William Schuth

  • My Year-End Music Mix for 2019

    I’m a bit later than last year, but I’ve finally completed my 2019 year-end music mix.

    My preference for instrumental music remains pretty strong, largely for the same reasons I outlined last year. Given the state of public discourse, music that communicates in a register beyond the verbal draws my ear. That said, there are tunes with vocal tracks — even ones that showcase them — on this mix.

    Finally, before we get to the mix: You will see a link to a public Spotify playlist following the track list. Do not follow me on Spotify. I do not regularly use the service. These likely will be the only playlists I share in the next eleven months.

    2019

    1. Anja Lechner & Pablo Márquez – Die Nacht | Franz Schubert: Die Nacht
    2. Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet – Red Thread | Metamodal
    3. William Tyler – Rebecca | Goes West
    4. Thompson Egbo-Egbo – Rise | The Offering
    5. The Comet is Coming – The Universe Wakes Up | Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
    6. Mary Lattimore & Mac McCaughan – II | New Rain Duets
    7. Daniel Szabo – Visionary | Visionary
    8. The Bad Plus – Hurricane Birds | Never Stop II
    9. Larry Grenadier – Oceanic | The Gleaners
    10. Angélique Kidjo – Sahara | Celia
    11. Mdou Moctar – Ibitilan | Mdou Moctar: Blue Stage Sessions
    12. Leyla McCalla – Money is King | The Capitalist Blues
    13. Newen Afrobeat (feat. Oghene Kologbo) – Open Your Eyes | Curiche
    14. J.S. Ondara – American Dream | Tales of America
    15. Radiohead – Ill Wind | Ill Wind
    16. The Polyversal Souls (feat. Alemayehu Eshete) – Feqer Feqer Nèw | Feqer Feqer Nèw
    17. Daniel Norgren – Let Love Run the Game | Whoo Dang
    18. Kel Assouf – Tenere | Black Tenere
    19. The Comet is Coming – The Softness of the Present | The Afterlife
    20. Hiromi – Spectrum | Spectrum
    21. Julian Lage – Crying | Love Hurts
    22. Brad Mehldau – The Garden | Finding Gabriel
    23. Eleni Karaindrou – Encounter | Tous des oiseaux
    24. Mats Eilertsen, Harmen Fraanje, & Thomas Strønen – Albatross | And Then Comes the Night
    25. Lucian Ban & Alex Simu – Quiet Storm (for Jimmy Giuffre) | Free Fall
    26. Mark de Clive-Lowe – The Offering | Heritage
    27. Soil & “Pimp” Sessions – Tracking | Outside OST for Anime series “Blue Eyed Monster”
    28. Joe Lovano, Marilyn Crispell, & Carmen Castaldi – Seeds of Change | Trio Tapestry
    29. Miho Hazama – Today, Not Today | Dancer in Nowhere
    30. RGG – Tenderness | Memento (Polish Jazz Vol. 81)
    31. Till Felner – Liszt: Années de pèlerinage, PremIère Annèe - Suisse S. 160 - Les cloches de Genève | In Concert - Beethoven/ Liszt
    32. Tom Russell – Red Oak Texas | October in the Railroad Earth
    33. William Tyler – Our Lady of the Desert | Goes West
    34. Paolo Fresu & Daniele di Bonaventura – Ave, Regina gloriosa | Altissima Luce: Laudario Di Cortona

    Listen on Spotify

  • New coupe break-in: a modest variation on a Time to Get Going, substituting the reposado tequila for reposado mezcal. First time I’ve mixed mezcal & cachaça; it won’t be the last!

  • It’s the most cardboardest time of the year.

  • Rain at 36° F is the ultimate December weather insult. We haven’t had snow all month.

  • What is more soothing to the modern traveler: returning to the comfort of one’s own bed, pillow, blanket, & sheets, or to the comfort of one’s own mesh-networked high-speed Internet connection?

  • He keeps impeccable time.

  • Merry Christmas from the Family

    Fred and Rita drove from Harlingen;
    I can’t remember how I’m kin to them.
    But when they tried to plug their motor home in.
    they blew our Christmas lights.

    Cousin David knew just what went wrong,
    so we all waited out on our front lawn.
    He threw a breaker and the lights came on,
    and we sang, “Silent Night, Oh Silent Night!” “Oh Holy Night!”

  • My own dog, gone commercial!

  • Curt Flood challenged the reserve clause 50 years ago:

    After twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen …

  • There are many ways of being wounded, yet many ways of being cured.

    Kay McKeever, owl rehabilitator & conservationist, died this past April. She saw a need, filled it, and became an expert.

    The Lady and the Owl | National Film Board of Canada (1975) via Aeon

  • How this house is suddenly down to its last bottle of brandy, I don’t know.

    Let’s not let a good crisis go to waste — lay a recommendation of your favorite American-style apple brandy, Armagnac, Calvados, Cognac, weinbrand, or other aged brandy on me.

  • Тост из закваски с вареньем крыжовника. Sourdough toast with gooseberry varenye. The tang of the bread flowing under the rush of tart-sweet varenye makes this one of my favorite eats right now.

  • Clemente: A historian vets the story of how the Dodgers lost a farmhand

    Reading the biographies, Thornley watched a well-worn narrative play out in each one: The Brooklyn Dodgers discovered Clemente in Puerto Rico and stashed him in Montreal for a minor-league season, trying to hide him from other teams, only to have the Pirates purchase the future Hall of Famer for pennies in the Rule 5 draft. But the books mostly skimmed over Clemente’s 1954 season with the Triple-A Montreal Royals. That bothered Thornley. He doesn’t like holes — they suggest lazy research — so he started to fact-check.

    “What made me skeptical?” Thornley asked recently. “I don’t know.”

    For a researcher, skepticism is a virtue. It seemed to most historians that only the sheer stupidity of the Brooklyn brass could explain how the Dodgers lost Clemente. Maybe, Thornley thought, there was more to the story. The claims about Clemente’s time in Montreal mostly lined up, even if the supporting evidence did not. And here’s why: Before the biographers unpacked their typewriters, the building blocks of the narrative were laid by Clemente himself.

    Hide and seek: The true story of how the Dodgers lost Roberto Clemente | The Athletic

  • The Economist may be witty, it may be contrarian, it may be informative, but it is also implicated in many current problems. When markets speak for themselves, it turns out, they lack a culture of self-criticism.

    The World The Economist Made | The New Republic

  • Bulbs.

  • The world lost the offbeat beauty & a piacere personalities of Leon Redbone & Dr. John in 2019. If any duo could slather a trite winter staple like “Frosty the Snowman” in goofy, tin pan gumbo cheer, it was those two.

  • A Dutch scientist discovered a clue that sent seed companies to their archives and kick-started a breeding program. American chefs responded and created a market. We all benefit.

    From Culinary Dud To Stud: How Dutch Plant Breeders Built Our Brussels Sprouts Boom | NPR

  • ‘Tis the season for Tom & Jerrys.

  • The moon’s halo was pretty intense.

  • A star twinkles in the night.

  • The body seems to keep score. Adverse experiences are linked to changes in physiological systems, including neuroendocrine and immune systems, and these changes may have implications for long-term physical health.

    And descendants.

    Trauma can be inherited. | The Correspondent

  • Needed: Snow! Some is forecasted for Thursday, but only a 40% chance, likely mixed with rain if it falls, and no significant accumulation.

  • At a time when liberal humanism is facing the very real and present threat of eclipse, one can hardly be blamed for imagining how much nobler and more decent the world might be if it took more notice of [Isaiah] Berlin.

    Philosopher of the human | Aeon

  • W M V

  • Marvin Miller & Ted Simmons finally are headed to Cooperstown, which they both deserve, but Lou Whitaker continues to endure a profound, undeserved dismissal of his elite career, and that’s a shame.

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