APRIL’S ARTS + CRAFTS
Newly minted 
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Ringo Starr and leader of the All-Starr band, out with Postcards from Paradise … “Hold on tight and everything will be all right.” So Beach Boy Brian Wilson reassures us on his latest solo album, No Pier Pressure. Lush melodies? Check. Nonpareil harmonizing? Check. Well-constructed pop tunes? Check. And songs that sound like you’ve been listening to them for years? And check … The formidable and influential Village Voice music critic, Robert Christgau, penned Going Into the City, a memoir recounting the origins of rock criticism, as well as his clear-eyed assessment of 60’s counterculture … Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats, the exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, illuminates the alliance of rock and folk with Nashville in the late 60’s and early 70’s – especially the huge hits that came out of it. Pivotal were Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, Johnny Cash’s TV show, and the session musicians known as the “Nashville Cats.”
THE WEIGHT
A sure sign 
of spring are flowers. And none more wondrous than those found in the floral paperweight collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. “Some fragment of a dream,” as Truman Capote described them, even taking along a few with him on his travels …
Paperweight artist Paul Stankard exemplifies the craftsmanship of this art form, calling it “poetry suspended in crystal.” This is his Honey Bee Swarm with Flowers and Fruit, featured at AIC.
ABOUT MUSIC WITH CARLY SIMON
Carly Simon just
released The Bedroom Tapes (Special Edition) featuring tracks that weren’t on the original 2000 CD. The album’s name refers to where these songs were recorded, in her daughter’s old bedroom now a studio …
She talked about “honest emotions” with Philip Galanes in the New York Times: “I think music may be stronger than any of the other arts for that, than dance or painting or theater. There’s something intangible and mysterious about music. It can get you more; you can sob more. It’s got a stronger engine.” Both agreed that music was “related to the heartbeat.”
FOREVER JOAN
The 
Next to Last Joan Rivers Album (Buddah Records 1969), out of print 45 years, was re-released by Stand Up! Records for this year’s Record Store Day (April 18). From a set she did at NYC’s Upstairs at the Downstairs in 1968 – talking about diamond rings, being single, cooking, nurses, and stewardesses – it’s remixed and remastered with a new essay by Sarah Silverman.
WE CAN HELP
“The name of the museum is as big as its mission.” …
This is how Bono describes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You’ll learn the stories of the people, artifacts, and events that shaped rock and roll. Through Museum exhibits, materials in its Library and Archives, traveling exhibitions, and educational programs and activities, you’ll get inspired.
Soundtrack to this Issue is
Brian Wilson’s The Right Time
From his new album No Pier Pressure (Capitol)
C’mon, sing along:
Yeah, it’s new, but you’ll be singing it within seconds!
Whatever happened to me and you
And everything we’ve been going through
So many pieces but never in a very straight line
Right could it be the right
Could it be the right time
For getting together
Right could it be the right
Could it be the right time
I’m thinking forever
Who rescued whom?
So grateful for Barkley coming into my life.
Thanks to Westie Rescue of New England.
Buddha, stay. Good dog. z”l
“…live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
(Buddha)
Sources:
Paperweight pic: Paul Stankard’s “Honey Bee Swarm with Flowers and Fruit” (2012), Art Institute of Chicago
Truman Capote quote: from his essay, “The White Rose”
Paul Stankard quote: CBS News Sunday Morning
Carly Simon quote: Table for Three, The NY Times, April 26, 2015
The Right Time lyrics: Joe Thomas, Brian Wilson (Capitol Records)
Yvette Perry's Blog 