Daily Log

Woke up early, barely registering four hours, 80 on the meter. Read the end of the Minshall book on manufacturing. I suppose I'll move on to Doctorow and/or Wu next, as I have both checked out from library. I do have to return the Mahjongg book on Friday, so I may have a look around then. We went out to grocery store yesterday. I had run out of distilled water. We went to an Italian restaurant, Napoli, before. We had the calamari and arrancini for appetizers, and both were excellent. Chicken piccata and veal sorrentino for mains. The veal struck me as pretty tough. We picked up some things for Zhanna, and delivered them on the way home. Watched Brokenwood. Came down at 9:30, but can't work on the jigsaw puzzle, as it is too near completion not to let Laura finish. I probably should have tried to go back to bed, but feel pretty woke up. Cool at the moment: 63F. Should stick to the 70s today, so this might be a good day to do some outside work; maybe even the attic.

I published Loose Tabs last night. Came to 17438 words. I should do the break on Music Week soon, and write that today. Still have some unpacking to do. I'm feeling very unambitious these days. But I did the Music Week cutover at 11:20 AM, +32 rated, including a late A- for Tanya Tagaq, an album Phil Overeem has raved about and I've only slowly warmed to.

Email (26 messages):

• TomDispatch: Steve Fraser, In Empire We Trust

I finally posted something on Saturday's dinner on Facebook:

Reunion Saturday with a close childhood friend I had little contact with for nearly 60 years. He traveled the world with the USAF, and suggested I might fix something Greek (or German; I went with Greek). I picked out some classics: pastisio (lamb & eggplant with penne topped with feta/bechamel), garithes youvetsi (shrimp w/feta), fasolakia (green beans with potatoes), horiatiki (chopped salad), and mast va khiar (cucumber with yogurt, an Iranian alternative to tzatziki). For dessert, I made a blood orange upside-down cake, served with ice cream, and bougatsa (I didn't get the latter done in time for Saturday, but it made the leftovers dinner on Sunday). Good to catch up after so long.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, April archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 33 albums, 7 A-list

Music: Current count 45803 [45771] rated (+32), 20 [29] unrated (-9).

New records reviewed this week:

• Juhani Aaltonen + Raoul Björkenheim: Nostalgia (2025 [2026], Eclipse Music): [sp]: B+(***)
• Rodrigo Amado/This Is Our Language Quartet: Wailers (2019 [2026], European Echoes): [dl]: A-
• Atlantic Road Trip: Watch as the Echo Falls (2025 [2026], Calligram): [cd]: B+(*)
• Mara Calder: We Stay Ugly 'Til the Pretty Decays (2026, Black Metal Archives Label): [sp]: A-
• Chicago Soul Jazz Collective: No Wind & No Rain (2026, Calligram): [cd]: B+(**)
• Paul Citro: Keep Moving (Home) (2024-25 [2026], Calligram): [cd]: B+(*) [05-01]
• Caleb Wheeler Curtis: Ritual (2025 [2026], Chill Tone): [cd]: B+(***)
• Fcukers: Ö (2026, Ninja Tune): [sp]: B+(***)
• Flea: Honora (2026, Nonesuch): [sp]: B-
• Sophie Gault: Unhinged (2026, Torrez Music Group): [sp]: B+(**)
• Tomas Janzon: Jazz Diary (2025 [2026], Changes Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Kin'Gongolo Kiniata: Kiniata (2024 [2025], Helico Music): [bc]: A-
• Kinact: Kinshasa in Action (2026, Nyege Nyege Tapes): [bc]: B+(**)
• Gurf Morlix: Cobwebs & Stardust (2026, Rootball): [sp]: B+(**)
• Jim Robitaille Trio: Sonic (2026, Whaling City Sound): B+(**)
• Ted Rosenthal Trio: The Good Old Days (2024 [2026], TMR Music): [cd]: B+(***) [05-01]
• Fie Schouten/Vincent Courtois/Sofia Borges/Pierre Baux: Open Space (2025 [2026], Relative Pitch): [cd]: B+(**)
• Paul Silbergleit Trio: The Stillness of July (2024 [2026], Calligram): [cd]: B+(**) [05-01]
• Harlan Silverman: Music for Stillness (2026, Intentional): [bc]: B+(***)
• Slayyyter: Wor$t Girl in America (2026, Columbia): [sp]: B+(**)
• Sky Smeed: Live at the Rock House (2026, self-released): [sp]: A-
• Alister Spence: Always Ever (2025 [2026], Alister Spence Music): [cd]: B+(**) [04-24]
• Tanya Tagaq: Saputjiji (2026, Six Shooter): [sp]: A-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Born in the City of Tanta: Lower Egyptian Urban Folklore and Bedouin Shaabi From Libya's Bourini Records 1968-75 (1968-75 [2025], Sublime Frequencies): [bc]: B+(***)
• Bill Evans: At the BBC (1965 [2026], Elemental Music): [cd]: B+(***) [04-18]
• Freddie King: Feeling Alright: The Complete 1975 Nancy Pulsations Concert (1975 [2026], Elemental Music, 2CD): [cd]: B+(**) [04-18]
• Cecil Taylor New Unit: Words & Music: The Last Bandstand (2016 [2026], Fundacja Słuchaj): [bc]: A-
• Miroslav Vitous: Mountain Call (2003-10 [2026], ECM): [sp]: B+(*)
• Mal Waldron: Stardust & Starlight: At the Jazz Showcase (1979 [2026], Resonance): [cd]: A- [04-18]

Old music:

• Dorisburg & Sebastian Mullaert: That Who Remembers (2023, Spazio Disponibile): [sp]: B+(**)
• Ted Rosenthal: Ted Rosenthal at Maybeck [Maybeck Recital Hall Series, Volume Thirty-Eight] (1994 [1995], Concord): [sp]: B+(**)
• Wordsworth: Mirror Music (2004, Halftooth): [sp]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Terry Callier: At the Earl of Old Town (1967, Time Traveler) [04-18]
• Roy Hargrove: Bern (2000, Time Traveler) [04-18]
• Kathy Ingraham: Jazz Dreams (Peirdon) [03-16]
• What You May Call It: Da Qi (MechaBenzaiten) [05-08]

Daily Log

Came down at 10:30, after some reading. Out of distilled water, so we need to go to grocery store today. Only got a 95 on the CPAP. Got out my lightest T-shirt, and weighed in at 219.0. Still eating leftover Greek from Saturday, although the shrimp and mast va khiar are gone, as is the cake (but still have bougatsa, horiatiki, one more plate of pastisio, and a lot of green beans/potatoes). Closing in on Loose Tabs, so that may go up today. I still have a tab opened to my Iraq War journal. I was thinking I could dust that off and send that out to Substack, so that may be a diversion today. Still in the 80s, but we're due for a cold front and storms on Friday. Saturday will be cool enough to work in the attic, and Sunday should be nice to work on the railing. Tom James glued the edges down yesterday, so the surface is clear. Still need to get the mini-split reinstalled, but order for that is in. Did a lot of jigsaw puzzle work the last two days, so it's about half done. We watched A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, one of the Game of Thrones spinoffs. I still don't buy a world where hierarchy is assumed (although not without a certain begrudging) and violence is sport for the otherwise jaded and comfortable. Presumably Martin intended to show that now we're far beyond that, but I doubt it was ever much fun.

Email (28 messages):

• DownBeat: Flea's Jazz Jones, on the cover, got a B- in Music Week.
• Tom Carson: No King of Kings: Trump does Jesus the way Debbie did Dallas.
• Logitech Pebble Mouse 2 delivered.

Daily Log

Went to bed fairly early (2:30 AM). Came down at 11:15. Warm again today, upper 80s. Music Week is being held back until Loose Tabs posts, which is in the "any day now" stage: not yesterday, probably not today, maybe tomorrow. Should cool down after storms Friday night, then back to 70F on Sunday, and for several days after that. Looks like Saturday would be a good day to work in attic, then Sunday would be a good day for the railing. I should hose down the AC in the back, since Hanna isn't coming out until mid-May. Wednesday/Thursday would be good days for that. I also want to start with some organizing in the basement. I bought a little thing with 20 plastic drawers that fits in the last open wall space down there. I assembled it, and piled four 3-drawer Sterlite cases on top of it. I want to fill them up with scattered hardware, including electrical supplies. I have four more larger Sterlite tower units with deeper drawers. I need to use them for bulkier items, but first that involves cleaning them out and moving the smaller stuff into the new drawer units. I also need to find a place for all the tools. Meanwhile, stuff needs to be thrown out, or at least reshelved. Some can come up to the transfer station, for recycle.

Still, I expect I'll spend most of today writing. I was interrupted by Tom James coming over to glue down some loose edges on the carport roof.

Email (45 messages at 4:00 PM; another day of slow reading):

• Wichita Public Library: renewed three books (so due May 1), didn't renew Nicole Wong: Mahjong: House Rules From Across the Asian Diaspora, so it's due April 17. I play a lot of Mahjongg on the computer, so I was looking for some background, especially what to call the tiles. I should look through it by Friday, and return it. I've been reading Tim Minshall's How Things Are Made: A Journey Through the Hidden World of Manufacturing, which is an interesting overview of the modern world. I haven't opened the other two tech business books, but should: Cory Doctorow: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, and Tim Wu: The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity.
• Eye Care Associates appointment coming up: April 28, 3:30 PM.

Daily Log

Gretchen and Mike came over at 2 PM for rewarmed leftovers. I tried rewarming the pastisio in the oven, but that didn't work very well, so I wound up dumping it into my largest skillet and heating it up on the stove. I pulled out all of the shrimp, and rewarmed the sauce, before adding the shrimp back in to warm up but not cook much further. None of that took very long (aside from the false start on the pastisio). I spent the period between 11 and 1 making the bougatsa. The phyllo was finicky, as usual, with the sheets hard to separate, easy to tear. While messy, I managed to form three packets, then bake them. They didn't get quite as well browned as expected, but seemed to come out good enough. We talked. They left. I still had quite a bit leftover, but put it away in slightly smaller containers, and cleaned up. All I had for dinner was some horiatiki, plus the last of the orange upside down cake, and some ice cream. We watched A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (4th episode, I think). I was feeling somewhat queasy. I went straight to bed afterwards, and slept to 9:30, with at least three interruptions (one of which I read some during: I'm about two-thirds through Tim Minshall's How Things Are Made: A Journey Through the Hidden World of Manufacturing).

Feeling ok this morning. Probably ate too much over the last two days. I should take it easy today. I'm not feeling very good about my writing, least of all today's tasks: wrapping up Loose Tabs, and cobbling together a Music Week. I doubt I'll get either of those done, and I'm not sure I even feel like trying. We have a new jigsaw puzzle opened, so I'm going to start today on that. I have started the day off with a new review album, first one of those I've heard in 2-3 days, so maybe I'll get back into the swing of things. We'll see, but as I said, I don't much care right now.

Email (33 messages at 10:30, some leftover from Sunday):

• Tom Carson: Frankenride: Preliminary. An empty post, aside for a couple opening quotes. Unlike the earlier "Frankenride," which appears to be a big chunk of new fiction.
• Tom Carson: To Epp Is Human: Eric Swalwell, Al Franken, and that poor schook with the boobies.
• Brad Luen: 100 best pro wrestlers ever. Only names I recognize are: John Cena (43); Andre the Giant (92).
• My bougatsa picture.
• Tom Carson: Roaring Twenties: Trump and Pope Leo do Cagney vs. Bogart. Jack Warner, producer.
• GLC April event: "In Treacherous Waters: Latin America in the Age of the New Right," by Dr.Tony Wood, April 19, 6:30, preceded by potluck dinner at 6.

Daily Log

Woke up at 10:45, and came down at 11:15. Terry Appelhans came over for dinner last night, a reunion of about 60 years. He recalls moving from South Main (two doors north of us) to out past Tyler Road in 1966. My memory places the move a couple years earlier. I fixed Greek food, and made quite a lot of it. His wife skipped the event. I was hoping that his sister Linda would join us, but she also had other plans. Another younger sister, Marilyn, seems to be around, but I only remember her as a small child. (Linda is my sister's age, and Rhonda, deceased, was my brother's age.) I'll write more about this later, but when I realized how much surplus food I would have, I asked Laura to arrange a leftovers dinner for today. She invited Mike and Gretchen over for, but they insisted on afternoon instead of evening, so we're doing it at 2PM. So I have 2.5 hours to get it all organized. Warming up the leftovers won't be much of a problem, but I started to make bogatsa. I made the custard last night, but still have to build the phyllo packets and bake them. I had thought about adding more appetizers, but at this point there's so much leftovers, and it's so good, that should be unnecessary.

Email (9 messages):

Daily Log

Came down at 10:45, after reading a bit. Just a bit of time to write this note, then I need to start cooking. I got the blood orange upside-down cake done last night. Some problems with the recipe. You cook the orange slices in a syrup, then pull them out and reduce the syrup another 5 minutes, but then it doesn't tell you what to do with the syrup. I actually doubled the syrup, because I wanted to make sure it would cover the orange slices. I did wind up using slices from two oranges. I zested the leftover ends, and juiced the ends, getting 3oz of juice, which seemed to be abou right (recipe calls for juice of 1 orange). After I placed the slices in the bottom of the pan, I brushed them with extra syrup, but still had quite a bit left. Recipe called for creaming the butter and eggs, but didn't call for more sugar, as is typically the case. I couldn't get the butter and eggs to form an emulsion, so I added a bit of the syrup, which didn't help. I gave up and started adding the dry mixture (regular and almond flour), and that mixed in fairly well, along with orange juice, zest, and vanilla. I scraped it into a 9-inch springform plan, on top of a larger baking dish (in case it leaked; btw, it did leak a bit). I cooled and flipped the cake,a nd it looks like it came out ok. I still had some syrup left, so I painted the top. I haven't tasted it.

I made the meat sauce for the pastisio. Came out very good. I also mixed up a small batch of mast va khiar (Iranian cucumber-yogurt, with scallions, sultanas, black walnuts, and mint). Not part of my original menu, but I was prepared. I was thinking that I'd do a leftovers feed on Sunday, where I could add extra appetizers. But Laura arranged for Gretchen and Mike to come over at 2 pm, so I won't have time to add much to the leftovers. I had considered doing a proper tzatziki for this, but went with my old standard.

When I get started, the main dishes should come together pretty easily. I can assemble the horiatiki in my spare moments. I need to make the cheese sauce for the pastisio, which starts with a roux (it's basically bechamel plus feta cheese). Meanwhile, I can heat up the water and cook the pasta, which is then divided between the meat and cheese sauces. So I should get it prepped early, ready to pop into the oven. The tomato sauce for the shrimp and the green bean ragout are both dishes that I can start early and keep warm until I need them. The shrimp will go in a hot oven just before serving. I prepped the green beans last night, so most of what's left is chopping onions, peeling potatoes, and opening cans of tomatoes.

That should leave me time to work on a second dessert: bougatsa. That's going to be trickier, as I need to make a custard, then wrap it up in filo dough pockets, and bake them. I figure I can get the mains going, then pivot to them, and bake them before I need to put the pastisio in. At least that's the plan. Our guest is a bit of an unknown, as I've only seen him once (at my mother's funeral) since 1970. But we were best friends once, so that should count for something.

Email (7 messages, not much):

• New Substack subscriber (previously unknown to me).
• RiotRiot on Parquet Courts.

Daily Log

Got up early again, but went to bed early enough I registered 100 on the machine. Thinking about cooking Greek tomorrow. I polled Elias Vlanton and John Chacona for dessert ideas. I'm thinking now that I'll make a cake (probably walnut, unless I can find blood oranges for the upside-down cake) tonight to be sure, then try the bougatsa tomorrow. I was confused by the "packet wrapping" technique, but the video helped. Tricky part should be the custard. As the main courses will be overkill for three people, I'm thinking we should have a leftover dinner on Sunday, perhaps augmented by some appetizers. Laura's gone to doctor. I need to write up my shopping list for this afternoon. I want to make the cake and the sauce components for the pastisio tonight. I can boil the pasta tomorrow, then prep the casserole early. The green beans and the sauce for the shrimp are long, slow stovetop operations, and the salad can be assembled on the side, so there's not a lot of work to any of those dishes, nor are the logistics daunting.

Email (38 messages; I did finally get down to 0 last night):

• Rodrigo Amado: link to download his new album.
• Robert Wright; The future arrived this week (and boy are we not ready for it!).

Daily Log

Woke up early. Came down around 10:30. I bought some concentrated vinegar last week, thinking I might use it to try to clean out the hood filters. I popped them out, and placed them in a roasting pan, with 2 c 30% vinegar, 12 c hot water. We'll see if that works. I'm planning on fixing dinner for Terry Appelhans on Saturday. I was hoping his sister Linda might join us, but she has other plans, so it may just be a dinner for three. We agreed on Greek. I have so much I want to show off there it will be hard to hold it down. I was thinking I'd make pastisio, baked prawns with feta, green bean ragout, horiatiki, maybe some mezze, plus something for dessert. I could do baklava, but that's a fairly big production. There's a walnut cake with syrup that's easier. I've also considered switching cuisines and doing tiramisu, or maybe some kind of torte. I spent much of yesterday thinking I'd shop and start cooking today, only to find it's still Thursday. No matter how expansive I get, I don't need to start until the day before.

Started to process the Consumer Guide yesterday, but didn't get very far. Also started to move my draft tabs into a Loose Tabs file, but again came up short. All I feel like doing these days is working on the jigsaw puzzle and thinking about cooking.

Laura was complaining about Kimmel making fun of "TACO" so I posted this on Bluesky:

While I admit that "TACO" is funny, not least because it takes a bully down a notch, but we should also be clear that what appears to be "chickening out" are actually rare moments of sanity: they invariably involve backing away from taunts and plans that are truly insane, and often evil.

Perhaps the worst effect of the "TACO" complaints is when Democrats chastise Trump for failing to achieve goals (Iran still has missiles, and the Strait) that could only have been achieved by diplomacy, which Trump precluded by going to war. The war itself was Trump's massive failure. Say that!

Email (barely looked at it all day, so now up to 166 unread):

• Checked spam directory. I wondered whether it would be possible to block addresses. It appears it is. I blocked a half dozen. I had to open them first, but the mailer didn't display images, and there was virtually nothing else in the messages. (OK, I blocked a couple dozen more, but I keep seeing more instances of titles I've already blocked, so many of the addresses I'm blocking are probably spoofed.)
• Semipop Life: Odds & Ends 152: Nearly ready for 2026, I promise.
• My post: Iran War: The Big Question; + shareable assets; reactions: 2 likes; new subscribers: Lou Jean Fleron, Nathan Phillips.
• TomDispatch: Michael Klare, One Blow After Another.
• Walgreens Rx ready for pickup.
• Substack stats for Iran War: The Big Question: 115 views, 2 likes, 0 subscriptions.
• TomDispatch: Nan Levinson, The War in Iran as International Terrorism
• Tom Carson: "It just gall Trump to his bone spurs that the Kennedys outdo him even as narcissists, and he can't stand Serious Pretending anyhow. Besides being profoundly unserious, he's actually lousy at pretending: just watch him whenver he's got to act solemnly concerned about anyone's welfare but his own, something Kennedy could pull off even right after someone shot him in the head."
• Mike Konczal: The Cross-Section of Non-Citizens and the Job Slowdown: Sub-industries with the most non-citizen workers are behind the jobs collapse, the recent rebound, and the wage deceleration.
• New NOEL subscriber.
• Robert Christgau: Consumer Guide: April, 2026.
• New on Substack: post templates, drop caps, live video controls, "refine your feed with clearer controls," subscribe homepage block, callout block.
• I ordered a Giantex Storage Drawer Cart, with 20 drawers (10x2). Arriving April 14-16. I need to sort out odds and ends, hardware mostly, in the basement, and I have some space for this. I have four other Sterlite towers in the basement, only partly full. I figure I can start sorting electrical parts into the new cabinet, then clear out the old ones, and start refilling them. Along the way, I need to put tools into chests and bags. I have at least three square "electrician's bags": one for AC wiring tools, one for cabling tools, maybe I'll use the third for plumbing. It's not quite as bad as it seems, but I need to work my way around everything.

Daily Log

Woke up around 11. Finished Scheindlin's The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel. Leaves me with a bad taste, not just for the theocratic parties, which seem even more grasping than the worst of the Islamist parties, possibly because their peripheral status frees them of ever having to develop any sense of responsibility for the whole nation. Scheindlin emphasizes the power hoarding of Ben-Gurion and his Labor Party legacy, without really noting that it was rooted in insecurity, and also the liberalism of Jabotinsky and Begin, which strikes me as mere posture, again rooted in weakness. I suppose we can blame this all on the lack of a genuine Palestinian left: one that could see the Zionist settlers as potential allies in throwing off British imperialism. But it's not like the settlers, from the start dependent on the British for protection, signaled any interest in joint action, let alone equality, or peace.

I find myself toying with a proposal to just give in and let Israel expel the Palestinians. At this point it's more important to snuff out the fire of militarism than it is to persuade Israelis to behave with any real measure of decency. That ship seems to have sailed. But no matter how I might try to couch such a proposal, reaction from all quarters will be frightful. Need to start a new book. Not sure what.

Email continues to pile up (113 messages, some going back to Sunday). I've scanned through the list, and see very little I want to open up, other than the Consumer Guide:

Daily Log

Tired last night. Went to bed before 3, and slept until 11, despite Laura having to get up for a doctor appointment at 9. Weighed myself, and I'm up again, to 219.4, so I need to work on that. I didn't get Music Week done, or even started, Monday. A friend fell and broke her hip and shoulder. She got out of the hospital yesterday, so we helped get her home. We were pretty well equipped for such things, so we loaned her a wheelchair, a couple walkers, and a transfer bench. We went out to the grocery store afterwards. Rather than lobbying for stopping at a restaurant, I picked up some fried chicken (thighs and livers), and pigged out. I've bought the livers before, but hadn't bought the greasy chicken (let alone made my own) for a couple years.

Still feeling very sore, probably from crawling around the attic last week. I left it up to Doug when to work next, and he hasn't called me back. If I get some time, and it's cool enough to work in the attic, I may try doing some work myself. I figure I can lay down additional 2x4s to support the extra decking. I need to figure out how much to cover around the chimney. On the south side, I want to add wings 4-feet deep from the central platform. For those, I want to use hard foam topped by underlayment. I'll need help maneuvering those, but the skeleton shouldn't be too hard. Maybe I'll just clear the loose fill and cut the boards, and let Doug attach them? I have a scheme to set up an exhaust fan to cool the attic off, so I won't close the gable event until we're done working.

Music Week today. Probably not much more. Playing Roger Miller right now.

Email (71 messages, still some unopened from Sunday): Didn't get to these either.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, April archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 33 albums, 5 A-list

Music: Current count 45771 [45738] rated (+33), 29 [21] unrated (+8).

New records reviewed this week:

• Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman: Miami Lice: Season Four (2026, Rhymesayers Entertainment): [sp]: B+(***)
• Ali & Charif Megarbane: Tirakat (2026, Habibi Funk): [sp]: B+(*)
• Elles Bailey: Can't Take My Story Away (2026, Cooking Vinyl): [sp]: B+(**)
• Chalk: Crystalpunk (2026, Alter Music): [sp]: B+(***)
• Stew Cutler & Friends: Under Cover (Mostly) (2025 [2026], self-released): [sp]: B+(*)
• The Delines: The Set Up (2026, Decor/El Cortez/Jealous Butcher): [sp]: B+(***)
• Elucid & Sebb Bash: I Guess U Had to Be There (2026, Backwoodz Studioz): [sp]: B+(**)
• Avalon Emerson & the Charm: Written Into Changes (2026, Dead Oceans): [sp]: A-
• Girl Scout: Brink (2026, Human Garbage): [sp]: B+(*)
• Irreversible Entanglements: Future Present Past (2026, Impulse!): [sp]: A-
• DoYeon Kim: Wellspring (2026, TAO Forms): [sp]: B+(*) [05-01]
• Erica von Kleist: Picc Pocket (2025 [2026], self-released): [cd]: B [04-23]
• Kronos Quartet: Glorious Mahalia (2026, Smithsonian Folkways): [sp]: A-
• Buck Meek: The Mirror (2026, 4AD): [sp]: B+(**)
• Fabiano do Nascimento & Vittor Santos E Orquestra: Vila (2026, Far Out): [sp]: B+(*)
• Nubiyan Twist: Chasing Shadows (2026, Strut): [sp]: B
• Bill Orcutt: Music in Continuous Motion (2026, Palilalia): [sp]: B+(**)
• Puma Blue: Croak Dream (2026, PIAS): [sp]: B+(**)
• Raye: This Music May Contain Hope (2026, Human Re Sources): [sp]: B+(***)
• Jill Scott: To Whom It May Concern (2026, Human Re Sources/Blues Babe): [sp]: B+(***)
• Aktu el Shabazz: As Seen on TV (2026, 766303 DK): [sp]: B+(**)
• Snail Mail: Ricochet (2026, Matador): [sp]: B+(*)
• Tyshawn Sorey: Monochromatic Life (Afterlife) (2023 [2026], Dacamera): [sp]: B
• Stu Bangas & Wordsworth: Chemistry (2026, 1332): [sp]: A-
• Thundercat: Distracted (2026, Brainfeeder): [sp]: B+(*)
• Mark Turner: Patternmaster (2024 [2026], ECM): [sp]: B+(*)
• Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad: Jazz Is Dead 26: Antonio Carlos & Jocafi (2026, Jazz Is Dead): [sp]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Eddie Condon: Surprise! Eddie Condon at Town Hall, c. April 1944 (1944 [2026], Jazz Lives): [yt]: B+(***)
• Serengeti: Ajai 2 the Reimagine (2025, self-released): [sp]: B+(*)
• Serengeti: Universe (2022 [2025], CC King): [sp]: B

Old music:

• Kronos Quartet: Howl, U.S.A. (1996, Nonesuch): [sp]: B+(***)
• Kronos Quartet: Long Time Passing: Kronos Quartet & friends Celebrate Pete Seeger (2020, Smithsonian Folkways): [sp]: B+(***)
• Soda Stereo: Canción Animal (1990, Sony): [sp]: B+(*)
• Wordsworth and Stu Bangas: Two Kings (2024, Brutal Music): [sp]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Bobby Broom: Notes of Thanks (Steele) [05-01]
• Marie-Paule Franke: Through the Cracks, the Light Is Born (MariPosa) [06-26]
• Phil Haynes/Ben Monder/Peyton Pleninger: Terra (Corner Store Jazz) [05-01]
• Joe Henderson: Consonance: Live at the Jazz Showcase (1978, Resonance, 2CD) [04-18]
• Ahmad Jamal: At the Jazz Showcaswe: Live in Chicago (1976, Resonance) [04-18]
• Tomas Janzon: Jazz Diary (Changes Music) [04-10]
• Paul Kahn: Willingness (Carl Cat) [06-19]
• Jason Kruk: Beyond the Veil (SunGoose) [05-01]
• Yusef Lateef: Alight Upon the Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase (1975, Resonance, 3CD) [04-18]
• Mal Waldron: Stardust & Starlight: At the Jazz Showcase (1979, Resonance) [04-18]

Daily Log

I seem to have slipped a day here. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of the date, but I think I've been writing Daily Log entries every day. Still, checking the email shows that my April 4 entries were delivered on that day, so what is missing is Sunday, April 5. I find that I've opened very little of my April 5 email, but I do recall writing up a list of Project Syndicate titles, and I undoubtedly noted my Substack stats. Neither of those are to be found below. Most likely explanation is that I had an unsaved file that got wiped out when the system crashed last night. I've been having increasingly frequent crashes, where the screen freezes (at least once with no activity), then after a blackout period shows nothing but noise. I then have to shut down and reboot. I figure this probably means that the graphic card is failing. I should get a replacement.

I did publish the second part of my Iran War Questions series last night. I followed that with a bit of work on Loose Tabs, and I added December 2025 to the Streamnotes index (well, I only got part way through the artist index before losing my temporary buffer, so I have to recreate that). That probably means I can do Music Week today. Got up early, after sleeping poorly, so I don't feel up to much at the moment. Starting a new jigsaw, so maybe I'll take a break and work on that before breakfast. Playing Al Green.

Email (38 messages, including some from April 5):

• Substack stats for "Iran War: The Three Questions": 130 views, 4 likes, 0 subscriptions.
• Project Syndicate: some interesting titles: America Should Beware of Economic Hubris (Mohamed A El-Erian); Why Iran Is Beating America (Brahma Chellaney; I wrote about this in LT); Wars Fought for Fun Cannot Be Won (Timothy Snyder: "thinks the Trump administration's intervention in Iran is doomed because capabilities are dictating policy"); Why America, Not Iran, Has a Succession Problem (Stephen Holmes); When Fools Go to War (Federico Fubini).
• Explain It Daily? I never look at this, but the question is "What causes inflation?" Odds are pretty good that they are wrong. Glancing at it, they made the expected mistake, which is to confuse prices with inflation. Inflation will cause prices to rise, at least in the short term, but rising prices have multiple causes, like supply shortfalls and monopoly rents that have nothing to do with the money supply.

I figure I need to buy a new graphics card for my main writing computer (actually, fairly old at this point; I've built a newer computer, but rarely use it, and it seems to have some problems as well, but more likely software misconfiguration). First thing I thought I'd do was look back through my Amazon orders to see what I've bought in the past:

• [2016-11-19]: ASUS 2GB Graphics Cards R7240-2GD3-L: $54.99; this is probably what's in the computer now, although I also bought:
• [2018-07-07]: ASUS 2GB Graphics Cards R7240-2GD3-L
• [2019-10-31]: XFX Radeon RX 570 RS XXX Edition 1286MHz, 8gb GDDR5, DX12 VR Ready, Dual BIOS, 3xDP HDMI DVI, AMD Graphics Card (RX-570P8DFD6): $149.99; I also ordered a DisplayPort cable, so this dates the newer machine

These dates are sobering, but the older (2016) machine still performs more than adequately. The newer one has some obvious improvements (SD disk, more RAM, but I've never liked the oversized monitor).

When I asked Google for best budget GPUs for Linux, I got:

1. Nvidia Tesla M40 (12GB)
2. Nvidia Quadro P600/P1000
3. AMD Radeon RX 550/RX 460
4. Intel Arc A310
5. Nvidia GTX 1050/1650 (Used)

It noted that Nvidia uses proprietary drivers, but they are "stable." "AMD is generally plug-and-play with open-source drivers in the kernel."

Looking for AMD Radeon, I could get something similar to the old card (2GB) for $35.98. I limited the search to < $150, which offers:

• $139.99: Maxsun AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB dual fans
• $134.99: Mougol AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5 dual fans
• $129.99: Mougol AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB dual fans
• $124.99: Radeon RX560 4G with 4 HDMI monitor ports
• $124.99: VisionTek AMD Radeon RX 560 4GB 50w bus power
• $119.99: VisionTek AMD Radeon RX 550 4GB low profile small form, dual DisplayPort
• $109.99: AMD Radeon RX 550 4GB GDDR5
• $88.99: AMD Radeon Pro W 3200 4GB GDDR5 low profile
• $79.97: MSI Radeon RX 550 4GB (renewed)
• $69.99: PowerColor AMD Radeon 550 2GB GDDR5
• $59.99: Mougol AMD Radeon R7 350 4GB low profile

This search started generating some Nvidia leads:

• $279.00: Tesla M40 GPU 12GB GDDR5
• $119.99: MSI Gaming GeForce GT 1030 4GB
• $70.63: MSI GeForce GT 710 2GB GDDR3 low profile
• $67.63: Gigabyte 2GB DDR3 SDRAM GV-N710D3-2GL

I wound up ordering the Maxsun AMD Radeon RX 550 4GB GDDR5 board ($109.99), not the cheapest but offers a small upgrade, seems to have low power requirements (50W, with a fan on board), has DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort, takes two back panel slots, PCI-Express x16, should just drop in. Lead comment was "runs great on my older Linux PC." But adds: "It should be noted that AMD GPUs do not support processing of AI LLMs locally where NVidia GPUs are designed to support AI processing locally." I'm not doing that now. When/if I do, it will probably be time for a new computer, with a major upgrade in power.

Daily Log

Woke up around 8. Read some, then went back to bed, and slept past 11, before coming straight down. I'm relieved to have gotten my Iran War piece up on Substack.

Email (16 messages):

• Substack reaction: 4 likes.
• Tom Carson Substack: Subscription PSA: "I'm charging for subscriptions, but primarily to fund my novel Frankenride." "However, some posts on unrelated topics (politics, pop culture, history, etc.) will be available for free, as will all reprints of old pieces of mine for the Village Voice, Esquire, and other outlets that I think are still worth reading." He's also talking about "wonderful early birds [being] grandfathered in automatically — I can't tell for sure — your existing subscriptions will be comped and all material will stay free as my way of thanking you for being here from the start."
• Michael Steinman: In case you missed it, a 57-minute YouTube of Eddie Condon at Town Hall, announced by Alistair Cooke, c. April 1944.
• Robert Christgau: Joe Boyd's Rhythm Revue. Wonder if I should buy Boyd's book (but I can't imagine having time to read it)? Wasted no time and posted notice on website.
• Sen. Roger Marshall: He is Risen! I guess Easter is coming.
• Checked on my X announcement of the Iran war article: 63 views, 1 like, 1 repost.
• Tom Engelhardt: "Sadly, I'm just not taking new authors out of the blue anymore . . . but appreciate your kind words about TomDispatch."

Daily Log

Came down about 11:15. I went to bed late, and woke up early, but held my position and went back to sleep, as proven by dreams. Got up, played the Beautiful South (two albums), and worked on the jigsaw puzzle. Some chance of rain today. I left the attic work question open, so Doug can decide when/whether he wants to work on it. I spent a little time up there last night. I decided I need to get a hoe out of the garage, as that would be better for clearing off the joists than the rake is. (The rake is better for moving and spreading large amount of insulation.) I also decided not to close up the gable vents for now. I'm thinking about putting an exhaust fan in one, to try to pull some air through. But today I need to work on the Iran war piece. Occurs to me that I should split it in half, running the first three questions first, then the fourth (with its subsidiary questions shortly after). I know that the second needs more work, but all I really need to do is factor in Trump's April Fools speech. And then point out that it doesn't matter whether Iran inflicts more or less pain on the US and Israel: the real harm is self-inflicted, as this war exposes the moral and mental rot of our so-called leaders, and to a large extend of America and Israel as a whole.

Email (38 messages):

• March Substack stats: 1 post, 96 subscribers (+5), 115 post reads (+108).
• Christian Iszchak: An Acute Case.
• Chuck Eddy: Foollow For Now.
• Amazon: 3 books delivered.

I published a piece on my Notes on Everyday Life Substack: Iran War: The Three Questions.

Daily Log

Came down 11:15. I got nothing done on my Iran war piece, and very little done in general: just a load of laundry, and a lot of Mahjongg. I was aware of April Fool's day, but still got pranked twice. Once was in WorldLe, which presented a map for a pair of islands I had never seen before. I initially guessed Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, to get my bearings. The hint was 1798 km north, so I went with the Seychelles. The next hint was 78 km north. I looked at the map, and noticed a bit of similarity to two artificial islands off the east coast, the larger one called Perseverance Island. It wasn't available as an option. I asked Google, and it suggested Bird Island, which was much farther north, and also not available. I looked at the available list, and noticed a few things I had never heard of, starting with San Serriffe. I copied the drop-down menu and separated out two lists: one of islands I was aware of but didn't have a good sense of what their maps looked like; and one of places I had never heard of. I only suspected a joke when I started noticing obviosuly fictional places, like Narnia and Wakanda (and Atlantis and Utopia). Only then did I recall that last Apri 1, they screwed me over by looking for Transylvania — a real place, but not independent, as it is a region within Romania (which I guessed, and was close). For some reason I tried San Serriffe, and that was their answer. Here's an explanation.

The second April Fools Day prank turned out to be Donald Trump's televised "address to the nation," which was touted as announcing the end of the war, and elicited a big stock market bump, but didn't deliver. It did, however, freeze me for the day, as I contemplated having to revise my fourth answer. By disavowing any interest in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Trump is essentially saying: we (including Israel) are going to bomb as long and as hard as we want, then back off for a while, but not negotiate anything, and return any time we find more things to bomb. On the other hand, the Europe, the Gulf states, anyone else, would be free to open the Strait themselves, which means they will wind up negotiating an agreement with Iran that the US and Israel won't directly be party to, but may (for a while) choose not to interfere with. In some ways, this is a very clever solution, one that allows Trump and Netanyahu to put the war on a back burner without having to concede any mistakes. On the other, it leaves Iranians very bitter, if at the moment rather helpless to do anything about it. I need to work this scenario into my piece.

I'm unlikely to get much done on that today, either. Doug is coming over this afternoon to work on the attic, so that will be my focus for today. I missed my March window for publishing, so a day or two now won't make much difference.

Email (30 messages):

• TomDispatch: Eric Ross, Forever War (Yet Again!)
• Tom Carson: Mar-a-Khargalot. Argues that Trump is not quite unprecedented, offering JFK's "Camelot" as a comparable.
• Robert Wright: New Dimensions of Dumbness in Trump's War.

Daily Log

Another short, uncomfortable sleep night. Came down about 11. Having a hard time getting going today. (Just wrote that at 12:22.) I did order three books from Amazon: Pyet DeSpain's Rooted in Fire (currently checked out from library, and the source of last week's Native American dinner, which worked out so well I decided it would be more efficient just to buy a copy than to write down all of the recipes I might want to make again); The New Native Kitchen (as DeSpain is a bit thin, I thought it would be a good idea to add a bit broader cookbook for context, and this one looked like a good fit); and Peter Fritzsche's Hitler's First Hundred Days (a subject I'm somewhat familiar with, but I figured a refresher would be timely).

Email (30 messages):

• I signed up for Tom Carson's Substack, "The Horrors of Love"
• Laura sent me edits for the Iran piece.
• M7.4 earthquake - Molucca Sea.

Mar 2026