Guy Livingston: The Bug - "music, secrets, and silence"

Episode Five wraps up the series (but a bonus soundwalk will follow!) and offers no resolution, but some insight (of course).

Enjoy!

 

…and especially note the piano music by Calliope Tsoupaki (performed by Saskia Lankhoorn) and Alanna Battat (performed by the composer), plus the poem by Gerrit Vennema (read by himself).

 

 

a new episode, about the need for physical contact, dancing, and movement…

Totally messed up! That’s what this episode’s title means.

 

check it out here: http://guylivingston.com/citysound/podcast-episode-2-hey-google/

???trouble listening? try this link to download an mp3

my new podcast starts Friday, August 7th:

 

Juneteenth is a celebration of the day on June 19th, 1865, when the last remaining American slaves were proclaimed free. It’s often described as an occasion “to celebrate, to educate, and to agitate”

Playlist

Jay Watts: “New Rules”

Tim Carman: “A little bit”

“Rise Up” by the Greenwood Rhythm Coalition

these are from the album: Talk minus Action equals Zero: a compilation benefitting Black Lives Matter. Buy it on Bandcamp tonight, June 19th, and all your proceeds go to social justice. Like all the music on tonight’s show, it’s published by Rough Trade Publishing and Bank Robber Music.

 

The end of season two of The Bug…

This season began during the lockdown, as I was desperate to find some focus, and some way to express my own personal anguish. As the season gatherered momentum, many listeners sent in their own experiences, good and bad, of quarantine. We heard about birds, and pollution, and silence, zoom music, and free online art, and demonstrations, and racism.

These issues don’t stop now. I want you to keep listening to new sounds, in the small sense of hearing the birds, but also in the larger sense of hearing the world around us. That’s the natural world and the political world. So I want us all, and that includes me and you, to take action against dangerous politicians and frightening policies. 

…

So make your voice heard! You could post on facebook (which is probably pointless), but more effectively, you can vote, you can help others vote, you can get out in the street and demonstrate if you feel comfortable, you can reach out to people who are not like you, and open dialogue with them (which is definitely uncomfortable), you can buy music and art from creators of color, and you can also give money to causes you support.

 

Buy the CD! Download the music!

Black lives matter compilation

download the album today, and your purchase price goes entirely to BLM charities

 

more

The historical legacy of Juneteenth

 

PS: if you want more podcasts, join me in mid-July for a new series, called “under/city/sound” – I’ll be talking about the sounds of a city – in this case, The Hague.

 

For my aunt’s birthday, here’s a ‘silent’ version of Hamlet, consisting solely of Shakespeare’s unspoken text: i.e. his stage directions.

Also a shout-out to sound-artist Elise ‘t Hart, who has created a 600 euro box of lockdown sounds:

 

 

This Podcast’s Playlist

Paulo Da Firenze: Amor, tu solo’I sai; and Poc’anno di mirar  – from Ballate e Madrigali, performed by Elisabeth Seitz.

 

BUT WAIT! WHO’S PAYING FOR ME TO RE-ARRANGE SHAKESPEARE?

well – actually – you could be.

Please consider donating a dollar or three. In these difficult times, every little bit helps.

…and in return, I will make a podcast every week for our quarantine’d time!

Countersounds Playlist

Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3 (1976) op. 36. London Sinfonietta; Dawn Upshaw soprano; David Zinman, conductor.

Erased Tapes Track 9: Crash

Erased Tapes Track 8: Paused

 

THANKS

Many thanks to Alanna, Marcel, Paul, Jill, Dave, Maria, Udo, my mom, and the BBC Monks for tonight’s show.

Tune in next week for my last podcast of the season, featuring a 600 euro box of quarantine sounds, and my semi-silent version of Hamlet.

LINKS

Volkskrant article on pilots and radio silence in the air:

https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/vliegen-in-virustijd-beangstigende-stilte-op-de-boordradio~b368cd5a/

 

Romancing Rush Hour in New York City, courtesy of the New York Public Library:

https://www.nypl.org/blog/2020/05/01/missing-sounds-of-new-york

 

More about the project (New York Times):

 

WHO’S PAYING FOR ALL THIS SOUND?

well – actually – since you are here, please consider donating a dollar or three. These are difficult times, and every little bit helps.

…and in return, I will make a podcast every week for our quarantine’d time!

This week’s show is in memory of Fuad Bahou: cook, poet, and artist. It’s been a strange week for many reasons. Death has been present for many people I know. But music and food help to understand, mourn, and accept.

 

Playlist:

Music by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Lou Harrison and Ezio Bosso

Text on time by: Ludovica Guarneri

Video of Lou Harrison:

Fuad’s Cauliflower with Tahini, as handed down to me by my mother:

When I was young in the 1970s, I had an artist-teacher friend from Jerusalem named Fuad Bahou, who started a restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee. His brother Shawqi came to help him, and my husband Philip and I designed it. It was our first restaurant for them, and we went on to design four more. We were also waiters for the first year or two one night a week. My favorite recipe, one I still make fifty years later was fried cauliflower with tahini. It is so good.

Cut all the flowerettes from a fresh head of cauliflower leaving a fat stem on each piece. Rinse, then fry in hot oil until the flowerettes brown. Drain well on paper towels.

Put in a bowl and pour over them a dressing made of tahini thinned with water with a few tablespoons of added olive oil, mixed until it has a thick, still pourable consistency. Add tablespoon of well-crushed garlic, which would be four generous cloves, and a third of a cup of lemon juice. Add three-quarters of a cup of chopped Italian parsley leaves, salt to taste, plenty of fresh black pepper, and stir.

Either serve immediately while the cauliflower is still warm, or later at room temperature, but not chilled. This salad is delicious with flatbread served with other salads like tabouleh and rice-filled grape leaves on the side, which is how Fuad liked to start a meal.

Fuad Nakhleh Bahou passed away April 23, 2020 at his home in Knoxville, TN. Born May 14, 1935 to Nakhleh and Mary Bahu (formerly Nassan) in Al Bireh, Palestine, he attended a Quaker school in Ramallah. He was the first of his family to come to the United States after receiving a scholarship to a college in California. He spent most of his student years in Los Angeles, where he attended UCLA and worked at the flagship restaurant of the Carnation Company. After graduating with a Master of Fine Arts in painting and art history, he joined the faculty of Knoxville College in 1968, establishing and heading the art department until 1975. In later years, he served as an instructor in the University of Tennessee and Georgia State University art departments.

WHO’S PAYING FOR ALL THIS CAULIFLOWER?

well – actually – since you are here, please consider donating a dollar or three. These are difficult times, and every little bit helps:

…and in return, I will make a podcast every week for our quarantine’d time!

 

Can I cope in the wild? It’s been 8 weeks in quarantine (or is it 9?) and so here’s this week’s podcast, with music from my friends Ben and Stéphane, and a thought-piece/sound-art-performance by Ned McGowan. Plus suggestions and commentary from Phlyssa and Anders – and David Attenborough too. Thanks to you all!

 

 

DONATIONS

By the way, since you are here, and reading this, and hopefully enjoying the podcast, please consider donating a dollar or three. Like many musicians, I’ve lost my income for the foreseeable future, so would appreciate the help:

…and in return, I will make a podcast every week for our quarantine’d time!