Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Randy Newman - Dixie Flyer
R. Newman is, when you look behind his reputation with the public at large (based mostly on "Short People" and the Toy Story movies), a writer of some very sad, sweet, and strange songs. Here's a perfect example.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Krugman on the Continuing Crisis
I was thinking that it makes me feel bad when Krugman tells the truth, but then realized that it doesn't make me feel as bad as when the Foxbots don't.
Consider, in particular, what is happening to America’s manufacturing base. In normal times manufacturing capacity rises 2 or 3 percent every year. But faced with a persistently weak economy, industry has been reducing, not increasing, its productive capacity. At this point, according to Federal Reserve estimates, manufacturing capacity is almost 5 percent lower than it was in December 2007.
What this means is that if and when a real recovery finally gets going, the economy will run into capacity constraints and production bottlenecks much sooner than it should. That is, the weak economy, which is partly the result of budget-cutting, is hurting the future as well as the present.
Consider, in particular, what is happening to America’s manufacturing base. In normal times manufacturing capacity rises 2 or 3 percent every year. But faced with a persistently weak economy, industry has been reducing, not increasing, its productive capacity. At this point, according to Federal Reserve estimates, manufacturing capacity is almost 5 percent lower than it was in December 2007.
What this means is that if and when a real recovery finally gets going, the economy will run into capacity constraints and production bottlenecks much sooner than it should. That is, the weak economy, which is partly the result of budget-cutting, is hurting the future as well as the present.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Al Kooper - The Great American Marriage/Nothing
Another song from long ago, but not quite so long ago as the previous one.
Tangle Eye Blues
Got busy and didn't post yesterday, so two today. First is a song by a prisoner in Parchman Farm penitentiary in Mississippi, recorded by Alan Lomax in the late 1940s. I don't have the liner notes so unfortunately can't provide the singer's name.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Jimi Hendrix - If 6 Was 9
Mr H left us on this date a long time ago now. This is the song with the line, "I'm the one that's going to have to die when it's time for me to die...so let me live my life...the way I want to."
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Benny Golson - Out Of Nowhere
A curiosity.
A friend recently loaned me a CD reissue of an album from 1962 that was one of those recordings meant to demonstrate the wonders of stereo. Benny Golson was hired to create arrangements of jazz standards in two forms: a jazz version and a "pop" version. The pop version would have strings, the other would have jazz horn players. (The musicians themselves were all A-list, including Eric Dolphy and Bill Evans.) The kicker is that the two versions would share the piano/bass/drums rhythm section, and the pop version would play in one stereo channel with the jazz version in the other. Therefore, according to the liner notes, the buyer would get three times as much entertainment: listen only to the left channel for the pop version, only to the right for the jazz, or both together for...something else.
Which is what this version is. Try listening to one side at a time.
A friend recently loaned me a CD reissue of an album from 1962 that was one of those recordings meant to demonstrate the wonders of stereo. Benny Golson was hired to create arrangements of jazz standards in two forms: a jazz version and a "pop" version. The pop version would have strings, the other would have jazz horn players. (The musicians themselves were all A-list, including Eric Dolphy and Bill Evans.) The kicker is that the two versions would share the piano/bass/drums rhythm section, and the pop version would play in one stereo channel with the jazz version in the other. Therefore, according to the liner notes, the buyer would get three times as much entertainment: listen only to the left channel for the pop version, only to the right for the jazz, or both together for...something else.
Which is what this version is. Try listening to one side at a time.
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