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@VeniceRiley: Now by old school Black Eyed Peas, do you mean their work as the Atban Klann?
Captain C
@Gin & Tonic: Two of America’s greatest composers, in addition to their playing talents. There’s a good recent biography of Mimgus called Better Get It in Your Soul by Krin Gabbard, which looks at his life and music from several different angles. And Russell Gunn does a great funked up version of “Epistrophy.”
VeniceRiley
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Where is the love? And Shut UP. Those are my faves
Corner Stone
@VeniceRiley: Linkin Park was and is a revolution at what they were doing. Their later work got a little in the weeds but their earlier to mid stuff holds up very well.