Where is the roof over my head?

Benefit for HIAS at Village Tavern in Pittsburgh

unexpected loss of our friend Lief has me sharing this musical moment with Lief and his friend the immortal Richie Cole. with Lief

Two-Headed Doctor: Listening For Ghosts in Dr. Johns Gris-Gris by David Toop
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was my first encounter with David Toop, who is thorough and comprehensive in wondering how other-worldly effects derive from cramped rooms infused with reverb, recorded in multiple tracks, and processed into stereo channels. He analyzes each track of the Dr. John album, and all the players, and all their history, with impeccable scholarship and wild interpretations, all of which wrench more than the most careful of listeners might expect from the album and from Mac Rebennack's musical journey.
He depicts writer/producer/arranger Harold Battiste as a primary influence on both Rebennack and Sonny Bono, who was not shy about copping credit for Battiste's work. He casts light on the nature of creative partnerships, their ups and downs.
His arguments of appropriation as both a sacrament and a ruse really beef up the whole. Set mostly in LA and New Orleans, the retellings of events surrounding 3 Rebennack albums bear up well to support his purposes. And the essential mystery that motivated his exploring of this topic is never too far away. If you can hear a world you can be in it, even if for a moment.

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Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's as good as everybody says, and the author is phenomenally skilled at keeping attention riveted on characters who flaunt their ordinariness in the regionalist way that Mainers are known for. Their traits mirror traits of all humanity, at least in prosperous Western civilization terms. I'm just curious if anyone else felt that Strout might be tiring of these people. How the Burgess boys deal with their past, and how love is distributed around like plates of cookies. I kind of got the impression of what a National Lampoon parody of Trout might be like, when parodies were gentle but pointed.

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Dear Congressperson, President Biden has opened up a chance to re-affirm justice in the face of a generalized collapse in the rule of law. All indications are, that American citizenship no longer protects the least of citizens; those with powerful connections are more protected than those with exhausted pleas or little recourse. Many different circumstances will be affected, in pockets of life where rights cannot be exercised without full pocketbooks. Federal prisoners can still be sentenced to death, and re-visiting the privilege and nature of capital punishment is necessary. But what I'm suggesting, should not take an act of Congress. While there is still time, as my political representative, dear congress representative, please beseech your fellow lawmakers and anyone of influence, to make sure that President Biden commutes the death sentences of all Federal prisoners on death row. They can take their places beside his son as recipients of Christian and royal mercy. The federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988. Three federal executions were conducted in 2001 and 2003. There were no more until the previous Trump administration, when the attorney general of Trump, resumed them. The new administration is promising widespread vengeance. Ten death row inmates were federally executed during July, August, September, November and December 2000. Three more death row inmates were federally executed during the first two weeks of January 2021. These were under the previous administration of the current President-Elect. As President Biden has now stated, the politicization of federal law has reached so far as to affect his own son. 40 prisoners currently await their federal death sentence. Some have waited more than 30 years since their original sentence of death by federal execution. If you are not opposed to capital punishment, please ask yourself if President Biden can help re-affirm the role of mercy in justice. If capital punishment must stand in our law as a utilitarian contribution to society, so must mercy except the law when so demanded. Our current President must commute all federal death sentences before leaving office. As for non-federal prisoners on death row, he should require some accountability from states which pursue their own executions. Society in general no longer approves of capital punishment as a deterrent. States with death on their minds should have a tax category. The hunger for killing has gone too far in society. A commutation is a mere band-aid, to make sure a future government reaching for excessive power doesn’t cost more lives than it may already. Please help send a message to President Biden. You pardoned your son due to your lack of faith in the judicial process. This is your opening. Commute the death sentences of all federal prisoners on death row before President Trump takes office. It is not right to legislate the taking away of a life, when capricious acts become the norm in the administration of government. Michael Pellecchia

Columbia C-31 7-8 both sides

“Take Me To That Land of Jazz”: Texas Serenaders feat. Christy Foster (W...