Piety Street Studios

V did four presentations this week, three of them in two days, two in one day.  He is pretty darned beat, except the feedback is so gratifying.

The last one was a history of R&B, with the New Orleans focus, for a class of undergrad Tulane music students.  They. Went. Wild.

Now he's been in the studio all day doing the mixes for the last few songs he didn't get finished mixing in August.  He's in a pretty good mood, despite HIS computer's screen detatching from the laptop body.  Good thing a portion of the royalties have arrived at ye agent's, which they deposit tomorrow so he can draw on these for a new thing this weekend. Then we go back to MD.

I've gotten sick.  Nothing has happened that I was expecting to accomplish while here excep the haircut and seeing a couple of friends.  I'm feeing truly rotten.  And my laptop, equipped with Windows 7, which MS didn't bother to make compatible with older router protocols lost its wireless connectivity.  So I can't get online with it.  I guess I could if I jacked directly into the router or replaced the router, neither of which I feel up to doing or feel like doing at all.  Besides, then I'd have to disconnect the desktop here in NYC from the router, and maybe the new router wouldn't be compatible with this old XP Pro system.  Since I plan to be living mostly in MD for the next few months I don't want to disturb the home system right now.

Gads computer eat our lives because the goddamned manufacturers and developers do shitty jobs at their jobs.

Testing

Nothing would post all day yesterday.  Is today different?

*OFFBEAT* Does Postmamboism -- and His Nness Too, Of Course

Canal Street Gets the Postmamboist Treatment by Zachary Young.

“Postmamboism” is a word you’re probably not familiar with. For writer and historian Ned Sublette, it’s a way of looking at the world.

“It’s a term that I made up to describe what I had done in my three books (Cuba and Its Music, The World That Made New Orleans, The Year Before the Flood),” Sublette says. “I used music to read history.” He describes postmamboism as a “portable theory that places music at the center of understanding and uses music to interrogate other fields of study.” The practice treats music as a lens through which to view other aspects of human society.

This Monday, Sublette will give a talk at UNO in which he will apply his analytical methods to the cultural history of New Orleans – or more accurately, to one specific part of it. The title of the talk is “Uptown and Downtown New Orleans as Musical Plate Tectonics,” and in this metaphor, Canal Street is the fault line.

Tonight, New Orleans

So we'er back in NYC, but Himself leaves for the airport again at 6 PM for New Orleans.

Then to U of SM on Monday night.  Back to NO Wednesday, returning to NYC Friday night.  We'll head back to C'town on Monday.

Whew.

Yesterday was a grueling as expected and feared.  I was asleep by nine AM.  That happens when the day begins at 5 AM, and very much goes on and happens in-between.

So now what?  Is it NYC that's the dream or is it C'town?

His Nness's October Schedule, So Far

10 a.m. (!), Capital Bookfest, Largo, Maryland.

Borders Largo, 931-A Capital Centre Blvd., Largo. Free. (301) 499-2173
Capital Bookfest is presently in three cities. I was at their bookfest in handsome downtown Harrisburg -- the city is an architectural marvel -- two weeks ago, and had a lovely time. I'll be at their third fair this fall as well (Charleston, SC, November 6).

There's a pick for this Largo reading (!) by Steve Kiviat in this week's Washington City Paper:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/39832/ned-sublette-at-borders-largo-october-2/


I'll be giving a talk at the University of New Orleans this coming Monday afternoon (October 4). It's open to the public . . . they made a nice poster.
Monday, October 4, 2010 • 4:30 p.m.
The University of New Orleans—Engineering 101
(corner of Founders Road/Leon C. Simon Blvd.)

And I'll be speaking at the University of Southern Mississippi (Hattiesburg) on Tuesday (5) at 6:30 p.m. in Bennett Auditorium . . . Haven't seen the poster yet . . .

Other dates, these musical:
October 15 in Baltimore, at Joe Squared (on a program with Madison Bell and the Forgetters) http://www.joesquared.com/?page_id=2

October 21 in NYC, a solo evening-with-ned at the David Rubenstein Atrium, and it's free. www.lincolncenter.org/.../Target_Free_Sept_Dec_2010_Release_FINAL_8_26_10.pdf

Of Sun, None, Today, But Saturday Was Bright

Too bad I can no long post out of my flickr account without making it public to all and sundry.  Photobucket leaches out brightness and contrast.  O well, you get the idea.

David Simon Got a MacArthur / *Treme* Soundtrack CD Out

DAVID SIMON, who has produced and written “The Wire” and “Treme” for HBO, is among the 23 new MacArthur Grant winners.

The "Treme" soundtrack song list for season 1:

1. “Treme Song” (main title version) -- John Boutté
2. “Feel Like Funkin' it Up” (live street mix) -- Rebirth Brass Band
3. “I Hope You're Comin' Back to New Orleans” -- The New Orleans Jazz Vipers
4. “Skokiaan” -- Kermit Ruffins & The Barbecue Swingers
5. “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” – Trombone Shorty & James Andrews
6. “Drinka Little Poison (4 U Die)” -- Soul Rebels Brass Band & John Mooney
7. “We Made it Through That Water” -- Free Agents Brass Band
8. “Shame, Shame, Shame” – Steve Zahn and Friends
9. “My Indian Red” – Dr. John
10. “At the Foot of Canal Street” – John Boutte, Paul Sanchez, Glen David Andrews & New Birth Brass Band
11. “Buona Sera” – Louis Prima
12. “New Orleans Blues” – Tom McDermott & Lucia Micarelli
13. “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance” Michiel Huisman, Lucia Micarelli & Wendell Pierce
14. “Indian Red” (Wild Man memorial) – Mardi Gras Indians
15. “Indian Red” – Donald Harrison
16. “Time is on My Side” – Irma Thomas & Allen Toussaint
17. “This City” – Steve Earle
18. “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” – Treme Brass Band19. “My Darlin’ New Orleans” – Li’l Queenie & the Percolators