Heritage Rescue Mission
"I confess-I envy the planets: they have their orbits, and nothing happens to them in their path"- Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky
While this newsletter attempt to focus on stories that are not widely shared or discussed in other forums, it is hard not to think about the Ukraine during this catastrophic time. We got back from Hawaii last night, and even with our attempt at turning the world off, there was no escaping the invasion…the unpremeditated war…that took place while we were away; the stories that keep coming from the region are just gut-wrenching.
Besides the senseless loss of life…which is the necessary top-of-mind issue of the moment (and how to stop it), is a loss of culture…of history…that can be another casualty of a destructive time like this one. There is already news coming out that Russia has burned down a museum in Kyiv.
When Haiti had its earthquake in January 12, 2010, the music-based boxset I had been working on with Anna Lomax, Jeffery Greenberg and my wife was used to introduce rescue workers to the rich cultural heritage of Haiti to help them emotionally and mentally connect with the people and place they were going to support, bringing color to the black and white headlines that told the bigger tale.
An e-mail I returned home to last night was from a colleague at The Association for Recorded Sound Collections helping spread the word about a push to rescue music collections “at cultural heritage institutions in Ukraine which may be at risk during the attack and invasion by Russia.” This effort is being led by a handful of folks from prominent US cultural institutions, libraries and sound archives that understand the significance of what is at stake. They have set-up a website Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online to start the rescue process and are collecting a list of names of people who can help out with their rescue mission. Please feel free to send to anyone who might be interested and have a skillset to help.
This absolutely beautiful website traces the history of avant-garde artistic movements in the Ukraine. Every country should have a site like this one, which tells such a rich take, full of imagery and research…and art. Just incredible.
Shabby Victorian Metropolis Fifty Years of Photographing San Francisco
Photographer Dave Glass captured the city that I grew up in in a way that I have not seen before…in a way that brings me right back to the San Francisco I remember…a San Francisco that was downtrodden…derelict…yet bursting to the brim with artists and diverse stories. What an incredible city to grow up in…how far gone from the the current post-technology virus version of the city. Thank you Roger Bennett for sending this article over!
Day Tripper: Chasing down Tom Wolfe’s Californian technicolour bus ride
A great read to celebrate the birthday of this great writer. My wife and I were just talking about digging in to his Ken Kesey-fueled adventures again: “As Wolfe once wrote of his fabled Kool-Aid adventure: ‘Everybody, everybody everywhere, has his own movie going, his own scenario, and everybody is acting his movie out like mad, only most people don’t know that is what they’re trapped by, their little script.’”
Waylon Jennings :: My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (Documentary)
“Narrated by Jennings, the film chronicles the day-to-day lives of working cowboys, specifically the outfit manning the Kokernot 06 Ranch in Fort Davis, TX. Aside from the rare appearance from an automotive or two, the film paints a picture of a singular, perennial subculture — one that appears to have barely changed over the past 100 years.”
Four Things You (Probably) Don't Know about the Werewolves of the Ancient World
I have been catching up on the New York Review of Books mags while on vacation and read a fascinating article on Daniel Ogden’s new book looking at the written history of Werewolves. Since the article lives behind a firewall online, I dug up this one by Ogden himself and also found a great interview with him on youtube. The depth of the story he is telling using the werewolf archetype throughout history is fascinating.
AMEN
By: Bohdan-Ihor Antonych1
The concert is over,
just the echo is deceptive.
The end of everything is death,
mysterious and unknown.
Both the joyous and sad
pass like a specter.
God is already placing me
like a violin into a case.
The singing is over,
the string’s no longer playing.
Let the heart finish singing
what is left unsaid of these words.
You must change your heart
For it to finish singing.
You need vert little to reach happiness:
just some harmony.
Amen.
March 24, 1932
