That Final Velvety Light
“We're all born strangers to ourselves and each other, and we're seldom formally introduced.”― Robert Charles Wilson
The final candle of Hanukkah went out last night while we were listening to The Velvet Underground’s first record. On that last night each family member choose a candle that we thought would be the final one to vanquish. I picked the Shamash…the one that lights the others…the one that, since it is the first to be lit, would be assumed to be the first to go out…but I have won on the Shamash many a time. Not last night. It smoked second. The final three, though, were all candles the other members of my family banked on, and Barb’s candle, which was the second-to-last one lit during the initial ceremony, was not only the last to go out, but put on quite the survival performance, lasting minutes past the others with barely a flame eating at the bits of wax lining the sides of its holder. It lasted throughout the Velvet’s song Venus in Furs, and went out with the fade. During these chaotic days we are living in…rituals really help to make it through.
Once a Hanukkah cycle, my family takes a night and instead of getting gifts, gives to organizations. Two per family member. We have been doing this since the kids have been little…learning about organizations, giving to organizations that we love. Asher has been giving to the SFSPCA since he was two and usually picks another that comes with some sort of “prize” (the Sierra Club offers backpacks and fluffy blankets for instance). Since we, the parents, send checks as donations…not cash…to each organization chosen, we have to call the ones the kids designate and tell them not to put the funds under Barb and my name…but under the kids’ names so they get the mail….addressed to them…and they can learn details about the org’s work during the year. Our kids get to celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas every year…it is so important to have at least one night where they are giving back. This year both chose an organization that their mom worked with at its beginnings, the VAD Foundation, which helps build schools and offer incredible educational opportunities for kids in Sudan (VAD standing for Valentino Achak Deng, a lost boy, the protagonist of the Dave Egger’s novel What is the What, who both kids met recently) and Kaya also gave to an organization where she did community service leading up to her Bat Mitzvah (the brilliant Rancho Compassion). On this night, I always give to music foundations.
Here are the organizations we chose this year:
Asher: SFSPCA, The VAD Foundation
Barb: 826 Valencia, McSweeneys
David: Association For Cultural Equity, Association For Recorded Sound Collectors
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There have been fewer than usual newsletters this week…work has kept me busy and I have been writing an essay for one of Josh Rosenthal’s projects in the dead of night (it is due today…and I am almost done…I missed the first deadline already….sorry Josh).
I will say, that I have been loving….loving…the recent record (and debut) of James Toth’s James and the Giants. Toth has been busy this year…putting out the incredible fanzine Head Voice, about the alternative world of sound recording, with friend (and Six Organs Of Admittance projecteer) Ben Chasney, as well as working with friend Nick Maiato in the band One Eleven Heavy. You probably know his longest incarnation as The Wooden Wand, a stand-out of the iconic freaky folky Arthur-era of underground music. I totally missed out when James and the Giants came out a few months ago, but it just might be my favorite of his long list of great music releases.
James and the Giants is a collaboration between Toth and Woods/Wooden Wand associate Jarvis Taveniere. If anything, the album showcases the pairs’ songwriting chops, their ability to create memorable melody after melody, channeling later 20th century music traditions such as The Band, Gene Clark…with maybe just a little Lambert And Nuttycombe thrown in (or insert your own unknown, esoteric Americana musician that writers like to do to showcase their depth of knowledge) but James and the Giants takes their influences and brings them to a fresh present day of translation; the record sounds modern, not a mere exorcise of past allegiances. The harmonies, the lyrics, the band’s ultra-groovy arrangements: this is a crisp but sunny lazy weekend afternoon of a record…one of my favorites of the last months. The single/video is Dilated Eyes, which is sweet for sure…but the hit in the Katznelson house has definitely been Don’t Let Love Make A Liar Out Of You.
Happy Weekend!
“Anonymous Was A Woman is an unrestricted grant of $25,000 awarded each year to ten woman-identifying artists over the age of 40 and at a critical junction in their career.” The body that decided this year’s class of recipients hit the mark: a truly momentous group that showcases that we live in a time of incredible artists….now we just need to figure out how to better amplify their voices!
Can a bulldozer be a musical instrument? The legacy of noise music in Japan
Oh, hell yes a bulldozer can be a musical instrument. p;ksjeioauwbefijbnfJPNABEFPUQBWEBASIJDFPAWIOENOiweh[guqbergunapsejfgnqiwegn[aslkdgnjaenbrpgjsmalf,dJSriubahrg n;asa/sklrnawihebg alksEnfgipjaweg!!!!!
Jack London's (Almost) Arizona Adventure
Some interesting local journalism about an untold Jack London story revolving around his epic bouts of unwellness and the tale of a man who London helped get out of San Quentin. Great stuff.
Condom Coats and Courrèges: Emma Stone Gets the Story Behind Her Favorite Poor Things Looks
“From the moment it premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Poor Things has been the movie everyone wants to see and no one can stop talking about…At the forefront of this vision are the clothes, a concoction that melds Victorian tradition with space-age futurism. The talent behind the wardrobe, costume designer Holly Waddington, spoke to her star Emma Stone about how she pulled it off.”
Shepard Fairey The Iconic Icon
Evan Pricco interviews one of the more prominent artists of this past generation.
“…Most people just don't really care to take any time out of their day for art or what it's trying to say. You have to kind of put it in front of them and force them to engage with it. For a lot of people, it's not a choice. When I was putting work on the street constantly, that was an expense, and stuff I was sacrificing that might be very ephemeral. It might last a year, but it might last two days or two hours.”—Shepard Fairey
Slow Horses: it’s wild how good Gary Oldman’s spy thriller is
Barb and I just finished season one of Slow Horses…and loved it. Loved it.
A Wheat-Field Fantasy
By: Harry Kemp
As I sat on a Kansas hilltop,
While, far away from my,
Rippled the lights and shadows
Dancing across acres of wheat,
The sound of the grain as it murmured
Wrought a wonder with me__.
It turned from the voice of the Prairie
Into the roar of the sea.
And I saw not the running wind-waves,
But an ocean that washed below
In ridging and crumbling breakers
And ceaseless motion and flow;
Then, as a valley is flooded
With opaline mists at morn
Which momently flow asunder
And leave green spaces of corn__
There burst.the strangest vision
Up from that'ancient sea.__
'Twas not the pearl-white Venus
Anadyomene,
Twas the bobbing ears of horses
And a head with a great hat crowned
And a binder that burst upon me i
Sudden, as from the ground
And the waves gave place to the wheatlands
Myriad-touched 'with gold__
Then my soul felt century-weary
And untold aeons old;
For a rock-ledge sloped beside me
And the lime-traced shells it bore
Had plied that ancient ocean
Each with a sentient oar.
THANK YOU GEOFFREY WEISS FOR TURNING ME ON TO THE ABOVE SHANE COMMENTARY.
“You must not make the mistake of thinking that because nothing lasts, nothing matters.”― Robert Charles Wilson
That James & the Giants album is so good, so warm. Wise and cozy. I'd somehow missed it. Thanks for the nudge, David!