The Brad Mehldau show tonight at the Dakota Jazz Club was so, so good. Among the highlights from a set filled with new material:

• A new Mehldau tune, “Bel and the Dragon”
• A new, wildly polyrhythmic composition co-written by Ballard and Mehldau
• A …

Really looking forward to this book. Ecklund is an excellent scholar and writer, and this is a critically understudied topic.

Current listening: Hudson, with Jack DeJohnette, John Scofield, & Brad Mehldau Larry Grenadier (whom I’m seeing live on Sunday at the Dakota!).

Ted Gioia’s albums-of-the-year lists are always long and excellent. This year’s list is no exception. There are hours of beautiful, exciting music here.

Camus, quoted by Izzo:

The love we share with a city is often a secret love.

Current listening: Mavis Staples, One True Vine:

I can tell when something’s going on, And something’s going on. But some Holy Ghost keeps me hanging on…

A pleasant surprise after a looooong weekend of grading. Reading and writing: I’m easy to please.

The three little Octonauts. Enjoying this Halloween—undoubtedly the last one they’ll choose complementary costumes.

The three little Octonauts.

More John Lanchester: his latest, a review (with wonderful cover image) of James C. Scott and James Suzman. Lanchester’s simple opening point: it’s worth considering the difference between science and technology, terms we think of as naturally and …

October in Minnesota.

I love these three brave explorers.

This girl takes her sleep very seriously. #hermothersdaughter

New arrival!

On wrath, contemptuous smugness, and slower thinking: Alan Jacobs interviewed by Emma Green for the Atlantic.

Beautiful mist on the lake this morning.