Tales from the Archives

The new John Cage biography by David Nicholls has been out a few months now. I won't be reviewing it here. I will, however, register one particular disappointment. I bought and devoured this book hoping that Nicholls would finally provide the answer to one of the most vexing questions we face in Cage scholarship. And alas, he did not. John Cage: did he or did he not like flannel pajamas?

...I bought flannel pajamas (1st time in my life) and tried to convince Bunny to get some. He said he hated p.j's and wouldn't hear of it. He stamped his feet and became very militant. You know how he is--last night I wore mine and he thought they were so cute he said he must get some to match. I should know by now, but I never learn.

-Letter from Xenia Cage to a friend, 1941

Of Hounds and Weedwackers

My better half is off in Oregon for a week of corporate brain-washing. The chain of vet clinics she works for requires it of all their new hires, sort of like Hamburger U for veterinarians. It takes place in a Holiday Inn by the airport and they had to read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People beforehand; I shudder to think what the experience is going to be like. Meanwhile, back here in Philly it's just Mabel and I. This is a trade-off. On the one hand, Mabel rarely steals the covers in the middle of the night. On the other, Mary rarely chews toilet paper off the dispenser.

In other news, via my uncle-in-law (I have cooler in-laws than most) check out this interview with Tony Conrad, focusing (as he usually does!) on the politics of avant-garde music. Conrad is one of those musicians who saves us musicologists a lot of work by speaking intelligently and (fairly) critically about his own work. The liner notes to Early Minimalism are, for instance, fairly amazing. Of course, it's not going to get me to listen to Slapping Pythagoras again anytime soon, much as I love the sound of a weedwacker destroying pillows.

Incidental pop music teaching note: I find Four Violins to be the best single example of drone music to play to undergrads when teaching the Velvet Underground. It's almost exactly contemporary, and sounds just like John Cale's viola.

Mabel protecting our pillows from Tony Conrad.