Van Dyke Parks’s windshield

“My windshield is bigger than my rear view mirror”: Van Dyke Parks, responding to a question about whether music was more fun forty-five years ago. From an interview with the Louisville Eccentric Observer. VDP opens for Fleet Foxes tonight in Louisville.

[I know: the URL reads van-dyke-parkss-mirrors. I’m not sure what I was thinking.]

Word of the day: non-trending

I was happy yesterday to think up the word non-trending as a way to describe what one hears on WKCR-FM (mostly classical music and jazz). It turns out though that non-trending is — dang — already a word. In which case, I’ve repurposed it to mean not “unpopular” but “of permanent interest.” Homer and Sappho are non-trending.

The verb trend means “to show a tendency,” “to become deflected.” Trending, which comes us to us via Twitter, involves only one tendency: toward short-lived popularity. The word itself seems marked for a short life. As Jesse Kornbluth writes, “This time next year, I won’t be at all surprised to read that trending is ‘just soooo 2011.’”

[I found Kornbluth’s piece via Submitted for Your Perusal. Matt Thomas reads the Sunday New York Times far more thoroughly than I do.]

Brown October

[Life, October 3, 1955.]

When I found this ad (by chance, natch), I suspected that there’s more to an Ann Page Bean Bake than meets the eye. And I don’t mean the dish’s invisible ingredients (onion, oregano, and “salad oil”). I mean the phrase “brown October.” It comes from John Greenleaf Whittier’s 1866 poem “Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl”:

The mug of cider simmered slow,
The apples sputtered in a row,
And close at hand the basket stood
With nuts from brown October’s wood.

This poem of course was once beloved, wildly popular stuff. (And no doubt still is, here and there.) I assume the ad involves an allusion, meant to be recognized. You can keep brown October’s Bean Bake, but pass the cider and nuts, please.

Related posts
Alkalize with Alka-Seltzer (and James Russell Lowell)
Blue October (and Helen Hunt Jackson)

Jo Jones Centennial Festival

[“Closeup of percussionist Jo Jones at cymbals at recording session for film Jammin’ the Blues, being directed by photographer Gjon Mili.” Photograph by Gjon Mili. Hollywood, California. October 10, 1944. From the Life Photo Archive.]

Now playing, and playing until noon, October 8: the Jo Jones Centennial Festival on WKCR-FM. Papa Jo Jones, drummer extraordinaire, was born on October 7, 1911.

WKCR-FM is one of the great resources for non-trending music. The station is hurting: throw some money its way if you like what you hear.

[Thanks to Music Clip of the Day for spreading the news.]

Blue October

[Poster by Albert M. Bender. Made by the Illinois WPA Art Project for the WPA Statewide Library Project. Stamped August 30, 1940. From the Library of Congress’s online archive American Memory.]

“October’s Bright Blue Weather” is the title of a poem by Helen Hunt Jackson. It begins,

O suns and skies and clouds of June,
    And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
    October’s bright blue weather

What are you reading as bright blue October begins? Me, William Lindsay Gresham’s Monster Midway (1954), on carnivals and carnies.

“Dear Blogger”

Lisa Hirsch at Iron Tongue of Midnight has something to say to Blogger:

You will have to tear my current template from my cold, dead fingers before I replace it with the unreadable, photo-blog-oriented crap you're currently pushing. What is wrong with you?

“Unreadable, photo-blog-oriented crap” is another name for Blogger’s new Dynamic Views templates, which look to my eyes like a self-parodic exercise in distraction. Dynamic Views might bring a temporary increase in page loads, as people click on snippets out of curiosity, but I suspect that the novelty would soon wear off and become off-putting. Why? Because the design doesn’t respect the reader’s investment of time and attention. See for yourself:

[The Official Gmail Blog in Mosaic view. Click for a larger view.]

I’ve clicked on the “Send feedback” button on the Gmail Blog (bottom-right corner) and added my 2¢. You might want to do the same.

A related post
The new Blogger interface

Domestic comedy

“I never met a substitute chord I didn’t like.”

Related reading
All domestic comedy posts (via Pinboard)

[Elaine and I were playing pre-dinner-party music, violin and guitar, for a good cause (the Y): “Autumn Leaves,” “Lullaby of the Leaves,” “On a Little Street in Singapore,” “Pennies from Heaven,” “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “Mood Indigo,” “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”, and “When Day Is Done.” If you’re wondering about substitute chords, this Wikipedia article should leave you thoroughly confused.]

Recently updated

Kindle Fire kindles fears: Amazon’s response to the question of whether it will track browsing and alter its offerings accordingly: “no.”

Linda Hunt on acting

From a profile of Linda Hunt:

“I couldn’t imagine any other life for myself. This happens to kids who are different in any way. How am I going to make a life? Who am I going to be when I grow up? Will there be a place for me in the world? Acting gave me a sense of purpose, but it also gave me a sense that I would survive, that I would find my place.”

Jace Lacob, The Cult of Linda Hunt (The Daily Beast)

Boston, 1984: Elaine and I were fortunate to see Linda Hunt in the Boston Shakespeare Company’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage (dir. Peter Sellars). What a performance. The music was by Van Dyke Parks, long before I knew his name.

♥

Happy anniversary, Elaine.

[Twenty-seven years!]