If You Have Any Concerns About Creativity, It’s Worth a Listen
The Strauss is Getting to Me
Mark Rushton’s Perseverance in the Arts is a weekly email on Substack where I talk about my ongoing work as a recording artist and visual artist.
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This week’s topics:
New Year’s Notes
Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, Op. 214 - Riccardo Muti · Wiener Philharmoniker · Johann Strauss, Jr. Neujahrskonzert 2025
New Year’s Notes
A charity shop in my town wanted $40 for this dog-eared MAD Magazine. A total ripoff. These can be bought all day long on eBay for under $30, which is still too much. I was able to take a photo of this in the glass case for free.
Whatever happened to humor rags like this? This, those Steve Martin comedy albums, and National Lampoon magazine did a lot to develop my sarcastic and skeptical view of things.
Almost a year ago, I was listening to the CD of David Lynch’s “Catching the Big Fish” book. Most people know that he died this past week, and of course he was an important filmmaker and artist. I liked the book. It’s not that long. He reads it in his typical David Lynch talking style.
If you have any concerns about creativity, it’s worth a listen. He talks a lot about Transcendental Meditation, but not too much. It helped him. Here in Iowa, they have that university for it in Fairfield.
During the day job, I like to go in the company gym’s steam room for 10 or 15 minutes, lay on my back, and zone out quietly. That’s good enough for me.
What are my plans for 2025?
It’s mainly going to be music. Most visual art will be made for cover images, like the above.
Although I just released a new album of tabla + electronics music as Tanpura Express, Moon Salag Valari, I’ve got another album scheduled in February. It’s called Imperial Psychedelic. It got lost in my hiatus last year. It should have been released in June 2024, but I stopped releasing music for 6 months so I could get my catalog data cleaned up everywhere.
I’m always working on new ambient. Always working on various kinds of dirty beats from vintage drum machines. And recently I got a new app that will help generate lots of percussion sounds. I’ve completed three tracks of rhythmic percussion + electronics so far. Those will likely be released under by band name Samesed. Samesed has, so far, been a mish mash of industrial beats and glitchy noises, but I think I’ll add these processed percussion sounds. We’ll see.
Looks like I’m staying in my home studio. The idea of having a studio space for art and music production outside my house is over. Never say never, but I just don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon. I have the budget for it, but not the time, and there’s nothing sensible in my area. Plus I have a job during the week. I’d love to have evening and weekend “office hours”, but it would need to be close to where I live. It’s not that high on my priority list right now.
Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, Op. 214
What I love about the streaming service Qobuz is their weekly recommendations, which are obviously done by humans and not payola or algorithms.
Last week, in the pile, was the Neujahrskonzert, or New Year’s Concert 2025, recorded in Vienna, Austria. I think they recorded the last of the three nights, which was January 1, 2025. And it was released by Sony Classical on January 10th. Very fast!
I’m not a big classical guy, but I appreciate it. And I’m not familiar with Johann Strauss Jr beyond The Blue Danube, which is the music throughout 2001: A Space Odyssey. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this konzert.
For me, my favorites were the polkas and waltzes. They’re bright and whimsical. A lot going on. The drums on Tritisch-Tratsch are almost at punk rock speed.