so glad I was wrong!

well, that's really something isn't it? even tho I'm already disappointed by the decisions Obama's been making -- his appointment of my thoid-cousin Rahm, for example -- I confess to open-eyed, ankle-pantsed amazement that uhmerica was not too racist to vote for the candidate who openly embraced sanity but was black. I'm glad I was wrong for a lot of reasons. & I confess to tearing up when Obama said at today's press conference that "a lot of shelter dogs are mutts, like me." I think on tuesday we had the feeling that all of us had been holding our breath. while the press (who, remember this?, are supposed to be there to help, tho, then again, nobody wants to just sleep on a mattress stuffed with money) bombarded us with the suggestion that we secretly wouldn't vote Obama, americans passed each other on the street & believed that we would. & while celebrating the fact that the gargantuan disparity in capability between two candidates -- who, now as ever, offered little doctrinal difference between them -- managed to overcome a racism that much of conventional wisdom regarded as insuperable seems, perhaps, to be setting the bar a bit low, here we are. the guy's name is Barack Obama. he speaks in sentences & his is probably the last chance history has the stamina to offer of saving this tottering state. so anyhow, is it too headbandy to post some songs that Obama's election makes me want to hear? hope not.

one song it's interesting to lsiten to now is the bourgeois blues, by Leadbelly. maybe now problematically, he talks about race & about class in an entangled way. one verse says, "some white folks in washington / they know just how / throw a colored man a nickel / just to see him bow," but another says, "this is the home of the brave, / land of the free, / I don't wanna be mistreated by / no bourgeoisie." it's a great song! I bet Leadbelly would cry if he knew what happened on tuesday.

click here to hear &/or download the bourgeois blues by Leadbelly.

there are some other versions of the song worth a listen, too. one that's fun (a little overdone, especially by the fun-tho singer) is the blue rags'. a particular favorite of mine is Taj Mahal's. you may be like me in the sense that you may think Taj Mahal made great records in the seventies & then suffered some kind of like brain thing or something & got sucky. but even if you are like me in that respect, listen to his version of this song if you are also like me in the sense that you enjoy terrific things.

click here to hear &/or download the blue rags' version of bourgeois blues.
then, click here (especially) to hear &/or download Taj Mahal's version.

because I appreciate so much about his being elected despite having long found his politics pretty uninspiring, Obama's victory feels more to me like a beautiful mass event than a political triumph (tho given the reprehensible backwardness, cynicism, & thick-tufted knuckle-hair of mccain & his people, it surely does represent an imperative moment for our political hygiene). it's a fantastic relief, & it's also a great opportunity to feel serious about something. a black president! I'm so solicitous now, already, for his safety. there's something gloomy about it. I'm reminded of all the history that's still happened & I'm saddened. I wish Fred Hampton & Frederick Douglass & Gus Hall & Paul Robeson could know. I doubt any of them would have believed it was possible.

anyhow, the way I feel about it puts me in mind of William Basinski, in particular of his disintegration loops project. they're statements of, to use a word I seem to be blog-flogging lately, real purity. if you think of Bach on an x & y axis, this is similar material on an x & z. (Bach's ideas are often really ripe for applying to experiments with color in music, a point made resoundingly by Webern's very exceptionally gorgeous arrangement for orchestra of fugue 2 from the musical offering.) instead of playing his theme in different harmonic variants, as Bach would -- sounding it different registers, in different keys, in variations juxtaposed on variations -- Basinski plays the theme thru an echo tunnel of ever-different shape, revealing different parts of the sound, different kinds of rhythms & resonances that emerge. & because that is fascinating, & because the theme he explores is so lovely, it's a really terrific piece of music in my opinion.

click here to download disintegration loops iii : dlp iv.

but it's important also to say that one of the strongest feelings I have about Obama is of being totally exhilerated -- like, wowza. the news goes long. the sometimes exhilerating british band the fuck buttons make intricate, forceful muzyk. exciting combinations. richly coarse textures. & this song is called okay, let's talk about magic, which is a delight. this music feels just as strikingly odd in what about it is conventional & what unusual as president-elect O-o-o-o-ooobama. & like Obama, it's easy to be around.

click here to download okay, let's talk about magic by the fuck buttons.

the cinematic orchestra are a terrific band from, I think, scotland?, who make full-sails music that's subtle & beautiful. it's not my most very favorite of their songs, but breathe is about the right speed for me, today, & it features the irreplaceable Fontella Bass, singing as sensitively as ever. she, like Tim Moore & Al Sharpton, has been obviously underrated because of racism.

please click here to download breathe by the cinematic orchestra.

& now there's a new threat against Obama:

don't let rove see it. I've posted this before, but it's the most beautiful thing in the world so I'm putting it up again?

this is also pretty good. it's all about how fucking terrific lemons are when you're skiing, because other cultures are by definition difficult for us to understand?
(they put the word power in red. so we know it's got tv-war-logo music under it. dun dun dun dummmm.)