Five Bullets 9.27.24
Anthem, Lettuce, Treasure & more
Good Morning and Happy Friday!
It’s a cool and cloudy morning here in New York City. After a few weeks of perfect weather we’ve had a few days of rain and clouds. We’re close to the end of September and fall feels like it’s right around the corner.
I’m working on a few blog posts on recent books I’ve read but it’s been slow-going so far. A few music projects have captured my attention in recent weeks but now I’m getting back into these writing projects.
In other news, I’m still working my way through Moby-Dick! I can see myself still reading this epic when winter rolls around. There’s something to be said about spending so much time with a book and looking back at the seasons it’s carried you through.
What’re you working on this fall?
Five Bullets:
Art: Anthem of the Sun: Bill Walker’s Journey with the Grateful Dead. While the Grateful Dead were recording an album in 1967, artist Bill Walker and Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten took psychedelics in Nevada’s Valley of Fire which served as the inspiration for Walker’s artwork featured on the band’s second album Anthem of the Sun. Walker’s trips to Nepal and the Western Pacific while serving with the U.S. Marines in the late 1950’s exposed him to Indian, Tibetan and Balinese art. Walker finished the piece in 1996.
History: America’s Uranium Gold Rush. Some history of uranium mining after the Manhattan Project kicked off the nuclear age.
Mountaineering: Death on Shishapangma. In October of last year, climbers Anna Gutu and Gina Rzucidlo and their guides died in an avalanche while racing each other to claim the title of first American woman to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000 meter peaks. The incident, including the climbers decision-making and their motivations for pushing on during dangerous conditions, recalls the same confusing sequence of events and lack of accountability in Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer’s account of the storm which killed eight people on Mount Everest in 1996.
Music: My favorite band Lettuce returns to Brooklyn Bowl for two nights this weekend to celebrate the venue’s 15 year anniversary and I couldn’t be more amped to see them perform. It’s been some time since the funk group has performed at the Williamsburg venue, opting to perform at larger venue Brooklyn Steel in recent years. Check out my album review of the band’s Resonate album to preview some of their music. See you at the show!
Lett Us Resonate
·
Resonate is characteristic Lettuce - funky, soulful, psychedelic, with plenty of improvisational explorations. The album pays homage to Lettuce’s funk gods, including James Brown, Tower of Power, The Meters, P-Funk and Earth, Wind & Fire, while also incorporating influences from hip-hop and Indian music.
Treasure hunt: Gold Treasure Worth a Fortune Hidden in a Forest. Video game designer Jason Rohrer hid a golden treasure somewhere in the woods of the northeastern United States. There are 14 days left in Project Skydrop before the location is revealed. The treasure hunt draws inspiration from Kit Williams’s buried golden hare and the Forest Fenn treasure. [Treasure hunts, hidden clues, and video games - sounds like Terry Miles’s Rabbits.]
