Reacquainted with old friends

I've picked up a copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for the first time since my junior year in high school and am enjoying it immensely, no, much more immensely than the first time around. The "reading snippets to teach a larger point about American literature/narrative structure" does a lot of damage to the work of art in the service of pedagogy. If we're going to have a "Great Books" curriculum, let's read the whole fucking book, no? At any rate, being able to take the time to read it slowly and savor its lyricism is proving to be especially pleasurable.

I've also rediscovered Tower of Power's epic Live and in Living Color, whose second side monster "Knock Yourself Out" powered many an acid-soaked dance party in my college days. The soul on this show is deep, the horns tight, and the funk ground-shaking. And it has a twenty-minute horn/organ showcase that is The. Shit. The only problem is that with a forty-five minute running time, it's far too short.