Coleman's Crisis

Ornette Coleman in concert at New York University on March 22, 1969 with Don Cherry (trumpet) Charlie Haden (bass) Dewey Redman (tenor sax) and Denardo Coleman (drums)
Ornette Coleman: Crisis (1969)
Side 1
Broken Shadows
Comme Il Faut
http://www.mediafire.com/?yz4gxcmjdpz
Side 2
Song For Che
Trouble in the East
Space Jungle
http://www.mediafire.com/?1mmm05w2y4z

“Broken Shadows” is four choruses of an AABA dirge. During the first three choruses, two of the horns play the melody while the third improvises. Between the melody and Charlie Haden, a consonant chord structure is strongly implied. However, none of the soloists relate to the “chords,” instead pursuing melodies that have only their own logic, not the logic of any normal harmony. Like all of Ornette’s music with multiple horns, the texture on “Broken Shadows” is just ragged enough that you can hear each player phrase the tune his own way. But the emotion is absolutely unified, especially since all the horns are playing very loud all the time. There is not really “figure and ground” between the soloists and the other horns here, instead just communal mourning. In the last chorus, the feeling intensifies as the horns play the tune harmolodic style, as if they are all reading off one chart without transposing, or at least getting to pick the harmony they want as long as the shape of the tune is preserved. Usually Ornette would have either Don Cherry or Dewey Redman playing with him, but Crisis is a rare and wonderful example of all three men onstage together. Charlie is grim and resolute, barely changing his bowed bass line during the four choruses.

(read more...)
Via Schadenfreudian Therapy

Horny Morning Feral Chicks

Hens solicit sex in the morning to avoid sexual harassment in male-dominated groups of chickens, shown in a new study by Hanne Løvlie of Stockholm University, Sweden, and Dr Tommaso Pizzari of the University of Oxford, UK.
In the animal kingdom, males more often than females can increase their reproductive success by being promiscuous. This in turn can result in males imposing high numbers of copulation attempts and sexual harassment on females.
In the promiscuous feral chicken, males initiate more than 90 per cents of all copulation attempts; most of them in the evening after hens have laid their eggs and are most fertile. In female-dominated groups hens are also interested in sex in evenings. However, as shown in a new study published in American Naturalist, in male-dominated groups hens rather initiate sex in mornings.
‘Sexual harassment in evenings in male-dominated groups may just be too much for the hens’, says Hanne Løvlie from Stockholm University, one of the researchers of the study. ‘Hens were exposed to more intense sexual harassment in male-dominated group. By initiating sex in mornings when the cockerels are less amorous and the free-ranging chickens also are more spread out foraging, hens may avoid the intense sexual harassment in evenings.’ (read more>>>)

The Mille-feuille,Cremeschnitte and Napoleon

The Mille-feuille (French 'thousand sheets'), Napoleon, vanilla slice, cream slice or custard slice is a pastry made of several layers of puff pastry alternating with a sweet filling
Names for the Napoleon pastry in other languages:
In Arabic "ميل فى" [mīlfī]
In Dutch "tompoes", (or En:Tompouce) and in Belgium, near the French-Dutch language boundary also "mille-feuille" pronounced as [me'fj].
In English (Australia) "Vanilla slice"
In English (U.K.) "Vanilla slice" or "Cream slice"
In English (U.S.) "Napoleon"
In Estonian "Napoleoni kook" or "napoleonikook" ('Napoleon's cake')
In French "Mille-feuille" ('Thousand sheets')[2]
In German "Cremeschnitte" ('cream slice'); the dough is "Blätterteig" ('sheet dough'); also "Napoleonschnitte"
In Hebrew "קרם שניט" [krem nitte]
In Hungarian "Francia krémes"
In Japanese "ミルフィーユ" [mir fījɯ]
In Norwegian "Napoléon's kake" ('Napoleon's cake')
In Polish "Napoleonka"
In Portuguese "Mil-folhas" ('Thousand-sheets')
In Russian "Наполеон" ('Napoleon').
In Spanish "Milhojas"
In Swedish "Napoleonbakelse" ('Napoleon pastry')
In Turkish "Milföy"
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The Moran Singers Ensemble

The Moran Choir was founded 1986 by its present conductor and music director, Naomi Faran. The Choir was established in the Moshav "Beit Yitzhak", Emek Hefer, Israel and during its almost two decades of activities, has achieved exceptional musical and educational success. The choir's outstanding musical qualities stem from an in-depth musical education, consisting of: voice training, instrumental training, general music appreciation, movement and drama, all instilled in its members from an early age.
The Moran Singers Ensemble is composed of singers who are seniors of the Moran Choir - mostly music students at the Music academies, ranging between the ages of 18 and 30. The ensemble was established in 1998 as a professional representative choral ensemble.
The ensemble has performed with the best orchestras in Israel and has presented some of the greatest choral pieces. In addition, the ensemble has sung original works by leading Israeli composers such as Gil Aldema, Gil Shohat, Menachem Wiesenberg, Haim Permont, Yehezkel Braun and Shlomo Gronich.
In the summer of 2002, the ensemble received first prize at the Takarazuka International Choir Competition in Japan and received two gold medals in the Shirat Hayamim International Competition in Israel.
The ensemble performed at the Bach Festival in Eugene, Oregon in the USA, at the Liturgy Festival in Germany and as the representative choir at the Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany. During the 2002-2003 season, the ensemble performed in the operatic productions of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Mozart’s Missa Brevis and also participated in the season opening of a concert series with the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra, in a chamber series with the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion and in a season-ticket holders’ concert series for the Israel Chamber Orchestra. In addition, the ensemble also performed a special production of Carissimi's oratorio Jephte.(read more http://www.moran-choir.co.il)
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Mukhosransk & Pizdelokh

In Hebrew, the word זה (zeh, meaning 'this') is a placeholder used in place of any noun. The most popular personal name placeholders are (mahshmo) or 'whatsisname' (thus: 'Tell mahshmo to put the zeh on the zeh'), מֹשֶׁה (Moshe = Moses) and יוֹסִי (Yossi, diminutive form of Joseph) for first name, and כֹהֵן (Cohen, the most popular last name in Israel) for last name. However, in ID and credit card samples, the usual name is Israel Israeli for a man and Israela Israeli for a woman (these are actual first and last names).
The traditional terms are Ploni פלוני and his party Almoni אלמוני (originally mentioned in Ruth 4:1). Ploni Almoni also is used in official, contemporary situations. For example, addressing guidelines by Israel postal authorities utilize Ploni Almoni as the addressee.[8]
A vulgar term for an unspecified place mostly popular in the Israel army is פִיזְדֶלוֹך (, formed from the Russian pizda, pussy, and the German and Yiddish Loch = hole). Also quite common is תיז (א)נביא (Tiz (e) Nabi “the prophet’s ass”, from Arabic), and again Timbuktu. A kadigan for a time in the far past is תרפפ"ו (pronounced Tarapapu, which somewhat resembles a year in the Hebrew calendar but is not quite one).
Especially older Ashkenazi speakers often employ the Yiddish placeholders "Chaim Yankel" and "Moishe Zugmir". Buzaglo (a typical Moroccan-Jewish last name) is a placeholder for a simple lower-class citizen. The term Buzaglo test was coined by then-Attorney General Aharon Barak in the 1970s for the proposition that the law should apply with equal leniency (or severity) to a senior public official and to the simplest ordinary citizen.
In Russian, among the common placeholder names are это самое (this particular [object]), штука (thing; diminutive forms also exist), ботва (leafy tops of root vegetables), фигня (crud) and хуйня (in mat slang; roughly translatable as something dickish), хреновина (). A term for something awkward, bulky and useless is бандура (bandura, an old Ukrainian musical instrument, big and inconvenient to carry). When speaking about something ideal, non-realistic, an idiom "сферический конь в вакууме" (literally, "a spherical steed in vacuum") is (jokingly) used. A kadigan for a monetary unit is тугрик (Tögrög, the monetary unit of Mongolia)
Obscene
На хуй, meaning to hell or anywhere out of here
В жопу and в пизду meaning deep to hell
A derogatory kadigan for a remote and uninteresting town is Мухосранск (Mukhosransk, "Fly's Shit Town"). (read more...)

Coxcombs, Tendons and Trotters

On a rainy Tuesday night in lower Manhattan, about 80 people gathered in a long, brick-walled room above a liquor store to eat the parts of animals that most people throw away. Cooking this six-course tour of the abattoir floor was Chris Cosentino, the head chef at Incanto, in San Francisco, and the proprietor of Offal Good, a blog devoted to exactly what you think it's devoted to.
Cosentino's head-to-tail dinners have become something of a cult foodie event in the Bay Area; this was the first time he had done one of them away from home. Michael Ruhlman, a food writer whose book "Charcuterie" (written with Brian Polcyn) is indispensable to anyone with even a passing interest in cured meats and sausages, emceed the event. (read more on Moreintelegentlife)

Feel guilty, if you must

The Strand Bookstore pays the homeless handsomely for their troubles. Owner Fred Bass tells Al Jazeera how this section of society has been instrumental to the success of his business.
Hundreds of men and a smaller number of women eke out a living scavenging books in Manhattan, according to Mitchell Duneier, author of “Sidewalk,” a book about the subculture of sidewalk book scavengers and vendors. Some of them sell their books on the street; others, the less entrepreneurial, or the more impatient, go for the surefire cash at the Strand.
Is there any other industry in which such high-quality goods regularly make their way to consumers via a trash bin? Stand in the bookselling line at the Strand and the store starts to feel less like a dusty bastion of erudition and more like a messy, mulchy place where old ideas struggle to find new life.
Even in better days than these for books, the economy of publishing was bloated, based on guesswork, mercurial taste and the talents of people whose keenest interests rarely included making money. Book recycling in Manhattan is just the opposite, a perfectly efficient system with no fat at all: So many discarded books go from someone’s garbage to a scavenger to a bookseller and, often enough, land gently in someone else’s home. Feel guilty, if you must, for never finishing Tony Judt’s “Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945;” but don’t feel guilty for chucking it. It will most likely live to haunt someone else’s bedside table. It will find a new home.(from NYtimes)

Jewesses in Slavery

Esther Lurie was born in Liepaja, Latvia, to a religious Jewish family with five children. Her family were forced to leave during World War I because the city's importance as a military port. In 1917 they shifted to Riga, where Lurie graduated from Ezra Gymnasium (high school). She already showed artistic talent in kindergarten and began to develop professionally from the age of fifteen, studying with various teachers. From 1931-1934 she learned theatrical set design at the Institut des Arts Décoratifs in Brussels, and afterwards studied drawing at the Académie Royal des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp.
In 1934 Lurie migrated to Palestine with most of her family and worked at various artistic activities. She designed sets for the Hebrew Theatre, as well as works for the Adloyada in Tel Aviv, the Bialik exhibition and the Eastern Fair. When events limited theatrical activity in Palestine, she devoted herself to drawing - producing many portraits. Her favorite subjects were dancers and musicians. She also travelled to many kibbutzim, painting the landscapes of Palestine, and her works were exhibited in kibbutzim dining rooms. Her first exhibition took place in Kibbutz Geva in 1937. In 1938 she was accepted as a member of the Painters and Sculptors Association in Palestine. She held solo exhibitions in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. In 1938 she won the Dizengoff Prize for Drawing - the most prestigious prize - for a work entitled "The Palestine Orchestra". This was shown at the general exhibition of Palestine artists in the Tel Aviv Museum.
World War II had begun while she was in Lithuania and during the Nazi occupation (1941-44) she was imprisoned in the Kovno ghetto along with the other Jews. As soon as she entered the ghetto, in mid-1941, Lurie began to sketch views of her new world. She has left behind a detailed written testimony of her life and work during World War II. This combination of literary and visual testimony make up a "living witness" (the name she would later give to one of her books). They enable us to enter deeply into her life as an artist during this period under these difficult conditionsLurie drew everywhere in the ghetto, including the various workshops. Among the workshops she was permitted to visit was the pottery workshop. During her visits there, Lurie got the idea of asking the Jewish potters to prepare a number of jars for her. She would use these to conceal her art works if the situation worsened. The situation did grow worse. After the deportation of 26 October 1943, in which 3,000 ghetto inmates were removed to forced labor camps in Estonia, Lurie hid her art collection - approximately 200 drawings and watercolors of 25 x 35 cm - in the large jars she had prepared in advance. Some of her works were photographed beforehand for ghetto's hidden archive.
In August 1944 Lurie was moved, along with another 1,200 prisoners, to forced labor camps in Germany. She was sent to Leibitz, where she depicted several of the prisoners
Lurie was liberated by the Red Army on 21 January 1945. In March 1945 she reached a camp in Italy, where she met Jewish soldiers from Palestine who were serving in the British army. One of them, the artist Menahem Shemi, organized an exhibition of drawings from the camps, which resulted in the publication of a booklet Jewesses in Slavery. This contained drawings by Lurie from Stutthof and Leibitz and was published by the Jewish Soldiers' Club of Rome in 1945.
Esther Lurie passed away in Tel Aviv in 1998.(read more...)