Now, if a Muse cannot run when she is unfetter’d, ‘tis a sign she has but little speed.

John Dryden (respecting blank verse)


Acquired: Audubon’s Birds Of America watercolors (New York Historical Society folio, 1966)

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The American Analog Set – “Aaron & Maria”
Know By Heart

This whole album passes by in an instant, and not just because it isn’t particularly long. It’s just so pleasant, and so of a piece. Nothing but tight playing, sweet melodies, and soft singing – yet it isn’t twee, nor pretentious or cloying (though it is arguably innocuous). It’s just plain good.

Thus rag’d the goddess; and, with fury fraught,
The restless regions of the storms she sought,
Where, in a spacious cave of living stone,
The tyrant Æolus, from his airy throne,
With pow’r imperial curbs the struggling winds,
And sounding tempests in dark prisons binds.

Dryden’s Æneid

I hate to see prudence clinging to the green suckers of youth; ‘tis like ivy round a sapling, and spoils the growth of the tree.

The School For Scandal

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Labradford – “David”
Fixed::Content

I had a minimalist music phase in college – when I discovered not every song needs to have drums, keyboards, bass, samples, voice, and so on. Labradford and Stars of the Lid are the main finds from that period, and Fixed::Content remains one of my go-to albums for days like today, when “real” songs just grate. Even though there are only four tracks on it, “David” still feels like a last farewell after the epic “Twenty.” Its pleasant synth washes and Labradford’s signature thoughtful plucking give it a sense of finality.