snow day in seattle

snow day in seattle - from kerry park; queen anne; seattle, wa

snow day in seattle

My favorite photo from the last spate of snow storms to drift through the area.

…a snow through which people should be twirled…a snow that obscures everything without substance…

 

Bag A Boo – Clancy Eccles

A hearty skank from a personal favorite.

Don’t you brag, and don’t you boast
Grief comes to those who brag the most
Why are you crummy, you’re crummy fe true?
Why are you acting like a bag a boo?

(C. Eccles) Duke DU-9 B

 

Soko Bouge – M’baye Abdoul

Old-time rock & roll from Senegal, performed in Wolof. The ubiquity of rock & roll is such that none of us are surprised to hear it performed in other languages, but Wolof? The song itself is short, which is for the best. Worth a listen nonetheless.

 

Uncle Tupelo – Anodyne

One of those combos whose sound taps into the dissatisfaction of a long road trip, still a long ways yet from over:

Anodyne
Anodyne
Tossed it out for me to find
Without a word you’re out the door
Without a reason anymore…

 

Snowboarding crow

Some of you know the pleasure I take in my association with our local population of crows. Apparently crow snowboarding is not without precedent (it has also been documented in Alaska/Canada), but in this video a Russian hooded crow repeatedly slides down this snow-covered metal roof.

Animal behaviorists warn of our tendency to anthropomorphize, but this crow recognizes the unsatisfying nature of a slide down the snowless part of the roof and takes his fun back to the shady, snowy side. There is discernment, joy in this. This crow is clearly stoked, and shreds like he invented the word.

 

Destroy in haste, repent at leisure

So Jay-Z announces he will no longer use the word ‘bitch in his music. Dr. Boyce Watkins has a few words for you on the occasion of your late repentance from sexism, Mr. -Z:

“…You can’t spend two decades referring to other men’s daughters as b*tches and hoes, and then somehow decide that your own daughter is going to be exempt from the game. You, my brother, have given nearly every inch of your creative productivity toward murdering your daughter’s self and public image before she was even born…”

I don’t typically pay attention to Jay-Z, Beyonce, or things that happen on televisions in general. I post this because Dr. Watkins calls it the way I see and have seen it, not specifically about Jay-Z but about sexism in entertainment in general. Jay-Z’s daughter was born into a world that could have been made more beautiful for her, more accepting of her, more ready for her, but no.

Everything we are is the result of everything we have felt. She enters a world comprised in no small part of negativity her father created, not this ‘absence of negativity’ he publicly fences as a position of positivity. Pandora had this box, see…

 

Kerry Park Snowman

My kids made a snowman out of the opportunity afforded by a passing snow squall.

 

Orchestre Baobab – Liti Liti

Another Afro-Cuban bomb with a skanking sensibility from a personal favorite. The lead guitars are sinuous, deft…

 

Sandy Denny – You Never Wanted Me

Something that came across this morning: Sandy Denny really knocks this one out of the park with her emotive, larger-than-life vocal chops:

 

…I haven’t any picture to set before my eyes
Nothing I can blame when the blues start to rise
Just the memory of laughter and a living out of lies
But if I could change my ways we would never have said goodbye…

 

Sammy Dread – Rude Boy

Dirty, dangerous, and col’ as ice.

JJ-098B (S. Farquharson)