Author: Don

Tune of the day #148

Members of The Blues Project joined with fiddler Richard Greene, a Bill Monroe alumnus, and a few other musicians to form Sea Train (two words). Their 1969 self-titled debut had possibly the worst cover of any album — it wasn’t even ugly1 — and it sold miserably. I’ve never met anyone other than myself who bought a copy. This is a pity, because it was a fully-realized example of progressive rock, intricate, complicated and ambitious. It’s almost completely forgotten. Sea Train is not even mentioned on Prog Archives.

The band subsequently underwent personnel changes, altered their name to “Seatrain,” and came to George Martin’s attention. The resulting album was better-produced and easier to listen to, and it yielded a small hit, but it was less interesting than the one that preceded it.2

Blackbirds

I was of three minds

It’s the second day of February, when I and perhaps a few other bloggers post a favorite poem. Here’s some easy Wallace Stevens.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?

VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.

XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.

XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.

Gyneco-Obstetric Algebraic Didactics and Post-Partum Group Theory

According to a recently published paper,

A case study with pregnant mathematicians and aspiring gynecologists demonstrates that integrating the Fibonacci sequence into labor progression charts induces spontaneous appreciation for abstract algebra and mild cravings for prime numbers. These findings challenge the traditional boundaries between prenatal care and set theory, suggesting that mathematical didactics and obstetric gynecology, when merged, can birth new paradigms in both fields. Further research is encouraged, especially in the context of cesarean matrices and post-partum group theory.

(Via Eugene Volokh.)

Not quite as impactful as Alan Sokal’s classic paper, perhaps, but much more efficiently created. As the author notes, “All procedures followed the principles of academic transparency and surreal humor.”

Tune of the day #136

Luckey Roberts was the first of the Harlem “stride” pianists to record, in 1916. However, the technology of the time wasn’t capable of handling his dynamic playing. He did record again toward the end of his life, after strokes and an automobile accident in which his hands were shattered, and he still sounded pretty good. In his prime he must have been overwhelming.