THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
“When people are finding meaning in things - beware.” ― Edward Gorey
When I was 11 years old Mom bought be a kids activity book from a museum gift shop (or was it the Upstart Crow in Marin….cannot remember) called Gorey Games by an illustrator named Edward Gorey. The book introduced me to a dark, romantic, gothic world that New Englander Edward Gorey spent his career creating and deepening. A world where more often than not, things went darkly dismal for the characters he introduced…usually taking a turn from starting at an elegant cocktail party with walls adorned with 1920s floral wallpaper, giant urns with suspect vines crawling about, cats in the shadows, everyone adorned with furry coats (as Gorey himself did) and flappish dresses…everyone except maybe an uninvited guest who looks otherworldly. All is serene until someone dies on a tack they mistakenly ingest or gets a letter that informs them of an unusual disaster that occurred offstage to someone they hold dear.
Without even knowing who Gorey is, there is a good chance you have seen his iconic art featured in the long-time intro sequence to the PBS Mystery! program or maybe while attending a performance of Dracula on Broadway in the 1980s…or within the pages of The New York Review Of Books, where Gorey found a place for his drawings for years. For me, the world of Gorey became an obsession post-Gorey Games…still is…and over the years I have amassed a pretty healthy collection of his books, prints, ephemera (with much help from the now-gone Gothem Books). A stuffed Doubtful Guest is looking down on me as I write these words.
With his birthday being today, and the fact that I see one of his images framed right outside my bedroom every morning (my only original drawing of his, from a book of illustrations he did around short stories by Saki) it gets me thinking of the impact this artist has had on my life. The romance of the scenes he creates…similar to that of the poets Byron and Keats where there is an uncontrolled aspect that celebrates the world’s imperfections as well as the moments of decadence in between life’s tragedies…his drawings lure me into a land that is downright comforting. Wether is is the poor orphan girl who suffers a horrible fate in The Hapless Child, or a bunch of “items you might find in the bottom of a drawer” letting their horrible plots and plans be known to the reader in The Inanimate Tragedy: for me the ultimate end of a Gorey Story is a fiendish smile and a desire to enter his universe and take my chances.
For further Gorey reading, my friend Todd Krieger turned me onto this great read: What's Gorey's Story?
Mississippi's Blue Front Cafe: 72 years of blues and still going strong
This article was sent to me via the postal service….arrived, cut out…in a hand-addressed envelope with a return address that just said MISSISSIPPI. Was this from David Evans, who is mentioned in it and whom I am doing a project with right now? Two-finger-shake Scott Barretta? No matter—it’s a great read about a great place to see music, with a side-bar article about the blues in general. Wish I could be at the Blue Front Cafe right now….
Russ Thyret, Former Warner Bros. Records Chairman/CEO, Dies at 76
I have not spoken to Russ since my last day at Warner Bros in 2001. He himself would not be at the label for much longer…both of us leaving a changing, strange company. To say Russ Thyret was there for me would be a complete understatement. Have you ever had a boss that you just did not jive with…a boss that you just wish you could get out from under the thumb? When Russ was CEO of Warner Bros. I was in that position with the head of the A&R Department. When I went to see Russ…to talk to him about my situation, he did one of his patented dancing hand gesturers, smiled and told me that for now on, I was to report to him. Case closed. And I did….for a bunch of years…and while I am not sure he totally understood the A&R person’s job (he was a promotion guy don’t ya know….although he was the guy who got Prince signed to the label) he was a great great boss. What a crazy shining diamond.
Norman Reedus Developing Show Based on Edward Gorey's Neglected Murderesses
No, I did not expect a Walking Dead actor to pull this one out of a hat…
Revitalizing a Master’s Hidden Pottery Enclave, Deep in the Sonoma Redwoods
Today at 11am PST/2pm EST: Life Update from Perseverance Mars Rover
After all the waiting, I MISSED THE LIVE LANDING OF THE PERSEVERANCE. My wife saw it…describing to me the thrill of seeing all the people on the ground going nuts after it touched down. Looking forward to all the videos and photos we will be seeing in the upcoming weeks. With all the crap going on on Earth…it is nice to pay attention to another planet for a few moments…
Concerning the Gloomy Love of J. Alfred Prufrock
By: David Avidan
One day the sober wisdoms will come to wake us
from our dull and heavy slumber, like cannon balls
on a very bright Saturday morn. Then behind us
Alfred Prufrock's gloomy love will travel to our towns
across a long and shifting road that will tactfully go round our throats –
and there it will become when the time comes
a well-preserved collection of late recollections
yet our songs will refuse to take and be taken
and this will be a sure sign of our youthful days.
And yet, either way, every resistance breaks.
Let us then take the last road
leading to our seashore, to the sands,
into the kingdom of lost precincts where only
we are allowed entry, and the secret password
is to be uttered firmly but softly,
and there's a door that will open and shut,
and there's always yet another untried
option, and the day is still wide open.
And there, in underwater housing projects, sea-maidens
will frolic across our knees, on their faces
the appearance of frightened bliss, and the remembrance
of skies too high and too many eyes,
and the incessant question who's coming who's coming,
and there, our legs outstretched,
to the distant sound of interlude singing
we'll suck their lips until we sink.
