THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
"The beauty of the world which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder."-Virginia Woolf
I am watching Pretend It’s A City on Netflix from the recommendation of my brother Larry and his girlfriend Sarit. It’s a study of sorts by Martin Scorsese of Fran Liebowitz. It’s a nice reprieve from the real world, listening to the always compelling Liebowitz talk about New York and other things (mostly New York related) she finds interesting, funny, strange, irritating….it’s a loping romp. A compelling loping romp.
Nearing the end of the second episode, she starts talking jazz, specifically Charles Mingus. Mingus was a friend of hers. She would walk New York with him…take him to her parents house for Thanksgiving dinner (“Most people thought of him (Mingus) as a musical genius, my mother thought of him as a good eater”) and even had lunch with Mingus and Duke Ellington. She said that Mingus was very arrogant but he would defer to Duke, only to Duke: “Everyone has some like that in their life,” Liebowitz waxed, “no matter how arrogant they may be.” That is so true.
And that would have been a good enough moment for me to make the episode more than worth while—especially with the great Mingus footage that went along with that moment.
But then suddenly the film cuts to Duke Ellington in conversation with Leonard Bernstein. They were talking about the state of their crafts, about how modern contemporary composers and modern jazz composers all come out of the same conservatories and it is hard to tell them apart. About how Ellington wrote symphonic Jazz while Bernstein wrote Jazz symphonies. It was a small bit of randomness that a music fan like Scorsese has to include when he can and a music fan like myself finds huge truth in, a truth I will ponder for a while.
And what I am really trying to say is: I would have loved to have lunch with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus.
Virginia Woolf: Book of Literary Confessions Sells for £21k
I recently read an article about how today’s birthday celebrator Virginia Woolf got the Flu of 1917. And then there is her “book of confessions” that just sold for 21K (Euros). What is in it? Crazy answers to survey questions, it seems—Worst living English novelist Thomas Hardy (she also listed him as THE BEST living English novelist), favorite living English poet—Yeats (Oh yeah), the greatest genius without style—Dostoevsky. The questionnaire looks like it was something that was meant to be filled out by many people…I wonder who else. Really intriguing stuff.
The De Young's “OPEN” celebrating 125 years
My friend Steve Gillan wrote me over the weekend telling me about the huge De Young Museum’s celebratory exhibit in honor of its 125th anniversary…and because of COVID…it is now on-line. His super talented wife Lynne had a painting among the 762 Bay Area artists featured. The virtual exhibit they created because of COVID is stunning: I spent some high time browsing the many many incredible artists represented, including Lynne Gillan’s piece, as well as works by Guy Diehl, Laura Tex Buss, Charles Anselmo, David Avery, M. Mark Bauer, it just goes on and on. Serious rabbit hole warning here. Happy 125th De Young (Sorry I am late to the party).
Boredom's frontman EYƎ opens new exhibition at Japan Shopping Mall called "LAG (afterimage)”
It’s very nice to see new work by Eye Yamataka of The Boredoms. This article, which needs to be translated from Japanese (sorry about that…nothing in english currently), has a video that shows off the exhibit, especially an inner room that is darkened except for flashing pieces of Eye’s visual art. EYƎ describes the exhibit: Afterimages show the non-existent nature of visual information, and the programming of reality as a memory catalyst and the paradoxical nature of afterimage blinking rates are associated with its reprogramming. Including sound interference to the rate, we will explore the viewing applicability as an interzone in which reciprocal vectors coexist , not in the non-existent // actual selection range."
Lincoln’s 1865 “With Malice Toward None” Inauguration Speech
“Both of Abraham Lincoln’s inaugurations were memorable, in part because of his eloquence but in larger part because of the Civil War that was unfolding at his first inauguration and ending during his second. Both speeches featured phrases that are still quoted. In the first, there was “the mystic chords of memory,” and, no doubt the most famous, “the better of angels of our nature,” scrawled in at the very bottom of the last page.”-Neely Tucker, Library of Congress
Larry King Discusses Being ‘Insatiably Curious’ In One Of His Last Interviews
By being the CEO of Reboot I get to watch some amazing ideas get developed. Tiffany Woolf and her Silver Screen Studios project is just incredible, with a recent focus on recording oral histories from many of our elderly who are stuck at home during the pandemic. Famous, not famous—all with great stories. And she was one of the last to interview Larry King…
A Red, Red Rose*
By Robert Burns
O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.
*This is the poem that my father would read to my mother, and on this day when Burns was born, it warms me anew
