Friday, February 27, 2009
Indeterminacy 35
Just the other day I went
to the dentist.
Over the radio they said
it was the hottest day of
the year.
However, I was
wearing a jacket,
because going to a doctor
has always struck me as
a somewhat formal occasion.
In the
midst of his work,
Dr. Heyman stopped and said,
“Why don’t you
take your jacket off?” I
said, “I have
a hole in my shirt and
that’s why I have my jacket
on.” He said,
“Well, I
have a hole in my sock,
and,
if you like,
I’ll take my shoes off.”
- John Cage
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Indeterminacy 127
Franz Kline was
about to have the
first showing of his
black and white paintings
at the Egan
Gallery.
Realizing that
his mother had never
seen his paintings
and that she would
surely be interested in
doing so,
he arranged for
her to come to New
York for the opening.
After she had been
in the gallery for
some time,
she said,
“Franz,
I
might have known you’d
find the easy way.”
- John Cage
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Indeterminacy 115
Once when I was in Ann Arbor
with Alexander Smith,
I said that one of
the things I liked about botany
was that it was free
of the jealousies and selfish
feelings that plague the arts,
that I would for
that reason, if
for no other,
given my life to live over
again, be a
botanist rather than a musician.
He said,
“That shows how
little you know about botany.”
Later in the
conversation I happened to
mention the name of a mycologist
connected with another Midwestern
university.
Incisively, Smith said,
“Don’t mention that
man’s name in my house.”
- John Cage
The Big White (2005)
A mildly satirical comedy with a good premise, but not as many laughs you'd expect.
Matthew Barney: No Restraint (2006)
This is a making of documentary to Matthew Barney's movie Drawing Restraint 9. While fairly interesting considering the topic the problem with this film is that it reproduces too many explanations from the artist himself. IMHO creative artists often tend to produce highly obscurantist explanations for what they're actually doing, and Barney is a good example. I'd rather have his work speak for itself and have some enlightened connoisseur interpret the results.
Compare Barney's comments to those by his wife Björk's about her music. I definitely had the impression that she much more clearly knows what she's doing than he does.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Indeterminacy 87
I took a number of mushrooms to
Guy Nearing, and
asked him to name them for me.
He did.
On my
way home, I began
to doubt whether one particular
mushroom
was what he had called it.
When
I got home I got out my
books and came to the
conclusion that Guy Nearing had
made a mistake.
The next time I saw
him I told him all
about this and he said,
“There are so many
Latin names rolling around in
my head that sometimes
the wrong one comes out.”
- John Cage
New Stuff: John Zorn
One of the strangest films Zorn has ever scored (and that's saying a LOT), The Last Supper is a science fiction/art film of wild imagination and style. The brainchild of French director Arno Bouchard, the film combines primal ritual with futuristic fantasy in images reminiscent of David Lynch or Alexandro Jodorowsky at their most bizarre. Drawing upon the world's first musical instruments (voice and drums), Zorn has created a beautiful and powerful score that simultaneously embraces the sensual and the repellant, the dark and the light, the ancient and the modern.
Now I'll need to find the movie...
Monday, February 23, 2009
All the King's Men (1949)
A great political tale, but treated a bit homespun or maybe some of the treatment just seems a bit outdated. Not really an uplifting story, though.
Will be interesting to see how the remake is.
Mulholland Falls (1996)
The first time I saw this neo noir movie I was quite enthusiastic, but this time over I found it only to be OK. Jennifer Connelly plays the corpse and has some nude scenes on the grainy amateur movies used as evidence in the case.
Ali (2001)
Great biopic, good acting, and the boxing matches very well done. More than just a sports movie.
Indeterminacy 21
Kwang-tse
points out
that a beautiful
woman
who gives
pleasure
to men
serves only
to
frighten
the fish
when she
jumps
in the water.
- John Cage
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Indeterminacy 157
I was asked to play my Sonatas and Interludes in the
home of an elderly lady in Burnsville, North
Carolina, the only person thereabouts who owned a
grand piano. I explained that the piano preparation
would take at least three hours and that I would
need a few additional hours for practicing before
the performance. It was arranged for me to start
work directly after lunch. After about an hour, I
decided to take a breather. I lit a cigarette and
went out on the veranda, where I found my hostess
sitting in a rocking chair. We began chatting. She
asked me where I came from. I told her that I’d been
born in Los Angeles but that as a child I was raised
both there and in Michigan; that after two years of
college in Claremont, California, I had spent
eighteen months in Europe and North Africa; that,
after returning to California, I had moved first
from Santa Monica to Carmel, then to New York, then
back to Los Angeles, then to Seattle, San Francisco,
and Chicago, successively; that, at the moment, I
was living in New York in an apartment on the East
River. Then I said, “And where do you come from?”
She said, pointing to a gas station across the
street, “From over there.” She went on to say that
one of her sons had tried to persuade her to make
a second move, for now she lived alone except for
the servants, and to come and live with him and his
family. She said she refused because she wouldn’t
feel at home in a strange place. When I asked where
he lived, she said, “A few blocks down the street.”
- John Cage
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