all that

 

Jason Moran on Broadway Boogie Woogie, by Piet Mondrian.

Dear Listeners,

I have been wanting to talk to you about jazz.  As in music.  I don't know about jazz, but I know what I like, and it often isn't jazz.  But, that isn't talking about jazz at all.  What I wanted to write you about is about what I do like about jazz.  Trying to keep to the parts I like is really what the Dodo is all about.

Here are three, really stellar jazz songs that I love:  

La Llorona, Charles Lloyd and the Marvels

Pedal Up, Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Waltz for Hal Willner, Bill Frisell

Great, you say, but, let's have some detail, some specificity, some something!  Why do I like these three jazz songs?  It came to me when listening to a jazz recording like this one; what I love about jazz is the moment, the light, the flash of recognition, and the perquisite ambiguity.  It comes out of a (clear blue) fog: Aha!  I know this!

It can be more indistinct even than that; it's the recognition of something, some note, some strain, of familiarity.  A memory, a shape, a ghost, a form, a dried leaf skeleton.  That's what I like about jazz music, the shadows and wisps.

PS

If you are like me, it might be a little tricky to love these songs on the first listen.  Maybe come back to them again, a second and third time, and see if they don't grow on you a little.

food talk

 

Still Life with Fruits and Vegetables.  Juan Sánchez Cotán, circa 1600.

Dear Kitchen,

Maybe you could make a little space, about a foot by a foot, to hold, without too much splatter, a screen, to show this.  You know, while we are chopping and peeling?  Or cracking and toasting.  Or stirring and simmering.  

Think about it, and while you do, there is this, from Valerie Gordon, and she gives, some ways down, a recipe for a carrot dish that might affect you deeply.  It did me; and I kind of (and I hate to admit this) repudiate the poor pretty carrot.

Ah, yes, and you should also know, that Three Ingredients came to me from Cherry Bombe; a limitless source of screenable treats.

Lastly, your song for today is also Valerie.

a little blue, for you

 

First Woman on the Moon, Aleksandra Mir, 1999.

Dear Moon & Sorrows,

Come on over!  We are having a party, and you are invited, dear sorrows!  I got this idea to throw you a party from Ross Gay- he's loaded with great ideas.  I thought we'd play some sad songs, like this beautiful one, right here; it's your song for today.

the last

 

Your holiday shopping list!

Dear Season of Gift Giving,

The first step in acknowledging people successfully with material goods, is to figure out who needs a gift.  

I've got your recipient right here;  I have your gift, too.  You go to the bookshop, or your bookshelf, and you get yourself a book... which you love, it must be one you love, and then you give it to a young person.


The future, kid, is kids. 

PS  About the wrapping; better read about this study, and check out this, too.

Tint, and roses and falling (and he fell).

 

Dear Inchoate,

Sharp definition shadows, above the valley's bowl of fog.  I catch my breath each time, then descend into the shadowless mist, the damp, under the quiet wholeness.

I have words.
I crossed out the hard, sharp poem.

The poem, the words, the story, of being, of Cleopatra, of waiting,
in museums, behind large urns, waiting to trap you.  To consume you.  To destroy you.

There was an exhilarating rush of sliding down sheet ice- it was fun, while it lasted.  But,
at the bottom of the mountain, after all the speed and the money was gone; I did not rail any longer.
I did not care to eat you up.
I did not need to hear these things.

I went home; drew a field of flowers.

Two Thousand.

 

Dear Celebrants,

Here it is, Day 2,000!  I skated away, I skated in, I skated out, I skated with Covid, I skated at home, and now these days have accumulated into a biggish pile of 2,000!  

These last 100 days I have spent pretty much working exclusively on trying to do this; a thing that is inexplicably called a 'manual.'  I could use another hundred days working on it, but, I am here to report that if you spend a small amount of time on a thing everyday for 100 days, you can get better at it!  

Let's have some pie to celebrate!  

Bonus track.