Checking in...

Obviously, I have been so overwhelmed with grading, planning, teaching, thinking about my pre-service teachers, gritting my teeth through dizziness and fatigue, and opening enough cans of beer to bring the rest of my body into synch with my inner-ear-tortured head that I have had little chance to post for the benefit of the four people (liberal estimate) who are reading this. But, as usual, some great music and reading that has filled the gaps and the background has been pulling me through. Here's a list:

MUSIC:
Dead Moon--the most underrated rock and roll band of the last 30 years. AC/DC as demented garage band. Or Neil Young if he hadn't been "discovered."
Busdriver--hyperverbal even for a rapper, hyperintellectual despite being an entertainer...where has he been all my listening life?
Elmo Hope--short-lived piano master of the '50s and '60s. Powellesque, but lighter and quirkier (of course, a little slower).
Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers: That piece o'crap "Wild Horses" aside--whatta band. Mean, tough, smart, lyrical, funny...what else do ya want?
Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus: The title says it all. Great calypso, great ballads, great tongue-in-cheek covers...and Max Roach conversational down in the engine room.
Miles Davis: A Tribute to Jack Johnson: Miles is just the mint in this julep. The bourbon's two guitarists--John McLaughlin playing knife-edge blues, Sonny Sharrock inventing sotto voce avant-garde asides--and a rhythm section (Billy Cobham and Michael Henderson) LOCKED INTO a rock and roll beat. Unpretentious fusion with bite.
READING:
The World Don't Owe Me Nothin': The life and times of one of the last living country bluesmen, Honeyboy Edwards.
Hell's Angels, by Hunter S. Thompson: Thompson before his gonzo style erupted. Fascinating, disturbing, prophetic, it's the work of one helluva diligent, precise reporter more than sober enough to check the facts behind the assumptions.