New York Eye & Ear Control

No.159, aired February 21, 2012. Featured a live reading of New York poet Louis Zukofsky’s “A-22” with music from New York Eye And Ear Control, a jazz exploration by Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, John Tchicai, Roswell Rudd, Gary Peacock, Sunny Murray recorded July 17, 1964. Also known as the "All A's" episode.

How can you
opinion’s throbbing ear aimless eye
serve ghosts
- from “A-22”

Part 1

1. Don’s Dawn – Albert Ayler et al.
2. Party Dog – Actionaughts
3. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
4. AY – Albert Ayler et al.
5. Show Me – American Flamewhip

Part 2

1. St Hubert – Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir
2. ITT – Albert Ayler et al.

Jangling Discords

No.158, aired February 15, 2012. This episode began with thediscovery of the poem Ode to Bartok by Hungarian poet Gyula Illyes, astranslated by Canadian poet Margaret Avison from a literal translation by IlonaDuczynska. The poem was read on-air with music by Bartok.

Also featured accidental passages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses onaudiobook – which turned out to be fortuitous as the accidently-selectedpassage told of the daughter of Cecrops who bargained with the god Mercury for gold to help him seduce her sister. This ancient drama was rudely interruptedby the Pack A.D.’s Gold Rush, which begins “I’m gonna find my gold.”
Part 1

1. Yikes – Facepuller
2. I.Lassu: Moderato – Bela Bartok
3. Bucketfull – Tandoori Knights
4. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
5. String Quartet No.2, B.B.75: II Allegro molto capriccioso – Bela
Bartok
6. Gold Rush – The Pack A.D.
7. String Quartet No.5, B.B.110: III Scherzo – Bela Bartok

Part 2

1. The Tower – Nomeansno
2. Allegro Barbaro, BB63: III – Bela Bartok
3. Dress On – Tandoori Knights
4. String Quartet No.5, B.B.110: I Allegro – Bela Bartok
5. La Cucaracha – Blah Blah 666
6. String Quartet No.4, B.B.95: III Non troppo lento – Bela Bartok
7. Snow – The Pack A.D.

As The Columns Of Hail Grew Thinner

No.157, aired February 8, 2012, featuring more passages from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, with the Back In Time album by James Blood Ulmer’s Odyssey plus other music.

The predominance of the colour white, the columns & arches & garlands in the ruins where the time travellor lands in 802,701 A.D. seem to represent classical culture, as seen through the rear-view mirror of western civilization – the simpleness and innocense, the childishness of the citizens, the fact that the architecture is in ruins, bring to mind Karl Marx’s assessment that the towering achievements of classical culture may represent unreachable standards for modern art, but are in reality the infancy of western culture.

Part 1

1. Science Fiction – Private School
2. Sonatine Baroque: Adagio – Murray Adaskin
3. D.N.I. – Man or Astroman?
4. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
5. Shame I Feel – Corsage
6. Open Doors – Odyssey
7. Hawaii – Young Canadiens
8. Sonatine Baroque: Andante – Murray Adaskin
9. Test Driver – Man or Astroman?

Part 2

1. Baby How Long – Howlin’ Wolf
2. Last One – Odyssey
3. Seen A Fight – Tim Ray
4. Sonatine Baroque: Allegro – Murray Adaskin
5. Principles Unknown - Man or Astroman?
6. How Many More Years – Howlin’ Wolf
7. Happy Time – Odyssey
8. Synchronized Swimming – Popular Front

A Token Of My Machine

No.156, aired February 1, 2012. Played the opening Chapters of an audiobook of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, accompanied by instrumental music by Webern, Korsrud, Buckethead, and Les Georges Leningrad, and interrupted by songs with time-related lyrical themes.

Frank Zapp’s A Token Of My Extreme was thrown in merely because it references a “machine” – and turned out to provide the most stunning correspondence with The Time Machine, performing something like a psychoanalysis of H.G.Wells’ text, in which the time machine becomes an object of fetish for the circle of late-nineteenth century gentlemen viewing it.

Some people think
That if they go too far
They’ll never get back
To where the rest of
Them are
I might be crazy
But there’s one thing
I know
You might be surprised
At what you find
When ya go!
- Frank Zappa, A Token Of My Extreme

“We all saw the lever turn. I am absolutely certain there was no trickery. There was a breath of wind, and the lamp flame jumped. One of the candles on the mantel was blown out, and the little machine suddenly swung round, became indistinct, was seen as a ghost for a second perhaps, as an eddy of faintly glittering brass and ivory; and it was gone—vanished! Save for the lamp the table was bare.”
- H.G. Wells, The Time Machine

If you been
Mod-o-fied,
It’s an illusion,
An yer in between
Don’t you be
Tarot-fied,
It’s just a lot of nothin’,
So what can it mean?
- Frank Zappa, A Token Of My Extreme

Part 1

1. Three Little Pieces For Cello & Piano, op.11, no.2 – Anton Webern
2. Xs & Os – John Korsrud
3. One Tooth Of The Time Train – Buckethead
4. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
5. Part Of The Season – Long Time Comin’
6. Three Little Pieces For Cello & Piano, op.11, no.1 – Anton Webern
7. Shape Of Things To Come – Diodes
8. Glurp For 14 Musicians – John Korsrud
9. Blower – Voivod

Part 2

1. Girl On The Grass - John Korsrud
2. Eight Hours A Day – Northwest Passage
3. Three Little Pieces For Cello & Piano, op.11, no.3 – Anton Webern
4. Arc Of The Pendulum – Buckethead
5. Time Damage – Diodes
6. The Future For Less – Les Georges Leningrad
7. A Token Of My Extreme – Frank Zappa
8. Zippy Pinhead – John Korsrud