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Milo Fine and Anthony Cox August 30, 2025. An Appreciation with Digressions.

Studio Toile d’Angles was carved out of a near north Minneapolis lot and erected next door to the home of Milo Fine, Minnesota’s least compromised multi-instrumentalist, composer and instigator of modern music.  Rectangular and sunk in the land, it is maybe 18 x 30 feet; the roof points to high north and descends covered with solar panels toward the south and inside meets a wall ten feet above the floor. A kitchenette and bathroom are in a back corner. No street shoes permitted.  Twenty or so moveable padded chairs, a couch and cushions are set in loose rows seven feet from Cox and his cello. The front row audience is six feet from the end of Fine’s black lacquer Bosendorpher Imperial piano. It is nine feet six inches long and includes nine notes lower than a concert grand’s 88. Debussy, Bartok and Ravel were early adopters. Capable, I am sure, of near-Richter scale waves, Fine’s often emphatic playing still left space for Cox’s bowed, plucked, tapped, and picked cello.  ...

Our Loss Is Your Loss, Melissa Hortman

  You have heard of the assassination of Melissa Hortman, her husband, Mark and their dog on June 14.   You may not know that she was a fair housing heroine as well as a humble, effective and respected leader in the Minnesota legislature. In 1998 or '99 Legal Aid's Housing Discrimination Law Project, a FHIP program, had been operating for just a few years.  We were fortunate to hire a law clerk, Melissa, as she had a sterling resume and could have worked anywhere - maybe even at her family used auto parts business (junk yard).  She caught the fair housing bug.   Our sister organization, Central MN Legal Services, soon hired her as a housing attorney.   Melissa took the case of a CMLS tenant with severe repair problems.  Because she was the person she was, she didn't stop at investigating the lack of heat that brought the client to the office.  She learned that the owner of the property treated her with terrible...

Under-Appreciated Audio Resources Present Eric Dolphy.

  It is cold and rainy in St. Paul.  Listening to Eric Dolphy. Solo and with a band. Jazz.  The music is inspired, recorded in 1963. The sound is direct and fluent. The slight enhancement of pot tightens the mind’s links with ears. The instruments are each uniquely marked by their aural shapes in that plane of the universe just ahead of me. I hear the breath from Dolphy’s chest; percussive key runs on the sides of the saxophone. I almost feel the pressure on calluses modulating notes on bass strings. This tune is Alone Together with Dolphy on alto sax and Richard Davis on bass. An alternate take.   There are additional horns and more excellence in the mix on other tunes but the solos, as with Dolphy and Davis trading on Alone Together and with Dolphy, alone, on Love Me , are somehow brought most directly here, into my very presence. Maybe Dolphy and Davis played with the echo to achieve an experience of more than three dimensions. I can hear their moves in ...

Linen: The Wonder of Touching History

  Linen: The Warp and Weft of History. Jay Wilkinson, April 2025 jewilkinsoniii@gmail --- jwwrote.blogspot.com “Show me that you’ve been working over, Christina.” He leaned forward in the  rocker and touched the square of linen. His speech sounded of his Silesian birthplace.  His granddaughter pulled the piece away from the loom, carefully to keep the threads  aligned and untangled.   He rubbed the cloth between thumb and forefinger and remarked: “Very vell done!  The tight weave will last a lifetime.” “It's my first one, I want it to be right so I don’t forget, poppa. You know I sowed the  the flax seeds, weeded the field, pulled the plants, laid them out, soaked them, broke  and stripped the threads out, carded out the seeds and such.” “Yes, under your muter’s supervision and with Nana’s spinning help. You’ve done  a wonderful job. Talented nine year old, you are.” I am touching this fabric as I write. Did my fifth great-grandfather,Christo...

2024

  December 2024 Well, that’s a helluva note. A general comment applicable to the year, I think.  Shall I just sign off now?  Nope. I actually have something positive, lovely and hopeful to send along - see page three. How about I talk about the weather? In late 2023 I signed a contract for snow removal for most of the winter as Karen and I planned to travel to NZ to visit family there.  Was it $400 a month?  Something like that.  Snow total was maybe 4 inches in total, maybe 7 all winter. $$$!  We then had lots of spring and early summer rain and then drought returned in August and September. This year we have a young neighbor who will handle the snow with a $/# of inches/days formula. His eyes got big thinking about all the money he hopes to earn.  How about I talk about seed art? My former colleague and friend Laura Melnick and her husband, Mark Dahlager, have been getting blue ribbons at the MN State Fair for many years for their seed art....