Viddie: Mission Impossible Cumbia

Happy Friday, one and all.

With 80 degree temperatures and sunshine in the Chicago forecast, it will be hard to stay at the desk long today. I hope to get outside and gain a fresh perspective on... something. Does it really matter what?

In that spirit, I pass along the homemade viddie above from Denton's gift to the world, with a reminder that the mission need not be impossible at all.

Bonus points to anyone who can confirm or deny the band's now-legendary show at Kansas City's Grand Emporium in the 1980s, during which they led the audience across Main Street and into the Pink Garter strip club. Were you there? Was your cousin? Spill it.

Extra supreme bonus points to the person who creates a wiki page for the aforementioned venue.

And now, please excuse me while I kiss the sky.

TNLD Podcast 01: Andrew Connor of Ghosty

Drum roll, please…

Introducing the premier of The New Low Down podcast.

Podcast 01 features a chat with Andrew Connor of the band Ghosty. Specifically we chat about the track "Dumbo Wins Again" from Ghosty's most recent album Answers (on Oxblood Records). While "Dumbo" may not be "a song about heartbreak and failed relationships," as reported by NPR Music, it is a delicious and shiny pop jewel. It's also -- another drum roll, please --

TNLD's Song of the Year! (Actually last year, but still. Better late than never.)

Listen now:



Download the podcast

Andrew/Ghosty linkage

Ghosty on myspace

Ghosty's website - which includes all kinds of fun stuff, including a marimba version of Dumbo and more photos like this one by Jennifer Brothers.

Ghosty (l-r): Josh Adams, Mike Nolte, Jake Blanton, Andrew Connor, David Wetzel

Notes on TNLD Podcast
I plan to get these podcasts onto a regular schedule, which will take a little doing. The logistics of equipment and editing and feeds and so on, have proven to be a big time suck, particularly when I've got paying work to do. So while that's all getting sorted out, I thank you for your patience.

And since this is the first TNLD podcast, I would love to hear any feedback you have, either in the comments or emailed to lowdown@newlowdown.com.

Finally a big hollered thank you to Jake Blanton for letting me use "Almost Hit That Lady" for theme music. You are awesome.

Quotating: B.B. King

"Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning."

B.B. King (quoted in the Sunday Times of London, Nov. 4, 1984)

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Via TT at About Last Night

Viddie: Andy Scott's Fishin

Newly minted whimsy by Andy Cahill to accompany the tune "Fishin'" from Andy Scott's "Don't Tempt Fate."

And while we're on the subject, you can read my ambivalent review of the album.

More info here:

andyjazz.com

myspace.com/andyscottjazz

Buy music to smash atoms by

FYI - The music for the documentary The Atom Smashers is available for download tomorrow from the good folks at Ghostly.

Read about the documentary and the music and then click your way to additional reading from here:

"Music to smash atoms by" - TNLD 10/2008

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Tip via the Atom Smashers blog.

Adventures in Dogwalking

The Path Less Shoveled
Originally uploaded by leespeaks.

The length of unshoveled sidewalk between us had been tromped into single-file trench. The other guy and his dog stood at the other end waving for Gordy and me to come on through. Back at my end of the trough, I was thinking about crossing the street, but Kenmore was looking pretty slushy and full of melty chemicals that are unfriendly to dog feet. So I took the other guy's offer.

Gordy is in most respects an upstanding animal, but he does tend to lose his cool around other dogs, complete with the apeshit yapping and even the occasional throat lunge. We used to have a big dog, three times Gordy's size, who thought this was a blast. Most people and dogs you meet out on the street are not so understanding.

So halfway through the trench, I scooped Gordy up and prepared my usual explanation: "This one's a troublemaker," or words to that effect. As we passed, the other guy's dog rose up tentatively on its hind legs for a polite sniff, and I said something like, "Well, aren't you a cutie," because it was indeed a cute dog, a tawny mid-sized whippet-pinscher mix. I was about to turn and say thanks to the other guy when he erupted.

"You're not even gonna say thank you? What an ASSHOLE!"

With that, he stomped off down the little snow ditch, yanking the whippet-pinscher mix behind him. The next words from me were the thanks he was apparently so in need of, but his reply was to yell, "Fuck you, man!"

Like the first thing he said, this came out sounding so wounded and plaintive and out of proportion that I was trying not to laugh when I called out another thanks and added a wish for a good evening. Still clomping away, the other guy hollered back another F bomb, adding his hope that Gordy would someday get hit by a car. I called back another wish for a good evening and closed with a "God bless!" that I'll admit strayed into Jerry Lewis territory.

As Gordy and I went on up the street, I tried but failed to maintain any sense of offense as the whole business quickly transmuted into satire. Sure, my mind churned out the usual sarcastic things that tend to come to you after such an encounter, but it was also turning every "fuck" the other guy said into "flurg," making it even more difficult not to laugh, because to me, "Flurg you, man!" is pretty fucking funny.

Of course, I still feel sorry for the other guy's dog.

Words and Music: Xi Chuan and, later, Ken Nordine

Just in time for Friday the 13th, Anthony Tao posts this video of poet Xi Chuan and musician Bruce Gremo performing at the Beijing Bookworm International Literary Festival.



The Tao notes on his Heart of Beijing blog:

The instrument Gremo is playing is called the celia and is apparently the only of its kind in existence in the world. I believe it.

Xi Chuan had his Chinese poems translated into English, which he read with slight difficulty. He paused during one poem to ask Bruce how to pronounce "infinitum," which he pronounced as "in-finy-i-tum." He also had a weird way of pronouncing "mosquito" as "moss-guy-to," but we understood. The mispronunciations actually enhanced the overall esthetic effect, I thought. They were going after a certain mood characterized by unfamiliarity and otherworldliness, and I think it was better that the poet read read in an alien tongue...

I agree.

And this led me to think of Ken Nordine, who managed to make this out of Edward Lear:



A happy Friday the 13th to one and all.