tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55178577785684665972024-03-13T11:52:59.458-04:00Blind William's Commonplace BookThe red light was my mind.BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.comBlogger383125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-44090477795354001492012-01-02T14:31:00.002-05:002012-01-02T14:31:44.352-05:00DownsizingWe're moving this site exclusively to our Annex. Too much and not enough.BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-1246383135842444362011-10-09T08:50:00.001-04:002011-10-09T08:51:25.242-04:00Lawrence Jackson Reads Well
Ellison seems free of an enormous subconscious drive to incorporate and surpass the achievements of the local "father" figures Richard Wright and langston Hughes. In fact, Ellison's intellectual point is precisely that he did not have to engage...because there were already writers of global significance to battle against for his writer's identity.
--Lawrence Jackson, "Ellison's InventedBlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-31333914461971366392011-09-24T07:37:00.000-04:002011-09-24T07:37:21.202-04:00The Cinematic Foundations of Native Son, Pt. 2
There are only traces of Trader Horn, the movie Bigger watches w/ Jack and Doc. We're gonna keep the pictures in our eyes.BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-24581626096193040042011-09-17T10:24:00.001-04:002011-09-17T10:24:50.510-04:00What Crate Digging Looks Like on Paper
Go here after you look at the picture. You'll wish that Dr. Wald spent a bit more time posting the scans from the Defender.BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-51403003368835958452011-09-17T08:48:00.000-04:002011-09-17T08:48:06.476-04:00The Musical Foundations of Native Son, Pt. 6
"They listened to the pipe organ. It was humming so low that it could scarcely be heard. There were times when it seemed to stop altogether; then it would surge forth again, mellow, nostalgic, sweet."
Maybe the most telling of all musical references in the book. BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-48319046535578561682011-09-04T07:28:00.001-04:002011-09-04T07:28:32.223-04:00The Musical Foundation of Native Son, Pt. 5
"He sat at the table. The odor of frying bacon and boiling coffee drifted to him from behind the curtain. His mother's voice floated to him in song.
Life is like a mountain railroad
With an engineer that's brave
We must make the run successful
From the cradle to the grave....
"The song irked him and he was glad when she stopped and BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-11300231872871291212011-09-03T06:22:00.001-04:002011-09-03T06:23:17.022-04:00The Musical Foundation of Native Son, Pt. 4
"Bigger walked to the front of the store and stood looking out the plate glass window. The, suddenly, he felt sick. He saw Gus coming along the street. And his muscles stiffened. He was going to do something to Gus; just hat, he didn't know. As Gus neared him he heard him whistling: 'The Merry Go Round Broke Down....'
"'Hi, BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-1357181243257370372011-09-02T07:13:00.000-04:002011-09-02T07:13:43.038-04:00The Musical Foundations of Native Son, Pt. 3
Noiselessly, he went up the steps and inserted his key in the lock; the door swung in silently and he heard his mother singing behind the curtain.
Lord, I want to be a Christian,
In my heart, in my heart,
Lord, I want to be a Christian
In my heart, in my heart....
He tiptoed into the room and lifted the top matress of his bed and pulled forth the gun and slipped it inside his shirt. &BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-35353009800738658892011-09-01T07:01:00.001-04:002011-09-01T07:03:37.289-04:00The Musical Foundation of Native Son, Pt. 2
"Say, Jan, do you know many negroes? I want to meet some."
"I don't know any very well. But you'll meet them when you're in the party."
"The have so much emotion! What a people! If we could ever get them going..."
"We can't have a revolution without 'em," Jan said. "They've got BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-84107169506126546672011-08-31T06:40:00.000-04:002011-08-31T06:40:23.555-04:00F/ the Archives
We posted a stash of wonderful sound recordings from the LoC of Zora Neale Hurston helping the anthropologizer man work on his street over @ the blue light. Recently we found a fuller stash @ the Florida archives, and though we'll liberate 'em in a later post for those of you who can't hardly wait, we urge you to hop a ride on the Internets Mass Transit Authority and stop here for 2ns, here forBlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-85309906183749649432011-08-31T06:27:00.001-04:002011-08-31T06:45:39.398-04:00A Note or Two While We're Reorganizing...We know we've been gone for a while now, and for that we offer our apologies to the small audience who strays by, even leave the occasional stone in the pile. The leadership @ Jackson Negative, our corporate sponsor and motivating force, is on a retreat, promising to come back with a strategic plan. That's the way it is w/ corporate leaders.
It's not like we're not working, though. Give us BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-29057918048872337182011-08-20T05:47:00.000-04:002011-08-20T05:47:46.379-04:00Close Reading
Just a reminder...BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-2807862804501252732011-07-18T06:53:00.002-04:002011-07-18T06:57:44.283-04:00Body and Soul: Redux
As we continue the Book of Richard, we find these words:
"...but even after obeying, after killing, they still ruled him. He was their property, heart and soul, body and blood; what they did claimed him sleeping and waking; it colored life and dictated the terms of death."
The easy thing to do with this passage, even all of Native Son, is to run the critique of the gangsta stance, from BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-72478479763748442072011-07-15T06:43:00.001-04:002011-08-20T05:38:34.992-04:00The Blues Keep on Coming
We 'a post up a devilin' versionology, maybe this weekend, but we 'a say two things early. 1) 'tunes have developed the groove to carry this one, even if it is not as thoroughly minimal as their signature grooves. 2) This may mot be the most lyrically explosive example of what either Pusha or Tyler have done, but we can say that, even w/out the video, which promises to be interestingBlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-2772843393422795352011-07-14T07:57:00.000-04:002011-07-14T07:57:04.813-04:00Glimpses
"Portrait of the Artist's Mother," Henry Ossawa Tanner (1897).
BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-87066063041813659682011-07-14T07:53:00.000-04:002011-07-14T07:53:31.095-04:00Glimpses
"The Annunciation," Henry Ossawa Tanner (1898). we do not think the power of this painting can be understated.
BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-40543366145551237142011-07-11T07:04:00.000-04:002011-09-04T07:29:08.099-04:00The Musical Foundation of Native Son
We will put up a longer post on the what's in your headphones when you read Native Son. Suffice it to say that the book of Richard, or at least this chapter, is more skeptical than either the book of Langston or the book of Ralph.
Mark this highly nuanced passage:
"The singing filled his ears; it was complete, self-contained, and it mocked his fear and loneliness, his deep BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-76527753683503624372011-07-11T06:46:00.000-04:002011-07-11T06:46:40.483-04:00The Cinematic Foundation of Native Son
After polishing his nightstick:
"He frowned in the darkened movie, hearing the roll of tom-toms and the creams of black men and women dancing free and wild, men and women who were adjusted to their soil and at home in their world, secure from fear and hysteria."
-- Richard WrightBlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-72115992410598484752011-07-11T06:39:00.000-04:002011-07-11T06:39:37.804-04:00Where We're Coming From
"Many eyes in the room were fastened upon Bigger now, cold grey and blue eyes, eyes whose tense hate was worse than a shout or a curse."
-- Richard Wright, Native SonBlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-37578815611329623332011-07-03T08:57:00.000-04:002011-07-03T08:57:23.081-04:00What We're Hearing: Street/Opera
Woke up this morning, devilin' on the mind. As we listened to the Geto Boys, we came back to the crossover tension of the streets. It's one of those Xeno's paradoxes, dig? The closer you get to the other side, not matter which way you're going -- to the unnaground or to your piece of the pie -- you still have an infinite distance to traverse. It's like that, and that's BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-15299635293965418362011-07-02T07:32:00.000-04:002011-07-02T07:32:37.369-04:00Ornette's Crossroads
One day, I walked into a place that was full of gambling and prostitution, people arguing, and I saw a woman get stabbed—then I thought that I had to get out of there. I told my mother that I didn't want to play this music anymore because I thought that I was only adding to all that suffering. She replied, "What's got hold of you, you want somebody to pay you for your soul?" I BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-88350184059973545262011-07-02T06:11:00.002-04:002011-07-02T06:15:56.015-04:00Another Place to Take a Slow Start
The more time we spend w/ the book of Langston, the more we turn the pages of other books as well. And so the book of Paul.
We Wear the Mask
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tearsBlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-9558447856392150652011-07-02T05:54:00.000-04:002011-07-02T05:54:55.722-04:00What We're Hearing
"But I find that it's very difficult to do, because the jazz musician is probably the only person for whom the composer is not a very interesting individual, in the sense that he prefers to destroy what the composer writes or says." --Ornette Coleman (1997)BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-44572139820380336952011-06-30T06:37:00.000-04:002011-06-30T06:37:54.333-04:00Marvinology
We began spinning out a Marvin Gaye thread over @ the blue light. Lil B's recent nod gives us pause to look back, perhaps even pick that thread up again.BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5517857778568466597.post-63221595342144367102011-06-29T06:49:00.000-04:002011-06-29T06:49:55.921-04:00What We're Hearing
Must confess we love the laid back delivery and gangstadrama that leans on the light touch.BlindWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14529744868538142382noreply@blogger.com0