THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
“The difference between a successful person & a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk & to act.”-André Malraux
100 years ago TODAY, Pittsburgh launched the first US radio station, KDKA, producing its debut broadcast. It was election day, Warren Harding vs James Cox and the first show was covering the results. And while Warren Harding came out victorious, starting a pretty miserable presidency that featured the Teapot Dome scandal and his death-in-office at the Palace Hotel (still shrouded in mystery…was he really a vampire?) the story here is how from then til now not only has our attention on election night been fueled by radio—and now TV—with up to the minute reports on which state is going to which candidate (until this year when election night is now election SEASON) but our way of absorbing and documenting entertainment and productions of all kinds has never been the same.
The record industry was so scared that radio would cannibalize record sales that they printed NOT TO BE PLAYED ON THE RADIO on each release for years, until someone brightly figured out that radio HELPED record sales. And yes, not learning from past mistakes, the same industry took down Napster (with the help of Metallica) years later fearing yet another new distribution model.
Yet with the rise of new distribution models, 100 years later and we sill listen to the radio for our sports coverage, news, music enjoyment, religion, commentary…much more. It is available to anyone at any time, totally democratized and relevant, while relatively staying very much the same these past 100 years.
When moving to San Anselmo I realized that I could now once again listen to the great KALX radio station emitting from UC Berkeley (GO BEARS!). Life in the car is better now because of it.
Memphis music great Stan Kesler — an associate of Elvis, Sam the Sham, others — has died
The article above says it all…but I just need to say that Sam Kesler is one of those people you don’t know of…until you do. And then his legend begins to expand. The guy wrote, produced and appeared-on some of the greatest music of all time…definitely at the beginning of rock and roll where he literally played the bass on songs that moved the world. I put together a Kesler Playlist to give just a taste of his output. I mean...damn…James Carr’s DARK END OF THE STREET is one of my favorite recordings of all time and Kesler recorded it masterfully….
Philip Guston and the Boundaries of Art Culture
The power of art for all to see: a Guston exhibit shelved because of his KKK paintings. The public is not ready for them, it is thought. Too much tension in our country.
His paintings should be on billboards in all of our states, similarly to how the incredible Scott Goodstein is showcasing some of the greatest artists of our time RIGHT NOW with words to inspire us to vote Trump out.
Mississippi: Images of the Magnolia State
I miss dancing to blues music in the fields of Mississippi. That will be the first thing I do when this pandemic is over…head right back down to Taylor, Mississippi with BBQ in hand, and music layered all over. Mississippi is a complicated state for many, but there is so much beauty and goodness amid it’s history and continued poverty.
The only issue I have with the photojournalism here, is that it does not feature any of Jane Rule Burdine's photos, who has told the tale of the state better than anyone these past decades.