* Musica Baltica (Musica Antiqua Köln/Goebel) (Archiv Produktion CD)
* Kurtág: Játékok (ECM CD)
* Miles
Davis: Live At The Fillmore East 3/7/70: It’s About That Time (Columbia/Legacy
2CD)
* Stan Getz
& Charlie Byrd: Jazz Samba (Verve CD)
* Bill
Evans: Trio 64 (Verve CD)
* Bobby
Hutcherson: Patterns (Blue Note CD)
* Bobby
Hutcherson: Components (Blue Note CD)
* Oregon:
Out Of The Woods (Elektra LP)
* Rodger
Coleman & Sam Byrd: Cosmologies (LP mix) (WAV)
* Miguel:
Kaleidoscope World (RCA CD)†
* Frank Ocean: Channel Orange (Island/Def Jam CD)†
* Jimi
Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold As Love (Columbia/Legacy LP)
* Grateful Dead: Merriweather Post
Pavilion, Columbia, MD 1985-06-30 (selections) (SBD 2CDR)
* Can: Ege
Bamyasi (Spoon SACD)
* Conrad
Schnitzler: Ballet Statique (Egg/m=minimal LP)
* Buckingham
Nicks: Buckingham Nicks (Polydor LP)
* Stevie
Nicks: Belladonna (Modern/Warner Bros. LP)
* Chrome:
The Visitation (Siren/Cleopatra LP)
* Helios
Creed: Boxing The Clown (Amphetamine Reptile LP)
* Helios
Creed: Lactating Purple (Amphetamine Reptile LP)
* Helios
Creed: Galactic Octopi (Transparency 2LP)
* The Dream
Syndicate: The Days Of Wine & Roses (Slash/Warner Bros. LP)
* Revolting
Cocks: Stainless Steel Providers (Wax Trax 12”)
* Buckethead:
Colma (CyberOctave CD)
*
Buckethead: Electric Tears (Meta CD)
* Wilco:
Wilco (the album) (Nonesuch LP)
* The Mars Volta: De-Loused In The
Comatorium (GSL/Universal CD)
* The Mars Volta: The Widow (selections) (GSL/Universal CDEP)
* The Mars Volta: Frances The Mute
(GSL/Universal CD)
* The Mars Volta: Amuptecture
(GSL/Universal CD)
* Isis:
Celestial (Ipecac CD)
* Mastodon:
Call Of The Mastodon (Relapse LP)
* YOB: The
Unreal Never Lived (Metal Blade CD)
* Torche:
Meanderthal (Robotic Empire/Hydra Head LP)
* Torche:
Harmonicraft (Volcom LP)
* Pelican:
Arktika (Live From Russia) (Southern Lord CD)
* Kvelertak:
Meir (Roadrunner 2LP)
* True
Widow: Circumambulation (Relapse LP)
* Windhand:
Soma (Relapse 2LP)
* Nothing:
Guilty of Everything (Relapse LP) (†)(‡)
†=iPod/iTunes
‡=car
Commentary:
So I'm
sitting on the front porch this morning having a cup of coffee and I sleepily
observe this car smash into a hapless grey squirrel, the impact registering with an awful, explosive
“pop.” Jolted awake, I watch as the car continues on its way while the squirrel
spasms and leaps—alarmingly, uncontrollably—down the road, leaving a trail of
pinkish blood in its wake. I’m thinking, “Wow. What a terrible way to start the
day.”
As I witness this horrible tableau unfold, a woman drives by from the
opposite direction, stops her car, gets out and, grabbing the squirrel by its
still twitching tail, throws it into our yard. "Thanks a lot," I
thought to myself. But then I thought how strange it was for her to have done such
a thing. I hope she went straight home and washed her hands—and her steering
wheel.
I knew it
wouldn't be long until the buzzards showed up, so I went inside and grabbed my Nikon,
with my longest telephoto lens attached. Now, I know turkey vultures freak some
people out—omens of death and all that—but I think they are magnificent birds, so big and slow it’s amazing they can get airborne. Yet they
soar the skies with eyes so acute they can spot a bloodied varmint from a mile
up. No, they won’t win any beauty contests, but they perform a valuable
service, cleaning up road-kill—like the unfortunate squirrel in our front yard. Sure enough,
a gaggle of vultures showed up in no time all.
Here’s a fun fact: turkey
vultures mate for life and can go for days and weeks or months without food. So while one dominant
male aggressively tore into the fresh squirrel meat, an elder matron kept watch for
circling red-tail hawks, only having a nibble after the others had
flown into the trees, panicked by passing cars. I was simultaneously revolted and fascinated by what I was witnessing through the viewfinder, which blacked out momentarily as the shutter clicked
open and closed. Minutes passed and I couldn’t help but get some pretty
gruesome shots. Still, I kept shooting.
Later this
afternoon, I opened the files on my computer and my jaw dropped—and my stomach
turned. What I had barely been able to see while peering through the dim viewfinder glowed
large and vivid on the screen, realer than real. I edited some of the simple
“portraits,” like the serenely matriarchal lookout and some of the others (mostly sans
carrion) and uploaded them to Flickr.
There was one photograph that still haunts me: the buzzard has dragged the squirrel out into the street and I captured the moment where he lets the poor creature drop from his beak. In that split second, the dessicated squirrel, warm, wet guts protruding from his mouth, appears to stand one last time on his hind legs as the vulture looks down, mocking him with a gleefully open mouth. I call it “The Dance of Life and Death.”
There was one photograph that still haunts me: the buzzard has dragged the squirrel out into the street and I captured the moment where he lets the poor creature drop from his beak. In that split second, the dessicated squirrel, warm, wet guts protruding from his mouth, appears to stand one last time on his hind legs as the vulture looks down, mocking him with a gleefully open mouth. I call it “The Dance of Life and Death.”
2 comments:
Ugh. Yeah, I don't think I need to see those pictures. All this over coffee? Wow.
And who the hell was that woman?! President of the clean road vigilante club? Ick!
A little late, but here are my lists from last week:
Playlist 2014-03-17:
*Miles Davis: 1970-04-09 Fillmore West (CDR)
*Miles Davis: Black Beauty
*Dawn of Midi: Dysnomia
*Mary Halvorson: 2009-03-21 NYC (CDR)
*Mary Halvorson Septet: Illusionary Sea
*Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: 2009-01-07 The Stone, NYC (CDR)
*Ingrid Laubrock/Dan Peck/Tom Rainey: 2012-05-11 Moers (CDR)
*MAP (Tatsuya Nakatani, Mary Halvorson & Reuben Radding): 2009-05-21 NYC (CDR)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2014-02-24 “Allow Paper To Dry” (wav)
*New Ting Ting Loft: 2014-03-15 Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring MD (wav)
*Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble: 2010-05-13 Koln (Break-Ups) (CDR)
*Cecil Taylor Unit: 1973-12-28 NYC (CDR)
*Cecil Taylor Trio: 1975-06-09 Village Gate (CDR)
*Cecil Taylor Trio: 1975 Philadelphia (CDR)
*Cecil Taylor: 3 Phasis (side 1)
*Sun Ra: Great Live Gilmore (cassette compilation)
*Beach Boys: Made in California (disc 5)
*Charles Bradley: No Time for Dreaming
*Bill Bruford: Feels Good to Me
*Elvis Costello: Trust
*Mike Elder/Harry Forrest/Greg Jordan/Sam Byrd: 2014-03-07 (wav)
*Tex Goldstein: Horse In The Teepee (Bandcamp)
*Guided By Voices: The Bears for Lunch
*High Llamas: Talahomi Way
*Jefferson Pilot: Hello Mississippi
*Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings: Give the People What They Want
*King Crimson: The Road to Red (disc 16)
*Dan Penn: The Fame Recordings
*Stooges: Fun House
Reading List 2014-03-17:
*King, Stephen. The Dark Tower (Dark Tower VII) (reread/started)
*King, Stephen. Song of Susannah (Dark Tower VI) (reread/finished)
*Weldon, Michael J. Psychotronic Video Guide (in progress)
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