when something breaks it makes a beautiful sound


David Salle, Mingus in Mexico, 1990

* Locked in a Vegas hotel room with a $150K slo-mo-hd video camera. Pretty amazing footage.

* From: Listening for Life, part one of two, by Matthew Pitt, Chapter of a Novel in Progress.

"Somewhere in Mexico there is a sanctuary for birds. Parrots mainly, and mynahs, who from neglect have gone insane. Birds in an asylum, recovering from poisonous lengths of silence. Birds, tricked into thinking that their owners were friends; that the shared world between them would last for life. Who can blame the birds for feeling forsaken? They repeat the same phrases that once pleased their adopted families, only to find that the trick's gone stale, and that their owners have tossed the speech-training cassettes into the trash. Leaving the birds craning their necks and trilling wannacracker endlessly, until their adopted families stop by to feed them only to shut them up. Alone, for days on end with no community, not a soul to sing for."

-- Pitt will be reading with Allen Hannaham Friday March 4, 2011 as part of the Story/Stereo series at the Bethesda Writer's Center. Musical guests: The Caribbean

* If you've read and enjoyed David Markson, be sure to check out Reading Markson Reading.

* Video footage by William Eggleston from "Stranded in Canton," of Alex Chilton and Sid Selvidge playing "My Rival" in Memphis, TN, circa mid-1970's. Video property of the Eggleston Artistic Trust.

* "People are bullied into thinking that they have to be engaged, or be fans of music. They’re bullied by the culture of the music industry, and feel like they should be swept away by music. But we immerse ourselves in noise for comfort, and that noise could be anything, like a vacuum, or a water fountain. Music is supposed to be mysterious.” -- Ian Svenonius