Is it just me or have gasoline prices been a little high lately?

I drive a relatively small, fuel-efficient car, but the high price of filling up my tank has me cringing just like everybody else (when prices double over the span of a couple of years, it doesn't matter how much you spend, you still notice). I sit in traffic sometimes, dwarfed in my Volkswagen Golf next to all the enormous SUVs and I think, "yes, but I'm using a lot less fuel than you!"

But the truth is that even with my smaller car (I get 26 miles to the gallon in city driving), I still have found myself trying to drive in ways that will save even more fuel--lower speeds, smoother braking, milder accelerations. When gasoline was about half what it is now, I was getting 25 MPG, so maybe my efforts are paying off? Four per cent--I'm always a pretty mellow driver.

Seriously though, I just got news that I need to pay $350 to fix the darned turn signal on the car--and go back to the car dealer for a second visit thanks to the problem. I mean really! A short-circuit in a part is $350? I'm half-tempted, given the litany of expensive repairs lately (the car has less than 71,000 miles), to go back to not owning a car at all.

CDs listened to today:

• The Living End: Roll On
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Robyn Holloway: Fantasy-Pieces on the Heine "Liederkreis" of Schumann
• Nine Inch Nails: The Fragile
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies, disk 2
• Psychedelic Furs: World Outside
  

New pop songs in the spotlight!

• Lil' Wayne returns to the charts with "Lollipop", an example of a long-standing streak in hip-hop toward the pornographic. I'm fed up with that vein of work, and this song is just another nasty example. That said, it's not a great song, either.The sung chorus meanders along while there's hardly eny rapping that you even notice. It actually makes me miss 50 Cent's "Candy Shop". And yet, it's one of the catchier new tunes of the week.
  
• "The Way That I Love You" sounds like Ashanti's been listening to a lot of Alicia Keys lately. It's a florid, piano-based ballad. There are worse things, but Ashanti is hardly in Ms. Keys' league, singing-wise, and the song seems like a reject from Ms. Keys' last album, to boot.
  
• "Rise Above This" is the followup from Seether to their huge hit, "Fake It" and, while I enjoyed "Fake It", this is halfway to a lame power ballad. It's really not bad and singer Shaun Morgan's performance is pretty strong, but it's hardly one for the ages.
  
• Madonna has hired Timbaland to produce "4 Minutes". At this point, it's like Justin Timberlake is a package deal with Timbaland (buy Tim, get Justin!). Of course, Timbaland usually produces better singers and MCs than Madonna (well, except for Missy Elliott) and it shows. Madonna doesn't add much to an indifferent song and Mr. Timberlake's presence is limited to a minor role.
  
• A Cursive Memory has a debut on the BBC top 20 called "Everything". It's an energetic, but slightly soft-edged rock track with some extremely wimpy singing. If you've ever heard the Posies, you may hear some similarities, although this is a far cry from that band's best work.
  
• "It's Not My Time" by 3 Doors Down: This is one of those bands that never stinks, but never really creates anything transcendent. This track rocks pretty reliably, like all their stuff.
  
• In the UK, we have a debut that's the recommended song of the week: "Get Over It" by Guillemots. Why are they named for a kind of sea bird? Anyways, this has a great chorus and somewhat old-fashioned pop production (think late 1970s).
  

CDs listened to today:

• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• William Bolcom: Orphée-Serenade
• P. J. Harvey: Is This Desire?
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• George Crumb: Songs, Drones And Refrains Of Death
  

More ranting about food.

In yesterday's post, I complained about how we've gotten away from eating real food in favor of processed foods (I'm as guilty as anybody). Perhaps you think that means I'm a natural and organic food fanatic who shops at the local natural foods grocery. Those places feed our national eating disorder as much as conventional grocery stores.

After all, they always have an entire aisle devoted to supplements. You know, chemical extracts that are so unrelated to food that they more closely resemble the mysterious ingredients in your Twinkies from the 7-Eleven than actual meals or ingredients. To me, this is a sign of how dysfunctional we've become. Even the natural food types are swept away in a need to see food as a delivery device for macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients. Don't get me wrong, if you can afford it, I'm fine with foods grown or raised without hazardous chemicals using sustainable methods.

Still, how can the same stores that promote healthful provender also stock ths junk? How can anyone tolerate the cognitive noise of nutrition in pill form from a "natural" grocer?

CDs listened to today:

• Stephen Albert: Into Eclipse
• Beatles: Rubber Soul
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for Cello And Piano, disk 2
• Jack DeJohnette: Parallel Realities
  

We have a national eating disorder.

We see constant news reports that there is a widespread obesity problem (I'm not sure I want to call it an "epidemic"). Meanwhile, nutrition advice doesn't really tell you to eat food--it tells you to eat less fat, more fiber, less carbohydrates, more beta-carotene...

Huh?

This guidance to eat nutrients is a result of the federal government's nutritional advice. In the old days, they cooked up the "four food groups". The food groups were an idea that was created in collaboration with big agri-business and had little to do with your health and more to do with the health of those food industries. Then they put together the "food pyramid", which began to break down the food into components like sugar and fat. All the while, the feds also issued suggestions about how much sugar, fat, sodium, protein, and other nutrients you should consume. All of this is, again, the result of big government and big agri-business. There's science, paid for by industry, to show that each nutrient has a benefit, but nothing about, you know, food.

Do you really think you could eat those components, rather than a glass of milk and a grilled cheese sandwich and get the same nutrition?

I read Michael Pollan's Eater's Manifesto where he talks about how we need to avoid processed food. The simple advice is to only eat stuff that you understand (hey, I have no idea what "soy protein isolate" is but Mr. Pollan assures me it's not food). But what bothers me most is this widespread practice of thinking about food as a delivery system for nutrients.

It's food, for crying out loud!

Beyond a general understanding that some foods are better than others, we need to get back to thinking of food as simple sustenance, as pleasure. I say we stop listening to the government and the food industry. Let's get back to eating, not consuming and let's eat the stuff that we understand.

CDs listened to today:

• Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies: 1975
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• David Ward-Steinman: Concerto No. 2 For Chamber Orchestra
• Samba Mapalanga & Orchestra Virunga: Ujumbe
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
  

Let's share a video today.

I saw this kid, Aaron Fotheringham, on some TV news program (I don't recall which--and I watch a lot of news). He's remarkable.



CDs listened to today:

• Propellerheads: Decksanddrumsandrockandroll
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• Per Norgard: Symphony No. 3
• Sonic Youth: Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• Camille Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3
• Various Artists: African Moves
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
  

CD review day!

I've been listening to Manhattan Wildlife Refuge from Bill Watrous since I was, oh, thirteen. It's difficult to write a review of a recording that I loved so much as a teen that it actually shaped the way I came to love jazz and big band music. My middle-school band teacher introduced me to it, of course!

This a marvelous relic of a time in jazz when big bands were declining and the genre itself was splitting between the swing tradition and the rhythms and vocabulary of rock music. In the early Seventies, a lot of jazz musicians chose a middle path, invoking both swing and rock. In a sense, this disk is a time capsule of that era, as well as my own growth as a musician, learning from old recordings.

And what a time capsule it is! The band is young and, in the vernacular of the time, they're fiery cats. It's a traditional big band, as I came to understand these things, four trumpets, four trombones, five saxophones, and a rhythm section complete with guitar and synthesizer. They move between a hint of Latin rhythms, swinging ballads, and even some rock. They sound like they're having a lot of fun, which is probably the most important reason to enjoy this disk.

Mr. Watrous was a young turk, and a dazzling technician on the trombone (he's still the latter); while his solos lack imagination at times, he plays at warp speed in the speedier tunes, but reveals his now-trademark lyricism and gorgeous singing tone on the slower ones. The other featured soloist is trumpeter Danny Stiles, who tends to loaf creatively and repeat pet riffs, but enjoys a lead trumpeter's big tone.

I really enjoy the bright colors and sugary tones of the arrangements. The middle of the disk has a big work called "Fourth Floor Walk-Up" that slowly builds in intensity--punctuated by an unaccompanied solo by Mr. Watrous in the middle. The solo's not a great musical moment, but I still haven't found a more impressive exhibition of trombone skills (although a bit arduous at roughly two minutes). Mr. Stiles is also featured in a cadenza on "Dichotomy", which is just OK. In fact, between the ripping-fast swing of "Zip City" and the burnished, sweet tones of "Dee Dee", you get some great big sounds and some intimate ones, too.

Overall, this is a good bunch of musicians playing some strong arrangements. Best of all, they sound like they know it and they're happy to revel in their talents. Fun, if not consistently genius--and that's not too bad.

8 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• George Crumb: Night Of The Four Moons
• Living Colour: Stain
  
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Robyn Holloway: Concerto For Orchestra No. 2
• Nine Inch Nails: Further Down The Spiral
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies, disk 1
  

New songs in the pop spotlight!

We've got plenty of new songs to talk about.

• Leona Lewis arrives with a follow-up to "Bleeding Love". It's called "Better In Time" and it's a cynically commercial power ballad from the "X-Factor" winner. I don't think you'll find much to recommend it.
• Danity Kane returns with a notably awful track, "Damaged". Puffy makes a brief cameo, which rarely improves things. I'll admit he's got OK taste as a producer, but he hardly improves matters when he raps.
• Another recent hitmaker debuts his latest with "There's Nothin'". Sean Kingston's new song has a couple of guests and a nicely energetic beat. It's not memorable, but pleasant enough.
• Atreyu gets their first real hit with "Falling Down". It's funny, I remember this act as a kind of cousin of Linkin Park, but this is a bouncy, hard-rock blues shuffle with cheesy horns. It's kind of appealing, in a shallow way that recalls the 90's band, Extreme. And there's no good way to do that.
  
• Tokio Hotel is a European teen-pop act that's arriving at these shores on a big cloud of hype. It's kind of bizarre, they present themselves like a sort of "safe" goth look that's all harmless-looking and well-scrubbed. The track, "Ready Set Go" is anxious guitars and too-young voices trying unsuccessfully to match the slim angst of a rather lightweight, over-produced song.
• Sugababes is another of those calculating, packaged British pop acts that sound (and look) like they've been assembled by either a committee or a very diverse focus group. I enjoyed one song from them once. "Denial" isn't it. It's inoffensive.
• The most distinctive track this week is Elbow's "Grounds For Divorce". Outside of a remarkable resemblance to a Peter Gabriel track, this is an odd amalgam of blues guitar and verse with a near-industrial beat and a chorus straight from Mr. Gabriel's bag of tricks. It's not a classic, but a nice listen.
• It's been a while since we saw a single from The Futureheads and they show up this week with "The Beginning Of The Twist". They've clearly lost some of their underdog cachet, but they replace it with some of the swagger more familiar from Franz Ferdinand or Oasis. This is a punishingly energetic number with a chanting chorus that doesn't match their best, but it's still mighty appealing.

CDs listened to today:

• Stephen Albert: Concerto For Cello
• Beatles: Yellow Submarine
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas For Cello And Piano, disk 1
• De La Soul: De La Soul Is Dead
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• William Bolcom: Concerto For Violin In D
• P. J. Harvey: To Bring You My Love

How can this possibly make sense?

I saw the news story today about the US Air pilot on a flight from Denver who managed to accidentally discharge his pistol in the cockpit--mid-flight! Nobody was hurt, but this is why guns are a bad idea. People think that the guns will protect them, but the darned things are more likely to wind up involved in accidents or worse. Details about this particular mishap are sketchy, but I doubt the cursed thing was holstered at the time. Can we please stop pretending this is a good idea before someone gets hurt?

CDs listened to today:

• Dmitri Shostakovich: The String Quartets, disk 6
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies: 1974
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• Dafnis Prieto: Absolute Quintet
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
  

News reached me this week that Arthur C. Clarke has died.

I'm glad that he had a long life and professional success, but sorry to note his passing. A former engineer, he is one of the most notable science fiction authors ever. He's always been a purely science fiction author, firmly inside the genre, unlike some authors who blur those same genre lines. Oddly, despite his background in science and technology, he was never a writer who focused on what some call "hard" sci-fi--the stories that tend to emphasize technology and realistic extrapolations of true things (less magic stuff, more devices). I very much enjoyed his mystical approach.

He'll be missed in these parts and if you get curious, check out his novel, Rendezvous With Rama. It's not as well-known as 2001: A Space Odyssey or Childhood's End, but I promise you'll like it.

CDs listened to today:

• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• Peter Ruzicka: ...uber ein Verschwinden...
• Various Artists: Action
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
  

CD review time!

Today's review is Arild Plau's Concerto For Tuba And Strings. I repeat myself, but the disk is actually titled "Tuba Carnival" and I need to organize my disks in my own weird way, so I'll file it under Mr. Plau's name, despite the fact that this is a recital disk for Oystein Baadsvik, the Norwegian tuba virtuoso.

Except for the opening work, we hear Mr. Baadsvik accompanied by a small string orchestra (Musica Vitae) and most of the works are arrangements expressly for him rather than originals. "Fnugg", an unaccompanied item, opens the disk. Written by Mr. Baadsvik, it's a rather colorless, droning exploration of the tuba's ability to produce multiphonics (it turns out, when you sing a note as you play a brass instrument, the combination of two different notes can produce a third note for some interesting harmonics). In a way, this piece sets the tone for the disk--Mr. Baadsvik seems interested in showing off his considerable technical facility at the expense of the music itself.

The most obvious examples of his efforts to impress us are his performances of Antonio Vivaldi's "Winter" violin concerto from "The Four Seasons" and Vittorio Monti's Gypsy-flavored violin piece, "Csardas". Hearing a tuba play these well-known fiddle pieces is like watching a dog dressed up in a tutu, dancing ballet. It's a memorable achievement, but the artistry is lost and the whole thing is just a bit unnatural. Boy, this guy can play, but his taste needs to be called into question.

The other works that have been adapted for Mr. Baadsvik's tuba feature a pleasant jig, a couple of excerpts of fellow Norwegian Edvard Grieg's work, and another awkward bit: an homage to J.S. Bach (harpsichord continuo with a tuba? huh?). It's almost a relief to hear Jean-Baptiste Arban's famous trumpet variations on "The Carnival Of Venice", which is a much better fit for the tuba. Mr. Plau's concerto forms the centerpiece of the disk and it's a lovely bit of fluff where the orchestra shows a better feel for lyricism than the soloist. The string writing shows a mastery of the form. Overall, this disk is a disappointment, emphasizing shallow technique over artistry and musicianship.

4 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Prince: Chaos And Disorder
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Luigi Nono: Como una ola de fuerza y luz
• Sonic Youth: Goo

I found a display of evil on the web.

It's a flash-based computer game on the web and it's swallowed a considerable amount of my time since last night. This is one of those games that's about strategy, using a puzzle approach where you arrange little towers on a square playing area to impede the progress of little round characters. The towers shoot pellets at the little circular guys, destroying them. Like Tetris or Line Rider, this thing will swallow your time. It's called Desktop Tower Defense and it's been filling my late nights. Play it at your own risk, it's why my blog posts have been delayed...

Oh, and if you want to save a score, why not use the group name, "Modest Efforts"? I've already saved my scores there.

CDs listened to today:

• Living Colour: Time's Up
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Lee Hoiby: Sextet For Wind Quintet And Piano
• Nine Inch Nails: The Downward Spiral
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Gustav Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
  

Time for a little video fun.

Here's a fascinating exhibition of skill at playing quarters. Yeah, it's commercially sponsored, but it's still kinda fun...



CDs listened to today:

• De La Soul: 3 Feet High And Rising
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Ernst Bloch: Symphony For Trombone Solo (Branimir Slokar, soloist)
• P. J. Harvey: Rid Of Me
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century...)
• Paul Creston: Symphony No. 3
  

I hate those questionnaires you see in MySpace bulletins and emails.

But I learned yesterday that there's a name for these things. It turns out this is a parlor game that's over a hundred years old and is named for a notable participant in the practice: Marcel Proust. They're called Proust Questionnaires. Here's the version that Vanity Fair uses to pose a recurring series of questions to politicians and other celebrities (it's surprisingly dull--not as funny as the ones on MySpace):

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
2. What is your greatest fear?
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
5. Which living person do you most admire?
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
7. What is your current state of mind?
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
9. On what occasion do you lie?
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
11. Which living person do you most despise?
12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
16. When and where were you happiest?
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
21. Where would you most like to live?
22. What is your most treasured possession?
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
24. What is your favorite occupation?
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
26. What do you most value in your friends?
27. Who are your favorite writers?
28. Who is your hero of fiction?
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
31. What are your favorite names?
32. What is it that you most dislike?
33. What is your greatest regret?
34. How would you like to die?
35. What is your motto?

CDs listened to today:

• The Annuals: Be He Me
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Samuel Adler: Symphony No. 3
• Beatles: Help!
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Seven Bagatelles
  

Nice speech!

I saw excerpts of Senator Obama's speech on race today. This isn't the first time his oratory has impressed, of course--he's a strong speechmaker. What impressed me the most was that this is the first time in a long, long while that I've heard a political speech with actual nuance. He acknowledged that both sides of the racial divide have legitimate grievances--I suspect only a man of at least partial African heritage could say that--while refusing to walk away from either side. Brilliant stuff.

Still, I'd like to see him approach the war in Iraq, the lagging economy, and our miserable health care situation with the same subtlety and honesty. Just because he was honest and open once doesn't forgive his politician's sins on all the other speeches. Still, he has one straightforward speech under his belt. That's one more than Hillary Clinton or John McCain have given.

CDs listened to today:

• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Edmund Rubbra: Symphony No. 4
• Usher: Confessions
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• Dmitri Shostakovich: The String Quartets, disk 5
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
  
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies, 1973
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
  

I'm a little eccentric about cell phones.

I'm not allowed to comment extensively on cell phone issues--I work in the industry. I'd be violating my professional ethics to comment as an informed insider on most of the interesting matters in mobile phones. Still, I can't resist a minor comment.

I've been switching cell phones a bit lately, not unusual, considering my profession, and I've noticed that I really don't like fancy phones. I like having a QWERTY keyboard for text messaging, but not enough to go with such a large, expensive phone. What I find I need are only a couple of minor features. I love Bluetooth for hands-free operation, voice dialing goes nicely with that, and I like having faster web (but I can live without it, I don't use much). It's nice to have the status of a cool new phone with lots of cachet, but I'm over that now.

Oh, and I like sliders and candy bar phones, much more than flip phones. Maybe I'm not that cool?

CDs listened to today:

• Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
• Prince: The Gold Experience
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Marie Barker Nelson: Hodeeyaada
• Sonic Youth: Dirty
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet in A, "The Trout"
  

What's new in the pop spotlight?

This week's new songs are mostly debuts in the UK again--especially since Fuse TV is once again not updating their Oven Fresh web page. I think it's pretty obvious if you compare the BBC top 20 with the Billboard top 20, the British have a much more volatile chart and hence, more debuts.

• Alphabeat is the big debut, invading the UK with their single, "Fascination". It's sugary, bouncy pop that seems to be a Scandinavian specialty and I like it. The track is very retro, sounding more like 1983 than 2008, and it reminds me of Elton John's hits from that period--except for the woman's voice.
• Also on the UK charts is a new track from Westlife, "Us Against The World". This is an act from the empire of Simon Cowell, trying to evolve from a boy band to something more mainstream. It's pure commercial product, a sweeping ballad with strings, delicately plucked guitars, and a somewhat overwrought vocal. Not brilliant.
• I'm kind of surprised to see a refugee of the techno music boom of the early 1990s return to the charts. Utah Saints have updated an old hit of theirs, "Something Good", now titled "Something Good "08". The piano sample of the old days survives, and the track is a standard commercial dance tune anyways. It's a little dark, and not well-conceived.
• "After Hours" marks the return of We Are Scientists with their latest. I'd like to hear their singer vary his tone and expression more, but they're a solid example of the indie-rock sound in Great Britain. It's not their best work, but they're pretty good.
• "My Destiny", by Delinquent, fooled me. I thought it might be a cutesy hip-hop track from an underage MC. It's a dance track with a booming synthetic bass, but her voice is thin, like Janet Jackson or Jennifer Lopez . You would think that such a weak singer would be better-looking, but I'm not sure why she's got a big hit. It's not the singing and it's not her looks. Well, the production is pretty good.
• I can't believe Girls Aloud has another hit in England. "Can't Speak French" uses a not-quite swinging beat to evoke a kind of bizarre music hall vibe. When something has so little substance, such an indistinct melody, and such a heavy sheen of production, it's passing strange to then evoke some long-lost style. Well, unlike Delinquent, the five women in this pre-packaged, soulless group are all gorgeous. I'll bet they're more popular on TV than on radio!

CDs listened to today:

• Sydney Hodkinson: The Edge Of The Olde One
  

Roller derby?

I got asked the other day, "what do I think about roller derby?" Honestly, I don't think about it much. A friend of mine has a MySpace friend that I noticed--she's a member of the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls--so I'm certainly aware of the resurgence of a kind of punky, gothy, grrrl-power version of the sport. I've thought it might be fun to go see them skate, but haven't been so interested that I've made it happen. Who knows? If I went, I might become an enthusiastic convert, right?

Still, fit, athletic women in short skirts? (and I've noticed regular skating does wonders for a woman's figure...) What's not to like about that?

CDs listened to today:

• P. J. Harvey: Dry
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Paul Creston: Fantasy
• Living Colour: Vivid
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
  

I've got a CD to review.

It's part of a series, so be sure you get the right one if you try to buy it--they all have the same title. This one, like the others, is called Congotronics, by Konono No. 1 (the other disk I've seen in the series, Congotronics 2, has only one track from this act).

Hailing from Kinshasa on the banks of the Congo river, the group combines traditional thumb pianos (called likembe) with some homemade microphone and amplification setups. Throw in some singing, a few drums (some sound equally homemade), and of course, dancers, and you have what by rights should be just a colorful long-time local act with the same eccentricities you see in any major city--obscure, but with their own fan base around town. Instead, thanks to American critics' enthusiastic reaction to this disk, they are now a minor international sensation.

And what do they sound like? The sound of the amplified likembe dominate the ear with a hollow, tinny, distorted timbre and harmonies that aren't based on Western scales--it's fascinating to hear the bass likembe thrumming along in a low ostinato as the various drums, buckets, and--probably--trash cans beat a shuffle or a suspiciously Brazilian-sounding beat. The band has been around for about thirty years, so they've clearly spent a lot of time and effort refining their style. There are call-and-response singing, so typical of African music in that part of the continent, and boiling polyrhythms that at times almost seem to lose themselves in a seething hum of amplification.

The disk is clearly recorded live in a concert setting and that's reflected in the hint of formality to the opening song. I don't know any Lingala, but "Lufuala Ndonga" opens with repeated mentions of the band's name--an introduction, perhaps? That live vibe doesn't keep the recording engineers from fading in and out once or twice, but most of the tracks open with a figure from a likembe, then dive into rich counterpoint for extended stretches, leavened with relatively simple sung melodies. At times, the trance-like tunes seem to not so much end as roll to a stop as they run out of steam, but this is a minor quibble in the face of such endless inventive counterpoint and resourceful cross-rhythmic joy.

9 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Samuel Adler: String Quartet No. 6
• Beatles: Beatles For Sale
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sechs Lieder
• Miles Davis: Someday My Prince Will Come
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
• Ernst Bloch: Symphony For Trombone Solo (Armin Rosin, soloist)
  

It's so annoying.

I was trying to bake a potato tonight. It's been a while since I've done that, so I checked an online recipe and it said to bake the potato at 350 degrees F for an hour. Now I know that altitude changes these things and that, since I live at a mile above sea level, I should bake it for a longer time. I figured an hour-and-a-half would be plenty, right? It was nearly raw inside, yeesh!

I still ate it--I love potatoes.

CDs listened to today

• Dmitri Shostakovich: The String Quartets, disk 4
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies, 1972
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• Charles Tolliver Big Band: With Love
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
  

I upset some people on purpose today.

I was looking over a few things on Amazon.com and lately, they put some discussion group headers on pages when you browse. A title intrigued me, so I took a look, then posted something slightly provocative. It was about classical music and some guy blew up and called me a bunch of names! Mission accomplished!

CDs listened to today:

• Social Distortion: Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Miklos Rozsa: Tripartita For Orchestra
• Urge Overkill: Saturation
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
  

I've got new pop music in the spotlight!

Fuse TV's "Oven Fresh" didn't update their web page this week, the bums, but there were still a lot of new songs, mostly thanks to MTV's "TRL".

• The big debut this week is Usher's "Love In This Club" with an inexplicably brief cameo from Young Jeezy. He's a huge star and this doesn't stink, but it's not that great. It's a little sluggish with a big, yearning chorus.
  
• I gotta admit, Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body" is something I first saw on "TRL". I normally fast-forward through that show, but I took a brief look at the video. She's a great beauty and in this clip, she isn't wearing a whole lot... I'm sure she isn't exploiting her looks, right? Anyway--the song? She's still got that remarkable voice, but there's not much to recommend in this tepid boudoir track.
• Jay-Z is also trying a little romance with "I Know", from his "inspired by" homage to the recent film, American Gangster. He's ill-suited to the task, but I love the production. It's nice to hear him leave the standard hip-hop beats behind for a varied collection of lighter percussion and a nimble groove.
• We have another teen singer on the charts in Tiffany Evans, debuting with "I'm Grown". Maybe she's a talented singer, but it doesn't matter with such an assembly-line product. Nothing to see here, move along.
• I freely admit that when Gnarls Barkley broke in 2006, I was underwhelmed. It didn't help when their big single, "Crazy" was totally taking over France at the time I visited (seriously unavoidable)--and that nearly catatonic cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Baby Gone" didn't improve their standing in my eyes. They debut their new hit, "Run", and I'm pleasantly surprised. It's like classic Motown or maybe Wilson Pickett--but on amphetamines.
• And from the BBC top 20, we get Taio Cruz performing "Come On Girl". It's another cheesy commercial dance beat with mannered singing and a forgettable melody. Please don't bother.

CDs listened to today:

• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• Gustav Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
• Prince: The Black Album
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Marie Barker Nelson: Culinary Concerto For Clarinet
  

I turned on my oven tonight.

I've lived in this house for a few years and I think the only time the oven has operated since I first entered the home was when the home inspector checked to make sure it worked before I bought the place (he also ran the washing machine, but I swear I use that regularly).

This is the life of a single guy!

CDs listened to today:

• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• Ernst Bloch: Concerto Grosso No. 1
• Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals: Burn To Shine
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
• Henry Cowell: Symphony No. 11
• Little Village: (eponymous)
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Paul Hindemith: Symphony In B flat
• Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine
  

And it's CD review time.

This disk is called Life Music, but I call it Dark Vigil, by Kevin Puts (I have a weird nomenclature system, don't I?). It's a set of four string quartets, all by living composers, performed here by the Ying Quartet (a family ensemble, I gather). It's the first in a planned series of Life Music disks and the second one is already out. The Ying Quartet is a discovery for me, and a welcome one.

"Dark Vigil" is a single-movement work that builds from smaller blocks of melody and adds lyrical interludes that have an easy, natural structure that the group illustrates with great verve and sensitivity. It's accompanied by Michael Torke's "Corner In Manhattan", which is a somewhat thin bit of work, although the third and final movement, "Houston Street In The Morning", has a pleasing, energetic pulse that the group plays with a slightly dusky sound that's just right.

Carter Pann's "Love Letters" is a torrid, romantic four movements that the group plays in a heated, florid style. Their performances are better than the composition here. They finish up the disk with Paquito D'Rivera's "The Village Street Quartet" which, like the second and third pieces isn't nearly as good as "Dark Vigil". I've known his work as a jazz saxophonist and you can hear the same melodic charms in this work that you can hear in his own performances.

While some of the pieces on this disk are not the best, they are elevated by the Ying Quartet's startlingly good judgment (and really, the compositions are not that awful). They have great versatility and I'm in love with their tuneful approach. Here's hoping the follow-up to this disk has better material!

8 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Thomas Adès: Arcadiana
• Beatles: A Hard Day's Night
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Quintet
• Alana Davis: Blame It On Me
  

I don't know who's more stupid.

The whole hullabaloo about the Democratic party's nominating process has come down to this fear that they might go to the Denver convention without a nominee in place--that the party would be weakened if the nation saw them figure this thing out. Me? I think Americans won't freak out or be put off by such a sight. They're mature enough to know that political parties are like that.

On the other hand, apparently there are a lot of Americans who thing that Barack Obama is a Muslim terrorist because his last name rhymes with a famous terrorist's first name and his middle name is an ancient Arabic name.

Maybe Americans are that stupid.

CDs listened to today:

• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Technotronic: Pump Up The Jam
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• Joggers: Solid Guild
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
  

I've been watching the mid-season replacement TV shows!

I've already mentioned how superb Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been (and continues to be) and that Cashmere Mafia is pretty bad. Terminator is about as good as the new second season gets, so far. I have yet to see Fox's New Amsterdam and Unhitched, or NBC's quarterlife, but they're sitting on my TiVo, waiting to go (I just haven't been in the mood to cover all the TV shows--even with the shortage of new stuff due to the writers' strike).

Joining Cashmere Mafia in the race to replace Sex And The City is Lipstick Jungle. Now, I have a minor crush on Kim Raver, one of the stars of this show, but even seeing her on a regular basis won't exactly save it. Three powerful New York businesswomen who still find time to have weepy lunches at the drop of a hat? Not only is it bad, it's realistic!

ABC's Thursday nights are devoted to a Lost rerun, then a new Lost episode followed by Eli Stone. I feared that Lost would suffer from its long hiatus--and the normal plot problems that come with extended serial dramas like this. It's a pleasant surprise to see that the show is actually better than last year. They've drifted away from flashbacks to the characters' pasts and now flash forward to their futures. It's added an unexpected level of intrigue. Eli Stone seems like another in a long line of programs where somebody has visions of God, or maybe visitations, or maybe the just get randomly thrown around in time (Quantum Leap, Joan Of Arcadia, Early Edition). The lead actor is charming, the gimmicks are goofy, and it just doesn't work. Maybe if it were a telenovela, limited to a short run, it might work, but the gimmicks and the aimlessness weigh this down.

CBS brings you Welcome To The Captain. It's a moderately awful sitcom with an unrequited romance, a neurotic lead, and a bunch of zany supporting characters (the Seinfeld formula, but with romance thrown in).

And on the guilty pleasure side, I can't wait for the return of Beauty And The Geek. That's just wrong...

CDs listened to today:

• Dmitri Shostakovich: The String Quartets, disk 3
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies, 1971
• Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
  

How to profit from wrongdoing.

In the race for the Democratic nomination for president, the national party saw a scramble where states moved up primary dates to try and gain additional influence (OK, the Republican state committees did this, too). The Democrats set an iron-clad rule that the traditional Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries would remain the first contests--and Florida and Michigan violated that rule. The response by the national party? They gave the states fair warning, then stripped the states of their representation at this summer's Democratic convention.

I have two thoughts about this. To those who whine about how it's not fair to those voters, they're the ones who didn't raise a fuss about the party leadership scheduling these things--not to mention they selected these genius leaders. The party has rules, the rules were clearly disclosed, and the parties in Michigan and Florida broke them. Serves them right!

But my other thought is this: these states moved the primaries to gain an advantage and increase their influence in the nomination. The penalty was to discourage this, and they did it anyways. So now, with the race for the nomination so close, there's a movement afoot to have a "do-over" for these states. In the end, their manipulations to get an added influence are now likely to succeed.

Perverse, no?

CDs listened to today:

• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• Nikolai Myaskovsky: Symphony No. 3
• Smithereens: Blow Up
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Christopher Rouse: Symphony No. 1
• Urge Overkill: Exit The Dragon
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
  

CD review time.

Kenny Wheeler's Music for Large & Small Ensembles is a fascinating two-disk set issued in 1990. At the time, Mr Wheeler was a regular associate of Dave Holland, the brilliant bassist and band leader. This was a time when Mr. Holland's small groups were playing jazz at a remarkably high level, with Mr. Wheeler contributing the odd composition as well as on trumpet. Here, Mr. Wheeler is the leader and Dave Holland plays the bass on this recording, but this is not just a continuation of the Holland group under a different brand. Kenny Wheeler is a substantial composer and soloist and this recording is proof.

As you might have guessed, the album opens with a substantial helping of big band, but has several small group settings based on members of the larger ensemble. "Big band" might not be the best description of the larger groups, "large ensemble" is definitely a better name. The bigger groupings are arranged for color and harmony and you won't find much roaring hard-swinging traditional big band stylings--and a notable difference is singer Norma Winstone singing a lot of the leads for the group. This isn't the first time a band has used a woman's voice as a lead instrument, but I've always found it an odd combination, if not unpleasant. It would be nice to hear a full-throated lead trumpet now and then to add some contrast.

The soloists on the disk are uniformly strong, although John Abercrombie's guitar sound and soloing style are a poor fit for the large group. I'm a big admirer of Mr. Abercrombie (check out his work with Jack DeJohnette's New Directions group from the 1980s), but he's best in intimate settings. Mr. Wheeler's solos are so good that one of my big objections is that he's such a generous leader who shares ample room for other soloists, we don't hear enough of his superb work. In fact, on the second disk he leaves drummer Peter Erskine and pianist John Taylor to their own devices for a series of engrossing duets, so it's a little hard to complain with such an embarrassment of riches. Outside of the minor quibbles of missing contrasts of some fast and loud, plus the oddly judged guitar work, this is a fabulous double album.

8 out of 10.

CDs listened to today:

• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba and Orchestra
• Paul Hindemith: Concertmusic for Piano, Brass, and Harps, disk 2
  
• New Radicals: Maybe You've Been Brainwashed, Too
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• James MacMillan: Veni, Veni, Emmanuel
• Prince: O(+>
  

I finally found a way to decide which global-warming policy is best.

Two of the most-discussed solutions are called "cap-and-trade" and "carbon tax". I've been pretty open to both arguments, but haven't been paying that much attention. In fact, I should have realized that the Bush administration supports the cap-and-trade method and since they've been either completely wrong or nearly completely wrong on global warming (they want you to call it "climate change" because that's less scary-sounding), this issue wouldn't be any different. After all, if you want to know what the right thing to do on a global-warming issue is, just do the opposite of whatever President Bush wants to do.

But there are more substantive reasons to support the carbon tax over the cap-and-trade scheme. The two proposals share some serious drawbacks, like the cost of enforcement and overall complexity, so I don't think either is a winner based on those considerations. But there's more to it than those two concerns.

The cap-and-trade idea is that we set a national carbon output target, then assign output caps to existing industries and other carbon dioxide sources (like personal cars) with heavy financial penalties for exceeding them. Any industrial concern that can reduce their output below their assigned cap can sell the remainder of their permitted carbon output to any other business at fair market values, allowing the buyer to exceed their cap without additional penalties. You can see how there is an incentive for industries that can easily reduce their output. They would have a financial incentive to do that and sell their remaining carbon credits.

Generally, these sorts of caps work pretty well, cutting local pollution effectively. The problem is, now you have solved your contribution to the carbon problem, but you haven't stopped China, India, Indonesia, or any other country from doing whatever they want, pollution-wise, unless they agree to this same scheme. That doesn't seem likely. So once the USA and the European Union put these caps in place, industries that can't afford the carbon regulations will simply move to countries that don't impose caps and the carbon-cap countries not only lose jobs and industries, the global carbon output doesn't just go down, the transportation component goes up! Suddenly, you have to ship all those goods a lot farther from Shanghai to Chicago on top of this, so the wealthy countries that cap their carbon effectively just export more of their dirty industries. This has already happened with other industries.

That's where the carbon tax is more effective. It doesn't care where the good was made, it only asks how efficient, carbon-wise, is the company that made it? That way, we not only stop the practice of exporting our industry to less-regulated economies, we stop exporting our pollution, too. It wouldn't matter if China didn't sign on to carbon caps, we would evaluate thier export industries and tax their goods accordingly. With this tax, cleaner US and EU goods would be competitive based on the relatively low tax they would presumably pay (not to mention a lower transport penalty) while at the same time, encouraging industries in nations that don't participate in the program to clean up their acts in order to compete in the lucrative export markets of the West.

The drawbacks for the carbon tax are that you are now asserting a form of regulatory authority over a foreign industry, which gets into difficult sovereignty issues; but we've already crossed that line by demanding that foreign goods meet minimum safety standards (Volkswagen, Ford, and Toyota already meet those rules to export to the USA and Europe). And you will find that your left-wing friends complain that we're forcing poor people in Farawayistan to pay for your miserable life of excess (and that you should wear scratchy hemp clothing, too).

I'm very much worried that without regulatory action in the United States, our industries will not be forced to innovate and be left behind when the world wakes up to the serious problem facing us. A tax program like the carbon tax would not only level the playing field for our industries, it would encourage the innovations in the field that we could then sell to businesses in other nations. All that, plus it might protect a few domestic jobs. Can the cap-and-trade idea do that?

CDs listened to today:

• Craig David: Born To Do It
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• Marc Blitzstein: Airborne Symphony
• Sarah Harmer: You Were Here
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• Henry Cowell: American Melting Pot
• Little Feat: Hoy Hoy!
  

I really don't love big cable and satellite TV companies.

Who does? Their rates go up constantly and the cable companies in particular have a really bad reputation for customer service. But none of that is what's bothering me today. It's the way they package their services that ticks me off.

You know, of course, that you want specific channels and could do without others (I personally don't know anybody who wants that dreadful jewelry shopping channel). Naturally, the channels they force on you in these packages have more to do with the interests of your TV provider than what you, or more broadly, the market wants. Does anybody honestly believe that Shop NBC is popular enough to be in DirecTV's basic package? And of course, DirecTV is owned by the same company that owns the Fox networks, so you know that any new Fox channel gets automatic placement in the lineup that we pay for, no matter how bad it is (Comcast also owns channels and practices the same preferential treatment).

I think it's time for Congress to pass the much-debated reforms to this, forcing this monopolistic practice to end. The set-top boxes are certainly able to allow you to order and view only the channels you wish to support. There's no excuse to do otherwise, except to serve the interests of these providers and not us, the viewers.

CDs listened to today:

• Joggers: Solid Guild
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• John Adams: Shaker Loops
• Beatles: With the Beatles
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large & Small Ensembles
• Ludwig van Beethoven: The String Quartets
  

So, what are the new pop songs this week?

MTV's TRL did the good old clearance sale bit again last week, shoving a bunch of oddball clips at us instead of lingering on the top ten, so a lot of what was on that, I'm ignoring (moldy oldies from Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears? Demonstrating "girl power"? No thanks...).

• The big debut this week is Flo Rida's follow-up to his huge hit, "Low". While the beat is brisker, it lacks the distinctiveness of the earlier track. I'll just be grateful when we don't have to hear about "Apple Bottom Jeans"...
• Lifehouse returns to the charts with "Whatever It Takes", another husky-voiced, sweeping anthem. Or is it a ballad? It's performed with production that's just so; note perfect in every way and as boring as perfection.
• Angels And Airwaves are back with "Secret Crowds". Perhaps it's because of fond memories for Blink 182, but this band doesn't do much for me. I find the singing weak, the playing positively lifeless, and the song insipid. Other than that, it's OK.
• Kanye West has another video out, supporting his track, "Flashing Lights". The beat is different, which is a pleasant surprise, augmented by lush strings and curiously vintage-sounding synthesizers, but Mr. West is still delivering his rhymes with the same juvenile, sing-songy cadences and while this isn't a shallow and materialistic as some of his other pieces, it's hardly interesting enough to matter. Is it just me, or is this guy as paranoid as a competitive athlete?
• With "Sky Is Over", Serj Tankian has managed to go as over the top as vintage Queen, but without the self-aware sense of humor. The pompous, self-consciously grandiose lyrics, the mock-classical piano, none of this suits his voice anyway and what's with the refrain in the middle of this mess? "Don't you want to hold me baby?" Huh?
• Ray J is joined by Yung Berg in the charming, if cheesy, "Sexy Can I". This thing is so lightweight with its lothario rap and buttery singing, you might want to make sure you don't float away when you listen. The spacious production is pretty subtle and these two are pretty winning--although I could do without the pornographic lyrics at times.

CDs listened to today:

• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Richard Wagner: Siegfried-Idyll
• Prodigy: Firestarter
• Soho: Hippychick
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
  

Nobody is safe.

That sounds a lot scarier than it is, since I'm referring to the state of retail music sales. I visited Twist and Shout, the city's largest independent music retailer, last night. They used to be about 100 yards from my house, but moved a few miles away about a year-and-a-half ago (saving me a considerable sum in impulse purchases). This was my third visit in recent months and each time, I was specifically interested in getting a particular CD. All three times, they haven't had the disk in stock, driving me to the internet for my purchase.

On last night's visit, the woman at the counter who verified that the disk wasn't in stock also confessed that the store has been in a buying freeze until recently. If this is the best store in town, with the deepest back-catalogue of older releases, how are the other places doing? Even worse? Is it all internet sales for the obscure stuff, Wal-Mart for the big releases and none of them doing as well as file-sharing?

CDs listened to today:

• Christopher Rouse: Concerto For Trombone (Christian Lindberg, soloist)
• UB40: Labour Of Love II
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Dmitri Shostakovich: The String Quartets, disk 2
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies, 1970