Phthursday Musings: The Boar's Tusk

A couple of programming notes / questions up front:

First, I’ve been kicking around writing a mini Election Guide, which would be only for Illinois voters, especially the big profile federal races. But I feel like my idea is too broad and I won’t get it done and half of everybody has already voted or made up their minds anyway. Is this something people would be interested in?

Second, I’ve managed to create a massive backlog of things I want to write about, without also creating space to just sit down and write. Weirdly while I have a lot to say, I find it super hard to just write, because I keep biting off more than I can chew and making it too hard on myself.

So I promise I’ll get to some of the things I’ve been meaning to get to in the near future!

As for the state of current affairs, things are moving so damn fast it’s hard to feel like I can write about any of them coherently. I had started writing something about Iran and I’m just going to reduce all of that to this: I strongly recommend that you all simply read the Wikipedia entry on Iran. I think people simply don’t understand basic things about Iran: it’s the 17th most populous country, and it’s the 17th largest country by area, and Persian culture dates back 2,500 years, and I just don’t think most people really get how big and how old and how interesting it is, because of how it’s been covered over time. The Wikipedia page is a good little primer. You should read it.

All that said, well, I thought I would just write something silly, but instead…

I’m writing this paragraph / section from Fitzgerald’s which has apparently turned into my favorite place to go? This is the Sidebar not the main room and it’s a very nice music room all its own.

I’m writing from here because otherwise it would be impossible to get Phthursday Musings out! This is because I started late and didn’t have the right ideas and then after our sixth grade basketball game I figured what the hey I’ll go to Fitzgerald’s after all.

I’m here to see Ana Everling, a Moldovan musician who I’ve seen before and written about. (META-SPIEL readers will of course note that Moldova is a very popular topic around these parts.) When I saw her before she had a jazz combo and was singing Romanian children’s folk songs maybe? Tonight she’s apparently got two samplers and a tiny bell and she’s doing things like looping her vocals and I’m not sure what this aesthetic is but it’s very interesting. It’s sort of vernacular folk and it’s sort of some vague “world music” and the elements are just not the elements I’m used to and what I think I appreciate about this is her clear dogged persistence in creating something out of whatever fragments she has access to.

I’m not always the most comfortable around eccentric creative people because I often find myself on a very different wavelength. Like maybe I’m too punk for their hippie shit and too hippie for their punk shit, even though I’m hardly any kind of hippie or punk at all. And I’m definitely too square for the beats and too oblong for the squares. I’m not really that interesting in trying to overly characterize myself but I’ll say that even as I’m pushing 50 I’m still a sponge and I damn well intend to stay that way. But as a sponge there’s also going to be a lot that just isn’t my scene. Can’t soak everything up.

Well, apparently Romanian chanting over the top of new age tinged proto trip hop is more my scene than I realized. At some point I swear it seemed like she had a backbeat that was one step removed from the Silver Apples, but crossed with film score music from a movie about space, except it just takes place in space and it’s really about something else, like peaches or something.

Isaac Brock once wrote “Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset” and I’m not sure why but that came to mind just now as somehow being like the opposite of this performance but bent across the Z-axis instead of the Y-axis. If you can figure out what I mean please let me know.

The world is really messed up right now but I find that I’m in a strangely positive place. I feel like my outlook is inexplicably positive and not a desperate kind of positive. I wish I could transport people to this unusual concert and buy them all a ginger ale.

I’ve had an intention of creating abstract art for a while. I don’t want to describe the vision on my mind because there’s something telling me that it would spoil the effect if I ever do pull it off. What holds me back is that I think I’ll do a shitty job and not be pleased with myself. I tell myself it’s time or something else but if I felt confident I could find time space place reach equipment.

It’s also a lack of patience. It’s me telling myself that I have to get it right the first time which is insane. The lack of patience and lack of confidence collide.

I hear someone explain the other night how they like to do things they’re terrible at. She specifically mentioned playing the ukulele. That’s something I’d like to do: be comfortable absolutely stinking at something. What a wonderful aspiration to have.

And I think maybe that’s what’s great about this set: Ana is so clearly comfortable trying some very different ideas out on this crowd. You can sense her strength as a performer even when you’re not really sure what’s going on. I mean the transition between paragraphs here probably wasn’t great but literally I’m writing on my phone in the middle of the set ok?

It occurs to me that I would love to hear her tackle “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” in whatever language she so chooses. She’s recorded an album in Portuguese so I imagine she could do damn near anything.

Before I get lost in my next thought, here’s a video of Ana Everling from a night she had a jazz combo behind her. I find I’m at a loss to accurately describe what it’s like, and that’s part of the intrigue:

The set came to an end at Fitzgerald’s and I said hello to Allen Epley (!) and hello to Ana Everling and then I got in the car and thought, yeah, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. So I searched for it and when one does that you get the Nina Simone version, you get the Animals version. There’s apparently a James Taylor version but why? I like to listen to multiple versions of this song in a row. The song is amazing.

My favorite version is the Santa Esmeralda version, the one from Kill Bill, for which there is a video for some reason:

Look: It’s 11:42 and Thursday is almost over and I still don’t understand what I’m writing about but I feel like I owe you all a flag.

The Phthursday Flag is that of the natio of Vanuatu:

Vanuatu is tiny, as countries go, about 335,000 people. It’s also one of the nations in the most immediate danger of rising seas.

The flag is intriguing especially because of the imagery on the left, which is that of a boar’s tusk surrounding cycad fronds. If I had more than nine minutes to publish, I’d have a LOT to say about this.

Vanuatu came to mind because they’re pushing an aggressive resolution in the United Nations currently around climate change and some rogue country has tried to weaken it. Well, I say, Vanuatu, keep pushing.

I have never before found a flag with a boar’s tusk. Please write in if you know of any others.

Boar’s Tusk is apparently a volcano in Wyoming!

This helmet from Minoan times is made from boar tusks!?

I wish I could convincingly explain what a boar’s tusk has to do with Ana Everling but alas I’m at the end of my creativity and also my time. But like I always say, urgency is the source of absurdity.

I… have never said that before.