THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
"Calm down. Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion."-Czesław Miłosz
Starting the week off with an offer of a rabbit hole….because we all need more things to do, that is for sure.
Filmmaker Barry Dornfeld recently turned me on to the website FOLKSTREAMS. As it says on its landing page, Folkstreams’ mission is to preserve the stories of America and it does so by being a hub for hundreds (thousands?) of documentary films that examine American traditional cultures. Documentarian Tom Davenport and his wife Mimi Davenport understood the need of documentary films to live somewhere so they would not be forgotten (like the subject matters they tried to document in the first place!)…and they saw the internet as a major opportunity to provide them a home.
On the homepage today (at least when I did my surfing) is Bill Ferris’ piece on Otha Turner from 1972. So yeah, that is worth the price of admission right there. And the deep dive starts when you realize the incredible amount of music-related films that are presented for your consumption. After finishing with the Hill Country visit, you can travel to the Carolinas for Step It Up And Go, a beautiful, loving take on the development of music in in that region. Make'em Dance: The Hackberry Ramblers Story is a killer…Somethin' Gotta Be Arranged, a fantastic 1983 student film about musician Paul Geremia…which is part documentary, part art film, capturing the flavor of the artist’s life…it just goes on and on.
The site is just a jewell…an incredible collection of documentaries that I had no idea there was access to….all presented in the best quality available with impeccable curation. But again, warning: just the few movies I mentioned above will zap away a summer day. But maybe that is the perfect antidote for a Monday morning. Oh yeah.
Against the Devil: The Tormented Life of Czesław Miłosz
Today is Czesław Miłosz’s birthday, an incredible poet whose hard life (do the two go hand in hand?) is discussed comprehensively in this article, which was written around the publishing of his biography a few years ago…
Frederic Rzewski, Politically Committed Composer and Pianist, Dies at 83
The Isley Brothers Will Have Two Street-Naming Ceremonies On The Same Day
“Teaneck and Englewood, NJ are going to honor the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers for their rooted connections.”—Yes, The Isleys (Isleies?)are from New Jersey.
The Great Buchanan Inheritance Hoax
“Ninety years ago, a Texas grocer named Lorenzo D. Buchanan stepped forward with one of the great hoaxes of 20th-century American pop-culture life, a genealogical fabrication that continues to resonate today. The Great Buchanan Inheritance Hoax rocked American life from 1931-1936 with his false tale of an $85 million inheritance that was available to anyone who could prove a family connection.”
Long-Lost Rembrandt Painting Found in Italy: ‘A Work by a Very Great Author’
“A lost Rembrandt painting has been found in Italy, in a remarkable discovery that experts are calling major. The piece, titled The Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1632–33), was discovered in 2016 when a Roman family sent the painting for restoration after it fell off a wall and was slightly damaged.”
Encounter
By Czesław Miłosz
We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn.
A red wing rose in the darkness.
And suddenly a hare ran across the road.
One of us pointed to it with his hand.
That was long ago. Today neither of them is alive,
Not the hare, nor the man who made the gesture.
O my love, where are they, where are they going
The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.
I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder.
