Left Field Links

I forgot to mention one section of the journal from Ed O'Brien I linked to yesterday that I found extremely applicable to the editorial processes and choosing work. This is Ed on musicians submitting music to the band:

it's actually very interesting as it strikes me from what i've listened to so far that there are alot of really good musicians out there, but what distinguishes the good from the not so good is having taste. ie for instance you could be simply red (apologies for the easy target) and send in a demo and i'm always going to think it's totally shit in spite of its technical 'proficiency'. having said that there's little that sounds like that. but what i'm saying in an around-about way is that it doesn't matter if i don't think something's that good; if you really love what you're doing then that is all that matters........there is absolutely no point in making music that you think will help you to get signed..........second-guessing what people want to hear is a completely fruitless exercise as it is almost completely impossible to predict what people want to hear; by the time people actually get to hear that music it's more than likely that it's old-hat and most importantly you will never stumble upon something that is truly fresh and exciting.

This is a great blog post about South African music in exile. Also–shhhhh–there's a download in there somewhere.

Holland Festival is doing a showing of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, with full orchestra. If you can't wait that long, or can't go, why don't you check out this blog collecting rare specimens from Kubrick's Shining.

I usually don't go for snark, but this post on the Awl about how to write the next great American novel is pretty ... great.

Arthur Russell died 20 years ago today. There is a great tribute over on Dangerous Minds. I remember the first time I heard "Is It All Over My Face" produced by Mr. Russell. It almost melted my face. Here is a ditty called "This is How We Walk On The Moon":