Scott D. Strader – Page 32 – An Echo That's Reversing

Coronavirus – 28 Jun 2020 – We’ve been here before

Updated 1 Jun 2020

The governors of the worst-affected states are killing their people to impress Trump. They crowed about their bravery but are now sheepishly reversing course (not, of course, without hand-wavy excuses). And every time the governors in Florida and Texas continued with their schedule to reopen, their states were hitting record cases.

Glenn Branca symphonies

Having owned a cassette of his Symphony #1 (refed back in Sep 2018) and Symphony #3 on vinyl in college, I’ve had some persistent curiosity about his other symphonies. I’m not sure I’ll acquire them (those that are acquireable) because I’m a little out of the noise-rock thing at the moment, but I’d like to at least document what’s available. This information is gathered from:

The discography from his Wikipedia entry – several symphonies not mentioned
History and discography pages from his website. Each recording has its own page accessible individually but with no index page. Symphony No.1 links to the others.
Glenn Branca (Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2009) – Biography and statements from Branca on several of his works, including #s 3, 7, 9, 11, 14
Avant-Garde Composer Glenn Branca Recounts His Cacophonic Symphonies One-By-One (The Village Voice, 19 Nov 2010) – Only excludes #16
Glenn Branca: A Guide to the Symphonies (Red Bull Music Academy Daily, 11 May 2016) – Includes #s 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. These are all of the recorded symphonies except for 13.
Glenn Branca’s Really Experimental Music: Why the Composer Is Still Punk After All These Years (Vice, 16 May 2016) – Interview with Branca and comments on #s 8, 10, 12, 13, 16
MIT Sounding Presents Both Sides of Composer Glenn Branca (Arts at MIT, 26 Sep 2019)
Glenn Branca 1948–2018 (Wire, May 2018)
Glenn Branca (undated), short review of several of his symphonies by David Sheridan and Michael Azerrad, from Trouser Press, includes #s 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, along with other works

Other, symphony-specific sources listed with their respective symphony.

Cambodian cassettes, Saigon rock

A year or so back, probably two years, Lisa and I went to Wax N Facts for a record store day [ed. written before pandemic isolation, how quaint?]. These visits are always discursive and you don’t know where you’ll end so that day I ended at the international/world music section looking for… not sure what. And (dun dun DUN) I found it in spades.

Pages: 1234

Witness – Burn

Updated 6 Jun 2020

The last few months. I haven’t recorded what was happening enough as it was happening and so hope I haven’t missed the full thread.

Coronavirus – Tue 26 May 2020 – None of us are safe

I suspect now that none of us are safe. Well, the very wealthy are, but “us” being the comfortable and comfortably employed middle class will start feeling this. It’s such an un-fact-based feeling that is born of a destructively un-fact-based time that I hesitate. Someone on Twitter had said that we’re not going through a pandemic but rather through a catastrophe. So much else is tied in with the virus, and even ignoring Trump’s gross exacerbation of the situation, we have: a collapsing economy with attempts at revival increasing deaths (The meat industry is trying to get back to normal. But workers are still getting sick — and shortages may get worse. The Washington Post, 25 May 2020), federal and international disunity creating archipelagos of mitigation, disrupted food distribution resulting in massive livestock euthanasia (Opinion: Livestock Farmers, Without Options, Turn To Euthanasia, NPR, 16 May 2020), and a collapse of trust in basic science (‘How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?’, The Atlantic, 21 May 2020). The last item results in a justified mistrust but is the result of active poisoning of those institutions. The CDC, once the world’s laboratory, has been cooking the books.

None of this has really touched me at all, but buffers are only buffers until they wear thin and catastrophe hits the mark.