AnimaMundi

Chicago Summer 1968

Mark at Toulouse Street recalls some of what went down in the 60's and the aftermath. With the ubiquitous Internets, the whole world is watching takes on a different cast. Pun intended. I do like his Dictator of the Stonertariat, though. It might not have been a bad idea afterall.

Who Are Those People?

Johnny Morris was the house pianist at Jimmy Ryan's on 52nd St in NYC for seven years, appearing with trumpeter Roy Eldridge and later with Spanky Davis. In the latest newsletter from A Place For Jazz, Johnny Morris tells this anecdote. The waiters at Jimmy Ryan's were a surly bunch. No food minimum, only snacks. There was a drink minimum, but only dinky sized bottles of beer. The waiters would refill and wait for people to order more. One waiter in particular really just wanted to make money and didn't care about what was going on in the place. One night some people came by to say hello to Roy Eldridge and gathered up a bunch of the tiny cocktail tables in a corner so they could all sit together. This waiter was very pissed off that these tables were taken from his station. The people who came buy to see Roy Eldridge were: Tommy Flanagan pianist, Bobby Durham dummer, Keter Betts bass,(i.e. Ella Fitzgerald's rhythm section), Connie Kay from MJQ, Benny Carter and Oscar Peterson. It was like a surrealist dream, all these jazz greats in a corner. The clueless waiter asks me "Who are those people with Roy and who do they think they are?" So I said to the waiter, "Please don't say anything. Those are some very famous people. I really feel I'm in a dream, here."

December 1947

The following article appeared in Time Magazine on December 15, 1947, about 8 months after I was born.

"By last week, this peculiar state of mind had not only sucked thousands of American oil wells dry, stripped the rubber groves of Malaya, produced the world's most inhuman industry and its most recalcitrant labor union, but had filled U.S. streets with so many automobiles that it was almost impossible to drive one. In some big cities, vast traffic jams never really got untangled from dawn to midnight; the bray of horns, the stink of exhaust fumes, and the crunch of crumpling metal eddied up from them as insistently as the vaporous roar of Niagara."

Does anyone really need a Hummer?

Ancient Americas

P.J. O'Rourke on Ancient Americans:

"The ancient Americans weren't regular folks. They lived strange, spectacular lives on strange, spectacular continents untrod by man and more remote for them than Mars--or the world of museum curation--is for us. The ancient Americans were tough as hell. They did their share of nasty stuff. But even the Aztec don't deserve to be patronized, demeaned, and insulted by what is--or is supposed to be, or once was--one of the white man's great institutions of learning."

"There is nothing inside the man but jelly!"

A few days ago Garrison Keillor's Almanac mentioned the anniversary in June 1932 of an act of that remarkable humanitarian President Herbert Heever... I mean Hoover. That act was the calling out of the police and Armed Forces on the "Bonus Army".  I particularly like General Douglas MacArthur's reaction. I had forgotten about this despicable act against people who had fought in WWI. This happened in Washington, D.C. during the Depression before TV and the Internets. But there were radio and photographers. They should have shipped his ass to Hooverville.

Florent NYC

Another piece of authentic NYC is going, going...

DARINKA CHASE (beehive-coiffed hostess who has worked at the restaurant for more than two decades): In the front hallway there was a cigarette machine and a pay phone. That was the time. There was no Internet. There was a cigarette machine and a pay phone, O.K.?

MS. CHASE: I had lived in France for a year or so in the late ’90s, and when I came back to the restaurant, that’s when I started seeing what I called the New People. And those were people in their 20s, so they were not born or not doing much when Florent had opened. And they were never part of an economy that wasn’t booming and about money and about “I want what I want now.”

“What do you mean the grilled cheese isn’t on the menu right now, I want a grilled cheese! Can I go talk to the chef?” You know, that kind of attitude.

It changed after “Sex and the City.” I mean, people who were kind of clueless would come to the neighborhood in their stilettos and trip around.

The Royal Library of Alexandria

My "watch the dance" dream brought to mind another. Many moons ago or about 40 plus years ago, long before I had ever learned of the Library of Alexandria, I had an intriguing dream about the library. I don't have many dreams like this that I can re-member. How many have I had that I don't recall? The dream was mysteriously haunting and its images have faded over the years, much like the scrolls and lecture halls under the waters of the Mediterranean. I do remember a woman guide who showed me the brilliantly colorful display of the wisdom of the ancients emanating in waves from different levels/rooms of the library. The dream of this grand repository of muse inspired knowledge is branded on my memory. Years later, I learned about the existence of the library through reading Carl Jung and from E.M. Forster's book Alexandria: A History and Guide. In the introduction, Lawrence Durell calls this book a small work of art containing some Forster's best prose. For four centuries Alexandria was the center of learning in the Western world. On October 16, 2002, the New Library of Alexandria was opened. Later in the 13th century, Palermo became another great focus of intercultural exchange. The city and Frederick II, Stupor Mundi , were not so distant in time and space from the nexus of Alexandria. However, Frederick's legacy is unjustly tempered by his lack of allegiance to the Pope and interest in Islam. Anti-Papism and pro-Islam was never good for publicity.

Bombastic

"Sen. Barack Obama linked Sen. John McCain Friday with what he called "the failed policies" of the Bush administration, accusing the presumed Republican presidential nominee and the White House of "bombastic exaggerations and fear-mongering" in place of "strategy and analysis and smart policy."

This has nothing to do with politics, but with the derivation of the word "bombastic". Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus was noted for his drinking and belligerent behavior. He was also brilliant. The Shrub is not brilliant, but has been known to down a few. His real name was Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim born in Einsiedeln in Switzerland in 1493.

"Man is not body. The heart, the spirit, is man. And this spirit is an entire star, out of which he is built. If therefore a man is perfect in his heart, nothing in the whole light of Nature is hidden from him...The first step in the operation of these sciences is this: to beget the spirit from the inner firmament by means of the imagination."

Mother's Day

In the matriarchal age, everyday was mother's day.

The Olympic Torch

Hitler and Nazi Germany were such masters of modern hypnotic advertisement that I had swallowed the fantasy that the ancient Greeks brought the flaming torch to Olympia to herald the start of the first games. According to Leni Riefenstahl's 1938 film "Olympia", an homage to the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, the origins of this ritual are told.

"Never before had a lighted torch been relayed from a Greek temple in Olympia to an athletic competition, let alone by thousands of runners trying to keep it from being extinguished. So Riefenstahl creates the myth the Greeks never got around to telling, creating a filmic counterpart to the opening of Wagner’s “Ring,” in which an entire world gradually emerges from elemental fragments. The camera begins by surveying a misty landscape of ruins, of shattered pillars and overgrown grasses. Restless and circling, the camera reveals a Greek temple standing amid the stones. Heads and the bodies of Greek statues appear in an eerie erotic landscape. Under the sensuous caresses of Riefenstahl’s lens, a naked discus thrower comes to life, polished stone becoming muscular flesh. Another athlete prepares to throw a javelin, its trajectory leading toward a bowl of fire. Lighting the Olympic torch, another nude acolyte triumphantly raises it aloft like Wagner’s Siegfried displaying his sword."

Age of the Great Unwashed

In the 16th century, beneath the clothes and wigs, Europeans stunk. There were no odor eaters then. Doctors believed that bathing opened the pores to harmful vapors. It wasn't until the 17th century that the English took a hint from the hygienic Greeks.

"When John Wesley famously re­marked, in 1791, that “cleanliness is, indeed, next to godliness,” he wasn’t talking about the body, but about ­clothes."

Keepin' Up With The Joneses

When I mentioned Joan Didion's essay "The Coast of Despair" in her "The White Album" collection, I forgot to note her reference to Edith Wharton whose maiden name was Edith Newbold Jones. She came from a wealthy New York family. Thus the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses". However, her former estate in Lenox, MA, The Mount, is in financial trouble. This is where she died, alone and snowbound. We had planned to visit it in the spring if it's not closed. Why can't all those Joneses come up with the cash money?

"This Quintessence of Dust"

The Bayou Contessa : Ashes to Ashes is a paean to the grand old mansions of Louisiana. Some saved, some not. It derives its inspiration from Clarence John Laughlin's "Ghosts Along The Mississippi: The Magic of the Old Houses of Louisiana".

We Shall See

Charlie Wilson's War was an enjoyable East Texas-politico romp. It purports to tell an important story in the history of our hideous foreign policy. It is Hollywood-Bollywood. Before I get to the gist of the post, there was one eerie statement in the movie that bears mentioning. Someone in the movie states very emphatically twice that President Muhammed Zia-ul-Hac of Pakistan, whose looks reminded me of Musharaff, did not kill Bhutto. Against pleas from the west, he had Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, father of the recently assassinated Benazir Bhutto, hanged after a coup. Here's a NYT's article about Bhutto's legacy.

I don't know much about the names of the players in the whole historical dynamic  between Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, I wanted to find out how faithful Hollywood was to historical fact. Like I was surprised after digging a bit. I had read some blurb about Tom Hanks "not being to handle the 9/11 thing". I came home and read this piece on the Alternet site.

CIA agent Gust Avrakotos' money quote:

"A boy is given a horse on his 14th birthday. Everyone in the village says, 'Oh how wonderful.' But a Zen master who lives in the village says, 'We shall see.' The boy falls off the horse and breaks his foot. Everyone in the village says, 'Oh how awful.' The Zen master says, 'We shall see.' The village is thrown into war and all the young men have to go to war. But, because of the broken foot, the boy stays behind. Everyone says, 'Oh, how wonderful.' The Zen master says, 'We shall see.' "

Winter Solstice Ramblings

Alfonso's dark moody Barolo-Amarone-Ripasso-tinged musings started me a-thinking about a solstice meditation.

Hedley Lemarr in Blazing Saddles: "My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention."

Tomorrow is the longest night-shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. In this part of the world, it occurs at 1:08 am EST. We are supposed to have about 9 hours of daylight. As if it is not dark enough, nature being what it is, conspires to make it darker due to lack of sunlight. Grey December and the "sky is a hazy shade of winter... Funny how my memory slips while looking over manuscripts of unpublished rhyme, drinking my vodka and lime." Summer is born on the winter solstice, as winter is born on the summer solstice in June. The solstice in Europe used to be on the 25th until Pope Gregory XIII changed the date to the 21st in 1582. Thus, he got a calendar named after him. How convenient, helpful and less pagan for the Pope to do that for us holidazed folk.

"On the night of Winter Solstice, as seen from a northern sky, the three stars in [Orion]'s belt align with the brightest star in the Eastern sky [Sirius] to show where the Sun will rise in the morning after Winter Solstice."

On the night of the solstice, the Sun ceases to decline in the sky and the length of daylight reaches its minimum for three days. In Greek mythology, the seven days either side of the solstice were Halcyon Days. After this, the Sun begins its ascent from the pit of darkness and the days grow longer. A Sun reborn and a return to light. Nature's elegiac-swan-song night sea journey reiterated in the individual, like Jonah in the belly of the whale. It was the time of the year when all the cattle were slaughtered so that they would not have to be fed through the winter, i.e. fresh meat/chestnuts roasting over an open fire. Most of the beer and wine was fermented and ready for drinking at this time. The months of famine, January-April, would weed out the unhealthy. You get the idea. Serotonin levels are low, melatonin high, circadian rhythms out of whack. Sorta farblunget. The clave is 2-3 or 3-2. Evergreen yourself up and bring that light to the top of the tree. Rekindle and re-source. Why in tarnation do they put a star on top of the tree anyway? Most are looking for what's under the tree, non?

In the spirit of St. Nicholas of Bari, maybe a Pugliese red would be more appropriate rather than an overpriced Brunello. I'll have to brood over it for a while. Thanks, Alfonso and Terry, my most recent friends of centered vino. You are scintillae in a deep dark glass of red wine of the earth.

Sicilian Proverb

An old Sicilian proverb says: "If you have time, don't wait for time."

Norman Mailer & NYC

The late Norman Mailer, the feminist poster boy, ran for mayor of NYC in 1969.

When Mailer died recently James Wolcott said in his memoriam that "losing him is like losing a planet, a fire sign of the zodiac."

These scans of the original campaign poster are very New York. Via Kottke

Vintage Videos

NY Magazine has made available some great vintage NYC videos. James Brown live at Studio 54, Grandmaster Flash, construction of the Empire State Building, Fania AllStars Live at The Cheetah Club, Woody Allen's Manhattan Opening Scene in Spanish 1979, Salvador Dali What's My Line 1952 et al. Great stuff!

JFK 1960

I don't watch C-Span very much. Last night before reading, I happened to catch some of JFK's 1960 speech at the Houston Minister's Conference. As one may remember, the non-Catholics in the USA were very concerned about the Vatican telling JFK what to do. In other words, they were terrified of a Catholic takeover of the government. Given the history of the Catholic Church, I can understand their concern, however paranoid it might have been. During the 45 minute Q&A, JFK good humoredly answered the same question about 10 times. No, he wasn't going to be told by the Vatican how to run the USA. The good protestent ministers didn't seem totally convinced. What struck me about the visuals was that everyone of the ministers wore ugly glasses (no designer eyewear in sight, sorry) and had slicked down hair. It was not only a conflict of what one supposedly professed religiously, but of style and looks and manner of expression. JFK's remarks were unscripted and intelligent. The ministers all seemed stilted, tight, rote. It was very palpable and riveting. Say or think what you want about JFK, he had charismatic appeal that was evident when he spoke with ease and refinement. He had a personality. Perhaps our last president with so much of it.

Wiki Timeline

Wikipedia has put together this phenomenal timeline of historic inventions. It runs from the Paleolithic Era up to 2001. Via Kottke

Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974. If you scroll down Olympicube's page there's amazing videos of Frank Morris.

NYC

I didn't realize it has been six years since September 11, 2001. A friend from New Jersey who worked for Sterns Music at 15 Warren St. in the city called a few day ago. He wanted to visit for a few days, but the timing was bad for a few reasons. He's a little miffed. I tried to work with him on coming another day of the week, but no go. I feel badly because while at Sterns he gave me loads of great music from Africa, Brazil, Guadeloupe-Martinique, Cuba. He was on a train heading into Manhattan on that fateful morning. Luckily, he never left New Jersey. His office was damaged heavily since it was only a few blocks from the World Trade Center. He was out of work for a number of months until they reopened. A few years ago Sterns closed that store due to financial belt tightening. Virgin was looking to buy them out, but it never happened. It was with these thoughts in mind when I clicked on this video tribute to the city of New York.

Pasta

Harold McGee, in his fine newly revised book, "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen", points out the myth of Marco Polo bringing noodles, and thus pasta, back from China to Italy. McGee says that a recent book by Silvano Serventi and Francoise Sabban, "Pasta: A Universal Food", set the record straight. McGee: "China was indeed the first country to develop the art of noodle making, but there were pastas in Mediterranean world long before Marco Polo." The Northern Chinese appear to have developed the art of noodle making sometime before 200 years b.c. China also invented filled pasta, the origin of ravioli. Far the west of China, the birthplace of wheat, there are signs of pasta-like preparations in the 6th century. In the 12th century, 200 years before Marco Polo took the Orient Express, the Arab geographer Idrisi reported that the Sicilians were making thread-like itriya, an Arabic-derived term, and exported them. In postmedieval pasta pioneering, pasta makers in the south of Italy and Sicily perfected that glorious stuff we know as pastasciutta or "dry pasta". Naples the became the epicenter of durum pasta manufacturing.

Time Lost

Mr. Melpomene at World Class New Orleans states the case very clearly. "Economics 101: Growth creates surpluses which can fund future investment while subsidies evaporate."

The Halifax Explosion

On NPR the other day, I heard a bookseller from Mt. Holyoke, MA speak about The Halifax Explosion recounted in the book "Curse of the Narrows : The Halifax Explosion 1917" by Laura MacDonald. It's something I'd never heard of. Yet, it was the largest man-made explosion in history until we killed untold scores of Japanese civilians in WW II.