Daily Log

Past labor day now, so summer, as I grew up thinking of it, is over, and autumn is if not here coming, surely. But it's still hot outside. When we went out for groceries yesterday, the car thermometer registered 106°F. My weather station got to 104. (That was the official figure, which set a record for the date. We've had seven days of 100F+ so far in September, which breaks a previous record of six in 2000.) Writing this as 11:12 AM, and it's 94 outside. Forecast is 98, but looks like it will cool off a bit tonight (79 by 9 PM; I've been walking the dog after dark lately, but it's usually still been in the 92-95 range). It's usually hot the first couple weeks of September, so this isn't unexpected, but the last 2-3 weeks have been the worst of the summer. Keeps me from wanting to do anything outside.

Started writing Back to 2025 Jazz last night. Didn't get very far into it, but I did the basic research, and should knock it out today.

Email (215 in inbox):

• Substack: Back to 2025 Non-Jazz: +2 likes. +1 new subscriber (Greg Morton).

I finally got around to adding a comment to my Toyota "case" file:

I took my car in for its regular "free" service. (They wanted $55 to replace a dirty cabin air filter, which even though it's a routine item, doesn't seem to be covered. Given that the filters cost about $10 retail, and that 90% of the work to replace them has to be done just to look at them, this mostly served to remind me that your dealer service is designed to rip customers off.) They couldn't find any Bluetooth problems, and maintain that the car is working properly, which suggests that the continuing disruptions with the "infotainment" system are engineering (or business) features. Android Auto comes up automatically sometimes, or not. The procedure to get it running requires that I first get off the road, as it's so complicated and counterintuitive, the touch screen often doesn't work, and I've yet to get the car to respond to a single voice command. I can stream Spotify through Android Auto, but it mysteriously cuts off, so I have to reach over and restart it. Spotify's own user interface makes it nearly impossible to select new music while driving, so I basically wind up playing the same thing over and over again. It would have been so simple for you to offer a CD player, as my old Toyota did. I've been looking for a way to add one, but I'm getting mixed information. It is generally agreed that one can plug a unit (which will probably have to be taped to the side of the center console, as you've designed the dashboard to make any more convenient mounting, including on top of the dashboard, impossible) into the USB port. Local dealers want about $500 to do this, even though there is no hidden wiring. Similar units are available from Amazon for $50-120. I wrote to one vendor, and they weren't sure if their unit would work -- seems to depend on whether you recognize WAV files. I've read about a much more expensive unit ($270) that also hooks up through the USB, but mimics a phone interface. Do you have any idea what would or would not work? Ideally, the basic functional controls should appear on the "infotainment" screen, so it's quite possible that Toyota has designed their system to make any such thing impossible. Another possibility I'd consider is hooking a MP3 player up (like the old iPods, but the newer ones aren't limited to MP3 files; while most use USB, some also use Bluetooth). Do you have any guidance on that, or is that something else you want to exclude to steer people into your side deals with Sirius XM and such? I haven't done anything with the Toyota app, which seems to me to be useless and possibly downright annoying.

Daily Log

After making modest progress on my book outline on Sunday, I wasted yesterday putting together my list of albums Christgau missed in 2025, and posted it to Substack: Back to 2025 Non-Jazz. Title leaves open a follow-up piece on jazz, or practically demands it. Criteria there would be to exclude the albums that got 2+ votes in our poll. I suppose I could do that today, while I have the research near done, or I could go back to the book outline. I need to follow up on a couple issues: doctor, car audio.

Woke up about 7:30 or 8:30 (memory hazy, so maybe both). I read some (French revolution impact on Europe, Meiji Restoration in Japan). Thought I might as well stay up, but tried again, and slept until 11:45. Was 98F when I came down.

Email (lots new in Yahoo; ugh!):

• Brad Luen: That Seventies list: A debrief. Stats show he has 39 Anglosphere albums (USA + UK + Canada) vs. 38 for everywhere else (including 5 from Jamaica). I suppose I could write a response, but for now I should just study up on the unknowns, mostly from Brazil and Africa.
• Substack: Back to 2025 Non-Jazz: shareable assets, 2 likes.
• Jacobin: Francis Fukuyama: The American Right has gone off the deep end

Daily Log

Got up after 10. Came down just before 11. Read about South Africa, where the apartheid regime engineered the poverty of the segregated Bantustans. I spent most of yesterday setting up and outlining the political book. Wrote about 2000 words. My hope is to work on it over the following week, to see how much I can come up with, and how well it hangs together. I have an outline, and under each major section a "synopsis," where I can start to sketch out the contents of the chapter. I need to come up with a way of doing footnotes. For now, I'm just using emacs and HTML markup, so I can review it as a web page. Still, this morning, I'm thinking about taking a short break to knock out the 2025 non-CG piece. Perhaps that's just weakness in my resolve? It's something I've been threatening to do for some time now, and it's pretty doable. Also thinking about rewriting the "6 worst things about Trump" note. That, at least, can feed into the book.

Email (still times out, 184 in web app, about 20 from today):

Daily Log

Stayed up past 3 last night, working on the jigsaw puzzle. Earlier in the evening, I posted Music Week (I should change date to Sept. 5). Then we watched a movie Laura had been wanting to see: The Sheep Detectives, a combination of human acting and animated sheep, but the models were fairly realistic 3-D. It wasn't much of a mystery — my line yesterday about "super smart and highly principled" didn't begin to apply, as the crime was figured out, rather clumsily, by sheep, and the cop became their agent because he wasn't smart enough to go his own way, but was naive enough to take the sheep seriously. The humans were effectively as cartoonish as the animations.

Read some more, about absolutism in China and Ethiopia, and the inability of Somalis to form a central state. Thinking about writing the political book. I may give it a start today, after some puzzle work and breakfast. Playing Professor Longhair to start the day.

Email (7 messages so far today, plus whatever is left):

• Substack: Music Week (9:1): +2 likes.
• Semipop Life: last section of 77 favorite albums of the Seventies (25-1).

Daily Log

Got up once during the night, but went back to sleep, and got a full 8 hours for the first time in ages. Read some, and came down after 11:30. Music Week went to Substack last night. As usual, it was much better received than my non-music posts. Laura wanted to watch another of the Danish Dept. Q movies, which kept me from working on the Music Week blog intro. I'll do that today, then update the website. Email still a major problem. I sometimes get redundant copies of deleted emails. I'm not sure what that tells me. My guess is that local deletes didn't get communicated to the Yahoo server, so they can be downloaded again. Still, if retrieval is still happening on rare occasions, I'd expect to see some mail from later than 8/31, but I'm seeing none of that.

I have a pretty good idea what to do regarding Yahoo. I need to disable, but not delete, the current Thunderbird account that uses POP3. That should leave its existing inbox, etc., as an archive, although it is recommended to move what I want to save locally to Local Folders. Then, I need to set up a new Thunderbird account for the same address that will use IMAP. To do that, I'll need to get a new device password at Yahoo. That will create a new directory structure under Thunderbird, which will then reflect what's on the server. There's supposed to be an option under Thunderbird to always download emails, so I should find that and enable it. That will give me POP-like behavior, but my Inbox, etc. will also be mirrored on the server. Alternatively, I could just take extra pains to keep my Inbox from growing by saving files more quickly into Local Folders (possibly creating a purgatory, so I move things of possible future reference there, then every few months review them, delete some, and move the rest into other directories.

Still, this is only because I figure I want to preserve my old cox.net email address. As much as I hate them, I have a lot of stuff attached to that address, so losing it completely would be a hardship. Moving forward, I should set up an address on my server for most of my email. I have a couple already, but need to pick one. Also need to register a domain name for the Francis Davis site. I put off dealing with the medical questions until Monday. Maybe I'll get that new phone next week.

Email (203 in inbox, looks like 9 from today, but I've deleted a few already.

• Substack: Music Week (9:1): +2 likes; stats: 6 likes, 0 comments, 0 restacks, 0 subs, 130 email views, 47 other views. 1 new subscriber.
• Brad Luen: 77 favorite albums of the Seventies, pt. 1: Ever fallen in love with a decade you shouldna fallen in love with? I should checklist this, check out what I've missed (like, off the top of my head: 77, 76?, 74, 72, 70?, 69?, 68?, 67, 65?, 63, 61, 59?, 58?, 56?, 53?, 52?: many Brazilian/African titles, some jazz, ? probably split into three groups, for heard, unheard, and partly heard through compilations [like Piazzolla and Franco]), maybe write about it. Only goes to 50, so more parts to come. A couple of my top-ten albums there already (although an actual top ten is going to be very competitive).
• Brad Luen: Part 2 has dropped, 50-26.
• Chuck Eddy: Oops That Wasn't Supposed to Happen
• Roberto Magris, reply to my ack on receiving his 5 CDs. I'll keep the compliment: "We need more people like you in our jazz world. Bravo!"

Daily Log

Woke up after 9 again. Came down after 10, my reading triggering thoughts of rekindling the political book. The introduction is more personal. The pre-Trump section goes back to WWII, and possibly starts with the delusion that war is winnable. The three Trump sections reduce to one: I had been thinking of chronicling the campaigns, since that was what interested Trump, but we need to focus more on the administrations. I'm starting to refer to Biden as Trump 1.5. I'm increasingly viewing Trump less as an actor who is transforming history than as the all-too-visible excressence of more fundamental processes. His unique ability is to accelerate those forces while gathering political support from their victims. My idea was to follow the Trump sections with chapters of dystopia and utopia. I thought of adding a new chapter on "Trump as a Revolutionary Experience," then I realized that would work for the dystopia chapter. We don't need to extrapolate a lot to get there. That leaves the utopia chapter, but maybe I postpone that for Utopian Essays & Practical Proposals, and just conclude with a chapter on how Trump's revolution breaks down. While its failure is virtually certain, the likely outcome isn't utopia: it's yet another muddle, because that's what we are.

Still, main work today is kicking out Music Week. I may also work on the 2025 albums post, possibly for tomorrow. Major task is to fix the Yahoo Mail problem. One possible solution is to switch my mailer from POP to IMAP. This requires disabling the old account, creation of a new account, manual migration of any old account files to new, and deletion of the old account. While that sounds straightforward, I still have over 8000 inbox emails, plus lots of sent, and a few drafts. (Trash presumably can just be emptied.) This could involve transferring files back to the IMAP server, although storage there is limited, and it's Yahoo's. This is going to be a lot of work, and I still have questions, like do I have to remove (as opposed to disable) the old account (i.e., its local directory structure)? "No" would be helpful.

My other approach is to get a new email address, and start to move my correspondents over to it. While I could use a third party service, the easiest approach would be to create a new account on my server. In the past, doing so encountered reputation problems, so most of the email I sent got spam-trapped. That should be less likely given the filtering at Shock Hosting, but is still a fear. While email is mostly a nuisance right now, the jazz poll will be impossible without reliable delivery.

I sent out email to jpadmin on poll status on Wednesday. No feedback so far. One thing I promised to do is to register a Francis Davis domain name. I've decided to look for a .org name, and register it using Porkbun. Not a huge priority today, but something I should be able to do soon. I also have an issue with Hillside Medical, and I still have the car and phone things to deal with. Weight is up again, so that too is depressing.

Email (web inbox: 245, keeps switching to "Primary" whatever that means? I'm increasingly just deleting anything that doesn't look necessary, including nearly all music PR):

• Substack: Published Music Week (9:1): shareable assets: 4 likes.
• Amazon: I ordered two books, scheduled to arrive Sunday. Notice doesn't name them, but they are: Joan C Williams: Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back, and Joseph Henrich: The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter. Amazon gave me some aggravation on the order, requiring me to login again.
• Roberto Magris wanted confirmation I received the CDs he sent.
• Got a note back from Bart Grahl, who at 78 describes himself as "better than ok so far," but his partner Carol seems to have some problems.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, September archive (in progress).

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

Music: Current count 46539 [46502] rated (+37), 23 [19] unrated +4).

Advance Music Week appeared September 4 on Substack as Music Week (9:1). It is also archived here. My cutoff was done before the Substack post, but the introduction is revised/rewritten.

New records reviewed this week:

• Agriculture: The Spiritual Sound (2025, The Flenser): [sp]: B
• Willow Avalon: Pink Pocket Pistol (2026, Assemble Sound/Atlantic): [sp]: B+(**)
• Erykah Badu & the Alchemist: Before the World Blows (2026, Control Freaq/Young): [sp]: B+(*)
• Kimmi Bitter: Bittersweet (2026, self-released): [sp]: B+(***)
• Christer Bothén/Oren Ambarchi/Johan Berthling/Andreas Werliin: Serpentine (2023 [2026], Black Truffle): [sp]: B+(**)
• Geof Bradfield/Myra Melford/Ben Goldberg/Dana Hall: Open or Close (2025 [2026], Calligram): [cd]: A−
• Greg Chako: Hard Bop for the Record (2026, Mint400): [cd]: B
• Rasheed Chappell: No Era for Margins (2026, Perfect Time): [sp]: B+(**)
• Corook: How Do I Relate to You (2026, Atlantic, EP): [sp]: B+(**)
• Zaccai Curtis: Sonoluminescence Vol. 1 (2026, Truth Revolution Recording Collective): [sp]: B+(***)
• Czarface/Frankie Pulitzer: Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer (2026, Silver Age): [sp]: A−
• Echo Party: Who Does Not Seek the Sky? (2025 [2026], Mahakala Music): [bc]: B+(***)
• Fatboi Sharif & Elucid: Invasion Body Camera (2026, Fused Arrow, EP): [sp]: B+(*)
• Fatboi Sharif & Child Actor: Crayola Circles (2026, Backwoodz Studioz): [sp]: B
• Fatboi Sharif & Roper Williams: Goth Girl on the Enterprise (2025, POW/Fused Arrow, EP): [bc]: B
• FLO: Therapy at the Club (2026, EMI): [sp]: B+(***)
• Sullivan Fortner: Leave That in There (2026, Artwork): [sp]: B+(**)
• Satoko Fujii Orchestra Berlin: Second Attempt (2026, Libra): [cd]: B+(***)
• Eric Harland: Vipassana II (2026, Ropeadope): [sp]: B+(*)
• Stefon Harris + Blackout: Legacy Dances (2024 [2026], Motéma): [sp]: B
• Inpatient: Asylum (2026, Sick Boi/EighthHD): [sp]: B+(***)
• L'Rain: Fata Morgana (2026, Mexican Summer): [sp]: B
• Frank London/Loisada Fife & Drum Corps: Touzle Your Kurchy (2026, Adhyâropa): [sp]: B+(**)
• Mama's Broke: Reunion (2026, Free Dirt): [sp]: B+(*)
• Ami Molinelli: Raízes Do Choro E Samba (2026, Amimo): [cd]: B+(***)
• Orquesta Akokán: América! (2026, Daptone): [sp]: B+(*)
• Nino Paid: Somewhere Over the Rainbow (2026, Signal/Columbia): [sp]: B+(**)
• Sarah Pillow: Wanderer (2026, Buckyball): [cd]: B+(***) [10-05]
• Punkt.Vrt.Plastik: Kompress (2026, Intakt): [sp]: B+(**)
• Quagmire & Christer Bothén: Rörane (2026, Relative Pitch): [sp]: B+(**)
• Andrew Sa: American Rough (2026, Bloodshot): [sp]: B+(*)
• Sweet Pill: There's Still a Glow (2026, Hopeless): [sp]: B+(*)
• Ayumi Tanaka/Thomas Morgan/Thomas Strønen: Windflower (2025 [2026], ECM): [sp]: B+(**)
• Saul Williams: Leap Life (2026, Big Dada): [sp]: B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• The Cramps: Gravest Gravy (1977 [2026], Vengeance): [sp]: B+(**)
• Junglist! Old Skool Ragga, D&B, Jungle 1993-95 (1993-95 [2026], Soul Jazz): [sp]: A−

Old music:

• The Rough Guide to Bachata (1993-2005 [2009], World Music Network): [sp]: B+(***)
• Rumble in the Jungle (1991-95 [2007], Soul Jazz): [sp]: B+(***)

Grade (or other) changes:

• Barcelona Art Orchestra & Miguel Zenón: Expressions: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (2025 [2026] Miel Music): [cd]: [was: B+(*)]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Satoko Fujii Orchestra Nagoya: Kore Kara (Libra) [10-02]
• Rich Halley: A Distant Land (Pine Eagle) [09-11]
• Herb Geller/Roberto Magris: Come Lately: Archival Recordings 2009 (JMood) [09-01]
• Roberto Magris: Live in Hollywood: Archival Recordings 2006 (JMood) [09-01]
• Roberto Magris Europlane Quintet: Broken Barriers: Archival Recordings 2008 (JMood) [09-01]
• Roberto Magris/Wind Summit: A Kansas City Jazz Session: Archival Recordings 2014 (JMood) [09-01]
• Roberto Magris Trio: Live in Mexico City (JMood) [09-01]
• Polyfillas: An Assortment of Punk Originals (Dangerous) [09-04]

Daily Log

Writing this at 9:40 AM. I've been awake for about an hour, most of which I spent reading, mostly about Tudor England, the Stuart efforts to restore absolutism, and the war with Parliament. Next up is the Glorious Revolution, which is the pivotal event in Why Nations Fail. After my initial depression, I did get some work done yesterday: I updated the Christgau website database, which now contains all albums reviewed through August 2026. It took me the better part of Tuesday to catch up with the last four columns I hadn't gotten to. The update process is fairly straightforward, but I wind up requiring a lot of specific options to mysql/mysqldump to compensate for the sad fact that we're still using the latin1 character set, instead of utf-8. The main goal of redesigning the website is to fix this, a process that due to my inertia has dragged out for decades.

I then moved on to updating the Jazz Critics Poll index page. I'm putting all of the years into a table, and including winner album pics and links into the various essays as well as standings. Yesterday I worked my way back from 2023 to 2010, so I have four more years to go. The state of available files is increasingly broken, especially for the Rhapsody years. I hope to get this done today. Then to update the website, register a Francis Davis domain name, and write it all up for jpadmin. I thought about running Music Week, but right now I'm leaning toward Friday. This week's haul is pretty lame so far, and not likely to get much better, but at least that will pick up the 09-04 releases.

Email (fuck email, nothing there anyway):

Substack: August stats: 155 subscribers (+13), 1202 post reads (+371).

Daily Log

Woke up about 7:30. Came back to bed, but decided to read a bit: up to the Roman Empire in Why Nations Fail. Tried going back to sleep, but couldn't. Trouble breathing through the mask. Lots of uncomfortable thoughts. Finally got up around 9, and came down. I'm feeling very depressed. Email is weighing heavy, even though I have a fairly decent understanding of the problem and solutions. Worked instead on the jigsaw. After some silence, I finally put on Tatum & Webster. Before that it was just "Too Much Monkey Business" in my head.

Email (not working, who knows?):

• Substack: More Intro Ideas: stats: 2 likes, 0 comments, 0 restacks, 0 subs, 128 email views, 9 other. +1 subscriber.
• I wrote to jpadmin Yahoo spam-trapped my message.

I started cleaning up the email archive. Started with about 12800 messages in inbox. Down to 8100 now: most deleted, but some moved to various categories, including new ones for family, friends, house, and medical.

Firefox was running very slow, so I killed and restarted it. When it came back up, I lost all access to Yahoo Mail. Page says: "Your mail is temporarily unavailable. Learn more": when I click on "Learn more" I'm given a captcha to prove that I'm human; when I complete it, it checks the human box, then offers me nothing else. Their bot blamed my browser, which I didn't like, but just to be sure, I brought up Firefox on the other machine, then logged in to Yahoo Mail, and my mail appeared. Then when I returned to my main machine, I brought up a new window, and the mail appeared, so logging in on the other machine seems to have cleared whatever was causing the problem.

Daily Log

Well, September now. We've had temperatures over 100F for a week now, and the forecast is for another week, so the callendar change isn't going to be felt immediately. And since we're past school and retired, those seasonal shifts aren't likely to have much impact either. But the march of time is hitting my psyche hard, as was probably evident in yesterday's Substack post. Now, what to do next?

Well, we take the dog to the vet for a 1:50 appointment. New vet, closer, so shouldn't be much of a deal. I did some grocery shopping yesterday, and picked up food at Tiger Rice Kitchen. Laura may still want to go shopping (or she may have ordered from Whole Foods). Not much else planned, but I should update the Christgau database, and the jazz poll index page. Woke up this morning thinking about what I recall from the founding of Contex. It's becoming sketchier in my mind. That's probably true of all of the memoir stuff. The sense of impending doom is growing.

Email is still broken, so nothing since 11:57 AM yesterday. Using Yahoo's webmail app, I'm deleting a lot of stuff without reading it (especially music promo).

• Substack: More Intro Ideas, shareable assets, 2 likes. Loose Tabs (8:2): +1 like. +1 subscriber.

The Yahoo problem has really been bothering me today, so I asked Google for some advice, and got quite a lot of it. Some highlights:

1. Yahoo's POP service is falling down all over the place. Evidently they want people to switch to IMAP. So the most straightforward fix is to reconfigure Thunderbird to use IMAP. Thunderbird can be set to always download from IMAP, thus reproducing the functionality of POP. I still need to investigate whether it's possible to simply change the server settings on the existing connection (thereby keeping my inbox, sent, etc.). It seems like that should work, but before I do so, I should do some housecleaning, as I currently have 12256 messages in Inbox, plus more elsewhere.

2. It thinks setting up a primary email address on my server would be a good idea.

3. It offered several commercial plans for consideration.

Daily Log

I posted a piece to Substack, called More Intro Ideas. When I clicked on "Copy link," I got a complaint from uBlock Origin about "a potential ClickFix attack" for the link, where the GET section read: "r=2duvw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true". That is, to say the least, weird.

I wrote a whole new introduction to Music Week, which I finally posted. I'm thinking now about adapting the new introduction for a Substack post. I should let it sit overnight.

Got up around 9 again. Read, showered, and came down. Finished the jigsaw last night, so no new one to work on yet. Thinking about what to do, but not feeling strong about anything in particular. I'm not sure I really want to do anything anymore.

Email (15 messages, but around noon I started getting "timed out" errors again):

• Laura sent me a piece by Vijay Prashad, "US Imperialism Lashes Out," which I comment on below. I'm not denying that "US Imperialism" is a thing, but it is a different thing than British Imperialism, or Roman Imperialism, or any other you care to mention. And sure, not because it's more benign, but it works differently, toward different ends, and as a result it's failing in somewhat different ways. It's possible that the future will bring us a Chinese Imperialism, but it, too, will be different, partly because it will be start by correcting some of the American mistakes, much as American Imperialism started by differentiating itself from the failing British Empire.
• TomDispatch: Ashley Gate: Ecocide in Iran.

Laura sent me a piece by Vijay Prashad that she thought was brilliant. I don't agree. I think the notion of "US hyper-imperialism" is farcical. I think the ruling class in America is weak, divided, and mostly full of shit. Donald Trump isn't their agent. He's just a pile of shit they stepped into when they had no better idea what to do. You can't even say that he's the only one who could save them. Save them from what? They were better off with Clinton, Obama, and Biden. They only chose Republicans because they wanted to fully indulge in their self-destructive fantasies. I wish I could say that he will be the ruin of them, but there will always be Democrats eager to step up and save the day. The US government was never meant to rule. It was always a servant, mostly of the rich, but balanced somewhat for the public. But even if the pendulum swings back toward the public, the rich will always be there, and they will continue to fill the dreams of their servants.

Prashad goes on to delineate five sources of "frustration," and they are real enough, but to whom? Trump is a nationalist who hates his own people, and not just the ones he treats as domestic enemies, but also the ones he flatters with his demagogic appeals. His peers are his fellow billionaires, who are often not Americans, but even those who are enjoy his own sense of being above it all. Having used their political power to master the art of extracting wealth, they've lost any sense of how the world actually works (when it does, that is).

Price shopping for .org domain name (wholesale price $11.00/year):

• Porkbun: $6.86 1st year, $10.72 after
• Namecheap: $8.18 1st year, $19.18 after, $0.20 ICANN fee added
• Name.com: $8.49 1st year, $19.99 after
• Cloudflare: $8.50 1st year, $11.20 after
• GoDaddy: $10.17 1st year, $23.17 after
• Whois.com: $13.88 1st year, $16.88 after

Daily Log

After posting Music Week (8:4) last night, I meant to rewrite the introduction and update the website, thereby publishing Music Week. I didn't get that done. Laura was interested in watching the second of the Danish Department Q movies. I agreed. We didn't watch our usual TV after that, so the night ended early. I worked some on the jigsaw, but no longer felt up to writing. So that was it. I will write something today, but it may be very different. I talked about wanting to start a new week. I still have no idea what I should do with that week.

Email (18 messages, appears to be working):

• Substack: Loose Tabs (8:2): daily stats: 3 likes, 0 comments, 0 restacks, 0 subs, 127 email views, 29 other views; +1 like. Music Week (8:4): shareable assets, 5 likes, 1 comment (Overeem: "Keep 'em comin', Tom!"); stats:. 5 likes, 2 comments (one mine), 0 restacks, 143 email views, 37 other views. 1 new subscriber.
• RiotRiot: The 50 Best Rock Bands Right Now 2026. 50: Rolling Stones; 49: Butthole Surfers. One suspects he picked them first, as bands to mention but not take too seriously, then filled in the rest, unevenly, leaving with 2. Geese and 1. Twisted Teens.
• Tom Carson: You're Breakin' My Heart: The Adventures of Huckleberry Ossian on Capitol Hill, summer 1973.

I took a look at my 30+ Bluesky notifications, and there are about 3 people where who like my posts. Nothing else until you get back to the mid-year poll. Clicked on profile and found I have: 143 followers, 42 following, 338 posts.

20+ notifications on X were only slightly more varied, including some reaction to the Yahoo Mail mess. Profile shows I have 640 followers, 40 following, 2111 posts since 2014.

I need to register a domain for the Francis Davis website. My first thought was .info, since I had seen cheaper prices there, but some investigation shows that those advertised prices are first year bait, with much higher renewal fees. It looks like .org is the best deal, followed by .com and .me. Google also suggested looking into "lifetime" hosting on a platform like GitHub Pages or Cloudflare Pages. As I have my own server, this isn't immediately necessary, but good to know about. It also appears that "memorial website" is a thing, with a platform guide. They actually look more like obituaries, so not what I had in mind.

Daily Log

Woke up just after 9. Came down around 10. Worked on jigsaw some. Ate breakfast. Main thing for today is to knock out Music Week. I have some mail to open. Unfortunately, someone sent me something that required a signature, so the USPS refused to leave it. (We were here, but they may have come early.) I'm not sure it's even worth bothering with.

Email (64 messages, mostly left over, but up to 10:48 AM):

• Substack: I posted Loose Tabs (8:2): shareable assets; 3 likes. Music Week (8:4): shareable assets; 1 like, 1 comment.
• Christian Iszchak: An Acute Case: 29 August 2026. Unheard: Corook, Inpatient, Sad13, Steve Lacy.
• Gene Seymour: Our Inheritance from Charlie Parker
• Tom Carson: American Woman: Forever Dolly.

Music Week

Note: Finally posted 08-30.

Expanded blog post, August archive (final).

Tweet: Music Week: 38 albums, 12 A-list

Music: Current count 46502 [46464] rated (+38), 19 [16] unrated +3).

Advance Music Week appeared August 29 on Substack as Music Week (8:4). It is also archived here. My cutoff was done before the Substack post, but the introduction is revised/rewritten.

New records reviewed this week:

• Marshall Allen: 101: An Audio Odyssey (2026, Ropeadope): [sp]: A−
• Ancient Infinity Orchestra: It's Always About Liberation (2024 [2026], Gondwana): [sp]: B+(**)
• Blu & Exile: Time Heals Everything (2026, Dirty Science): [sp]: B+(***)
• Rachel Brooke: This One's for You (2026, Mal): [sp]: B+(***)
• Elizabeth Cook: Great Television (2026, Agent Love): [sp]: B+(*)
• Jeff Cosgrove/Jeff Lederer/Mark Lysher/Tom Teasley: Two Jeffs (2026, Grizzley Music): [sp]: A−
• Rodney Crowell: Then Again (2026, New West): [sp]: B+(*)
• Jeff Evans Porkestra: Telling the Bees (2026, self-released): [sp]: A−
• Hurray for the Riff Raff: Live Forever: Live at the Old Town School of Folk Music (2025 [2026], Nonesuch): [sp]: B+(***)
• Lalu: Lalu (2026, self-released): [sp]: B+(*)
• Jeff Lederer/Mary LaRose With the Wildebeest Quintet: There's a Yearnin': Music for Winds and Voice (2026, Little (i) Music) **
• Low Cut Connie: Livin in the USA (2026, Contender): [sp]: B+(**)
• Glenn Morrow's Cry for Help: Our Final Album Vol. 1 (2026, Bar/None): [sp]: B+(**)
• Linda May Han Oh/Melissa Aldana: Beneath Lifted Skies (2026, Biophilia): [sp]: B+(***)
• Nicholas Payton/Butcher Brown: A Supreme Blue (2026, Concord): [sp]: B−
• Prairie Princess: Jewish American Prairie Princess (2026, self-released): [sp]: B+(**)
• Margo Price: Days of Unrest (2026, Loma Vista): [sp]: A-
• Alex Roitman Tango Ensemble: La Cocina De Tango (2025 [2026], ARTE-FL): [cd]: B+(***) [08-25]
• Slow Tiger: Slow Tiger (2024 [2026], Endectomorph Music): [sp]: B+(**)
• Antony Szmierek: Decoding Birdsong (2026, Mushroom Music): [sp]: A−
• Technocrats: Passionata: The Music of Gregg Hill (2025 [2026], Cold Plunge): [cd]: B+(***)
• Henry Threadgill Zooid: Cut You Where You Was (2025 [2026], Pi): [cd] B+(***)
• Henry Threadgill/Vijay Iyer/Dafnis Prieto: Fifteen (2025 [2026], Nonesuch): [sp]: A−
• Tipps and Obermiller: Little Kid Heart (2026, self-released): [sp]: A-
• Visible Cloaks: Pradessence (2026, RVNG): [sp]: B
• Westside Cowboy: It Goes On (2026, Island): [sp]: B+(**)
• Willow: The Thread (2026, Three Six Zero): [sp]: B+(*)
• Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts: As Time Explodes (2025 [2026], Reprise): [sp]: A−
• Miguel Zenón & Luis Perdomo: El Arte Del Bolero Vol. 3 (2025 [2026], Miel Music): [cd]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Art Ensemble of Chicago: Les Stances a Sophie (1970 [2023], Play Loud!): [dl]: A−
• Art Ensemble of Chicago: People in Sorrow (1969 [2026], Play Loud!): [dl]: B+(***)

Old music:

• Jeff Cosgrove/Scott Robinson/Ken Filiano: Hunters & Scavengers (2018, Grizzley Music): [bc]: B+(**)
• Jeff Cosgrove/Jeff Lederer/Mark Lysher: Welcome Home (2023, Grizzley Music): [bc]: B+(***)
• Jeff Cosgrove/Noam Preminger/Kim Cass: Confusing Motion for Progress (2023, Grizzley Music): [bc]: B+(**)
• FunkGASM: Funk's Greatest Hits (1969-86 [1997], Relativity): [sp]: A−
• Mary Lee's Corvette: Mary Lee's Corvette (1996, Lenora): [bc]: B+(**)
• Mary Lee's Corvette: True Lovers of Adventure (1999, Wild Pitch): [sp]: B+(***)
• Mary Lee's Corvette: Love Loss & Lunacy (2006, Western Force): [sp]: B+(**)
• Mary Lee's Corvette: 700 Miles (2003, Bar/None): [sp]: B+(**)
• Mary Lee's Corvette: Blood on the Tracks: Arlene Grocery, NYC (2001 [2002], Bar/None): [bc]: B−
• Dolly Parton: Hello, I'm Dolly (1967, Monument): [sp]: B+(***)
• Dolly Parton: Just Because I'm a Woman (1968, RCA): [sp]: B+(***)
• Dolly Parton: In the Gold Old Days (When Times Were Bad) (1969, RCA): [sp]: B+(***)
• Dolly Parton: The Best of Dolly Parton (1967-70 [1970], RCA): [sp]: A−
• Tipps and Obermiller: Love (And Other Mysteries) (2023, self-released): [sp]: B+(***)
• Tipps and Obermiller: MacGuffin (2024, self-released): [sp]: B+(**)

Grade (or other) Changes

Sometimes further listening leads me to change an initial grade, usually either because I move on to a real copy, or because someone else's review or list makes me want to check it again. Also some old albums extracted from further listening:

• Emperor X: Unified Field (2026, Bar/None): [sp]: [was B+(**)]: A−

Rechecked with no grade change:

• Golems of the Red Planet: Surf Masada: The Compositions of John Zorn (2026, Heyday Again): [bc]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Mike Dana Jazz Orchestra: Farther (Still) (Origin) [09-18]
• Todd DelGiudice: Mas Alto (OA2) [09-18]
• Tommy Muellner: Solitary Moon (Calligram) [10-02]
• Kevin Sun: Kevin Sun, I (Endectomorph Music) [09-25]
• Kevin Sun: Kevin Sun, II (Endectomorph Music) [09-25]

Daily Log

Got up after 10. Came down after 11. Notice from USPS that a package required signature, so they kept it. Sender is "Magris," so probably another CD. Annoying to have to go and pick it up. We were here, but I was sleeping. Laura was up, and it was most likely when the dog barked.

I posted Loose Tabs last night. Plan is to write up a summary for Substack today. I'll do cutoff for Music Week after that. I have sufficient material, and I'm having trouble prospecting new stuff, so maybe I could do it earlier, then start accumulating for next week? Email seems to have straightened out again. I looked at very little yesterday. Doesn't look like I have much of interest today, either, but I should clean it out.

Email (120 unread at 11:24):

• Doctor's summary from Tibbe. Makes for rather painful reading as it's all checklist. Some highlights: Weight: 237, which is up a fair amount; Prediabetes: stable since last checked; Anemia: minor, to be rechecked in 1-3 months; should get Tetanus shot; colon screening put off to 2027; prostate screening: "aged out"; BP 140/82, pulse 57, oximetry 97%; general appearance: "alert, well-nourished and in no acute distress, comfortable"; heart and lungs ok; psych: "alert and oriented x 3, with good judgment and insight, normal affect/mood" (no probing questions about Trump, or opportunities for me to crack wise).
• Substack: Consumer Guidance: +1 like. 1 new subscriber.
• Tom Engelhardt: Facing the Crooked of Hormuz: During the Reign (Rain?) of Donald Trump.
• Mike Konczal: Is the Actual Inflation Rate PCE and High or CPI and Low? We normally fight about what goes in the basket; this is a debate about which is the correct overall measures.
• DownBeat: no time to digest this. I'm several months behind in the print edition. I haven't even looked at the critics poll issue.
• Cuneiform: downloaded Heat On: 150 Swirl.
• Vox wants me to take a member survey. Not now.
• Tom Carson: Our Nixon: My Village Voice obituary, from 1994. It got me a fan letter to the editor from Norman Mailer, who'd been my hero -- along with Pauline Kael -- back in high school.
• Cadence is hawking last year's print edition for $25.
• Oficina Publica: emails in Spanish I didn't subscribe for and have no interest in. I unsubscribed.

Daily Log

Woke up at 8. Read some, but went back to sleep. Got up after 10, and came down at 10:45. Appointment with Dr. Tibbe today, at 2:15. I had them do the lab work earlier, mostly on last Friday, but I didn't look at the results until today. I'll move that section down after the email.

Email (60 messages, many from yesterday; back to normal?): Actually, I opened so little email today that I made no notes.

Notes from medical test results:

• Hemoglobin A1c: 5.7 (reference 4.5-5.9)
• Glucose: 109 H (74-106); all other CMP-Comp Metabolic Panel results in range
• CBC-HMO results: High: MCV: 92.8 (79.0-92.2); Low: RBC: 4.30 (4.63-6.08); Hemoglobin: 13.1 (13.7-17.5); Hematocrit: 39.9 (40.1-51.0); Platelet Count: 139 (163-337).
• Lipid results: Low: HDL: 35 (40-60) - this has always been low, often much lower. Cholesterol: 118; Triglycerides: 93, cLDL: 64.
• Urinalysis: all normal.

I asked Google about the CBC results, and it said: "Your results show mild anemia with larger red blood cells and a low platelet count, while your white blood cell count is normal." Term was "macrocytic anemia." Possible causes include or folate vitamin B12 deficiencies, certain medications, alcohol use, or bone marrow conditions." The latter is the most worrying, given that my father died from CMML.

I asked about CMML (chronic myelomonocytic leukemia) and it says the primary market is persistent monocytosis (elevation lasts at least 3 months), with cytopenias (low platelet count, where anemia is mild and thrombocytopenia is indicated by easy bruising or bleeding). Some other notes on various white blood cell counts, and presence of blasts (immature cells), which are normally only in bone marrow. I noted that "CMML killed my father. I have no bruising, but fairly minor non-localized pain in my legs." And I included the CBC results. Google answered:

I am so deeply sorry for the loss of your father. Experiencing a parent's battle with a serious illness like CMML is incredibly heavy, and it is entirely natural that you are looking closely at your own health and lab results with extra care right now.

It then reassured me that I do not have CMML. It then noted that I have "normal monocytes"; "normal total white blood cells"; "mild anemia"; "slightly elevated MCV" (could relate to B-12 or folate levels); "mildly low platelets": "mild thrombocytopenia like this is common and often completely harmless, fluctuating day by day." For the leg pain, it thought it "highly unlikely to be related to leukemia or your mild blood counts." It suggested issues like "slilght dehydration or electrolyte imbalances," "brief periods of poor circulation or sitting too long," "stress and anxiety."

I pointed out that in February, they ran another test (Anemia B) to check for iron deficiency (not repeated this time). I pasted those results in, and Google tells me that "your Anemia B panel results are completely normal, which effectively rules out the most common nutritional deficiencies as the cause of your mild anemia and slightly elevated MCV."

I followed up on the leg pain question, including more specifics on age, medical history (sacroiliac pain), medication, and making reference to my mother's circulatory issues. Again, it reassured me that "your mild lower leg pain is highly unlikely to be related to leukemia or a bone marrow disorder." It added: "Instead, your symptoms point toward very common, manageable age-related changes in your spine, circulation, or medications." It then suggested lumbar spinal stenosis (referred spine pain).

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Daily Log

Up early again. Came down around 10. I switched over to reading Acemoglu's Why Nations Fail, and like what I've read so far. Hoping I can post Loose Tabs today. Currently 16,634 words. I've been all the way across window 2, except for Intercept. Playing old Dolly Parton, and there's very little that keeps me from A-listing her first four albums (which I only played after her 1970 best-of proved unavailable). Woke up thinking of writing memoir. Email is screwed up again. I only have 1 new email this morning, but the mailer was showing 67 unread messages. These were old ones, freshly fetched, many that I had already deleted, or dupes with things I had kept. Webmail is still working, so I should clean it out as much as possible.

Email (who fucking knows?):

• Substack: +2 subscribers.

Daily Log

Woke up early. Came down around 10:30. Talked to the new neighbors north a bit, about their gutters. Tad and Alexis. They say they have a whole list of gripes about the house. Someone was using a power washer on the siding on the house to the south of us. I bought a power washer recently, so it occurs to me that I should do the same. Or, better still, get Doug to do it. Mostly worked on Loose Tabs yesterday. Draft file is up to 13381 words. Not sure how much more one needs to add to it. Puzzle is going fast. Email seems to be working, but it's mostly junk. I should write Yanosik. Also Toyota. Started one of the books on diasporism, but I'm skeptical I will stick with it. Should at least add it to the list.

Email (26 messages):

• Tom Engelhardt: Living (All Too Uneasily) in an AI World: How Our Windy President Deals with Ificial Intelligence (Leaving Out the Art)
• New on Substack: Creator match, audience-specific content blocks, global reply rules, advanced podcast transcript editing, and more.

Daily Log

Woke up, from unpleasant dreams (of car repair, and before that Boston), at 8:33. Read the last pages of Rabkin. Book was copyright 2012, published in French in Canada in 2014, English translation in 2016. Ends with a sense of Zionist Israel having triumphed on the world stage, unanimously joining the OECD, good relations growing with Europe, Canada, Russia, China, India, and even Saudi Arabia, while American Zionists previously accused of "dual loyalty" have embraced Israel even more definitively — especially in their opposition to the Iran JCPOA deal, which they object to solely on Netanyahu's word (a word that more than anything else is a loyalty test). Had he written the book today, he would likely have kept all the history, but changed the ending. The book itself offers ample foreshadowing of Israel's descent into madness following 10/7/2023. Hamas threw a monkey wrench into Israel's triumph, but it worked only because Netanyahu et al. chose to show Israel's true colors. That goes back to the rotten core of Zionism, which Rabkin exposes in more detail than I've read elsewhere.

Decided not to try to go back to sleep. Also not to try to get my sample to the doctor today. Test results are on the portal, but I haven't looked yet. I did get the Loose Tabs scratch file updated, with the t3 file now showing 149 links, 9626 words. I'll work more on that today. Jigsaw puzzle is a collection of wine bottles, so lots of print, easy to sort. Making rapid progress on that one.

Email (10 messages):

• Play Loud! sent me five files via SwissTransfer Infomaniak, including the two Art Ensemble of Chicago reissues I asked for. They came as one lump, so looks like I'm going to have to disentangle them.
• Substack: Music Week (8:3): +1 like.
• More reminders from MalBear on website development.
• Tom Carson: The Bechdel Fallacies: Donald Trump as the fish-eyes lens through which we measures everybody else's values, and other stories. Again, cut short by the paywall, but this time not soon enough. Anti-zionism is not anti-semitism. And the gratuitous digs at Jane Fonda and Michael Moore are senselessly dated, and à propos of what?

Allen Lowe wrote a tirade on Facebook.

Why is every music review I read on Substack praise for the music it is reviewing? Does everybody like everything? Have we lost all critical judgement? Honestly, most of the music is crap, bad lyrics, fluffy beds of New-Age type sound, boring instrumentals. It's like the reviewers' lips are moving but the words coming out are those of publicists and record labels.

Some might say, well it's important to be positive. Sure, and I can give you some catchy Republican campaign slogans and sound bites. If everything is great nothing is great. It's not a level playing field it's a field submerged under layers of bad aesthetic rationale. It's like being trapped in an elevator in the '60s while Yummy Yummy Yummy I Got Love in My Tummy is stuck on repeat, for months and months.

Good comments here by the market for reviewing by Larry Blumenfeld, Stewart Smith, and Lee Rice Epstein. I commented:

I wrote about this last week, specifically on the consumer guides by Robert Christgau and me, so I'll just link to that. I don't believe that most recorded music is crap, but sure, a lot of perfectly good music doesn't much interest me. I avoid most of it, and pan it when I can't. Maybe if I had technical skills or an artistic vision, I might be more negative, or I might be more empathetic and insightful. I've seen musicians break either way. When I started out, I was all critique (which folks like Marsh and Bangs dismissed as "academic"). I can still do that, but don't see the point of blaming musicians for society's problems. Hence, when I feel like torching someone, I'd rather pick on a politician or billionaire. Link.

Tom Carson posted on Facebook his rationalization for charging for Substack. I chimed in:

I'm from the same generation, but never made enough money to even contemplate calling myself a professional -- although I've written millions of words, all free on my website. Just wanted to note here that I appreciate the free material, and can recommend a sub just for that. But I don't really have the patience to read fiction anymore. Not sure I've read a novel by anyone since "Gilligan's Wake," which sometimes I think Tom wrote just for me (aside from his aggravating misread of Bob Dole). I don't begrudge any writer's income, but unfortunately I'm too poor and/or too cheap to offer more.

Daily Log

Came down before 10:30, having finished what is probably next to the final chapter of Rabkin, where he gets into how Christian evangelicals make up the bulk of American supporters of Israel. I suspect he overgeneralizes, but more importantly overestimates the depths of their commitment. I believe that American support for Israel depends much on the blinders that are constructed to obscure what is really happening there, and what Israel really intends to do. Naivete, however frustrating, is not complicity.

I'll probably just work on Loose Tabs today. It's something that doesn't require much in the way of planning or ambition.

Email (9 messages, up to 6 minutes ago):

• Substack: Consumer Guidance: +1 like. Music Week (8:3): +1 like. +1 new subscriber.
• TomDispatch: The Dawn of a New Cold War
• Amazon: book delivered: Acemoglu & Robinson, Why Nations Fail.

Move Loose Tabs draft to scratch file. Looks like I have quite a bit of cleaning up to do.

Daily Log

Came down after 11, having registered slightly over 7 hours of sleep, and reading some. Windy outside, and cooler, 77F at the moment. I need to post the Music Weeks today. I did the cutoff Thursday evening, and then held some pieces back for next week.

Email (20 messages):

• Hillside Medical: test results, didn't look.
• Substack: Consumer Guidance: my piece got spam-trapped (too many links?), shareable assets; 8 likes, 2 new subscribers; stats: 8 likes, 2 restacks, 1 sub, 143 email views, 54 other views. Music Week (8:3): post, shareable assets; 3 likes, 1 comment (Tim Niland).
• Joe Yanosik wrote a reply to the "great piece." He tells me he was diagnosed with ALS in February ("not sure if you saw my recent FB posts"; I didn't).
• Benny Sarlin (Vox): Democrats in . . . array? "Defeated rivals are praising each other in Michigan and holding unity breakfasts in Wisconsin, while leftist shock jocks and center-left institutionalists alike are preaching 'vote Blue no matter who.'"
• GoDaddy wants me to check my account.
• Tom Carson: The Most Overrated General in American History: Robert E Lee, but he takes the time to dismiss my first thought (George Patton), then runs smack into a "7-day free trial" paywall offer. I've ranked a lot of things in my life, but I've never known enough, or cared enough, to try generals.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, August archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 41 albums, 6 A-list

Music: Current count 46464 [46411] rated (+53), 16 [25] unrated -9).

Advance Music Week appeared August 6 on Substack. It is also archived here. My cutoff was done before the Substack post, but the introduction is revised/rewritten.

New records reviewed this week:

• Angles 4: Angles 4 (2024 [2026], Relative Pitch): [bc]: A−
• Babalwa M: Acquiescence (2025, Babalwa M/Empire): [sp]: B+(***)
• Baby Queen: I Hope You Don't Remember Me (2026, Insanity): [sp]: B+(*)
• Baby Rose: Yearnalism (2026, Secretly Canadian): [sp]: B+(**)
• Dr. Gianni Bianchini: A Study in Songbook (2025-26 [2026], Gianni Bianchini Entertainment): [cd]: B
• Cindy Blackman Santana: Coherence (2026, Mack Avenue): [sp]: B+(*)
• Phoebe Bridgers: Lost Weekend (2026, Dead Oceans): [sp]: B+(***)
• Mike DiRubbo: Way Out Northwest (2026, Cellar): [sp]: B+(**)
• Rob Dixon: Naptown Soul (2026, Strikezone): [cd]: B+(*)
• DJ Fantôme: Zando Beat! (2026, Palenque): [sp]: B+(***)
• Denise Donatelli: Take My Breath Away (2024 [2026], Savant) B−
• Open Mike Eagle/Kenny Segal: Doomed! (2026, Backwoodz Studioz): [sp]: B+(**)
• Margaret Glaspy: I Am Both (2026, ATO): [sp]: A−
• Glass Triangle [Zeena Parkins/Mette Rasmussen/Ryan Sawyer]: 3 X 1 (2026, Relative Pitch): [bc]: B+(*)
• Ariana Grande: Petal (2026, Republic): [sp]: B+(**)
• John Hollenbeck & Hot Club Jazz Orchestra: Peace & Justice (2022 [2026], Flexatonic): [cd]: B+(***)
• Homeboy Sandman/Jack Splash: Resonance Frequency (2026, Dirty Looks): [sp]: A−
• Mike Jones: Mike Jones With Strings (2025 [2026], Capri): [cd]: B+(**) [08-21]
• Karol G: No Me Arrepiento De Sentir Tanto (2026, Interscope): [sp]: B+(***)
• Joanna Mattrey/Camila Nebbia/Camiolo Ángeles/Violeta Garcia: Heavy Handed (2024 [2026], Relative Pitch): [sp]: B+(**)
• Nick Mazzarella: Siena Sessions (2025 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): [bc]: B+(***)
• The Mountain Goats: Days (2026, Thirty Tigers/Cadmean Dawn): [sp]: B+(***)
• Paul McCartney: The Boys of Dungeon Lane (2026, Capitol): [sp]: B+(**)
• Justin Pierce: Sway (2025 [2026], Justin Pierce Music): [cd]: A−
• PLRLS: Sleeping in a Dress (2026, Si): [sp]: B+(***)
• Claudio Scolari Project: Lines of Now (2025 [2026], Principal): [cd]: B+(**)
• Serengeti: Kenny V (2026, CC King): [sp]: B+(*)
• Ringo Starr: Long Long Road (2026, UME): [sp]: C+
• Sweeping Promises: You Say I Romanticize (2026, Sub Pop): [sp]: A−
• Gebhard Ullmann: Coffee and Berries (2024 [2026], Trouble in the East/ESP-Disk'): [sp]: B+(***)
• Gaia Wilmer Large Ensemble Featuring Mônica Salmaso: Parabólico: Reflections on Gilberto Gil Volume I (2025 [2026], Sunnyside): [cd]: B+(**)
• Adrian Younge: Jazz Is Dead 27: Joyce & Tutty Moreno (2026, Jazz Is Dead): [sp]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• The Joshua Breakstone Quartet: Wonderful! (1983 [2026], Capri): [cd]: B+(**) [08-21]

Old music:

• PLRLS: Your Situation (2015, Amalgamated Widget): [sp]: B+(***)
• PLRLS: Have You Seen My Fancy Pony? (2017, Amalgamated Widget): [sp]: B+(*)
• PLRLS: Curses (2018-21 [2023], Amalgamated Widget): [sp]: B+(**)
• Riverside Jazz Collective: Stomp Off, Let's Go! (2018, self-released): [bc]: A−
• Ringo Starr: Sentimental Journey (1970, Capitol): [sp]: C
• Ringo Starr: Beaucoups of Blues (1970, Capitol): [sp]: B−
• Ringo Starr: Ringo (1973, Capitol): [sp]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• The Kris Davis Trio: Lost in Geneva (Pyroclastic) [09-25]
• Ami Molinelli: Raízes Do Choro E Samba (Amimo) [09-05]
• Matt Wilson's Good Trouble: Love Is the Whole Thing, We Are Only Pieces (Palmetto) [09-18]

Daily Log

Got up around 10:30. Decided to go to the doctor's office to get my lab work done in advance of next week's appointment. They didn't have the orders done, so that took a while. Wasn't able to leave a urine sample, so I'll have to go back for that. Yahoo Mail is broken again. (I have 11 unread messages left over, but when I went to check the break time, a new batch had arrived. Lesson seems to be don't panic.)

Email (46 at 1:20 PM, after it finally did a successful fetch):

• Tom Carson: It's Hard in Here for a Pimp: Trumpland, USA: Manifest Destry rides again. Also: A Stone From Omaha Beach: Memories of Berlin and Normandy, 1966-2001. Also: Pearl Necklace Harbor.
• I sent a draft of the Substack piece to Laura, Tatum, Malcolm, Christgau, and Joe Levy. Response from Tatum: don't have time to read carefully, but "reads terrific so far"; he likes Emperor X. Response from Malcolm: "Good stuff in there. Definitely put it all out there."
• Substack: +1 subscriber.
• Amazon: I order two books: Dave Marsh: Kick Out the Jams; Daren Ocemoglu: Why Nations Fail.

I posted my Substack piece: Consumer Guidance; archived here.

Mar 2001