A RAGE IN HARLEM (Chester Himes, 1957)
Last week being the week of better-late-than-never first exposures to late 50’s-on NYC luminaries: first, John Cassavetes and SHADOWS; and now, Chester Himes and A RAGE IN HARLEM. By the end of the first chapter, Himes made it to my "favorite authors" list: character, rhythm, fury, life, hope, horror, love, hate ripping from every page. Everything I hope for from crime fiction and then some, another body of work to be devoured.
CLOUDWARD – Mary Halvorson
Took two listens to fall in love but once I did, I fell hard: much more of an insanely-talented-composer-who-happens-to-be-an-insanely-talented-instumentalist's record than an insanely-talented-instrumentalist-who-happens-to-be-an-insanely-talented-composer's. In Halvorson, I trust.
66 RUE L – Chantal Michelle
Haunting and evocative synthesis of ambient and jazz and musique concrète into something wholly her own. A most happy discovery – will have this one on heavy rotation for awhile.
THEY LIVE IN MY HEAD – Bush Tetras
Leave it to one of originators of no-wave/post-punk to release something so primal, modern, and electrifying nearly 45 years after they first formed. So good.
quiet virtual walks for therapy and fascination
Thanks to this morning's Recomendo newsletter, I've become addicted to "quiet virtual walks" through cities on YouTube. My favorite channels (so far) are Nomadic Ambience (worldwide fascinations) and Virtual Japan (walking Tokyo at night, among other Japanese and worldwide locales). And, while they can’t fill the commonwealth-sized hole in my soul, I've found quiet virtual walks of Boston (via The Table and Virtual Stroll) to be therapeutic doses of nostalgia for the city I called home for a decade (and in which I whiled many hours via solitary city walks at all hours of the day and night).