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I’ve been accused of having a mancrush on Douglas Lee. This is probably due to the way I look at him when he plays, all mesmerized and inspired. But it’s not really Doug I fix upon, it’s all the stuff he does up there, the event. And, it’s not only me. You know that obnoxious group that’s had a few too many, a few tables back. They have no real reason to pay any attention to this. Well, those guys suddenly shut and look up in interested unison when Doug’s seemingly random background ambience pops into sharp focus and makes everything make sense. Then there is amazement at the inexplicable fingers on that what-is-that instrument (a Chinese lute) accompanied by unexpected hard beatbox beats. With his mouth right on the mic he rolls out a fill like shots from an uzi and then— We’re back, to the unpredictable, long and aimless calm. We release a held breath, blink out of our brief mancrushing trances. The obnoxious table returns to their obnoxiousness. And the music keeps going.

Jenna approached me after the show with her astonishment. I was pleased and relieved she got to see for herself what I’d tried to describe but couldn’t with justice. There are many recordings of Doug, but there’s nothing like hearing him fill the room live. Jenna was equally impressed by the sudden attention he commanded, especially in the unlikely setting of a close-by dive bar we never heard of. We laughed about that obnoxious table, but I highly doubt Doug was put off by them; on the contrary, I think he would see their riot as part of the music and genuinely appreciate their being there. Like when Jenna photographed the show, he insisted she do it right in his face, with flash and everything. Of course he was messing around, but point taken. He doesn’t ask everyone to turn off all cell phones before he starts to play because all your cell phones are part of it.

Doug makes use of many instruments, some unfamiliar to most American listeners: Pipa (Chinese lute), erhu (Chinese violin), hulusi (cucurbit flute), cello and violin, Jew’s harp (while beatboxing), and those unexpected mantras brought to his throat. He is an expert of silence and novelty, shifting between the two, and full of surprises. He has roots in China but seems to spend a Passenger’s life on a long tour, making his way to venues as far as Los Angeles and San Diego, or elsewhere. His stage name (Dai Guo Li) is known to change and CDs in uniquely crafted casings are usually sold at his shows for fair prices. Below are a few selections from his new material:

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If you missed the link above, here are the photos that Jenna took at that show.
Doug’s website, with other media files, is here. Facebook him here.

More fun facts I came across while cataloging…

• Sir Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 was his last notable work, and is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. Elgar hummed the concerto’s opening theme to a friend in 1934 during his final illness, telling him, “If ever after I’m dead you hear someone whistling this tune on the Malvern Hills, don’t be alarmed. It’s only me.”

reminds me of

This Living Hand

This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calmed—see here it is—
I hold it towards you.

John Keats

and also how

• The opera Carmen premiered at the Opéra-Comique of Paris on 3 March 1875, but its opening run was denounced by the majority of critics. Bizet died of a heart attack, aged 37, on June 3rd 1875, never knowing how popular Carmen would become. In October 1875 it was produced in Vienna, to critical and popular success, which began its path to worldwide popularity.
• As with so much of Mussorgsky’s music, Night on Bald Montain had a tortuous compositional history and wasn’t arranged until after his death in 1881 by his friend Rimsky-Korsakov. It was never performed in any form during Mussorgsky’s lifetime.
• When Herman Melville died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the “Melville Revival” in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, most notably Moby-Dick which was hailed as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature.
• John Kennedy Toole’s novels remained unpublished during his lifetime. Some years after his suicide, his mother Thelma Toole brought the manuscript to the attention of the novelist Walker Percy, who ushered the book into print. In 1981 Toole was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. A Confederacy of Dunces is now considered a canonical work of modern Southern literature.

So much for endurance.

These days at work, I’m cataloging an endless number of classical music and opera tracks. It doesn’t even matter why. It’s boring, tedious work. I came upon Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” (from the opera Turandot), so I played the file and have been letting it repeat over and over because each time it swells I feel hot and briefly hopeful and it moves me to tears. My close-by co-workers have not noticed my little episodes because none of us ever look up, not even when someone enters the room.

Jenna and I know this aria previously because it was featured in an episode of Six Feet Under, performed at a funeral of course, and then I put it on a mix CD for her. We like to blast it in the car and find ourselves amazed at how affected we are without knowing the meaning of the words beyond the title. It’s fun to try to sing along, not knowing Italian, or how to sing.

The routine of every day, no matter what one does as long as it’s over and over, easily makes life feel meaningless and unexciting; but even at work, at desk, hopeless here with headphones, something happens and the mind switches on (or off) and things can feel really beautiful. Maybe it’s the coffee.

I want this blog to be a catalogue of these briefly hopeful moments because most of the others aren’t worth mentioning. You’ll find here incidentals and my observations on this and that. I open with Puccini, who will get me through this day. Il nome suo nessun saprà, E noi dovrem, ahimè, morir. No one will know his name, and we must, alas, die.

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