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Sunday, 29 April 2007 |
To Introduce
Madelynn Jane Bronson
One day old, April 23, 2007.
Proud Dad (my son Will) gives Madelynn her first lesson.
Three generations of Bronsons: Uncle Nate holding Madelynn.
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Friday, 04 May 2007 |
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My son Will has asked me for Beatles music
for his two week old daughter, Madelynn.
Now, this is a man
who is
taking fatherhood seriously!
I am delighted to assist.
As Stimpy would say,"Joy!"
Babies love the Beatles.
Why? Because their music simply makes
us feel good to be alive.
Watch them perform "I'm Down" live.*
Then look at
the artists
in today's
Billboard Top 100.
Does it make you sad?
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*Sadly, YouTube keeps pulling down the actual live video, so this
composite with the studio version will have to suffice. If you are
curious, you can go to YouTube and do a search for Beatles I'm Down and
find the concert footage. It's a lot of fun. Update: I seem to have found a "permanent" live version. Whee!
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Sunday, 02 September 2007 |
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These are things I've heard in my hometown, Berkeley!
Girls: are you happier now?
UPDATE: No, you are not!
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Saturday, 16 December 2006 |
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December 16—Happy Birthday My Dear Ludwig van Beethoven.
I do not have anything to say about Beethoven, the man who freed music, that has not already been said.
I was introduced to Beethoven in my early twenties by two
newspapermen, Ed Frisbie and Fran Ortiz, both of whom worked at the SF
Examiner where I was a copyboy. We would sit around the M&M Tavern
at 5th & Howard and talk about the late quartets, the Grosse Fugue
... and I would try to soak it up and I'd go buy pieces they
recommended ... and I'd listen to them when I tired of Bowie, Roxy
Music, and Captain Beefheart.
I am forever grateful to the two of them.
Fran
was a great news photographer whose works - four pieces as a matter of
fact - were chosen by the New York Museum of Modern Art for their
retrospective of twentienth century photojournalistic excellence. He
was a gentleman, a kind man, a great cook, and quite the ladies man: he gave me a lamb recipe for the first time I had a
woman over for a serious dinner date. It worked.
But this is not really a story about Fran, or Beethoven, but about Ed
Frisbee, one of the most serious drinkers and most entertaining
story-tellers I knew in my early life. It was another era. I had a lot
to learn about booze.
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Thursday, 11 January 2007 |
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Sweet fluffy lambs.
On a recent post celebrating Beethoven's birthday, I mentioned a lamb recipe for the bachelor who wants to impress a woman with his prowess in the kitchen. As we know, skill in the kitchen implies a heightened respect and knowledge of les Plaisirs d'Amour. D'accord.
One of our readers requested the recipe. I am including two recipes today. Neither are very demanding, but are delicious, nutritious, and shagalicious. Here is the first:
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Determine if prospect eats meat and has sex on first date.
- Get good lamb chops, about 1" thick.
- Trim excess fat.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Sprinkle dried tarragon generously on lambchops.
Cover tarragon with coating of gourmet mustard - your choice, hot, sweet, whatever
- Sprinkle italian seasoning on top of mustard.
- Put lamb chops on roasting rack and into oven.
Cook for 30 minutes. (Vary time according to thickness of chops)
- Serve with brown rice and raisins. Spinach salad with avocado and tangerine slices and vinaigrette.
You will get lucky.
(Recipe #2 & story on the flip-fl0p)
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Tuesday, 13 February 2007 |
From his website:
Robert Farber~Fine Art
:
"Welcome to the Fine Art Gallery exhibiting Robert Farber's expressions of the nude. His work in nudes have many parallels in painting. For example, his classical nudes seem to draw inspiration from the old Dutch masters, and the softness of many of his images echo Renoir's Impressionism, yet his graphic nudes have all the strength of abstract art."
Hard to believe I've been posting for months and haven't put up one true nude, aside from the large-breasted mannequins piece, that is.
Fifty years ago, I was looking around my father's study, a small room off the garage, where he worked on his first book, The Earth Shook, The Sky Burned, and I found one of his photo magazines. His day job required him to shoot photos as well as write and edit marketing materials for the companies where he worked before that book became a best-seller, setting him free from the workaday world.
I was five years old, obsessed with Superman and Zorro for the most part.
Back then, the photo magazines were very different from the soft-core porn they are today. I remember though, as if it were yesterday, looking through the magazine.
Still-lifes, landscapes, nature photography and then, near the back of the magazine, at the bottom of the page, a tiny picture of a naked woman.
And I knew in that moment that there was a universe full of wonder to explore, a world of mystery of which I had been heretofore unaware. And that that exploration would shape my life.
Little did I know.
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Thursday, 22 February 2007 |
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made an announcement that he would make a
poster-a-day for musicians (with a show to promote)
for the month of February.
I got my request in for the 28th & final slot.
I told him I had a booking, but not a firm date,
so he was kind and came up with
this very interesting take on yours truly, based
This is what he wrote about me:
Today's poster is for Knox Bronson. It's an interesting mix of Bowie-esque, slightly 80's inspired, but darker - music. 3 Sec b4 mia smiled is my pick of the myspace tracks.
Bowie-esque? Yes, hard to avoid his influence. Darker? My songs are
bright vessels of West Coast pop-puffery, infused with sunlight
fermented during the Summer of Love. I think.
And ... the eighties? I was, like Bowie, in an blackout for the whole
decade, so I don't really see how I could have been influenced by the
music of that era. Some kind of subliminal infusion?
Oh, BTW, do yourself a favor and visit onetonnemusic.com and look at the other posters he's done for other artists. Thank you, Nathanael!
I will of course notify this space as soon as I HAVE the show date.
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Wednesday, 18 April 2007 |
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Based on a true-life story.
Take Me Down @2006 Knox Bronson (ASCAP)
Click on Read More for lyrics.
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Sunday, 31 December 2006 |
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"... fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives ...
"So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain
unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to
pass unmarked.
"But if you see what I see,
if you feel as I feel,
and if you would seek as I seek,
then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight ..."
—V, V For Vendetta
[This is Part Two of a three-part series. If you haven't done so, you may want to read Part One first.]
So we
are talking about the killing of President John F. Kennedy, the
fact that his killers were never brought to justice, and the feeling
that we are now, as a country, living in Bizarro-world, where everything
is the opposite of what it is supposed to be.
We
left off in Part One with my ex-gangster friend replying,"Are you
having a nice night, kid?" when I asked him who his associates in the
mafia thought had killed JFK.
I smiled, but was silent, totally focussed on him and whatever he might say next.
And
he said, finally, looking at me levelly,"I could tell you a story. I
don't like to talk about it that much. I knew at least fifty people who
were involved who have been killed ..."
(further conversation on the flip-flop)
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Sunday, 03 December 2006 |
the bondage jukebox: the best bdsm music and bondage songs
A Mylene Farmer cd cover. I found a myspace tribute page to her. Her
music is like most 80's metal: easy
listening music with drums and distorted guitar. Lots of thick synth
pads, too ... kind of Enya with hairly legs, but in a good way. Mylene is
clearly endowed with amazing talents. A HUGE star in Europe.
One of may artists featured on the Bondage Jukebox::::
The French Madonna makes like Joan Jett crossed with Catherine Deneuve
in some of the most amazing bdsmy concerts you've never seen, in which
she prances in latex hobble dresses, steel-cage ponygirl attire and
other visual delights while cooing ethereal over a heavy-metal
soundtrack. She even managed to sneak a naughty song ("L'Histoire d'une
fÈe, c'est..." the last two words of which translate phonetically into
"fessee," French for spanking) onto the soundtrack for Rugrats In
Paris. (more on the flipflop)
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Thursday, 07 December 2006 |
Here is a little bootleg of John singing "Working Class Hero" with a heavily phase-shifted guitar. Very cool.
Don't know what else to say, except I still miss him after all this time.
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Tuesday, 09 January 2007 |
A tale from the wild-n-wooly days of the internets
I met Bonnie in the early days of
usenet mail groups. She came to my defense as I was being viciously flamed
by an asshole who was, he said, a published author, a lyricist for a rock
band: a self-promoting digerati jerk of the highest caliber, involved with
a lot of rapidly developing Internet issues, a self-proclaimed shaman, and
always had a sig file that quoted J.P. Barlow, founder of the Electronic
Freedom Foundation. Do I think it was the great Bloviator himself? Yes, but I can't prove it. As I said, the guy was too chickenshit to reveal his identity. More about Barlow some other day.
In her well-written defense of me, Bonnie mentioned that she wore size five underwear, was 28 years old,
and was a single mom living in New Jersey and that the anonymous guy who
was too chickenshit to reveal his name could pick on her, too.
I was impressed, in more ways than one.
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Sunday, 13 May 2007 |
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I remember a sunny Berkeley afternoon some thirty-plus years ago.
Sitting in the living room at Ashby House
(first house on the right, heading downhill, after Claremont Ave.;
it's still there, but not as nice:
they added the ugly addition and removed all the leaded glass windows),
listening to Radioactivity, the new Kraftwerk album with my hippie friend, Russell.
Drinking beer, smoking dope and Camel cigarets,
as was the order of of the day every day at Ashby House.
Antenna came on the stereo.
Halfway through the song, Russell started shouting:
"That IS NOT music! I don't know what it is, but it IS NOT MUSIC!"
I'm not sure what he meant. It's my favorite Kraftwerk song.
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Tuesday, 21 November 2006 |
My mother cried
When president Kennedy died
She said it was the communists
But we knew better
We were born
Born in the fifties
Born, born in the fifties
—The Police, "Born in the Fifties"
Jackie Kennedy
cradles her husband after bullets shot by snipers on the grassy knoll
blew half his head off. This act of war against the United States, of high treason, changed the
course of American history. The assassination, and the failure of our
country's leaders to bring the killers to justice was, and remains, the
central fact, the darkness at the core of our American Republic.
I was in eighth grade when John Kennedy was killed. I remember
standing in the cafeteria with the whole student body as a teacher told
us that John Kennedy was dead in Dallas. I will never forget
that day, the shock, the sadness: who among us of my generation will? We loved John Kennedy and
the great promise of America, for all Americans, not
just the few, that he embodied. If you were not there, you cannot
really know how exciting it was—the killers killed so much more than a
man that day.
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Sunday, 10 December 2006 |
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Wednesday, 03 January 2007 |
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Marie, swathed in Edenic garb.
From the Associated Press:
FERNDALE, Mich. - A Detroit man, Ronald A. Dotson, with a history of smashing store windows to grab female mannequins has been accused of indulging his fetish again.
And from Salon.com, a front page story on the third of January:
Big breasts for dummies:
Mannequins with giant bazooms are busting out
in shop windows from coast to coast. More than just garment racks, they
are a mirror of current beauty and fashion.
"... but these mannequins with their
massive chests crossed the line from a little harmless obsession with
appearance to a society run amok.
I grabbed my husband's hand and jerked him to a stop in front of the
store. 'Look at that!' I demanded. He was already looking ..."
I
do not believe in coincidences. That these two stories appeared on the
same day is just one more auspicious portent of the shape of things to
come now that the Democrats have taken control of both houses of
Congress.
Joking.
That was a joke.
You may read my insights into Ronald's unfortunate compulsion, coupled with a culture of enablers, on the flip-flop.
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Monday, 08 January 2007 |
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Born today, January 8, Elvis Presley and David Bowie
"... a long long time ago.
Who knows? Not me.
I never lost control.
You're face to face
With the man who sold the world ..."
—The Man Who Sold The World, D. Bowie
SUN POP BLUE MULTIPLE CHOICE QUIZ: Okay, kids, which of the following celebrities, all of whom were born on January 8th, was captured on video peeing on a 15 year-old girl's head? (on the flip-flop)
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Saturday, 07 April 2007 |
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Pianist
Alessandra Celletti somehow found my instrumental music page on MySpace some time back and sent me a friend request some time
ago on MySpace. I have always enjoyed her music. She added another page called "Alessandra Celletti
Plays Satie." I finally got around to listening to the pieces on her page. Simply amazing work.
Satie has always been one of my favorite composers, so I am
acquainted with many different recordings of his work. And I must
say that her "Trois Gymnopedies" - featured on her myspace page - rivals classical guitarist
Christopher Parkening's interpretation of "Cuna" by Mompou, perhaps my favorite
piece of music of all time (I don't know why: it just is. Jorma
Kaukonen's acoustic guitar piece "Embryonic Journey" on the
Jefferson Airplane album Surrealistic Pillow runs a close second,
but I need to write a full essay on that little jewel-cloud of magic - soon) for
breathtaking simplicity and beauty.
But she has done it again with this piece, which is one of the Pieces Froides and is on her new Satie cd. Lovely music, haunting video.
Thank you Alessandra!
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Saturday, 02 December 2006 |
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I am just posting this before I head out. I will be fleshing out, so to
speak, this post later. This site is supposed to be about music, art,
literature ... but I know what you really want to read about.
Sexual Consent the video.
I don't know who Dr. Ava Cadell is, but I first thought her
downloadable Sexual Consent form was a joke. But then I read
this:
Sexual Consent Form - Dr. Ava Cadell
All I can say is: Bring Back The Seventies.
Here is another article reaffirming my belief that biology trumps all. I touched much of this in my Salon.com article, The Gentlemanly Art of Spanking, some years back, but it is nice to hear from a woman, in a woman's voice.
How Feminism Ruined My Sex Life
An excerpt:
You know that stuff you’ve been reading in the girly magazines
that tell you that women like to be romanced with candlelit dinners
before you gently (gently!) make love to them by first giving them
hours of oral pleasure and then softly (oh so softly!) penetrating them
while staring lovingly into their eyes…always making absolutely sure
that they reach orgasm first?
Well, it’s all bunk.
Do you want to know what we really talked about when discussing
the best sex we ever had? We talked about our scraped knees and the
bruises on our backs where we were bitten in the throes of passion. No
one even mentioned that time you filled the bathtub full of rose petals
and blah, blah, blah. It was that time in the back seat of an old chevy
with our faces crudely pressed up against the window that got us
hot.
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Monday, 15 January 2007 |
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Discovering the writings of Corwainer Smith in the early 1970's was a
life-changing revelation. At that time, neither his one novel, Norstrilia,
nor any comprehensive compilation of his incredible short stories were
in print. For years, I would scour used bookstores in search of his
stories, finding one of his stories in this or that compilation, in
print, not in print, whatever. Needless to say, his writing had a
profound effect on me and I have striven to create worlds, in music and
art and words, as strange, as haunting, and, I hope, as full of love as
his works, amidst the weirdness. Not that I come close in that regard:
but one must aim high. Smith's stories do not grow old. Interestingly,
although he was almost unknown 25 years ago, he is regularly deemed the
most influential science fiction writer of all time now. I recommend
his books, Norstrilia and The Rediscovery of Man without hesitation.
Illustration: The Bulbous Worlds from my novel Flapping.
From 1950 to 1966, stories appeared in mainstream science fiction magazines by an author named "Cordwainer Smith". From the first to the last, these stories were acclaimed as among the most inventive and striking ever written,
and that in a field specializing in the inventive and the striking.
Their author was a very private man who did not want his real name to
be known because he did not want to be pursued by SF fans. It was only
after his death in 1966 that more than a handful of people knew that
"Cordwainer Smith" was in real life Paul M. L. Linebarger.
by James B. Jordan Copyright © 1991 Originally published in Contra Mundum No. 2 Winter 1992
Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger
Paul Linebarger was born in 1913, the grandson of a clergyman. His
father, an eccentric man, had served as a Federal District Judge in the
Philippines, but had left this post to work full time for the cause of
the Chinese republican reformer Sun Yat Sen, who became Paul's
godfather. Paul Linebarger grew up in the retinue of Sun Yat Sen, for
his father stayed with Sen during his exile in Japan and throughout his
career in China.
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