The Wily Filipino

Clifford Geertz, 1926-2006.

...so far as anthropology is concerned, it is almost more of a problem to get exhausted ideas out of the literature than it is to get productive ones in, and so a great deal more of theoretical discussion than one would prefer is critical rather than constructive, and whole careers have been devoted to hastening the demise of moribund notions. As the field advances one would hope that this sort of intellectual weed control would become a less prominent part of our activities. But, for the moment, it remains true that old theories tend less to die than to go into second editions.

- From "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture."

An obituary for Clifford Geertz can be read here.

The Geary Street Project.

The plan was simple -- meet at the corner of Geary and Market and walk all 6 miles to the ocean and take photographs the whole time. And sample the different kinds of food along the way. And maybe pop into a bar every so often for a pint or two.

This was all inspired (at least I was) by William Vollmann's fantastic novel The Royal Family -- "a love letter to San Francisco on some levels," Vollman writes. One of the book's many highlights is a chapter entitled "Geary Street" ("a love song, from the ocean to downtown"), and here's an excerpt (cribbed from this blog):

The tale of Geary Street is the tale of life itself, which begins, as did the first prehistoric unicellular organisms, at the ocean. In that very first block somewhere in the mists of Forty-Eighth Avenue, which almost touches the low sea-horizon and the wet silver-tan sand of Ocean Beach, Geary Street, here known to meter maids as Geary Boulevard, as indeed it will remain all the way to Van Ness, already foreshadows the business character of its adulthood... Geary Street -- Jack-of-all-Trades-Street, we ought to call it. We can bully ourselves into pretending that Geary is something special, but it eschews preciousness; if only lava were to seal it off for five centuries, anthropologists would love it. Shunning Haight Street's narcissism, Clement Street's dreaminess, Geary Street expresses pure functionality, like a well-made Indian arrowhead.

Two beers and a huge roast beef sandwich later, we had only just crossed Van Ness at 1 pm and we wusses were faced with the notion that this may be physically impossible. (It was also 70 degrees out with hardly a cloud in the sky.)

Special K and 40 ducked out at Masonic (40 actually needed to pack for a trip); Big Al and I kept walking until the mid-30s in the Avenues once things weren't as interesting. But there's no denying the diversity of the neighborhoods we were walking through: Union Square to the Tenderloin to Japantown to the Fillmore to the Russian / Irish / Chinese / Korean sections in the Avenues.

The geotagged map is linked to in the picture above; otherwise the Geary Street Project set can be seen here. (Big Al's set is here; not sure when Special K and 40 are putting theirs up!) Another photo/walking tour may be scheduled in the near future.

Yo La Tengo, The Fillmore, SF, 10/19 and 10/20, 2006.

There's really quite nothing like the sight of Ira Kaplan during, say, the 11th minute of "I Heard You Looking" -- body bent over his guitar, eyes clenched shut, neck snapping hard enough to cause an aneurysm, lifting the guitar over his head to elicit more feedback, but looking like he was paying obeisance to the speakers and the gods of rock in turn. The two Yo La Tengo concerts I attended last week (couldn't make the third because it was sold out) delivered their brand of rock-and-roll joy in spades: whammy-bar abuse on one hand, lullabies and heartbreak on the other.

The setlist was, of course, drawn from their latest album, I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass. (They couldn't say the title on NPR, so Ira thought he should repeat it for the audience, simply because it sounded good.) These remained in place, though in scrambled order, for the second night, although none of the old songs were recycled. (Note, then, to you lucky folks out there who will have them play more than once in your fair cities: go to both dates.)

From the latest album, in no order:

- Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind (this opened the first show)
- The Weakest Part (this opened the second show)
- Mr. Tough (this had the girls dancing)
- The Story of Yo La Tango (this was right before the encore)
- Beanbag Chair
- I Feel Like Going Home (Georgia on vocals and piano -- nothing better. But it's the quiet guitar solo at the end that's the icing on the cake)
- The Race Is On Again
- Sometimes I Don't Get You
- I Should Have Known Better
- Watch Out For Me Ronnie (Ira's a cappella shouting at the beginning is always a treat)
- Song for Mahila (I think)

The old songs, in no order, from both nights:

- Little Eyes
- Artificial Heart
- Stockholm Syndrome
- I Heard You Looking (which segued into TSOYLT on the second night)
- Four-Cornered Drone (I think -- this may have been the song played twice with the Chairs of Perception). Or was it Detouring America with Horns?
- The Crying of Lot G (not one of my favorites on And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, but damn, the live version was incredible)
- Big Day Coming (the fast version)
- Decora
- Deeper into Movies (perhaps my favorite YLT song ever; they played it just after I yelled it out)
- We're An American Band
- and there were more, but I can't remember. Did we get "Walking Away from You?" "Drug Test," perhaps?

And the covers, on both nights:

- Gram Parsons' "A Song for You"
- Sun Ra's "Somebody's in Love" (this ended the second show)
- Cat Stevens' "Here Comes My Baby" (this ended the first show)
- The Beach Boys' "Little Honda" (before segueing into TSOYLT, this turned into something like a 10-minute descent into total metal-machine-music guitar squall)
- a 13th Floor Elevators song?
- Richard Hell's "The Kid with the Replaceable Head" (folks up on front -- about two rows ahead of me -- asked for something to commemorate the closing of CBGB's)
- Daniel Johnston's "Speeding Motorcycle" ("We're playing the People's Choice," Ira said)

New Songs on the Radio.blog

Busy here at the Wily Filipino. No theme to the playlist, just 9 of the best songs I heard last year. (Please don't leave them playing all day long, as it'll suck up my bandwidth!)