Dark Stars...

In the mid-seventies, The NME Book of Rock tersely stated that by 1972 the Grateful Dead "had become rather an embarrassment to all but their most dedicated following". The Rolling Stone Record Guide described them as "a sporadically successful big-time jam band [with a] reputation for great length and relatively little musical precision". Thankfully, the advent of the CD, and a mindbogglingly large back catalogue of live CDs and bootlegs (the Dead encouraged, rather than decried, their fans' enthusiasm for taping their shows) has rehabilitated their reputation. I haven't listened to a whole lot of their work, but recently I've been putting on various versions of their magnum opus 'Dark Star', a short song that was usually the launching pad for immensely long and abstract improvisations. The Deadlists Project lists nearly 230 versions of the piece that are known to exist as recordings, along with partial versions, and their own recommendations. It seems generally agreed that the most crucial recordings are from September 21st, 1972, in Philadelphia (available on Dick's Picks Vol. 36) and November 11th, 1973, in Winterland (only available on a 7-CD set of the complete Winterland concerts; in size, though, this collection pales before the 73-disc (!) Europe 1972 box set, which includes, I believe, every concert from the tour, retailing on Amazon US for a mere $835!) There are many others, though, and every Deadhead has there own favourite. So here, culled from the wonderful YouTube, are a few of the complete versions that are floating around, arranged in chronological order for your convenience. I haven't listened to them all yet, but I will be doing so as the week goes on. I've noted ones that tend to turn up on a lot of Top Ten lists (of which many exist online). Enjoy! 

Fillmore East, NY: 2/27/69 (Highly Recommended)


Fillmore West: 6/7/69


Winterland: 10/25/69


Family Dog: 11/2/69


St Louis: 2/2/70


Rotterdam: 5/11/72 (Recommended: this is noted as being the longest version ever recorded, but does include that most tiresome of 1970s' musical devices, the lengthy drum solo. For those, like me, who like to skip over them, it starts at around 13.30 and finishes around 19.30)


Veneto, Oregon: 8/27/72 (Recommended)


Long Beach, CA: 12/15/72


Chicago: 2/22/73


Cleveland: 12/6/73 (Highly Recommended)


Winterland: 2/24/74 (Recommended)


Minnesota: 5/14/74


Florida: 6/23/74


Miami: 10/26/89 (Highly Recommended)

One Of Those "No Way" Moments (VI)

I recently purchased a copy of Nobuhiko Obayashi's House, a film described on the back of the DVD box as "one of Japanese cinema's wildest supernatural ventures". Seeing as Japanese cinema can be pretty wild at the best of times, I am intrigued to see what this "bubblegum teen melodrama [which usually interests me not at all] and grisly phantasmagoria [now yer talkin'!]" was actually like. But what I want to share with you is a quote taken from the booklet accompanying the film, spoken by the vice-president of Toho Studios, Isao Matsuoka, when presented with the film's initial script.

"I don't understand the story at all. This is the first time I have seen such a meaningless script. But maybe it's a good thing that I don't understand. Please do not try to make it into something I can comprehend."

Now there's an attitude that's sadly lacking in cinema today*! Although the booklet does point out that it was more reflective of the studio's financial desperation than of Mr Matsuoka's visionary qualities...

*If anyone can point me in the direction of contemporary films to which the above description applies, I'd be grateful...

Season's Greetings

Naturally of an atrabilarious temperament (I love that word!), and having spent far too many Xmases serving food to drunken work parties all desperately pretending by shouting and singing that they were having a jolly old time, the spirit of the season is something I recoil from like a hound who once licked an electric fence. However, there is something to be said for a time of year when, rather than shoving through crowded streets to buy junk we don't need to the sound of advertisers' jingles, we take time to contemplate life, with its attendant joys and travails, in the company of people we care about. In that spirit, I hope that anyone who may read this is having a good holiday, and I attach a piece of music which has nothing to do with Christmas, but which I think is really beautiful.

Two Photographs

Please excuse the slightly gruesome nature of the second photograph (although it's little different from the wreckage left after a satisfied gourmet pushes away a plate of devoured chicken wings).

The little things...

Wexford Sights (XXXIII)

"I ... was waiting for a bus and I happened to look at the pavement and I noticed that the experience of looking at the pavement was the same as the experience of looking at a [Mark] Tobey [painting] ... the aesthetic enjoyment was just as high." John Cage.

I can't say I fully agree with the sentiments expressed in that statement, but the above image, the surface of an old tree, does remind me of an abstract painting...

A Photo for Jams

The Error of Pessimism II

[Warning: Some of you may find the photograph below, of a dead bird embryo, upsetting, so if you're squeamish, please don't look...]

I was walking in the woods earlier this afternoon when I saw the dead bird embryo next to its egg on the path in front of me. There was another nearby, but this one looked so vulnerable and pathetic that I had to take its picture. I imagine that it fell (or was pushed) out of a nest high above. After seeing this, I was depressed for hours, but the aesthetician in me (if such an ungainly word exists) liked the colour and composition of the photo enough to feel like posting it. And this is as much a part of Nature as the sweep of a landscape bathed in sunlight, or the beautiful intricacy of a flower. The photograph is below the video (so that the potential reader has a chance to read the warning before seeing it).

The Error of Pessimism

John O'Byrne wrote the following letter into The Irish Times on Saturday, May 15th, on the gloomy article written by Morgan Kelly on Ireland's economic future (see here):

Madam, – The Cambridge economist AC Pigou, writing in 1920, is worth quoting in the context of Morgan Kelly’s doom-laden economic prognosis and solutions. “The error of optimism dies in the crisis but in dying it gives birth to an error of pessimism. This new error is born, not an infant, but a giant.” Our leading economists appear to be afflicted with giant doses of this condition.

It's a shame he didn't think about the absurdity of quoting a comment on the error of pessimism from 1920, seeing as the following thirty years brought the Great Depression; the rise of fascism and Uncle Joe Stalin in Russia; the Second World War; the Holocaust; the invention of the atomic bomb and its use of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and the Cold War. Sometimes pessimism is just another word for realism.

(This is not a return from hibernation, by the way; I read the letter this morning and became so incensed that I felt the need to respond.)

Hibernation

Due to health and other reasons, A Doubtful Egg is going into hibernation for a while. Whether that "a while" will be a few weeks, or forever, remains to be seen. Thanks to everyone who came to visit or left a comment here. 

Wexford Sights (XXXII)

Last year I wrote a brief post about a robin that flew headlong into a window in my house and died before my eyes. I thought that history was about to repeat itself earlier today when I saw the above-pictured bird slamming into the glass in our kitchen. Thankfully, it was unhurt, and is pictured in my partner's hands (she insisted that I point out that she was gardening previously, and that her hands are not normally that dirty). 

An Amusement (XXVIX)

Terry Gilliam on Walerian Borowczyk's astounding 1964 film Les Jeux des Anges (which translates as The Games of Angels, I believe):

"Walerian Borowczyk was a twisted man whose films were infused with a unique cruelty and weirdness. He started out making extraordinary animations, graduated to directing classics such as Goto, Island of Love and La Bete, and then ended up directing Emmanuelle 5, which I think is a perversely fitting end. Les Jeux des Anges was my first experience of animation that was utterly impressionistic. It didn't show me anything specific, just sound and movement from which you create a world of your own."

What more encouragement do you need? 

Wexford Sights (XXXI)

The sunrise in the field behind my house. 

Wexford Sights (XXX)

Pictured above is a section of a fallen tree on Oulart Hill in County Wexford. I went up there after casting my vote, a depressing experience if ever there was one. We'll know sometime tomorrow who the next puppets of the IMF Government will be. It's likely to be led by Fine Gael, in which case, God help the poor and low-paid in our society. 

Two Landscapes

Ireland goes to the polls tomorrow to elect a new government. It's an election-free zone here because, to be honest, I can't think of anything to write about it except for the following. I have not seen a single candidate since the election was called three weeks ago except on a poster, and here is a comment I left over at the Cedar Lounge Revolution blog (and I hope they don't mind me reprinting it here): "David McWilliams (who may not be the most reliable source) claims that by the end of 2012 the interest payments alone on our debts will be E12 billion (out of a tax take of E30 billion). I think that a whole lot of people just haven’t grasped what “financial constraints” means in this context ... I am really frightened over what is going to happen in the next five years; a 2013 Lockout won’t be the half of it. Is it possible to have any optimism at all in these circumstances?"

Anyway, above are two landscapes. The top is of the Hook Lighthouse, possibly the most photographed building in the whole of the South East of Ireland (it's also been the subject of an awful lot of really bad amateur paintings). It was a really grey, stormy day, and spectacularly beautiful (if a little scary at times, especially when you're trying to manhandle a tripod and keep your balance on uneven ground). The bottom picture is of the rust on an old winch, which was quite close to where the first picture was taken.

Here's a film. The quality is poor at first, so stick with it...