Yes, our plecostomus -- or, "Pleccy" as we knew and loved him -- was found lifeless in our aquarium when we returned from our Big Island Hawai'i trip. We left plenty of food, and the algae was thriving when we left, but we've had him for about seven years, and we're not sure if it was our negligence or his old age that pounded the last nail in his little catfish-casket. Nevertheless, we were quite sad; it seemed like such an unceremonious ending for a cherished companion whom we loved to watch swimming around our tank in lieu of reality television. Quite honestly, Pleccy had much more personality: shy, sometimes petulant, always loyal, a bit of a loner he.
"Feeeeeeed meeeee!"
At any rate, let's jump in to some "News in Brief" with both coral-reef infected feet:
LOVE FROM CHI-TOWN
Pitchfork Media, whom we already knew was partially run out of the Suddenly Coolest City on Earth (Wilco, Tortoise, Andrew Bird, The Velvet Lounge, Kranky Records, Common, The AACM and that Obama dude) but didn't know the guy who launched it, Ryan Schreiber, was a jazz guy. Now we suddenly know why they've been throwing us some more L-O-V-E lately, as seen in today's post about our rez talented twins Nels and Alex Cline. There was some surprise -- affected for the uninitiated, we surmise -- that Nels even had a twin bro at all, something we hope to rectify in the upcoming weeks with our exclusive interviews with both brothers in tandem with the upcoming (Feb. 10!) release dates of their respective solo albums: Alex's Continuation and Nels' Coward. Stay tuned.
PILFERING THE TIMES
Some cool music-related articles from last Sunday's edition: a review of D.J Taylor's Bright Young People, a new book on the overlooked history of the British Jazz Age; a profile of the Coburn Conservatory of Music; and an overview of Noise, a new anthology of fiction based on the music of Sonic Youth.
LOCAL YOKELS
We've been noticing a recent pique in the profiling of regional jazz music, from Rebecca Abbott's documentary The Unsung Heroes: Jazz Music in New Haven to Jeannette Lindsay's Leimert Park: A Story of A Village in South Central to a new book by Benjamin Franklin (no joke) entitled Jazz and Blues Musicians of South Carolina. All of this appears to be in direct response to the monolithic "national" approach of Ken Burns' Jazz.
TENACIOUS D.
Check out Dary John Mizelle's In Defense of Moderism.
70 YEARS YOUNG
Los Angeles' own Monday Evening Concerts has been going on for 70 years. Which in LA-LA terms makes it positively Jurassic.
OUR FAVE YEAR-END LIST
Wired.com's Top 5 Disruptive Music-Making Technologies
CHES MASTER
Crypto extended family member Ches Smith is interviewed on Glowing Realm.
CURRENTLY LISTENING:
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – Cardinology
Buena Vista Social Club – At Carnegie Hall
Coldplay – Viva la Vida/Prospekt’s March
The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
No Age – Weirdo Rippers
CURRENTLY READING:
A Power Stronger Than Itself by George E. Lewis
Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman w/ John Jacobs
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
