Daily Log

Looks like I slipped a day, back on June 22, when I repeated the June 21 header. Mark's funeral is July 1, and today is the day before, so I finally realized that June 29 it is not. I finished reading Agha & Malley last night, so had nothing to read this morning. Just as well I came straight down, around 10:40. Hot, already near 90F. Today I cook. I'll check email for things that need replies, but that's about all I can spare. Dinner time is uncertain. I heard from Mike yesterday that they stopped for dinner in Ogden. That was at 10:07 PM, so an hour earlier in Mountain Time. Assuming they got back in the car and drove to midnight, that might get them to Rock Springs, or maybe a town or two past. When I set out from here, Cheyenne is about as far as I can handle. They may get an earlier start, and will push through to the end, so they'll certainly get here by midnight, but 7PM? Unlikely. Given this, I'm clearly planning on cooking too much.

Here's where we stand, and what I'm looking to do (noting the start I made yesterday):

• Chicken and dumplings: Cut up and boil chicken. Take the chicken out of the stock, and strip the meat off. Mix and roll out dumplings. Boil the stock, and cook the dumplings. Add the chicken back in.
• Ribs: I was planning on a relatively short bake at 350 (Korean recipe, but I could substitute a different glaze). Now I'm leaning toward a slow bake at 250, wrapped in foil, with a Tuscan balsamic glaze. Needs about 2.5 hours in oven. I'm tempted to try a hot oven with convection instead of the broiler for the final touches.
• Green Beans: Snapped. Boil 20 minutes. Fry onion and bacon, and add to skillet.
• Sweet Potatoes: I was thinking Ottolenghi, only with the DeSpain sauce. Now I think I'll just do DeSpain: cubes in a casserole.
• Corn: Oil and grill in cast iron skillet. Make lime-honey-cilantro sauce. Heat it up, and roll the corn in it, to rewarm.
• Baked Beans: Empty cans into casserole dish. Add flavor. Top with bacon. Bake.
• Native American Salad: Roughly based on DeSpain and another recipe, with prickly pear dressing. Use wood bowl. Arugula, plus whatever either recipe calls for: mango, jicama, onion, cotijo (or feta), pecans. I have some pineapple I thought of using. Assemble. Mix dressing, and serve.
• Cabbage Salad: Spanish tapas recipe. I added jicama. Done.
• Cucumber-Yogurt Salad: Iranian recipe plus walnuts. Done.
• Broccoli Salad: Cut up and parboil broccoli. Assemble salad. Mix up dressing, and serve.
• Strawberry Shortcake: Strawberries macerated. Mix up, roll out, stamp out, and bake shortcakes. (I could bake early, or just in time.) Whip cream. Assemble and serve. (Last two steps after dinner.)
• Chocolate-Walnut Tart: Shell partially baked. Mix up filling and bake. Chilled?

Obvious possible scratch from this list is the baked beans. They're no bother, and can be baked ahead of time, but right now they're in the can, and can keep indefinitely. The broccoli, green beans, ribs, sweet potatoes, etc., need to be used. I tried to pick things that could be cooked early then reheated whenever Mike & Rachel arrive. Dumplings can be left in pot and warmed up. 11:30 now, so I have 7.5, maybe 8 hours. Shouldn't be a problem.

Email (28 messages):

• Poll business: I sent jazzpoll reminder out last night. ballots: Akira Saito; ballot changes: Steve Erickson; acks: Devin Leonard, Larry Hollis, Bret Saunders, Mike Greenblatt, Mark Lomanno, Patrick Watson, Matthieu Jouan; nacks: Hannah Edgar, Andrew Gilbert, Matthew Marshall.
• Toyota: Keep your Corolla Hybrid connected. I'm starting to hate this company.
• TomDispatch: A New Home for TomDispatch.
• Tom Engelhardt: Growing Old With Donald Trump.

Slight break at 6:20 PM. Where are we?

• Chicken and dumplings: chicken cooked, separated. Stock ready. Need dumplings.
• Ribs: Slow bake (2.5 hours) done. Balsamic glaze cooking. I'm just letting the ribs cook some more until I'm ready to finish.
• Green Beans: Cooked. Need to do the onion-bacon thing.
• Sweet Potatoes: done.
• Corn: done.
• Baked Beans: scratched.
• Native American Salad: not even started. Scratch?
• Cabbage Salad: done (last night).
• Cucumber-Yogurt Salad: done (last night).
• Broccoli Salad: Broccoli blanched. Need to finish.
• Strawberry Shortcake: Strawberries macerated. Shortcakes baked. Need to whip cream, assemble, and serve.
• Chocolate-Walnut Tart: done.

So next should be making the dumplings. They'll take about 20 minutes to cook. Broccoli salad: need bacon. Ribs: need sauce to finish. Green beans will take 15 minutes. Salad is up in the air. I have lots of stuff for it.

Daily Log

Woke up around 10. Came down at 10:30. Lots of work to do today. I'm in the last chapter of Aghan/Malley, "Tomorrow," and I'm finally getting tired of it. Upshot is that negotiations are impossible because neither side can put aside its history, and if you think the US is the necessary intermediary, you just get more historical baggage that can't be escaped. As I read this, I keep refining my own "solution." It occurs to me now that instead of depending on the agreement and assent of sovereign powers, I'm inclined to present this as a "world judgment," something imposed externally on the Israeli state (to the extent possible, which is to say by means short of war) and the exiled Palestinian people. Israel can choose to comply or can reject the terms, but short of war (which will only worsen their condition) there is nothing they can do about it (assuming the US, Europe, BRICS, etc., play ball, which they should, but getting agreement there will be uphill). Same for the exiled Palestinian people. There will be incentives for compliance, and penalties (albeit generously humane ones) for resistance. Conflict resolution should heal conflicts, not preserve them in amber. I could see writing this up. I doubt that the world will care, but it should. Israel has not just trampled on the human rights of Palestinians. They have worked hard to wreck any possible progress to international justice, law, and order.

Enough of that for now. Less than a week to go on the poll, so I need to send a reminder to jazzpoll. Before I do that, I need to add the names of new voters to the list. I also need to send out the last dozen second-round invites. I had meant to write personal notes, but may forgo them, or at least keep them very short. Doug is coming over to work on lawn today. I also want him to trim some tree limbs. I need to go grocery shopping tonight, and start prep for cooking tomorrow. I keep kicking ideas around. Instead of frying up the cabbage, I may make slaw. I may roast some sweet potatoes. Dessert is up for grabs. I may text some options to Mike and let him pick.

Email (27 messages):

• My note to jpadmin. No reaction.
• Belated Substack: +1 like for After Iran.
• American Dental: canceled Wednesday's appointment; rescheduled for July 8, 2PM. Got confirmation.
• Poll matters: ballots: Michael Steinman; acks:; nacks. I added 10 names to the jazzpoll list.
• Tom Carson: Harper's Ferry DSA: squishy, squirmy kvetching about the DSA vs. Israel; little point in nitpicking when the nits are the point.
• I wrote to jazzpoll.

Daily Log

Warming up. I came down at 10:30, and it was 85F. Got up to 89F yesterday, but will get hotter today, and should be in the upper 90s as far as the forecast goes out. Posted Music Week yesterday. Didn't get much else done. I still have those remaining 2nd round invites to send out. Most are people I want to add personal notes to. Some of them involve voter prospecting, but most seem like they'll need some extra nudging. I have 61 ballots counted. Hope now is for 100. I'll send another notice/reminder to jazzpoll tonight: 7 days left to deadline. Meanwhile, I'm thinking about buying some AI books: Doctorow, for sure; Wright probably; not sure if there are any others. I just did a search for "consumer guide to ai services," and mostly got guides to using AI for customer services. I then tried "ai for writers," and mostly got pieces about "AI Writers." I did find:

• Ilam Padmanabhan: Best AI Writing Tools (May 2026): I Tested 8 AI Writers With Detection Software: Likes Claude and ChatGPT, but picked HaloWrite first. Grammarly came in 6th, as "best for cleanup."

I bit the bullet and ordered three books about AI:

• Cory Doctorow: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: Our best guide to how tech business seeks to run and ruin our lives.
• Robert Wright: The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning: I hate the title and its cosmic overtones, which would have been an automatic rejection, but I've been reading him on AI for a couple years now, and I think he's fairly well grounded. I also think AI will be a test of, and will compel changes in, our social values, and I think he's mostly on the right road there.
• Joanna Stern: I Am Not a Robot: My Year of Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything: Unlike the above, this is a new find, one I was particularly inclined to, but one of my biggest problems with AI is thinking of uses for it, so this seems likely to spur (or disparage) such ideas. Also, it's supposed to be funny.

• Arvind Narayanan/Sayash Kapoor: AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference (2024; paperback, 2025, Princeton University Press).

Jill Lepore has a forthcoming book, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, which looks interesting and troubling, but can wait (release date August 25). Reminds me I'm overdue for a books post.

Email (15 messages):

• Poll matters: ballots: Ken Dryden, Matthew Crook, Steve Erickson, Joao Esteves da Silva; acks: Joao Esteves da Silva; nacks: Art Lange.
• Project Syndicate: Trump's Un-American Capitalism (Joseph E Stiglitz, on thuggish cronyism); Why Rules-Based Orders Fall (Benn Steil); Trump's March of Folly in Iran (Timothy Snyder); How Trillionaires Are Really Made (Nabil Ahmed, urges every country to learn from how the US political system enabled Elon Musk's rise; but learn what?).

Talked to Mike. He and Rachel are driving tomorrow, hoping to get here Tuesday. I'll make dinner for them. He's flying back Wednesday, so very little time with him. We'll go to funeral at 2PM, then out to early dinner before he leaves. Rachel is driving back Friday. No plans as yet for Thursday. I wanted something I could keep warm for Tuesday dinner, in case they run late. What I've come up with is mostly Mom food, with a couple minor twists:

• Chicken & dumplings: double recipe of the latter.
• A rack of pork ribs, glazed and baked (rub/sauce tbd).
• Green beans with onion and bacon.
• Stir-fried cabbage.
• Pan grilled corn with lime-honey glaze.
• Broccoli salad.
• A Native American salad with arugula, pineapple, and mango.

I should look through that Padma Lakshmi "All American" cookbook for some possible variations. Dessert is still undecided, but the default would be strawberry shortcake, maybe complemented by a chocolate walnut torte? I need to shop tomorrow.

Daily Log

Slept fairly well. Read some, then came down around 11. Had to update Firefox, which had in any case slowed considerably. I wrote most of regular Music Week last night, but didn't post. I did at least get the NOEL version out. Laura wanted to watch Superman (2025) movie, so we did. I watched the TV series growing up (1952-58, so I must have picked it up mid-stream), and I've seen the 1978 film and at least one sequel, but I don't know anything about this "League of Justice" or the other cross-promotions. I never read any of the DC comics, or had much appetite for the movies which have become "blockbuster" staples. Too much action, but the characters are cartoons, so maybe that's all they had to work with.

I'll get Music Week up today, and see where we're at with the poll. I should send the last dribs of 2nd round invites out. Not sure whether to move on to prospecting or do something else. Mark Shepherd's funeral is July 1. Rachel is driving here, as she wants to haul some stuff home. That will be a good opportunity for us to unload some things. Haven't heard from anyone else yet. Had a nice long talk with Thelma last night, and Jan the night before.

Email (21 messages):

• Daily stats for Arafat and Abbas on Violence: 0 likes, 0 comments, 0 restacks, 1 link click, 0 subs, 92 email views, 18 other views. Belated: 1 like.
• I wrote a short update to jpadmin last night.
• NOEL post: Music Week (6:4): shareable assets. Likes: 4; new subscriber: Cadence Magazine Newsletter (David Haney?); daily stats: 4 likes, 1 comment (mine), 98 email views, 20 other views.
• Jazz poll activity: ballots: Ivana Ng, Pete Butchers, Pat Frisco, Ron Hart; acks:; nacks:.
• Robert Wright: What is the "God test"? Explaining the title of my new book on AI.
• Mike Konczal: A Good Housing Bill and Trump's Bad Affordability Politics: "Signing even a symbolic housing bill would buy Trump some breathing room. The ROAD Act is much more substantive than that."

Daily Log

Woke up around 7:30. Read some. Went back to sleep. Got up again at 10:30. Only five hours, but I figured I might as well face the day. And so it goes. New music releases today, which normally inflates my email intake, and this week includes several albums that have already gotten some poll support. I'll try to listen to them as the day passes. We also need to do a grocery run. Still cool, and may rain again. These cold fronts are suppose to pass or dissolve or whatever they do, with temperatures returning to normal next week, which is to say hot. I have 13 second-round invites left in the Drafts folder. Those are ones I thought I might prepend a personal note to. Only two I see as likely voters. I will clear those out today, and wade through the poll mail. I did the cutoff on Music Week last night. I will send the preview out to Substack, and I'll probably put the whole thing up on the blog later today. I may or may not do further prospecting. With 52 ballots counted, and 10 days to go, I'm pretty sure we'll wind up around 100. I think that will be a respectable showing.

Opened file for Music Week (6:4).

Email (57 messages at 11:20):

• I mailed to jpadmin last night: 52 ballots, 343 albums, got a few first-time voters, 10 days to go. I mentioned hoping to learn some python.
• Poll matters: ballots: Tim Larsen, Geoffrey Himes; acks: Bill Milkowski; nacks: John Sharpe.
• Substack: 1 new subscriber (pledged $80).

Music Week

Expanded blog post, June archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 53 albums, 7 A-list

Music: Current count 46191 [46138] rated (+53), 14 [9] unrated (+5).

New records reviewed this week:

• Ben Allison/Steve Cardenas/Ted Nash: Triological (2026, Sunnyside): [sp]: B+(**)
• Thommy Andersson: Shimmering Blue (2026, SteepleChase): [sp]: B+(***)
• Ballister + Luke Stewart: Clocking the Wheel (2025 [2026], Aerophonic): [cd]: A- [07-10]
• Sam Barsh/Mark Guiliana/Keyon Harold: Straight08 (2026, La Reserve): [sp]: B+(**)
• Luciano Biondini/Michel Godard/Lucas Niggli: Fables of Time (2025 [2026], Intakt): [sp]: B+(*)
• Nat Birchall Quartet: Path of Enlightenment (2025 [2026], Ancient Archive of Sound): [bc]: B+(***)
• Nat Birchall: Liberated Sounds (2025, Na Bi): [bc]: B+(***)
• Adam Brodsky: American Epitaph (2026, Permanent): [sp]: A-
• Betty Bryant: Nothin' Better to Do (2026, Bry-Mar Music): [sp]: B+(***)
• Chrome Hill & Dōjō: Free Rangers (2024 [2026], Clean Feed): [bc]: B+(***)
• Emmet Cohen: Universal Truth (2025 [2026], Mack Avenue): [sp]: B+(***)
• Andrés Coll Cosmic Trio: Ride to Heaven (2026, XJAZZ Music): [sp]: B+(**)
• ContraPunctus [Mike McGinnis/Carmen Staaf/Gui Duvignau/Hamir Atwal]: ContraPunctus (2025 [2026], Adhyâropa): [sp]: B+(***)
• Lao Dan Chicago Quartet: Klotski (2024 [2026], Trost): [bc]: B+(**)
• Jesse Davis Quartet: Reflections (2025 [2026], Cellar): [sp]: A-
• Thomas Dollbaum: Birds of Paradise (2026, Dear Life): [sp]: A-
• Neale Eckstein: Build Our Dreams (2026, self-released): [sp]: B+(*)
• Marty Ehrlich: Cartographies of Flight: Lines Set Afloat Towards Hope (2024 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): [bc]: B+(***)
• Fire-Toolz: Lavender Networks (2026, Warp): [sp]: B+(*)
• Vinny Golia Quintet: Angular Momentum (2025 [2026], self-released): [sp]: B+(***)
• Golomb: The Beat Goes On (2025, No Quarter): [sp]: B
• Joy Harjo: Insomnia & Seven Steps to Grace (2026, Smithsonian Folkways): [sp]: B+(***)
• Alexander Hawkins: No Nation but Imagination (2025 [2026], Intakt): [sp]: B+(**)
• Jon Irabagon: Raw Dog (2025 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): [bc]: B+(**)
• KIND: Count (2025, Umland): [bc]: A-
• March to August: Highway 75 (2026, Crisp): [sp]: B+(**)
• Simon Moullier: Ceiba (2025 [2026], Simon Moullier Music): [cd]: B+(***)
• New England Jazz Collaborative: Tributaries (2025 [2026], ACP): [cd]: B+(**) [07-16]
• Pascal Niggenkemper Ensemble Tuvalu: D'Une Rive à L'Autre (2024 [2026], Subran): [bc]: B+(**)
• Nite Bjuti: Minwi (2023 [2026], Intakt): [sp]: B+(**)
• Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble: The Kármán Line (2026, ATA): [sp]: B+(***)
• Mariam Rezaei/Sakina Abdou/Kobe Van Cauwenberghe: 1984 [I IX VIII IV]: The Forward Process (2025 [2026], Dropa Disc): [bc]: B+(**)
• Jeff Rupert Quartet: Sea Spell (2022 [2026], Rupe Media): [cd]: B+(**) [06-29]
• Olaf Rupp: Berlin Eiskeller (2025-26 [2026], Scatter Archive): [bc]: B+(**)
• Serengeti: Symphony of Psalms (2026, CC King): [sp]: B+(*)
• Skerik: Skerik 061725 (2026, Loosegroove): [sp]: B+(**)
• Colin Stetson/Greg Fox/Trevor Dunn: Nethering (2018 [2026], Envision): [sp]: B+(**)
• Pat Thomas & XT: Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary) (2022 [2026], We Jazz): [bc]: B+(**)
• Udeigwe: Four Lemmas (2026, LU Factors): [sp]: B+(*)
• Joe Webb: Neath Beat (2025 [2026], Edition): [sp]: B+(**)
• Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 2 (2025 [2026], Blue Note): [sp]: B+(**)
• Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 3 (2025 [2026], Blue Note): [sp]: B+(**)
• Zen Zadravec: New Paradigm (2026, Marmite): [cd]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Johannes Bauer/Michael Griener/Olaf Rupp: Aufsturz (2007 [2026], Scatter Archive): [bc]: B+(***)
• Pierre Favre Trio: Bird Food (1968, Songs): [sp]: B+(**)
• James Brandon Lewis & Lutosławski Quartet: These Are Soulful Days (2021 [2026], TAO Forms): [sp]: A-
• Tom Raworth & Peter Brötzmann: No Hard Feelings: For Steve Lacy (2005 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): [bc]: B+(***)
• Dick Spottswood & Tompkins Square Present . . . 1925 Songs (1925 [2026], Tompkins Square): [sp]: B+(***)
• Louis Stewart: Joyce Notes (1982 [2026], Livia): [bc]: A-
• Sun Ra: Hidden Fire (1988 [2025], Strut): [sp]: B+(**)

Old music:

• Jan Klare/Wilbert de Joode/Michael Vatcher/Bart Maris [1000]: Played (2008 [2009], Leo): [sp]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• David Ambrosio/Donny McCaslin/Ingrid Jensen/Bruce Barth/Victor Lewis: Civil Disobedience: Blue Note in the Progressive Sixties (Blue Frog) [05-16]
• Ran Blake & Dominique Eade: Roots & Byways (Sunnyside) [07-03]
• Ron Carter & Yotam Silberstein: Duets (Jojo) [06-06]
• Liz Cracchiolo: Just a Girl I'm a Woman (Pacific Coast Jazz) [09-18]
• Kelly Green: Eat Your Greens! (Green Soul) [08-28]
• Virginia MacDonald: In Search Of . . . (Cellar) [05-29]
• Tal Mashiach: Who's Around? (Anzic) [06-26]
• Simon Moullier: Ceiba (Simon Moullier Music) [04-24]
• Tom Ricci: Happening in Buenos Aires: Live at Borges 1975 (self-released) [06-20]

Daily Log

Got up early. Started reading the "Apocalypse" chapter in Agha & Malley. That will be good for a second post. Came down just after 10. Opened the front door to get the mail, and was greeted by thunder. A few minutes later, it's raining. Very dark. I put on a promo album (Jeff Rupert), and sent off some 2nd round invites. 61 left to go.

Just before 6PM, I posted my Israel piece: Arafat and Abbas on Violence. Now I can finally get back to poll work. I expect I'll do the Music Week cutoff this evening, then post a piece tomorrow.

Email (28 messages; 60 messages by 6PM):

• Poll: Ballots: Matteo Gabutti, Glenn Kenny, Lawrence Peryer, George Harris, Richard Gehr, Steve Smith, Rick Anderson; Ack: George Varga, Bridget Arnwine; Nack: Glenn Astarita, Gary Chapin, Hank Shteamer, Bill Shoemaker;
• Dentist appointment: Wednesday, July 1, 2PM
• Tom Engelhardt: Addicted to War?
• Tom Carson: Release the Kramden: Foreign leaders vis-a-vis Trump: No hill of beans to die on.
• Got my Substack post: Arafat and Abbas on Violence. Also shareable assets; 1 new subscriber.

Daily Log

Slept until well after 11, coming down after noon. Lots to do today, starting with email, but also trying to wrap up the Substack post I started yesterday. After much hand-editing, I did manage to get a CSV file that MailMerge would work with. (It was the bad CSV file that caused the message to be dropped, which caused the program to hang, but the program offered little help in diagnosing that.) I wound up generating 250 messages. I had the pile reduced to 194 last night, and will take short breaks throughout the day today to send out more.

I heard that Mark Shepherd died yesterday. I figure him as a brother-in-law: he is the brother of my brother's wife. He grew up a block away from our house (less as the crow flies: one block east on Market, a bit closer to Kincaid than we were. He was my brother's age, so 2-3 years younger than me. They were classmates and friends long before my brother started dating his younger sister. Steve and Josi have been married over 50 years now. I knew his parents, Art and Margaret, pretty well, and also his "Uncle Junior." Art and Junior were great talkers. Mark, like his father, worked at Boeing until he dropped. We were never close friends, and he never made the effort to get together when Steve & Josi came back to Wichita, although he was always invited. His major interest was in restoring old cars, and he knew a lot about auto mechanics. He was married for a while to a Paula, and they had three kids (one or two his, I'm not sure). I've met them all, but not often, and not at any depth. They all could be tagged as "white trash." The marriage didn't last long, but the kids did, and Steve's family kept in touch. Josi was very close to Mark. Mark died suddenly, like their mother. Josi is suffering from kidney failure, like their father, although for now we're hoping for a transplant. Unclear whether they will be able to come back for the funeral, although I imagine they'll make every effort. Steve says Mike and Rachel are coming, so we'll be seeing them.

Email (43 messages at 12:27):

• Poll news: Ballots: Derek Taylor, Mimmo Stolfi, Paul Acquaro; acks: John Chacona, Philip Booth, Michael Coyle, David Graham, Chris Monsen, Britt Robson, Josh Langhoff, Michjael Steinman, Pat Frisco; nacks: Peter Margasak; invited Ferruccio Martinotti (ack).
• Andrey Henkin sent in a list of names to consider adding to the RIP list. Most are non-jazz, and I'm not immediately impressed by many, but will revisit this later.
• John Moore asked about including a 09-11 scheduled release. I advised against it, but didn't rule against it.

Daily Log

Came down just before noon. Read some in Tomorrow Is Yesterday, including a passage about violence that I may write up for Substack (p. 110). The book so far is mostly about the demise of the "two-state solution." I'm not sure I ever thought it was a good idea, but like the authors, I figured it was worth a shot, as probably better than whatever you call its alternative, perhaps "one state with dissidents locked in a choke hold"? But what's long been clear to me is that the only reason for two states is the realization that the Israelis are too bigoted and too colonial-minded to long tolerate the presence of Palestinians in their midst. It's hard to get excited about anything that reinforces and institutionalizes racism. America's system of Indian reservations is a "two-state" example, which only shows its racist foundation, its cruel indifference, and the possible value of apartheid as a cooling-off alternative to continued conflict. Of course, demography made the option less practical for Israel, but also the intensity of anti-Indian hatred in the US had abated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at least compared to Israel today. But I was quite aware that partition was a thoroughly British idea, which had worked atrociously everywhere it was applied. The idea only became palatable post-facto: Israel created it in the 1948 war, then locked it in even after the borders changed in 1967. But Israel's refusal to grant Palestinians any kind of recognition made the idea useless to them henceforth, although it still seemed to amuse the Americans, and by then some Palestinians were beaten so badly they were willing to settle for scraps. Others, of course, were still defiant, which suited Israel even better.

Cool again today: 71F when I came down. I weighed myself at 224.8, which is steady from a week ago, but I should do better. I posted After Iran last night. Then I started working on voter-log, adding in the extra names I had accumulated from past years. I added 117 names to the "other prospective voters" section, which leaves me another 167 to go (possibly a bit less). I'll continue working on that today. The other thing I did was to export csv files from my Thunderbird address book. I can use them in lieu of the address book(s) for MailMerge, and they have the advantage of being editable (once I figure out the format, but I only really need the display name and address fields, which I can identify from my dump; virtually all of the other fields are empty). My plan is to drop out the people I have heard from, maybe add a few new names, run a batch of short invite letters, and start mailing them out. Good chance I'll get that done today, if I don't waste too much time on Substack, or wind up swamped with ballots to count. Should be a full day.

Playing a new promo CD for the first time this week. I still have unpacking to do from last week. I'll think about Music Week tomorrow or the next day.

Email (51 messages):

• My Substack post "After Iran": shareable assets; nothing else: stats report shows 0 likes, 0 comments, 0 shares, 0 whatever the other icon means, 111 views via email, 19 from other sources. I saw this just after starting a new one on Israel. Little chance that will be better received.
• My jpadmin update from last night. No direct response as yet.
• Mike Konczal: Kevin Warsh's Press Conference Collides Into 30 Years of Michael Woodford: The new Fed chair argued that the Fed should stop reflecting markets back at themselves. Forgotten debates show how this leads to confusing, indeterminate results.
• Howard Mandel sent me a copy of the JJA newsletter, which has a link the poll website and a voter nudge.
• Heard back from Vox. After I accepted their renewal offer, they canceled the subscription anyway. Supposedly I now have to "re-subscribe to the plan of your choice. After resubscribe please write back to us to avail the offer." I have better things to do today.
• Wichita Public Library: 2 books renewed (Tomorrow Is Yesterday and Python Automation for Dummies. The Hawaiian cookbook was a four-week checkout, so all three are now due July 10. I'm about half way through Aghan/Malley, and have read the Python chapter on email, which I need to try out. The Hawaiian should be good for a birthday type dinner, but I haven't had time to organize one, and may not. Laura suggested I order the book, and save it for later.
• New ballots: Rob Shepherd, Michael J. West, Richard B. Kamins, Ali Alizadeh.
• RiotRiot: The Best Rock Band of Every Year

Daily Log

Monday. One thing I don't have to do today is Music Week. I started writing on the Iran War MoA last night. Didn't quite finish, so I'll wrap that up today, fairly quickly I hope. Then back to the poll. Came down at 11. It rained again last night, and is pretty cool out: 64F. I should finally drag some stuff back down from the attic. I'm going to leave it for the fall. Out of sight, out of mind. Next step on the poll is to generate a second round of invites. That's probably just the names we already know about. I have 31 ballots counted, and at least 2 more in the inbox. Good chance if I do nothing more we'll wind up around 80. That would suffice. I doubt anything can move the line much above 100. Playing Houston Person. I haven't played any promo CDs since Laura burst my bubble. I still have a lot of unpacking to do. Jigsaw puzzle is an easy one, going very fast. If not today, should be done tomorrow.

Email (23 messages):

• Ballots: Stuart Broomer, Martin Schray.
• Poll question: Rob Shepherd.
• Tom Engelhardt: The American Way of War, War, War.
• 577 Recods: downloaded Onilu: Jakuta's Dance.
• My Substack piece: After Iran.

Daily Log

Didn't get to this until 12:45, as I've worked on puzzle and played Horace Silver and only now have finally gotten to breakfast. It took me all of yesterday to catch up with the ballots, so I won't be complaining about lack of response any time soon. I need to prepare a second round, based on my Thunderbird address books. I'll probably get to that today, but I'm thinking about writing on Iran first. Hopefully just a brief note on the deal and those discontented with it.

Email (16 messages):

• I wrote to jpadmin last night, after updating website.
• Poll response: New ballots: Jerome Wilson
• Tony Overwater: I seem to be subscribed to his Substack. Looks to me like it's written in Dutch (although not knowing any, it's hard to be sure).
• Project Syndicate: The Strategic Logic of the AI Arms Race (Charles Ferguson says that Iran and Ukraine herald an era in which autonomous weapons determine how wars are fought and won; but if you start from the realization that wars cannot be won, that "winning" is only some sick rendering of relative losses, it should be obvious that all that AI-based autonomous weapons can do is to speed up the damage and make it harder to control); The US-Iran Agreement Is a First Step (Mohammed A El-Erian); Every British Prime Minister's Nightmare (Yanis Varoufakis on the bond market); The Middle East's New Normal (Don Aviv: without a clear US endgame in Iran, Gulf countries will chart their own course); Peace With Iran Is All About Lebanon Now (Shlomo Ben-Ami); Questioning the Just War Doctrine (Richard Haass).
• Semipop Life: main record I haven't heard: Donnacha Dennehy/Alarm Will Sound: Land of Winter

Several people noted that they received my latest jazzpoll mailing, but not the previous invite. I found a "spammyness tester" and sent them the email, getting back test results: Overall score 9.9/10 ("Wow! Perfect, you can send"). It does note that "Your message could be improved" and "SpamAssassin thinks you can improve: 0.1"; also notes that "You're properly authenticated; You're not blocklisted; No broken links."

Looking into the SpamAssassin report shows the following demerits:

• -0.1: DKIM_SIGNED: Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily valid.
• -0.25: FREEMAIL_ENVFROM_END_DIGIT: Envelope-from freemail username ends in digit (this seems to be a complaint about "thull2")
• -0.001: FREEMAIL_FROM: You're sending from a free email account
• -0.0001: HTML_MESSAGE: HTML included in message
• -0.001: RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H2: Average reputation (+2) 66.163.187.147 listed in wl.mailspike.net (note that IP address is not the same as for hullworks.net: 104.36.230.101
• -0.001: SPF: HELO does not publish an SPF Record (but sender matches SPF record; "Your SPF is valid")

Notes under "Your message could be improved":

• Weight of the HTML version of your message: 6KB.
• Your message contains 90% of text.
• You have no images; your content is safe; we didn't find any short URLs.
• Complains that: Your message does not contain a List-Unsubscribe header. (The actual headers sent by Mailman do include List-Id, List-Help, List-Unsubscribe, List-Subscribe, List-Post, and List-Archive, so this should not be a problem. The headers also include X-Spam-* headers, with a -Status of "No, score=1.3" and a -Score of 13.)

Daily Log

I started reading Hussein Agha and Robert Malley's Tomorrow Is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine yesterday. It's going pretty easy, especially after the redundancies and misconceptions of Friedländer — and for that matter, of Bartov and Scheindlin, which have mostly convinced me that even the best of Israelis are trapped in their own bizarro imaginary worlds. The Agha/Malley book is offering a perfectly sober history of the "two-state" idea, showing that its currency within Israel/Palestine was never more than tactical, and rarely even that, as it was mostly directed at outsiders. I've long been aware of that. But there is one thing in the book so far that is distinctly new to me, which is Agha's deep (but not uncritical) understanding of Arafat. This makes sense to me, although I can't say as I've ever tried to articulate it. I suppose that the one thought I had was that Arafat, with his roots in the refugee communities, could never bring himself to sacrifice their interests, even though there was never any chance that Israel would agree to their return, so that remained a sticking point throughout the Oslo negotiations.

Slept better. Came down around 11:30. I sent out a letter to jazzpoll last night, and seem to have shaken the tree and gotten some response. More on that when we get to email. After a day at 102F, it cooled off and peaked at 69F the next day. Warmer yesterday, and warmer still today, although still pleasant. I've read a bit on the Iran MoA, and generally like what I see. I don't trust Trump to deliver, but now is not the time to attack him for taking his best available exit ramp. There will be lot of time for recriminations later (closer to election time), when hopefully the focus will be not on the deal but on the blunder of starting the war in the first place. Not sure if I will find time to write this up, as I have more poll work to do today.

Email (25 messages):

• Responses to my jazzpoll missive: acks: Stuart Broomer, Ken Dryden, Steve Erickson, Howard Mandel, Rick Mitchell, Joe Bebco; nacks: Marcela Breton, Dylan Hicks, Stuart Kremsky, John Pietaro ballots: Tim Niland (confirms gmail spam), Phil Freeman, Jeffrey St. Clair, Angela Ballhorn;
• Notes on Everyday Life: new subscriber (Glen Hadwen)
• Tompkins Square: gave me a link to their 1925 booklet.
• Tom Carson: Close Encounters of the Third Reich: 2025's Nuremberg, 2026's Pressure, and other movies I shoulda been/was the ideal audience for.
• Paper Politic: another newsletter I didn't subscribe to, but here it is.

I tried posting my Louis Stewart review on Notes, then linked to it from Bluesky. When I clicked on the link, I got mine followed by a lot of other Notes. One that struck me was from Margo Price: "Real songwriters don't need AI to write songs- we simply use our undiagnosed clinical depression, neurodivergence and childhood trauma instead."

Daily Log

Wrote most of Music Week yesterday, but didn't post it. Watched episode 10 of Silent Witness, which was pretty disturbing, as Season 29 kept delving deeper into how computers are changing our perceptions of the world, especially with deep fakes. One thing specifically disturbing about this episode is that the killer wasn't clearly proven, nor clearly identified, but somehow slipped out of the grasp of justice thanks to US intervention. Perhaps something to write about one of these days. I hesitated just to say AI above, because there's more to it than that. But also because I'm nowhere near able to do justice to the key point, which is that truth is something we all should seek, and that means having a society where people can be trusted to seek and respect truth.

I woke up at 7-something, and finished reading the Friedländer book. I suppose part of my reason for reading it was that I wanted to establish some idea of what the limits of understanding are in Israel: not of the crazies on the right, but of the supposedly sane people on the left and in the center-left. The answer isn't very encouraging. Something else to write more about later. I went back to bed, and eventually to sleep, coming down shortly before 11. I know I was asleep for part of that, because my dreams drifted into weird land. But I woke up with some new insights into Trump's exit ramp from the Iran war. Not quite what I wrote yesterday, but worth a Substack post when I get the time. (In the meantime, I'll tack a couple notes onto what I wrote in Music Week.) First thing today is to post Music Week. Then I need to run a batch of invites, and start sending them out. I updated the jazz poll website last night (19 ballots), but didn't write to jpadmin. I'll do that today, and also write to jazzpoll. We'll probably finish the jigsaw puzzle this afternoon.

Email (33 messages):

• Substack daily stats for Music Week (6:3): 2 likes, 1 comment, 0 subs, 129 views from email, 33 elsewhere (note that twitter tops bsky 9-5).
• NOEL new subscriber: Brad Cohan.
• Christian Iszchak: unheard: Serengeti: Symphony of Psalms (*), Thomas Dollbaum: Birds of Paradise (A-); heard: Gogol Bordello, Joseph Kamaru, Kacey Musgraves, Lady Gaga, Sky Smeed, M.I.A.
• Thanks from Bill Brownlee: "Your herculean efforts make the world a better place."
• Tompkins Square: 1925 songs. I wrote them and asked to look at the booklet.
• I wrote to Vox to renew at $36/year.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, June archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 49 albums, 13 A-list

Music: Current count 46138 [46097] rated (+41), 9 [8] unrated (+1).

New records reviewed this week:

• Ambrose Akinmusire/Mary Halvorson: Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings (2025 [2026], Nonesuch): [sp]: B+(***)
• Lakecia Benjamin: We Dream (2026, Artwork): [sp]: B+(**)
• Circular Arcs: Conventicle (2020 [2025], Castor & Pollux Music): [bc]: B+(***)
• Cola: Cost of Living Adjustment (2026, Fire Talk): [sp]: B+(*)
• Corima: Hunab Ku (2026, Soleil Zeuhl): [bc]: B+(*)
• Florence Dore: Hold the Spark (2026, Propeller): [sp]: A-
• Dave Douglas: Transcend (2025 [2026], Greenleaf Music): [sp]: B+(***)
• Olof Dreijer: Loud Boom (2026, Dh2): [sp]: A-
• Champian Fulton: House Party (2025 [2026], Turtle Bay): [sp]: A-
• Goal Weight [Maggie Cox & Jennifer Gersten]: Keep Telling Yourself That (2025 [2026], Relative Pitch): [sp]: B+(***)
• Phillip Golub: Partisan Ship (2025 [2026], Berthold): [sp]: B+(**)
• Gregory Hutchinson: Kind of Now: The Pulse of Miles Davis (2026, Warner Music Arts): [sp]: B+(**)
• Ernesto Jodos/Rocio Giménez López: Una Casa Con Dos Pianos (2026, Blue Art): [sp]: B+(**)
• K.A.A.N.: Kaancepts (2025, D-Ace Beats): [sp]: A-
• Lime Garden: Maybe Not Tonight (2026, So Young): [sp]: A-
• Joe Lovano: Paramount Quartet (2025 [2026], ECM): [sp]: B+(***)
• Ashley McBryde: Wild (2026, Warner Nashville): [sp]: A-
• Aja Monet: The Color of Rain (2026, Drink Sum Wtr): [sp]: A-
• Jason Moran/BlankFor.ms/Marcus Gilmore: Shards (2025 [2026], Red Hook): [sp]: B+(***)
• The New Pornographers: The Former Site Of (2026, Merge): [sp]: B+(**)
• Miles Okazaki: Boomtown (2025 [2026], Pi): [cd]: A- [06-26]
• Ivo Perelman/Wadada Leo Smith: Duologues 5 (2026, Ibeji): [sp]: B+(***)
• The Phoenix Trio: Tomorrow Is Today (2025 [2026], Giant Step Arts): [cd]: A-
• Ragini Trio: 3A-
• David Sanchez: Tambó (2025 [2026], Ropeadope): [sp]: B+(***)
• Omar Sosa/Joo Kraus/Diego Pinera: Vibe Factor (2026, Music Hub): [sp]: B+(**)
• This Is Lorelei: Holo Boy (2025, Double Double Whammy): [sp]: B+(***)
• Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band: Treasury Volume 3 (2026, Turtle Bay): [sp]: A-
• Work Money Death: A Portal to Here (2026, ATA): [bc]: A-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Muriel Grossmann: Quartet (2008 [2026], Modernistas): [bc]: B+(***)
• Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra: Vol. 1: Concert À Prades-Le-Lez (1974 [2026], Souffle Continu): [bc]: B+(***)
• Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra: Vol. 2: Concert À Prades-Le-Lez (1974 [2026], Souffle Continu): [bc]: B+(**)
• Charlie Mariano/Sal Nistico: Barcelona Meeting (1989 [2026], Fresh Sound): [sp]: B+(**)
• Red Norvo: The Secret Session (1942 [2026], Dot Time): [bc]: B+(**)
• John Prine: Live at Old Town School of Folk (2010 [2026], Oh Boy): [bc]: B+(**)
• John Taylor With Stan Sulzmann: Quintessence (1987 [2026], Jazz in Britain): [bc]: B+(*)
• The Visitors [Earl & Carl Grubbs]: Motherland (1975 [2026], Craft): [sp]: B+(**)

Old music:

• Tony Burkill: Work Money Death (2017, ATA): [sp]: B+(***)
• Florence Dore: Perfect City (2001 [2002], Slewfoot): [sp]: B+(**)
• Florence Dore: Highways & Rocketships (2022, Propeller Sound): [sp]: B+(**)
• John Prine: Live at the Other End Dec. 1975 (1975 [2021], Rhino/Atlantic): [sp]: A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week (incomplete):

• Michael Marcus Quartet: Next Stop Down (ESP-Disk') [06-26]
• New England Jazz Collaborative: Tributaries (ACP) [07-16]

Daily Log

I published Music Week (6:3) last night. I screwed up and sent it out without the album cover graphics. I fixed that on the website afterwards, but later edits there don't get sent out. I also ran the cutoff for the blog Music Week, so that's in the notebook below, and in the blog file. I will publish that later today, with a new introduction, no doubt lots of moaning about lack of poll progress. How profound my failings will be depend on how much I get done today. Woke up early, and read increasingly annoying journal entries from the month after Oct. 7, 2023. I expected Israelphiles like Friedländer to be traumatized, but the willful blindness is still distressing. Even ones who have no faith whatsoever in Netanyahu and his new friends completely swallow the assertions about Iran's direction of Hamas and Hezbollah, and regard any criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinians as rigid, dogmatic anti-Israelism, which they ascribe to latent anti-semitism. I marked a couple of passages. No idea when I might get back to them. Meanwhile, I'm really hoping to finish the book soon.

Attempted to go back to sleep, but failed. Came down around 9:45. Temperature his 102F yesterday, but it was 63F when I came down. It rained earlier, and is raining again now. I've been playing Art Tatum and Ben Webster every morning, as that's guaranteed not to disturb Laura, and is quite soothing. Also spending a lot of time on the jigsaw puzzle. I'll work a bit on it while the record plays, up to breakfast. After breakfast, I put up Xgau Sez. Now, back to my own work.

Email (34 messages):

• NOEL: Music Week (6:3): shareable assets; 2 likes, 1 comment.
• Poll ballots: Eyal Hareuveni, Steve Feeney, Bill Brownlee.
• Substack notes links to a good piece by Tony Karon: Asking the Wrong Questions on Bernie Sanders and Palestine; also Shaul Magid: "Reactionary Renewal": "Judaism," the "Jews," and a Note on Peoplehood; Joseph Heath: Harari vs. Henrich. Joseph Henrich has a book called The Secret of Our Success, which looks interesting, attributing the distinctive evolution of human beings to cultural growth, which is then reinforced by genetic modifications.
• Tom Engelhard: Donald Trump, the End Times President, or ETP: Making War on Planet Earth, the Rest of Us, and Even Himself.
• Cuneiform newsletter. I wrote them back, asking for a promo code, and whether they want to recommend any writers.
• RiotRiot: Takes by the Ocean.

Daily Log

Got up after 10. Came down around 11. Hot today, will probably hit 100F for first time this year. While late March through early April seemed warmer than usual, June had been fairly mild before the last couple days. I was bracing for an exceptionally hot summer. That could still happen, as July and (especially) August are when summer gets serious here. Dog has vet appointment today. That will probably be a quick trip out and back, as he's not good for much else, and generally a nuisance in the car. I need to write for Substack today: a Music Week, and maybe a short bit on lessons from the Iran War. Been thinking about the latter. Then back to the poll.

Email (37 messages):

• jpadmin: last night's message held for moderation because it exceeded the maximum message length (120k, it was 135k). I approved the message, and changed the limits (to 250k).
• New ballot(s): Lance Liddle.
• Tom Carson: Gertrude Steinbrenner, 1946-?: So you think America isn't ready for a lesbian President? Tough luck. We've already got one. Most of this simply sails over my head, which I guess is why he is writing a novel, and I'm just hopelessly stuck in fact-based reality. But I suppose I get the point of this: "In the meantime, 47 is already growing renowned as our first President — bull dyke or other — to regularly crap her pants in public. Frankly, if I had to live with her daily dread at having her terrible secret exposed, I would too."
• Xgau Sez: dream concerts, Smiths, Last Critic, Shakira, Monterey, Gregory Isaacs.

Started pulling together Music Week (6:3). I sent the newsletter out at 10:14 PM.

Daily Log

Came down around 11:15. Finally got to the war part of Friedländer's Diary. It is profoundly unenlightening. After 180 pages of unbridled disgust over the government of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, the best he can come up with is the suspicion that Iran is behind it all, and that Hamas are inherently evil, subhuman even. On some level he understands that Israel's treatment of Palestinians bears some degree of responsibility, but with enemies like that, what can decent people do? Well, not elect Netanyahu, for starters.

I found myself again thinking something I recall thinking at the time: had Israel limited their response to 3-4 weeks of massive, senseless bombing (which is exactly what they did in tha time), few people would have blamed them, and they would have made the point that violence only begets more violence. What they needed to do then was to stop, and to negotiate from the position of strength and righteous brutality they had established. If they didn't get the concessions they wanted, they could resume the war, with the intent of levelling Gaza, killing everyone who didn't flee into permanent exile — which is pretty much what they did for the next two years (except that the killing and exile hasn't turned out to be as efficient as they had hoped). I've written about some of this (if memory serves, back at the time), and I've thought more that I haven't dared publish, because many of my friend still hope for Palestinian nationhood. I fear that the only way Israel can right itself is after it solves its demographic fears, by driving most of its Palestinians into exile, and gaining recognition from the world that the doors against return are sealed. This can be done more or less humanely (although history doesn't offer any examples of more, so that would require some innovation, as well as some serious international efforts to discipline Israel). I could write about this if anyone cares, but for now nobody does. If my wife reads this, she may well dump me.

Email (28 messages):

I spent most of yesterday working on the poll voter log. It's a mess, and I still have much more to do. I'm tracking this stuff in a message to send to jpadmin, but I might as well add working notes here, as well:

• Names of 2025 voters not in jazzpoll list. I've written to each, and added them: Nuno Catarino, Ted Panken, Fiona Ross, Martin Schray. I also in error resubscribed Matthew Crook and Allen Michie.
• I unsubscribed 2 voters who had died: Mark Holston, Leopold vanTrikt. Also deleted duplicate address for Franpi Barriaux. We currently have 254 members in jazzpoll list.
• Going through the 2025 critics file. Last night I noted all of the voters in the new voter-log file, but left the commented out lines until today (130+). Dealing with them here. This involves removing lines from old-voter-log so I can see what's left when I'm done.
• Going through my local Jazzpoll address book, which I use for MailMerge-customized invites. Marked membership in list in voter-log. Moved a couple entries out to RIP, leaving 290 contacts.
• It looks like everyone in Jazzpoll-adds is already in Jazzpoll. Same for jpadmin-plus. Wonder if I can just delete them? On the other hand, Jazzpoll 25 Adds has names that were sent invites in 2025, some of whom voted (I moved those into T; rest marked A).
• Looks like MM-Jazzpoll-Adds have all been incorporated into Jazzpoll.
• That leaves 317 names in old-voter-log that showed up at one point or another, but have never been qualified, and haven't received invitations in the past. I'm sure there is also a lot of room for further research.

Daily Log

Midway through June, already. I posted Loose Tabs last night. I worked my way through the open tabs, especially on row 2, where I keep my news/politics sources open, skipping a couple, and not dwelling long toward the end. I did note the NY Times reporting that Trump said the war with Iran was over, and that they had agreed to everything, and that Israel wasn't happy (which means nothing really is settled). I added some links to them. I also finally realized that the "human cock-fight" on the White House lawn was happening as I was wrapping up. Seems like I'm always caught unawares by Trump's antics, probably because I never quite believe that such nonsense is really going to happen.

Woke up around 7:30, but went back to sleep, getting up at 10:30, coming down near 11:30. The Friedlander book is running on repeat, with repeated government crises as the religious/settler parties keep twisting Netanyahu for favors, which he settles for more or less. But in the end, they all need each other to keep their racket afloat. Still, we're already seeing suggestions that Netanyahu is provoking wars to salvage internal unity. There will be much more of that to come. Today I need to finally look at the Jazz Critics Poll voter list. As of last night, we have 10 ballots counted. Leaders are: Tomeka Reid, Adam O'Farrill, Ahmed, Miles Okazaki, and Tyshawn Sorey. Second five is even further out: Rodrigo Amado, Meg Okura, Michael Formanek, Goal Weight (the only one I haven't heard), and Caleb Wheeler Curtis. Joe Henderson and Art Pepper are tied in Rara Avis, followed by Carla Bley, and two Cecil Taylor sets. Early days.

Email (25 messages):

• I wrote a brief update to jpadmin last night.
• New ballot(s): Paul Medrano, Jason Weiss.
• Vox Memberships: Confirms cancel of subscription. I was going to do that today, not having heard back from my support request, where I complained about them bumping the annual charge from $40 to $60. But the I got a counter-offer, 40% off, which I calculate to be $36. Thinking about it, but I'll probably say yes.
• Tom Engelhardt: A Climatic Presidency. Of course, he would write that. Everything comes back to climate change for him.
• We Players: They have a film called Caesar Maximus, and are offering "see Caesar for free," but I'm having trouble deciphering the ad.
• Waste Management is promoting Bagster, the email implying that it is free. I asked google, and they say $30 for the bag (available at Home Depot, Lowe's, etc., and $150-350 for pickup. The bag can hold 3000 pounds (I've also seen 606 gallons). Doesn't seem like a very good deal.
• Tom Carson: True Fakes on Location: An oldie from The Baffler, June 6, 2016.

I checked out a Hawaiian cookbook, which looks like it might make for a good dinner, if only I knew a bit more about Hawaiian cuisine. We've had several new restaurants open here recently, so I thought I'd do some research, and go out and check one out. Here's what I found:

• Noble House: 100 N Broadway. Closed Monday.

• Hawaiian Bros Island Grill: 1360 N Greenwich. Menu (doesn't seem to have poke):

  • Plate Lunches: huli huli chicken, honolulu chicken, leau pork, pacific island salad, mixed plate; build your own bowl; sliders & wraps;
  • Sides: macaroni salad, pineapple, white rice, veggies, spam musabi
  • Dessert: Dole soft serve

• Sharky's: 8918 W 21st St N. Open Monday-Sunday, closes 9PM. Menu:

  • Appetizers: spam musubi, fried cheese curds, fried mushrooms, kimchi potstickers.
  • Loaded fries: classic, bulgogi poutine, loco moc, Korean chicken.
  • Mixed hot plates: rice + 1-3 proteins, kimchi fried rice.
  • Burgers
  • Poke bowls/salad: aloha, ohana, mahalo, ono, build your own, sushi burritos (mostly seem to be out of stock)
  • Value meals
  • Sides: kimchi coleslaw, pickled radish, cucumber, mac
  • Desserts: Dolewhip

• Pokémoto: 550 N Webb. Menu:

  • Bowls: signature or make your own (similar to below)
  • Salads:
  • Burritos:
  • Sides: musubi, miso soup

Sharky's "build your own" notes:

1. Build your own base: white rice, salad, half white rice, half salad, none, fried rice (+4)
2. Protein: steak (+2), chicken, salmon, shrimp, tuna, double protein (+3)
3. Sauce: pokemix, eel, spicy mayo, Japanese mayo, spicy shoyu, sunset, lime, ponzu, teriyaki, gluten free pokemix/spicy shoyu
4. Mix-ins: green onion, red onion, cucumber, garlic, jalapenos, thai chili, grated ginger, mango, pineapple
5. Optional topping: kimchi coleslaw, seaweed (+.50), crab salad, masago, edamame, avocado (+1), pickled ginger
6. Optional shakers: sesame seeds, furikake, nori, tempura pearls, fried onions

We went to Pokémoto. They had some take-out deals, but it was mostly custom-built bowls. We got two, with tuna and salmon, and they were pretty good.

Daily Log

Woke up after 10. Read some and came down a day later. Annoyed to read Friedländer casually refer to Nasrallah as an "Iranian stooge." The possibility that Hezbollah has its own reasons for standing up against Israel never occurs to him. Also that Iran may have sided with Hezbollah, and later with Hamas, because Israel left them with no better options. He also casually mentions that Iran sends Hamas $100M in weapons every year. Is there any evidence for this? Israel controls access to Gaza, so any weapons would have to be smuggled in, probably through tunnels. That probably includes small arms and parts for rockets (which as I understand it are local products; I do find it plausible that Iran delivered rockets to Hezbollah, as they were aligned in support of Assad in Syria; arms for Hezbollah may well have topped $100M, but in modern warfare that's not a lot). I'm still well short of Oct. 7, 2023 in the book. The minutiae is perhaps a bit much, but I was looking for context, to better gauge the post-apocalypse response.

More Loose Tabs today. I still have two ballots to count, but no more news on that front. Email (6 messages):

• New ballot(s): Mark Corroto, Hrayr Attarian.
• Tom Carson: The Iron Fist in the Tin Hat: On the spectrum with Donald Trump and Graham Platner. Nothing here, so I guess it's paywalled.
• Brad Luen: A few things I didn't hate about Barcelona.
• New Substack subscriber: Maurice Grennia Jr.

Time came to reboot, so I updated software.

Daily Log

Woke up again a bit after 9. Machine score was 85, a little over 4 hours. Laura woke up, and berated me for not going back to bed. She also had 4 hours, but every night is like that for her, and she's becoming increasingly despondent over lack of sleep. She complained yesterday about me playing music when I got up. Volume is generally low, so it seems likely she could hear much, but I was playing Olof Dreijer, and it does have a heavy bass line. But lack of music is bothering me too. I just turned on Art Tatum/Ben Webster, which shouldn't be a problem.

Loose Tabs today. Hopefully I can wrap it up, but seems like an infinite time sink. I need to look at voter-log, and figure out where we are with invites. Reasonably pleased with yesterday's response. Not much email today (10 messages):

• New ballots: Phil Overeem, Mike Borella.

Daily Log

Slept until after 9, logging 361 minutes, 100 on the meter (but just barely). Came down at 10:15. Music Week went out last night. Letters and invites are out to jazzpoll, and a letter to jpmedia. I ran into a problem with the email lists last night, and filed a complaint with Shock Hosting. They say it's ok. I haven't rechecked yet. I'm thinking about making the jpmedia list open enrollment. I didn't do a 26my website update last night, although I have new code, and some key typo fixes. I also have two unprocessed ballots, so I figure I'll do them before the update. Next big job is sorting through the voter-log and/or the spreadsheet. But I think the big push today will be on Loose Tabs. It is old enough it needs to go out, and big enough too.

Email (38 messages):

• Laura forwarded a piece from Zeteo: Hasan Piker Refuses to Soften the Truth: "I Don't Care About Zionists' Feelings."
• NOEL new subscriber(s): Mark Corroto.
• New ballot: James Hale, Troy Collins, Scott Albin.
• I wrote to Terry Gross. I will set up a Francis Davis website, but not very soon.

Daily Log

Woke up about 9. Read some, moving on to Saul Friedländer after finishing Bartov last night. Journal, first half written starting in January 2023, when Netanyahu's genocidal impulses were mostly directed at Israel's own democracy. Bartov concluded with a section on various binational/confederation plans circulating in Israel. Almost anything would be better than what they have, but they all are based on hopes I don't find credible. While I think that Israel should become a normal nation that represents all of the people in its territory equally, I don't see that happening without great psychological struggle on the part of Israeli Jews, and I don't think they're up for it. While I'm sure they vastly exaggerate the demographic threat, a Palestinian exodus would help relieve that pressure, and would probably be good for many Palestinians we well. We need a generous and attractive scheme that facilitates this and doesn't turn it into a permanent grudge. Most critically, we need to demilitarize the region, moving all possible conflicts away from war. Finally, I think Israel itself needs to secularize. While the first two points will be hard for present-day Israel to swallow, I think there is already considerable desire for the latter. The religious parties have run roughshod over Israel ever since, well, Ben-Gurion's compromise in 1948. Of course, this point is bothering me increasingly about the US. While I am inclined to be tolerant of anyone who is still capable of retaining religious faith, the tendency of such people to want to run (and ruin) the lives of everyone else is overbearing.

I tried going back to sleep, but got up and came down at 10:30. Laura is having even more trouble sleeping, and just asked me to shut off the music, so I won't even have that. Most immediate plan for today is to send out the invitation to jazzpoll. I'm not sure how much of an effort I want to make to prospect for voters, but will mention it, and see if anything shakes out. Then I need to post Music Week, and possibly get back to Loose Tabs. Should be a lot of work today.

Email (20 messages):

• Notes on Everyday Life (Substack): new subscriber (Jon Garelick); later, after my jazzpoll, pitch: Jason Weiss, Stuart Broomer, Mark Sullivan, Cliff Ocheltree.
• Picked up +1 like for Music Week (6:2).
• Tom Engelhardt: Reading the Times (And Not Just the Paper).
• I sent out a preliminary letter to jazzpoll. I followed that up by sending ballot invites, and by writing to jpmedia.
• Tom Carson: Death of a novelist's mannequin: Bob Packwood, 1932-2026.

I need some data for the Mid-Year Poll, so thought I'd throw together a preliminary ballot:

New Jazz Albums:

1. Meg Okura/Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble: Isaiah (Adhyâropa)
2. Rodrigo Amado/This Is Our Language Quartet: Wailers (European Echoes) **
3. Tyshawn Sorey: Members . . . Don't (Pi, 2CD)
4. أحمد [Ahmed]: Play Monk (Otoroku) **
5. Anthony Joseph: The Ark (Heavenly Sweetness) **
6. The Tomeka Reid Quartet: Dance! Skip! Hop! (Out of Your Head)
7. Irreversible Entanglements: Future Present Past (Impulse!) **
8. Adam O'Farrill: Elephant (Out of Your Head)
9. Mark Lomax II & the Urban Art Ensemble: The Unity Suite (CFG Multimedia) **
10. Myra Melford/Satoko Fujii: Katarahi (RogueArt)

Rara Avis (Reissues/Archival):

1. Art Pepper: Everything Happens to Me: 1959 Live at the Cellar (Omnivore, 4CD) **
2. Joe Henderson: Consonance: Live at the Jazz Showcase (1978, Resonance, 2CD)
3. The Lawrence Marable Quartet: Tenorman (1956, Jazz: West/Blue Note) **
4. Sunny Murray/Sabu Toyozumi: Sun's Blessings (1999, NoBusiness)

All I had to do to make the ballots visible was to comment out the check of the $LockResults variable in the album() function (std-ballots.inc). Still need more work to come up with permanent urls for the critics table.

Music Week

I ran the cutoff on Wednesday, but don't expect to post Music Week until Thursday.

Expanded blog post, June archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 49 albums, 5 A-list

Music: Current count 46097 [46048] rated (+49), 11 [20] unrated (-9).

New records reviewed this week:

• Marisa Anderson: The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music (2026, Thrill Jockey): [sp]: B+(**)
• Chuck Bergeron: Bass & Face: Duets With Ten Premier Vocalists ([2026], Summit): [cd]: B+(**)
• Boards of Canada: Inferno (2026, Music 70/Warp): [sp]: B+(**)
• Bop Alloy: Masters of the Artistry (2026, Bop Alloy): [sp]: A-
• Alan Braufman: Anthem for Peace (2025 [2026], The Control Group/Valley of Search): [sp]: B+(**)
• Columbia Icefield: A Silence Opens (2024-25 [2026], Out of Your Head): [cd]: B+(**)
• Michael Dease Big Band: Return Trajectory (2025 [2026], Origin): [cd]: B+(**) [06-19]
• Armen Donelian: Inquiry (2020-24 [2026], Sunnyside): [cd]: B+(*)
• Eddy Current Suppression Ring: In Light of Recent Events (2025 [2026], Suppression): [bc]: B+(***)
• Entropic Hop: The Quest for the Normal Is the Death of the Self (2025 [2026], ESP-Disk'): [cd]: B+(***)
• Joel Futterman/William Parker: Transcendent Universe (2025 [2026], Burning Ambulance): [bc]: A-
• Golems of the Red Planet: Surf Masada: The Compositions of John Zorn (2026, Heyday Again): [bc]: B+(***)
• Brad Goode Quintet: Live Your Dream: Live at the North Street Cabaret (2025 [2026], Origin): [cd]: B+(***) [06-19]
• Andy Haas: Messianic Time (2026, Resonant Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Jon Hamar: Música Callada (2025 [2026], Origin Classical): [cd]: B+(*) [06-19]
• Aldous Harding: Train on the Island (2026, 4AD): [sp]: B+(**)
• Wendell Harrison & Tribe: Tribute to Pharoah Sanders: Live at the Concert of Colors Detroit 2025 (2025 [2026], Org Music): [bc]: B+(***)
• David Hillyard & the Rocksteady 7: Home for Dinner (2026, Org Music): [bc]: B
• Ital Tek: Mind Abandon (2026, Planet Mu): [bc]: B+(**)
• Whitney Johnson/Lia Kohl/Macie Stewart: Body Sound (2025 [2026], International Anthem): [bc]: B+(**)
• Carolyn Lee Jones: Eklektika (2026, Catn'round Sound): [cd]: B+(***)
• JPEGMafia: Experimental Rap (2026, Peggy/AWAL): [sp]: B+(*)
• KJADE: The Sound That Trees Make (2024, self-released): [bc]: B+(**)
• KJADE: On Everything I Love (2026, self-released): [bc]: B+(**)
• Ava Mendoza: Alive Alone, Alive Together (2026, Burning Ambulance): [bc]: B+(***)
• Mod Lang: Borrowed Time (2026, Just Add Water): [bc]: B+(**)
• Namasenda: Limbo (2026, Year0001): [bc]: B+(***)
• Willie Nelson: Dream Chaser (2026, Legacy): [sp]: B+(***)
• Shane Parish: Autechre Guitar (2025 [2026], Palilalia): [sp]: B
• Jeff Parker ETA IVtet: Happy Today (2025 [2026], International Anthem/Nonesuch): [bc]: A-
• Ben Patterson: Stretch (2025 [2026], Origin): [cd]: B+(**) [06-19]
• Kemuel Roig: Both Sides Now (2026, Life in Music): [cd]: B+(***)
• Skullcap: Snakes of Albuquerque (2023 [2025], Cuneiform): [dl]: B+(**)
• The Sleeveens: National Anthem (2026, Goner): [bc]: B+(*)
• Tyshawn Sorey: Members . . . Don't (2025 [2026], Pi, 2CD): [cd]: A-
• Gary Versace Trio: Three Track Mind (2024 [2026], Sunnyside): [bc]: B+(**)
• Victor Vieira-Branco's Bark Culture: The Giant Is Awkward (2025 [2026], Temperphantom): [bc]: B+(**)
• Weird Nightmare: Hoopla (2026, Sub Pop): [sp]: B+(*)
• White Denim: Wd13 (2026, Bella Union): [sp]: B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Kaiso Power: Sound Revolution in Trinidad 1970-1980 (1970-80 [2026], Soundway): [bc]: B+(*)
• Les Rallizes Dénudés: Disque 4: '76 Studio Et Live (1976 [2026], Temporal Drift): [bc]: A-

Old music:

• Bop Alloy: Substantial and Marcus D Are Bop Alloy (2010, Elevation): [sp]: B+(**)
• Bop Alloy: Another Day in the Life Of . . . (2014, Bop Alloy): [sp]: B+(**)
• Namasenda: Unlimited Ammo (2021, PC Music): [sp]: B+(**)
• Aron Namenwirth/Eric Plaks/Sean Conly/Jon Panikkar: Hurricane (2018 [2019], Culture of Waste): [bc]: B+(***)
• Aaron Namenwirth/Zach Swanson/Joe Hertenstein: Gettin' Hot (2019 [2020], Culture of Waste): [bc]: B+(**)
• Weird Nightmare: Weird Nightmare (2022, Sub Pop): [bc]: B+(*)
• White Denim: Workout Holiday (2008, Full Time Hobby): [bc]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Mike Clark: Kuon Ganjo (Time Without Beginning) (Wide Hive) [08-07]
• Satoko Fujii: Satoko Fujii's Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra (2014, Libra, 2CD) [07-10]
• Hein Westgaard & Matt Maneri: Chamber (Gotta Let It Out) [2024-06-27]

Daily Log

Woke up around 7:30. Read some, then tried to go back to sleep. Was successful enough that I didn't get up and come down until after noon.

Email (31 messages):

• NOEL Substack post: Music Week (6:2): Stats (including yesterday): 4 likes, 1 comment; traffic sources: 101 email views, 30 other.
• Mike Konczal: Our New Housing Affordability Report Is Live!
• Robert Christgau: Consumer Guide. Looks like he managed to come up with an entire CG of albums I've never heard of. [PS: forgot about Pony.]
• Michael Tomasky has written a novel, Killing Baby Hitler: "a side-splitting, super-smart story of a journey from the future to the past, aimed at forestalling global calamity in a single stroke."
• I wrote about the website update to jpadmin.

Tom Carson is whining about Graham Platner in Maine. The other day he said he's "vote for Collins in a heartbeat" over Platner. Platner won the Democratic primary yesterday with 71% of the vote, so today Carson's predicting that Collins will win in a landslide. I commented:

Maybe this is my redneck coming out, but the more slime I see from well-meaning liberals against Platner, the less I believe, and the less I care. Granted, that's a common reaction from Trump voters, but their problem was less their knee-jerk reaction against Harris-Biden-Clinton-Obama than their ridiculous blind spot around Trump. Democrats need candidates who can puncture that blind spot much more than they need goodies who suck up to the rich thinking they can turn their money into votes.

Laura reposted my Facebook notice on Music Week (6:2). One thing that struck me as interesting here is that Facebook's AI added two questions:

• How to subscribe free? To subscribe to Tom Hull's Notes on Everyday Life newsletter, you can likely sign up on his website or newsletter platform. Since Tom mentions "If you haven't already, please sign up" in the post, you can probably find a sign-up link on his website or blog, possibly in the sidebar, footer, or at the top of the page. You can search for "Notes on Everyday Life newsletter" and his name to find the sign-up page.

• What is Notes on Everyday Life "Notes on Everyday Life" appears to be a newsletter by Tom Hull, the author of the Facebook post you mentioned. Based on the context, it's likely a personal newsletter where Tom shares his thoughts, reviews, and writings on various topics, including music, as evidenced by the music reviews included in the post. Newsletters like these often feature curated content, personal updates, and insights, similar to online journals or diaries. If you're interested in subscribing, you can likely find more information on Tom's website or through a newsletter directory. Some popular newsletter platforms include Substack, Penzu, or Revue, which allow writers to share their work and connect with readers.

I commented on Facebook:

I was amused to find Facebook's AI adding questions here. The answers are basically correct, but could use some editing (e.g., "likely" and "probably" could be dropped; also: "various topics, including music, as evidenced by the music reviews included in the post"). My first reaction is that it's nice to know that the machines, at least, are reading me. Sometimes I wonder whether some of my ideas, like "representative democracy" or "war insurance" or "right to exile," will eventually get picked up not by direct readers but by others using AI. Of course, I also fear that this also exposes me to reprisal from thin-skinned evildoers. That's why we need fundamental political changes.

I have a Vox subscription that's due to renew at an increased rate. I hate these things (although if I made any money writing Loose Tabs, sure, I should spread some of it around). I wrote the following note to them. (Sure, if my time was worth something, it would have been cheaper just to pay up.)

I'm ok with renewing my subscription to Vox at my initial rate of $40/year. but if you insist on bumping it up to $60, I'll cancel. It looks like the renewal date is June 20, 2026. I received email from you a while back, but nothing recently. I don't know whether you give readers a chance to cancel before you charge them, or what hoops one has to jump through to get a refund, so I'm trying to stay on top of this.

I don't have many complaints about your content. Ian Millhiser is certainly a star. I frequently link to your pieces in my Loose Tabs posts, which will suffer if I can no longer get past your paywall. But I don't make any money for my contributions to the web, and I don't have much to spread around. And the way the world's going, I'm getting close to just giving up and hiding from the news/media. The world's not going to be my problem much longer.

My wife subscribes to all sorts of stuff, so I realize I'm just being cheap here. But I am cheap, so fuck it!

Daily Log

Came down at 10:30. I spent most of yesterday working on my Jazz Poll "Notes for Voters." I like most of what I've done there, but reconciling the final sections from the old file with what I've written new here is turning into a drag. Meanwhile, time passes. I did jump the gun and send a message to jpadmin, alerting them that the mid-year poll is coming, and asking for help on prospecting. I also mentioned that I may take a break and rush a Music Week out to Substack today (local file here). It would be good to get this in before Christgau's Consumer Guide drops tomorrow. I'm currently at +36 albums rated, with 4 A- albums, so that should suffice. But I do hope to get the jazz poll website up today.

Email (28 messages):

• Wichita Public Library: 2 books renewed. I should return them on Friday anyway (one read, one a cookbook I'm done with).
• Tom Carson: "Bobby Kennedy Turned Me To Lesbianism!"
• I wrote to jpadmin Got a nice reply from Rob Shepherd.
• NOEL Substack post: Music Week (6:2): Stats: 1 like, 1 comment.
• Facebook friend request from Clifford Ocheltree: confirmed.

I published Music Week (6:2) on Substack. I also put a post up on Notes:

Here's an advance selection of revies from this week's (still forthcoming) Music Week:

I used the Substack "share your link" widgets to share to X and Facebook. I also promoted on Bluesky.

Looks like I've heard everything on Phil Overeem's May list except (and I'll delete these as I get to them):

• Ran Blake & Dominique Eade: Roots & Byways (Sunnyside) **** [07-03]
• CHEER ACCIDENT: Live--CheerAx Basement, Chicago 4/2/22 // Reggie's Chicago 9/26/23(Cuneiform) ***
• The Phoenix Trio (featuring Mark Turner): Tomorrow is Today (Giant Step Arts) *** [06-19: I have CD]
• Stare Into the Night: the new abyss (self-released)

Daily Log

Woke up at 9, with just over 5 hours of sleep. Read Bartov's chapter on the killing of children. My lack of sympathy for children is abnormal, but in my own peculiar way. Perhaps I should write about that sometime, but not now. I spent most of yesterday rewriting the "Notes for Voters." Hopefully, I'll be able to wrap that up today, and upload the new website. I should have some answers from my first round of jazz poll questions later today. I woke up thinking I might go ahead and write to jpadmin, but now I think I'll wait. But it should happen by end of day.

Email (24 messages):

• Semipop Life: Odds & Ends 153.
• M7.8 earthquake, Mindanao, Philippines, with aftershock reports of M6.1, M6.0, and M.6.4.
• Terry Gross: will get back to me on mid-year poll.
• Joe Levy: Christgau schedule: Big Lookback today, Consumer Guide on Wednesday, Xgau Sez a week later.
• Robert Christgau: The Big Lookback: Coulson, Dean, McGuinness, Flint, from Creem 1973.
• James Blood Ulmer died, at 86.
• Photos from Laura Stevens' 80th birthday bash.
• I subscribed to Tom Engelhardt's Substack (257 subscribers; I'm a freeloader).

Daily Log

Woke up around 7:30. Tried going straight back to bed, but couldn't fall asleep, so just whiled away an hour and a half thinking, before getting up, reading, and coming down around 9:30. I wound up spending most of yesterday setting up the Jazz Critics Mid-Year Poll website. I wrote a letter to Bill Marx on Friday expressing my intent to run a mid-year poll. I wrote letters to Terry Gross and Paul Medrano yesterday. The former sought her approval, and raised the question of whether to continue using Francis Davis's name to brand the poll. I find it slightly awkward, and wouldn't mind just stressing the definite article in "The Jazz Critics Poll" (which also implies increasing democracy, which would be a good thing as I move away from the poll.

Paul had wanted to focus on the website, and was willing to sacrifice the mid-year poll to do so. But we didn't do any work on the website, and now we're in the limited time window for a mid-year poll, so that's the only question of the moment. Sure, the website does need work. But I spent the whole day yesterday on 26my, and I'm not done. By how much is hard to say. I picked up this work today. One idea I'm considering is opening up the totals and ballots during the voting period, so folks can see what's going on. An alternative might be to just allow the ballots to appear, without the totals. The latter would take some programming, but probably not a lot. I've long wanted to provide a handle for voters to access their own ballots, and possibly to post them for others. That may be the best option.

Email (6 messages):

Daily Log

Got up early. Read some Bartov, and came down just after 10. I watched NBA finals game two last night, where the Knicks won by one point, as Wembayana missed a pretty clear shot. Could easily have gone the other way. I suppose I'll work on Loose Tabs today, but I should do Christgau website work, and also set up the JCP Mid-Year Poll website. I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about damn near everything.

Email (13 messages):

• Shock Hosting payment.
• Tom Carson: The Longest Daze: My Normandy invasions, 1962-present. A memoir with special focus on the cultural detritus of D-Day.
• Explain It Daily: How do patents work? (Do patents work?)

Daily Log

With one interruption, slept almost to 11. I haven't finished Pasquinelli, but started Bartov anyway. Nothing new so far. Weight up another pound, to 226. Maybe cooking wasn't such a good idea. Came down, and solved the Mahjongg that had stumped me last night. Put Tyshawn Sorey on. Turns out it's a 2-CD set, covers, mostly from Stanley Cowell. Quintet, plus a Fay Victor vocal at the end. Sounds pretty good. Thinking about writing about China today. I still have Dan Wang's Breakneck out from library. I thought of returning it a week early, as I've usually been going there on Fridays, but no pressing need. Otherwise, I'll probably work on Loose Tabs, and/or the Jazz Critics Poll, and/or figuring out the car/music situation.

Email (51 messages):

• Substack stats for Music Week (6:1): 4 likes, 1 comment (mine), 1 restack, 1 free sub, 98 views via email (+22 other top traffic sources).
• Tom Carson: Frankenride 7: Craig meets Nikita Krushchev, confers with his Wodie Junior Thesis adviser Kirk Gentile -- who is, inevitably, Jewish -- and explores his affinity with Kim Philby Guy Burgess et al. Paywalled.
• Robert Wright: Anthropic's Latest PR Triumph.
• I added a bunch of new records to m2026. Not sure whether that was a good or bad idea.

Phone shopping. My first question was how much does a Samsung S9 weigh? 5.7 oz (163 g). I'd like to get something lighter. The S9 came out in 2018, and is only 4G/4G LTE compatible. I asked for lighter weight phones. Lightest Samsung available now is S25 Edge, same 163 g. A list of "2025-2026 lightest mobile phones" puts the S25 Edge in 5th place, with the Samsung Galaxy S25 in 4th at 162 g. Slightly better are Motorola Edge 70 (159 g) and Motorola Edge (2026) (160 g). Only significantly lighter phone is Nokia 110 Power (88 g/3.1 oz).

PC Mag "top tested" picks:

• Apple iPhone 17, "best small iPhone" ($829 T-Mobile)
• Google Pixel 10 Pro, "best small camera phone" ($849 Amazon)
• Google Pixel 10a, "best affordable android phone" ($482 Amazon)
• TCL Flip 4 5G, "best voice phone" ($109 T-Mobile)
• Samsung Galaxy S26, "best small android phone" ($899 Amazon)
• Apple iPhone 17e, "best affordable phone" ($599 T-Mobile)
• Motorola Razr Ultra, "best flip phone" ($699 Amazon)

Daily Log

Got up around 10:30, again falling just short of six hours sleep. Read some, and came down around 11. I published my Music Week (6:1) last night, and did the cutoff for this week's Music Week, adding the notebook entry below, but that's as far as I got. Laura wants to watch The Comeback, so we got through the second episode last night. I watched a second season episode of Beyond Paradise after that, a series Laura gave up on. Not enough murders? (Last night's was about an arson, car tampering, and a mugging, all to steal a valuable medal.)

I have chicken to cook today. Leftover rice and bean salad should suffice. I'm tiring of the Pasquinelli book, but I'm near the end. A couple of interesting ideas in there about how machinery reifies social and economic relations, as well as thinking about thinking in a more systematic way. The sections on AI itself don't seem to go beyond what I already know. I want to look at the Omer Bartov book next. I think it's arguable that Israel's appetite for genocide flagged a bit last fall, but is back in force in Lebanon. I'll be looking into that.

Back from rebooting. Now I have to get my six workspaces set up, so I can start working again.

Email (28 messages):

• My Substack post, Music Week (6:1): shareable assets, 4 likes, 1 new subscriber.
• TomDispatch: Engelhardt, A Personal TomDispatch Farewell (of Sorts). He's retiring as editor, turning the mailing list over to his former intern Nick Turse, who will continue to write for The Intercept. He's also starting a Substack, so I'll probably subscribe to it.
• Project Syndicate: more interesting articles.
• Phil Overeem: Let's Get Physical. I couldn't read the post, which seems to require the app, or a paid subscription. I wrote to Phil and complained about this. I heard back from Phil, who tells me that his "Physical Media" posts are for his paid tier ("I have a few"), "however, free subscribers get one free peek" (which is probably what the app was offering). Also says he's "up to almost 200 total subscribers (might be over that)."

I found a "Savory Soy-Honey Marinade" recipe on Google, and mixed up a batch for the chicken thighs. I wrote up the recipe here.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, June archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 47 albums, 6 A-list

Music: Current count 46048 [46001] rated (+47), 20 [32] unrated (-12).

New records reviewed this week:

• Sheldon Agwu: Kintsugi (2025, Sanctum): [bc]: B+(*)
• Wayne Alpern: Varieties & Extravaganzas (Henri Elkan Music)
• David Ambrosio/Donny McCaslin/Ingrid Jensen/Bruce Barth/Victor Lewis: Civil Disobedience: Blue Note in the Progressive Sixties (2026, Blue Frog): [sp]: B+(**)
• Richard Baratta: Another Kind of Bird (2026, Savant): [sp]: B+(*)
• Big K.R.I.T.: Dedicated to Cadalee Biarritz Vol. 1 (2025, Multi Alumni/ONErpm): [sp]: A-
• Bomba Estéreo/Rawayana: Astropical (2025, Sony Music Latin): [sp]: B+(***)
• Sofia Borges/Rieko Okuda/Peter Van Huffel: Lagrangian Points (2024 [2026], 4DaRecord): [dl]: B+(***)
• Bobby Bradford/Mark Dresser/Hafez Modirzadeh: Sonic House Reunion (2026, NoBusiness): [cd]: B+(**)
• Anthony Caceres: Let's Take a Trip (2026, Jig in G): [cd]: B+(*)
• Daniel Carter/Steve Hirsh: Convocation (2023 [2026], Mahakala Music): [bc]: B+(***)
• Confucius MC/Bastien Keb: Songs for Lost Travellers (2025, Native Rebel): [sp]: B+(**)
• Conway the Machine: You Can't Kill God With Bullets (2025, Drumwork/Roc Nation): [sp]: B+(***)
• Charles Downs Quartet: Inner (2024 [2026], ESP-Disk'): [cd]: A-
• Feeble Little Horse: Bitknot (2026, Saddle Creek): [sp]: B+(**)
• Chad Fowler & Matt Lavelle Quartet: Whirlpool (2022 [2026], Mahakala Music): [bc]: B+(***)
• Greg Freeman: Burnover (2025, Transgressive): [sp]: B
• George: Looking for Consonance (2024 [2026], Out of Your Head): [cd]: B+(***)
• Rafael Greco: Versos Bajo Mi Sombra/Verses Under My Shadow (2025 [2026], Blue Canoe): [cd]: B+(**)
• Gyrofield: Suspension of Belief (2025, Kapsela, EP): [sp]: B+(***)
• Gyrofield: Your Fight (2026, Field Research, EP): [sp]: B+(***)
• Anna von Hausswolff: Iconoclasts (2025, Year0001): [sp]: B
• Homeboy Sandman: Turns Out I Can Sell a Few More of These (2025, Dirty Looks, EP): [sp]: B+(**)
• Larkin Poe: Bloom (2025, Tricki-Woo): [sp]: B+(*)
• Janel Leppin: Slowly Melting (2026, Cuneiform): [dl]: B+(*)
• Janel Leppin's Ensemble Volcanic Ash: Pluto in Aquarius (2026, Cuneiform): [sp]: B+(**)
• Lip Critic: Theft World (2026, Partisan): [sp]: B+(***)
• Nas & DJ Premier: Light-Years (2025, Mass Appeal): [sp]: B+(***)
• John Pachnos: John Pachnos (2026, Avgonyma Music): [sp]: B+(**)
• Ivo Perelman: Trifecta (2022-24 [2026], Mahakala Music, 3CD): [bc]: A-
• Ivo Perelman/Damon Smith: Duologue: Core of Existence (2026, Squid Note): [bc]: B+(***)
• Rival Consoles: Landscape From Memory (2025, Erased Tapes): [sp]: B+(**)
• Yvonne Rogers: The Button Jar (2025 [2026], Pyroclastic): [cd]: B+(**)
• Thom Rotella: Right Time Left (2025, HighNote): [sp]: B+(*)
• Scott Sadlon: Songs From Thin Air (2022 [2026], Buddha Boy): [sp]: B+(***)
• Salin: Rammana (2025, Salin): [sp]: B+(*)
• Schapiro 17: Best Laid Plans (2025 [2026], Summit): [cd]: B+(*)
• KP Skywalka: I Tried to Tell You (2025, Beat the Odds): [sp]: B+(*)
• Watchhouse: Rituals (2025, Tiptoe Tiger Music): [sp]: B
• Weakened Friends: Feels Like Hell (2025, Don Giovanni): [sp]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Kenny Barron/Ray Drummond/Ben Riley: So Many Lovely Things: Live in Brecon (1995 [2026], Elemental Music, 2CD): [cd]: A- [06-12]
• Marion Brown: Live in Europe 1968 & 1972 (1968-72 [2026], NoBusiness): [cd]: B+(**)
• Daniel Carter/Sabir Mateen/William Parker/Lou Grassi: Keeping It in Context (1996 [2026], NoBusiness): [cd]: A-
• Sunny Murray/Sabu Toyozumi: Sun's Blessings (1999 [2026], NoBusiness): [cd]: A-
• Toshiyuki Sekine Trio: Strode Road (1978 [2025], Craftman): [yt]: B+(***)

Old music:

• George: Shorts (2022 [2023], Out of Your Head): [bc]: B+(*)
• Lip Critic: Hex Dealer (2024, Partisan): [sp]: B+(**)
• Yvonne Rogers: Seeds (2022 [2023], Relative Pitch): [bc]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• New England Jazz Collaborative: Tributaries (ACP) [07-16]
• The Phoenix Trio: Tomorrow Is Today (Giant Step Arts) [06-19]

Daily Log

Came down around 10:30, having slept slightly less than six hours. Last night I decided that instead of posting what I had for Music Week, I'd send an excerpt out to Substack first. I started working on that, but Laura wanted to shift TV time earlier, and afterwards I just worked on the puzzle. Then I realized I still had laundry washed but not dried, so stayed up later than I wanted to get that done. I'll work on that today. I did get Xgau Sez posted yesterday.

We went to Trader Joe's and Dillons yesterday. I bought some chicken, and will try making the arroz con pollo from the Puerto Rican cookbook I checked out. Only package of thighs with skin I could find was huge, so I have to decide whether to make it all, or split it for another recipe (either freeze it, or turn it into something a bit more durable). The cookbook was a library checkout, and I didn't find much else I wanted to try in it. The recipe calls for separating the skin, roasting it separately, then using it as a garnish for the rice and meat.

When we got into the car after Dillons, the bluetooth connection between the car and the phone didn't work, so we had no music for the return trip. Laura tried various things to fix it, to no avail. That remains as a project. I find the lack of any diagnostics very frustrating, and info on the internet isn't very helpful. Lack of a CD player is my main complaint about the car, but it is getting to be a major one. I'll try to figure this out, but Laura allowed as I should get a new phone, and possibly we should start shopping for a new car. We can, after all, afford something much nicer, and we don't have a lot of time left to treat ourselves.

Email (27 messages):

• RiotRiot: An interview with the Mekons. Actually, Jon Langford.
• Substack May 2026 stats in review: 106 subscribers (+7), 364 post reads (+117). The new subscriber breakdown shows 43% coming from tomhull.com. I think that means 3.
• Substack: Introducing Reply Rules: "Creators can now set the rules for their own community, in their own words."
• Clean Feed: After 25 years, they're giving up on new releases, with one last one from the late Sei Miguel (trumpet).
• Delivered: Omer Bartov: Israel: What Went Wrong?

I checked out a Puerto Rican cookbook from the library, by Mia Castro: Cocina Puerto Rico: Recipes From My Abuela's Kitchen to Yours. I thought I might construct an interesting dinner from it, like I did with Pyet DeSpain's Rooted in Fire. But when I thumbed through it, I didn't find much that interested me. Still, I thought I might try her arroz con pollo. It's a dish Laura likes, and is pretty sufficient for a single-dish dinner. I bought some chicken thighs yesterday to try it, but I didn't write up a proper shopping list, so I wound up finding myself with no cilantro, let alone culantro. Still, I pushed ahead today. While the recipe seems simple enough, it is actually based on three other recipes: adobo, sofrito, and saizo. Those, along with a few more prep mixes, are used throughout the cookbook, and the recipes are designed for 4-8 times as much as you're likely to need for any given recipe. So first thing I had to do was to scale those recipes down, roughly to one-quarter. I wound up buying 5 lbs of chicken thighs, but only needed 1.5 lbs. I used four, which started at 2 lbs but came to barely over 1.1 lbs boned and skinned. I roasted the skin and bones, and rubbed the meat with adobo, then browned it. I then fried the sofrito and olives, added the rice, and the stock. The recipe called for 2 cups of rice (I used arborio) but only 2.5 cups of stock. That turned out to be not enough, so the rice came out undercooked, and I wound up spending a lot of time trying to correct for that. It also came out way too salty, which was mostly the fault of the adobo and saizo being largely made up of salt. The smarter thing would have been to keep the salt separate from the other spices. Since I had made so much, I figured it would do little harm to over-spice, but I got over-salt instead. I've since tried to de-salt and soften up the rice. Now it errs on the side of bland mush.

For a side, I thought I'd make a salad with black beans. I looked for a recipe, found something with tomatoes and feta, and jotted down the dressing. I then ad-libbed the contents, using a cucumber, red onion, red bell pepper, black olives, capers, parsley (I didn't have basil, or cilantro), and cotijo cheese (I had feta, but with a chunk left over I thought I'd substitute something more Latin American). Dressing recipe called for 1T olive oil, 2T white balsamic vinegar, and 1T lemon juice. I used more olive oil and less vinegar, then added more olive oil. It came out OK. I took a couple of plate pics, but nothing here to brag about. I now have six more chicken thighs in the refrigerator. I think what I'll do tomorrow is marinate them in something, then roast them in a hot oven. My first thought was an Ottolengthi dish, but I don't have the ingredients for it. So I looked on the internet. First recipe I found called for low-sodium soy sauce and sugarless maple syrup. That's not happening. But I'll probably come up with something decent. I could freeze them, but I have too much unlabeled crap in the freezer already.

I sent a 9-review Music Week out via Substack tonight. I should publish the real thing tomorrow.

Daily Log

Bedroom was hot (81F) when I went to bed last night, so I turned the AC on; first night I did that this year. Thermostat was set to 72F, and that's what the room measured when I woke up, around 10. We got hit by a storm after 2AM last night. Cooled down a bit. Still raining a bit. I read some. Weighed myself for the first time in a couple of weeks, and hit 225.6. Clearly headed in the wrong direction, so I should do something about that. Didn't touch Music Week yesterday, or anything for Substack publication. Mostly did Loose Tabs, which has grown pretty long. One thing I definitely need to get done today is Xgau Sez. It's slipped my mind the last couple days. Other thing on the schedule today is Laura's ear doctor appointment. She says she wants to go to three grocery stores after. Laura decided to bail on the coffee beans "impuzzible." I packed it up, trying to preserve what little we had gotten done, so if we ever open it up again, we can get back to where we were. Opened a new puzzle, and we've already made substantial progress on it.

Email (30 messages):

• HP Instant Ink: always searching for new ways to screw their customers ("to maintain the high quality of service while keeping up with rising costs"). New plan will be $1.99/month for 10 pages, plus $2.00 "per set" (which I'm guessing means 10 more pages). That's up from $1.60 a year ago. There is limited rollover, so "as of May 13, 2026 you have 30 available rollover pages"). I almost never use the printer. Most of the printer devices that Linux sets up don't work, but in recent months I've found one that does, so I've been able to print out the occasional tax document or shopping list. HP is evil.
• Sen. Roger Marshall: The Vision for America's Economic Future. Marshall spoke at a forum at the Reagan Presidential Library, alongside Scott Bessent and other Trump stooges. "Americans want an economy where hard work pays off, businesses can grow, energy is affordable, and opportunity is within reach for the next generation." Then why did they vote for these clowns?

Daily Log

Wound up mostly working on Loose Tabs yesterday. Wrote several long comments, leaving one on anti-semitism unfinished, to pick up today. Heated up to 95F yesterday. Will probably top that today. Doug is supposed to come over to work on the yard. It's pretty ragged. I got to bed late last night, and woke up after 10. Read some, then tried to go back to sleep. Came down around noon. Officially today is Music Week day, but having just released one last Thursday, I don't feel much urgency. Laura suggested giving up and boxing the coffee beans jigsaw puzzle. I'm inclined to agree. Been thinking up how to box it while preserving the work done so far. Of course, it's the easy part, so it shouldn't be too hard to regenerate, but even it didn't come easy. Laura has eye doctor on Tuesday. We'll probably do some shopping then.

Email (26 messages):

• Pussy Riot "debut album Cyka coming out June 12.

May 2026

Jul 2026