A Doodlin' Song

The Farm Fresh grocery store across the street from my house seems to be playing a lot of old Kinks music whenever I'm in there shopping, and by a lot I mean more or less two songs so far. Today I heard "Well Respected Man" and the day before yesterday they played "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" And both times while I was standing in the gleaming white fluorescent light frozen food aisle. Do grocery stores have tapes they run over and over sent to them by corporate? Or one of those radio stations that only play in restaurants and other places of commerce? Anyway, it's been kinda nice. I love The Kinks. I whistled both songs walking home from the store with my groceries, the cold wind whipping my hair around my face and stinging my eyelids.

Time once again for my thrice-annual Amazon wish list pick-a-CD-a-book-and-a-DVD-and-finally-buy-it-bitch ritual, which has been getting harder and harder to do what with the holidays fast approaching so this may be it until the beginning of next year for me. First, the jazz...


Matthew Shipp, Equilibrium. I've been meaning to check out this free jazz pianist formerly of the David S. Ware Quartet, who has been making solo albums since the late 80's. This is a series of recordings from Thirsty Ear that include William Parker on bass, Gerald Cleaver on drums, Khan Jamal on vibes, and produced by electronics engineer FLAM. Shipp seems to meld a bit of avant garde classical into his jazz work, and while songs like the title track are bouncing and rhythmic with Parker's whipsmart basswork, "Nebula Theory" chimes like a haunted wind through an ancient church belfry. I think I need to get more of this cat's stuff.


Imagine Erza Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce living in 1920's Paris during the height of it's post-war Lost Generation scene. Imagine also, that instead of writers and poets, they were actually struggling cartoonists. Picture an alternate universe where all the great classics of literature -- War And Peace, Crime And Punishment -- were not novels, but comic books. Then image everyone as dogs and birds. And there you have the basic set-up for Norwegian cartoonist Jason's latest 46-page graphic novel The Left Bank Gang, a funny, touching, and thoroughly charming story told through simple line drawings and spare dialogue. Few things I've read recently have held as much weight as the simplicity of Ernest's statement, brought back around a second time at the end of the story, where he promises Hadley that he'll never leave her. Take into context his eventual suicide (not addressed in this story), it nearly shattered my heart to read that passage.


And my DVD pick... The Criterion Collection of Ranier Werner Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy: The Marriage of Mario Braun/Veronika Voss/Lola. Comes with loads of scrumptious extras, including commentary by Wim Wenders, a feature-length doc on Fassbinder's life and career, and a rare 49-minute interview with the director made for German television. Actually I was only trying to get The Marriage Of Maria Braun because a friend of mine recommended it so highly, but I could only find it included with this package, which was hella expensive but I'm looking forward to all that this collection promises. Heck, probably have to spread this out over a a series of days. Plus every time I miss my long-lost friend (which is pretty much daily) I'll have something new to watch to link me to his presence. Hoping this actually might last me until, oh, Christmas this time around. Wellll, hoping in one hand, yada yada....