John Coltrane - Meditations
⭐️

Least Favorite: “The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost” - 13 minutes of free jazz noise

Favorite: “Compassion” - Finally, something with a little shape and direction!

For years I’ve been trying to get someone at DC or Marvel to create an art book titled “Lichtenstein in Context” reprinting the stories he plagiarized as RL would have seen them (no modern recoloring) and giving the proceeds to the artists or their families. Sell it in museum gift shops.

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
⭐️⭐️

I think this is more interest in concept than in execution. It’s too unfocused and monotonous for my taste.

Favorite: “Pursuance” - killer extended piano solo

Least favorite: “Pursuance” - dull extended drum solo

Oh, the weirdest was Crested Butte, Colorado.

By far.

They make clothes out of big leafy plants and march through the streets wearing leaves and nothing else.

And this was only the SECOND weirdest small-town July 4th parade I have been to.

We were in Skagway, Alaska (pop. 1,200) for July 4th this year. The parade was a trip:

John Coltrane - Blue Train
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Favorite: “Blue Train” - especially when the double-time drum feel kicks in
“Lazy Bird” - I love the horn background lines. Simple, but perfect.

Least favorite: “I’m Old Fashioned”

Instead of being the BEGINNING of an extended festival, Christmas Day now marks the CONCLUSION of a prolonged period of celebration. In modern American culture, Christmastime is a season in which we ANTICIPATE the coming of Christmas Day, not a season FOLLOWING Christmas Day.
29/x

But as @nadijarieser.bsky.social recently demonstrated, it should be noted that Dickens might be guilty of creating false impressions of Victorian customs. Modern readers (like me!) who extrapolate too much from a work of fiction may be drawing erroneous conclusions. 6/x

Somehow I doubt that Mark Cuban has had to engage with the health care system in the same way most people have to. He may not be in the best position to truly grasp the ways that American health care fails regular people on a regular basis.

I have a sealed 4-pack of Maxell XLIIs squirreled away somewhere

John Coltrane - My Favorite Things
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Hot take: longer tracks mean longer, meandering solos without the benefit of changing up the groove, feel, key, etc.

Favorite: “Every Time We Say Goodbye”

Least favorite: “My Favorite Things” - he abandons the changes and solos over just 2 chords for AGES.

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John Coltrane - Giant Steps
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Very deserving of all the superlatives and accolades.

Favorites: “Giant Steps”
“Spiral”
“Naima”

Least favorite: It feels wrong to name anything! But I’ll go with “Countdown,” because for the first 30-40 seconds it is not much more than a frenzied flurry of notes.

Graham Collier - Workpoints
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Very interesting… experimental and avant garde. Works well as background music. Disc 2 is better than Disc 1.

Favorites: “Under the Pier”
“Clear Moon”
“Workpoints, part 1” - nice trombone section work!

Least favorite: “Workpoints, part 4” - too much drum solo

I marched at more college bowl games in high school than I did in college

Oh, absolutely!