January Newsletter: A Review of the Month’s Culture, Arts + Trends

JANUARY’S PROMISE 

A new year brought a new Bruce Springsteen album. And it opened at #1 on Billboard. High Hopes indeed … The New York Guitar Festival’s month-long celebration of all-things guitar included Guitar Marathon: Las Americas, which featured artists from Latin America performing a variety of styles, the Alt-Guitar Summit, a six-hour classical marathon, and the really cool Silent Films/Live Guitars, music to silent films featuring NY … Make Music Monthly, a series of talks with musicians at the Cornelia Street Café and on podcasts, debuted with a discussion of Charles Mingus’s two-hour work, Epitaph … NY Phil’s pianist-in-residence, Yefim Bronfman, played Greenwich Village basement space SubCulture … The 10th annual five-day NYC Winter Jazzfest featured a 75th anniversary concert at Town Hall for Blue Note Records and a takeover of Greenwich Village clubs … Rolling Stone scribe Will Hermes to write Lou Reed bio, potentially called, Lou: A New York Life … Beatlemania just starting: Capitol released The Beatles: The U.S. Albums, a 13-CD set … Neil Young played Carnegie Hall, where he made his solo debut in 1970 … We wish a speedy recovery to Maestro Kurt Mazur who had to cancel his annual Manhattan School of Music conducting seminar … Although he’s not retiring until June we begin bidding our goodbye to NY Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, who showed his chops in Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 3 and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. A great musician and a real nice guy. Bravo!

REMEMBERING PETE 

One of a kind. Made a mark. Not just in music. But on culture and on society. Making peace was Pete Seeger’s message. And his mission. “The key to the future of the world is finding the optimistic stories and letting them be known.” He left us with Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, If I Had a Hammer, and Turn, Turn, Turn. And he also gave us his versions of This Land Is Your Land and We Shall Overcome. In Beacon you lived. And a beacon you were, and will forever be. Bless you and thank you, Pete Seeger. We remember you well.

ADIEU + MERCI MONSIEUR MAGRITTE 

Ceci n’est pas une pipe. You know the words. Better, you know the image. The one and only René Magritte. MOMA’s celebration of the great Surrealist, Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary 1926-1938, finally came to an end. His art was representative, yet paradoxical, his images indelible. Even popular. That he shared the same name as my father made him my favorite. That he made me think, while appreciating the pretty pictures, only made me admire him more. What you see, well, is that what is?

WE CAN HELP 

The world’s largest grassroots human rights organization, Amnesty International, is a global movement of people fighting injustice and promoting human rights. And music has played a big part in raising awareness and much needed funds, and inspiring others to care.

Donate or buy the Chimes For Freedom CD featuring Johnny Cash, Pete Townshend, Patti Smith, Pete Seeger and more singing Bob Dylan songs.

Soundtrack to this Issue is Pete Seeger singing Bob Dylan’s Forever Young. From Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International.

 Buddha, stay. Good dog. z”l 

“…live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
(Buddha)

Sources:
Pete Seeger pic: Huffington Post, January 28, 2014
Pete Seeger quote: NY Times, January 29, 2014
René Magritte pic: The Kiss 1951

November Newsletter: A Review of the Month’s Culture, Arts + Trends

NOVEMBER = GRATITUDE + LIGHT

From mourning to morning…The light was sure to come…And it came with the support from friends and colleagues…Cards, calls, emails, visits, Facebook and LinkedIn messages, blog post comments, a special prayer, deli dinners, lemon bars, wines, carrot cake, flowers, plants, hugs, dog kisses (from Ethan) and pics (from Bogey), chocolate babka, and latkes…With heartfelt gratitude to you all…And with best wishes for you at this auspicious time of Thanksgiving and Chanukah…Let there be love. Let there be light. Let there be life.

MOVING ON TO MUSIC…

A new doc on PBS, American Masters: Jimi Hendrix – Hear My Train a Comin’ looked at his life and music. Oh, and those clothes. Everything about him was colorful. Loved it…Musicwood covers concerns over wood by guitar makers, environmentalists, land developers, and loggers…A third doc, 12-12-12, went backstage at the benefit concert for Hurricane Sandy victims at Madison Square Garden…Over at WQXR, it’s Mozart Month. The NY Philharmonic played his Requiem with the NY Choral Artists and performs his three final Symphonies, Nos. 39, 40 and 41, broadcast live November 30…And let’s hope the Brooklyn Philharmonic finds a way out of a dire financial situation…An eight-part series on YouTube, Zirka chronicles Robert Plant’s journey in Mali and features Malian music…Y’know those wonderful 92Y events that you wish you could go to all of them? Now ya can. They opened their archives, so stream away…Dylan Fest concerts benefited Sweet Relief Musicians Fund…The Stand Up For Heroes concert at Madison Square Garden featured MusicCorps wounded warriors playing alongside Roger Waters…City Winery hosted the Guitar Mash Benefit Concert and Jam that raised money for music education programs…Jazz and Colors in Central Park with 30 acts…Are record stores back? Vinyl, too? Rough Trade NYC opened in Brooklyn, has CDs and vinyl. WFMU’s Record Fair success is a sure sign of LP love. And Record Store Day expands to Back to Black Friday after Thanksgiving Day event…The Beastie Boys handled a toy company’s use of their music with a good outcome that respects the rights of artists. “We strongly support empowering young girls, breaking down gender stereotypes and igniting a passion for technology and engineering…As creative as it is, make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product, and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads.”…Based on live recordings from their archives, the busy BBC released a new Beatles CD, a reissue, and a book. Thanks!…Van Morrison played NYC and has new deluxe behind the scenes CDs that include a re-mastered Moondance…Speaking of 92Y, Anthony DeCurtis talked to Lou Reed in 2006. “Lou Reed has defined so much of what contemporary music is about…my favorite conversations with him have often occurred running into him on the streets…that’s why we live in New York. So, the King of New York, Lou Reed.”…Finally, Lou Reed’s memorial at Lincoln Center was a fitting tribute, no speeches, no talking, just listening. His music speaking for him. And for us.

…AND ART + WORDS

At $58.4M, Jeff Koons’s Balloon Dog (Orange) went for the highest auction price paid for a living artist…Remember Al Hirschfeld’s line drawings, caricatures of Broadway stars, that were on the cover of the Sunday NY Times arts section? His works are on view ‘til January 4 at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts. Count those Ninas…The Leonard Bernstein Letters (Yale U Press) is a collection of letters he wrote and received. Those by and to Aaron Copland and Adolph Green (who called him Lennish!) reveal wit, passion, anger, humor, and above all, the immense value they placed on music…Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year is selfie…Not too late to catch The Forty Part Motet sound installation at the Cloisters, there ‘til December 8…The ever topical, musical, and erudite Tom Stoppard (Arcadia and Rock ‘n’ Roll!) wrote a radio play based on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Darkside, commissioned by that busy BBC in honor of the album’s fortieth anniversary, is also on CD…Malcolm Gladwell talks about underdogs and what advantage really is in David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. He explains, “…underdogs win more often than we think because their limitations can force them to be creative.”

WE CAN HELP

Police dogs finally get bullet-proof vests. What took so long? Although over 450 now have them, there are many more who need them across the US. A vest costs $950. Donate to: Vested Interest in K-9s, Inc.

ABOUT A BLOG

I wrote four posts about losing my precious Buddha on Yvette Perry’s Blog…And I got back to business, though still hurting, with a post about Johnny Cash’s deeply moving version of Hurt as it was used on the TV show, Person of Interest…Also posted there is this newsletter so you can easily share it with your friends. Just click on any of the share buttons below each post…And hope you follow the Blog!

Soundtrack to this Issue is George Harrison’s
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)

Buddha, stay. Good dog. z”l“…live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
(Buddha)

Sources:
Love pic: Robert Indiana exhibit at the Whitney through January 5, 2014
Beastie Boys quote: LA Times, November 27, 2013
Mozart pic: WQXR
Jeff Koons Balloon Dog (Orange) outside Christie’s pic: The Pup Diary
The Leonard Bernstein Letters pic: Yale University Press (2013)
Malcolm Gladwell quote: 60 Minutes, Sunday, November 24, 2013
George Harrison pic: Popdose

October Newsletter: A Review of the Month’s Culture, Arts + Trends

OCTOBER’S COOL IN EVERY WAY

Did you check out the colorful Melt to Earth metal sculptures by Aaron Curry that are planted all over Lincoln Center?…And the interesting docs keep coming. Three more to consider. HBO’s Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight looks at his Supreme Court battle about being a conscientious objector during the Viet Nam war…AKA Doc Pomus tells how Jerome Felder turned into the hit-making songwriter of Save the Last Dance for Me, This Magic Moment, and A Teenager in Love…And Film at Lincoln Center had a one-night only showing of Following The Ninth about four people whose lives were transformed, repaired, and healed by Beethoven’s Ninth’s message: “All men will be brothers.” Lest we forget, the Berlin Wall came down as Leonard Bernstein performed the Ninth as an “Ode To Freedom” in December 1989…Milk Gallery presented Ali: Photographs by Thomas Hoepker…Maestro Gilbert led the NY Phil in Beethoven’s Ninth (you’ve heard of it?) that included a finale featuring Manhattan School of Music’s Symphonic Chorus…Paul McCartney’s new album is called, wait for it, New. New songs that celebrate “the idea that pop music can still invigorate, inspire, and surprise – even if you had a hand in inventing it.”…At 92Y Talks, the great Boz Scaggs (did ya know he has a vineyard? Rosé, anyone?) talked with Anthony DeCurtis about his music, old and new. Heard Memphis yet? He’s still got it…So Alec Baldwin has a talk show on MSNBC and already peaked with Billy Joel. Will he top that?…Missed chances, lost time. Ah, Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence as only Martin Scorsese could do it. Hope you caught it at Film at Lincoln Center’s NY Film Festival. A piece of art…Back when I produced an alternative music college radio show, Soul Asylum and Evan Dando kindly sat in. I was happy to hear that they played Webster Hall…Good news, guitar lovers! The NY Guitar Festival just announced its return in January for three weeks. Stay tuned for more…The first opera produced through the Met/LCT New Works program, Nico Muhly’s Two Boys is a modern tale with modern music. Is the Met taking up the slack since the loss of the NYC Opera? Maybe…But from out of the shadows we also have the Gotham Chamber Opera, whose 12^th season just opened…Totally sad news under the Big Bummer category, we lost Lou Reed. He left us with plenty to keep us busy, thinking, and appreciating. And y’know that Doc Pomus movie I mentioned? Passages from Doc’s private journals are read by his close friend, Lou Reed. All the more reason to check it out.

BOOKS THAT MATTER 

There are 650 letters to be discovered in The Leonard Bernstein Letters, a new book that affirms his love of composing…I discovered Humans of New York when a friend shared their blog posts on Facebook. Now comes a book! That these pics and stories are all too human, well, that’s the point. Because we are them and they are us. And everyone has a story…In time to commemorate Kristallnacht, re-reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning which confirms the sanctity of memory. And how one can positively move forward from atrocity…Mary Oliver’s Dog Songs, poems and pictures about the special love between, aw, you know. So here’s a taste. “Steadfastness, it seems, is more about dogs than about us. One of the reasons we love them so much.” Here’s another. “Said Ricky to me one day, ‘Why is it you don’t have a tail?’ Well, I just don’t.”…Media alert! Under the OMG category, just, just, just out is Mark Lewisohn’s Tune In, the first volume of All These Years, the possibly definitive bio trilogy about all four Beatles.

PLENTY OF GOOD DEEDS

Hoping to draw attention to humanitarian concerns in Russia, violinist Gidon Kremer sees his To Russia with Love concert in Berlin as, “a kind of a personal statement against injustice, expressed together with friends and everlasting music.” He goes on, “…we should for sure lend support to all discriminated people worldwide in peaceful actions using our abilities and art…After all, art is designed to bring people closer to each other and not to split them.”…The first Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards, celebrating individuals who have made significant contributions toward the attainment of peace and social justice, honored President Jimmy Carter, Christina Aguilera, and Michael Bolton. The Awards were inspired by the six core principles that have guided Ali’s life: confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, respect and spirituality. And yeah, The Champ did the presentin’!…Yo-Yo Ma’s 15^th annual Silk Road Ensemble, a peace-through-music project, at Carnegie Hall. And there’s a new album that he calls A Playlist Without Borders, demonstrating that with sounds and ideas from musicians from all over the world, there are no barriers for those approaching music with an open mind…Buddha did his part, too. Visiting seniors, he spread the love…Mitzvot abound.

THERE’S THIS BLOG, SEE…

Posts on Yvette Perry’s Blog include Lou Reed, Veronique Sanson, Underdogs, Okkerville River’s video game, Sherlock Holmes’s violin, Close Cover Before Striking, Cause Marketing (there’s wine and a dog), Mark Knopfler, and Yoko + Peace + Love…Also posted there is this newsletter so you can easily share it with your friends. Just click on any of the share buttons below each post.

Soundtrack to this Issue is Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side
Lou Reed with Andy Warhol at the best place ever,
The Bottom Line, July 1978.

Buddha, stay. Good dog. 

“…live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”  (Buddha)

Sources:
AKA Doc Pomus pic: Documentary film poster
New quote: Kyle Anderson, EW
Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton: St. Martin’s Press
Dog Songs by Mary Oliver: Penguin Press
Gidon Kremer: Interview, NY Times
Concert in Berlin for Human Rights In Russia: To Russia with Love, October 7, 2013
Lou Reed pic at The Bottom Line: Ebet Roberts/Redferns

Lou Reed

Last night when I learned that Lou Reed died, I immediately felt a hole in the universe – the New York universe, the music universe, my little world. Sometimes you don’t realize that someone even made a dent in your life, even remotely made a difference. Until that moment you learn they are gone. Sure, I met him a lifetime ago. In recording studios, in clubs, at concerts…

Lou was all about New York. In his review of the 1989 album, New York, Robert Christgau in the Village Voice summed it up: ” … Lou carries on a New York conversation – all that’s missing is a disquisition on real estate.”

Singular. Indelible. Iconic. That would be who he was. Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol, Walk on the Wild Side, Sweet Jane, Rock and Roll. That he was prescient of the times to come? Absolutely. He made his own brand of rock ‘n’ roll by mixing meaningful lyrics, simple tunes, and performance that was more than just singing on a stage behind a mic. His music was honest. Just like the man.

“Never be affected by a trend.” (Lou Reed)

For me the quintessential Lou Reed song is Street Hassle. It’s got everything. Just like Lou’s beloved New York. On the live album Animal Serenade, Lou says: “I wanted to write a song that had a great monologue set to rock. Something that could have been written by William Burroughs, Hubert Selby, John Rechy, Tennessee Williams, Nelson Algren, maybe a little Raymond Chandler. You mix it all up and you have Street Hassle.”

Y’know that saying, “May you live in interesting times?” Well, Lou Reed made our times interesting.

Sources:
Robert Christgau quote: Village Voice
Lou Reed pic: Karl Walter/Getty Images – NOTE THE SILVER TELLY!
(All Tomorrow’s Parties in Los Angeles, at the Queen Mary on November 6, 2004)