Second Show at Detroit Art Space a Success
Will Soderberg, Adam Mokan and I (the same as yet unnamed group which played at the Elbow Room to two people) played the Detroit Art Space in Downtown Detroit on Beethoven's Birthday, December 16th. This show was much better attended and the 25-minute piece of music done there was of much better quality. What follows is excerpts of emails which appeared in the days following which will better explain it than I can, tired as I am right this instance:
Will Soderberg:
dave played some aggressively avant-dissonant guitar that plied the bass/rhythm turfs with aplomb... adam keeps throwing interesting stuff in, drum machine, recordings, vocals, an amazing mixture... i just hung in there and enjoyed the ride...
Uncle Dave:
I'm playing guitar, and Will and Adam are playing tabletop electronics. It is totally imporvised though I am trying to play a pattern on the guitar at thebeginning that sounds like Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" as Dec. 16th is his birthday. We also decided that "less" would be a concept we would keep in mind.I think it's pretty good - it lasts 25 minutes.
Although we agreed on "less" (and there are moments of "less" - some of the moments where we almost go down to nothing have a Cagean, "falling apart" feel) parts of it are denser than the last show. The ending is perfect - it ends right at the highest moment of intensity in the whole texture, when you think it could not possibly get more aggravated.
The URL to download it from is:
http://www.existentialista.com/~uforika/2oo41216-das.mp3
If you want it, download it soon, as the URL to the Elbow Room show is already retired. Speaking of retirement, The Detroit Art Space is itself already retired, as ours was the penumltimate show held in the gallery. A pity - this venue reminded me a lot of the old "1910" Warehouse in Cincinnati where I used to hold bootleg shows myself. Sarah Cathers reports that the old industrial bakery where I played in the Summer in Columbus has been condemned, so no more shows will be taking place there either. Seems like the start of a trend.
Reflections on the Corvair and the DC-10
Was watching a thing on "Engineering Disasters" on the History Channel. An avaition expert was saying that the DC-10 was "the Corvair of the avaiation industry," that is, a quality product that has a bad rep due to unfair scrutiny from outside the industry. To make the logic of such a comparison stick, you must first support it by determining that, indeed, the Corvair was a quality product unfairly terminated from the marketplace on baseless terms.
Of course, the reason we no longer have the Corvair was Ralph Nader and his book "Unsafe at Any Speed," which doomed the car as it made the reputation of the man. It was followed some time later by a follow up book from the other side of the argument entitiled "The Death of the Corvair," which is a great book if you get a kick out of really off-the-wall non-fiction, as do I. When I was in middle school we had a teacher who was Irish, I think, and a very stubborn, disorganized fellow in a mid-life crisis. I liked him very much - don't remember the name, and recall that he most certainly did NOT like Nader.
One day in about 1973 he rolled into the school parking lot, absolutely beaming with pride about the already beat-up looking Corvair that he was driving. He had just bought it, and had gone through a lot of trouble to find one - remember, this was a recalled car, and had already been out of production for some years. Over the next few weeks, he nursed it, cajoled it, pleaded with it, and struggled valiantly to keep the poor thing running with spit, polish, coat hangers, Elmer's Glue, whatever. But it was seldom responsive, and ultimately he paid a junk dealer something like 15 bucks to tow it off the lot. The last couple of weeks it just sat there, never showing a glimmer of life past a certain point.
Now I didn't much care for Nader in this last election, stammering and sweating about the same old stuff he's been griping about for thirty years. But sometimes good things come as a result of actions that occur for the wrong reasons. The Corvair may not have been an unsafe car, but it was certainly NOT a "good" car - take it from me, it was a sporty looking little hunk of junk.
DC-10s were awfully nice to fly in - roomy and quiet. I don't much enjoy flying these days, as the jets are always overcrowded, the seats too narrow and uncomfortable and the in-flight service far below the standards that I remember from my fabulous first flight on TWA in 1970. But if we are going to compare the DC-10 to the Corvair, perhaps the logic works the other way too. The stellar safety record that the DC-10 has built up in the years since that nightmarish accident at O'Hare in 1979 has been in its use as a cargo plane, rather than as a passenger jet. And perhaps that's not a bad thing.
Boating on the Streets of Ann Arbor
That's what I've been doing since five this morning, i.e. trying to pilot the Windstar through eight inches of snow. It's much worse elsewhere, but that's little consolation. At least I got the show broadcast this morning, which was completely unplanned but still alright. I like the variety of stuff presented, and have decided to present the playlist below. You don't need to read it, but if you do, it appears in reverse order vis a vis the new WCBN playlist system. Please have a merry, and safe Christmas - drive slowly.
Uncle Dave Lewis
udtv@yahoo.com
A Tribute to Alfred S, Burt
8:59 AM Tennessee Ernie Ford The Star Carol The Star Carol Capitol 8:56 AM The voices of Jimmy Joyce Caroling, Caroling This is Christmas Legacy Music 8:53 AM The Voices of Jimmy Joyce All On a Christmas Morning This is Christmas Legacy Music 8:51 AM The Voice of Jimmy Joyce Sleep, Baby Mine This is Christmas Legacy Music 8:47 AM The Voices of Jimmy Joyce Sone Children See Him This is Christmas Legacy Music 8:46 AM The Voice of Jimmy Joyce Come, Dear Children This is Christmas Legacy Music 8:45 AM The Voices of Jimmy Joyce Ah, Bleak and Chill the Wintry Wind This is Christmas Legacy Music 8:44 AM The Voices of Jimmy Joyce Chritsmas Cometh Caroling This is Christmas Legacy Music 8:43 AM The Voices of Jimmy Joyce This is Christmas This is Christmas Legacy Music
Vintage Children's Christmas Records
8:30 AM Eddie Dean The First Christmas Bell 78rpm single Sage & Sand 8:29 AM Mitch Miller & The Sandpipers Santa's Toyshop 78rpm single Little Golden 8:28 AM Guild Players Christmas Party 78rpm single Record Guild of America 8:24 AM Ray Heatherton Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 78 rpm single Playtime 8:23 AM Pasadena Singers Parade of the Wooden Soldiers 78rpm single Jack and Jill 8:20 AM Mindy Carson Christmas Chopsticks 78rpm single RCA Victor 8:17 AM Shirley R. Cohen Spin Little Dredel Chanukah Music Box Kinor
Antique Record Feature
8:16 AM The Three Jills Jingle Bells 78rpm single Radio Artists 8:15 AM Paul Mania Christmas Songs 78 rpm single Odeon 8:05 AM Marek Weber Trio O Holy Night 78rpm single Odeon
Vocal and Choral Chritsmas Music
8:04 AM Hellen Kwan Ave Maria (Bach - Gounod Christmas Cantatas Arte Nova 7:51 AM Charles Bruffy & Kansas City Choir Sweet Was the Song the Virgin Sung (Henry Cowell) Nativitas Nimbus 7:49 AM John Rutter & Cambridge Singers Shepherd's pipe Carol The John Rutter Chrsitmas Album Collegium 7:48 AM Concordia Choir Pat-a-Pan Sing Ye Concordia 7:40 AM Chanticleer In the Bleak Mid-Winter Sing We Christmas Teldec 7:39 AM Dale Warland Singers The Three Kings (Healy Willan) A Rose in Winter D'Note 7:38 AM Martin Pearlman & Boston Baroque Thou Child Divine (J.A.P. Schulz) Lost Music of Early America Telarc 7:28 AM Joel Cohen & Boston Camerata A Virgin Most Pure An American Christmas Erato
Baroque Christmas Music
7:25 AM Helge Rosenkranz& Cis Collegium Mozateum Salzburg Pastorale from Concerto in F minor (Locatelli) Christmas Concertos Arte nova 7:20 AM Hartmut Haenchen& CPE Bach Chamber Orch Pastorale per la notte della Nativitate (Heinichen) German Chirstmas Musci Sony Music Special Products 7:15 AM Hermann Max & Rhenische Kantorei Lasset uns ablegen die Werke (W. F. Bach) W. F. Bach: Kantaten Vol. 1 Capriccio 7:10 AM Ricordo Pastorella (H.I.F. Biber) A Virtuoso in the Making Linn
Medival and Renaissance Christmas Music
6:58 AM Westphalian Choral Ensemble Vom Himmel hoch (Praetorius) Praetorious: Polychoral Christmas Music Nonesuch (LP) 6:44 AM Chanticleer Es ist ein ros entsprungen Sing We Christmas Teldec 6:42 AM Paul Hillier & Pro Arte Singers Lully, lulla thou littel tyne child Traditional & Modern Carols Classical Express 6:26 AM Mark Brown & Pro Cantione Antiqua Ductia to Ductia on side 1 A Medieval Christmas MCA Classics (LP) 6:21 AM Virelai Ave Generosa (Hildegard of Bingen) Ther is no Rose Virgin Veritas 6:19 AM Anonymous4 Ecce quod natura A Portrait of Anonymous 4 Harmonia Mundi
Introduction, Morning March and Overture
6:09 AM Leroy Anderson A Christmas Festival 78rpm single Decca 6:09 AM Arthur Fiedler & Boston Pops Parade of the Wooden Soldiers (Herbert) Pops Christmas Party RCA Victor 6:05 AM Rita Ford Music Box Collection O Sanctissima A Music Box Christmas Columbia (LP)